The Shrike

~ by Alice the Candle ~

It is early evening aboard the airship The Shrike. Far below us, rich
pine forests roll past. It is fine flying weather, and the skies around us,
for now, are empty. Soon pale miniature cliffs slip away beneath, and
now we are over the vast dark sea. The sun's glow on the horizon
fades. One by one the stars come out, but they fail to illuminate the
waves below. We are hurtling in the quiet darkness. We put on our
lanterns. Our voyage has begun.

The Shrike 0.9 (Early Access edition)

Sad Press Games, 2022
www.sadpressgames.com
The Shrike: Living Document ← click for the latest
 Contents

Contents 2

Introduction 5

Quick Start 6

Losing Characters 7

Artifacts 8
Artifacts: Know the Facts 9

Safety and Solidarity 10

Voyage Generator 10

The Voyage of The Semée Minnow 12

Chapter One 13
Chapter Two 17
Chapter Three 27
Chapter Four 32

The Voyage of The Bone Moth 33

Chapter One 35
Chapter Two 39
Chapter Three 48
Chapter Four 54

The Voyage of The Rattail Bucket 56

Chapter One 57
Chapter Two 62
Chapter Three 73
Chapter Four 79

The Voyage of The Bone Butterfly 81

Chapter One 82
Chapter Two 86
Chapter Three 96
Chapter Four 102

Solo Play 104

Tools 104
Choose a Voyage 104

2
 How to Get Started 104
Your Logbook 105
Solo Play: Optional Rules 106
Playing the Game 107
Storytelling Tips 109
Create Images 109
Interpret Liberally 109
Build Arcs 109
Create Complications 109
Create Obstacles 109
Tell Epic Stories 109
Tell 'Small' Stories 109
Experiment 109
Build Worlds 110

Co-operative Play 111

Players and Tools 111
Choose a Voyage 111
How to Get Started 111
Playing the Game 112
Tracking our Voyage 113
Default Option: Ship Schematic and World Map 113
Detailed Option: Ship Schematic, Ship Manifest, Character Sheets, World Map, and Chronicle 113
Other ways 113
Principles of Play 114
Draw Pictures 114
Collaborate 114
Troll 114
Create Arcs 114
Narrate our Story 114
Be our Characters 114
Step into Other Characters 115
Build Worlds 115
Look Things Up 115
Settle on a Pace 115
Fly Swirling Knotted Paths 115
Be Cinematic 115
Interpret Liberally 115
Co-operative Play: Optional Rules 116

3
Guided Play 119
Tips for GMs 119

Clarifications and Design Notes 120

Further Observations on The Vale 123

The Queen’s Calendar 123
The Brokenborn Archipelago 123

Notes on Maps 124

Variation: Hexcrawl a Pre-Generated Map 125
Dealing with cities while hexcrawling a pre-generated map 126
Orist Pitstop 126
Variation: Make up a Map as you Hexcrawl 127
Variation: Procedurally Generate a Map as you Hexcrawl #1 127
Variation: Procedurally Generate a Map as you Hexcrawl #2 128
Variation: Procedurally Generate a Counter-Map as you Hexcrawl 129

Notes on Crew Size 131

Quick Reference 132

Further Reading 133

Crew Portraits 134

Links 142

Acknowledgements 143

4
 Introduction
You are the crew of a skyship, travelling through the Vale, a vast realm as marvellous as it is perilous.
Many different styles of technology and magic co-exist in the Vale, and many of its civilizations are only
dimly aware of one another. The Vale is also an ancient and storied place, littered with ruins and artifacts
from long-departed peoples. If you can imagine something, you can probably find it here somewhere.
The Shrike emphasizes worldbuilding and storytelling. It may be played in a solo mode or a GM-less
co-operative mode (or with a little adaptation, with a GM). The story can be tracked in any way you
want, but the recommended method is to draw things — draw a map, and/or draw the evolving nature of
your skyship.
The game’s key mechanic involves taking the next card from a specially-shuffled pile, and looking up
the result in an oracle. The oracle leaves a lot to your imagination. So if you want a quest and a big bad,
make sure to invent them. Each card offers two options, and most options include storytelling prompts
(“How does your airship move?”) and mechanical instructions (“Take +1 STEEL”). As you tell the story,
the level of detail is up to you. Rip through the whole voyage a minute per card, and play the whole
voyage in one session. Or linger over prompts, spinning elaborate tales through solo journaling or
improvised scenes. To give you a flavor, here’s a sample of what the oracle may say:

4 ♠ : Flight. How does your airship move? Is it
equipped with a full set of sails, buoyed on
balloons and bladders, bristling with chimneys
and belching black smoke, flapping
solar-powered ornithopter wings, and/or is it
propelled by some other principle? Update your
ship plan, and take +1 TECH.
Or 4 ♠ : Features. For a vessel of its class, The
Blazing Crane has some unusual features. What
is its most distinctive feature? E.g. an orangery,
a figurehead whose eyes glow rainbows, a frost
cannon, a curse-deflection lens, a cursed fishing
net, a set of smuggler compartments, a
demon-proof brig (100% guaranteed), or
something else? Update your plan, take +1
TECH.

5 ♠ : Legacy. You uncover something about Or 5 ♠ : Excavations. A piece of machinery is

The Blazing Crane, from a time before any of uncovered in an archaeological dig. What might
you were on board. What is it? You may like to it have been originally? What did it later
act out a scene. Update the ship plan, and take become? What might it be useful for next?
either +1 TECH or +1 SPIRIT. When this turn is done, take +1 GUILE.

6 ♠ : The city of Orist Buk raises its towers on
the horizon. Here in the city of Orist Buk, there
are no prisons exactly, but every convicted
criminal is assigned a special animal to watch
over them. Do you disembark and explore?
What do you find? Whom do you meet? When
the turn is over, take +1 SPIRIT.
Or 6 ♠ : The town of Dissenter’s Rest glows on
the horizon. Here in Dissenter’s Rest, the
townsfolk sometimes experience a strange
emotion, called fullug, which combines aspects
of anger, joy, and compassion. Do you stop
here? What is it like? Is your stay here
eventful? SHIPYARD. While you are docked
in Dissenter’s Rest, you may also burn GOLD
to do repairs. For every GOLD spent, reduce
DAMAGE to The Blazing Crane by 1.

5
 Quick Start
✦ You’ll need a deck of playing cards, a six-sided die, and a journaling method. You may also want
colored tokens, extra dice, a whiteboard, and/or a big sheet of paper suitable for mapmaking.

✦ Turn to the voyages, and pick one you like. This will be your ‘oracle’:

The Voyage of the Semée Minnow. Solo. A ragtag crew of vagabonds uncover dark deeds.
The Voyage of the Bone Moth. 2-4 players. Meet civilizations beyond the edges of existing maps.
The Voyage of the Rattail Bucket. 2-4 players. Eerie encounters at abominable altitudes.
The Voyage of the Bone Butterfly. Solo. Build a world of storied heterotopias.

✦ Set up your skyship. Choose 4 crew members. Others may join you later on.

✦ Write down that you’re playing on Standard difficulty setting.

✦ If you’re playing as a group, give yourselves 6 GOLD and 1 STEEL. If you’re playing solo, give
yourself 2 GOLD, 1 STEEL, 1 GUILE, 1 TECH, and 1 SPIRIT. These are called “resources.”

✦ Shuffle the cards using the following magic formula. First divide the deck of cards into three piles:
spades by themselves, hearts and diamonds together, clubs by themselves. Next shuffle each of the
three piles individually. Finally stack them as one pile with clubs at the bottom, hearts and diamonds
in the middle, and spades at the top. This stack represents your voyage.

✦ Each turn, draw the top card, and look it up in your oracle. Choose one of the two prompts, interpret
it, and tell a story. Adjust resources when instructed. In multiplayer mode, if a player doesn’t like the
card they have drawn, another player may volunteer to take the card instead.

✦ Make a map, keep notes, draw pictures of your skyship, and/or journal your voyage any way you like.
Act out scenes if you like.

✦ You can reduce the difficulty of a challenge by 2 for each character you lose during the challenge. For
example, if the card tells you to burn 6 STEEL, but you lose two characters, then you only need to
burn 2. Remove the characters from your ship. For more guidance, see ‘Death and Other Exits.’

✦ If you get a chance to start a PROJECT, that means you gain resources after a delay. Roll a die to see
how many turns it takes. Use dice or draw progress clocks to track when your projects are ready.

✦ If your skyship ever has 6 DAMAGE or more, cr-a-a-a-a-a-ck, your voyage is over.

✦ Keep playing till you draw the King of Clubs. Then turn to the final chapter, and follow the
instructions for ending the story.

✦ These rules are repeated in greater detail after the four voyages, along with optional rules.

6
 Losing Characters
Mechanically, the loss of a character reduces the difficulty of a challenge by 2. What does this mean
narratively? It very seldom (maybe never) represents some cool, calculated decision to sacrifice a life.
Instead it means the crew bit off more than they could chew, but somehow scraped through, with one or
two tragic losses. Perhaps someone was caught by a stray musket-ball, or batted into the atmosphere by a
kraken’s tentacle, or perhaps they flung themselves in harm’s way while protecting another crew member.
Or maybe they survived the incident, then decided they were too old for this stuff. You could even leave
things ambiguous: ‘No one could have survived that ... but the body was never found.’

If playing solo, you can decide what ‘losing a crew member’ means for the story. Similarly, if you’re playing
multiplayer, your character never has to actually die unless you choose. Even if our skyship disintegrates
and the story is over for us all, characters can still miraculously survive and reappear in a later journey.

A player may decide that their character dies, or is presumed dead, or leaves the ship for good in the
middle of a voyage. If there is an NPC aboard, the player can adopt them as their new character. Or if a
player does not have a character for a while (say, until a new crew member comes aboard), they can help
to build the world, make decisions, and portray non-crew characters in scenes.

7
 Artifacts
Someone once said, ‘Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from magic.’ Nobody’s quite sure
what this means, if it means anything at all. Which makes it a great way to introduce the deeply confusing
topic of magic artifacts in the Vale.

When we find an artifact, the oracle will outline how to awaken it in mechanical terms, e.g. ‘Burn 3
SPIRIT’ or ‘If there is a Witch on board, they know how to awaken it.’ It will also tell us about a
mechanical bonus, e.g. ‘Take +2 SPIRIT and +2 GUILE.’ But it usually won’t tell us what the artifact
actually does, or any of the strange conditions or side-effects of its magic. That is for us to discover for
ourselves through our storytelling.

We also don’t need to worry about tracking which resources derive from which artifacts. We can just use
the artifact whenever it makes sense within the story.

Awakened artifacts are practically impossible to sell.

8
 Artifacts: Know the Facts

Artifacts are characterized by deep uncertainty. The more they are studied, the more that is written about
them, the more their mysteries multiply. There are clearly a variety of sources — artifacts seem to derive
from a variety of eras, dimensions, modalities, and ontological loopholes — but every attempt to
taxonomize them has somehow managed to complicate what it set out to clarify. We can offer a few
tentative guidelines:

✦ They go through periods of long dormancy.
Awakening an artifact requires a special
ritual, which is different for each artifact.
✦ When an artifact has been awoken, it
usually ‘imprints’ on the individual or
individuals who have awoken it. Nobody
else can use the artifact’s powers, and the
imprinting usually lasts until death, when
the artifact will probably fall asleep for
another hundred years.
✦ Artifacts resist commodification. Despite
their great value, it is very hard to buy or
sell a truly magical artifact. A sleeping
artifact can occasionally, with great effort,
be exchanged for 4 or 5 GOLD if you’re
lucky. A fully awake artifact is practically
impossible to sell, not even to the richest
and greediest artifact collector in the Vale.
Something always happens to prevent it,
and because everybody knows this, hardly
anyone even bothers to try.
✦ Artifacts may exist in one universe, while
obeying the laws of another.
✦ Artifacts may sometimes spontaneously
transform into something else, vanish, cease
to exist, or (most confusingly of all) cease
ever to have existed. Some speculate that
they do this when they are in some sense
‘displeased’ with their wielder.
✦ Artifacts, according to some theories, are
not ‘alive’ exactly. It’s more like ‘dead is to
alive as alive is to artifact.’
✦ Artifacts are not quite machines, not quite
supernatural entities, not quite the physical
forms of dreams and emotions, not quite
the physical forms of psychic pathologies.
Poets have compared artifacts to
everything and everything to artifacts, but
they are especially fond of comparing
artifacts to strange perspectives — a wand
like the top of an upside-down mountain,
an orb like a masked ball lit by fireflies, a
chalice like chimney-smoke sees the sky.
✦ The artifact and the artifact-wielder are
always deeply in each other’s debt, and
therefore also each the other’s creditor.
✦ The Bearborn spell it ‘artefacts.’ The
Splinterwaif spell it ‘artyfacts’ because,
they claim, they are arty facts. The
Snailborn spell it ‘wtfs.’ The Kolashk and
the Splinterwaif call them ‘Aenigmas.’ The
Oct term is ‘deadtech.’
✦ Artifacts have a special way of telling you
what they are called. That is how you
know they are magic. But you’ll need to
pay close attention to your own thoughts,
or you might just miss the presence of an
artifact. ‘I searched the whole crypt, but
there was nothing there. Just some rags,
bent iron nails, some mouldy old barrels
and heaps of Rat Droppings of Infinite
Riches … oh drat.’
✦ Any sufficiently advanced magic is
indistinguishable from magic.

9
 Safety and Solidarity
Search online for ‘RPG safety tools’ for ideas, advice, approaches, and discussions. Here are two popular
safety tools:

✦ X-Card: Draw an X on a card and put it on the table where everyone can easily reach it. If anyone
feels uncomfortable with what's happening, they lift up the X card. They don't have to explain why.
The other players then rewind and take things in another direction. The X-Card safety tool was
created by John Stavropoulos (tinyurl.com/x-card-rpg).

✦ Lines and Veils: Before play, each player lists any 'lines' and/or 'veils.' Lines are things they don't
want showing up at all. Veils are things that can be in the background, but not directly described. The
‘lines and veils’ terminology was originally used by Ron Edwards.

Cavegirl reflects on the porosity of self and character: "The interactivity is important; it lets you
probe at the stuff that's rewarding to you, avoid the stuff that's too much, control how you interact
with it. It's empowering. And the fact that your PC is an avatar of yourself is likewise important; it
makes it immediate and personal to you. ... With this stuff, I find that I know exactly where my
limit is, where the line is that, if we go there, it goes from dark and interesting to traumatising. And,
in all honesty, I push up against that limit. I want to get as close to that line as I safely can, without
tipping over it. ... I don't think that's unusual, actually. I think a desire to see how close we can get
to our emotional limits is pretty common. You see it in people who enjoy horror films. You certainly
see it in people who enjoy kink, particularly on the more submissive/masochistic side. It's the same
dynamic at play. Experiencing something in theory painful, in a way that's controlled and safe, is
something a lot of people seek out.”

(From ‘On Bleed, Pain, and Self-Inserts’)

Voyage Generator
One of the best things about this RPG is that it comes with a procedural voyage generator, built in Twine.
The generator can (probably) be found at sadpress.itch.io/the-shrike-rpg. Just like the airships whose
adventures its models, it is clunky, glitchy, patched-together, and will never be finished. Turn it on and see
what happens. You also might like to to explore the glimpse generator at sadpress.itch.io/shrike-glimpses.

10
 The Voyage of
The Semée Minnow
Features
✦ Tailored for solo play
✦ Set in the Vale, the core Shrike universe
✦ Journey with a ragtag band of vagabonds
✦ Open-ended storytelling, with a variety of adventure hooks and dark deeds afoot
✦ A relatively well-ravelled reality, a little frayed by fairy

11
 The Voyage of The Semée Minnow
Setting Up
Resources. You begin with 2 GOLD, 1 GUILE, 1 SPIRIT, 1 STEEL, 1 TECH.

Crew. You also begin with four crew members. Choose a Captain, an XO, an Engineer, and a Navigator:

✦ The Geek: Gerard the Mianyuan

✦ The Show-Off: Florence the Yarrowborn
✦ The Shy One: Beatrice the Northerner
✦ The Newbie: Emilia the Janbulagger
✦ The Brooding One: Jia Jun the Brokenborn
✦ The Rebellious One: Ajwa the Northerner
✦ The Sweetheart: Alicia the Janbulagger

Journalling. Record your voyage in a Logbook, which may include a map of the land, a ship schematic, a
ship's manifest, crew notes, a chronicle, and/or other things.The details are up to you.

Map. You may want to get the map of the land started by sketching a few major landscape features, e.g. a
tall mountain, a great city, a coastline, a deep forest. You can name these later. Leave lots of blank space.

Put the cards in order. First divide the deck of cards into three piles: spades by themselves, hearts and
diamonds together, clubs by themselves. Next shuffle each of the three piles individually. Finally stack
them as one pile with clubs at the bottom, hearts and diamonds in the middle, and spades at the top. This
stack represents your voyage.

How to Play

✦ Each turn, draw the top card, and look it up in the oracle. Choose one of the two prompts, interpret
it, and tell a story. Adjust resources when instructed.

✦ Make a map, keep notes, draw pictures of your skyship, and/or journal your voyage any way you like.

✦ You can reduce the difficulty of a challenge by 2 for each character you lose during the challenge. For
example, if the card tells you to burn 6 STEEL, and you lose two characters, you only need to burn 2.
Remove the characters from your ship.

✦ If you get a chance to start a PROJECT, that means you gain resources after a delay. Roll a die to see
how many turns it takes. Use dice or draw progress clocks to track when your projects are ready.

✦ If your skyship ever has 6 DAMAGE or more, cr-a-a-a-a-a-ck, your voyage is over.

