Polythreme

Polythreme
Polythreme (Map)
Polythreme (Gazetteer)
Located in	Sea of Voices
Ports	Yes
Shops	Temple of Labours
Shipyard	No
Data ID	143385

"HERE IS SCREAMING."

Polythreme, located in the Sea of Voices, is the land of the Clay Men and living, shouting objects.

Port interactions

Polythreme

"Taciturn Clay Men. Evasive clothes-colonies, walking like humans. Cobbles that groan underfoot. On the hills above, a palace-villa of marble - but even that writhes like buried bones in an earthquake."

Actions	Requirements	Effects	Notes
Gather intelligence What news from Polythreme?	A Port Report: Polythreme ≤ 0	What lives The King with a Hundred Hearts rules from his palace above the city. He is never seen. He makes no treaties with other lands. But there's unrest in the air. The Clay Men you speak to are obedient and humble, but they speak nervously of those who are not: the maimed, the rebellious, the Unfinished... +1 x A Port Report: Polythreme
		Rare event (25%)
		The city cries out Roads roil, bricks quiver. The windows of all the buildings flash like eyes. The palace above the city swells and roars. This convulsion is how Clay Men are born. Even now, somewhere below, they open their blind-seeming grey eyes. +5 x Terror +1 x A Port Report: Polythreme +1 to +3 x Fragment
Shore leave! Drink beer that wails from cups that sob. If you like that sort of thing.	30 x Echo Terror ≥ 1	An uneasy respite Under other circumstances, your crew might have been happier. -30 x Echo -1 x Terror	Game note: Polythreme is an expensive place to reduce Terror.
A contact-colony Your contact waits at the Whistling Eye: a masked bundle of grimy satin. The light here is poor, but it seems to have more gloves than it should.	Objective: An Admiralty Commission = 9 [Retrieve Strategic Information from Polythreme, somewhere a good way east of London]	A muttered plea "Please," wheezes a voice from within the mounds of clothing, "take it. I need to pay my debt." It seems that the clothes - mostly gloves, you see - are more wearing than being worn. The pale and sweating fellow within is a prisoner of his wardrobe! Take the report, though your fingers may shrink from the touch of the living cloth that binds him. Return it to London, and perhaps you'll help him pay what debt he owes. +1 x Terror +1 x Strategic Information +1 x Tale of Terror!! Objective: An Admiralty Commission = 0 [No Current Commission]
Collect the Cheery Man's cargo A great temple has been wounded. It will be years in the dying. It groans and shivers, and the Clay Men avoid the place out of fear and respect. But you meet one of their number in the shattered chamber where the altar once stood...	1000 x Echo 0 x Unstamped Crate of Brilliant Souls Objective: Collecting Cargo for the Cheery Man = 2 [Collect from Polythreme, in the Sea of Voices]	What souls are these? The Clay Man swallows the coins in handfuls - for safety, not out of appetite, you assume - and hands you a crate of whispering souls. Human? The souls back home are all but silent. Perhaps these are the souls of chairs, hats, swords. That's Polythreme for you. -1000 x Echo +1 x Unstamped Crate of Brilliant Souls	Game note: Return to the Blind Bruiser in London. Don't lose your cargo.
Carry Clay Men to London Are they passengers, or cargo? They're certainly the easiest passengers imaginable. Unless - just unless - one turns out to be an Unfinished Man.	0 x Clay Man, Marked for London	They troop aboard Each one lies down in its appointed position next to the other, nested snugly, head by foot. "WE ARE FOR LONDON," one explains you. +6 x Clay Man, Marked for London	Game note: You should have 6 units of cargo space available.
Put a blemmigan ashore Who knows what the living furniture will make of it?	1 x Docile Blemmigan Propagation: Polythreme ≤ 0	Curious alliances The last you see of your violet murder-fungus, it seems to be flirting with a fanged water-pump. Strange bedfellows. -1 x Docile Blemmigan +1 x Propagation: Blemmigans Abroad Propagation: Polythreme = 1
An audience with the King with the Hundred Hearts The Clay Broker, leaning on his copper staff, examines you coolly. "The King will see your little friend," he says. "No, he won't see you: not just now." He gestures for you to hand him the Watchful Curio.	1 x Watchful Curio	That night That night, the hill of Polythreme quakes. The words on the walls uncurl themselves. The birth-cries are everywhere heard, as Clay Men sit up, opening incurious eyes, awaiting their tithing to London. The Clay Broker waits on the quayside. On the flat palm of his broad hand, the Watchful Curio squats: but it is changed. "Our regards to Stone," is all he says. -1 x Watchful Curio +1 x Wakeful Idol +6 to +10 x Fragment
