Dybets havne
|
Harbours of the Deep
Introduction
The heavy rain continues, as the horde of the newly proclaimed King Bruitemail and his advisor Matad, prepare to leave your town. Bruitemail tells you that this reminds him of an orcish legend his mum used to tell:
"When the great leader sacrifices himself, the heavens will start to cry and won't stop until the swamp is everywhere. This marks the return of the Purring Warlord, the divine patron of the Orcs, and the beginning of the glorious Age of Disaster, where Orcs rule the World!"
While you wonder if the "Purring Warlord" is the orcish title of Vallorian, reports reach your city that the ongoing rain has caused floods in lower parts of the country, especially some regions close to the sea.
Suddenly, there's an earthquake in your town after which, the rain seems to stop. You discover a crack in the ground that quickly fills with water, creating a new lake close to your city. The Orc horde leaves your town. Valara arrives shortly thereafter, telling you about a completely destroyed Halflings settlement that was built at the beach, and all inhabitants have gone missing. You fear the worst. While Valara catches her breath, you check out the new lake nearby. To everyone's surprise, a strange submarine that seems to almost fall apart, is spotted in the middle of the lake. What the heck? Is this a whale with a giant backpack!?
Valara recognizes the animal as Kokei, the whale of the Harbour Halflings. When you hear knocking noises and shouts coming from within its "backpack", you quickly send an emergency team to force open its stuck hatch. Halflings come out of it, exhausted, panicking, but also infinitely relieved. Apparently, there are underwater caverns and tunnels below the new lake. The Halflings used them to escape from their home town, which is the one that was destroyed recently by the flood. These Halflings have a somewhat different lifestyle than the Halflings you knew so far. They are fishermen and live in harmony with giant creatures such as the whale Kokei, with whom they travel over and below the seas, hunting fish and searching for sunken resources and treasures.
When the tide came, the villagers took refuge in the large backpack of Kokei, which they call the "Sea Saddle", and tried to escape to higher ground through the underground tunnels that run through the mainland of Elvenar and connect many lakes. But just a few hours after they left, the devastating earthquake struck, which also caused parts of the vault to collapse and severely damaged the submarine. Luckily, Kokei somehow managed to bring them back to the surface in the newly created lake. He is injured, the Sea Saddle is severely damaged, and their home is devastated as well... They are stuck! Of course, you decide to help them out of their misery.
Valara calls for her friends Phinolina and Jolo to help build up a kind of refugee camp - where Kokei can recover, and you can repair the Sea Saddle, while producing the stuff the Harbour Halflings will need to rebuild their village. Jolo, the best known farmer of the "country-side" Halflings, comes up with the idea to produce Canned Goods - to be prepared in case more catastrophes hit your city, and also to provide enough provisions for his friends in need. As soon as Kokei feels better, and you manage to repair the Sea Saddle, the Halflings will start to carefully do dives with it, to collect resources from the caverns and sea, which will greatly speed up their other productions. These trips however, need provisions for the participants (Canned Goods) and of course some food for Kokei. Also, every tour needs another special ingredient for a successful yield, so there is lots of stuff to do!
Eventually, the Sea Saddle can not only be fully repaired, but even improved beyond its original version. You reach the point where the Harbour Halflings feel safe to go back to their village and start rebuilding it. Lady Zaida of the Gourmet Guild arrives at your town, since she heard about the exquisite sea food the Harbour Halflings produce. She offers a variety of very lucrative deals to you, while flirting heavily with your trader.
Meleuka, the Arcanologist disguised as the dragon of Warlady Bashuruk, comes back to your town. She reports that she could secretly save King Diabhal from being sacrificed. She secretly took him to a ship drifting on the sea and left him there. But your oblations to Vallorian made him apparently strong enough to summon floods and earthquakes, which he probably caused in his wrath when he realized that his most precious prey Diabhal had escaped. As there is no way for mortals, not even for powerful Sorcerers, to fight such divine power, she recommends seeking help from the forest god Enar. When Xandra of the Elvenar arrives and dismisses "all the rumours" about the gods, despite all that has happened, Meleuka senses something shady she wants to discuss with Dean Durcu...
Settlement Resources
As usual, a new Chapter introduces new special, specific resources. These special resources are used to unlock new Technologies, produce other Settlement Resources, and to upgrade some buildings of the Chapter itself. Let's see the list of resources, where you can produce them, and their specifications:
Seafood
- It is produced in the Fossil Canyon.
- It is used to unlock Technologies in the Research Tree and as a production cost option to produce
Lure Weed in Whale Bay.
Shore Fish
- It is produced in the Fishing Spot.
- It is used to unlock Technologies in the Research Tree and as a production cost option to produce
Garden Eels in Whale Bay.
Kelp Fruits
- It is produced in the Kelp Farm.
- It is used to unlock Technologies in the Research Tree and as a production cost option to produce
Sea Sponges in Whale Bay.
Cave Salt
- It is produced in the Desalination Plant.
- It is used to unlock Technologies in the Research Tree and as a production cost option to produce
Deep Sea Snails in Whale Bay.
Luminous Shrimps
- This is the only capped Resource of the Chapter.
- It can be produced in the Fossil Canyon, Fishing Spot, Kelp Farm and Desalination Plant and is used as a production cost to produce all the available resources in the Whale Bay.
- Deep Sea Snails
- It is produced in the Whale Bay from level 2 onwards.
- It is used as one of the production cost options to produce Seafood in Fossil Canyon.
- Lure Weed
- It is produced in the Whale Bay from level 2 onwards.
- It is used as one of the production cost options to produce Shore Fish in Fishing Spot.
- Garden Eels
- Sea Sponges
- It is produced in the Whale Bay from level 2 onwards.
- It is used as one of the production cost options to produce Cave Salt in Desalination Plant.