12
 Chapter One
Ace ♠ : At around midnight you entered
Kolashk airspace. What tyrant rules here? Is it a
petulant and bloodthirsty child, a once-mighty
knight surrounded by flatterers, a sentient
sword, a maniacal engineer, or someone else?
What is the name of this tyrannical ruler?
Empress Anne-Laurette Fengsson, Dr Jacob
Askew, the Blessed Lanthorn, Gongo Bao Pearl,
Councillor Magadlela, Prickle, or something
else? When you have decided, and take +1
GUILE or +1 SPIRIT.
2 ♠ : How does your airship move? Is it
equipped with a full set of sails, powered by
eldritch crystals, buoyed by balloons and
bladders, belching black smoke from multiple
chimney-stacks, powered by sympathetic magic,
or is it propelled by some other principle? When
you have decided, take +1 TECH.
3 ♠ : One area aboard The Semée Minnow has
been the focus of some minor bickering. Where
is it? The crow's nest, the rigging, the upper
decks, the gun deck, the cargo hold, the galley,
the steam room, the engine room, the crew's
quarters, or somewhere else? When you have
updated your Logbook, take +1 TECH or +1
SPIRIT.
13
Or Ace ♠ : The Brokenborn Enthral-class karvi,
The Halfpace Eye Flaw, is flying nearby. Who
is the captain of The Halfpace Eye Flaw? Is it
Ru Stone, Halim Eskildsen, Councillor
Magadlela, or someone else? When in the past
have you crossed paths, or crossed swords?
Make a note in your Logbook, and take +1
GUILE or +1 STEEL.
Or 2 ♠ : For a vessel of its class, The Semée
Minnow has some unusual features. What is its
most distinctive feature? E.g. a tempermental
sending stone for transmitting messages and
images, a rainbow shield, an orangery, a library,
a stealth mode, a canning workstation, a
dropsonde launcher for weather reconnaissance,
or something else? When you have augmented
your Logbook, take +1 TECH.
Or 3 ♠ : You have heard stories about a city
where emotions are tangible. Someone in the
crew longs to find this city. Who? Why? When
this turn is done, take +1 GUILE or +1 STEEL.
4 ♠ : BATTLE. It came out of nowhere, and
you have no idea why it doesn’t like you, but it
really doesn’t like you. Flee the Bearborn
Harpy-class pinnace The Hircine Dragonfly.
Don't adjust any resources, and skip the next
card.
5 ♠ : DISCUSSION. A crew member proposes
an issue. For example: Shall we try to land to
make repairs? Or, Is everybody having their
voice heard on board? Or, Does anybody need
advice right now about their ideas or decisions?
What does everyone think? You don't need to
resolve it or come to a decision. When
everybody has been heard, take +1 SPIRIT.
6 ♠ : A strange pestilence is afflicting the Vale.
Is it called the Light, the Dreaming, the
Disruptor, the Pale Mare, or something else?
What do you know about it? After you have
told this part of the story, take +1 SPIRIT or
+1 GUILE.
7 ♠ : You have heard stories about a city that
governs itself without any need for police or
prisons. What stories have you heard? Who on
board believes these stories, and who scoffs at
them? NEWCOMER. In the midst of these
discussions, Eledy the Yarrowborn arrives on
board The Semée Minnow. Who is Eledy?
Does she adopt a role, e.g. Master-At-Arms,
Engineer, Surgeon, Signal Master, or maybe
something else? Add Eledy to the Logbook.
Eledy also adds +1 STEEL. Whenever a
newcomer joins, you may also swap or change
any other roles on board The Semée Minnow if
you wish.
14
Or 4 ♠ : BATTLE. The Hircine Dragonfly is a
Bearborn Harpy-class patrol pinnace, drawing
abreast, readying its broadside. Is this a police
operation, a pirate ambush, a homicidal temper
tantrum, a test of a new Bearborn armament
system, or something else? Burn 2 TECH and 9
STEEL to destroy or capture The Hircine
Dragonfly, and take +9 GOLD. Or burn 1
STEEL or 1 GUILE to drive off The Hircine
Dragonfly, and take 1 SPIRIT.
Or 5 ♠ : What kind of weapons does The Semée
Minnow carry? E.g. a foredeck ballista, a
lightning orb catapult, a pair of antipersonnel
shrapnel onagers, a pair of culverin
extraordinary in the castles, some other
weapons system, or perhaps no weapons at all?
Update the Logbook, and take +1 STEEL.
Or 6 ♠ : You are passing near to an intriguing
geographical feature. What is it? Draw
something as a reminder it's there. Perhaps
you’ll come back later. After you have updated
your Logbook, take +1 STEEL or +1 TECH.
Or 7 ♠ : Most things on The Semée Minnow
need repair, replacement, or upgrading. What
are your top priorities? If you wish, burn 2
GOLD to start a PROJECT. Decide what to
build and what resource it will increase, then
roll a die to find out how long it will take.
Draw the project on your Logbook, and place
the die on it to track progress. Each turn the die
counts down by one, and when it reaches zero,
take +4 in the resource you chose.
8 ♠ : The truth is, The Semée Minnow is a
stolen vessel. How did you come to be its crew?
If you wish, The Semée Minnow also has a
malfunction that must be repaired. Decide what
it is, burn 1 TECH and take +2 STEEL.
9 ♠ : Who has a long-running rivalry with the
skyship captain called the Blessed Lanthorn?
The XO, the Engineer, someone else, or maybe
the whole crew? How has the Blessed Lanthorn
betrayed, humiliated, or exploited them in the
past? Was the Blessed Lanthorn’s ship called
The Adamant Fly, The Crystal Spark, The
Hawk, or something else? Is the Blessed
Lanthorn still captaining this skyship, or have
they moved on to other things? After you have
told this part of the story, take +1 STEEL.
10 ♠ : Perilous weather. Where do you manage
to land to take shelter? When the storm passes,
what do you see around you? Burn 1 TECH or
take 1 DAMAGE.
15
Or 8 ♠ : The truth is, you are what some might
call ‘pirates.’ But the good kind. What is a
recent example of your, um, exceptionally high
moral standards? If you wish, The Semée
Minnow also encounters some problem or
opportunity that requires a little hedge magic.
Burn 1 SPIRIT and take +2 GUILE or +4
GOLD.
Or 9 ♠ : You are flying over the Peace of
Orelly, which was heavily forested last you
were here. Now the Peace of Orelly has been
hewed to a stubble of tree stumps, and of the
people who once lived here, you see no trace.
Decide who is responsible for the devastation.
Was it Lord Dust, Gongo Bao Pearl, Ru Stone,
Halim Eskildsen, Councillor Magadlela, Mrs.
Needlerew, The Luscious Spite, or someone or
something else? When this turn is over, take +1
SPIRIT.
Or 10 ♠ : You meet Gundradis Chike, a rather
edgy Kolashk agent working for an organization
called SONG. What does SONG stand for?
Special Ontology Negation and Generation?
The Secret Office of Numinous Glows? The
School for Owls to be Ninjas and Gladiators?
The Society of Overlooked Norms and
Governance? Something else? Alas, just as
Chike is boarding The Semée Minnow, you are
overwhelmed by mysterious attackers. What
happens exactly? In the ensuing chaos, either
lose a crew member, burn 1 STEEL, burn 2
GUILE, or take 2 DAMAGE. What
mysterious phrase does Gundradis Chike
manage to gasp before they are blasted over the
gunwales, and sent spiralling to the ground
miles below? Once the turn is over, take +1
GUILE or +1 SPIRIT.
Jack ♠ : You meet Gwendolyn, who has been
sent by Dr Jacob Askew. Dr Askew is the
inventor of a marvelous new contraption. What
is Gwendolyn's relationship to Jacob Askew? A
relative, an apprentice, a colleague, a hireling, or
something else? You are cordially invited to visit
Dr Jacob Askew in the Kolashk capitol of
Cimmir for the machine's activation ceremony.
What is the machine? NEWCOMER. Add
Gwendolyn to your ship map as Yeoman of the
Sheet, or as something else. Gwendolyn adds +1
STEEL, +1 SPIRIT, and +2 GOLD.
Queen ♠ : BATTLE. You are being pursued by
the Rider in White. What does it look like? Do
you have any idea what it is? Flee for many
miles till eventually it’s no longer behind you.
You think. Skip the next card.
King ♠ : The Iridran city of Hitgub spreads on
the horizon. Here in the city of Hitgub, there
has never been such a thing as religion, until
about a year ago. What new religion has
appeared in Hitgub, and how has it been
changing things? Is it associated with something
else you have seen or done on your voyage so
far? This is also where the Navigator's
notorious brother lives. Perhaps you'll pay a
visit? If you wish, burn 2 GOLD to take +1 in
any resource.
16
Or Jack ♠ : There's a Bearborn Endless-class
battlebarge called The Copper Bodkin nearby,
and it's up to something. Is it scouting deep
inside Treaty territory, smuggling contraband
from Zoga, rendezvousing with an Iridran
sea-ship, or something else? If you wish, burn 1
GUILE to spy on their set-up and take +2
TECH.
Or Queen ♠ : BATTLE. Burn 1 STEEL to
ward off the Rider in White. Or burn 4 GUILE
and 5 STEEL to defeat the Rider in White.
How do you defeat it? Once it is vanquished,
claim its armor as treasure: take +6 GOLD.
Or King ♠ : The Brokenborn city of Cimiriopol
raises its towers on the horizon. Here in the city
of Cimiriopol, the bodies of gods have been
gutted and hollowed and left in the streets for
the denizens of Cimiriopol to don. Do you move
on quickly, or linger to explore? What is it like?
What happens? SHIPYARD. While you are
docked in Cimiriopol, you may burn as much
GOLD as you like to fix up the ship. For every
GOLD spent, reduce DAMAGE to The Semée
Minnow by 1. Here at Cimiriopol, you may also
hire an expert to awaken any magic artifact, or
to repair and install any ship system, for a
bargain price of 2 GOLD.
 Chapter Two
Ace ♥ : The Bearborn town of Erlan Raloran
spreads on the horizon. Here in the town of
Erlan Raloran, the Bearborn have finally driven
the occupying Torn Ones from their ancestral
land, but not from their hearts and minds. Why
have you come to Erlan Raloran? What is it
like? What happens during your stay?
TRADING POST. While you are docked in
Erlan Raloran, you may sell any CARGO you
are carrying. Sell for twice whatever you paid.
If your crew has a Bursar, Merchant, or
Steward aboard, they can sell your goods for
triple whatever you paid.
2 ♥ : The Adamant Fly is an Iridran skyship
belonging to the shadowy organization known
as SONG. It disappeared some weeks ago.
What might have happened to it? When the
turn is done, take either +1 SPIRIT or +1
GUILE.
17
Or Ace ♥ : The city of Frostshore gradually
coalesces on the horizon. The people of
Frostshore always carry a spare head with
them, which they can swap out when their
current head gets tired or angry. But they are
forever forgetting where they left their spare
head, or getting it mixed up with someone
else’s. Do you linger to try to better understand
this place? Or move off as soon as possible?
SHIPYARD. In the workshops of Frostshore
you may burn 5 GOLD or 2 TECH to add a
syndromizer to your Logbook and take +4 in
any resource. You may also burn as much
GOLD as you like to do repairs. For every 2
GOLD spent, reduce DAMAGE to The Semée
Minnow by 1.
Or 2 ♥ : The Kolashk city of Corpol raises its
towers on the horizon. You have heard that in
Corpol they have chimneys that pump not only
unwanted vapors, but also unwanted thoughts
into the sky. Do you linger to try to better
understand this place? What happens during
your stay? Or do you move off as soon as
possible? SHIPYARD. If you need it, the
people of Corpol will help you repair your ship.
Reduce DAMAGE by 2. If you have at least 3
GOLD, chip in 1 GOLD. If not that's totally
OK.
3 ♥ : Zoga appears on the horizon. One of your
crew has travelled this part of the world before.
Apparently, in Zoga, there is a particular form
of magic based on emotions. Do you move on
quickly, or stay to explore? Who do you meet?
Someone you didn’t expect to see in this part of
the world? A sorcerer’s apprentice with a lot of
powerful feelings? Someone who needs your
help? Or someone else? SHIPYARD. In the
workshops of Zoga you may resupply your
ammunition. Burn 2 GOLD to take +2 STEEL.
When you eventually set off again from Zoga,
take +1 GUILE.
4 ♥ : GEAR. Buried in the sand dunes is a
useful piece of equipment. You bring it on
board. Is it a powered exoskeleton, a blood arm,
a hydraulic cannon, a fog generator, or
something else? Sketch it on your Logbook. At
any time you may repair and install it by
burning 4 TECH. Once it is installed, take +3
STEEL and +3 GUILE. Alternatively, you may
sell it at any SHIPYARD or TRADING
POST for 2 GOLD.
5 ♥ : BATTLE. Fight or flee an invisible
monkey. If you have a Zoologist aboard, you
can skip this card without penalty. What havoc
is the invisible monkey wreaking aboard your
skyship? How did you get into this
predicament? Burn 7 STEEL to deal with the
monkey and take +3 SPIRIT and +3 TECH.
Or evade the encounter: take 1 DAMAGE and
skip the next card.
18
Or 3 ♥ : ARTIFACT. While exploring an
abandoned Bearborn watch tower high in the
mountains, you discover a Brimming Ashtray of
Fortuity. If you have a Runemaster, Signal
Master, or Surgeon, they know how to awaken
the Ashtray. Burn 3 SPIRIT to perform the
ritual to awaken it. What does it do once it is
awakened? Once awakened, this artifact also
has a special power that may be used once on
your voyage. When you use this power, see the
next card before making any decisions about the
active card.
Or 4 ♥ : The town of Ash shimmers on the
horizon. Here in the town of Ash, everything
must be counted or named every day, or that
thing starts to fade. This is also where the XO's
crush lives. Perhaps you'll pay a visit?
SHIPYARD. While you are docked in Ash,
you may burn 6 GOLD to repair all damage to
the airship, and/or burn 4 GOLD to complete
all ongoing projects instantly. Work in Ash pays
well. Burn 2 GUILE or 2 SPIRIT to take +6
GOLD.
Or 5 ♥ : BATTLE. Fight or flee the Leviathan.
If you have a Zoologist aboard, you can skip
this card without penalty. Record scratch,
freeze frame. Yup, that's you there, in the nexus
of storm clouds and roiling serrated tentacles.
How did you get into this situation? Burn 8
SPIRIT to win the battle and take +4 STEEL
and +4 GUILE. Or evade the encounter: take 1
DAMAGE and skip the next card.
6 ♥ : BATTLE. The Crystal Spark is a
Brokenborn Wyvern-class cutter. Why have you
decided to rob it? Sadly, it escapes your
clutches. Take 2 DAMAGE, and reset any
active projects to six days until completion.
7 ♥ : ARTIFACT. In a meadow of wildflowers
you find piece of equipment, half submerged in
moss and blossoms. You bring it on board. Is it a
Magma Swarm Station, a Flame Palps System, a
Flame Portal, a Golemic Anchor, or something
else? Sketch it on your Logbook. At any time
you may awaken it by burning 4 TECH. Once
it is up and running, take +3 STEEL and +3
GUILE. Alternatively, you may sell it at any
SHIPYARD or TRADING POST for 2
GOLD.
8 ♥ : Ubá hovers on the horizon. Here in the
Brokenborn capitol of Ubá, a magic meteorite
fell some years ago, and still emanates a curious
field. Do you stop here? What is it like? Do you
meet someone who has spent too long near the
crash site? Someone who offers to take you into
the zone? Someone who needs something from
within the zone? Someone who is a Librarian of
Fury? Someone who is an agent of SONG?
TRADING POST. While you are docked in
Ubá, you may burn any amount of GOLD to
purchase CARGO, mostly alchemical
glassware, anti-gravity felt, and pro forma
grimoires, to trade further on. If so, record what
you've bought and how much much GOLD you
have invested.
19
Or 6 ♥ : BATTLE. The Crystal Spark is
minding its own business. You don’t need to be
asked twice. Burn 3 GUILE and 13 STEEL to
destroy The Crystal Spark, and take +13
GOLD. Or burn 6 GUILE to conduct a heist or
a con and take +3 STEEL and +3 TECH.
Or 7 ♥ : A floating city appears on the horizon.
Upon arrival, you learn that this is the
Dominion of Glumflower. It seems that in the
Dominion of Glumflower, there are boarding
houses filled with the forgotten imaginary
friends of children who have now grown up.
One of these washed-up imaginary friends asks
for your help. What do you do? When you
eventually set off again, take +1 TECH.
Or 8 ♥ : ARTIFACT QUEST. A Spined
Sphere Thrower is kept deep within Fastness
Cloudborn, the stronghold of BL (Brigadier
Librarian) Finger. Where did BL Finger get this
relic? What do the rumors say about it? Burn 3
GUILE or 4 STEEL to steal it and see for
yourselves. What goes according to plan? And
what goes very wrong? Once you've secured
the artifact, is it what you thought, or is it
actually another artifact entirely? You can sell it
at any SHIPYARD or TRADING POST for 3
GOLD, or awaken it to take +6 SPIRIT.
9 ♥ : BATTLE. The Ivied Compersion is a
Bearborn Gryphon-class bat, currently casting
its grapples over your gunwales and preparing
to board. Is this a police action, a prearranged
duel, an incident in a revolutionary uprising,
payback for earlier, an assassination attempt, a
case of mistaken identity, or something else?
Detach the grappling hooks just in time and flee
the hostile airship. Take 2 DAMAGE, and
reset any active projects to six days until
completion.
10 ♥ : NEWCOMER. Aoibh the Brokenborn
arrives aboard The Semée Minnow. How? Do
they adopt a role — Librarian, Signal Master,
Zoologist, or something else? They bring +2
GUILE and +1 STEEL. Add them to your
Logbook.
Jack ♥ : The Great River of Ket winds through
the chestnut trees below. You watch glowing
crowds of violet-cloaked Hoggles, probably
Northerners on their pilgrimage to the Peace of
Orelly, lining up to cross at the Bridges of
Butterhedge. NEWCOMER. Nikolai the
Bearborn soon arrives aboard The Semée
Minnow. How does Nikolai arrive? Do they
adopt a role: Master-At-Arms, Surgeon,
Runemaster, or something else? They bring +2
SPIRIT and +1 STEEL. Add them to your
Logbook.
20
Or 9 ♥ : BATTLE. The Ivied Compersion is
drawing abreast, readying its broadside. Burn 4
TECH and 10 STEEL to destroy or capture
The Hawk, and take +8 GOLD. Or burn 4
TECH and 4 GUILE to slip away into the
clouds unscathed, and take +4 SPIRIT.
Or 10 ♥ : A single globule of wobbling dirty
water as big as your head splashes on the deck
nearby. Far below, wing-weary pegasuses
trudge through the foothills. PROJECT. You
have a little time to start something new. If you
wish, burn 4 SPIRIT to improve some aspect of
the airship. Decide what to build and what
resource it will increase. Roll a die to see how
many turns the project will take to complete.
Use the die to keep track of progress. When it
completes, take +8 in your chosen resource, or
repair up to 3 points of DAMAGE. Remember,
projects don't just have to be about the physical
airship. It might also about the relationships of
its crew.
Or Jack ♥ : You fly along the course of the
Great River of Ket. Everything is calm and
serene. PROJECT. You have a little time to
start something new. If you wish, burn 4
SPIRIT to improve some aspect of the airship.
Decide what to build and what resource it will
increase. Roll a die to see how many turns the
project will take to complete. Use the die to
keep track of progress. When it completes, take
+6 in your chosen resource, or repair up to 3
points of DAMAGE. Remember, projects don't
just have to be about the physical airship. It
might also about the relationships of its crew.
Queen ♥ : Someone goes missing from the crew!
Who? What clues are there to how they may
have vanished? Burn 1 SPIRIT to locate them
and rescue them from their predicament.
Otherwise they're gone for good. When you
have told this part of the story, take +2
SPIRIT.
King ♥ : There is a strange smell aboard The
Semée Minnow. Do you find the source? After
you have told this part of the story, take +1
STEEL.
21
Or Queen ♥ : Below you, marshlands and
waves shift the shingle on the shore. You can
make out the soft caws of gulls far below.
PROJECT. You have a little time to start
something new. If you wish, burn 8 GOLD to
improve some aspect of the airship. Decide
what to build and what resource it will
increase. Roll a die to see how many turns the
project will take to complete. You can use the
die to keep track of progress. When the project
completes take +7 in your chosen resource, or
repair up to 2 points of DAMAGE.
Or King ♥ : Below you drift by gently rolling
hills dotted with stands of ash and limes. A
freaked-out owl flaps past. PROJECT. Burn 2
TECH and 1 GUILE to conduct repairs or
enhancements to the airship. Decide what you
want to do, and what resource it will impact.
Roll a die to see how many turns it will take.
Each turn, adjust the project die down by one.
When the project die reaches zero, work is
complete and you may take +5 in your chosen
resource, or repair up to 3 points of DAMAGE.
Ace ♦ : What can you see through your
telescope? Is it a graveyard, a mine shaft, a
vineyard, or something else? Do you investigate
now, or mark it on your map, perhaps to return
later?
2 ♦ : BATTLE. The Crimson Annihilator is a
Bearborn Endless-class battlebarge, bearing
down with weapons hot. Is this a police action,
an act of piracy, a betrayal, a territorial
skirmish, a fight you started (and now regret),
or something else? Flee The Crimson
Annihilator: take 2 DAMAGE, and reset any
active projects to six days until completion.
3 ♦ : You are in a cool, softly lit tavern, in a little
town high up in the Brokenborn hills. The floor
is stone flagged, the tables dark oak, and in the
low rafters, small fox gremlins scamper and
cavort. Here you meet Tyristan Oakbottom,
who has been caring for a creature called a
Furled Fate, which has just had six little ones.
They will pay you 1 GOLD to take the
newborn Furled Fateling litter off their hands,
so long as you promise to find them good
homes, perhaps in Cimmir or Lamberside Isle.
Make a decision, and update your Logbook.
4 ♦ : The city of Cimmir gradually coalesces on
the horizon. You have been invited by Dr Jacob
Askew to the ‘activation ceremony’ of their
strange contraption. There’s not much
ceremony, just your crew standing awkwardly
in Dr Askew’s vast cluttered workshop while
they fuss and mutter. Finally Dr Askew throws
the switch. Nothing happens. They need a
formula written in the Book of Wrathworking
to complete it. Returning to the ship, you think
over the day’s event. What is Dr Jacob Askew
22
Or Ace ♦ : You have returned to an earlier
spot. Is it Zoga, Garkoile, Cimmir, Gayaro,
Glumflower, the Peace of Orelly, Corpol,
Frostshore, Ubá, Erlan Raloran, a bridge over
the River Ket, an unnamed landmark you
spotted, or somewhere else? Why? What
happens?
Or 2 ♦ : BATTLE. The Crimson Annihilator
wants to annihilate you, crimsonly. Burn 7
STEEL and 1 TECH to destroy The Crimson
Annihilator, and take +6 GOLD. Or burn 9
STEEL and 4 GUILE to capture The Crimson
Annihilator, and take +9 GOLD.
Or 3 ♦ : From a thick bank of cloud comes a
great gout of cannon. Burn 1 STEEL or take 1
DAMAGE. You come about, preparing for
battle, but your attackers have vanished. The
XO swears they glimpsed The Halfpace Eye
Flaw's figurehead in the swirling cloud. Others
claim it was The Golden Hoopoe or The
Adamant Fly. Update your Logbook, and stay
vigilant . . .
Or 4 ♦ : Ariocaster looms on the horizon. One
of your crew has travelled this part of the
world before. They have gathered that in
Ariocaster, painting and art performs the
function of political dispute. What do you soon
come across? A tourney, mourners, a
counter-revolution? A citizen of Ariocaster
called Mor Askew who is in terrible distress?
And/or something else? SHIPYARD. In the
workshops of Ariocaster you may burn 10
GOLD to install a sonic ram and take +4
like? What did you see in their workshop? Do
you trust them? Will you help them? Where
might the Book be? Is the Lost Library of
Wrathworking a good place to start, or is that a
bit on the nose?
5 ♦ : Someone on the The Semée Minnow has
sworn a solemn oath. Who is it? What is the
oath? E.g. to convert others to the true faith, to
marry into a wealthy family, to resurrect the
loved one you lost, to tear down all the prison
walls? Or something else? Do the other crew
members all know about this oath? Do they
approve? NEWCOMER. Żaklina the
Yarrowborn is willing to join your crew. Does
Żaklina adopt a role, e.g. Merchant, Signal
Master, Surgeon, Yeoman of the Sheet, or
something else? Żaklina adds +2 of a resource of
your choosing.
6 ♦ : You discover the source of the strange
pestilence that has spread throughout the land.
What is the source? How do you make this
discovery? What must be done to stop it?
7 ♦ : BATTLE. Flee a pack of bloatball-riding
Iridran attackers. Who are they, and who
started this battle? Do they have a particularly
nasty weapon with them? Is it an
ornithopter-mounted tentacle ram, a giant
origami paper golem wyvern, a glider-mounted
onager firing memory-wiping flak, or something
else? Evade the encounter: take 1 DAMAGE
and skip the next card.
23
TECH, +2 GUILE, and/or burn 30 GOLD to
install thunderclap bamboo bombs and take +8
TECH, +8 STEEL. You may also burn as much
GOLD as you like to do repairs. For every 2
GOLD spent, reduce DAMAGE to The Semée
Minnow by 1.
Or 5 ♦ : ARTIFACT. While exploring an
abandoned observation station deep in the
forest, you discover a Tome of Reframing
Feelings. If you have a Librarian, Signal Master,
Surgeon, or Yeoman of the Sheet on board, you
may burn 2 SPIRIT to awaken the Tome.
What can this artifact do? Are there any special
conditions or side-effects associated with its
powers? Once awakened, the Tome also has
two special effects that may each be used once
on your voyage. First, it lets you peek at the
next card before you make your choice about
which prompt to use. Second, if the entire crew
is ever killed but the skyship is still intact, the
Book will pilot the ship until it can find a new
crew.
Or 6 ♦ : You are flying over strange scenery.
Where is it? What does it look like?
Or 7 ♦ : BATTLE. Fight a pack of
bloatball-riding Iridran attackers. Who are
they? Did they just come out of nowhere? Or
did you just come out of nowhere? Burn 8
TECH to win the battle decisively and take +4
GUILE and +4 STEEL. Or burn 5 TECH for a
more mixed or ambiguous outcome, and take +2
STEEL and +2 SPIRIT.
8 ♦ : ARTIFACT QUEST. A Gauntlet of
Unmercenary Marvels is kept deep within the
Mianyuan royal bank. What do the rumors say
about this relic? Burn 3 GUILE or 4 STEEL to
steal it and see for yourselves. What do you
learn about yourself during this perilous
process? Once you've secured the artifact, you
can sell it at any SHIPYARD or TRADING
POST for 4 GOLD. Or you can awaken the
Gauntlet, to discover its powers for yourself,
and take +6 STEEL.
9 ♦ : BATTLE. Flee from The Bungling Skittle
is a Brokenborn Enthral-class karvi, bearing
down with weapons hot. Is this a prearranged
duel, putting you in your place, an extreme
overreaction, or something else? Take 2
DAMAGE, and reset any active projects to six
days until completion.
10 ♦ : The Fragment of Kisföld shimmers on the
horizon. It is said that in the Fragment of
Kisföld it is customary to have one name in the
summer, and one in the winter. Before long,
trouble comes looking. What happens during
your sojourn in the Fragment of Kisföld?
SHIPYARD. In the workshops of the
Fragment of Kisföld you may resupply your
ammunition. Burn 2 GOLD to take +2 STEEL.
You may also burn 1 GOLD to advance any
project by 1 turn. When you eventually set off
from the Fragment of Kisföld, take +1 GUILE.
24
Or 8 ♦ : A city called the Lattice of Liroro
looms on the horizon. It is said that in the
Lattice of Liroro a new monarch is crowned
every morning, picked almost at random. Are
you looking for something here? What do you
learn? SHIPYARD. In the workshops of the
Lattice of Liroro you may burn 10 GOLD to
install a mirror windlass and take +4 TECH,
+2 GUILE, and/or burn 30 GOLD to install a
turntable trebuchet and take +8 TECH, +8
STEEL. You may also burn as much GOLD as
you like to do repairs. For every 2 GOLD spent,
reduce DAMAGE to The Semée Minnow by
1.
Or 9 ♦ : BATTLE. Fight The Bungling Skittle,
a Brokenborn Enthral-class karvi, bearing down
with weapons hot. If The Semée Minnow is
equipped with a powered exoskeleton and you
can think of a way to use it now, take +3 of any
resource before the battle begins. Burn 8 TECH
to win the battle decisively and take +4 STEEL
and +4 GUILE. Or burn 5 TECH and 2
STEEL to come out unscathed and take +3
GUILE.
Or 10 ♦ : Far below, luminous pink-peach
clouds. The skies feel serene and empty.
PROJECT. You have a little time to start
something new. If you wish, burn 5 SPIRIT to
improve some aspect of the airship. Decide
what to build and what resource it will
increase. Roll a die to see how many turns the
project will take to complete. Use the die to
keep track of progress. When it completes, take
+7 in your chosen resource, or repair up to 3
points of DAMAGE.
Jack ♦ : You have something on board that is
missing one half of itself. What is it? How did
you come by it? Where might the other half be?
Queen ♦ : DISCUSSION. A crew member
raises an issue. For example: What are the ship's
needs? Or, Where are we headed? Or, We are
being too profligate with one of our resources.
What do the rest of the crew think? You don't
need to resolve it or come to a decision. When
this part of the story is complete, you may take
+1 SPIRIT.
King ♦ : BATTLE. The Halfpace Eye Flaw is a
Brokenborn Enthral-class karvi, drawing
abreast, readying its broadside. How has this
happened? Is this a police action, a prearranged
duel, a homicidal temper tantrum, seemingly a
drunken assault, a blockade, or something else?
Flee the hostile airship. Take 2 DAMAGE, and
reset any active projects to six days until
completion.
25
Or Jack ♦ : You meet a fluffy little creature. Is it
called a Zugmunk, a Bumpmuggle, a Woabie, or
something else? Is it out on patrol, on a quest of
its own, guarding something, here to show you
the way? A minion of the Blessed Lanthorn, a
creation of Dr Jacob Askew, a minion of itself
until it can afford a better minion, or something
else? It acts terribly ferocious. Is it fronting,
aspirational, a little deluded, ferocious in its
own special way, or actually a deadly killer with
a thousand Hit Points?
Or Queen ♦ : Below you, a quilt of gardens,
meadows, and wetlands, latticed by bright rills
and solar energy hedgerows. You watch the
Mianyuan farmers and engineers tending their
crops and machines. PROJECT. You have a
little time to start something new. If you wish,
burn 7 GOLD to improve some aspect of the
airship. Decide what to build and what resource
it will increase. Roll a die to see how many
turns the project will take to complete. Use the
die to keep track of progress. When the project
completes take +6 in your chosen resource, or
repair up to 2 points of DAMAGE.
Or King ♦ : BATTLE. The Halfpace Eye Flaw
is a Brokenborn Enthral-class karvi, drawing
abreast, readying its broadside. How has this
happened? What happens next? Burn 4 STEEL
and 2 TECH to destroy or repel The Halfpace
Eye Flaw, and take +4 GOLD. Or, burn 5
STEEL and 3 TECH to capture The Jelly
Fungus and take +6 GOLD.
 Chapter Three
Ace ♣ : Drifting over the sea, you spot
something marvelous peeping among the waves.
What is it?
2 ♣ : A shimmering city appears on the horizon.
Upon arrival, you learn that this is Shadola. It
seems that in Shadola, your size changes
according to what part of town you are in, a
peculiar circumstance that most of the time goes
unnoticed, since things are simply built smaller
or larger to compensate. What do you soon
come across? A fete, some road blocks, a strange
trial? Someone called Elias Schwanhilde who
has a story that doesn't add up? A big object in
a small part of town, or a small object in a big
part of town? And/or something else?
SHIPYARD. If you need it, the people of
Shadola will help you repair your ship. Reduce
DAMAGE by 2. If you have at least 3 GOLD,
chip in 1 GOLD. If not that's totally OK.
3 ♣ : Think about your voyage so far. Could
events be more connected than they seem? Soon
you find something, someone, or somewhere
you’re looking for. Who or what is it? What
happens next?
27
Or Ace ♣ : The city of Garkoile hovers on the
horizon. Here in the city of Garkoile, there is no
concept of beauty. Is the city as you expected?
Why or why not? SHIPYARD. While you are
docked in Garkoile, you may burn 6 GOLD to
repair all damage to the airship, and/or burn 4
GOLD to complete all ongoing projects
instantly. Work in Garkoile pays well. Burn 2
GUILE or 2 SPIRIT to take +6 GOLD.
Or 2 ♣ : Bitter Gutten's Few raises its towers
on the horizon. You are a little nervous about
your approach and landing. You have heard
that in Bitter Gutten's Few the skies are filled
with clockwork. But the stories that are told
about this place aren't quite true. In what ways
are they misleading? SHIPYARD. If you need
it, the people of Bitter Gutten's Few will help
you repair your ship. Reduce DAMAGE by 2.
If you have at least 3 GOLD, chip in 1 GOLD.
If not that's totally OK.
Or 3 ♣ : BATTLE. A pack of flight-augmented
Iridran attackers. Who are they, and what are
they after? Burn 3 SPIRIT and 3 TECH to
blow them out of the sky and take +9 GOLD.
Or burn 3 STEEL and 3 GUILE to
outmanoeuvre them and take +3 SPIRIT and
+3 TECH.
4 ♣ : Far below you, jagged gray-green
mountains littered with glacial debris and
swathes of blazing white snow. PROJECT. You
have a little time to start something new. If you
wish, burn 7 SPIRIT to improve some aspect of
the airship. Decide what to build and what
resource it will increase. Roll a die to see how
many turns the project will take to complete.
Use the die to keep track of progress. When it
completes, take +9 in your chosen resource, or
repair up to 3 points of DAMAGE.
5 ♣ : The city of Jurzkern glows on the horizon.
Here you find the people have many
occupations you have never before encountered.
For instance, there is such a thing as a illianaros,
who is in some ways a sort of hostler or groom,
but in other respects is just someone who's
there if you need them. Then there are the
ievises, who appear to be a bit like caregivers,
but also do the duties of astrologers. Not to
mention the themyar, who is not quite a
governmental council member, and not quite a
student. And of course the taenran, grorlim,
and bolgror, whom you would say are three
different kinds of innkeeper, except everyone
meets that suggestion with puzzlement or peals
of laughter. You find yourself in a tavern (at
least, you think it’s a tavern) with a ryo and a
themyar. They've both come straight from
work and are still in work clothes. You point to
a tool and smile politely. 'What's that do?'
When this turn is over, take +1 GUILE.
28
Or 4 ♣ : An uncharted city appears on the
horizon. Upon arrival, you learn that this is
Twylight. After seeing several creatures you
don’t recognize, and on having your enquiries
about their species met with puzzlement, you
gradually gather that in Twylight, no two
animals are even remotely similar. Do you move
on from Twylight, or stay and explore? What
do you soon come across? A market, a parade,
an execution? Someone called Carfoon Rygh
who has a message for you from Idilo Ngozi?
And/or something else? SHIPYARD. In the
workshops of Twylight you may burn 5 GOLD
or 2 TECH to add a Stability Spike to your
skyship and take +4 STEEL. And/or you may
burn 8 GOLD to purchase a helico-pter
automaton and take +2 TECH. You may also
burn as much GOLD as you like to do repairs.
For every 2 GOLD spent, reduce DAMAGE
to The Semée Minnow by 1.
Or 5 ♣ : You hear a rumor about someone. Is it
about the Iridran? SONG? The Yellow
Sisterhood? Idilo Ngozi? Tyristan Oakbottom?
Carfoon Rygh? Mrs Needlenew? Mor Askew?
The Blessed Lanthorn? Or someone else? What
do they supposedly want? To start a war
between the Northerners and the Mianyuan?
To control access to a new vaccine? To rotate
the city of Cimmir 90 degrees? To open a portal
to a place called Earth? To build a prison
fortress in the Archipelago of the Upper Air?
To get hold of the Book of Wrathworking,
which is not what it seems? Or something else?
Note the rumor, and take +1 SPIRIT.
6 ♣ : You attempt to save the land from the
strange pestilence it is afflicted by. Do you
succeed? What can be saved or healed, and
what is lost forever?
7 ♣ : BATTLE. Flee a creature known as a
Skintern. What is it like? Take 2 DAMAGE or
lose one crew member. Skip the next card.
8 ♣ : BATTLE. Flee The Almond Anchovy, an
Iridran Gryphon-class galleass,whose crew are
swarming the gun decks, while its tentacle ram
unfurls and sprouts teeth. Is this a police action,
an everyday act of war, an extreme
overreaction, or something else? Take 2
DAMAGE, and reset any active projects to six
days until completion.
9 ♣ : BATTLE. Flee The Garnet Gannet, a
Brokenborn Nephele-class cutter, currently
casting its grapples over your gunwales and
preparing to board. Is this an ambush, an
incident in a revolutionary uprising, a territorial
skirmish, or something else? Take 2 DAMAGE
or lose a crew member. Reset any active
projects to six days until completion.
29
Or 6 ♣ : The Golden Hoopoe arrives just in the
nick of time to help you with some
predicament. What is it?
Or 7 ♣ : BATTLE. Fight a creature known as a
Skintern. If The Semée Minnow is equipped
with a calendrical jaws system or a fog
generator and you can think of a way to use it
now, take +3 of any resource before the battle
begins. Burn 9 STEEL or 9 TECH to win the
battle decisively and take +4 SPIRIT and +4
GUILE. If you win the battle, you also acquire
a quantity of common salt which you can
record as CARGO. If anybody asks, you paid 5
GOLD for it. Or burn 5 SPIRIT or 5 GUILE to
drive away the Skintern for now, and take +2
GUILE and +2 TECH.
Or 8 ♣ : BATTLE. The Almond Anchovy is a
Iridran Gryphon-class galleass, whose crew are
swarming the gun decks, while its tentacle ram
unfurls and sprouts teeth. Why have you
decided to attack it? Burn 12 STEEL and 1
TECH to capture The Almond Anchovy, and
take +8 GOLD and +2 SPIRIT. Or burn 6
STEEL and 1 TECH to destroy or repel The
Almond Anchovy, and take +7 GOLD.
Or 9 ♣ : BATTLE. Fight The Garnet Gannet.
What is their problem? Burn 8 GUILE to
outfox the hostile ship and take +4 STEEL and
+4 SPIRIT. Or burn 3 STEEL and 3 TECH to
destroy The Garnet Gannet, and take +4
GOLD.
10 ♣ : ARTIFACT. Buried in the sand you
find an Orb of Compassion. Update your
Logbook. Do you have a Runemaster in your
crew? If so, they know what must be done to
awaken the artifact. What must be done? Once
the artifact is awakened, roll two dice, and add
that amount of GOLD. Or you can sell it,
unawakened, at any city for 1 GOLD.
Jack ♣ : The Adamant Fly rises unexpectedly
from a caldera. They're here to offer Frøydis's
service as a liaison officer aboard your airship.
NEWCOMER. Does Frøydis the Mianyuan
adopt a role, e.g. Merchant, Runemaster,
Surgeon, Yeoman of the Sheet, or something
else? They add +2 GOLD and +1 SPIRIT.
Queen ♣ : DISCUSSION. One crew member
proposes an issue. For example: What are our
goals right now? Or, Are we really where the
Navigator says we are? Or, We’ve never
actually seen Tyristan Oakbottom and the
Blessed Lanthorn in the same place at the same
time, have we? Or, Our supplies are dwindling.
Shall we make a detour? What do the crew
think? You don't need to resolve it or come to a
decision. When you’re ready, take +1 STEEL.
30
Or 10 ♣ : You soar high above wine-dark pine
forest. PROJECT. Burn 2 TECH and 2
SPIRIT to start improving some aspect of the
airship. Decide what you want to build and
what resource it will increase. Roll a die to see
how long it will take. When it's complete, take
+8 in your chosen resource, or repair up to 4
DAMAGE.
Or Jack ♣ : Far below you, a patchwork of
meadows and wetlands. PROJECT. Burn 1
GOLD and 3 SPIRIT to start improving some
aspect of the airship. Decide what you want to
build, enhance, or repair. Roll a die to see how
long it will take. When it's complete, take +8 in
your chosen resource, or repair up to 4
DAMAGE.
Or Queen ♣ : From the prow of The Semée
Minnow, you watch a forest of firs and poplar
scrolling greenly below. PROJECT. Burn 3
GOLD and 1 SPIRIT to conduct repairs or
improvements to the airship. Decide what you
want to do, and what resource it will impact.
Roll a die to see how long it will take. When
it's complete, take +6 in your chosen resource,
or repair any amount of DAMAGE.
King ♣ : An unexpected twist! What is it? Was
a friend secretly a foe, or vice-versa? Were two
people actually the same person all along? Have
you been lied to? Did you make a reasonable
assumption that turned out to be utterly
wrong? Did somebody’s eyes deceive them?
Was an apparent coincidence staged? Was
illusion involved? Or something else? Does the
twist relate to Lord Dust, Mrs Needlenew, the
Blessed Lanthorn, Gundradis Chike, Dr Jacob
Askew, or someone else? Does the twist take
place in Cimmir, Gayaro, Zoga, or somewhere
else? Burn 5 SPIRIT and 15 GUILE to take it in
your stride. If you deal with the twist using a
helico-pter automaton or an Orb of
Compassion, reduce the challenge by 2. And/or
if you use the Book of Wrathworking, reduce
the challenge by 6. Or get caught off balance.
Take 1 DAMAGE and lose a crew member.
Either way, don’t tie up all the loose ends yet.
When you’re done with this turn, turn to the
final chapter. Reshuffle the whole deck, and
then draw your final cards.
31
Or King ♣ : You arrive in Cimmir. Want to
hand over the Book of Wrathworking to Dr
Jacob Askew? Take +2 SPIRIT, +2 GUILE,
+2 STEEL, +4 TECH. Either way, Jacob
Askew is soon hopping from foot to foot with
excitement, having just completed their curious
contraption. They grab hold of the activation
lever. What happens next? Do Iridran soldiers
burst in to commandeer the machine? Or has
Dr Askew been a little misleading about the
machine's true purpose? Or does the machine
work as planned, but with a huge side-effect Dr
Askew did not foresee? Or something else?
Burn 3 STEEL and 14 TECH to take the
situation in your stride, and take +3 SPIRIT.
Or, take 3 DAMAGE and get the hell out of
there. Don’t tie up all the loose ends yet, and
don't draw the next card. Instead, turn to the
final chapter. Reshuffle the whole deck, and
then draw your final cards.
 Chapter Four

This is it. Take a moment to think back over all you've seen and done. Then think about what your final
challenge will be. Is it a heist to steal a forbidden tome from the Library of Wrathworking? A gloomy
showdown with the Blessed Lanthorn in their elegant crystal forest? Rescuing Carfoon Rygh from
Cimmir and restoring their stolen ship The Halfpace Eye Flaw to them? Realising the truth about the
Book of Wrathworking and stopping Dr Jacob Askew before it's too late? A showdown at the S.O.N.G.
stronghold, hidden in the reality rift between sunbeams and moonbeams? Or something else? Draw three
cards, and interpret them to see if you can overcome your final challenge. If you are playing on the Easy
setting, you can draw just one or two. If you are playing on the Epic setting, draw four.

Spades mean burn TECH.

Clubs mean burn STEEL.
Diamonds mean burn GUILE.
Hearts mean burn SPIRIT.

For example: if you draw 2♣, 5♣, and 10♥, you need to burn 7 STEEL and 10 SPIRIT to overcome the
final challenge. Aces are high and court cards count as 10. For every point of DAMAGE you endure in
your final challenge, reduce the challenge level of a card by 1. As usual, for every character who sacrifices
themselves reduce the challenge level of a card by 2. Take as long as you like over this. If you want, you
can think of each card as its own separate significant sub-challenge.

So ... have the crew survived? Was the tale of The Semée Minnow a happy one? Or a tragic one? Or was
it bittersweet? Or does it all depend on your perspective? If you like, you can close the story with a
montage. What does The Semée Minnow look like now? What is the last we see of the people we met?
What is each one doing? And what is the last we see of each crew member? When you feel you’ve said all
you need to, end the story, and let the final curtain fall, like a great billowing sail.

32
 The Voyage of
The Bone Moth
Features
✦ GM-less, co-operative play
✦ 2-4 players
✦ Set in the Vale, the core Shrike universe
✦ A focus on storytelling and worldbuilding
✦ Open-ended storytelling with a loose theme of anti-carceral justice

33
 The Voyage of The Bone Moth
Setting Up
Materials. We’ll need a deck of playing cards, some dice to keep track of our PROJECTS, and paper and
pens or pencils to record our voyage. We may also want some colored tokens to track our resources.

Crew. There are four crew members. Choose a Captain, a First Mate, an Engineer, and a Navigator:

✦ The Geek: Tilly the Yarrowborn

✦ The Center of Attention: Desmonsuella the Yarrowborn
✦ The Shy One: Lydia the Northerner
✦ The Ingenue: Emilia the Janbulagger
✦ The Rebellious One: Pershy the Northerner
✦ The Sweetheart: Alex the Janbulagger
Make sure The Bone Moth has exactly four crew. If there are more players than crew members, the
remaining crew members become non-player characters (NPCs).

Resources. We also mark 6 GOLD and 1 STEEL. If we are playing on the Easy setting, we mark 2 STEEL
instead. If we are playing on the hard setting, mark 2 DAMAGE.

Map. Perhaps we should mark two or three landscape features on our map, for instance a shoreline, a
great river, a jagged peak, the edge of a vast forest. Let’s leave plenty of blank space.

Journalling. As well as our main map, we’ll probably want more materials for notes and sketches.

Put the cards in order. We divide the deck of cards into three piles: spades by themselves, hearts and
diamonds together, clubs by themselves. Next we shuffle each of the three piles individually. Finally we
stack them as one pile with clubs at the bottom, hearts and diamonds in the middle, and spades at the top.

How to Play

✦ Take turns. On your turn, draw the top card, and look it up in the oracle. Choose one of the two
prompts, interpret it, and tell a story. Adjust resources when instructed.

✦ We can reduce the difficulty of a challenge by 2 for each character you lose during the challenge. For
example, if the card tells us to burn 6 STEEL, and we lose two characters, we only need to burn 2.

✦ If we get a chance to start a PROJECT, that means we gain resources after a delay. Roll a die to see
how many turns it takes. Use dice or draw progress clocks to track when your projects are ready.

✦ If our skyship ever has 6 DAMAGE or more, cr-a-a-a-a-a-ck, our voyage is over.

