| Inside the Little Gate | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Category | Story Event |
| Type | Story |
| Linked to |  Station III
|
| Data ID | 152551 |
Inside the Little Gate is a Sunless Sea Story Event.
Trigger conditions[]
Inside the Little Gate is triggered when you dock in Station III and have the following:
Story description[]
"The inner port is open to you, now, although it is clear that your welcome is conditional. Don't cause trouble."
Interactions[]
| Actions | Requirements | Effects | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deliver a Long-Box to the Acolyte
More secrets of the heart. |
A faint smile
It's difficult to read her expression behind those goggles. Perhaps she's pleased to see you, or perhaps she's only eager to continue her work.  -1 x Soothe & Cooper Long-Box
 +2 x Station III: Earning the Acolyte's Favour
 +100 x Echo |
||
| Surrender a Long-Box for payment
The Acolyte is gone, but her colleagues will supply suitable payment. |
A fair exchange
You are paid with a fresh Bazaar-draft. What connection does this place have with the Echo Bazaar in London? -1 x Soothe & Cooper Long-Box
+100 x Echo |
||
| Exchange a Long-Box for a Heartmetal Ingot
What use is heartmetal to you? But then, what use is a Long-Box? (Perhaps you imagine the whisper at shoulder - 'What use, indeed, is a heart?'. When you turn, there's only the ragged flirting of the wind.) |
A fair exchange
The legalities of trading in heartmetal are vague. If its existence were acknowledged by laws, it might be forbidden. Put it somewhere out of the way. |
||
| Put a blemmigan ashore
What will it do, in this place of oil and metal? |
 1 x Docile Blemmigan |
A creeping plague
The blemmigan sidles furtively into a pipe that protrudes from the wall. All is still. You see no more of it. As you turn to go, greasy smoke puffs suddenly from the pipe's end. You smell burning grease. Nevertheless, perhaps, it survived. |
|
| Find assistance for the Snow Child
"A heartmetal heart? Not sure you've the measure of the d__n stuff." The Heartmetal Smith shrugs. "No skin off my nose. Bring us an ingot, I'll shape it for you.\" |
 Sacks and Snow: What Snow May Become = 10 [You have learned that the Snow Child requires Heartmetal.]
 Station III: Heartmetal Ingot ≥ 1
|
For the snolem, a heart
The Smith hammers the ingot into a rough heart shape, leaving it to cool in a bucket of water. Not much time remains. Sacks and Snow: The Snow Child's Name drips constantly now, leaving puddles as it paces up and down outside the Gate. Fitting the heart is an unpleasant matter for all concerned, but what must be done is soon finished. At first, nothing seems to have happened. Soon, though, the drips stop. The wound heals. Sacks and Snow: The Snow Child's Name looks up at you, something new behind its crystal eyes. "I think it worked." Sacks and Snow: The Snow Child's Name smiles at you. It is time for its journey to begin, at Irem, where all journeys East must depart. -1 x Station III: Heartmetal Ingot
Sacks and Snow: What Snow May Become = 20 [The Snow Child is complete.]
 Heart of Snow = The Snow Child will no longer melt.
Enables interaction |
|
| Search Shed Twelve
A long, low building propped against the wall. Boarded windows. A rusting padlock. |
 Under the Unterzee ≥ 1
Acquiring a Zubmarine = 20 [Retrieve zonar schematics from Station III or Khan's Shadow]
|
Your bo'sun shatters the lock with a ball-pein hammer
Inside, your lamps reveal dust-choked workbenches strewn with discarded tools. Shelves of cardboard boxes filled with rivets and bolts, washers and screws. Blackboards, roughly scrubbed. Here is an old lunchbox - its half-eaten sandwiches encased in successive generations of exciting fungus. In a rusted filing cabinet you find the documents you need: a folder of tea-stained research into zonar. You leave the rotting workshop quietly and return to your ship. The next time you sneeze, your handkerchief comes away black with the workshop dust that crept into your lungs. Acquiring a Zubmarine = 30 [Return the zonar schematics to the hidden workshop in Port Carnelian]
|
Game note: Return to Port Carnelian to complete your zubmarine research. |
| Deliver the Lorn-Fluke and observe the Student's experiment
He is terribly excited, and requests your steadying presence - to ensure he maintains the appropriate scientific detachment. |
 The Fate of Needles = 10 [Bound for Station III with the Anxious University Student]
|
After careful set up
The shed is empty, saving a writing desk and the gigantic mass of needles. The Anxious Student snaps off the tip of one and twirls it between his fingers. "I hypothesise that the flukes have a method of absorbing and storing our lived experiences. It follows, therefore, that there should exist a means of transmitting - reliving! - that experience. Like so!" He stabs the needle through his palm. His eyes dull. "You heard Captain Harris, zailor. Target the Ogedei and fire torpedoes. And if you hit one of the Lorn Flukes then by God and Her Majesty I will put you out of the airlock and let the spiny b_____ds take you!" He awakes from the reverie a moment later, beaming. "That will do, Addressed As. Pass me your notes; I'll carry on the experiment from here." The Fate of Needles = 15 [You witnessed the Anxious University Student relive history through the needle.]
 +2 x Extraordinary Implication
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| Return later
Other acolytes move between the buildings, singing softly, but none of them seems inclined to speak to you at this moment. |
|
Back to the dock
Down the steep stairs. The song of the acolytes fades behind you, but still you find yourself humming their odd melodies. Perhaps there will be more to do here another time.
Station III |
