The Shore

The Shore of Kaltiden is where the whole game happens: one stretch of coast, its places, and the keepers who run them.

The Shore of Kaltiden#

The Shore is a single stretch of tide-battered coastline where shellfish have evolved beyond all expectation. The water here is old. Every page in the game is one of its places, and every place has its keeper.

The keepers#

The CoveScrimshaw (the bout scribe)Scratches every fight onto a shell plate, loupe jammed over one eye, and stacks them by the counter. When the stack is full he scrapes the oldest smooth. Has never lost an argument about a fight, because he wrote it down.

The PitSnapjaw (the pit master)A retired scrapper with a notched shell, a scar where an eye ought to be, and the brass bell every fight starts on. Keeps the fight board and takes no cut. Answers no questions about the eye.

Shuckster's StallOld Shuckster (the stallholder)A well-fed bivalve in a gold-banded top hat who has never once said where the stock comes from. An honest crook, by his own accounting.

Anvilback's ForgeAnvilback (the shellsmith)A burly old cockle with a slab of ship iron fused across his shell. Forges weapons and armour, and repairs every piece you own for free when the Quenching Tide floods his floor.

The Hollow GrottoMother Murk (the grotto keeper)An old she-cockle in a kelp-green cowl who tends the cave's lantern. Rakes the silt once a day and repairs every charm you carry with it. Claims she was there the morning before the grotto was. Calls everyone dear.

ShallowmereMayor Cobble (the mayor)Runs the lodging and the ledger: who is resting, and what the town owes them for it. Insists the town works only because somebody is always asleep in it, which is, annoyingly, true.

The Barnacle YardGantry (the yard foreman)Keeps the plans, the timber and the tally of what is going up, and prices every build to the plank. Watches the crew in two directions at once, which is less a boast than an anatomical fact.

The DeepFathom (the wickwarden)Keeps the Wickhouse at the end of the sandbar, where the water goes black. Deals the cards, lights the way down, and never once comes with you. Has seen a great many cockles go down and a fair number come back.

The TidemarkTrumpet (the shore crier)Conch horn, and a medal of office nobody remembers awarding. Reads every new deed aloud whether anyone asked or not, and hands over the rewards owed for them.

The Tide PoolsElder Silt (the record keeper)So old his whiskers have gone foam-white. Scores the nightly order of the leaderboard onto a driftwood slate and has never once been argued into changing it.

The Bottle PostCorker (the postmaster)Neat, spectacled, always present at the sorting tide. Insists he does not sort the bottles. Nobody has ever caught him. Nobody quite believes him.

Jabber RockGabby (the moderator)Has heard every quarrel on the Shore at least twice, lets everyone finish exactly once, and has ended more feuds by sighing than the Pit ever has by force.

The TidewatchHarbourmaster Wrack (the harbourmaster)Keeps the hut at the harbour's edge and the roll of every cockle on every water. Knows which season is running before the clock does. Asks before he puts your cockle down, and asks only once.

The Cove#

Your home on the west sand. Train stats, equip gear and check your gold. By a law older than the Pit itself, nobody enters anyone else’s cove.

Scrimshaw keeps the battle log here. Your last 10 fights are written up blow by blow, and no report is kept past 14 days. Your record, your trophies and your place on the leaderboard are kept for ever.

The cockles#

15 shells wash up on this Shore, and you pick one when you name yourself. It is your face everywhere: at the Cove, on the fight board, on the leaderboard and at the top of every message.

A shell also gives a starting boon. It is a head start, not a build: it is worth about one level, so you feel it in the first hour and stop noticing it by the fourth. It can’t be levelled, traded or lost.

Every shell is worth the same 5 starting points. One point is a skill point in a stat, 20 gold, or 20 gold of starter gear from the Shop, equipped from the first fight. A loose point you place yourself costs 1.5 points’ worth.

No two shells give the same thing, and each of the five stats leads one of them. No shell gives paper, ink or bottles. One shell, Common Cockle, starts with nothing at all and climbs the same ladder as everyone else.

The 15 shells and what each one starts with
Shell	Starts with	What it is
Blood Cockle	+4 Elemental+1 Attack	Carries a coal. Something in it never went out.
Lagoon Cockle	+4 Speed+1 Attack	Sees it coming. Watching the horizon is most of being quick.
Spiny Cockle	+4 Attack+1 Speed	All teeth. Depth perception is for cowards.
Yellow Cockle	+100 gold	Gold in hand. Turns up rich and unarmed, and thinks that is the right way round.
Common Cockle	Nothing at all	Nothing whatsoever. Turned up with nothing and intends to keep it that way.
Prickly Cockle	+4 Defence+1 Health	All spines. Hug at your own risk.
Rough Cockle	Kelp Cloak+2 Defence	Wears the hat. A hat is posture you can put on.
Heart Cockle	+4 Health+1 Defence	Takes a knock. Goes down beautifully and gets straight back up.
Dog Cockle	+3 Health+2 Defence	Weathered. Old enough to have grown its own roof.
Basket Cockle	+1 Health+1 Attack+1 Defence+1 Speed+1 Elemental	A bit of everything. Accomplished in every field and outstanding in none of them.
Smooth Cockle	+3 Speed+2 Attack	Never hurried. Hits first and does not appear to have moved.
Egg Cockle	+3 loose points+10 gold	Has its own theory. Will decide what it is after a fight or two, thank you.
Hairy Cockle	Driftwood SplinterSeaweed Wrap	Dressed in salvage. Wearing somebody else's afternoon.
Warty Cockle	+2 Elemental+60 gold	Loose change. Pockets you would not credit, on a thing with no pockets.
Ark Cockle	+3 Attack+2 Elemental	Bites in the dark. You hear it after.

Landmarks#

Landmarks of the Shore
Landmark	What is known
The Shallows of Kaltiden	The warm water where every new cockle learns to fight.

The deeper lore#

The Shore keeps its history in fragments. There were the First Tide Wars, and the Battle of Brine’s End, where Neptune’s trident shattered. There was the Midnight Ebb, when the tide went out and Poseidon last spoke, and the Turning of Kalandra, who was not a cockle at all.

The creatures those events left behind, the Kraken, the Leviathan and the Sirens of Shallowmere, survive today mostly as the charms prised off them. Each charm’s own story travels with it, on its card.