34
 Chapter One
Ace ♠ : At around midnight you entered
Southerner airspace. What tyrant rules
here? Is it a gaunt youth with an infernal
patron, a giggling godking, a fascist
demagogue, a smooth-talking technocrat
with an expensive smile and a manifesto
brimming with buzzwords, an otherworldly
usurping shapeshifter, or someone else?
Sketch and name them, then take +1
GUILE or +1 SPIRIT.
2 ♠ : How does your airship move? Is it
equipped with a full set of sails, bristling
with black-belching chimneystacks, buoyed
by balloons and bladders, maintained aloft
by mystical music, or is it propelled by
some other principle? When you have
updated your ship plan, take +1 TECH or
+1 STEEL.
3 ♠ : There is a ritual or quirk aboard the
skyship, passed on by a crew member who
has since left. What is it? When this turn is
done, take +1 TECH or +1 SPIRIT.
4 ♠ : BATTLE. Burn 1 STEEL or 1 GUILE
to defend yourself. The Leech Swarm has
the upper hand, till clever tactics turn the
tide. How? Take +1 TECH. Or flee the
Leech Swarm. Skip the next card.
35
Or Ace ♠ : What can you see of the land
below? What kind of climate is it, and
what features can you make out? Is there
anything out there you want to explore or
to avoid? Do you know the name of this
region? Update your records if you wish,
then take +1 GUILE or +1 TECH.
Or 2 ♠ : For a vessel of its class, The Bone
Moth has some unusual features. What is
its most distinctive feature? An alchemist's
workshop, some smuggler compartments, a
cannery, a dropsonde launcher, a library, a
repurposed djinn brig, a crane of enormous
lifting capacity, an orangerie, a rainbow
reconnaissance golem, or something else?
When you have augmented your ship plan,
take +1 TECH or +1 SPIRIT.
Or 3 ♠ : You were imprisoned once. Tell a
little of that story. When this turn is done,
take +1 SPIRIT or +1 STEEL.
Or 4 ♠ : BATTLE. The Encouraged
Entrepreneur is a Mianyuan No-class
patrol pinnace, currently casting its
grapples over your gunwales and preparing
to board. Is this a prearranged duel, a
homicidal temper tantrum, a blockade, or
something else? Burn 3 TECH and 10
STEEL to destroy, capture, repel, or
befriend The Encouraged Entrepreneur,
and take +8 GOLD. Or, flee the hostile
skyship. Take 2 DAMAGE, and reset any
active projects to six days until completion.
5 ♠ : DISCUSSION. Propose an issue. For
example: How are we getting on as a
group? Or, What are our goals right now?
Or, Where are we headed? Go round in a
circle and let each player briefly state their
feelings. Stick to 1-2 sentences each. End
with the player who drew the card. You
don’t need to resolve the issue or come to
any decision. When everyone’s been heard,
take +1 SPIRIT.
6 ♠ : A strange pestilence is afflicting the
land. Is it la Contagion Perdue, the
Dreambone Blight, the Forgetting, the
Every-Eyes Kaleidoscope, the Golden
Plague, or something else? How does it
manifest? After you have told this part of
the story, take +1 SPIRIT or +1 GUILE.
7 ♠ : Tomorrow you are entering a new
area. There are disturbing legends about it.
What do they say? NEWCOMER. Before
long, Layaali also arrives aboard The Bone
Moth. How? Who is she? Does she adopt a
role, e.g. Boatswain, Cleric, Gunner,
Healer, Pilot, Steward, or maybe something
else? Add Layaali to the ship records.
Whenever a new crew member joins, you
may also reassign any roles you like. Layaali
adds +1 STEEL.
8 ♠ : How do you make decisions aboard
The Bone Moth? Is the Captain the top of
a chain of command, first among equals, or
just another job like the rest? Do you use
majority votes, sortition, oracles, consensus
decision-making, or some other system? If
you wish, today The Bone Moth also has a
malfunction that must be repaired. Decide
what it is, burn 1 TECH and take +2
STEEL.
36
Or 5 ♠ : What kind of weapons does The
Bone Moth carry? E.g. a heavy ballista, a
hovering mine system, a tentacle ram, brass
lantaka and lela swivel-guns mounted in
the railings and rigging, a red dragon
countermeasures suite, some other
weapons, or perhaps no weapons at all?
Update the ship plan.
Or 6 ♠ : You are followed for some miles
by a creature. Do you know what it is? Is it
dangerous? After you have told this part of
the story, take +1 STEEL or +1 TECH.
Or 7 ♠ : Most things on The Bone Moth
need repair, replacement, or upgrading.
What are your top priorities? If you wish,
burn 2 GOLD to start a PROJECT.
Decide what to build and what resource it
will increase, then roll a die to find out
how long it will take. Draw the project,
and place the die on it to track progress.
Each turn the die counts down one, and
when it reaches zero, take +4 in the chosen
resource.
Or 8 ♠ : The Engineer does a Tarot reading
for the First Mate. What do the cards say?
If you wish, this evening The Bone Moth
also encounters some problem or
opportunity that requires a little hedge
magic. Decide what it is, burn 1 SPIRIT
and take +2 GUILE or +4 GOLD.
9 ♠ : Your airship is in sore need of a Cook.
Why? After you have told this part of the
story, take +1 STEEL.
10 ♠ : You are enjoying a solitary stroll
through the tree-shaded lanes of Cimmir,
when you feel a tap on your shoulder. Who
sent these thugs? Was it Lady Chukwuma,
Nanny Whiteworm, Sithembile Cobb,
Archon Pavelková, or someone else? What
kind of message do they want to send?
That you've got one week to find the rest
of the money or else? That you should stay
out of Zeira if you know what's good for
you? That you better reveal everything
you know about the Astrolabe of
Animation, and leave nothing out? Or
something else? Burn 2 GOLD, or 1
resource of your choosing, or lose a crew
member. Once the turn is over, take +1
GUILE or +1 SPIRIT.
37
Or 9 ♠ : You arrive at Kindness for your
rendezvous. Is it with the fence Varys Sin?
The smuggler Diaspor Chike? The corrupt
official Nanny Whiteworm? Or someone
else? What information are you seeking?
How to weave the laces that will awaken
the Boots of Empathy? Where Harley
Scarlet’s real loyalties lie? What tool can
disarm Gray Obvious's Samovar of the Day
and the Dream? The layout of Lady
Chukwuma's villa in Cimmir? The access
code for Archon Pavelková’s skyship? The
source of the mysterious contagion? Or
something else? When this turn is over,
take +1 SPIRIT.
Or 10 ♠ : The sun glows through the
leaves. You are heaping a wicker basket
with greengages, so heavy and ripe it is
only by habit they still hang to the branch.
Returning to The Bone Moth, you find
yourself gazing down a dozen Mianyuan
musket barrels, as the soldiers of The
Querulous Paranoia cheerfully cart away
all your CARGO, which they call
‘contraband.’ They even take the
greengages. You are however able to
conceal half of your GOLD. If you have a
set of smuggler compartments, conceal all
your GOLD or half your GOLD plus all
your CARGO. As The Querulous
Paranoia prepares to lift off, their Captain
mentions something about Archon
Pavelková sending their regards. Have you
heard this name before? Either way, you'll
remember it for next time ...
Jack ♠ : BATTLE. You are too late. The
Crystal Finger is falling from the sky, its
topsail trailing in flames. The
Mnemodream-class Oct gunboat circles
back round to pick off survivors. Burn 2
STEEL to drive off the Oct gunboat. In the
wreckage, you discover one survivor. Upon
regaining consciousness, Bessy begs you to
take her to a city in the north called Bura.
NEWCOMER. Add Bessy to your ship
plan as Cook, Healer, Merchant,
Ropemaker, or as something else. Bessy
adds +1 STEEL, +1 SPIRIT, and +2
GOLD.
Queen ♠ : BATTLE. Flee and hide from
The Grieving Skittle is a Splinterwaif
Gaslight-class scout. How did this ignominy
occur? Don’t adjust any resources, and skip
the next card.
King ♠ : The City of Palliwero glows on
the horizon. Here in the City of Palliwero,
adventuring is illegal and must be done in
secret. No dungeon-crawling, no
investigating mysterious carnivals, no
battles of wits with ancient wyrms, and
absolutely no getting ambushed by goblins.
Why have you come to the City of
Polliwero? What happens next?
TRADING POST. You may purchase
CARGO here to sell later on. Make a note
of how much GOLD you have invested.
The best CARGO in Palliwero is mostly
Thion Hudor, Red Dragonscale, Sweet
Vitriol, Sugar of Lead, Plumbago, and
Ambergris.
38
Or Jack ♠ : There's a Bearborn
Minokawa-class knarr nearby, and it's up
to something. Is it seizing Brokenborn
ships, flytipping, enforcing a blockade,
dumping magic pollutants, spying on The
Crystal Finger, trying to stash a mysterious
bundle in the forest, or something else?
Also if you wish, burn 1 GUILE to spy on
their set-up and take +2 TECH.
Or Queen ♠ : BATTLE. The Grieving
Skittle is a Splinterwaif Gaslight-class
scout. Who started this battle? Burn 1
GUILE to evade The Grieving Skittle, and
take +1 SPIRIT. Or burn 2 GUILE and 4
STEEL to win the battle and take +8
GOLD.
Or King ♠ : The town of Mellalaluria
spreads on the horizon. It’s said that in
place of an ordinary system of law and
justice, they have an intricate system of
competitive poem-writing. Are the stories
true, or a little misleading? What happens
during your stay in Mellaluria?
SHIPYARD. While you are docked in
Mellalaluria, you may burn as much
GOLD as you like to fix up the ship. For
every GOLD spent, reduce DAMAGE to
The Bone Moth by 1. WORKSHOPS.
Here at Mellalaluria, you may also hire an
expert poet-enchanter to awaken any magic
artifact, or install any ship system, for a
bargain price of 2 GOLD.
 Chapter Two
Ace ♥ : Over-We-Want-To raises its
towers on the horizon. Here in
Over-We-Want-To, they have only
recently abolished prisons, courts, and the
city guard. But a new kind of cop is
emerging, from an unexpected origin. What
is it? The guild of merchant tailors, the
majordomos of the aristocracy, the
worshipful company of barber-surgeons, or
someone else? What happens during your
stay in Over-We-Want-To? SHIPYARD.
While you are docked in
Over-We-Want-To, you may burn 6
GOLD to repair all damage to the airship,
and/or burn 4 GOLD to complete all
ongoing projects instantly.
2 ♥ : The Bone Moth has a pet. What kind
of animal is it, and what is its name? When
the turn is over take either +1 SPIRIT or
+1 GUILE.
Or there something that lives on board,
whether you like it or not. What is it?
When the turn is over take either +1
SPIRIT or +1 GUILE.
Or while disembarked, you find a small ball
of dark fluff, apparently orphaned. It croaks
faintly. You’re not sure what it is, but you
bring it on board. How do you try to nurse
it to health? When the turn is over take
either +1 SPIRIT or +1 GUILE.
39
Or Ace ♥ : The town of Corpol spreads on
the horizon. The Navigator knows this
part of the world. Apparently, in Corpol,
strange settlers with advanced death
technology have recently moored their
ships. What do you find when you arrive
in Corpol? A bustling market, the annual
day of races, an armed insurrection, a grand
ball, the third day of rioting, a scene of
laughter and confusion, a contest of
architect-poets, a baffling ceremony, an old
friend in a new role, or something else?
When you eventually set off again, take +1
STEEL. SHIPYARD. Work in Corpol is
easy to come by. If you wish, burn 2
GUILE or 2 SPIRIT to take +6 GOLD.
Or 2 ♥ : Upon arrival, you learn that this is
the legendary city of Reptar Faeran,
known for its eggshell blue skies, its fruitful
orchard topiaries, its crumbling mosaics
that depict scenes from its visitors’
childhoods. What’s the first thing you
find? A heated argument, a masked ball, a
military parade, a market that happens
once a decade, an opening ceremony for the
completed toe of a colossus-in-progress
called The Shriek, a rowdy pair of revellers
asking you to settle a bet for them, a
foolhardy duel, or something else?
SHIPYARD. In the workshops of Reptar
Faeran you may burn as much GOLD as
you like to do repairs. For every 2 GOLD
spent, reduce DAMAGE to The Bone
Moth by 1, or advance a project die by 1.
3 ♥ : An arcology appears on the horizon.
Upon arrival, you learn that this is the
great city of Numinous Gladness. It seems
that in the great city of Numinous
Gladness, they did away with their prisons
and police a decade ago. However, a new
form of police has now established itself.
What was the source? The farmers, the
scholars, the accountants, the fire fighters,
the psychologists, the nurses, the librarians,
the architects, the bankers, the facilitators,
the theatre-makers, or someone or
something else? What happens during your
visit to Numinous Gladness? SHIPYARD.
For every 2 GOLD spent, reduce
DAMAGE to The Bone Moth by 1, or
advance a project die by 1.
4 ♥ : ARTIFACT. A ruined crofter’s
cottage, half-sunk in the peat bog and fully
smothered in purple moss. Inside, you
discover a useful item. Is it breathtakingly
advanced navigational equipment, a copper
cup that can never be knocked over and
spilled, a powerful searchlight perfect for
your keel, a sentient and somewhat ornery
ores and metals manipulator, or something
else? Make some notes and/or sketch it on
your ship plan. At any time you may
awaken it by burning 4 TECH. Once it is
awakened, take +3 STEEL and +3 GUILE.
Alternatively, you may sell it at any
SHIPYARD or TRADING POST for 2
GOLD.
5 ♥ : BATTLE. A swarm of giant flying
spiders. Fly straight through the center of
the swarm: take 1 DAMAGE and skip the
next card.
40
Or 3 ♥ : ARTIFACT. While exploring an
abandoned solarium deep in the forest, you
discover a Garter Belt of Robust Policy.
This relic may be used once on your
voyage, and only by a Boatswain, Cleric,
Cook, Steward, or Runemaster. It allows
you to peek at the next card before making
any decisions about the active card.
Or 4 ♥ : The Grammar of Cimiriopol looms
on the horizon. Here in the Grammar of
Cimiriopol, a new monarch is crowned
every morning, and is normally beheaded
before lunch. In fact the throne itself is
actually a kind of hybrid throne slash
guillotine. Do you stop over in Cimiriopol?
What is it like? What happens? Is one of
your crew crowned? TRADING POST.
While you are docked in the Grammar of
Cimiriopol, you may sell any CARGO you
are carrying. Sell for twice whatever you
paid. If your crew has a Bursar, Cook,
Interpreter, Steward, or Merchant aboard,
sell for triple whatever you paid.
Or 5 ♥ : BATTLE. A swarm of giant
flying spiders. Why, why, why? Burn 5
STEEL to defeat them in battle, 5 GUILE
to outwit them, or 5 SPIRIT to befriend
them. However you triumph, take +2
SPIRIT and +2 TECH.
6 ♥ : BATTLE. Some kind of vast,
amorphous, tentacled fiend. Good God,
what is that thing? You try to flee but, you
are pursued. In the ensuing entanglement,
either you take 3 DAMAGE, or a crew
member is lost overboard. Any ongoing
projects are also destroyed completely.
Eventually it leaves you alone … why?
7 ♥ : GEAR. Buried in the sand is a useful
piece of equipment. You bring it on board.
Is it a displacement illusion system, a
tentacle helmet, a hydraulic automaton,
lightning storage coils, a set of decoy buoys,
or something else? Sketch it on your ship
plan. At any time you may repair and
install it by burning 4 TECH. Once it is
installed, take +3 STEEL and +3 GUILE.
Alternatively, you may sell it at any
SHIPYARD or TRADING POST for 2
GOLD.
8 ♥ : The city of Fogons Gate spreads on
the horizon, where they are still trying to
heal after the Harrowing. This is also
where the First Mate's estranged son lives.
Perhaps you'll pay a visit? SHIPYARD.
While you are docked in Fogons Gate, you
may burn 6 GOLD to repair all
DAMAGE to the airship, and/or burn 4
GOLD to complete all ongoing projects
instantly. Casual labour in Fogons Gate
pays well. Burn 2 GUILE or 2 SPIRIT to
take +6 GOLD.
41
Or 6 ♥ : BATTLE. Some kind of vast,
amorphous, tentacled fiend. Good God,
what is that thing? Burn 9 TECH to
triumph somehow, and take +4 STEEL
and +4 SPIRIT. If you have a tentacle
ram, a searchlight, or a music-powered ship
engine, reduce the challenge by 3.
Or 7 ♥ : The city of Brukken Mar
shimmers on the horizon. In Brukken Mar,
emotions are manufactured in the great
city foundries, mostly for export, and rare
and banned emotions crafted by artisans
hidden in the hills. What do you find when
you arrive? A robbery in progress, a picket
line, everyone searching for a lost child,
everyone trying to stop a duel from taking
place, someone going into labor, all of it, or
something else? SHIPYARD. If you need
it, the people of Brukken Mar will help
you repair your ship. Reduce DAMAGE
by 2. If you have at least 3 GOLD, chip in 1
GOLD. If not that's totally OK.
Or 8 ♥ : ARTIFACT. Buried in the sand
you find a pair of Boots of Empathy.
Update your ship plan. Is there a
Boatswain, Cobbler, Cook, Counsellor,
Empath, Merchant, Ropemaker, Spy, or
Tourist, or Undercover Cop in your crew?
If so, they know what must be done to
awaken the artifact. What must be done?
Once the artifact is awakened, take +3
GUILE and +2 SPIRIT.
9 ♥ : BATTLE. The Bone Bird of Paradise
is a Bearborn Scathe-class cutter. Why have
you decided to attack it? Why don’t things
go as planned? Take 1 DAMAGE, and lose
a crew member.
10 ♥ : What do you see below you from the
deck of your ship? Seas, lakes, forests, cities,
fields, rivers, dunes, fens, cliffs, craters,
roads, caravans, camps, creatures, wind
farms, mountains, hills, clouds, dirigibles, all
of that, something else? NEWCOMER.
Later that day, Gwydion arrives aboard
The Bone Moth. How? Do they adopt a
role, e.g. Gunner, Interpreter, Pilot,
Merchant, or something else? They bring
+2 TECH and +1 GUILE. Add them to
your ship records.
Jack ♥ : NEWCOMER. Oddbjørg the
forest troll arrives aboard The Bone Moth.
How do you meet them? Do they adopt a
role, e.g. Cleric, Cook, Gunner,
Runemaster, or something else? They bring
+2 GUILE and +1 TECH. Add them to
your ship records. Whenever a new crew
member joins, you may also reassign any
roles you like.
42
Or 9 ♥ : BATTLE. The Bone Bird of
Paradise is a Bearborn Scathe-class cutter,
drawing abreast, readying its broadside. Is
this an everyday act of war, licensed
privateering under a letter of marque, a
drunken boat brawl, or something else?
Burn 1 GUILE and 4 STEEL to slip away,
and take +2 SPIRIT. Or burn 3 TECH
and 6 STEEL to destroy, capture, or repel
The Bone Bird of Paradise, and take +10
GOLD.
Or 10 ♥ : Most of the crew are at dice,
while one of you climbs up to help a
rosewood-hued cloud toad tangled in the
rigging. The Bone Moth glides serenely
over white-capped peaks. You have a little
time to start a new PROJECT. If you
wish, burn 4 SPIRIT to improve some
aspect of the airship. Decide what to build
and what resource it will increase. Roll a
die to see how many turns the project will
take to complete. Use the die to keep track
of progress. When it completes, take +6 in
your chosen resource, or repair up to 3
points of DAMAGE.
Or Jack ♥ : A large spiral lake glisters far
below, set in a vast plain of sea-green moss.
A flock of gold and carob colored pigeons
soar off your starboard side. You have a
little time to start a PROJECT. Burn 1
TECH and 2 SPIRIT to start improving
some aspect of the airship. Decide what
you want to build, enhance, or repair. Roll
a die to see how many turns it will take.
Each turn, adjust the die down by one.
When the project die reaches zero, work is
complete and you may take +8 in your
chosen resource, or repair up to 4
DAMAGE.
Queen ♥ : Someone goes missing from the
crew! Who? What clues are there to how
they may have vanished? Burn 1 SPIRIT to
locate them and rescue them from their
predicament. Otherwise they're gone for
good. At the end of this turn, take +2
SPIRIT.
King ♥ : Two of the crew get into a fight.
What’s the tea? After you have told this
part of the story, take +1 STEEL.
Diamonds
Ace ♦ : You've been infiltrated! A stealth
picket from The Querulous Paranoia has
slipped alongside you, and a Mianyuan
kill-team is prowling the upper deck. Who
raises the alarm? Drive the pigeon-hearted
assassins off and take +1 GUILE or +1
STEEL.
43
Or Queen ♥ : Dark oldgrowth forests
spread to every horizon. PROJECT. You
have a little time to start something new. If
you wish, burn 9 GOLD to improve some
aspect of the airship. Decide what to build
and what resource it will increase. Roll a
die to see how many turns it will take. Use
the die to keep track of progress. When the
project completes take +8 in your chosen
resource, or repair up to 2 points of
DAMAGE.
Or King ♥ : Tiny caravans thread across
the prairie below. Little prairie ghosts, rare
at this altitude, bob along your starboard
side for a time. PROJECT. Burn 2 TECH
and 1 GUILE to conduct repairs or
enhancements to the airship. Decide what
you want to do, and what resource it will
impact. Roll a die to see how many turns it
will take. Each turn, adjust the project die
down by one. When the project die reaches
zero, work is complete and you may take
+5 in your chosen resource, or repair up to
3 points of DAMAGE.
Or Ace ♦ : You are racing back to a
previously visited location. Which one and
why? When this turn is over, take +1
TECH or +1 SPIRIT.
2 ♦ : BATTLE. The Drunk Spark is a
Bearborn Hippogriff-class cutter, drawing
abreast, readying its broadside. Is this a
case of mistaken identity, the enforcement
of a blockade, an anti-smuggling operation,
or something else? Flee the hostile airship.
Take 2 DAMAGE, and reset any active
projects to six days until completion.
3 ♦ : What are the Boots of Empathy? How
have you discovered this? Who on board
thinks empathy isn’t everything? Why?
4 ♦ : The city of Zeira gradually coalesces
on the horizon. It is said that in Zeira, pale
peacocks as tall as a person strut the
piazzas, lit at night by multicolored
lanterns, and by day by water jetting sunlit
white in rills of lapis lazuli and amethyst.
Zeira is known for its fencing instructors,
who spar with unusually small foils, and its
parasol makers, who fashion unusually
large domes; it is famed for the perpetual
flowing and unfolding life of its fountains
and its rills and of its pale tall peacocks. Yet
you arrive to find the city one big bonfire.
An armada of Oct ships moves sluggishly
over the horizon, heavy with loot. There’s
nothing left. Drooping over the gunwales
of a pair of laggard gun-brigs, you observe
the broken necks of peacocks. They were
truly as tall as the stories all said. Take +2
STEEL, and continue your voyage.
44
Or 2 ♦ : BATTLE. The Drunk Spark is a
Bearborn Hippogriff-class cutter, currently
casting its grapples over your gunwales and
preparing to board. Is this an act of piracy,
police brutality, a test of a new armament,
or something else? Burn 1 TECH and 1
SPIRIT to dislodge the grapples and speed
away unharmed. Or burn 2 TECH and 4
STEEL to destroy, capture, or repel The
Drunk Spark, and take +2 GUILE and +8
GOLD.
Or 3 ♦ : What kind of landscape is speeding
by below? The First Mate spots a good
omen. What is it?
Or 4 ♦ : Smoke and lights appear on the
horizon. Upon arrival, you learn that this is
the city of Dying Iguruyi. It seems that in
Dying Iguruyi, the Talking Beasts have
unearthed a battalion of ancient mechs
built by a long vanished civilization, and
mean to make war on the Oct Capitol.
What happens during your stay? Which
Talking Beasts do you meet? How are their
preparations for war proceeding?
SHIPYARD. In the workshops of Dying
Iguruyi you may resupply your
ammunition. Burn 2 GOLD to take +2
STEEL. When you eventually set off
again, take +1 SPIRIT.
5 ♦ : Some years ago you (or another crew
member) swore a solemn oath. What is the
oath? E.g. to be revenged on the aristocrat
who wronged you, to gain a noble title, to
resurrect the loved one you lost, to release
a contagion across the land, or something
else? NEWCOMER. Moukib is willing to
join your crew. Do they adopt a role, e.g.
Cook, Cleric, Merchant, Pilot, Ropemaker,
or something else? They bring +1 STEEL
and +1 SPIRIT.
6 ♦ : You discover the source of the strange
pestilence that has spread throughout the
land. What is the source? What must be
done to stop it?
7 ♦ : BATTLE. You encounter a monster.
Is it one you met earlier? A Lightning
Spider? A Winged Kraken? Something
else? Take 1 DAMAGE and skip the next
card.
45
Or 5 ♦ : ARTIFACT. While exploring an
abandoned watch tower high in the
mountains, you discover a Corset of
Shadow. This relic may be used once on
your voyage, and only by a Boatswain,
Cleric, Cook, Healer, or Navigator. It
allows you to burn SPIRIT as GUILE, or
vice-versa. You can decide exactly how it
works when you use it.
Or 6 ♦ : You are racing back to a location
you have been to before. Is it Glumflower,
Glowglum, Reptar Faeran, Numinous
Gladness, Over-We-Want-To, Zeira,
Oddbjørg’s cottage, the Shrinking Forest,
the crash site of The Stainedglass
Samaritan, or somewhere else? Why is
time of the essence?
Or 7 ♦ : BATTLE. You encounter a
monster. Is it one you met earlier?
Something else? If you have a Runemaster,
communicate with the creature, and end
the encounter peaceably. Or burn 5
SPIRIT to take this in your stride and take
+3 STEEL and +3 TECH. If you have an
arcanaloth countermeasures suite or a red
dragon countermeasures suite that you can
somehow adapt, reduce the challenge by 2.
8 ♦ : You are passing through Mora Bjerg,
a land populated by many minor deities and
spirits. Prayers have recently been
platformized, and if you are not happy with
the service supplied by the supernature you
are matched with, you are welcome to
leave a one-star review. The clouds are
looking very, very angry overhead. Who
prays? And who answers? Burn 1 SPIRIT
or take 2 DAMAGE. ARTIFACT. After
you ride out the storm, you land and find a
Top Hat of Unmercenary Marvels. Update
your ship plan. Do you have a Cleric,
Cook, or Healer in your crew? If so, they
know what must be done to awaken the
artifact. What must be done? Once the
artifact is awakened, take +5 TECH.
9 ♦ : BATTLE. Flee the Flapping Warlock
and his minions. In the ensuing exchange of
sorcerous fizz, one of your crew is lost
overboard. Remove them from the ship.
Also take 1 DAMAGE to the ship. Any
ongoing projects are also destroyed
completely.
10 ♦ : A town appears on the horizon.
Upon arrival, you learn that this is the
town of Thistle. It seems that in the town
of Thistle, they have a form of democracy
that baffles outsiders and divides
philosophers (except those who live in
Thistle). Soon after you arrive, one of the
townsfolk asks for your help. What do you
do? SHIPYARD. In the workshops of
Thistle you may burn 5 GOLD or 2 TECH
to install an Astrolabe of Animation, a 360
degree rigging system, or an arcanaloth
countermeasures suite to your ship plan,
and take +4 in any resource. You may also
burn as much GOLD as you like to do
repairs. For every 2 GOLD spent, reduce
DAMAGE to The Bone Moth by 1.
46
Or 8 ♦ : An arcology appears on the
horizon. Upon arrival, you learn that this is
the great city of Illuria. It seems that in the
great city of Illuria, their concept of ‘shame’
is either nonexistent, or completely
different from yours. Are you searching for
someone in Illuria? Who? Do you find
them, or perhaps a clue to their
whereabouts? SHIPYARD. In the
workshops of Illuria you may burn 10
GOLD to install a driftsonde launcher and
take +4 TECH, +2 GUILE, and/or burn
25 GOLD to install a razor disk launcher
and take +8 TECH, +8 STEEL. You may
also burn as much GOLD as you like to do
repairs. For every 2 GOLD spent, reduce
DAMAGE to The Bone Moth by 1.
Or 9 ♦ : BATTLE. Fight the Flapping
Warlock and his minions. Burn 2 SPIRIT
to slip away through the storm clouds and
take +1 STEEL and +1 TECH. Or burn 8
GUILE to win the battle and take +4
STEEL and +4 TECH.
Or 10 ♦ : Below you spreads agricultural
land. Is it a quiltwork of enclosed fields and
meadows? Solar golems dragging lattice
tractors through mushroom paddies? A
half-terraformed once-wilderness? An
ancient or innovative commons
infrastructure? Something else?
PROJECT. Burn 2 GOLD and 2 SPIRIT
to start improving some aspect of the
airship. Decide what you want to build and
what resource you want to increase. The
project need not be physical. It might be
about the relationships of the crew. It
might be about your imagination,
perception, and insight. Roll a die to see
how long the project takes. After that
many turns, take +8 in your chosen
resource.
Jack ♦ : The Iron Orison is bearing down
on you, its crew swarming across the gun
decks. But then a flag of truce goes up, and
an offer of parley. How does this one play
out? When this turn is over, if you wish,
transfer 1 point of resource to another.
Queen ♦ : DISCUSSION. Someone raise
an issue. For example, Shall we try to land
to make repairs? Or, Those people need
our help. We can't just keep looking out for
ourselves. Or, I think I'm ready to talk a bit
more about my loss. Go around in a circle,
each weighing in briefly in 1-2 sentences.
You don't need to resolve the issue. When
this part of the story is complete, you may
take +1 SPIRIT.
King ♦ : BATTLE. The Horrible Goose is
a Rotterling Goose-class needleship,
drawing abreast, readying its broadside. Is
this a prearranged duel, licensed
privateering under a letter of marque, an
everyday act of war, a homicidal temper
tantrum, trial by combat, or something
else? Flee the hostile airship. Take 2
DAMAGE, and reset any projects to six
days.
47
Or Jack ♦ : A moonlit joust is taking place
above the clouds. What do the knights
ride? Proud snorting rounceys and
coursers, shod with lifting crystal, pawing
the cumulonimbus? Giant crows and
finches? Ornithopters? Horse-shaped
lightning? Or something else? Burn 1
STEEL to participate and not do too badly
(take +1 SPIRIT and 1 GOLD), or burn 6
STEEL to win (take +2 of any resource
and 8 GOLD).
Or Queen ♦ : You gaze over starboard
gunwales, down over a flock of
silver-and-ulfire feathered gulls gliding high
above a vast plain of milk-white moss,
dragging their pinprick shadows far below
them. You have time for a PROJECT.
Burn 3 GOLD and 1 SPIRIT to conduct
build, repair, transform, or repurpose
something. It may be part of the airship,
down on the ground, dispersed through
time and space, or in your heads and
hearts. Also choose a resource to gain. Roll
a die to see how long it will take. When it's
done, take +5 in your chosen resource.
Or King ♦ : BATTLE. The Horrible
Goose is a Rotterling Goose-class
needleship, drawing abreast, readying its
broadside. Is this a case of mistaken
identity, an extreme overreaction, standard
patrol procedure, or something else? Burn 1
TECH and 5 SPIRIT to ward off The
Horrible Goose, and take +3 GUILE and
+3 STEEL. Or burn 2 TECH and 7
STEEL to destroy or capture The Horrible
Goose and take +12 GOLD.
 Chapter Three
Ace ♣ : Drifting over the sea, you spot
something marvelous peeping among the
waves. What is it?
48
Or Ace ♣ : The great city of Kisföld looms
on the horizon. There is something that the
people of Kisföld are unfamiliar with. If
they have such a thing at all, their concept
of it is quite different from yours, with
effects that can be traced throughout the
city. What is it that they don’t have, or see
very differently, here in Kisföld? Is it
addiction, alchemy, art, banking, beauty,
beer, belonging, bodies, books, borders,
carrels, carols, catapults, crenels,
citizenship, childhood, clothing, coal,
collaboration, copying, comparisons,
compassion, compersion, competition,
conversation, corsets, crime, dancing,
death, desire, difference engines, dirt,
delight, disgust, dreams, elections,
embarrassment, experts, exercise, farms,
fire, flow, gambling, gardens, gender, gifts,
gloves, goggles, greengrocers, hair,
happiness, health, hierarchy, history,
hobbies, holidays, honor, houses,
infrastructure, ink, kisses, ladders,
language, laundry, lies, lists, ordinality,
love, madness, magic, marriage, math, meal
times, mediation, memory, merit, mirrors,
money, music, nature, neighborhoods,
peeping, pens, pets, pictures, plague,
polyamory, pregnancy, printing presses,
prisons, property, punishment, punch
cards, puppets, queues, quilts, remorse,
restorative justice, rubbish, schools, secrets,
sex, shopping, sin, snacks, space, spyglasses,
stakes, time, theatre, toilets, town criers,
toys, trust, utopia, umbrellas, unhappiness,
virginity, waves, war, work, the marvelous,
the military, the police, or something else?
How do you spend your time here? Will
you come back? Will you stay?
2 ♣ : The ramshackle fishing village of
Redcop pops onto the horizon. You have
heard that in Redcop everything is
gradually being consumed by Nothing.
Everything must be counted or named
every day, it or begins to fade. Are you
looking for something here in Redcop? Do
you find it, or perhaps only half of what it
once was? SHIPYARD. In the workshops
of Redcop you may burn 10 GOLD or 4
TECH to add lunar panels, a tentacle ram,
a prehensile tool tether system, or a chaff
catapult to your ship plan and take +4 in
any resource. You may also burn as much
GOLD as you like to do repairs. For every
2 GOLD spent, reduce DAMAGE to The
Bone Moth by 1.
3 ♣ : Someone on board is sick. Is it you, or
someone else? Are they sky-sick, homesick,
lovesick, sick with a strange pestilence, sick
of being treated like a cabin boy, or some
other kind of sick? PROJECT. You have a
little time to start something new. If you
wish, burn 4 SPIRIT or 8 GOLD to
improve some aspect of the airship. Decide
what to work on. It may be part of the
airship, down on the ground, dispersed
through time and space, or in your heads
and hearts. Also choose a resource to gain.
Roll a die to see how long it will take.
When it's done, take +5 in your chosen
resource. Roll a die to see how many turns
the project will take to complete. Use the
die to keep track of progress. When it
completes, take +6 in your chosen resource.
49
Or 2 ♣ : A settlement appears on the
horizon. Upon arrival, you learn that this is
the town of Elfless. You have heard that in
Elfless, there is no such concept as money.
The stories about this place are true,
although not in the way you expected.
What do you find in Elfless? What stories
will you tell about it afterwards?
SHIPYARD. The people of Elfless will
help repair your ship. Wipe off up to 2
DAMAGE.
Or 3 ♣ : Glumflower spreads on the
horizon. You have heard that in
Glumflower the people are all strangers.
They treat one another as strangers do,
with politeness, curiosity, indifference,
rudeness, secret longing. Many of them live
in homes together. Some of them even
share beds together. But they are all
strangers. Are you searching for someone
in Glumflower? Who? Do you find them,
or perhaps only a clue to their
whereabouts? SHIPYARD. In the
workshops of Glumflower you may burn 10
GOLD to install a cleanroom and take +4
TECH, +2 GUILE, and/or burn 30 GOLD
to install a pressurized holy water lance
and take +8 TECH, +8 STEEL. You may
also repair The Bone Moth. For every 2
GOLD spent, heal 1 DAMAGE.
4 ♣ : BATTLE. The Serpent of the Outer
Air. What is this curious entity entwining
your main-mast? Or hurtle through the
clouds until at long last it loses interest:
take 2 DAMAGE, and reset any ongoing
projects to 6 days.
5 ♣ : The city of Agharcastle glows on the
horizon. Here you find the people have
many occupations you have never before
encountered. For instance, there is such a
thing as a kurzah, who is in some ways a
corset-maker but in other respects a cop.
Then there are the volodars, who appear
to be a bit like kurzahs, whatever those are,
but also do the duties of anger-reframers.
Not to mention the moogoot, who is not
quite a well-digger, and not quite a
leaf-inspector. And of course the flintcoat,
oppalman, and rurn, whom you would say
are three different kinds of locksmith,
except everyone meets that suggestion with
puzzlement or peals of laughter. You find
yourself in a tavern with a bolgror and a
taenran. What do the bolgror and her
friend teach you? When you leave
Agharcastle, if you wish burn 1 STEEL to
or GUILE to take +2 SPIRIT or TECH.
6 ♣ : You attempt to save the land from
the curious pestilence which afflicts it. Do
you succeed? What can be saved or healed,
and what is lost forever?
50
Or 4 ♣ : BATTLE. The Serpent of the
Outer Air. What is this curious entity
entwining your main-mast? Burn 6 GUILE
to shoo the beast and take +4 SPIRIT and
+2 STEEL. Or burn 8 STEEL to befriend,
capture, or slay the beast, and take +4
GUILE and +4 TECH.
Or 5 ♣ : You encounter a traveller, who
tells you of the home to which they will
never return. Apparently, in this place,
every single person enjoys great happiness,
prosperity, wisdom and fulfilment, with
the exception of one. In this place, there is
always one person, selected at random,
who is imprisoned in darkness, filth, and
misery, for their entire lifetime. The
traveller claims to be one of those who
could neither accept this arrangement, nor
seek to overturn it, and so has left forever.
The traveller departs, and a heated
argument ensues. What do the crew think
of this? When the turn is done, if you wish
burn 1 TECH or STEEL to take +2
SPIRIT or GUILE.
Or 6 ♣ : A person, place, or event from
earlier in the voyage returns in some way.
What developments have there been?
What will you do next?
7 ♣ : Is the traitor Bessy aboard? If so, now
is their moment. Are they a spy, trying to
steal plans for a bear golem or a tentacle
ram to sell to the Janbulaggers or the Oct?
A saboteur working for Lord Shod or for
Archon Pavelková? A bounty hunter or
bodyguard on the tail of the Cook, tasked
to take them home? A cop? Decide, and
then erase Bessy from your crew. Also lose
another crew member, or a magic artifact,
or take 2 DAMAGE. Or if your SPIRIT is
6 or more, you inspire Bessy to give up
their mission and join your cause for real.
8 ♣ : BATTLE. The Iron Orison and The
Winter Tentacle are bearing down with
weapons hot. What sorts of ships are
these? How did you get into this fix? Flee
their bombardments. Take 2 DAMAGE,
and reset any active projects to six days
until completion.
9 ♣ : BATTLE. Deal with a pack of
bloatball-riding Oct raiders. How did you
rile up this Oct ire? The battle is going
very well, till one of your crew is lost
overboard. Remove them from the ship
plan. Also take 1 DAMAGE to the ship.
51
Or 7 ♣ : BATTLE. On a moonless night,
fight or flee a pack of ornithopter-
exoskeletoned Oct assailants. Really? How
did you get into this predicament? Burn 9
GUILE to win the battle and take +4
TECH and +4 STEEL. If you try to flee,
your pursuers keep pace for a time, and one
of your crew is lost overboard. Remove
them from the ship records. Any ongoing
projects are also destroyed completely.
Also take 1 DAMAGE to the ship. Finally
the sun rises on empty skies.
Or 8 ♣ : BATTLE. The Iron Orison and
The Winter Tentacle are bearing down
with weapons hot. What sorts of ships are
these? How did you get into this fix? Burn
4 STEEL to destroy one and drive away
the other, and take +4 SPIRIT. Or burn 4
TECH and 5 GUILE to destroy or capture
both, and take +4 STEEL, +3 SPIRIT, and
+5 GOLD.
Or 9 ♣ : BATTLE. Deal with a pack of
bloatball-riding Oct raiders. How did you
rile up this Oct ire? Burn 2 GUILE and 2
TECH to outrun them and take +3
SPIRIT. Or burn 8 GUILE to win the
battle and take +4 TECH and +4 STEEL.
10 ♣ : ARTIFACT. In an ancient petrified
forest you find a Wand of Pomp and
Promulgation. Update your Logbook. Do
you have an Architect, a Designer, a
Healer, or a Runemaster in your crew? If
so, they know what must be done to
awaken the artifact. What must be done?
Once the artifact is awakened, roll two
dice, and add that amount of SPIRIT.
Jack ♣ : As you fly near a large waterfall,
The Grim Glove glides unexpectedly from a
hidden cave. They're here to offer Anker's
service as a liaison officer aboard your
airship. NEWCOMER. Does Anker adopt
a role, e.g. Cleric, Runemaster, Merchant,
Ropemaker, or something else? They add
+2 STEEL and +1 TECH.
Queen ♣ : DISCUSSION. A crew member
raises an issue, relating to something you
have seen or done, or what your goals are
now. What is the issue? What does the rest
of the crew think? You don't need to
resolve the issue now. When this part of
the story is complete, you may take +2
SPIRIT.
52
Or 10 ♣ : Almost luminous, the jungle
canopy floats below you, like the endless
entrails of an emerald. PROJECT. You
have a little time. Burn 2 TECH and 2
SPIRIT to start working on something.
Decide what resource should increase at
the end. Roll a die to see how long it will
take. When it's complete, take +8 in your
chosen resource.
Or Jack ♣ : You soar high above the
thunderhead. PROJECT. You have a little
time. Burn 1 GOLD and 3 SPIRIT to start
working on something. What will you
build, enhance, repair, reframe, grow,
examine, explore, understand, transform?
Roll a die to see how long it will take.
When it's complete, take +8 in your
chosen resource.
Or Queen ♣ : PROJECT. Burn 3 GOLD
and 1 SPIRIT to work on something.
Decide what you want to do, and what
resource it will impact. Roll a die to see
how long it will take. When it's complete,
take +6 in your chosen resource, or repair
any amount of DAMAGE.
King ♣ : If you have an Astrolabe of
Animation, take +3 SPIRIT and +3
TECH. If you have Boots of Empathy, take
+1 SPIRIT and +1 GUILE.
An unexpected twist occurs! Was a friend
secretly a foe, or vice-versa? Were two
people actually the same person all along?
Have you been lied to? Did you make a
reasonable assumption that turned out to
be utterly wrong? Did somebody’s eyes
deceive them? Was an apparent coincidence
actually staged? Were enchantments
involved? Or something else? Does the
twist relate to Archon Pavelková? Lord
Shod? Lady Thorn? Harley Scarlet? The
Grim Glove? The city of Zeira? The First
Mate’s son? The city of Glumflower?
Something else?
Burn 15 STEEL to take it in your stride
with the help of your allies. Or burn 3
SPIRIT and 12 GUILE to come through
cunning and luck. Or take 3 DAMAGE,
reroll any project dice, and stumble on
despite the setback.
When you have resolved this card, don't
draw the next card. Instead, reshuffle the
whole deck, and then draw your final
cards. It is time to imagine how the story
will end. Read on ...
53
Or King ♣ : BATTLE. If you have Boots
of Empathy, take +3 SPIRIT and +3
TECH. If you have a repurposed djinn
brig, take +1 SPIRIT and +1 GUILE.
Why have you been hunting Archon
Pavelková? The Friable Rook is a
Rotterling Peach Blossom-class war blimp,
and it has just betrayed you. You were
supposed to hunt down Pavelková
together, but now The Friable Rook has
turned its heavy artillery on you.
Burn 1 SPIRIT and 20 GOLD to bribe The
Friable Rook to be on its way and let you
do your work. Or burn 10 TECH and 5
STEEL to destroy, capture, or repel The
Friable Rook. Or, outrun the bloodthirsty
bastards. Take 3 DAMAGE, and reroll
any project dice.
When you have resolved this card, don't
draw the next card. Instead, reshuffle the
whole deck, and then draw your final
cards. It is time to imagine how the story
will end. Read on ...
 Chapter Four

Take a moment to think back over all you've seen and done. Ask, “How does this story end?” Decide what
your FINAL CHALLENGE will be. Is it a spooky showdown with Archon Pavelková, in their towering
iron manor lit by moonlight and mirrors? Rescuing Captain Simangaliso Mondise from the great City of
Bura and restoring their command of The Querulous Paranoia? Is it confessing your love to the smuggler
Varys Sin? Is it tearing down the prison walls in the town of Thistle? Realising the truth about the Boots
of Empathy and stopping Harley Scarlet before it's too late? Building back the ruins of Zeira better for all?
Something completely different? Draw three cards to represent the final challenge. If you are playing on
the Easy setting, you can draw just one or two. If you are playing on the epic setting, draw four.