Hunt clothes-colonies with the Modiste Their abundance of life offers many artistic possibilities.	1 x The Merciless Modiste Learning About: The Merciless Modiste = 40 [The Modiste seeks a new challenge in Polythreme]	A thinness of resolve The Modiste stalks her prey past chittering rocks and wailing pools. Living shirts. Walking trousers. A lonely left shoe seeking a partner. All immediately rip and tear at even her exploratory cuts and stitches, their strange zest gone like the popping a soap-bubble. "This will not do," she declares, discarding another reject. "Clearly, I must petition the King! If it is in his power to animate these miserable rags, he certainly do a better job. Excuse me, Captain. I shall return presently." +10 x Zee-ztory Learning About: The Merciless Modiste = 55 [The Modiste is on a Mission]
Deliver Polythreme Exile He stands on deck and cannot look away from the shore.	Anthe: Polythreme Exile = 10 (Carrying an exile back to Polythreme)	At home once more At the shoreline, the Polythreme Exile plunges his hands into the damp mud and scrapes. When he comes away, his palms already look more like clay. TAKE A FEW DAYS, he says. ITCHY. BUT IT WILL GO BACK. He gets a box out of his traveling chest and offers it to you. SOME THINGS I GOT FROM THE BONE MEN AT ANTHE. THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE STRONGER THAN ME. THEY WERE WRONG. +1 x Secret +5 x Lamentable Relic Anthe: Polythreme Exile = 20 (Delivered an exile back to Polythreme)
Cure the sharpness you gained in Anthe Enough time in Polythreme, and your sharpness will dissolve back to flesh.	Anthe: Number of Sharpnesses ≥ 1	Warm and flexible again The blood flows. The flesh bends. Your discipline and skill decrease, your desire and feeling return. Anthe: Number of Sharpnesses = 0 Anthe: Acumination of the Tongue = 0 Anthe: Barbing of the Lungs = 0 Anthe: Flourishing of the Groin = 0 Anthe: Clarity of the Skin = 0 Anthe: Crystallization of Liver = 0 Anthe: Sharpness of Spleen = 0 Anthe: Spinosity of Bone = 0	Game note: This will not change your Capacity for Sharpness or remove any permanent Anthean Advantage you may carry.
Warn some merchants about Wrack The tavern patrons are so raucous, the sobbing of the cups seems well-behaved in comparison. Evidently, the zailors will soon travel Wrack on a lucrative contract...	Wrack: A City with Ships to Save = 2	The captain is buying rounds for everyone, despite the beer's gurgled prayers for deliverance. His zailors dance on a table that groans and whimpers. The captain welcomes you with a clap on the back, and asks you what you'd like to drink on this happy occasion. Perhaps not so happy, you say... By the end of your story, the captain and his zailors are all groaning in unison with the rest of Polythreme. Nevertheless, after he blows his nose into a demoralised handkerchief, he conveys his thanks, and passes you a small - but exceedingly noisy - reward. It should quiet once you leave the isle. Wrack: A City with Ships to Save = 0 -2 x Wrack: The State of the City +26 to +35 x Echo
Ask about the House of the Keel for the Unsettled Salvager The ancient captain in Venderbight said this would advance her search for "Lady Black."	Dreams of a Lady = 5 (Bound for Polythreme.)	When flesh carved stone The Clay Men profess ignorance. The benches wail too much to be sensible. But there is an ancient, long-winded harbour-wall that remembers. "THE HOUSE OF THE KEEL MADE EXILES OF THEMSELVES," it says in deep, crotchety tones. "THEY BOARDED THEIR SHIPS AND TOOK TO THE ZEE. THEN, FAR FROM LAND, THEY TOOK AXES THEIR SHIPS, SANK THEM, AND FOLLOWED THEM - MAN, WOMAN, CHILD - INTO THE DEPTHS. IN ABYSSES THEY BUILT THEIR FATHOMLESS CHURCHES, AND RESUMED THEIR WORSHIP OF LADY BLACK, SPIRIT OF THE DEEPS." The Unsettled Salvager holds onto your arm for support as you walk back to your ship. "I need to dive again," she whispers. "Grant me a suit. Please, Addressed As." You do have one in your possession. You could allow it, next time you set zail. Dreams of a Lady = 10 (She knows what she must do.)

