The Shore of Kaltiden
A single stretch of tide-battered coastline where shellfish have evolved beyond all expectation. The water here is old. The game plays out entirely on this chart: every tab is one of its places, and every place has its keeper.
The CoveThe PitThe Hollow GrottoShuckster's StallAnvilback's ForgeThe Tide PoolsJabber RockThe Bottle PostThe TidemarkThe Shallows of KaltidenShallowmereThe DeepThe keepers
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 bout rings in on. Keeps the fight board; takes no cut; answers no questions about the eye.
The Hollow GrottoMother Murk (the grotto keeper)An old she-cockle in a kelp-green cowl who tends the cave's lantern. Claims she was there the morning before the grotto was. Calls everyone dear.
Shuckster's StallOld Shuckster (the shop keeper)A well-fed bivalve in a gold-banded top hat who has never once given a straight answer about 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. Hones weapons, tempers shells, and mends everything free when the Quenching Tide floods his floor.
The Tide PoolsElder Silt (the tally keeper)So old his whiskers have gone foam-white. Scores the nightly order of the ladder onto a driftwood slate and has never once been argued into changing it.
Jabber RockGabby (the rock warden)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 Bottle PostCorker (the post keeper)Neat, spectacled, always present at the sorting tide. Insists he does not sort the bottles. Nobody has ever caught him. Nobody quite believes him.
The TidemarkTrumpet (the shore crier)Conch horn, 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 Cove
Your own sheltered hollow on the west sand. Train your stats, hang your gear, count your gold and take stock before wading back out. By an unspoken law older than the Pit itself, nobody else’s cove is ever entered.
Landmarks
Landmarks of the Shore| Landmark | What is known |
|---|
| The Shallows of Kaltiden | The warm, busy water every new cockle learns to fight in. Everything on the Shore starts here. |
| Shallowmere | Rocky outcrops near the shoreline. The Sirens sing here. Swim past quickly or not at all. |
| The Deep | Past the sandbars the water goes black and stays that way. Nobody who crossed it has come back with anything good to say. |
The deeper lore
The Shore keeps its history in fragments: the First Tide Wars, the Battle of Brine’s End where Neptune’s trident shattered, 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, the Sirens of Shallowmere) survive today mostly as the magic items prised off them; each item’s own story travels with it in the game, on its card.