Spades mean burn TECH.

Clubs mean burn STEEL.
Diamonds mean burn GUILE.
Hearts mean burn SPIRIT.

For example: if you draw 2♣, 5♣, and 10 ♥, you need to burn 7 STEEL and 10 SPIRIT to overcome the
final challenge. Aces are high and court cards count as 10.
As usual, a character who sacrifices themselves reduces the challenge level of a card by 2.
You may also reduce the level of the challenge by 1 for every point of DAMAGE you endure.
So . . . have the crew survived? Was the tale of The Bone Moth a happy one? Or a tragic one? Or was it
bittersweet? Or does it all depend on your perspective?
If you like, you can close the story with a montage. What does The Bone Moth look like now? What is
the last we see of the people we met? What is each one doing? And what is the last we see of each crew
member? When you feel you’ve said all you need to, end the story, and let the final curtain fall, like a great
billowing sail.

54
 The Voyage of The
Rattail Bucket
Features
✦ A game for 2-4 players set in the Vale, the core Shrike universe
✦ Journey with a ragtag band of aeronauts, in skies where great evil is stirring …
✦ Open-ended eerie adventures at abominably high altitudes

55
 The Voyage of The Rattail Bucket
Materials

We’ll need a deck of playing cards, some six-sided dice to keep track of our PROJECTS, and map-making
and/or journaling materials to record our voyage through sketches and notes. Optionally, we may also
want some colored tokens to track our resources, and/or some blank index cards.
Setting Up

Let’s sketch the outlines of The Rattail Bucket, and choose four crew members:

✦ The Brittle Rationalist: Tilly the Mellalalurian

✦ The Charming Center of Attention: Florence the Brokenborn
✦ The Nervous Disposition: Lydia the Splinterwaif
✦ The Dreamer: Emilia the Bearborn
✦ “And what’s more, I intend to find it!”: Oliver the Brokenborn
✦ Prone to Strange Fits: Snipe the Splinterwaif
✦ Rebellious and Vulnerable: Lila of the Copper Swarm
✦ Sly and Watchful: Alicia of Humber
Make sure The Rattail Bucket has exactly four crew, and decide who is the Captain, who the XO, who
the Engineer, and who the Navigator. If there are more players than crew members, the remaining crew
members become non-player characters (NPCs). If we wish, we can flesh out our characters further:
✦ What always makes you unaccountably nervous?
✦ What is a white lie or a half-truth you always tell others about yourself?
Resources. As a crew, let’s give ourselves 6 GOLD and 1 STEEL. If we are playing on the easy setting,
mark 2 STEEL instead of 1. If we are playing on the hard setting, also mark 2 DAMAGE.

Map. Perhaps we should start by marking two or three landscape features on our map, for instance a
shoreline, a great river, a jagged peak, the edge of a vast forest.

Arrange the cards and draw. We are almost ready! Divide the deck of cards into three piles: spades by
themselves, hearts and diamonds together, clubs by themselves. Shuffle each of the three piles individually.
Stack them as one pile with clubs at the bottom, hearts and diamonds in the middle, and spades at the top.

Take turns. On your turn, draw the top card, look it up and choose one of the two options. Tell a story
together. At any point, you may decide to dramatize your response by acting out a scene.

Adjust resources as instructed. At any point, if we decide to lose a crew member, we reduce the cost of a
challenge by 2. If our crew are all lost or our DAMAGE reaches 6, our voyage is over.

56
 Chapter One
Ace ♠ : Tyrant. At around midnight you
entered Copper Swarm airspace. What tyrant
rules here? The secret head of the secret police?
A giggling godking with unusual appetites? A
silver dragon with usual appetites (for a
dragon)? A gaunt dark-eyed youth rumored to
have made an infernal pact? A wealthy
merchant who somehow never feels wealthy
enough? A knight who never lifts his visor? Or
someone else? And what are they called?
Kristian Hornblower, Lady Penelope
Sucklethorn, Vicereine Shod, Gray Furze,
Wolfram Lexer, or something else? When you
have decided, take +1 GUILE or +1 SPIRIT.
2 ♠ : Flight. How does your airship move? Is it
equipped with a full set of sails, buoyed on
balloons and propelled by twirling
steam-turbines, flapping solar-powered
ornithopter wings, storming around on sky-legs,
wafted by a scavenged leaky nuclear generator,
powered by temperamental lunar panels, or is it
propelled by some other principle? Make a
record, and bear it in mind in any future battles
and berths, misfortunes and maneuvers. Take
+1 TECH.
3 ♠ : Legacy. You uncover something about
The Rattail Bucket, from a time before any of
you were on board. What is it? You may like to
act out a scene. Update the ship plan, and take
+1 TECH or +1 SPIRIT.
57
Or Ace ♠ : Skyship. It is not your watch, and
yet you cannot sleep, and so you are above
decks when a shadowy mass looms from a cloud
bank. It is the skyship The Pale Peacock. As the
skyship glides silently past, you glimpse its
captain standing very still in the moonlight.
Who is the captain of The Pale Peacock? Is
it Master Wolfram Lexer, Madame Mary
Askew, Lady Penelope Sucklethorn,
Vice-Admiral Kristian Hornblower, or someone
else? When in the past have you two crossed
paths ... or crossed swords? Update your notes,
and take +1 STEEL or +1 TECH.
Or 2 ♠ : Features. For a vessel of its class, The
Rattail Bucket has some unusual features. What
is its most distinctive feature? E.g. an orangery,
a crow’s nest that turns into a cable-tethered
kite, disguises for all the ship’s weapons and
enhancements, breathing apparatus for the
Upper Air, a hydraulic tube system, a cursed
fishing net, a set of smuggler compartments, a
demon-proof brig (100% guaranteed), or
something else? Choose something and, once
you have augmented your ship plan, and take
+1 TECH.
Or 3 ♠ : Excavations. A piece of machinery is
uncovered in an archaeological dig. What might
it have been originally? What did it later
become? What might it be useful for next? Why
are those who unearthed it so keen to get rid of
it? Do you take it on board? When this turn is
done, take +1 GUILE or +1 STEEL.
4 ♠ : BATTLE. What is a Banshee Swarm like
exactly? Describe it, then flee it. Hide in the
clouds, contemplating the keening growing
distant, closer, distant, closer, distant, distant.
Don't adjust any resources, and skip the next
card.
Or 4 ♠ : BATTLE. What is a Banshee Swarm
like exactly? Burn 4 STEEL and 1 GUILE to
trounce the Banshee Swarm, then raid their lair
and take +1 TECH and +9 GOLD.

5 ♠ : DISCUSSION. Propose an issue. For Or 5 ♠ : Armaments. What kind of weapons

example: We are being too profligate with one
of our resources. Or, No need to panic, but our
supplies are rather dwindling. Shall we make a
little detour? Or, Now, about this legendary
city which I’ve spent my life seeking. Go round
in a circle, with each player briefly stating their
feelings. One or two sentences should be
enough. End with the player who proposed the
issue. You don't need to resolve it or come to a
decision. When everybody has been heard, take
+1 SPIRIT.
does The Rattail Bucket carry? E.g. a
foredeck-mounted ballista, a pair of
grenado-launching onagers, a piston naphtha
flamethrower, a silver dragon countermeasures
suite prototype, one or more gun decks of
breech-loaded swivel cannons of various sizes
and ammunitions, some other weapons system,
or perhaps no weapons at all? Update the ship
plan, and take +1 STEEL.

6 ♠ : Mysterious stranger. You have Or 6 ♠ : Strange mystery. Everyone agrees

disembarked the airship and somehow got the Yellow Order is a mere legend. What do
yourself lost deep in the woods, when your ears the legends say about it? After you have told
fill with the sound of hooves. Oh! Who is this this part of the story, take +1 STEEL or +1
mysterious rider? A lithe well-muscled youth TECH.
with raven locks and piercing green eyes that
seldom stray from yours? A wild looking elfin
femme, with tangled chestnut hair, freckles and
endless jests at your expense? A full suit of plate
armor big enough for a bear, a pair of dancing
hazel eyes and a lilting, teasing tone? An
aloof-seeming ranger with a lantern jaw and
salt-and-pepper grizzle, who seems to half-ignore
you, yet never forgets a word you say? What
scrape or adventure do you get into together on
your way back to the airship? Suddenly they
turn and ride into the forest and you find
yourself crying out, Wait! You never told me
your name! The answer comes: Edvard
Christiansen. Find me in Ufin! After you have
told this part of the story, take +1 SPIRIT or
+1 GUILE.