Triggered events

Tomb-Colonists in Polythreme

Tomb-Colonists in Polythreme
Category	Story Event
Type	Story
Linked to	Polythreme Tomb-Colonist
Data ID	153212

"...this is the city where the stones of the streets cry out. Excellent. If I wanted silence, I would have stayed in Venderbight, where even the bats hesitate to squeak. I look forward to a number of considerable headaches."

This event triggers when you dock in Polythreme if you have the following:

1 x Tomb-Colonist
Objective: Tomb-Colonists ≥ 651 and ≤ 700

Actions	Requirements	Effects	Notes
Arrange a fine meal at a restaurant ashore The dead are always hungry. Stuff their mouths with bolete-cake, and they'll stay out of trouble.	100 x Echo	The well-fed dead They walk a little straighter, when they return. They creak a little less. "Living cake!" exclaims one cheerfully. "My head is swimming with vigour and joy. I must consume more live food. Do you know, I can almost see why cannibalism." "So where are we going next?" -100 x Echo -5 x Terror Objective: Tomb-Colonists = 701 to 800
Let them go off and purchase new bandages Every stain tells a story, or so the Venderbight fashion has it. But some of these stories are getting a little tired; and the living bandages of Polythreme will make fine souvenirs.	-	The gladdest of rags "Don't I look darling? It is a little bit like being tied up with serpents. But one gets used to it. Mm. One really gets used to it. And now where are we going?" Objective: Tomb-Colonists = 701 to 800
		Rare event (50%)
		Voices raised in song "We've made friends! Here's my big friend! And here's my little friend. Yes, I've been drinking. You'd have been drinking too. Where have you brought us? It's like Hell, but noisier. Here. Here, you look after my friends. I had to swap someone. Never mind. We won't miss him." "So where are we going next?" -1 x Tomb-Colonist +1 x Ambiguous Eolith +1 x Clay Man, Marked for London Objective: Tomb-Colonists = 701 to 800
Recruit a Bandage-Colony Clothes-colonies - living assemblages of garments - walk Polythreme, upright as any citizen of London. The more raggedy ones could pass for tomb-colonists...	20 x Echo Something Awaits You ≥ 1 and ≤ 50	A furtive conversation "Yesss. Yesss, We can be one of your dead men. No. No, we require no food. A payment? For our trouble? How delightful. We'll sstay out of the way..." "Tell uss. Where are we going? Will there be... people? We feel sso empty." -20 x Echo +1 x Tomb-Colonist Objective: Tomb-Colonists = 801 [The Last Tour - the Chelonate]	Game Note: If you're missing a tomb-colonist, this may be useful.
		Rare event (50%)
		A furtive conversation "Yesss. Yesss, We can be one of your dead men. No. No, we require no food. A payment? For our trouble? How delightful. We'll sstay out of the way...." "Tell uss. Where are we going? Will there be... people? We feel sso empty." -20 x Echo +1 x Tomb-Colonist Objective: Tomb-Colonists = 749 [The Last Tour - Irem]

The Screaming Shores of Polythreme

This event triggers when docking in Polythreme if you have the following:

Learning About: The Merciless Modiste ≥ 80 and ≤ 99
The Merciless Modiste = 1
The Pirate-Poet = 1

Polythreme story events
Tomb-Colonists in Polythreme