58
7 ♠ : It’s ill-advised, but there are children
aboard The Rattail Bucket! Who are they?
What role do they play? Make sure you add
them to the ship plan. “NEWCOMER.” One
of the children, Myfanwy the Mianyuan, has
recently started to take on certain crew
responsibilities. What role does Myfanwy play?
Artillerist, Bosun, Cook, Purser, or maybe
something else? Add Myfanwy to the ship plan,
and adjust the roles aboard The Rattail Bucket
accordingly. Myfanwy adds +1 STEEL.
8 ♠ : Art. Splendid news. You’ve accepted a
lucrative commission from none other than Lord
Dust, the noted Druchesterian art collector, to
transport a new work by the painter Nkosi
Majola. Alas, upon arrival, you find the
painting being carried off by the Bearborn town
guard, with that same gentle touch they use
with all their prisoners. Apparently Majola has
failed to pay her debts to somebody called Luke
Cobshadow, and the painting is being seized as
collateral. How do you resolve this situation? If
you wish, act out the scene. If you mainly use
force or intimidation, take +1 STEEL. If you
mainly use diplomacy or charm, take +1
SPIRIT. If you mainly use cunning or stealth,
take +1 GUILE. If you mainly use technology or
magic, take +1 TECH. Do you end up with the
painting stowed safely aboard The Rattail
Bucket? If so, add it to your ship plan, and make
a note of the painting’s title, subject matter,
and/or why it makes you feel strangely uneasy.
59
Or 7 ♠ : Most things on The Rattail Bucket
need repair, replacement, or upgrading. What
are your top priorities? Make a note. If you
wish, burn 2 GOLD to start a PROJECT.
Decide what to build and what resource it will
increase, then roll a die to find out how long it
will take. Sketch the project on your ship plan,
and place the die on it to track progress. Each
turn the die counts down by one, and when it
reaches zero, take +4 in your chosen resource.
Quite simple. What could go wrong?
Or 8 ♠ : Murder. You’ve disembarked and
made your way to the rendezvous point, not too
far from the Bearborn capitol of Dead Dell.
Where are you? An ruined watch house on the
tundra? A snowy pine forest? An underground
bunker, cunningly hidden from above, but not
cunningly enough? Alas, upon arrival, you find
your contact murdered. Who were you
supposed to be meeting here? Was it Nkosi
Majola? Jojo Schwanhilde? Luke Cobshadow?
Eupheme Crabbeard? Or someone else? How
have they been murdered? Actually, it can be
rather nice when someone cancels on you at
short notice, but this is too much! Also, no
sooner have you come upon the sorry scene
than you are surrounded Bearborn guard ...
who have presumably received an anonymous
tip-off? The guards are keen to take you away
for questioning. How do you resolve the
situation? Act out a scene if you wish. If you
mostly use force or intimidation, take +1
STEEL. If you mostly use diplomacy or charm,
take +1 SPIRIT. If you mostly use cunning or
stealth, take +1 GUILE. If you mostly use
technology or magic, take +1 TECH.
9 ♠ : Romance and sundries. There is
something going on between two crew
members. Is it an unspoken,
will-they-won’t-they flirtation? A marriage? An
intense asexual romance? The rule is, it’s just
sex and nothing more? Two exes who still have
feelings for each other? A love triangle? A
thruple? Or something else? After you have
told this part of the story, take +1 STEEL or +1
SPIRIT.
10 ♠ : Tempests. Where do you manage to land
to take shelter? When the storm passes, what
do you see around you? Burn 1 TECH or take 1
DAMAGE.
Jack ♠ : The crew is joined by Number Six. The
extremely salient fact about Number Six, at this
juncture, is that Number Six wants to kill
someone. Who does Number Six want to kill? Is
it Number Seven? Vicereine Shod? Nkosi
Majola? Is it their own creator, the shadowy
head of the Yellow Order? Perhaps Numbers
One through Five and Number Seven? Or
someone else? Do you know about Number
Six's mission, or do they feel they need a cover
story? NEWCOMER. Add Number Six to
your ship map as Artillerist, Mathematician,
Purser, or as something else. Number Six adds
+1 STEEL, +1 SPIRIT, and +2 GOLD.
60
Or 9 ♠ : Rendezvous. You arrive at Cimiriopol
to meet … who? The mutant Nkosi Majola?
The snitch Number Five? The corrupt official
Admiral Shod? The alchemist Jojo
Schwanhilde? Or someone else? Are you asking
for the whereabouts of the Yellow Order?
Information about Number Three's death? A
contact who can install a Sentient Propellor
System? The layout of Vicereine Shod's fortress
in Voxis? The source of the mysterious plague?
Or something else? Decide what happens, or
play it out as a scene. When this turn is over,
take +1 GUILE or +1 TECH.
Or 10 ♠ : Goons. You are enjoying a solitary
stroll through the tree-shaded lanes of
Wokingghost, when a hand falls on your
shoulder. Who sent these thugs? Was it
Vicereine Shod, Jojo Schwanhilde, Luke
Cobshadow, or someone else? What message do
they want to send? That you've got one week
to find the money or else? That you should stay
out of Voxis if you know what's good for you?
That you better spill the beans about the
Yellow Order, and leave nothing out?
Something else? Burn 2 GOLD, or 1 resource of
your choosing, or lose a crew member. Once the
turn is over, take +1 GUILE or +1 SPIRIT.
Or Jack ♠ : The Lofted Nightlight, a Gurvangat
Cassiopea-class pinnace, is nearby and it's up to
something. Is The Lofted Nightlight snooping
around deep inside Mellalalurian territory, in
clear violation of the treatise? Or perhaps
dumping occult pollutants? Destroying crops?
Snooping around the rumored location of the
Worldwell? Tailing The Pale Peacock? Or
something else? If you wish, burn 1 GUILE to
spy on their set-up and take +3 TECH. You
have a feeling you’ll meet again ...
Queen ♠ : BATTLE. Burn 1 STEEL to ward
off the Winked-Too-Hard. If you can bear to
describe it, do so. The Winked-Too-Hard is
overwhelming you at first, then thank the stars
you get a lucky break. What is your stroke of
luck? Once you have warded off the
Winked-Too-Hard, take +1 SPIRIT.
Alternatively, simply flee and hide. Don't adjust
any resources, but skip the next card.
King ♠ : Data. The town of Bura Nim looms on
the horizon. While you are still a few miles
away, you are intercepted by a Bura Nimmen
pinnace. Its captain rather sheepishly advises
that you surrender to his safekeeping all your
maps, manifests, logbooks, accounts and so
forth, for the duration of your stay.
In Bura Nim, any data has a propensity to
congeal into a spectral “glitch chrysalis,” which
in due course bursts and digorges a ghostly
rampaging beast called a “Dataether.” The
townsfolk hunt, exorcise, tame or befriend these
informational entities as best they can. For this
reason, the townsfolk of Bura are very careful to
keep few records of anything, or even to
remember too much. Do you stop here? What
do you see and do? SHIPYARD. If you wish,
burn 2 GOLD to take +1 in any resource.
61
Or Queen ♠ : BATTLE. The Gray Gelt is a
Bearborn Ghost-class snekkja, and when it rams
The Rattail Bucket at an altitude of five miles,
you personally are flung clean off the decks.
Somehow you grab a metal rim as you fly past,
and now you’ve no choice but to do your best
to clamber into what must be, alas, one of The
Gray Gelt’s torpedo tubes. Meanwhile, muskets
and grenades are going off everywhere, and
below you the tiny wriggling body of a Bearbon
soldier vanishes into the cloud layer. What’s
going on? Is this a police operation, a
prearranged duel, a panicked misunderstanding,
or something else? Burn 3 TECH and 3 STEEL
to destroy, capture, or repel The Gray Gelt, and
take +5 GOLD. Or, flee the hostile airship.
Lose a crew member or take 2 DAMAGE.
Or King ♠ : Divinities. The town of Rae
Sremmurd appears on the horizon. Here in the
town of Rae Sremmurd, the bodies of a
pantheon of gods have been gutted and
hollowed and strewn in the streets, squares,
and surrounding hillsides for the denizens of
Rae Sremmurd to don. As their divine flesh
does not decay, this arrangement may have
been in place for some time. Do you disembark?
What transpires during your stay?
SHIPYARD. While you are docked in Rae
Sremmurd, you may pay 5 GOLD to install a
motley assortment of pitchforks, staves and
blacksmith tools and take +1 TECH, +1
STEEL, or pay 8 GOLD to install a flechette
pot-de-fer and take +3 TECH, +3 STEEL. If
you have an enchanted wand, sword, amulet,
pendant, orb, necklace, brooch, bracelet, helm,
or scroll that you haven't yet awoken, you can
sell it for 7 GOLD.
 Chapter Two
Ace ♥ : Toys. The Rattail Bucket’s shadow is
sharp and dark against the white plane. You
soar over miles of pale salt pan till finally, on the
shore of a limpid lake, you find the town of
Garkoile. In Garkoile, where one might expect
to find a living family — mothers and brothers
and fathers and sisters and so forth — one
instead finds a set of toys — ragged bears of
terrycloth, fine little ladies of biscuit porcelain,
wooden whittling of wolves with ball-jointed
jaws, and so forth. From what you’ve heard,
every townsperson lives alone with their family
of toys which, as far as you can tell, are simply
toys. Do you linger in this rather disconcerting
place, the better to understand its
arrangements? If so, what do you gradually
discover? Is there some accident, conflict, or
misunderstanding? If so, how does it resolve?
SHIPYARD. While you are docked in Garkoile,
you may burn as much GOLD as you like to fix
up the ship. For every GOLD spent, reduce
DAMAGE to The Rattail Bucket by 1.
2 ♥ : DISCUSSION. Propose a topic to discuss,
perhaps some question or revelation connected
with earlier events. For instance, What portal
did the Winked-Too-Hard come through? Or, I
have observed certain anomalies aboard the ship
at night. Or, I believe a member of this crew
has an undisclosed connection with Vicereine
Shod, and I mean to get to the bottom of it. Or,
It is time I confessed that I myself once crewed
aboard The Lofted Nightlight. Everyone can
briefly weigh in once. The issue need not be
resolved. Afterwards, take either +1 SPIRIT or
+1 GUILE.
62
Or Ace ♥ : Turmoils. As you near the Maet
mountain range, its pine tops and cluttered
bright rivers seem to twist and, like a
kaleidoscope, reveal the ramshackle town of
Maetgow. Chimney-smoke rises from rows and
rows of terrace houses stacked in tiers into the
mountain. On one roof stands a green-clad
child, playing on a silver trumpet. You are glad,
yet you try not to feel your gladness too keenly.
As you understand it, in Maetgow, any
powerful emotion risks triggering an Event.
What an Event is, you’re not sure. You hope
you won’t have to find out. Are you searching
for someone here? Who? Do you find them, or
perhaps a clue to their whereabouts? Do you, at
some moment or other, experience a powerful
emotion? SHIPYARD. At Maetgow’s little
shipyard, you may hire an expert to awaken any
magic artifact, or to install any ship system, for
a bargain price of 2 GOLD.
Or 2 ♥ : Experts. Emerging from glowing
mists, you find yourself over Orist Eprofsey. It
is said that here in Orist Eprofsey, the
townspeople have no conception of expertise.
The Orist Eprofseyeans react to the notion that
one person might have authoritative knowledge
about any given subject with confusion and
revulsion. Do you linger here in Orist Eprofey?
Were you looking for something? Do you find
it? SHIPYARD. In the workshops of Orist
Eprofsey you may resupply your ammunition.
Burn 2 GOLD to take +2 STEEL. When you
eventually set off again, take +1 GUILE.
3 ♥ : Insurrection. The city of Weepheart
appears on the horizon. It is only a few years
since the slaves rose up and freed themselves,
killing many of their former masters in the
process, and now living side-by-side with the
remainder. What incident occurs here in
Weepheart? Is it related to something that has
already occurred, or is it a new development
altogether? When you eventually set off again,
take +1 SPIRIT.
4 ♥ : GEAR. Buried in the sand is a useful piece
of equipment. You bring it on board. Is it a
multiply forking salvage arm, a sentient
propellor system, a suite of counter-tentacles
measures, a set of breathing apparatuses suitable
for the airless darkness of the Upper Upper
Archipelago, or something else? Sketch it on
your ship plan. At any time you may repair and
install it by burning 4 TECH. Once it is
installed, take +3 STEEL and +3 GUILE.
Alternatively, you may sell it at any
SHIPYARD or TRADING POST for 2
GOLD.
5 ♥ : BATTLE. Flee the
Shadow-Shod-with-Worms. What knowledge
do you have of this dire and obscure entity? By
what means will you attempt to survive their
unwanted attentions? Take 1 DAMAGE and
skip the next card.
6 ♥ : BATTLE. Flee from the swarm of Golden
Mummies. How do you eventually elude their
glimmering pursuit? Take 2 DAMAGE, and
reset any ongoing projects to 6 days. You also
skip the next card.
63
Or 3 ♥ : ARTIFACT QUEST. A Liquid
Sword is kept deep within Commissioner Itt's
luxury villa on Finger Mountain. What do the
rumors say about this blade? Burn 3 GUILE or
4 STEEL to steal it and find out for yourselves.
Does the heist go off without a cinch? Or is
there a moment where you deeply regret the
whole sorry enterprise? Once you've secured
the artifact, you can sell it at any SHIPYARD
or TRADING POST for 4 GOLD, or awaken
it to take +6 TECH.
Or 4 ♥ : Gifts. The city of Numinous Gladness
gradually coalesces on the horizon. Here in the
city of Numinous Gladness, money is very little
used. Almost everything that is done is done as
a kind of gift. Are you just passing through, or
have you come here for a purpose? How long
do you stay? Do you learn more about the city?
Is your time here eventful? TRADING POST.
While you are docked in Numinous Gladness,
you may sell any CARGO you are carrying.
Sell for twice whatever you paid. If your crew
has a Bursar, Merchant, or Steward aboard,
they can sell your goods for triple whatever you
paid.
Or 5 ♥ : BATTLE. Fight the
Shadow-Shod-with-Worms. Alas, how is it you
have you attracted the attention of this large
and malevolent entity? Burn 6 TECH to win
the battle and take +3 STEEL and +3 SPIRIT.
You may thereby acquire a quantity of crystal
bullion which you can record as CARGO. If
anybody asks, it’s definitely not cursed and you
paid 5 GOLD for it.
Or 6 ♥ : BATTLE. Fight the swarm of Golden
Mummies. The swarm of Golden Mummies
would be quite marvelous to observe, were they
not so tediously fixated on shredding your flesh
from your bones. What did you do to disturb
their slumber? Burn 2 GUILE to deftly lose
them in the clouds and take +1 SPIRIT. Or
burn 7 SPIRIT to win the battle and take +3
TECH and +3 GUILE.
7 ♥ : GEAR. You are flying over a rather odd
landscape of friendly meadows and small forests,
mostly maples, configured in a kind of
honeycomb pattern. The pattern is, however,
disturbed in one region, where upon
investigation you discover a sort of burial
mound. What do you unearth there, rendered a
ghostly gray by mildew, and liberally
cobwebbed-over? Do you find a forge, a cloning
bay, a revenant net, a sky-farer's timepiece, a
leather-bound grimoire closed by a clasp with a
softly glowing touch-screen, or something else?
Sketch it on your ship plan. At any time you
may make this gear ready for use by burning 4
TECH. Once it is readied, take +3 STEEL and
+3 GUILE. Alternatively, you may sell it at any
SHIPYARD or TRADING POST for 2
GOLD.
8 ♥ : Vraphiss spreads on the horizon. Everyone
who lives in Vraphiss has one name and
identity by day and another by night. This is
also where the Navigator's father lives, at least
by night. Perhaps you'll pay a visit?
TRADING POST. While you are docked in
Vraphiss, you may sell any CARGO you are
carrying and make twice whatever you paid, or
burn 4 GUILE and make triple whatever you
paid for them. You may also rent a berth to
complete any PROJECTS. For each GOLD you
burn, you may reduce one project die by one.
64
Or 7 ♥ : Something else. The city of Unvár
hovers on the horizon. In Unvár, the people are
always striving to make their city less like a city
and more like something else. During one
century, they tried to make it like a mountain.
During another, like dew on leaves. During
another, like a river. What have they been up
to recently? What is Unvár like as a result? Are
you just passing through, or looking for
something here in Unvár? Is your stay eventful?
SHIPYARD. In the workshops of Unvár you
may burn 5 GOLD or 2 TECH to add a
revenant net, a quickbridge, or a transposition
mask to your ship plan. Decide roughly what it
does and take +4 in any resource. You may also
burn as much GOLD as you like to do repairs.
For every 2 GOLD spent, reduce DAMAGE
to The Rattail Bucket by 1.
Or 8 ♥ : Disembarking the pirate haven
Dissenter’s Rest, you find the usual atmosphere
of revelry to be strangely muted. Instead, the
settlement is permeated with an unaccountable
sense of malaise and foreboding.
EMPORIUM. You may purchase any of the
following. Take +1 TECH for each purchase,
and decide what it does. Add your purchases to
your ship records. NO REFUNDS.
Merchandise
↬ Carbon Negative Armor Cuirass: 3 GOLD
↬ Amber Lung: 3 GOLD
↬ Adamantine Helpmeet: 3 GOLD
↬ Doom Moon: 4 GOLD
↬ Memory Extractor: 4 GOLD
↬ Synth-Flex Harness: 4 GOLD
↬ Quickbridge: 5 GOLD
↬ Mechanical Micro-Centaur: 5 GOLD
↬ Balefire Makewhip: 5 GOLD
9 ♥ : BATTLE. The Jocund Glint approaches
from the north and The Bonny Frogmouth from
the south. How do you evade them? Why
might they have shown you such hostility?
Take 2 DAMAGE, and reset any active
projects to six days until completion.
10 ♥ : NEWCOMER. Molly the
Wyvern-Rider wishes to accompany The
Rattail Bucket. How? Do they adopt a role —
Artillerist, Cook, Interpreter, Scout, Zoologist,
or something else? What’s her wyvern called,
and what is it like? Molly and her wyvern add
+10 STEEL. They can scout distant parts of the
map whenever you like, and always return
safely. Add them to your ship plan.
Jack ♥ : NEWCOMER. Nicolja arrives aboard
The Rattail Bucket. How? For many days, she
does not mingle with the crew, but keeps her
head bent day and night over a book which, one
of you eventually perceives in the collaborative
glow of candle and moon, to be a volume of
collected letters of a pair of impassioned lovers.
When she rouses herself from her dolour,
you do not see the book again. Does Nicolja
adopt a role? Artillerist, Cook, Doctor, Witch,
or something else? Nicola brings +2 TECH and
+1 GUILE. Add her to your ship plan.
65
Or 9 ♥ : BATTLE. The Bonny Frogmouth is a
Bearborn Ghost-class snekkja, and The Jocund
Glint a Bearborn Manticore-class cutter. How
have you landed yourself in this unequal battle?
Burn 3 TECH and 3 STEEL to defeat The
Bonny Frogmouth, and take +5 GOLD. Burn 3
GUILE and 3 STEEL to defeat The Jocund
Glint as well, and take another +5 GOLD. If
you can only defeat one of the ships, flee the
other one: take 1 DAMAGE, and reset any
active projects to six days until completion.
Or 10 ♥ : SPECIAL PROJECT. For some time
you have suspected the existence of a set of
ancient obelisks many miles above the Upper
Archipelago, in an airless region known as Edge
of Dark. You have just discovered a means of
communicating with one of these ancient
artifacts. Roll a die to see how many turns the
project will take to complete. Use the die to
keep track of progress. When it completes, take
+10 TECH and add a Starstrike System to your
ship schematic. The Starstrike System is
temperamental, but it can be used to call down
flocks of daggers, or to send you images of
distant lands.
Or Jack ♥ : From the prow of The Rattail
Bucket, you watch a flock of starlings glide high
above a slate-gray forest canopy. A small hot air
balloon, brightly colored and bearing the frosts
of the upper atmosphere, descends off your post
side, apparently crewed by talking capybaras.
The sun rays bathe The Rattail Bucket and the
winds blow favorably. PROJECT. You have a
little time to start something new. If you wish,
burn 4 SPIRIT to improve some aspect of the
airship. Decide what to build and what resource
it will increase. Roll a die to see how many
turns the project will take to complete. Use the
die to keep track of progress. When it
completes, take +6 in your chosen resource, or
repair up to 3 points of DAMAGE.
Queen ♥ : There is a fresh development of an
earlier incident. What is it? When you have
told this part of the story, take +2 SPIRIT.
King ♥ : Daymare. It happens during the day.
Or rather, the night, because based on the
current rotation, you are meant to rest by day.
But howsoever heavily you bundle your head
up, you cannot drift off to sleep. So day has
become night, and night has become doubly
night. And one day as you are pacing the lower
decks seeking you know not what, with a
distempered imagination, that’s when it
happens. You glimpse it. It is fleeting. Where
does it go? Around a corner? Behind a crate?
Out of a hatch? Into a pile of bedclothes?
Behind the water barrel? What was it, or
rather, what did you imagine it to be, since you
must have been mistaken, surely? It looked like
something that belongs in a painting. What did
you think you saw? Do you ... investigate?
After you have told this part of the story, take
+2 STEEL or GUILE.
66
Or Queen ♥ : From the prow of The Rattail
Bucket, you gaze over a huge herd of skeleton
peacock-deer running on pear-green grasslands.
A pleasant day, filled with favorable wind.
PROJECT. You have a little time to start
something new. If you wish, burn 8 GOLD to
improve some aspect of the airship. Decide
what to build and what resource it will
increase. Roll a die to see how many turns the
project will take to complete. Use the die to
keep track of progress. When the project
completes take +7 in your chosen resource, or
repair up to 2 points of DAMAGE.
Or King ♥ : From the prow of The Rattail
Bucket, you watch blackbirds skir high above
the foothills, before banking and dropping into
some trees. Silhouetted against a salmon pink
sky, a peaceable steam-drone zips along the
horizon. You have a little time. PROJECT.
Burn 2 TECH and 1 GUILE to conduct repairs
or enhancements to the airship. Decide what
you want to do, and what resource it will
impact. Roll a die to see how many turns it will
take. Each turn, adjust the project die down by
one. When the project die reaches zero, work is
complete and you may take +5 in your chosen
resource, or repair up to 3 points of DAMAGE.
 Diamonds
Ace ♦ : Intrusive. You experience a recurring
dream. What is it? What might it mean?
And / or,
You cannot stop thinking about something you
saw, something perfectly innocuous, save for the
the fact that you cannot stop thinking about it.
What is it? Nkosi Majola’s hands? The object
you did not buy at Dissenter’s Rest? A strewn
melon rind or an iced coffee syrrop in Lady
Penelope’s morning-room? A flake of congealed
paint near the very center of a painting? The
cobweb in the barrow? The small eye-shaped
window in a low unremarkable dwelling in
Vraphiss? Or something else?
And / or,
Moonlight can play odd tricks on the fancy.
What did you think you saw?
2 ♦ : BATTLE. The Concept of a Cockroach is
a Bearborn Ghost-class snekkja. Did you attack
first, or was it The Concept? Anyway, you’re
fleeing now. Take 2 DAMAGE, and reset any
active projects to six days until completion.
67
Or Ace ♦ : Intrusive. Have you encountered
any artifacts on your journey? You did? But you
didn’t bring it on board, did you? Oh dear. No,
it’s not cursed exactly. It just has a mind of its
own. And indeed, despite having a mind of its
own, it rather fancies taking over your mind as
well.
ROLLING PROJECT. Which crew
member is affected by the artifact? Is it you, or
the crew member who awakened it, or someone
else? Roll a die, and reduce by 1 each turn.
When the project die reaches zero, burn 2
SPIRIT and take +3 GUILE. If you don't have
2 SPIRIT to burn, the crew member is
temporarily possessed and acts out of character
— take 1 DAMAGE, burn 2 of any resource,
lose a crew member, and/or lose something
precious. Then roll the project die again, and
repeat so long as the item remains with you. If
you ever rid yourself of the item or 'fix' it, burn
4 SPIRIT and 4 GUILE.
Or 2 ♦ : BATTLE. The Concept of a
Cockroach is a Bearborn Ghost-class snekkja,
and it is coming to pieces. The deck splinters
apart, blue sky blossoming everywhere, as you
leap from one fragment to the next, trying to
get back to The Rattail Bucket. Meanwhile,
Bearborn soldiers flail wildly at the end of
grappling hooks. What is happening? Was this
an ambush, an incident in a revolutionary
uprising, sky-road rage, or something else? Burn
2 TECH and 10 STEEL to destroyThe Concept
of a Cockroach, and take +10 GOLD. Or, burn
3 SPIRIT and 3 GUILE to disable The Concept
of a Cockroach long enough to escape, and take
+4 TECH.
3 ♦ : ARTIFACT. While exploring an
abandoned solarium on the shores of a large
lake, you discover a voluminous fine-woven
garment sporting four sleeves. Mesmerised by
its millefleur, you recollect — as if it were
something you learned in your childhood,
though it is not — that this is the Robe of
Duggle Drabbon. Burn 3 SPIRIT to awaken it
and take +2 GUILE and +2 TECH. Once
awakened, the Robe must be worn by two
operators to take effect. It is extremely useful
for all sorts of alchemical and engineering tasks,
and capable of generating pulses of free energy
and small precision telekinetic fields. Whenever
you use the Robe, you may also convert up to 2
SPIRIT to TECH or GOLD. Of course, the
Robe does have its side effect. Each time a pair
of you use it, you will grow to care about each
other a little more intensely, yet a little less able
to predict each other's behavior or, eventually,
to understand each other at all. Mark it on your
ship records.
68
Or 3 ♦ : Heart-to-Heart. Choose a fragment
of conversation. Who said this to whom?
↬ “The Navigator lied.”
↬ “I think I’m ready to try talking about it.”
↬ “People think sincerity is the property of
one person. But sincerity arises between
people. It arises not only from expression,
but from listening.”
↬ “I saw something in the mirror that was not
… outside the mirror.”
↬ “There is something not right about that
painting.”
↬ “Oh, nothing really! Only that, ever since
the day the star fell, well …”
↬ “It was almost as if we were one machine,
and I was the device that noticed things,
and he was the device that made them
real.”
↬ “Most likely merely some matter adhering
to the Navigator’s goggles.”
↬ “I fear we are committing acts behind our
backs.”
↬ “We too once had prisons.”
↬ “My first ship was The How to Show a
Soul.”
↬ "I would just have to drift off to my happy
place. And then I'd get anxious that I
hadn't tidied my happy place.”
↬ “I want you to do something, but I cannot
tell you what it is.”
↬ “In those days, it was called The Rattail
Peacock …”
↬ “I believed the opposite of grief was work.”
↬ “It’s so hard to remember what it’s like to
do things that don’t matter.”
↬ “And once the mists lifted, we all did
marvel.”
↬ “That implies the existence of a Yaga Baba,
who lives in a chicken with hut legs.”
↬ “I mean, have we actually seen them in the
same place together? Are we sure they’re
not … the same person?”
If you wish, narrate or act out a scene. Or just
leave it as a scrap of something overheard
among the clouds. Take +2 SPIRIT.
4 ♦ : Someone on The Rattail Bucket has sworn
a solemn oath. Perhaps it’s you, or someone
else? What is the oath? For instance, to be
revenged on the aristocrat who wronged you, to
read a forbidden book, to marry into a wealthy
family, to resurrect the loved one you lost, or
something else?
NEWCOMER. Ying Yue is willing to join
your crew. Do they adopt a role, e.g. Bosun,
Doctor, Interpreter, Mathematician, Purser, or
something else? Ying Yue adds +2 STEEL.
Or 4 ♦ : ARTIFACT QUEST. Where are
you? An inaccessible, storm-beaten shore, thick
with pine? A rocky, starfish shaped islet many
hundreds of miles from any other land? A
debris-strewn moraine? A vast plane of fine
purple dust, deadlier than quicksand? The lip of
a lava lake? A flying island, high above the
Upper Archipelago? What is this remote part
of the world called? The Edge of Night,
Dramimmon End, Coldharrow, Cømmer
Valley, or something else?
About fifty years ago, the Tantalam Swarm
established Dramimmon Watch House here. It
now lies in ruins. It's rumored its true purpose
was the torture of a Speaking Rainbow.
Whatever substance to this tale, all those who
were stationed here were killed about ten years
ago in a mysterious incident, in which most of
the Watch House also collapsed.
Who will venture into the ruins, and who will
stay aboard The Rattail Bucket and await their
return? Are there perimeter traps or other
security measures still operational? Will you
find a diary, or some other message which
records the last days of the Tantalam Swarm
personnel stationed here? Does whatever killed
them still lurk among the ruins? Are they all
really dead, or is one still alive? Is one still alive,
but ... changed? What was really going on here?
69
If you venture into the ruins of Dramimmon
Watch House, roll a die. Overcome that
number of challenges to emerge alive.
Collaborate to narrate each one as it occurs:
↬ The first challenge involves stealth,
vigilance, or quick reflexes — burn 2
GUILE and take +1 STEEL.
↬ The second challenge involves combat
skills or outer or inner strength — burn 3
STEEL and take +1 SPIRIT.
↬ The third challenge involves trusting each
other or keeping your cool — burn 3
SPIRIT and take +1 GUILE.
↬ The fourth challenge involves solving a
mystery or building something — burn 1
TECH and take +3 SPIRIT.
↬ The fifth challenge involves coming up
with a plan of attack, capitalizing on a
prior observation, or knowing when to run
— burn 1 STEEL and take +3 GUILE.
↬ The sixth challenge involves spotting or
remembering a detail and making the right
call — burn 1 GUILE and take +2 TECH.
ARTIFACT. If you make it out, you may
bring something back. Is this some gizmo or bit
of bric-a-brac you heard about earlier?
Something you have long been looking for?
Perhaps it’s that Multidimensional Projector?
Or a crystal that brightens in proximity to the
Palace of Aureal Peace? Is it a Fold-Out Chair
of Watching the Worldwell Well? Or simply
that Concussive Great Maul you’ve had your
eye on? Actually, is it High Constable Karen's
Crucible of Withinness? Or something else?
Decide what it is and what it does. At any
point, burn 4 SPIRIT to awaken the artifact
and take +4 STEEL and +4 TECH. If you
don't want to wake it up, sell it at a
SHIPYARD or TRADING POST for 5
GOLD.
5 ♦ : Glumflower glows on the horizon. You
have heard that in Glumflower they have a
completely different concept of anger. The
Druchesterian army has been through here,
however, and there is not much of Glumflower
left. You give what aid you can to some of the
survivors, and they tell you their story. What
has happened to them? What happened here?
6 ♦ : Heartbreak. Once, when lost deep in the
forest, one of you encountered the mysterious
Edvard. The Rattail Bucket is dropping toward
Ufin, where one of you hopes to find Edvard
again. Before long, your heart falls. You have
discovered Edvard Christiansen is closely
connected with your sworn enemies. Who is
Edvard? Maybe they are the child of Vicereine
Shod or Nkosi Majola? Or are they bethrothed
to Doctor Mnquhe or to Dorcas Mzulwini? Or
is Edvard a captain in the Druchesterian elite
guard? Or a Copper Swarm alchemist? Or
something else? And yet … will you try to speak
with them nonetheless? Must it be done in
secret?
7 ♦ : BATTLE. Flee from the Tentacled Red.
What is this entity that enwreathes your
mainmast? What does it want? How might you
shake it loose? Is this the same entity you have
heard described as the Serpent of the Outer
Air, or do yet more horrors await at these
altitudes? Or evade the encounter — take 2
DAMAGE and lose any active projects
permanently.
70
Or 4 ♦ : Lost Timehold appears on the horizon.
It is said that in Lost Timehold lugubrious bone
golem butlers attend to one's every whim. Do
you get mixed up in something while you are
here? Or is the visit uneventful? Are the golems
nice? Do you enjoy yourself? SHIPYARD. If
you need it, the people of Lost Timehold will
help you repair your ship. Reduce DAMAGE
by 2. If you have at least 3 GOLD, chip in 1
GOLD. If not that's totally OK.
Or 6 ♦ : Worldwell. You find a flying castle,
very ancient and overgrown, apparently now
mostly roots and moss. How have you found
this place? Here a tall automaton with coal red
eyes, overgrown in moss and flowers, lumbers
slowly to and fro, creating topiary and statues
shaped just like himself. By following this
automaton, you eventually find out about the
‘Worldwell.’ What is the Worldwell, a machine,
an artifact, a place, or something else? What
else do you discover about the Worldwell? It’s
not here, so where might it be? Why is it
important? Perhaps it leads somewhere special?
Perhaps something has climbed out of it, or
soon might? Perhaps something has been cast
into it, or might soon be? How might this
information change your goals?
Or 7 ♦ : BATTLE. You must face the
Tentacled Red. What is the Tentacled Red?
How have you enraged it? Burn 15 STEEL to
win the battle and take +3 GUILE and +3
TECH. If you have a Stealth Dirigible, a
Cloning Bay, or a Revenant Net, reduce the
challenge by 3 for each one you use. Or get
lucky — burn 3 SPIRIT, and describe the even
more profoundly strange creature that distracts
the Tentacled Red’s attention.
8 ♦ : ARTIFACT. Buried in the sand you find
a Pick of Nebulous Veins. How do you know
that is its name? You are not sure, but somehow
you do know. Do you have Myfanwy in your
crew? If so, Myfanwy also knows what must be
done to awaken the artifact. What must be
done? Once the Pick is awakened, take +5
GUILE.
The Pick a wrought-iron pick axe with a
small decorative skull at the junction between
the blade and the socket, and a sturdy
sandalwood shaft, a little too long for most
wielders. Once awakened, the Pick has two
curious features. First, wherever one digs with
the Pick, one will before too long excavate
fragments of human bones and perhaps other
remnants. Second, if one uses the Pick in
combat, in the marrow of one’s opponents’
bones, one may open seams of gold or silver.
9 ♦ : BATTLE. The Bonny Skittle is a
Gurvangat Prince-class needleship, currently
harrying you with its Mammoth-Moth scouts.
Is this a case of mistaken identity, police
brutality, a sudden unprovoked attack, or
something else? Flee the hostile airship. Take 2
DAMAGE, and reset any active projects to six
days until completion.
10 ♦ : Anarchy. A city appears on the horizon.
To your surprise, this is Montaubéliard, a city
which according to your maps should lie in
another part of the world altogether. You know
little of Montaubéliard, except that they have
practically no concept of government here.
What might you seek in Montaubéliard? What
happens when you do? SHIPYARD. If you
need it, the people of Montaubéliard will help
you repair your ship. Reduce DAMAGE by 2.
If you have at least 3 GOLD, give them 1
GOLD in thanks.
71
Or 8 ♦ : Art. The town of Ursellula shimmers
on the horizon. You have heard that in
Ursellula there is only one artwork in all the
city, and the people, who all appear happy and
prosperous, speak of it in a way that baffles
outsiders. Why have you come here? Do you
stay and find out more about Ursellula? What
happens during your stay? SHIPYARD. In the
workshops of Ursellula you may resupply your
ammunition. Burn 2 GOLD to take +2 STEEL.
When you eventually set off again, take +1
GUILE.
Or 9 ♦ : BATTLE. The Bonny Skittle is a
Gurvangat Prince-class needleship, equipped
with an onboard military zoo. If The Rattail
Bucket is equipped with a targeting array and
you can think of a way to use it now, take +3 of
any resource before the battle begins. Burn 7
STEEL to destroy or repel the attackers, and
take +3 SPIRIT and +3 GUILE. Burn 5 GUILE
to also capture or free some of their onboard
monsters.
Or 10 ♦ : From the prow of The Rattail Bucket,
you look down upon tall mountains and
snow-laden pines. PROJECT. You have a little
time to start something new. If you wish, burn
6 SPIRIT to improve some aspect of the
airship. Decide what to build and what resource
it will increase. Roll a die to see how many
turns the project will take to complete. Use the
die to keep track of progress. When it
completes, take +8 in your chosen resource, or
repair up to 3 points of DAMAGE.
Jack ♦ : You are being followed by a pack of
Druchesterian Marauders. They seem unsure
whether to attack. How do you resolve the
situation? If you use force or intimidation, take
+1 STEEL. Or if you use diplomacy or charm,
take +1 SPIRIT. Or if you use cunning or
stealth, take +1 GUILE. Or if you use
technology or magic, take +1 TECH.
Queen ♦ : DISCUSSION. Go around in a circle,
with each crew member stating their worst fear.
Then go around in a circle again, except this
time, you play Whispering Voices. Each of you
must tell one of the others how things may be
even worse than their very worst fear. When
this part of the story is complete, you may take
+1 SPIRIT or +1 GUILE.
King ♦ : BATTLE. Barely escape The How to
Enthrone a Glow, a Bearborn Nue-class cutter.
Was this a police action, an act of piracy, an
incident in a revolutionary uprising, revenge, or
something else? Take 2 DAMAGE, and reset
any active projects to six days until completion.
72
Or Jack ♦ : It. You meet a fluffy little creature.
Is it called a Hugs Benuggins, a Bumpmuggle, a
Woabie, or something else? What are the
circumstances of your meeting? Is it out on
patrol, on a quest of its own, guarding
something, here to show you the way, a minion
of Vicereine Shod, a Druchesterian scout, or
something else? SNARL! It acts terribly
ferocious. Is it bluffing, aspiring, a little deluded,
ferocious in its own special way, or actually a
deadly killer with a thousand Hit Points? After
this episode, the creature goes its way. But you
may decide to encounter it once more in the
journey, and take +2 SPIRIT at that time.
Or Queen ♦ : The dawn draws its reserved
luminescence across a crinkled and uninhabited
landscape. All is silent and tranquil. There is a
kind of keen terror to the atmosphere, as
though you were suspended not in a sky, but in
a held breath. A single globule of wobbling
dirty water as big as your head splashes on the
deck nearby, breaking the spell and leaving a
strange stain. You blink up at the shining sky,
but there is nothing there, nothing at all.
PROJECT. You have a little time to start
something new. If you wish, burn 8 GOLD to
improve some aspect of the airship. Decide
what to build and what resource it will
increase. Roll a die to see how many turns the
project will take to complete. Use the die to
keep track of progress. When the project
completes take +7 in your chosen resource, or
repair up to 2 points of DAMAGE.
Or King ♦ : BATTLE. The How to Enthrone a
Glow is a Bearborn Nue-class cutter, drawing
abreast, readying its broadside. Is this a police
action, an ambush, a mission of liberation, a test
of a new armament, or something else? Burn 2
TECH and 10 STEEL to destroy or capture
The Broken Hand, and take +9 GOLD. Or,
burn 2 TECH and 3 STEEL to make fools of
the captain and her crew and slip away
unharmed.
 Chapter Three
Ace ♣ : Secrets. One of your crew is not what
they seem. Who or what are they really? All
may be revealed now, or you may decide now,
and save the revelation itself for later in the
tale. When you have finished this turn, take +1
GUILE, or lose a crew member and take +2
GUILE and +1 STEEL.
2 ♣ : Mores. An unknown city appears on the
horizon. Upon arrival, you learn that this is the
town of All Lights. It seems that in the town of
All Lights, certain small things are permitted
which are frowned upon in the various societies
from which your crew originate. What are
these small permissions? Who among the crew
feels liberated by them, and who feels uneasy?
Do you stay long in All Lights? If so, what do
you soon come across? A protest, a robbery in
process, an opening ceremony, a youth on their
Naming Day, someone called Sikhangezile
Scatterhaunts who has brought you an item
from Eupheme Crabbeard? And/or something
else? SHIPYARD. In the workshops of All
Lights you may burn 10 GOLD to install drag
chutes for skyship maneuverability and take +4
TECH, +2 GUILE, and/or burn 30 GOLD to
install a lunar ram and take +8 TECH, +8
STEEL. You may also burn as much GOLD as
you like to do repairs. For every 2 GOLD spent,
reduce DAMAGE to The Rattail Bucket by 1.
73
Or Ace ♣ : Struggle. The town of Fimmir
looms on the horizon. Here in the town of
Fimmir, the population are in perpetual revolt
against against their rulers, the Tomorrowed. Is
the city as you expected? Why or why not? Do
you linger? SHIPYARD. While you are docked
in Fimmir, you may burn 6 GOLD to repair all
damage to the airship, and/or burn 4 GOLD to
complete all ongoing projects instantly. Work in
Fimmir pays well. Burn 2 GUILE or 2 SPIRIT
to take +6 GOLD.
Or 2 ♣ : Dust. The city of Iguruyi appears on
the horizon. Here in Iguruyi, the town is all but
overrun by Rumblepuzzlers, silent shaggy
machines who present their conundrums to
passers-by pleadingly, like puppies with thorns
in their paws. Does anyone know the origin of
these creatures? How do the townsfolk of
Iguruyi treat the Rumblepuzzlers? If you wish,
you may act out an encounter.
LORD DUST. Iguruyi is also home to Lord
Dust. Who is he and what is his residence like?
Do you have some business with him? If you
have brought him a painting, you may collect
either +4 GOLD or +2 GOLD, depending on
the condition of the painting. Entirely up to
you. Alternatively, if you have some other kind
of business with Dust, complete it and take +1
of a resource of your choosing.
SHIPYARD. In the workshops of Iguruyi
you may also burn as much GOLD as you like
to do repairs. For every 2 GOLD spent, reduce
DAMAGE to The Rattail Bucket by 1.
3 ♣ : BATTLE. You are getting your ass kicked
by a 300-foot long Zombie Kraken! But then
YOU KICK ITS ASS INSTEAD! How do you
kick the Zombie Kraken’s tentacly-ass ass? That
was intense. Take +1 GUILE. If you wish, also
take 2 DAMAGE and +6 STEEL.
Or 3 ♣ : Visiting. You come upon a garden
city, lifted up in a leafy rift in the high cliff face,
called simply ‘Utopia.’ Its inhabitants have hit
upon a form of happiness and peaceableness
which, of all the many systems you have
observed on your travels, strikes you as the
most elegant yet, or else the most sinister yet.
Of course, it is true that here in Utopia there
are no rulers, while at the same time, every
Utopian is potentate. And it’s true that the
Utopians don’t exactly ‘work’ or ‘play,’ since
every necessity and every indulgence is done
with the very same gentle, grave levity, the
very same light great-heartedness. It’s true too
that they have no money in Utopia, having long
ago, and not without taking plenty of trouble
over it, rid themselves of its presence, along
with the presence of parents and children in the
familiar sense. And it’s absolutely the case that
certain long-nourished structures now shimmer
in these things’ stead, a strange flourishing
sisterhood and a strange flourishing silverness
that are like to make blush both cash and kin.
Yet none of this is news to you! In all these
aspects, Utopia is redolent of numberless
peaceful places where you’ve moored for a week
or three to patch up your mainsail and gather
fragrant gifts of grain or fruit. Been there, seen
that, done that. No, what’s truly new and
bewitching about these Utopians is the serene
reverence, and solicitous revelry, with which
they surround the most important role in their
whole society. That is, the sublime status they
accord to their ‘Visitor from Afar,’ since it is
around the Visitor from Afar that these
Utopians all quite freely bend their hearts and
steer their wills. Whatever the everyday act a
Utopian carries out, they hold it both a sacred
honor and a subtle art to have that act be
properly perceived or, even better, sullenly
interrogated by some pilgrim, trader, tourist,
runaway, refugee, shipwreck rescuee, would-be
marauder, or other poor lost interloper. For the
74
Utopians, the only thing better than to be
glimpsed by a Visitor is actually to be guide to
one. Rather than an interruption or an
exception to the life of the city, the presence of
the outsider is that life’s catalyst, its very
medium, and no Utopian knows a greater joy
than to go among the own glass domes and
green-leaf avenues of Utopia serving the
outsider by their side garrulous screeds of useful
guidance, perceiving the function of every
institution one wanders through, the playing of
every piazza fountain one wanders past, with a
borrowed freshness, a mediated admiration of
its many beauties. Even more than this, it is
clear that all the Utopian’s social mechanisms,
in some way you cannot quite put your finger
on, depend upon the wide eyes, the knitted
brows, the chewed lips, the “But surelys” and
“But what abouts” of their Visitors from Afar.
In short, they like it when you watch. So it is
fortunate that Utopia, despite its relative
remoteness, receives an abundant stream of
Visitors from Afar. You ‘explain to a Visitor’
here as elsewhere you ‘think a thought.’ They
hold their own norms lightly, like those
morning thoughts that, being rooted in dreams,
are ready to move off into vapor like dew in
new sun. In some ways they barely have time
really to contemplate their own lives at all, so
bombarded are they by affronted, baffled, and
quizzical comparisons and perplexities, yet in
their companions’ garbled halfhearted defences
of the outmoded they nevertheless trace their
own true forms indirectly. In just the same way,
an infinite quantity of funhouse mirrors may
furnish a moderately more accurate account of
the self than one flat one. You know all this
about Utopia, of course, because your guide
explains it to you. And evening, that same
guide explains to you — even as they briefly
take you by the hand to help you hop from lapis
lazuli pier over the lanterned gondola’s
wobbling gunwale, even as its gliding pendulous
glow gilds the black canal’s lapping — that it is
you who is the light of this place, and, should
you stay until whatever embers glimmer you
grow low and smoulder, then it will soon be
you who guides some Visitor from Afar. Stay
or leave. Take +1 GUIDE. Sorry, GUILE.
4 ♣ : All is well. Perched on the gunwales of
the The Rattail Bucket, you wave your feet
over a phantasyscape of cumulonimbus,
pearlescent and wind-bitten, barbarous and
profuse. Off port side a ratcatchercatcher
airship, pewter armor-plated, chugs unsteadily
through the new bright dawn light, belching
yellow and green smoke. PROJECT. You have
a little time to start something new. If you wish,
burn 4 SPIRIT to improve some aspect of the
airship. Decide what to build and what resource
it will increase. Roll a die to see how many
turns the project will take to complete. Use the
die to keep track of progress. When it
completes, take +6 in your chosen resource, or
repair up to 3 points of DAMAGE.
5 ♣ : Labor. The city of Agharhome glows on
the horizon. Here you find the people have
many occupations you have never before
encountered. For instance, there is such a thing
as a caidove, who is in some ways a poet, but in
other respects a sort of vandal. Then there are
the elvollars, who appear to be a bit like
glassblowers, but also quite a lot like
epistemologists. Not to mention the moogoot,
who is not quite a chandler, and not quite a
plumber. And of course the flintcoat, grorlim,
and bolgror, whom you would say are three
different kinds of farrier, except everyone meets
that suggestion with puzzlement or peals of
laughter. You find yourself in a tavern with a
bolgror and a moogoot. The bolgror is
considering her career options. What's your
advice? When this turn is over, if you wish
burn 1 resource of your choosing to take +2
SPIRIT, GUILE, or TECH.
75
Or 4 ♣ : Clockwork. You have set down by a
large lake, almost a small sea, on whose banks
stands a small town. Mountains tower in a
circle all around, clothed golden in gorse and
creeping underwood, crowned with clouds. You
learn that this is the city of Ubá, the town of
clockwork creatures, where clockwork insects
carry clockwork pollen from clockwork rose to
clockwork rose. Do you linger to learn more of
Ubá? Do you explore the mountainous
countryside around Ubá? Is your stay eventful?
SHIPYARD. You may burn as much GOLD
as you like to do repairs. For every 2 GOLD
spent, reduce DAMAGE to The Rattail
Bucket by 1, or advance a project die by 1.
There are also experts available who will
awaken any magic artifact, or install any ship
system you may happen to have, for 6 GOLD
apiece.
Or 5 ♣ : Neighbors. At around dawn you
entered Kolashk airspace. What is the Kolashk
political system like? Is it a feudal kingdom, a
theocracy, an anarchist republic, riven by civil
war, a technocracy governed by automatons
and engineers, or something else? How do they
get on with their newest neighbors, the
Bonehome Empire? What about other nearby
polities, such as the Copper Swarm, the
Tantalam Swarm, the Bearborn and the
Druchesterians? Once the turn is over, take +1
SPIRIT, GUILE, or TECH.
6 ♣ : Spice. You have heard word of Edvard
Christiansen. Has Edvard committed some
daring feat? Or a terrible atrocity? Were they
not what they seemed? Have they had a change
of heart? Where are they now? Speeding
toward The Rattail Bucket with bloody intent?
Awaiting trial in a Druchesterian oubliette?
Due for execution at midnight? Enjoying a
relaxing honeymoon with Greyulf Headember?
Whereabouts unknown? When this turn is
finished, take +1 SPIRIT or +1 GUILE.
7 ♣ : BATTLE. Flee The Broken Hand. The
name is lettered on its side, but beyond that,
you have no idea what this ship is. In the chaos,
you thought you heard one of the crew call it a
“serpentship,” but afterwards nobody owns to
having said so. Take 1 DAMAGE and skip the
next card.
8 ♣ : BATTLE. The Blackguard Aschelminth is
a Rotterling Flenser-class galleass, currently
casting its grapples over your gunwales and
preparing to board. Escape, hopefully intact.
Take 2 DAMAGE, and reset any active
projects to six days until completion.
9 ♣ : It is happening. You are not on board.
You hear nothing but the whispering wind. You
have no decking below you. You in the clouds,
your arms and legs waving, falling down, down,
down, down.
How did this happen? Can you somehow
miraculously be saved? Burn 2 TECH or 2
GUILE, or lose a crew member.
76
Or 6 ♣ : Space. Your telemetry and
navigational charts indicate a zone of anomalous
space ahead known as lace-space. How is this
space different from ordinary space? You are
plotting a course to skirt the territory, when
The Pale Peacock appears and flies straight into
the lace-space zone. How curious. Do you
follow? What transpires? When this turn is
finished, take +1 SPIRIT or +1 GUILE.
Or 7 ♣ : BATTLE. There is a ship here called
The Broken Hand, and you have never seen
anything quite like it. Nor can you understand
its signals, until one that is unmistakeable:
cannon fire. Burn 8 GUILE to win the battle
and take +4 STEEL and +4 TECH. Or burn 4
TECH to slip away unharmed and take +3
SPIRIT.
Or 8 ♣ : BATTLE. The Blackguard
Aschelminth is a Rotterling Flenser-class
galleass, bearing down with weapons hot. Is
this a case of mistaken identity, part of a
revolution, a kidnapping attempt, or something
else? Burn 4 TECH and 11 STEEL to destroy or
capture The Blackguard Aschelminth and take
+8 GOLD. Or, burn 3 TECH and 3 STEEL to
repel The Blackguard Aschelminth, with a big
smoking hole in its side.
Or 9 ♣ : BATTLE. Fight or flee the Eaten
Ones. Burn 6 TECH to win the battle and take
+3 GUILE and +3 SPIRIT. Also burn the
image of what you have seen tonight into your
nightmares forever. Or you can evade the
encounter. If you evade, take 2 DAMAGE, and
reset any ongoing projects to 6 days. You also
skip the next card.
10 ♣ : ARTIFACT. You find the Fold-Out
Chair for Watching the Worldwell Well.
Where do you find it? Update your ship plan.
Do you have a Scout, a Witch, or a Zoologist in
your crew? If so, they know what must be done
to awaken the artifact. What must be done?
Once the artifact is awakened, roll two dice,
and add that amount of GOLD.
Jack ♣ : The Limping Finger rises unexpectedly
from a caldera. They're here to offer Urhurum's
service as a liaison officer aboard your airship.
NEWCOMER. Urhurum has a brisk manner
but a twinkle in her eye. Her rather compelling
nose does not physically resemble, and yet is
somehow reminiscent of, a unicorn’s horn. She
often wears an ermine-trimmed cape which
seems to be damasked with deadtech features of
undisclosed function. Does Urhurum adopt a
role, e.g. Doctor, Mathematician, Purser,
Witch, or something else? Urhurum adds +2
STEEL and +1 TECH.
Queen ♣ : Cache. Early this morning,
something fell and smashed in the aftcastle,
apparently from a great height. Assembling
some of the shards by dawn light, you found it
to be a human skull. The incident, though
surely merely a strange coincidence, has
unsettled everyone.
However, you have work to do, landing and
recovering something you hid earlier. What is
it? How long has it been hidden? Do you find it
easily? Is it as you expected? When you have
decided, you may take +2 of any resource.
77
Or 10 ♣ : From the prow of The Rattail Bucket,
you gaze down to the lighthouse burning on the
headland, its lantern glowing pale upon the
twisting, wine-dark sea. You have a little time.
PROJECT. If you wish, burn 2 TECH and 2
SPIRIT to start improving some aspect of the
airship. Decide what you want to build and
what resource it will increase. Roll a die to see
how long it will take. When it's complete, take
+8 in your chosen resource, or repair up to 4
DAMAGE.
Or Jack ♣ : From the prow of The Rattail
Bucket, you watch river-mouths, lagoons,
marshes and lakes, and shingle shoreline.
Further toward the horizon, a speck-like
clockwork tractor chunters, probably Bearborn,
tending their farms. PROJECT. Burn 1 GOLD
and 3 SPIRIT to start improving some aspect of
the airship. Decide what you want to build,
enhance, or repair. Roll a die to see how long it
will take. When it's complete, take +8 in your
chosen resource, or repair up to 4 DAMAGE.
Or Queen ♣ : Below you, a huge herd of
golemic buffalo graze across fawn-colored
grasslands, their shadows long in the low sun.
PROJECT. Burn 3 GOLD and 1 SPIRIT to
conduct repairs or improvements to the airship.
Decide what you want to do, and what
resource it will impact. Roll a die to see how
long it will take. When it's complete, take +6 in
your chosen resource, or repair any amount of
DAMAGE.
King ♣ : An unexpected twist occurs. Who or
what does it relate to? Lord Dust, Lady
Penelope, Vicereine Shod, Nkosi Majola,
Sikhangezile Scatterhaunts, Number Five,
Number Six, Doctor Mnquhe, Dorcas
Mzulwin, Jojo Schwanhilde, Luke Cobshadow,
Eupheme Crabbeard, the liaison officer
Urhurum, the captain of The Pale Peacock, the
captain of The Limping Finger, the Yellow
Order, the Liquid Sword, the Tentacled Red, or
to someone or something else?
Where does it occur? In Voxis, Mossblossom
Steppe, Montaubéliard, Utopia, Ursellula, the
ruins of Dramimmon Watch House, or
somewhere else?
Burn 5 SPIRIT and 15 GUILE to take these
strange times in your stride. If you use a Holy
Ladder, a Quickbridge or a Gravitron
Suppressor, reduce the challenge by 2. If you
use a Fold-Out Chair of Watching the
Worldwell Well, reduce the challenge by 6. Or
get caught off balance. Take 1 DAMAGE and
lose a crew member. When you have resolved
this card, don't draw the next card. Instead,
turn to the final chapter. Reshuffle the whole
deck, and then draw your final cards.
78
Or King ♣ : BATTLE. The Bezoar’s Bellylaugh
is a Rotterling Flenser-class galleass, and it has
just betrayed you. Together you were going to
hunt down Vicereine Shod, but now The
Bezoar’s Bellylaugh has turned its heavy cannon
on you. If you use a Fold-Out Chair of
Watching the Worldwell Well, reduce the
challenge by 6. If you use a Sentient Propellor
System, an Adamantine Helpmeet, or a
Quickbridge, reduce the challenge by 2. Burn 3
TECH and 19 STEEL to destroy, capture, or
repel The Bezoar’s Bellylaugh. Or, try to give
the treacherous murderers the slip. Take 3
DAMAGE, and reroll any project dice. When
you have resolved this card, don't draw the
next card. Instead, turn to the final chapter.
Reshuffle the whole deck, and then draw your
final cards.
 Chapter Four

1. This is it. Take a moment to think back over all you've seen and done. Then decide the nature of the
final episode. What will it be? A spectacular showdown with Vicereine Shod in their shadowy alchemical
warehouse slash penthouse? Rescuing Pen Little from Voxis and delivering them to their lover aboard The
Limping Finger? Confronting the secret that has festered aboard The Rattail Bucket all along? The
monster from the military menagerie morphing into its final form? Entering the Edge of Dark to disable
the rogue Starstrike System? Passing through the membrane of reality, to that realm beyond the mortal
aether and matter? Warning The Pale Peacock in the nick of time? An all-guns-blazing assault on the
Yellow Order’s secret lair to gain access to the Worldwell? Figuring out the Graviton Suppressor was a
plant, and racing to foil Nkosi Majola and Vicereine Shod's real plan? Or something else?

2. Draw three cards to create the challenge(s) of this final episode. If you are playing on the easy setting,
you can draw just one or two. If you are playing on the hard setting, draw four.

Spades mean burn TECH.

Clubs mean burn STEEL.
Diamonds mean burn GUILE.
Hearts mean burn SPIRIT.

For example: if you draw 2♣, 5♣, and 10♥, you need to burn 7 STEEL and 10 SPIRIT to remove all the
cards and overcome all your challenges. Aces are high and court cards count as 10.

3. Interpret the cards as challenges in your final episode.

↬ Each card may be a separate challenge, or you may combine any cards into a larger challenge.
↬ For every point of DAMAGE you endure, reduce the challenge level of a card by 1.
↬ For every character who sacrifices themselves reduce the challenge level of a card by 2.
↬ If you cannot burn enough resources to remove a card, narrate some calamity instead. You have
arrived just a little too late. Sailcloth tears, rope unravels, villains prosper, curses proliferate,
portals fly open, abhorrences access the mortal plane. Messages are forgotten, purposes are
mistook, crops canker, mercy is withheld and trust betrayed. Plague surges in veins, bravery
flickers, love founders, the world withers. At the needful instant vital objects slip from the
fumbling fingers of heroes. The shivering lost stumble in the snow storm, just missing the search
party’s lanterns. Hope burns in hearts in vain.

So ... have the crew survived? Was the tale of The Rattail Bucket a happy one? Or a tragic one? Or was it
bittersweet? Or does it all depend on your perspective? If you like, you can close the story with a montage.
What does The Rattail Bucket look like now? What is the last we see of the people we met? What is each
one doing? And what is the last we see of each crew member? When you feel you’ve said all you need to,
end the story, and let the final curtain fall, like a great billowing sail.

79
 The Voyage of The
Bone Butterfly
Features
✦ Solo play
✦ Set in the Vale, the core Shrike universe
✦ A focus on storytelling and worldbuilding
✦ Open-ended storytelling with a loose theme of anti-carceral justice

80
 The Voyage of The Bone Butterfly
Setting Up
There are four crew members aboard The Bone Butterfly. Choose a Captain, a First Mate, an Engineer,
and a Navigator:

✦ The Geek: Tilly the Yarrowborn

✦ The Center of Attention: Desmonsuella the Yarrowborn
✦ The Shy One: Lydia the Northerner
✦ The Ingenue: Emilia the Janbulagger
✦ The Rebellious One: Pershy the Northerner
✦ The Sweetheart: Alex the Janbulagger

You’ll need a deck of playing cards and a notebook or something else to use as a Logbook. You’ll need at
least one die, and ideally a couple more dice.

Give yourself 2 GOLD, 1 STEEL, 1 GUILE, 1 TECH, and 1 SPIRIT. If you are playing on the easy
setting, mark 2 STEEL instead of 1. If you are playing on the hard setting, mark 2 DAMAGE.

81
 Chapter One
Ace ♠ : At around midnight you entered
Southerner airspace. What tyrant rules
here? Is it a gaunt youth with an infernal
patron, a giggling godking, a fascist
demagogue, a smooth-talking technocrat
with an expensive smile and a manifesto
brimming with buzzwords, an otherworldly
usurping shapeshifter, or someone else?
Sketch and name them, take +1 GUILE or
+1 SPIRIT.
2 ♠ : How does your airship move? Is it
equipped with a full set of sails, bristling
with black-belching chimneystacks, buoyed
by balloons and bladders, maintained aloft
by mystical music, or is it propelled by
some other principle? When you have
updated your ship schematic, take +1
TECH or +1 STEEL.
3 ♠ : There is a ritual or quirk aboard the
skyship, passed on by a crew member who
has since left. What is it? Update your
Logbook, and take +1 TECH or +1
SPIRIT.
4 ♠ : BATTLE. Burn 1 STEEL or 1 GUILE
to defend yourself. The Leech Swarm has
the upper hand, till clever tactics turn the
tide. How? Take +1 TECH. Or flee the
Leech Swarm. Skip the next card.
82
Or Ace ♠ : What can you see of the land
below? What kind of climate is it, and
what features can you make out? Is there
anything out there you want to explore or
to avoid? Do you know the name of this
region? Update your Logbook if you wish,
take +1 GUILE or +1 TECH.
Or 2 ♠ : For a vessel of its class, The Bone
Butterfly has some unusual features. What
is its most distinctive feature? An
alchemist's workshop, some smuggler
compartments, an aviary of giant birds, a
cannery, a dropsonde launcher, a library, a
crane of enormous lifting capacity, an
orangerie, a rainbow reconnaissance golem,
or something else? When you’ve updated
your ship schematic, take +1 TECH or +1
SPIRIT.
Or 3 ♠ : One or more of your crew has
been to prison, at least once. How does
Janbulagger prison compare with
Yarrowborn prison? Update your Logbook,
and take +1 SPIRIT or +1 STEEL.
Or 4 ♠ : BATTLE. The Encouraged
Entrepreneur is a Mianyuan No-class
patrol pinnace, currently casting its
grapples over your gunwales and preparing
to board. Is this a police action, a
prearranged duel, an act of piracy, or
something else? Burn 3 TECH and 10
STEEL to destroy, capture, repel, or
befriend The Encouraged Entrepreneur,
and take +8 GOLD. Or, flee the hostile
skyship. Take 2 DAMAGE, and reset any
active projects to six days until completion.
5 ♠ : DISCUSSION. One of the crew
proposes an issue. For example: How are
we getting on as a group? Or, What are
our goals right now? Or, Where are we
headed? What does everybody think about
this? You don’t need to resolve the issue or
come to any decision. When everyone’s
been heard, take +1 SPIRIT.
6 ♠ : A strange pestilence is afflicting the
Vale. Is it called la Contagion Perdue, the
Dreambone Blight, the Forgetting, the
Every-Eyes Kaleidoscope, the Golden
Plague, or something else? How does it
manifest? After you have told this part of
the story, take +1 SPIRIT or +1 GUILE.
7 ♠ : Tomorrow you are entering a new
area. There are disturbing legends about it.
What do the legends say? NEWCOMER.
Before long, Layaali also arrives aboard
The Bone Butterfly. How? Who is she?
Does she adopt a role, e.g. Boatswain,
Cleric, Gunner, Healer, or maybe
something else? Add Layaali to your
Logbook. Whenever a new crew member
joins, you may also reassign any roles you
like. Layaali adds +1 STEEL.
8 ♠ : How do you make decisions aboard
The Bone Butterfly? Is the Captain the top
of a chain of command, first among equals,
or just another job like the rest? Do you
use majority votes, sortition, oracles,
consensus decision-making, or some other
system? If you wish, today The Bone
Butterfly also has a malfunction that must
be repaired. Decide what it is, burn 1
TECH and take +2 STEEL.
83
Or 5 ♠ : What kind of weapons does The
Bone Butterfly carry? E.g. a heavy ballista,
a hovering mine system, a tentacle ram,
brass lantaka and lela swivel-guns mounted
in the railings and rigging, a red dragon
countermeasures suite, some other
weapons, or perhaps no weapons at all?
Update your ship schematic, and take +1
STEEL.
Or 6 ♠ : You are followed for some miles
by a creature. Do you know what it is? Is it
dangerous? After you have told this part of
the story, take +1 STEEL or +1 TECH.
Or 7 ♠ : Most things on The Bone
Butterfly need repair, replacement, or
upgrading. What are your top priorities? If
you wish, burn 2 GOLD to start a
PROJECT. Decide what to build and
what resource it will increase, then roll a
die to find out how long it will take. Draw
the project in your Logbook, and place the
die on it to track progress. Each turn the
die counts down one, and when it reaches
zero, take +4 in the chosen resource.
Or 8 ♠ : The Engineer does a Tarot reading
for the First Mate. What do the cards say?
If you wish, this evening The Bone
Butterfly also encounters some problem or
opportunity that requires a little hedge
magic. Decide what it is, burn 1 SPIRIT
and take +2 GUILE or +4 GOLD.
9 ♠ : Your airship is in sore need of a Cook.
Why? After you have told this part of the
story, take +1 STEEL.
10 ♠ : You are enjoying a solitary stroll
through the tree-shaded lanes of Cimmir,
when you feel a tap on your shoulder. Who
sent these thugs? Was it Lady Chukwuma,
Nanny Whiteworm, Sithembile Cobb,
Archon Pavelková, or someone else? What
kind of message do they want to send?
That you've got one week to find the
money or else? That you should stay out of
Zeira if you know what's good for you?
That you better spill the beans about the
Astrolabe of Animation? Or something
else? Burn 2 GOLD, or 1 resource of your
choosing, or lose a crew member. Once the
turn is over, take +1 GUILE or +1
SPIRIT.
84
Or 9 ♠ : You arrive at Kindness for your
rendezvous. Is it with the fence Varys Sin?
The smuggler Diaspor Chike? The corrupt
official Nanny Whiteworm? Or someone
else? What information are you seeking?
How to weave the laces that will awaken
the Boots of Empathy? Where Harley
Scarlet’s real loyalties lie? What tool can
disarm Gray Obvious's Samovar of the Day
and the Dream? The layout of Lady
Chukwuma's villa in Cimmir? The access
code for Archon Pavelková’s skyship? The
source of the mysterious contagion? Or
something else? When this turn is over,
take +1 SPIRIT.
Or 10 ♠ : The sun glows through the
leaves. You are heaping a wicker basket
with greengages, so heavy and ripe only
habit still attaches them to the branch.
Returning to The Bone Butterfly, you find
yourself gazing down a dozen Mianyuan
musket barrels, as the soldiers of The
Querulous Paranoia cheerfully cart away
all your CARGO, which they call
‘contraband.’ They even take the
greengages. You are however able to
conceal half of your GOLD. If you have a
set of smuggler compartments, conceal all
your GOLD or half your GOLD plus all
your CARGO. As The Querulous
Paranoia prepares to lift off, their Captain
mentions something about Archon
Pavelková sending their regards. Have you
heard this name before? Either way, you'll
remember it for next time ...
Jack ♠ : BATTLE. You are too late. The
Crystal Finger is falling from the sky, its
topsail trailing in flames. The
Mnemodream-class Oct gunboat circles
back round to pick off survivors. Burn 2
STEEL to drive off the Oct gunboat. If you
do this, you discover one survivor in the
wreckage. Upon regaining consciousness,
Bessy begs you to take her to a city in the
north called Bura. NEWCOMER. Add
Bessy to your Logbook as Cook, Healer,
Merchant, Ropemaker, or as something
else. Bessy adds +1 STEEL, +1 SPIRIT,
and +2 GOLD.
Queen ♠ : BATTLE. The Grieving Skittle
is a Splinterwaif Gaslight-class scout. Why
did you decide to attack it? What weren’t
you prepared for? Discretion is the better
part of valor, so disengage and take +1
SPIRIT.
King ♠ : The City of Palliwero glows on
the horizon. Here in the City of Palliwero,
adventuring is illegal and must be done in
secret. No dungeon-crawling, no
investigating mysterious carnivals, no
battles of wits with ancient wyrms, and
absolutely no getting ambushed by goblins.
Why have you come to the City of
Polliwero? What happens next?
TRADING POST. You may purchase
CARGO here to sell later on. Make a note
of how much GOLD you have invested.
The best CARGO in Palliwero is mostly
Thion Hudor, Red Dragonscale, Sweet
Vitriol, Sugar of Lead, Plumbago, and
Ambergris.
85
Or Jack ♠ : There's a Bearborn
Minokawa-class knarr nearby, and it's up
to something. Is it seizing Brokenborn
ships, flytipping, enforcing a blockade,
dumping magic pollutants, spying on The
Crystal Finger, trying to stash a mysterious
bundle in the forest, or something else?
Also, if you wish, you may burn 1 GUILE
to spy on their set-up and take +2 TECH.
Or Queen ♠ : BATTLE. The Grieving
Skittle is a Splinterwaif Gaslight-class
scout. Why have you decided to attack it?
Burn 2 GUILE and 4 STEEL to defeat The
Grieving Skittle, and take +6 GOLD.
Or King ♠ : The town of Mellalaluria
spreads on the horizon. It’s said that in
place of an ordinary system of law and
justice, they have an intricate system of
competitive poem-writing. Are the stories
true, or a little misleading? What happens
during your stay in Mellaluria?
SHIPYARD. While you are docked in
Mellalaluria, you may burn as much
GOLD as you like to fix up the ship. For
every GOLD spent, reduce DAMAGE to
The Bone Butterfly by 1. WORKSHOPS.
Here at Mellalaluria, you may also hire an
expert poet-enchanter to awaken any magic
artifact, or install any ship system, for a
bargain price of 2 GOLD.
 Chapter Two
Ace ♥ : Over-We-Want-To raises its
towers on the horizon. Here in
Over-We-Want-To, they have only
recently abolished prisons, courts, and the
city guard. But a new kind of cop is
emerging, from an unexpected origin. What
is it? The guild of merchant tailors, the
majordomos of the aristocracy, the
worshipful company of barber-surgeons, or
someone else? What happens during your
stay in Over-We-Want-To? SHIPYARD.
While you are docked in
Over-We-Want-To, you may burn 6
GOLD to repair all damage to the airship,
and/or burn 4 GOLD to complete all
ongoing projects instantly.
2 ♥ : The Bone Butterfly has a pet. What
kind of animal is it, and what is its name?
Or there something that lives on board,
whether you like it or not. What is it? Or
while disembarked, you find a small ball of
dark fluff, apparently orphaned. It croaks
faintly. You’re not sure what it is, but you
bring it on board. How do you try to nurse
it to health? When the turn is over take
either +1 SPIRIT or +1 GUILE.
86
Or Ace ♥ : The town of Corpol spreads on
the horizon. The Navigator knows this
part of the world. Apparently, in Corpol,
strange settlers with advanced death
technology have recently moored their
ships. What do you find when you arrive
in Corpol? A bustling market, the annual
day of races, an armed insurrection, a grand
ball, the third day of rioting, a scene of
laughter and confusion, a contest of
architect-poets, a baffling ceremony, an old
friend in a new role, or something else?
When you eventually set off again, take +1
STEEL. SHIPYARD. Work in Corpol is
easy to come by. If you wish, burn 2
GUILE or 2 SPIRIT to take +6 GOLD.
Or 2 ♥ : Upon arrival, you learn that this is
the legendary city of Reptar Faeran,
known for its eggshell blue skies, its fruitful
orchard topiaries, its crumbling mosaics
that depict scenes from its visitors’
childhoods. What’s the first thing you
find? A heated argument, a masked ball, a
military parade, a market that happens
once a decade, an opening ceremony for the
completed toe of a colossus-in-progress
called The Shriek, a rowdy pair of revellers
asking you to settle a bet for them, a
foolhardy duel, or something else?
SHIPYARD. In the workshops of Reptar
Faeran you may burn as much GOLD as
you like to do repairs. For every 2 GOLD
spent, reduce DAMAGE to The Bone
Butterfly by 1, or advance a project die by
1.
3 ♥ : An arcology appears on the horizon.
Upon arrival, you learn that this is the
great city of Numinous Gladness. It seems
that in the great city of Numinous
Gladness, they did away with their prisons
and police a decade ago. However, a new
form of police has now established itself.
What was the source? The farmers, the
scholars, the accountants, the fire fighters,
the psychologists, the nurses, the librarians,
the architects, the bankers, the facilitators,
the theatre-makers, or someone or
something else? What happens during your
visit to Numinous Gladness? SHIPYARD.
For every 2 GOLD spent, reduce
DAMAGE to The Bone Butterfly by 1, or
advance a project die by 1.
4 ♥ : ARTIFACT. A ruined crofter’s
cottage, half-sunk in the peat bog and fully
smothered in purple moss. Inside, you
discover a useful item. Is it breathtakingly
advanced navigational equipment, a copper
cup that can never be knocked over and
spilled, a powerful searchlight perfect for
your keel, a sentient and somewhat ornery
ores and metals manipulator, or something
else? Make some notes and/or sketch it in
your Logbook. At any time you may repair
and install it by burning 4 TECH. Once it
is installed, take +3 STEEL and +3
GUILE. Alternatively, you may sell it at
any SHIPYARD or TRADING POST for
2 GOLD.
5 ♥ : BATTLE. Flee from the enraged
steam wyvern. Take 1 DAMAGE and skip
the next card.
87
Or 3 ♥ : ARTIFACT. While exploring an
abandoned solarium deep in the forest, you
discover a Garter Belt of Robust Policy.
What does this artifact do? In what ways
are its powers unpredictable, costly, or
strange? Furthermore, this artifact has a
special effect, which may be used once on
your voyage, and only by a Boatswain,
Cleric, Cook, Steward, or Runemaster.
This allows you to see the next card before
making any decisions about the active card.
Or 4 ♥ : The Grammar of Cimiriopol looms
on the horizon. Here in the Grammar of
Cimiriopol, a new monarch is crowned
every morning, and is normally beheaded
before lunch. In fact the throne itself is
actually a kind of hybrid throne slash
guillotine. Do you stop over in Cimiriopol?
What is it like? What happens? Is one of
your crew crowned? TRADING POST.
While you are docked in the Grammar of
Cimiriopol, you may sell any CARGO you
are carrying. Sell for twice whatever you
paid. If your crew has a Bursar, Cook,
Steward, or Merchant aboard, sell for
triple whatever you paid.
Or 5 ♥ : BATTLE. The steam wyvern is
enraged! How did you upset it? Burn 5
TECH to win the battle and take +2
SPIRIT and +2 STEEL. Or burn 5
SPIRIT to befriend the steam wyvern and
take +2 GUILE and +2 TECH.
6 ♥ : BATTLE. Run for clouds, it’s some
kind of vast, amorphous, tentacled fiend.
It’s none of your business. Take 2
DAMAGE, and reset any active projects
to six days until completion.
7 ♥ : GEAR. Buried in the sand is a useful
piece of equipment. You bring it on board.
Is it a displacement illusion system, a
tentacle helmet, a hydraulic automaton,
lightning storage coils, a set of decoy buoys,
or something else? Sketch it in your
Logbook. At any time you may repair and
install it by burning 4 TECH. Once it is
installed, take +3 STEEL and +3 GUILE.
Alternatively, you may sell it at any
SHIPYARD or TRADING POST for 2
GOLD.
8 ♥ : The city of Fogons Gate spreads on
the horizon, where they are still trying to
heal after the Harrowing. This is also
where the First Mate's estranged son lives.
Perhaps you'll pay a visit? SHIPYARD.
While you are docked in Fogons Gate, you
may burn 6 GOLD to repair all
DAMAGE to the airship, and/or burn 4
GOLD to complete all ongoing projects
instantly. Casual labour in Fogons Gate
pays well. Burn 2 GUILE or 2 SPIRIT to
take +6 GOLD.
88
Or 6 ♥ : BATTLE. Fight or befriend some
kind of vast, amorphous, tentacled fiend.
Good God, what is that thing? If you have
a tentacle ram, a searchlight, or a
music-powered ship engine, reduce the
challenge by 2. Burn 9 TECH to win the
battle and take +4 STEEL and +4
SPIRIT. Or burn 1 TECH and 5 GUILE
to befriend the vast, amorphous, tentacled
fiend.
Or 7 ♥ : The city of Brukken Mar
shimmers on the horizon. In Brukken Mar,
emotions are manufactured in the great
city foundries, mostly for export, and rare
and banned emotions crafted by artisans
hidden in the hills. What do you find when
you arrive? A robbery in progress, a picket
line, everyone searching for a lost child,
everyone trying to stop a duel from taking
place, someone going into labor, all of it, or
something else? SHIPYARD. If you need
it, the people of Brukken Mar will help
you repair your ship. Reduce DAMAGE
by 2. If you have at least 3 GOLD, chip in 1
GOLD. If not that's totally OK.
Or 8 ♥ : ARTIFACT. Buried in the sand
you find a pair of Boots of Empathy.
Update your Logbook. Is there a
Boatswain, Cobbler, Cook, Counsellor,
Empath, Merchant, Ropemaker, Spy, or
Tourist, or Undercover Cop in your crew?
If so, they know what must be done to
awaken the artifact. What must be done?
Once the artifact is awakened, take +3
GUILE and +2 SPIRIT.
9 ♥ : BATTLE. Flee from the might of the
The Halved Dragonfly, a Mianyuan
Image-class battlebarge. Is this an everyday
act of war, licensed privateering under a
letter of marque, a drunken boat brawl, or
something else? Take 1 DAMAGE, and
lose a crew member.
10 ♥ : What do you see below you from the
deck of your ship? Seas, lakes, forests,
savannahs, cities, fields, rivers, dunes, fens,
salt flats, cliffs, craters, roads, caravans,
camps, creatures, wind farms, orchards,
sinkholes, geysers, mountains, hills, rice
terraces, volcanoes, clouds, dirigibles, all of
that, something else? NEWCOMER.
Later that day, Gwydion arrives aboard
The Bone Butterfly. How? Do they adopt a
role, e.g. Gunner, Pilot, Merchant, or
something else? They bring +2 TECH and
+1 GUILE. Add them to your Logbook.
Jack ♥ : NEWCOMER. Oddbjørg drifts
by on a bunch of colourful balloons. Do
they join the crew of The Bone Butterfly?
Do they adopt a role, e.g. Cleric, Cook,
Gunner, Runemaster, or something else?
They bring +2 GUILE and +1 TECH.
Add them to your Logbook. Whenever a
new crew member joins, you may also
reassign any roles you like.
89
Or 9 ♥ : BATTLE. The Halved Dragonfly
is a Mianyuan Image-class battlebarge,
drawing abreast, readying its broadside.
How did you get into this terrible mess?
Burn 3 TECH and 6 STEEL to destroy,
capture, or repel The Halved Dragonfly,
and take +7 GOLD. Or, burn 2 SPIRIT
and 2 STEEL for a stroke: just as things are
looking very dark, The Bone Bird of
Paradise attacks The Halved Dragonfly,
allowing you to slip away ….
Or 10 ♥ : Most of the crew are at dice,
while one of you climbs up to help a
rosewood-hued cloud toad tangled in the
rigging. The Bone Butterfly glides serenely
over white-capped peaks. All is well, and
you have a little time to start a new
PROJECT. If you wish, burn 4 SPIRIT to
improve some aspect of the airship. Decide
what to build and what resource it will
increase. Roll a die to see how many turns
the project will take. Use the die to keep
track of progress. When it completes, take
+6 in your chosen resource, or repair up to
3 points of DAMAGE.
Or Jack ♥ : A large spiral lake glisters far
below, set in a vast plain of sea-green moss.
A flock of gold and carob colored pigeons
soar off your starboard side. You have a
little time to start a PROJECT. Burn 1
TECH and 2 SPIRIT to start improving
some aspect of the airship. Decide what
you want to build, enhance, or repair. Roll
a die to see how many turns it will take.
Each turn, adjust the die down by one.
When the project die reaches zero, work is
complete and you may take +8 in your
chosen resource, or repair up to 4
DAMAGE.
Queen ♥ : Someone goes missing from the
crew! Who? What clues are there to how
they may have vanished? Burn 1 SPIRIT to
locate them and rescue them from their
predicament. Otherwise they're gone for
good. At the end of this turn, take +2
SPIRIT.
King ♥ : Two of the crew get into a fight.
What’s the tea? After you have told this
part of the story, take +1 STEEL.
Diamonds
Ace ♦ : You've been infiltrated! A stealth
picket dispatched from The Querulous
Paranoia has slipped alongside you, and a
Mianyuan kill-team is prowling the upper
deck. Who raises the alarm? Drive the
pigeon-hearted assassins off and take +1
GUILE or +1 STEEL.
90
Or Queen ♥ : Dark oldgrowth forests
spread to every horizon. PROJECT. You
have a little time to start something new. If
you wish, burn 9 GOLD to improve some
aspect of the airship. Decide what to build
and what resource it will increase. Roll a
die to see how many turns it will take. Use
the die to keep track of progress. When the
project completes take +8 in your chosen
resource, or repair up to 2 points of
DAMAGE.
Or King ♥ : Tiny caravans thread across
the prairie below. Tiny wee prairie ghosts,
rare at this altitude, bob along your
starboard side for a time. PROJECT. Burn
2 TECH and 1 GUILE to conduct repairs
or enhancements to the airship. Decide
what you want to do, and what resource it
will impact. Roll a die to see how many
turns it will take. Each turn, adjust the
project die down by one. When the project
die reaches zero, work is complete and you
may take +5 in your chosen resource, or
repair up to 3 points of DAMAGE.
Or Ace ♦ : You are racing back to a
previously visited location. Which one and
why? What happens next? When you’ve
decided this turn is over, take +1 TECH or
+1 SPIRIT.
2 ♦ : BATTLE. The Drunk Spark is a
Mianyuan Harpy-class bat, drawing
abreast, readying its broadside. Is this a
case of mistaken identity, the enforcement
of a blockade, an anti-smuggling operation,
or something else? Flee but take 2
DAMAGE, and reset any active projects
to six days until completion.
3 ♦ : What are the Boots of Empathy? How
have you discovered this? Who on board
thinks empathy isn’t everything? Why?
4 ♦ : The city of Zeira gradually coalesces
on the horizon. It is said that in Zeira, pale
peacocks as tall as a person strut the
piazzas, lit at night by multicolored
lanterns, and by day by water jetting sunlit
white in rills of lapis lazuli and amethyst.
Zeira is known for its fencing instructors,
who spar with unusually small foils, and its
parasol makers, who fashion unusually
large domes; it is famed for the perpetual
flowing and unfolding life of its fountains
and its rills and of its pale tall peacocks. Yet
you arrive to find the city one big bonfire.
An armada of Oct ships moves sluggishly
over the horizon, heavy with loot. There’s
nothing left. Drooping over the gunwales
of a pair of laggard gun-brigs, you observe
the broken necks of peacocks. They were
truly as tall as the stories all said. Take +2
STEEL, and continue your voyage.
91
Or 2 ♦ : BATTLE. The Drunk Spark is a
Mianyuan Harpy-class bat, currently
casting its grapples over your gunwales and
preparing to board. Is this an act of piracy,
police brutality, a test of a new armament,
or something else? Burn 4 TECH and 6
STEEL to destroy or capture The Drunk
Spark, and take +7 GOLD. Or, burn 3
TECH and 4 STEEL to repel The Drunk
Spark and take +5 GOLD.
Or 3 ♦ : What kind of landscape is speeding
by below? The First Mate spots a good
omen. What is it?
Or 4 ♦ : Smoke and lights appear on the
horizon. Upon arrival, you learn that this is
the city of Dying Iguruyi. It seems that in
Dying Iguruyi, the Talking Beasts have
unearthed a battalion of ancient mechs
built by a long vanished civilization, and
mean to make war on the Oct Capitol.
What happens during your stay? Which
Talking Beasts do you meet? How are their
preparations for war proceeding?
SHIPYARD. In the workshops of Dying
Iguruyi you may resupply your
ammunition. Burn 2 GOLD to take +2
STEEL. When you eventually set off
again, take +1 SPIRIT.
5 ♦ : Some years ago one of the crew swore
a solemn oath. Who? What is the oath?
E.g. to be revenged on the aristocrat who
wronged you, to gain a noble title, to
resurrect the loved one you lost, to release
a contagion across the land, or something
else? NEWCOMER. Moukib is willing to
join your crew. Do they adopt a role, e.g.
Cook, Cleric, Merchant, Pilot, Ropemaker,
or something else? They bring +1 STEEL
and +1 SPIRIT.
6 ♦ : You discover the source of the strange
pestilence that has spread throughout the
land. What is the source? What must be
done to stop it?
7 ♦ : BATTLE. Fight, flee, or befriend the
Lightning Spider. What is a Lightning
Spider, and what’s its problem? Burn 5
SPIRIT to take this in your stride and take
+2 STEEL and +2 TECH. If you have a
Runemaster and some source of bright
light, you can communicate with the
Lightning Spider and reduce the challenge
by 4. Or evade the encounter: take 1
DAMAGE and skip the next card.
92
Or 5 ♦ : ARTIFACT. While exploring an
abandoned watch tower high in the
mountains, you discover a Corset of
Shadow. This relic may be used once on
your voyage, and only by a Boatswain,
Cleric, Cook, Healer, Interpreter, or
Navigator. It allows you to burn SPIRIT
as GUILE, or vice-versa. You can decide
exactly how it works when you use it.
Or 6 ♦ : You are racing back to a location
you have been to before. Is it Glumflower,
Glowglum, Reptar Faeran, Numinous
Gladness, Over-We-Want-To, Zeira,
Oddbjørg’s cottage, the Shrinking Forest,
the crash site of The Stainedglass
Samaritan, or somewhere else? Why is
time of the essence?
Or 7 ♦ : BATTLE. Fight, flee, or befriend
the Winged Kraken. Why does stuff like
this keep happening? Burn 9 TECH to
take this in your stride and take +4 STEEL
and +4 SPIRIT. If you have an arcanaloth
countermeasures suite or a red dragon
countermeasures suite that you can adapt,
reduce the challenge by 2. Or you can
evade the encounter. If you evade, take 2
DAMAGE, and reset any ongoing projects
to 6 days.
8 ♦ : You are passing through Mora Bjerg,
a land populated by many minor deities and
spirits. Prayers have recently been
platformized, and if you are not happy with
the service supplied by the supernature you
are matched with, you are welcome to
leave a one-star review. The clouds are
looking very, very angry overhead. Who
prays? And who answers? Burn 1 SPIRIT
or take 2 DAMAGE. ARTIFACT. After
you ride out the storm, you land and find a
Top Hat of Unmercenary Marvels. Update
your Logbook. Do you have a Cleric, Cook,
or Healer in your crew? If so, they know
what must be done to awaken the artifact.
What must be done? Once the artifact is
awakened, take +5 TECH.
9 ♦ : BATTLE. Who is the Flapping
Warlock? Why have you decided to attack
him? What makes you regret your actions?
You may flee, in which case, in the ensuing
exchange of sorcerous fizz, one of your
crew is lost overboard. Remove them from
the ship. Also take 1 DAMAGE to the
ship. Any ongoing projects are also
destroyed completely. Or you may burn 2
SPIRIT to surrender. The Flapping
Warlock will charge you with a quest.
Decide what the quest is, and set a new
project die to 5 turns. When you complete
the quest, take +1 GOLD. If the quest is
not complete after 5 turns, take 2
DAMAGE from the Warlock’s hex, but
regain +2 SPIRIT.
93
Or 8 ♦ : An arcology appears on the
horizon. Upon arrival, you learn that this is
the great city of Illuria. It seems that in the
great city of Illuria, their concept of ‘shame’
is either nonexistent, or completely
different from yours. Are you searching for
someone in Illuria? Who? Do you find
them, or perhaps a clue to their
whereabouts? SHIPYARD. In the
workshops of Illuria you may burn 10
GOLD to install a driftsonde launcher and
take +4 TECH, +2 GUILE, and/or burn
25 GOLD to install a razor disk launcher
and take +8 TECH, +8 STEEL. You may
also burn as much GOLD as you like to do
repairs. For every 2 GOLD spent, reduce
DAMAGE to The Bone Butterfly by 1.
Or 9 ♦ : BATTLE. Stand up to the
Flapping Warlock! Describe the Flapping
Warlock and his minions. Burn 8 GUILE to
win the battle and take +4 STEEL and +4
TECH. Or burn 1 GUILE and 6 SPIRIT
to keep the Flapping Warlock at bay and
escape unharmed, and take +4 STEEL.
10 ♦ : A town appears on the horizon.
Upon arrival, you learn that this is the
town of Thistle. It seems that in the town
of Thistle, they have a form of democracy
that baffles outsiders and divides
philosophers (except those who live in
Thistle). Soon after you arrive, one of the
townsfolk asks for your help. What do you
do? SHIPYARD. In the workshops of
Thistle you may burn 5 GOLD or 2 TECH
to install an Astrolabe of Animation, a 360
degree rigging system, or an arcanaloth
countermeasures suite to your Logbook,
and take +4 in any resource. You may also
burn as much GOLD as you like to do
repairs. For every 2 GOLD spent, reduce
DAMAGE to The Bone Butterfly by 1.
Jack ♦ : The Rattail Bucket is bearing down
on you, its crew swarming across the gun
decks. But then a flag of truce goes up, and
an offer of parley. How does this one play
out? When this turn is over, if you wish,
transfer 1 point of resource to another.
94
Or 10 ♦ : Below you spreads agricultural
land. Is it a quiltwork of enclosed fields and
meadows? Solar golems dragging lattice
tractors through mushroom paddies? A
half-terraformed once-wilderness? An
ancient or innovative commons
infrastructure? Something else?
PROJECT. Burn 2 GOLD and 2 SPIRIT
to start improving some aspect of the
airship. Decide what you want to build and
what resource you want to increase. The
project need not be physical. It might be
about the relationships of the crew. It
might be about your imagination,
perception, and insight. Roll a die to see
how long the project takes. After that
many turns, take +8 in your chosen
resource.
Or Jack ♦ : A moonlit joust is taking place
above the clouds. What do the knights
ride? Proud snorting rounceys and
coursers, shod with lifting crystal, pawing
the cumulonimbus? Giant crows and
finches? Ornithopters? Horse-shaped
lightning? Skeletal dancers with red whips?
Or something else? Burn 1 STEEL to
participate and not do too badly (take +1
SPIRIT and 1 GOLD), or burn 6 STEEL
to win (take +2 of any resource and 8
GOLD).
Queen ♦ : DISCUSSION. Someone in the
crew raises an issue. For example, Shall we
try to land to make repairs? Or, Those
people need our help. We can't just keep
looking out for ourselves. Or, I think I'm
ready to talk a bit more about my loss.
How does the conversation go? When this
part of the story is complete, you may take
+1 SPIRIT.
King ♦ : BATTLE. The Horrible Goose is
a Rotterling Goose-class patrol pinnace,
drawing abreast, readying its broadside.
Try not to be there when it fires. Take 2
DAMAGE, and reset any projects to six
days.
95
Or Queen ♦ : You gaze over starboard
gunwales, down over a flock of
silver-and-ulfire feathered gulls gliding high
above a vast plain of milk-white moss,
dragging their pinprick shadows far below
them. You have time for a PROJECT.
Burn 3 GOLD and 1 SPIRIT to conduct
build, repair, transform, or repurpose
something. It may be part of the airship,
down on the ground, dispersed through
time and space, or in your heads and
hearts. Also choose a resource to gain. Roll
a die to see how long it will take. When it's
done, take +5 in your chosen resource.
Or King ♦ : BATTLE. The Horrible
Goose is a Rotterling Goose-class patrol
pinnace, bearing down with weapons hot.
Is this a prearranged duel, licensed
privateering under a letter of marque, an
extreme overreaction, or something else?
Burn 2 TECH and 7 STEEL to destroy or
capture The Horrible Goose and take +12
GOLD. Or, burn 1 TECH and 5 STEEL to
immobilize or repel The Horrible Goose,
and take +9 GOLD.
 Chapter Three
Ace ♣ : Drifting over the sea, you spot
something marvelous peeping among the
waves. What is it?
96
Or Ace ♣ : The great city of Kisföld looms
on the horizon. There is something that is
very familiar to you, but not to the people
of Kisföld. If they have this thing at all,
their concept of it is quite different from
yours. The effects of this absence or
difference can be traced everywhere. What
is missing, or very different, here in
Kisföld? Is it addiction, alchemy, art,
banking, beauty, beer, belonging, bodies,
books, borders, carrels, carols, catapults,
crenels, citizenship, childhood, clothing,
coal, collaboration, copying, comparisons,
compassion, compersion, competition,
conversation, corsets, crime, dancing,
death, desire, difference engines, dirt,
delight, disgust, dreams, elections,
embarrassment, experts, exercise, farms,
fire, flow, gambling, gardens, gender, gifts,
gloves, goggles, greengrocers, hair,
happiness, health, hierarchy, history,
hobbies, holidays, honor, houses,
infrastructure, ink, kisses, ladders,
language, laundry, lies, lists, ordinality,
love, madness, magic, marriage, math, meal
times, mediation, memory, merit, mirrors,
money, music, nature, neighborhoods,
peeping, pens, pets, pictures, plague,
polyamory, pregnancy, printing presses,
prisons, property, punishment, punch
cards, puppets, queues, quilts, remorse,
restorative justice, rubbish, schools, secrets,
sex, shopping, sin, snacks, space, spyglasses,
stakes, time, theatre, toilets, town criers,
toys, trust, utopia, umbrellas, unhappiness,
virginity, waves, war, work, the marvelous,
the military, the police, or something else?
How do you spend your time here? Will
you come back? Will you stay?
2 ♣ : The ramshackle fishing village of
Redcop pops onto the horizon. You have
heard that in Redcop everything is
gradually being consumed by Nothing.
Everything must be counted or named
every day, it or begins to fade. Are you
looking for something here in Redcop? Do
you find it, or perhaps only half of what it
once was? SHIPYARD. In the workshops
of Redcop you may burn 10 GOLD or 4
TECH to add lunar panels, a tentacle ram,
a prehensile tool tether system, or a chaff
catapult to your ship and take +4 in any
resource. You may also burn as much
GOLD as you like to do repairs. For every
2 GOLD spent, reduce DAMAGE to The
Bone Butterfly by 1.
3 ♣ : Someone on board is sick. Is it you, or
someone else? Are they sky-sick, homesick,
lovesick, sick with a strange pestilence, sick
of being treated like a cabin boy, or some
other kind of sick? PROJECT. You have a
little time to start something new. If you
wish, burn 4 SPIRIT or 8 GOLD to
improve some aspect of the airship. Decide
what to work on. It may be part of the
airship, down on the ground, dispersed
through time and space, or in your heads
and hearts. Also choose a resource to gain.
Roll a die to see how long it will take.
When it's done, take +5 in your chosen
resource. Roll a die to see how many turns
the project will take to complete. Use the
die to keep track of progress. When it
completes, take +6 in your chosen resource.
97
Or 2 ♣ : A settlement appears on the
horizon. Upon arrival, you learn that this is
the town of Elfless. You have heard that in
Elfless, there is no such concept as money.
The stories about this place are true,
although not in the way you expected.
What do you find in Elfless? What stories
will you tell about it afterwards?
SHIPYARD. The people of Elfless will
help repair your ship. Wipe off up to 2
DAMAGE.
Or 3 ♣ : Glumflower spreads on the
horizon. You have heard that in
Glumflower the people are all strangers.
They treat one another as strangers do,
with politeness, curiosity, indifference,
rudeness, secret longing. Many of them live
in homes together. Some of them even
share beds together. But they are all
strangers. Are you searching for someone
in Glumflower? Who? Do you find them,
or perhaps only a clue to their
whereabouts? SHIPYARD. In the
workshops of Glumflower you may burn 10
GOLD to install a cleanroom and take +4
TECH, +2 GUILE, and/or burn 30 GOLD
to install a pressurized holy water lance
and take +8 TECH, +8 STEEL. You may
also repair The Bone Butterfly. For every 2
GOLD spent, heal 1 DAMAGE.
4 ♣ : BATTLE. Flee from The Encouraged
Entrepreneur, a Flogginggoblin No-class
needleship. Take 2 DAMAGE, and reset
any ongoing projects to 6 days. You also
skip the next card.
5 ♣ : The city of Agharcastle glows on the
horizon. Here you find the people have
many occupations you have never before
encountered. For instance, there is such a
thing as a caidove, who is in some ways a
jester, but in other respects a cop. Then
there are the volodars, who appear to be a
bit like auditors, but also quite a lot like
courtesans. Not to mention the norlee, who
is not quite a canoe pilot, and not quite a
hands designer. And of course the ryo,
swaller, and rurn, whom you would say are
three different kinds of dishwasher, except
everyone meets that suggestion with
puzzlement or peals of laughter. You find
yourself in a tavern with a bolgror and a
kurzah. You learn a lot, but then the
bolgror starts buying shots, and in the
morning it's not so clear. When you leave
Agharcastle, if you wish burn 1 STEEL to
or GUILE to take 2 SPIRIT or TECH.
6 ♣ : You attempt to save the land from
the strange pestilence it is afflicted by. Do
you succeed? What can be saved or healed,
and what is lost forever?
98
Or 4 ♣ : BATTLE. Engage The
Encouraged Entrepreneur, a Flogginggoblin
No-class needleship. Is this an ambush, an
algorithmic decision, a betrayal, a panicked
misunderstanding, a scientific experiment,
an enchanted compulsion, or something
else? Burn 2 TECH and 6 STEEL to
destroy or capture your attacker, and take
+7 GOLD. Or, burn 9 SPIRIT to
persuade the Encouraged Entrepreneur to
cease hostilities, and take +4 GUILE and
+4 TECH.
Or 5 ♣ : You encounter a traveller, who
tells you of the home to which they will
never return. Apparently, in this place,
every single person enjoys great happiness,
prosperity, wisdom and fulfilment, with
the exception of one. In this place, there is
always one person, selected at random,
who is imprisoned in darkness, filth, and
misery, for their entire lifetime. The
traveller claims to be one of those who
could neither accept this arrangement, nor
seek to overturn it, and so has left forever.
The traveller departs, and a heated
argument ensues. What do the crew think
of this? When the turn is done, if you wish
burn 1 TECH or STEEL to take +2
SPIRIT or GUILE.
Or 6 ♣ : A person, place, or event from
earlier in the voyage returns in some way.
What developments have there been?
What will you do next?
7 ♣ : Is the traitor Bessy aboard? If so, now
is their moment. Are they a spy, trying to
steal plans for a bear golem or a tentacle
ram to sell to the Janbulaggers or the Oct?
A saboteur working for Lord Shod or for
Archon Pavelková? A bounty hunter or
bodyguard on the tail of the Cook, tasked
to take them home? A cop? Decide, and
then erase Bessy from your crew. Also lose
another crew member, or a magic artifact,
or take 2 DAMAGE. Or if your SPIRIT is
6 or more, you inspire Bessy to give up
their mission and join your cause for real.
8 ♣ : BATTLE. Flee from The Winter
Tentacle, a Splinterwaif Realism-class
barque. Take 2 DAMAGE, and reset any
active projects to six days until completion.
9 ♣ : BATTLE. You try to flee the pack
of bloatball-riding Oct raiders, but they are
relentless in pursuit, and they drive you
right into the cannons of The Querulous
Paranoia. Was it deliberate? In the ensuing
fight, one of your crew is lost overboard.
Remove them from the Logbook. Any
ongoing projects are also destroyed
completely. Also take 1 DAMAGE to the
ship.
99
Or 7 ♣ : BATTLE. On a moonless night,
fight or flee a pack of ornithopter-
exoskeletoned Oct assailants. Really? How
did you get into this predicament? Burn 9
GUILE to win the battle and take +4
TECH and +4 STEEL. If you try to flee,
your pursuers keep pace for a time, and one
of your crew is lost overboard. Remove
them from the Logbook. Any ongoing
projects are also destroyed completely.
Also take 1 DAMAGE to the ship. Finally
the sun rises on empty skies.
Or 8 ♣ : BATTLE. The Winter Tentacle
is a Splinterwaif Realism-class barque,
bearing down with weapons hot. Is this an
act of piracy, a prearranged duel, revenge
served cold, or something else? Burn 3
TECH and 13 STEEL to destroy or
capture The Winter Tentacle, and take +9
GOLD. Or, burn 4 GUILE and 3 STEEL
to repel The Winter Tentacle, and take +2
TECH and +2 SPIRIT.
Or 9 ♣ : BATTLE. Engage a pack of
bloatball-riding Oct raiders. How did you
rile up this Oct ire? Burn 8 GUILE to
decisively win the battle and take +4
TECH and +4 STEEL. Or burn 4 TECH
and 4 SPIRIT to drive off the Oct raiders,
at least for now, and take +8 GOLD.
10 ♣ : ARTIFACT. In an ancient petrified
forest you find a Wand of Pomp and
Promulgation. Update your Logbook. Do
you have an Architect, a Designer, a
Healer, or a Runemaster in your crew? If
so, they know what must be done to
awaken the artifact. What must be done?
Once the artifact is awakened, roll two
dice, and add that amount of SPIRIT.
Jack ♣ : The Grim Glove rises unexpectedly
from a caldera. They're here to offer
Anker's service as a liaison officer aboard
your airship. NEWCOMER. Does Anker
adopt a role, e.g. Cleric, Runemaster,
Merchant, Ropemaker, or something else?
They add +2 STEEL and +1 TECH.
Queen ♣ : DISCUSSION. Someone in the
crew raises an issue to discuss. What do the
others think? You don't need to resolve the
issue now. When this part of the story is
complete, you may take +2 SPIRIT.
100
Or 10 ♣ : Almost luminous, the jungle
canopy floats below you, like the endless
entrails of an emerald. PROJECT. You
have a little time. Burn 2 TECH and 2
SPIRIT to start working on something.
Decide what resource should increase at
the end. Roll a die to see how long it will
take. When it's complete, take +8 in your
chosen resource.
Or Jack ♣ : You soar high above the
thunderhead. PROJECT. You have a little
time. Burn 1 GOLD and 3 SPIRIT to start
working on something. What will you
build, enhance, repair, reframe, grow,
examine, explore, understand, transform?
Roll a die to see how long it will take.
When it's complete, take +8 in your
chosen resource.
Or Queen ♣ : PROJECT. Burn 3 GOLD
and 1 SPIRIT to work on something.
Decide what you want to do, and what
resource it will impact. Roll a die to see
how long it will take. When it's complete,
take +6 in your chosen resource, or repair
any amount of DAMAGE.
King ♣ : OK, first of all, if you have an
Astrolabe of Animation, take +3 SPIRIT
and +3 TECH. If you have Boots of
Empathy, take +1 SPIRIT and +1 GUILE.
An unexpected twist occurs! What is it?
Was a friend secretly a foe, or vice-versa?
Were two people actually the same person
all along? Have you been lied to? Did you
make a reasonable assumption that turned
out to be utterly wrong? Did somebody’s
eyes deceive them? Was an apparent
coincidence staged? Was illusion involved?
Or something else? Does the twist relate to
Archon Pavelková? Lord Shod? Lady
Thorn? Harley Scarlet? The Grim Glove?
The city of Zeira? The First Mate’s son?
The city of Glumflower? Something else?
Burn 15 STEEL to take it in your stride
with the help of your allies. Or burn 3
SPIRIT and 12 GUILE to come through
using cunning and luck. Or suffer a setback,
take 3 DAMAGE, and reroll any project
dice. Whatever happens, make sure it’s not
all tied up neatly yet. Don’t draw the next
card. Turn the the final chapter, reshuffle
the whole deck, and then draw your final
cards.
101
Or King ♣ : BATTLE. If you have Boots
of Empathy, take +3 SPIRIT and +3
TECH. If you have a Wand of Pomp and
Promulgation, take +1 SPIRIT and +1
GUILE. The Friable Rook is a Rotterling
Peach Blossom-class war blimp, and it has
just betrayed you. Together you were
going to hunt down Archon Pavelková,
but now The Friable Rook has turned its
heavy artillery on you. Burn 1 SPIRIT and
20 GOLD to bribe The Friable Rook to be
on its way. Or burn 10 TECH and 5
STEEL to destroy, capture, or repel The
Friable Rook. Or, outrun the bloodthirsty
treacherous bastards. Take 3 DAMAGE,
and reroll any project dice. Whatever
happens, make sure it’s not all tied up
neatly yet. Don’t draw the next card. Turn
the the final chapter, reshuffle the whole
deck, and then draw your final cards.
 Chapter Four

Take a moment to think back over all you've seen and done. Ask, “How might this story end?” Decide
what your FINAL CHALLENGE will be. Will your final challenge play out over moments, minutes,
hours, days, or years? Is it a spooky showdown with Archon Pavelková, in their towering iron manor lit
by moonlight and mirrors? Rescuing Captain Simangaliso Mondise from the great City of Bura and
restoring their command of The Querulous Paranoia? Is it confessing your love to the smuggler Varys Sin?
Is it tearing down the prison walls in the town of Thistle? Realising the truth about the Boots of Empathy
and stopping Harley Scarlet before it's too late? Building back the ruins of Zeira better for all? Something
completely different? Draw three cards to represent the final challenge. If you are playing on the Easy
setting, you can draw just one or two. If you are playing on the Epic setting, draw four.

Spades mean burn TECH.

Clubs mean burn STEEL.
Diamonds mean burn GUILE.
Hearts mean burn SPIRIT.

For example: if you draw 2♣, 5♣, and 10 ♥, you need to burn 7 STEEL and 10 SPIRIT to overcome the
final challenge. Aces are high and court cards count as 10. As usual, a character who sacrifices themselves
reduces the challenge level of a card by 2.
So . . . have the crew survived? Was the tale of The Bone Butterfly a happy one? Or a tragic one? Or was
it bittersweet? Or does it all depend on your perspective? If you like, you can close the story with a
montage. What does The Bone Butterfly look like now? What is the last we see of the people we met?
What is each one doing? And what is the last we see of each crew member? When you feel you’ve said all
you need to, end the story, and let the final curtain fall, like a great billowing sail.

102
103
 Solo Play
Tools
You'll need a deck of playing cards and a journaling method ('The Logbook'). If you want, you can also use
some six-sided dice to keep track of projects, and/or scissors and glue and a print-out of the oracle.
Choose a Voyage
The Voyage of the Semée Minnow or The Voyage of the Bone Butterfly are good ones to start with.
How to Get Started
1. Prepare your Logbook. This is where you will
record your voyage. For example, you can write
in some headings (‘Ship Schematic,’ ‘World
Map,’ ‘Crew Notes,’ ‘Ship Manifest,’
‘Chronicle’), and/or sketch the outline of your
vessel, and/or sketch the start of a map. See the
section below for more detailed suggestions.
2. Set the difficulty. Make a note of the difficulty
setting: Easy, Standard, or Epic.
3. Activate optional rules. Decide which optional
rules (if any) you will play with, and make a
note. Optional rules are listed below. If this is
your first voyage, you’ll probably want to skip
this step.
4. Add your starting resources. The resources
you start with will depend on the voyage you
have chosen. For example, 2 GOLD, 1 STEEL, 1
GUILE, 1 TECH, and 1 SPIRIT. Mark these
resources in your Logbook.
104
5. Crew your vessel. You will be given some
characters to choose from, or you can invent
original characters. On most voyages, you will
start with four crew members. Jot down at least
everybody’s names and roles aboard the ship (for
example, Captain, First Mate). Give them more
background if you like.
6. Choose a chronicler. Who will tell the story of
the voyage? Alternatively, you can tell the story
from multiple perspectives, or from an omniscient
narrator’s perspective. Or just imagine the story
and only make the notes you need to.
7. Shuffle the cards in a special way. Divide the
deck of cards into three piles: spades by
themselves, hearts and diamonds together, clubs
by themselves. Shuffle each of the three piles
individually. Stack them as one pile with clubs at
the bottom, hearts and diamonds in the middle,
and spades at the top. This is essentially your
voyage. Each turn you will draw the top card,
and look it up in your oracle.
 Your Logbook

Your Logbook can be anything, for example a leather-bound parchment grimoire, a stack of index cards, a
single giant sheet of paper, a text file or spreadsheet. Before your voyage begins, create some headings.
Choose some or all of these:

✦ Where is your skyship travelling? Mark 2-6 pages for your World Map. Draw a dot where your
voyage began, and label it (e.g. ‘The Town of Stonemore,’ ‘The Citadel of Dorian’). Sketch one or two
nearby landmarks.

✦ What does your skyship look like? Mark two pages for your Ship Schematic, and sketch the outlines
of your skyship. Leave space to add more systems later — a pneumatic tube network, a set of smuggler
compartments, a crystal demolition ball, a demon-proof brig, a counter-kraken culverin ... who knows!

✦ What is your skyship carrying? Mark two pages for Ship Manifest. This is where you will make
notes about any CARGO, including any magic artifacts you may discover.

✦ Who is aboard your skyship? Mark two pages for Crew Notes. Write down the names and roles of
your crew members. Sketch them, and/or write down one or two keywords about them.

✦ What is happening? The rest of the notebook is your Chronicle. Make an entry each time you draw
a card.

105
 Solo Play: Optional Rules

▢ Save projects for later. If you activate this rule, it slightly increases complexity, and slightly reduces
difficulty. When you uncover a project card, but don't have the resources to start it now, you can save the
project for later. Record what you'd like to do, roll the die to find out how long it will take once it starts,
make a note of all the details. You can then start the project whenever you reach a SHIPYARD, or
whenever a card invites you to start a project. You can’t start more than one project on a turn.

▢ Adjust resources yourself. This is a good rule to activate for very long, detailed stories. Use this optional
rule to enrich the narrative, not to ‘min/max’ and make the game mechanically unchallenging. Under this
rule, you may adjust your resource to reflect your own storytelling, even when the oracle doesn't explicitly
tell you to. You can do this as often as you like, so long as you stay within these limits:

✦ Your adjustments must be ‘zero sum’ for that turn. So on a particular turn, you could burn 2 GUILE
and take +1 STEEL and +1 SPIRIT, because it totals to zero.
✦ You can adjust a maximum of 4 points on a turn in this way. For example, you could take +2 GUILE
and +2 SPIRIT, and burn 2 TECH and 2 STEEL, but no more.
✦ For the purposes of this optional rule, GOLD only counts as half of the other resources.
✦ You can’t burn any resources you have gained this way until you draw the next card.

▢ Tag resources to crew members. Use this rule if you want your crew members to have their own stats.
Instead of treating each resource as a collective pool, tag it to individual crew members. For example,
instead of having 4 STEEL, you might have 2 STEEL tagged to the Captain, 1 STEEL tagged to the First
Mate, and 1 STEEL tagged to the Navigator.

✦ To burn a crew member’s tagged resources, they must be involved in the challenge in some way.
✦ When a crew member is killed or leaves the ship, all their resources are lost as well.
✦ When a character first arrives, any resources they add are tagged to them.
✦ When a character activates an artifact, any resources it adds are tagged to them.
✦ When a card lets you take a resource, tag it to whichever character feels most relevant.

▢ Throw no one under the skybus. Losing a crew member will only reduce the difficulty of a challenge if
there is no other option. In other words, you can only ‘sacrifice’ a crew member if the alternative is taking
so much DAMAGE the voyage would be over.

▢ Actually, forget about the resources. Just read prompts, draw pictures, and tell a story.

▢ Hexcrawl a map. Instead of freeform, narrative-based mapmaking, use hex paper and a skyship token to
track your exact location. Move 0-3 hexes per turn, or more if you’re driven wildly onward by a ferocious
storm. Either use a pre-generated map, or fill in the terrain as you fly over it. There are quite a few
variations of this, which are discussed in a separate section toward the back.

106
 Playing the Game

✦ Drawing Cards. At the start of the voyage, shuffle the cards in the special way described above. Draw
the top card, and look it up in the table provided (called 'the oracle'). It will give you two options.
Choose one to respond to, and start recording the voyage in your Logbook. When you're done with
the card, draw the next card. Pace it however you like: play in one sitting, or draw one card a day, or
one card a week.

✦ Recording the Voyage. Your Logbook can just be notes of important facts, or you can use the prompts
to write a story. Find the threads that interest you. Find the voices that speak to you. Sometimes you
may linger, describing a city and its inhabitants at length. Sometimes you may just note the name and
fly on to your next destination.

✦ Resources. Sometimes you'll gain or lose resources: STEEL, GUILE, SPIRIT, TECH, or GOLD.
Record these in your Logbook. These stats mainly represent abstract powers, not physical things. The
oracle will often prompt you to burn resources to overcome challenges and unlock effects.

✦ Projects. Sometimes your crew may work on a large project (e.g. repairs or enhancements to your
skyship, or something more abstract). These take several turns to complete, so you can write or draw
the nature of the project, and place a die on the project to count down the days till completion. Every
turn, all the project dice count down by one point. When a project reaches zero, the die is removed
and the project completed. (Alternatively, draw a progress clock and gradually color it in).

107
✦ Losing Crew. Whenever you lose a crew member, it reduces the difficulty of any challenge by 2. For
example, instead of needing to burn 3 SPIRIT, you only need to burn 1 SPIRIT. Narrate what
happens — the crew member may sacrifice themself deliberately, or be killed accidentally; they may
get lost, get stranded, or switch sides, or burn out, or simply get bored and wander away. You decide
what happens to them, but whatever it is, they won't be back during this voyage. When confronting
an especially hard challenge, you may even lose several crew members. But if you lose all your crew,
the voyage is over.

✦ Damage. Sometimes the ship may sustain DAMAGE. If its cumulative DAMAGE ever reaches 6 or
higher, the voyage is over. Describe the shipwreck, then bring the chronicle to a close.

✦ Artifacts. You may come across some strange stuff in the Vale. Sometimes you won't be able to use
something right away, so make a note of everything the oracle says about it. For example, magic
artifacts must be 'awakened' to unlock their resource bonuses or other effects. The oracle seldom tells
you everything, so it’s up to you to decide what the artifact does, and what it means for your story.

✦ Cargo. Sometimes you can buy CARGO to sell later on. Use your Logbook to track roughly what
you're carrying and how much GOLD you’ve invested.

✦ Ending the Story. When you draw the King of Clubs, reshuffle the entire deck. Draw your final cards,
and look them up in the Final Chapter. For an Easy adventure, draw two cards. For a Standard
adventure, draw three. For a Hard adventure, draw four. It’s up to you what the cards mean.
Whatever your final challenge is, you’ll need to burn resources to overcome it. Each card’s face value
represents resources that must be burned. Spades: burn TECH. Clubs: burn STEEL. Diamonds: burn
GUILE. Hearts: burn SPIRIT. Then record how the voyage ends.

108
 Storytelling Tips

Create Images

Use drawings, words, numbers, symbols, doodles, scribbles, icons, or something else. Use color. Use collage.
Use mixed media. Draw things, or print things out and paste them in.

Interpret Liberally

For example, if a card refers to someone who isn't there, make it be about someone who is. Change the
names of people, places, or things if it makes the story more interesting.

Build Arcs

If you're stumped about what to do next, look back at where you've been so far. Can you bring back a
story element from a previous episode?

Create Complications

When a character acts, allow their action to spill a little out of control. Instead of getting the result they
expect, their action just complicates and escalates things. They'll now need to do something more cunning,
imaginative, brave, or dangerous to fix the situation.

Create Obstacles

What do your crew members think they want? What forces, inner or outer, are standing in their way?
What forces, inner or outer, are transforming their desires?

Tell Epic Stories

Save the world!

Tell 'Small' Stories

You don't have to save the world. Journal the day-to-day life of your crew.

Experiment

Try multiple perspectives, including the ship’s cat, rival captains, etc. If you write from multiple
perspectives, the accounts can cohere or they can be inconsistent. If you like, feel free to file the serial
numbers off (or don’t) and turn it into a story, a novel, a game, or something else.
109
Build Worlds

One tiny detail can ripple outward and change everything. Extrapolate from one fact to the next.
Interpolate into gaps. Reverse engineer how things got this way. Permit ambiguity. Make wild leaps.
Create images at the edge of explanation.

Suyi Davies Okungbowa gives this advice about worldbuilding: "I usually start with one or two
deviations from the current world: magic, new science, alternate origins, secondary planet/world,
etc. How is your world affected by this difference? ... The adjustment of your world’s inhabitants to
this deviation will dictate social systems to various degrees, from economy to cultural norms to
legalities. ... Remember that the more deviations your world has, the more different your world will
be from the present, and the more room you have for making stuff up. But also remember this will
create more moving parts that all influence one another ... When and where is your story set in this
new world/place? How has this place evolved from its beginnings? ... If there is magic or science,
how have these been woven into life, birthed new technologies and manners, transformed society
over time? Remember that every character will be a product of their time and place ..."

(‘From the Inside Out: Worldbuilding through Extrapolation’)

110
 Co-operative Play
Players and Tools
This version of the game is for 2-4 players (maybe 5-6 at a push). We'll need a deck of playing cards, and
some six-sided dice. It's not completely necessary, but we may also want tokens of five different colors to
keep track of our resources. We'll also need some blank paper to track our voyage on, and pens or pencils.

Choose a Voyage
If this is our first time, we can start with The Voyage of the Rattail Bucket or The Voyage of the Bone
Moth. Different voyages have different tones and themes. Some have their own special rules.

How to Get Started

✦ How will we track our voyage? Let’s gather some materials to track our voyage. For example, we can
use one big sheet of paper labelled Ship Schematic and a second big sheet of paper labelled World
Map. See Tracking our Voyage for more suggestions.

✦ Who are we? The intro to our voyage gives us our choice of characters. Let’s each choose a character
— for example, ‘I’ll be Arya the Northerner’ or ‘I’ll be Garyll the Splinterwaif.’ Let’s also each choose
a role aboard the skyship — for example, ‘I’ll be the Captain’ or ‘I’ll be the First Mate.’

✦ Who are the other crew? If there are as many players as crew members, we can skip this step. If there
are fewer players than crew members, the remaining crew members become NPCs (non-player
characters). For example, ‘Our Navigator is Bhavna the Snailborn, and our Engineer is Karynn the
Southerner.’ They will be controlled by the active player (i.e. whoever’s turn it is).

✦ What resources do we have? The intro to our voyage tells us. For example, 6 GOLD and 1 STEEL.

✦ What setting shall we play on? Easy, Standard, or Epic (aka Tragic)? Let’s make a note. If we’re
playing on the Easy setting, we can add 1 extra STEEL. If we’re playing on the Epic setting, we add 2
DAMAGE.

✦ Are we activating any optional rules? See Co-operative Play: Optional Rules.

✦ Shuffle the cards in a special way. This is key! First we divide the deck of cards into three piles: spades
by themselves, hearts and diamonds together, clubs by themselves. Shuffle each of the three piles
individually. Then we stack them as one pile with clubs at the bottom, hearts and diamonds in the
middle, and spades at the top. Our strange voyage now vibrates avidly inside this stack.

111
 Playing the Game
✦ Take turns to draw cards. Each turn, the active
player draws the top card from the stack, and
looks it up in the table (called ‘the oracle’). The
active player chooses one of the two prompts.
Then our whole group collaborates to tell the
story by answering questions, making decisions,
drawing pictures, and/or acting out a little
scene. When we feel that the turn is over, the
next player draws the top card. We continue
drawing cards and interpreting them until we
get the King of Clubs.
✦ Characters. We each control our own
character’s thoughts and actions. The active
player has the final say over everything else. If
the active player does not like the card they
have drawn, any one of us can volunteer to
have it happen to our character instead.
✦ Resources. Sometimes we may gain resources:
STEEL, GUILE, SPIRIT, TECH, or GOLD.
We'll record them in some way, for example, on
our Ship Schematic or using colored tokens.
They mainly represent abstract powers, not
physical things. The active player has the final
say on how we spend them.
✦ Projects. Sometimes the oracle will invite us to
start a big project (e.g. enhancements to the
skyship or something more abstract). We decide
what the project is, and then roll a die to see
how many turns it will take. We can sketch or
note down the project, and place a die on it to
count down the days till completion. Every
turn, all the project dice count down by one
point. When a project reaches zero, the die is
removed and the project completed.
✦ Cargo. Sometimes we can buy CARGO to sell
later on. We make a note of how much GOLD
we’ve invested.
112
✦ Challenges. Sometimes the oracle will offer us a
challenge. We will need to burn some resources
to succeed. If we don’t have enough resources,
or don’t want to spend them, the oracle will tell
us the consequences.
✦ Losing Crew. But if we lack the resources to
overcome a challenge, there is another way!
Loss of a crew member reduces the difficulty of
a challenge by 2. For example, instead of
needing to burn 3 SPIRIT, we only need to
burn 1 SPIRIT. We narrate what happens —
the crew member may sacrifice themselves
deliberately, or be killed accidentally; they may
get lost, get stranded, or switch sides, or burn
out, or simply get bored and wander away. We
decide what happens, but whatever it is, they
won't be back during this game.
✦ Damage. Sometimes our ship may sustain
DAMAGE. If our cumulative DAMAGE ever
reaches 6 or higher, our ship disintegrates, and
our story is over.
✦ Artifacts and Gear. We may come across some
strange stuff. Sometimes we won't be able to
use it right away, so we should make a note of
everything the oracle tells us. Beyond that, it's
up to us what each artifact does, and what it
means for our story.
✦ Ending the Story. When we draw the King of
Clubs, we face our final challenge. We turn to
the final chapter, reshuffle the entire deck, and
draw our final cards — two, three, or four,
depending on our difficulty setting. Whatever
our final challenge is, we’ll burn resources to
overcome it. Each card’s face value represents
resources that must be burned. Spades: burn
TECH. Clubs: burn STEEL. Diamonds: burn
GUILE. Hearts: burn SPIRIT.
 Tracking our Voyage

Sometimes the oracle reminds us to update our ship records (or plan, map, etc.). What does this actually
mean? It’s up to us. We can track our voyage in any form we like. Here are some suggestions ...

Default Option: Ship Schematic and World Map

✦ Label a big sheet of paper Ship Schematic. Briefly sketch the outlines of our skyship. Add the names
and roles of our crew. Use this sheet to record anything with numbers involved, for example
resources, DAMAGE, CARGO, artifacts, upgrades to ship systems, etc.

✦ Label a second big sheet of paper World Map. In one corner, draw a dot where our voyage begins,
and give the dot a name (for example ‘The Citadel of Frogbonne,’ ‘The City of Bloodgeld’). Sketch
one or two nearby landmarks. Use this sheet to map the story of our adventures.

Detailed Option: Ship Schematic, Ship Manifest, Character Sheets, World Map, and Chronicle

✦ Label a big sheet of paper Ship Schematic. Briefly sketch the outlines of our skyship. This is
where we will record ship weapons, ship systems, DAMAGE, and any PROJECTS.

✦ Label a second big sheet of paper Ship Manifest. Use this sheet to record our resources (STEEL,
GUILE, SPIRIT, TECH, GOLD) and inventory whatever’s in our hold, including any artifacts
and CARGO. If we decide to pick up any passengers who are not part of the crew, we can include
them here too.

✦ Get 8-10 index cards or post-it notes to act as Character Sheets for each crew member.

✦ Label a third big sheet of paper World Map. In one corner, draw a dot where our voyage begins,
and give the dot a name (for example ‘Soft Rains Serengeti,’ ‘The Floating City of Illyria’). Sketch
one or two nearby landmarks. Use this sheet to map the story of our adventures.

✦ A small notebook or a fourth big sheet of paper can become our Chronicle, or we can print out
the oracle and scribble marginalia onto it. Here’s where we make any additional notes.

Other ways

We can use pen and paper, or a wipe-clean white board, or something digital like Roll20 or CryptPad or
Google Docs. And/or we can use colored counters for our resources (STEEL, GUILE, etc.), and dice to
track our PROJECTS. If we don’t want to use dice to track projects, we can draw a circle, divide it into
the right number of segments, and color one in each turn new segment. It can be a good idea to have a
print-out of the voyage oracle, so we can tick off each prompt we choose, and scribble notes on it. The
Shrike is also a game of drawings, doodles, and scribbles, so we’ll probably want to use visual cues to
remind ourselves of places, people, incidents, projects, perils and goals. These could be hand-drawn, or
made using software like Roll20 or Inkarnate, or a collage of digital visual references.

113
 Principles of Play
Draw Pictures

However we like. Quick cartoony sketches work well. Use one big piece of paper, or lots of normal-size
pieces. Use pens, pencils, erasers, Tippex, crayons, paints, collage, biodegradable glitter, Roll20, Inkarnate,
or something else. Use images, words, numbers, symbols, doodles, scribbles, icons, or tokens to record our
voyage. Use chalk or a whiteboard. Draw a ship schematic, and/or draw a map of the world. And/or
write a ship manifest, and/or a chronicle. In The Shrike, every picture is more than good enough.

Collaborate

The active player (the player whose turn it is) is the default decider. They conceive and direct the turn’s
scene or episode. But each of us is in charge of what our own character thinks, feels, and does. And no
matter who decides what, we always listen to everyone’s ideas, and try to make them work in the story.

Troll

But in a nice way. In other words, we’ll make things interesting. We’ll challenge one another with sticky
situations, thorny conundrums, unforeseen consequences, and terrible bad luck. Sometimes we’ll make bad
decisions, and figure out how to pick up the pieces later.

Create Arcs

We’ll tell a story that builds. We’ll remember things from earlier in the story and have them return. We’ll
deliberately leave things unresolved so we can draw on them later. We’ll use things like our Ship
Schematic or World Map to jog our memories and inspire us.

Narrate our Story

Whenever we want, any of us can speak in the voice of a narrator. ‘Courtney goes to meet Lord Shod.
Lord Shod says to find him at a place called the Rainbow Races but she’s still surprised to find that they’re
literally racing rainbows.’ If the active player wants to veto something, they can say something like,
‘Actually, it’s not quite so easy,’ or ‘Rewind that, and try something else.’

Be our Characters

But we can also speak in our own character’s voice, and even act out little scenes. ‘I think we’ve been
invited to this city by someone called Lord Shod. I’m disembarking, and going to go meet him. Who wants
to go with me?’

114
Step into Other Characters

We can also temporarily take on the role of other characters in the story, including villains. ‘I’m
disembarking, and going to go meet him. Who wants to go with me, and who wants to play Lord Shod?’

Build Worlds

We’ll come across cities. Describe what these societies are like. Extrapolate from one fact to the next.
Interpolate into gaps. Reverse-engineer: ask, how did things get this way? Think about everyday life, the
little details. Invent new words. Permit ambiguity. Make wild leaps. Create images at the edge of
explanation.

Look Things Up

Find out about sailing ships, and transpose them to the sky.

Settle on a Pace

We don’t have to have a whole new adventure or build a whole new world at every turn. Sometimes we
may want to say, ‘That’s cool,’ nap in our cabins, and fly to the next place. A normal voyage will end
between card #40 and card #52. So if we want about an hour and a half of play, we should average about
two minutes per turn. If we want three or four hours of play, we should spend an average of four or five
minutes per turn. Or if we want to have a campaign stretching across many sessions, we can spend as long
as we like on each turn.

Fly Swirling Knotted Paths

We don’t have to keep flying into uncharted territory. We can loop around and criss-cross our map. One
turn can mean a day, a week, a month, or more in story time. Each turn, we’ll place our skyship wherever
makes most sense for our story.

Be Cinematic

We’ll let our minds’ eyes wander like cameras. We’ll evoke sweeping landscapes and striking images.

Interpret Liberally

We’ll use imagination and pragmatism to interpret the cards. If a card refers to someone who isn't there,
we make it be about someone who is. If it helps the story to rename something, we can do that. A city
needn’t even literally be a city. It could be a town or a village, or a forest, or a caravan, or a giant skyship,
or a planet, or an island, or a neighborhood, or a reticulum of protein, or a pocket dimension, or a
simulation.

115
 Co-operative Play: Optional Rules

▢ The active player is like a GM. The standard rules leave it quite open how the group will interpret and
respond to the prompts on cards. But if you use this variation, the active player (the player whose turn it
is) should think of themselves as the GM (Game Master), using the oracle to create a mini-adventure for
the other players.

✦ The active player presents the scenario, and asks the other players what they do, or asks them to act
out the scene.

✦ Then the active player tells the other players the results of their actions, and/or allows them to burn
and/or take resources, as per the oracle. (For example: ‘OK, great plan! To succeed, you’ll need to
burn 2 STEEL or 2 GUILE, and you’ll get 3 SPIRIT. Does it succeed, or does something go wrong?’)

✦ If the prompt is focused on a single character, this does not usually refer to the active player’s
character. Instead, the active player chooses who the ‘you’ refers to, or asks for a volunteer.

✦ The active player does not need to reveal which prompt they have chosen, or everything it says, right
away.

▢ The active player is really like a GM. As above, but also activate the “Adjust resources yourself”
optional rule. The active player can then create their own challenges that suit the story (for example,
‘Burn 1 SPIRIT to succeed.’) Remember that each turn, GM-created challenges must be zero sum (the
spend must equal the reward), and no more than 4 points may be burned. Challenges that are already
mentioned by the oracle don’t count toward the 4 points. To dial the play experience even more toward
traditional roleplaying, also activate the “Tag resources to players” optional rule.

▢ Everyone except the active player is like a GM. The standard rules leave it quite open how the group
will interpret and respond to the prompts on cards. But if you use this variation, the active player is
always ‘having an adventure,’ and the other players are there to create the world where their adventure
takes place. When you are the active player, follow these steps:

✦ Draw a card, choose one of the two prompts, and read it to yourself. Then set the scene. Describe
where you are and what’s going on. Then ask the other players questions.

✦ You can ask them to fill in details. ‘I notice that many of the townsfolk are wearing a symbol on their
lapels. What is it? Have I seen it before somewhere?’

✦ You can ask them whether something is possible. ‘Is the rift big enough to squeeze the skyship into?’

✦ You can tell them what you’re doing, and ask what happens next. ‘I’m not really sure what the Wand
of Implicit Fortune does, but I know you’re supposed to wave it. So I give it a little wave.’

116
▢ Everyone else is really like a GM. The active player is in the spotlight, but they don’t draw the card,
read the oracle, or choose which prompt to use. One or more of the other players does this for the active
player. The active player is only in charge of their own character’s thoughts, feelings, and actions. The
other players are in complete control of the world.

▢ Adjust resources yourself. This is a good rule to activate for longer, more detailed stories. Use this
optional rule to enrich the narrative, not to ‘min/max’ and make the game mechanically unchallenging.
Under this rule, you may adjust your resource to reflect your own storytelling, even when the oracle
doesn't explicitly tell you to. You can do this as often as you like, so long as you stay within these limits:

✦ Your adjustments must be ‘zero sum’ for that turn. So on a particular turn, you could burn 2 GUILE
and take +1 STEEL and +1 SPIRIT, because it totals to zero.

✦ You can adjust a maximum of 4 points on a turn. For example, you could take +2 GUILE and +2
SPIRIT, and burn 2 TECH and 2 STEEL, but no more.

✦ For the purposes of this optional rule, GOLD only counts as half of the other resources.

✦ You can’t burn any resources you have gained this way until you draw the next card.

▢ Tag resources to players. This rule significantly changes play dynamics. Instead of treating each resource
as a collective pool, every player has their own pool of STEEL, GUILE, SPIRIT, TECH, and GOLD.

✦ Two players: each player starts with 1 GOLD and 1 other resource of their choice

✦ Three players: each player starts with 1 resource of their choice

✦ Four players: the Captain starts with 1 GUILE, and other players start with 1 GOLD

The active player (the person whose turn it is) can burn resources from their own pool, or from the pools
of NPC crew members. Other players can donate resources, and/or negotiate with the active player to
contribute resources in return for rewards.

Resources may be given as gifts or traded among players at any time. If a character is killed or leaves the
ship, their resources are lost. The active player (the player whose turn it is) receives any resources
awarded by the oracle, with two exceptions:

✦ When a character first arrives, any resources they add are tagged to that character.

✦ When a character awakens an artifact, any resources it adds are tagged to them.

▢ Multiple characters per player. If this optional rule is activated, there are no NPC crew members. Every
crew member is controlled by a player, and a player may control multiple crew members. Whenever a
newcomer joins the skyship, they are assigned to the active player (the player whose turn it is).

117
▢ Give those roles some real duties. The Engineer keeps track of PROJECTS, DAMAGE, and changes to
the Ship Schematic such as new weapons or systems. The Navigator adds to the World Map. The
First Mate acts as purser and steward, keeping track of STEEL, GUILE, SPIRIT, TECH, and GOLD, as
well as CARGO. The Captain takes ownership of the Chronicle, and Crew List, and also does any
record-keeping not already covered by another role.

▢ Or, assign everybody a metagame duty. In addition to our in-game roles, we can decide on areas of
responsibility, divided up however we like. For example, two players draw our World Map, and two
other players draw our Ship Schematic and keep track of all the necessary numbers. Or to take another
example, if we have four players, we could divide up SPIRIT, GUILE, STEEL, and TECH so that each
player keeps track of one, and collectively keep track of GOLD and everything else.

▢ Throw no one under the skybus. If this rule is activated, losing a crew member will only reduce the
difficulty of a challenge if there is no other option. In other words, you can only ‘sacrifice’ a crew member
if the alternative is taking so much DAMAGE the voyage would be over.

▢ Actually, forget about the resources. Just read prompts, draw pictures, and tell a story.

▢ Save projects for later. This optional rule slightly increases complexity, and slightly reduces difficulty.
When you uncover a project card, but don't have the resources to start it now, you can save the project
for later. Record what you'd like to do, roll the die to determine the timescale, make a note of the
resources and time it would need, and the benefits when complete. You can then start the project
whenever you reach a SHIPYARD, or whenever a card invites you to start a project. You can’t start more
than one project on a turn.

▢ Extend Chapter Three. This makes the game last a little longer, and probably also slightly less deadly.
Add two Jokers to the Clubs suite when you shuffle it. The game doesn’t end when you draw the King of
Clubs. Instead, keep playing until you have drawn both Jokers. Then turn to the final chapter, and draw
your final cards.

▢ Hexcrawl a map. Instead of freeform, narrative-based mapmaking, use hex paper and a skyship token to
track your exact location. Move 0-3 hexes per turn, or more if you’re driven wildly onward by a ferocious
storm. Either use a pre-generated map, or fill in the terrain as you fly over it. There are quite a few
variations of this, which are discussed in a separate section toward the back.

▢ Pace play with a playlist. This one is a little cocobananas, but it can be fun. Make a playlist of songs of
about four minutes each. Each turn lasts exactly as long as the song. When the song begins, draw a card
and read out a prompt. While the song is playing, act things out, draw things, make decisions, and so on.
When the song finishes, fade out, even if it’s in the middle of something. You can always decide later how
that episode actually resolved. Genius level version: Set up a playlist on a platform with frequent ads (e.g.
YouTube), and use a VPN set to a country whose main language(s) are not spoken by any of your players.
Read out the prompts during the ads, and act out the scenes during the songs.

118
 Guided Play
If you are familiar with traditional roleplaying in which one of you takes the role of GM (Game Master),
The Shrike can also be played in this way too. Read the rules for collaborative play, including the optional
rules. As GM, decide what adaptations will suit your style of play. For example:

✦ Only you draw cards, and only you have access to what the oracle says.
✦ Each turn, draw the top card, and quickly examine both options. Create a binary choice that hints at
what may lie in store, but don’t give too much away. For example, ‘There is a city not too far away
which may let you repair and resupply, but you don’t know much about it. Or you could explore the
forest to the east, which is said to be haunted.’
✦ When the players have chosen a prompt, describe the scenario, and ask them each what they’re doing.
✦ Or, when the players have chosen a prompt, set up a scenario, and invite them to act out a scene.

Tips for GMs

✦ Check out RPGs like Polaris, Apocalypse
World, Archipelago, Microscope, Fiasco, The
Quiet Year, and What’s So Cool About Outer
Space? Some of these words were theirs first.
✦ Something is always happening. Nothing is
never happening. (But sometimes what’s
happening is in characters’ inner lives).
✦ Make the world feel real. (Because the world is
real. It may be real in a strange way — as an
allegory, as a dream, as a nightmare, as a dance
of images and emotions, as pattern of real
possibilities mingled and merged with escapist
fantasies — but it is real).
✦ If it helps the world feel real, let the obvious
thing happen.
✦ If it helps the world feel real, leave things
unexplained or ambiguous.
✦ Address yourself to the characters, not to the
players (most or all of the time).
✦ Care about the players’ characters.
✦ Every ‘minor’ NPC is their own protagonist.
✦ Think about what’s happening off stage.
✦ To contain the plenitudinous multitudinousness
of the universe, get help. Ask questions about
the wider implications of anything weird. ‘OK,
in this city they have no concept of gift-giving.
Do they still have an equivalent of charitable
organizations? How do they work?’ Fish
around with open-ended questions. ‘If they use
feelings for money here, how does that affect …
sports?’ Build upon, cultivate, probe, elaborate,
transform and translate players’ ideas.
✦ Try to speak in narrative, not in numbers.
Don’t say, ‘Do you want to burn 2 GUILE to
infiltrate the Festival of Thorns and take 2
STEEL?’ Say, ‘How much GUILE do you
have? OK, want to try to infiltrate the Festival
of Thorns? You do? What’s your plan?’
✦ Fail forward — dreams and desires can be just
as dynamic and fruitful when they are
frustrated as when they are fulfilled.

119
 Clarifications and Design Notes
Do I have to explore every city I stop at? ~ No.

Do I have to answer every question on my chosen prompt? ~ No. You can think of the oracle’s prompts
like a stream of questions from an exuberant distant relative who hasn’t seen you since you were a baby.
Answer the general gist. Determine your own agenda.

If it says ‘Take 2 SPIRIT or 2 GUILE,’ does that mean I can take 1 SPIRIT and 1 GUILE? ~ No, that’s
not what it means. But then again, it’s your story, so if it makes sense and you want to play it that way, go
ahead.

If I’m reducing a challenge’s difficulty by 2, can I split the reduction across different resources? Can I burn
1 less STEEL and 1 less TECH, for example? ~ Yes.

Is there a difference between GEAR and ARTIFACTS? ~ Not really in terms of game mechanics. In
storytelling terms, GEAR is more predictable machinery which needs to be repaired and installed before it
can be used, whereas ARTIFACTS are magical and/or advanced technological contraptions that must be
‘awakened’ by rituals before they can be used.

Can a PROJECT repair damage incurred after the project began? ~ Yes.

Can I change a PROJECT halfway through? ~ No. When you begin the project, you must choose which
resource it will add, or choose for it to reduce DAMAGE. When the project completes, change the
appropriate number.

Can losing a crew member let me afford a PROJECT? ~ Yes.

Can losing a crew member reduce the difficulty to zero? ~ Yes.

Can losing a crew member reduce difficulty to less than zero? Can I gain a resource point? ~ Hmm.
Probably not? But if it makes sense in the story, then yes.

Can I make up my own roles for the crew? ~ Yes, although the named roles do have some mechanical
effect within the story, mainly associated with artifacts. ‘If you have a Runemaster in the crew, they know
how to awaken the artifact.’ One way around this is to assign an equivalency. Just make a note in your
Logbook, e.g. ‘Knusha is the ship’s Poet (equivalent of Gunner).’ Then if a prompt refers to a Gunner, you
know for you it means Poet.

Can crew members switch roles? ~ All crew members can switch roles whenever the crew situation
changes, i.e. whenever someone joins the crew or leaves or is killed. They can change roles to whatever
you like, although certain named roles tend to have mechanical effects within the game.

120
What are resources? ~ They are abstract measures of your capacities to overcome challenges. SPIRIT
tends to be useful in situations requiring perception, wisdom, intuition, magic, and/or willpower. STEEL
tends to be useful in situations of violence or intimidation. TECH relates to machines, technology, magic.
GUILE relates to cunning and quick wits, or occasionally to charm and stealth. But they can be interpreted
flexibly.

Why do resources sometimes go up and sometimes go down? ~ The Shrike adopts the philosophy, unusual
in RPG design, that many activities can be either replenishing or exhausting, depending on myriad tiny
details that are impossible (or undesirable) to represent mechanically, but are easy to represent narratively.
Here’s an example. You fight a skirmish and win. Your crew not only gains experience and confidence,
your crew also hones their connections with one-another. There were some tricky moments, but you’ve
learned from them. You’re alert, vigilant, on a war footing. Your weapons and other systems have been
recently used, and you’re deeply and intimately aware of their current status. Take +1 STEEL. You fight a
skirmish and win. You won, but it took its toll. Your crew are exhausted and injured. Ammunition is
depleted, armor damaged, the engines strained and in need of repair. Burn 1 STEEL. So the philosophy is:
when certain capacities are called upon, something happens to them.

How long is a turn in story time? ~ A turn can be any amount of time. One turn may represent a day, and
the next turn may represent two weeks. It’s useful to keep it variable, because it allows your skyship to
traverse any amount of the map in one turn, so you can place yourselves wherever makes sense in story
terms.

When it says ‘If you use force or intimidation, take +1 STEEL. If you use diplomacy or charm, take +1
SPIRIT. If you use cunning or stealth, take +1 GUILE. If you use technology or magic, take +1 TECH’
does that mean if we use all those things we can take +4 resources? ~ Oh my days, no? Just take +1 in one
resource.

I’ve never tried solo roleplaying before. Am I doing it right? ~ Yes, you are doing it right.

OK but still, I want to learn more about solo roleplaying. ~ Search online for solo roleplaying communities,
and/or check out 1000 Year Old Vampire, Quill, Beloved, Ironsworn, and Tunnels and Trolls. The Quiet
Year, which is The Shrike’s most direct inspiration, is also adaptable for solo play.

I’ve written a story using The Shrike, do I own the rights? ~ If you create things using The Shrike, you
are free to do whatever you like with them. Please credit The Shrike.

121
Can you give an example of how the final chapter works? ~ The final chapter usually says something a bit
like this:

Draw three cards, and interpret them to see if you can overcome your final challenge. If you are playing
on the Easy setting, you can draw just one or two. If you are playing on the Epic setting, draw four.
Spades mean burn TECH. Clubs mean burn STEEL. Diamonds mean burn GUILE. Hearts mean burn
SPIRIT. Aces are high and court cards count as 10. For every point of DAMAGE you endure in your
final challenge, reduce the challenge level of a card by 1. As usual, for every character who sacrifices
themselves reduce the challenge level of a card by 2. Take as long as you like over this. If you want, you
can think of each card as its own separate significant sub-challenge. So ... have the crew survived?

It is deliberately super flexible. By now you probably know your characters and know what you want for
them, and have a million loose ends you might want to tie up.

Let’s say you have four crew members, Abe, Bella, Zuboff, and Morp. Your ship, The Tender Monkey,
has taken 4 DAMAGE. You have 8 STEEL, 8 SPIRIT, 8 GUILE, 8 TECH, and 8 GOLD.

For example: if you draw 2♣, 5♣, and 10♥, you need to burn 7 STEEL and 10 SPIRIT to overcome the
final challenge. You are short by 2 SPIRIT. So your choices are …

✦ Completely fail the challenge (because you want the story to end that way).
✦ Partly fail the challenge. You burn the STEEL, but you lack enough SPIRIT.
✦ Complete the challenge by sacrificing a crew member in some dramatic way. This could mean getting
killed, but it could mean something else. Losing a crew member brings the challenge down to 7 STEEL
and 8 SPIRIT.
✦ Complete the challenge by taking DAMAGE. You’ll need to take 2 DAMAGE, bringing your total
up to 6 … so The Tender Monkey is destroyed. This could be a wonderfully dramatic finale. Does it
mean that the whole crew perish too, or do you miraculously survive? Or perhaps there is some
ambiguity hanging over your fates?

In story terms: The Tender Monkey has been shrunk to the size of a bee. You are flying around in the
king’s Royal Salad, trying to retrieve a poisoned berry. You could completely fail the challenge in many
different ways (get skewered on the king’s fork, etc.). Or partly fail the challenge in many ways (save the
king but then get swallowed by the king, or fail to save the king’s life but at least escape from the salad, or
save the king but fail to get back to the shrinking reversal field before it shuts down and be forever stuck
this size, or even a more minor failure like getting swallowed along with the deadly cherry but giving the
king an emetic tickle with your prow). Or succeed in the challenge in many different ways (embed your
anchor in the berry and drag it out of the salad. Or realise that the king is a tyrant and make sure he does
eat the cherry).

122
 Further Observations on The Vale
The Queen’s Calendar

While there are many ways of reckoning time and seasons in The Vale, the Queen’s Calendar is widely
understood. There are four seasons, each of three months:

Winter: Evernever, Ember, Jemblewary

Spring: Frostweary, Mark, April
Summer: Murr, Greenleaf, Fallenwell
Fall: Hellerick, Firetop, Steptover

Leap: As the calendrical year does not perfectly synchronize with the sidereal year, spare moments
gradually grow around the lip of the universe and, when some unpredictable critical mass is reached, drip
down to form a new season between Fall and Winter, which is known as Leap. There is usually a Leap
every twenty years or so, though it’s never certain when it will fall. Leap has three months: Mossmoon,
Crysselmoth, Fallendoor. Once it had a fourth, Killjester.

The Brokenborn Archipelago

Maybe your journey starts here?

123
 Notes on Maps
Drawing in The Shrike can give us visual reminders Denis Wood says: “These relationships, between
and inspiration when we respond to prompts, the signifieds and the signifiers, are wholly
making story arcs more likely. Mapping can take conventional—essentially arbitrary—so that the
many different forms. See for example Micronesian connections between signifieds and signifiers are, for
/ Marshall Island stick maps, Ammassalik tactile all their taken-for-granted quality, never secure.
And from the beginning the signifiers have been
maps, design-oriented mapping, Google Maps,
slipping their moorings. … What this meant was
mnemonic songs. We could use The Shrike to
that from the beginning they could have a life of
explore ways of mapping that are unfamiliar to us. their own independent of the needs of the state or
the interests of property—or even of a commitment
Aishwarya Subramanian says: “As the 19th century to represent the world—and they began to live it
drew to a close ... explorers were running out of immediately. For example, as early as 1516 a map of
“blank spaces of delightful mystery” (as Conrad an imaginary island was published as the
describes them in Heart of Darkness) to map, frontispiece to Thomas More’s Utopia ... It was
explore and claim. Again, it's no coincidence that probably too early to expect this to be called a map,
the beginning of the 20th century saw a flowering and besides the book was in Latin so it’s called,
“Utopiae Insulae Figura,” but it’s quite maplike.
of fantasy and science fiction, providing heroes with
The extremely high oblique perspective is
new worlds (and planets) to go questing in. The
underscored by the ships in the foreground and in
colonisers had had a vested interest in ridding the the background by the mainland which is seen
land, as far as possible, of competing histories and almost head-on. With the buildings in profile the
significance, discounting existing cultural and island has an almost axonometric feel. ... Over the
geographical understandings of the space.” next 450 years the use of maps to lend credence to
imaginary places would explode, and with the
Michel de Certeau says: “... the map has slowly publication in the middle of the 17th century of
disengaged itself from the itineraries that were the Madeleine de Scudéry’s Carte de Tendre in Clélie
condition of its possibility. The first medieval maps (10 volumes, 1654–1661), the door was opened onto
the instantly popular world of allegorical maps (the
included only the rectilinear marking out of
“Map of Tenderness,” the “Map of the Realm of
itineraries (performative indications chiefly
Love,” the “Map of Marriage,” the “Map of the
concerning pilgrimages), along with the stops one Realm of Coquetry”). ... Jeffrey Peters has drawn
was to make (cities which one was to pass through, attention to the way these maps drove wedges
spend the night in, pray at, etc.) and distances between signifieds and signifiers: ‘Scudéry, I have
calculated in hours in days, that is, in terms of the been arguing, reformulates the notion that maps
time it would take to cover them on foot.” convey an objective form of absolute and complete
knowledge by creating her own map that multiplies
Matthew Sparke says: “Cartography is part of a rather than reduces the field of meaning. The
reciprocal or, better, a recursive social process in explicitly allegorical language of Clélie’s map is
designed to open up a gap in meaning between the
which maps shape a world that in turn shapes its
signs that cover its surface and the signified
maps.”
knowledge that is produced in its name.’”
124
Oscar Wilde says: “a map of the world without
Utopia is not even worth glancing at.”
Raymond B. Craib says: “At the same time, such
technologies, like their predecessors, can be used to
resist, deflect, or otherwise undermine dominant
paradigms. That is, they have counterhegemonic
potential. Cartographers have produced radical
atlases and have crafted maps that draw public
attention to everything from new processes of
militarization to patterns of migration, flows of
capital, and movements of production.”
Magali Carrera says: “... pressured by imperial
demands to secure administrative reform and
commercial expansion for Spain, Bourbon officials
mapped eighteenth-century New Spain as empirical
space, a place where resources and inhabitants were
to be located and measured—ordered and
embedded in geodesic knowledge. Rooted in Spain’s
medieval land tenure system, this mapping insisted
that imperial power emerged from claimed
territoriality. In contrast, exemplifying that
“territory is never a homogeneous space,”
indigenous populations envisioned the land as an
originating space, where inhabitants were not just
located but dominated the space through primordial
connections and thorough integration into the
landscape. These mappings located territory in the
network of culture and history rather than in the
grid of geometry.”
Denis Wood says: “... while there are cases of maps
being rejected as early as the 16th century, as we
cruise into the opening of the 21st not only are maps
being rejected with increasing frequency but a
whole culture of counter-mapping has emerged.
Rooted in map art practices that date to the early
20th century; in the mental maps movement of the
1960s; in Indigenous and bioregional mapping and
critical cartography and Parish Mapping; with all
kinds of fusion, interbreeding, and boundary
crossing; and fueled by a widening perception of
global injustice, it is counter-mapping that shows us
where mapping is headed.”

Variation: Hexcrawl a Pre-Generated Map

Use this variation if you want to include some elements of OSR (Old School Revival) style exploration.

✦ Get a hex map from somewhere, or create one of your own (see e.g. Worldographer)
✦ Get a figurine to represent the skyship — why not simply use an actual miniature skyship, crewed by
miniature hominids no taller than letters on a page?
✦ You may move 0 to 3 hexes per turn, or up to 6 if a tempest drives you uncontrolled through the skies.
✦ Replace whatever the oracle says about the terrain with what your map is telling you — like ignoring
a confused or frankly murderous GPS.
✦ This rule variation works well for guided play, since the GM can live-edit the Oracle’s landscape to
conform with the map.
✦ This rule variation also works well with voyages specifically designed for it, which ask you where you
are, rather than telling you where you are.

125
Dealing with cities while hexcrawling a pre-generated map

✦ Option A. ‘Teleport’ to the nearest unvisited city hex. Mark about 15-20 cities in advance, but don’t
name them. Whenever you take a city prompt from the Oracle, move the skyship to the closest
unvisited city and label that city. It’s fine to visit the same city again later for narrative purposes, but
you may only make use of facilities like a SHIPYARD, TRADING POST, or WORKSHOPS on
your very first visit. On subsequent visits, either they have burned down, or they are closed because
of the Floating Plague, or you are by now so notorious no one will serve you, or something like that.
✦ Option B. Keep city prompts for later use. Mark about 15-20 cities in advance, but don’t name them.
Each turn, move 1-3 hexes, then draw a card. Whenever you draw a city prompt, if you are not on an
unvisited city hex, you may add the card to your Cities Hand. Whenever you arrive at an unvisited
city hex, play a card from your Cities Hand instead of drawing from the deck. Label the city. If you
arrive at a city hex but have no cards in your hand, it means that the Worshipful Company of Aerial
Warlocks and Air Traffic Controllers has not given you permission to dock, and you must move on.
✦ Option C. Cities have a ‘zone of influence.’ Mark about 10-15 cities in advance, but don’t name them.
If you are within five hexes of an unlabelled city when you draw a city card, label the city, and use the
card as normal. Or if there is no city within range, discard the card without using it, but you may
reduce DAMAGE by 1 (repairs in the air) or take +1 SPIRIT (enjoying nature).
✦ Option D. Discover cities as you go. Don’t mark any cities on the hex map in advance. When the
Oracle tells you that you have come to a city, mark it on the map at your current hex. Once a city has
been added, you may treat it as Orist Pitstop (see below) whenever you are on that hex on the same
turn as the Oracle gives you a city option. In narrative terms, being on the same hex doesn’t
necessarily mean you have safely arrived. You may have all kinds of adventures and mishaps in the
airspace just on the outskirts, before finally drawing a city option. When you draw the city option,
substitute the mechanics of Orist Pitstop for whatever the Oracle says.
✦ Option E. Prepare a traditional hex key in advance. Before you start, go through the whole oracle for
your voyage, and mark and name its cities on the map. If two city prompts appear on the same card,
choose just one (otherwise it will probably make the game really easy). If a card has a non-city prompt
you’d like to include instead, keep it in the deck but cross out the city option. Remove every card with
a city prompt from the deck. Arriving at the location is what triggers the prompt.

Orist Pitstop
The towers of Orist Pitstop loom on the horizon. Actually, that might not be what the locals call it, but
it’s been kind of a long day, so. SHIPYARD. While in Orist Pitstop, you may burn 3 GOLD to repair 1
DAMAGE. TRADING POST. If you have any CARGO, may may sell it for one-and-a-half whatever
you paid for it, or burn 2 GUILE to sell it for twice whatever you paid for it. WORKSHOPS. You may
hire an expert to awaken an artifact, or repair and install any equipment you may have found, for 5
GOLD.

126
 Variation: Make up a Map as you Hexcrawl

✦ Get some blank hex paper, maybe about 20 x 20 hexes big.

✦ Get a figurine to represent the skyship — or if you only have an actual skyship, make sure you get
really large hex paper. Start wherever you like.
✦ You may move 0 to 3 hexes per turn, or up to 6 if a tempest drives you uncontrolled through the skies.
✦ Fill in the regions you move through with whatever terrain and / or features you like. Create
continents, islands, grasslands, forests, wetlands, mountain ranges, open or enclosed farmlands,
wastelands devastated by wild magic or mismanaged monocultures, haunted mines, half-sunken
monuments, stone circles, glaciers, arcologies, flying islands, or whatever you like.
✦ The map trumps the Oracle. If the Oracle is telling you you’re over meadows, but the map is telling
you you are revisiting a patch of ocean, don’t get out and gather wildflowers.

Variation: Procedurally Generate a Map as you Hexcrawl #1

✦ Get some blank hex paper, maybe about 20 x 20 hexes big.

✦ Get a figurine to represent the skyship — or if you only have an actual skyship, make sure you get
really large hex paper. Start wherever you like.
✦ You may move 0 to 3 hexes per turn, or up to 6 if a tempest drives you uncontrolled through the skies.
✦ Designate one die to be the Terrain Die.
✦ If you move into a blank hex when the Terrain Die is on 1, roll the die to see what kind of terrain
you’ll be flying over next. Then count down the Terrain Die as though it were a project die. So if
you roll a 4, you will be flying over that terrain type for four more turns, then reroll on the fifth.

On the left half of the map On the right half of the map

1 Glacial debris, quarry, ruins, ironflowers, other Crater, tor, ruins, barrow, catacomb, other

2 Fens, swamps, marshes, bogs, fjords Mountains, hills, half-wild croftlands

3 Mountains, tundra, glacier Fens, swamps, marshes, bogs

4 Light forest, savanna, shrublands Grasslands, prairie, steppe, moors, pastures

5 Desert, rocky waste, sandveld, hardveld Forest

6 Grasslands, prairie, steppe, thornveld Seas or lakes

✦ Use your discretion to fill in other hexes to join up explored areas and complete the map.

127
 Variation: Procedurally Generate a Map as you Hexcrawl #2

✦ Get some blank hex paper, maybe about 20 x 20 hexes big.

✦ Get a figurine to represent the skyship — or if you only have an actual skyship, make sure you get
really large hex paper. Start wherever you like.
✦ You may move 0 to 3 hexes per turn, or up to 6 if a tempest drives you uncontrolled through the skies.
✦ Designate one die to be the Terrain Die.
✦ Position the Terrain Die on a Hex Flower. Each turn, roll the die and move it accordingly. 1: up, 2:
up and right, 3: down and right, 4: down, 5: down and left, 6: up and left. If the die goes off the edge
of the flower, wrap it around to the other side.
✦ Mark your map accordingly: glaciers and high snowy peaks, frozen forests, dense evergreen forests,
scattered woodlands, grasslands, deserts, tundra riven with chasms and ravines, cataracts and cascades
pouring down mountainsides, lakes and seas, green knolls and hills, or lagoons, swamps and marshes.
✦ The Hex Flower is not a representation of actual space, but rather a random roll table with each roll
primed by the last. See Goblin’s Henchman for more about Hex Flowers.

128
 Variation: Procedurally Generate a Counter-Map as you Hexcrawl

Why do maps look the way they do? How inevitable is it that they look that way? Imagine, for a moment,
a digital 4X game (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) that didn’t reproduce that colonial logic of
observation and dominance. What might it look like?

Coloured strip map of the initial portion of the coaching route from London
to Bristol, from John Ogilby’s Britannia (1675)

A strip map focuses on the route from one place to another. If your priority is how two places are
connected, and the resting places, roadside attractions, and other way-points strung out between them, a
strip map is a compact solution. So long as you’re not concerned about being flanked by enemy troops, or
about what choke-points you’ll need to control to collect customs taxes, or what territories you could buy
up cheap or take by force to develop for profit, a strip map should be perfectly adequate to your needs.
The national mapping agency for the United Kingdom is called Ordnance Survey Ltd. “Ordnance”
means artillery, or the branch of government that deals with military materiel, and the name recalls the
agency’s origins in the Board of Ordnance’s mission to map Scotland in the 1740s, in the wake of the
Jacobite rising. This piece of trivia points to an important fact: the dominant forms of cartography today
are shaped by the needs of enclosure, extraction, warfare, and colonialism. They tend to filter out all
ecological and cultural meaning which doesn’t contribute to those needs. They are questions of military
and economic control: “Where shall we build roads to expedite the transport of silver? Where can troops
be garrisoned or bivouacked? Where might Indigenous armed resistance hide, and how might they be cut
off from the communities that nourish them?”

129
 Marshallese stick map

This is a Marshallese stick map, used to navigate the Pacific Ocean by canoe off the coast of the Marshall
Islands. Islands are represented by shells or by lashed intersections. Islands block and bend ocean swells,
and the materiality of coconut fronds is borrowed to express the materiality of this region of ocean. The
map is read both by sight and by touch, and is generally integrated into the navigator’s memory before the
voyage. The map is not something you take out and consult from time to time. It’s something you carry
constantly inside you, as you observe sun and stars, sense the motion of underlying swells from the pitch
and roll of your canoe, judge your location and bearing, and find your way. Also, different maps of the
same region are quite different, and the skill of reading each map is a very embodied knowledge. That is, it
something you learn to do from someone who knows how to do it, and it is something you can probably
teach to an apt pupil, although you cannot necessarily summarize the knowledge in words. So long as you
don’t need a set of highly standardized cartographic conventions — suitable for the training of naval
officers en mass, enabling them to execute military maneuvers, and moreover enabling them to become
fungible, so that if one officer is killed or court-martialled or transferred to a different vessel, they may
easily be replaced — the stick map is perfectly suited to your purposes.
Countermapping is the speculative practise of exploring myriad ways of representing the world and
finding our way in the world, especially those that investigate, subvert, and/or reject the cartographic
conventions that co-evolved with conquest and empire. It is often a playful practise, and it’s something you
could bring into The Shrike — in fact, hopefully it’s something you already have done, whether you
meant to or not! Oh, and by the way: the mapping practices of The Vale are even more myriad than those
here on Earth . . .
130
 Souvik Mukherjee, writing about the video game Age of Empires: “One key element of the colonial
enterprise is that the Other needs to be known: knowledge enables control. The game map is, therefore,
extremely important in AoE as is the ‘fog of war,’ the dark space that signifies the unexplored area and
that only becomes visible once the player’s units pass through it. The sooner the player explores the
dark areas of the map to reveal what is hidden, the better are the chances of finding resources such as
gold, stone, wood, and food. Sending scouts is the usual method of exploring uncharted territory.
Exploring through the fog of war also makes the players aware of the buildings of enemy civilizations
and finding the Other is both literally and metaphorically a journey where darkness is brought under
control. This is very similar to the colonial stress on mapping and surveying, which gave the world some
of the most rigorous cartographic surveys such as the Great Trigonometric Survey that calculated the
height of Mount Everest. In the colonial system, mapping allows the colonizer to surveil territory, with
visibility implying control ...”

‘Postcolonialism: Age of Empires,’ in How to Play Video Games

Saanya Jain, writing about Google Maps: “What users see is necessarily shaped by Google’s economic
incentives — in an effort to avoid controversy and thus ensure its total domination, Google changes
what maps are shown to users depending on where they’re searching from. (Much ink has been spilt
over the years on its decisions on everything from Palestine to territory disputes between India and
China.) Google also cooperates with self-serving requests from governments, like wiping out Rio’s
favelas, because they weren’t the best way to encourage tourism in advance of the Olympics and the
World Cup. The dangers of common knowledge of spatial inequality isn’t hypothetical — in Bahrain,
the Shiite majority used Google Maps to demonstrate against inequality after they saw that palaces and
estates make up 95% of the country.

Saanya Jain, ‘Mapping Ideology’

Notes on Crew Size

The Shrike tends to assume that, by the same narrative magic that lofts you into the sky in the first place,
you are able to run a complicated ship with a crew of only four, or indeed one.
But if you’d prefer to tell a story about a bustling sky galleon, with perhaps a complement of fifty or
even a thousand, go for it! Just suppose that crew members named by the oracle are the main cast, and
improvise interactions with the rest of the company as you see fit. If your main cast are all lost, narrate
some less-than-happy fate that befalls the ship.

131
 Quick Reference
✦ How to shuffle the cards. Divide the deck of
cards into three piles: spades by themselves,
hearts and diamonds together, clubs by
themselves. Shuffle each of the three piles
individually. Stack them as one pile with clubs
at the bottom, hearts and diamonds in the
middle, and spades at the top.
✦ Starting crew and resources. Create 4 crew
members. If you’re playing as a group, give
yourselves 6 GOLD and 1 STEEL. If you’re
playing solo, give yourself 2 GOLD, 1 STEEL,
1 GUILE, 1 TECH, and 1 SPIRIT. On Easy
setting, increase STEEL to 2. On Epic setting,
add 2 DAMAGE.
✦ Each turn, advance any active project dice,
draw a card, choose a prompt, and respond.
Update your records, then go to the next turn.
✦ Challenges. If you face a challenge you cannot
beat, you can lose a crew member to reduce
the difficulty by 2. Narrate however you like.
Remove the character from your ship.
✦ Projects. If you get a chance to start a
PROJECT, that means you gain resources (or
repair DAMAGE) after a delay. Decide what
the project will give you, then roll a die to see
how many turns it takes. Each time you draw
a card counts as one turn.
✦ Damage. At 6 DAMAGE, the game ends.
✦ Cities. Cities are opportunities for
worldbuilding, and/or to have an adventure.
The active player may want to set up a scene
to act out. Players may play their own
characters, or NPCs. But it’s also OK to just
make it a quick stop-over.
✦ Ending. When you draw the King of Clubs,
follow the instructions to create your final
randomized challenge(s), and burn resources to
try to beat them.
132
✦ Rule conflicts. If rules seem to say different
things, instructions on oracle prompts and/or
special rules at the beginning of a voyage take
precedence over all normal rules.
✦ Interpreting prompts in co-op play mode. Take
turns being the active player. The active player
draws a card, and chooses a prompt. By
default, the ‘you’ on the prompt refers to the
active player’s character, but it can refer to
someone else by mutual agreement. Questions
are intended as inspiration. Not every question
has to be answered. The active player leads the
storytelling, but everyone can contribute.
✦ If your character dies or leaves, take over
another crew member if one is available. If
none is available, take your turns as normal,
and decide as a group who the ‘you’ refers to.
✦ If there is a dispute about what’s happening,
everyone has the final say over their own
character’s actions, thoughts, and feelings, and
the active player has the final say over
everything else. You can also put things to the
vote if you wish.
✦ Pacing. The game usually ends after around 45
to 50 cards. If you want to play it as a
one-shot, spend an average of 2-3 minutes per
turn. You can also play a campaign over
multiple sessions.
✦ Switching roles. All crew members can switch
roles (e.g. First Mate, Bursar, etc.) whenever
the crew situation changes, i.e. whenever
someone joins the crew or leaves or is killed.
✦ Artifacts and gear. You will usually be told a
thing’s name, and resources to adjust.
Sometimes an effect will be described. If it
isn’t, it’s up to you what it does narratively.
✦ What else would be useful on this quick
reference sheet? Let us know:
josephclwalton@gmail.com.
 Further Reading
Jorge Luis Borges, Labyrinths
Vahni Capildeo, Odyssey Calling
Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
Italo Calvino, Cosmicomics
Charles Baudelaire, Flowers of Evil
S.E. Grove, The Mapmaker’s Trilogy
C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Umberto Eco, The Island of the Night Before
M. NorbeSe Philip, Zong!
Fred Moten and Stefano Harney, The
Undercommons
Karen Lord, The Best of All Possible Worlds
Mick Ashworth, Why North is Up
Huw Lewis-Jones, The Writer’s Map
Sophie Lewis, Full Surrogacy Now
Kai Ashante Wilson, Sorcerer of the Wildeeps
E. Lily Yu, ‘The Cartographer Wasps and the
Anarchist Bees’
Samuel R. Delany, Tales of Nevèrÿon
José Esteban Munoz, Cruising Utopia
Jeff VanderMeer, Wonderbook
Bill Ashcroft, Utopianism in Postcolonial Literatures
Samantha Walton, Everybody Needs Beauty
Joanna Russ, The Female Man
Kim Stanley Robinson, The Mars Trilogy
Kim Stanley Robinson, Aurora
David Rousell, Immersive Cartography and
Post-Qualitative Inquiry
N.K. Jemisin, The Obelisk Gate
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Tombs of Atuan
Joni Seager, The Women’s Atlas
Ruth Levitas, Utopia as Method
Richard Adams, Watership Down
Ibn Battuta, The Travels of Ibn Battuta
‘Lady Sarashina’, The Sarashina Diary
Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild
Milorad Pavic, Dictionary of the Khazars
133
David Graeber, Debt: The First 5,000 Years
Angela Y. Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete?
Becky Chambers, Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
Sara Ahmed, The Promise of Happiness
China Mieville, The City and the City
China Mieville, Perdido Street Station
Louis Cram, A List and Description of Ambergris
Squid Clubs
Stanisław Lem, The Cyberiad
Ralph Pordzik, The Quest for Post-Colonial Utopia
Jean Baudrillard, America
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed
Ursula K. Le Guin, Always Coming Home
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
Wendy Trevino, Cruel Fiction
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland
Grace L. Dillon (ed.), Walking the Clouds
Malcolm Swanston, How to Draw a Map
Margery Hope Nicolson, Voyages to the Moon
Anon, Journey to the West
Catherynne M. Valente, ‘How to Become a Mars
Overlord’
Hal Duncan, Susurrus on Mars
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels
James R. Akerman, Decolonizing the Map
Josephine Saxton, The Travails of Jane Saint
James Tiptree Jnr., ‘Painwise’
Samuel R. Delany, Nova
Samuel R. Delany, Trouble on Triton: An
Ambiguous Heterotopia
Iain M. Banks, The Player of Games
Iain M. Banks, Matter
Kathy Weeks, The Problem with Work
Cory Doctorow, Walkaway
Umberto Eco, Baudolino
Sofia Samatar, A Stranger in Olondria
Sofia Samatar, Tender
 Crew Portraits

Name: Name:
Role: Role:

Name: Name:
Role: Role:

134
Name: Name:
Role: Role:

Name: Name:
Role: Role:

135
Name: Name:
Role: Role:

Name: Name:
Role: Role:

136
Name: Name:
Role: Role:

Name: Name:
Role: Role:

137
Name: Name:
Role: Role:

Name: Name:
Role: Role:

138
Name: Name:
Role: Role:

Name: Name:
Role: Role:

139
Name: Name:
Role: Role:

Name: Name:
Role: Role:

140
Name: Name:
Role: Role:

Name: Name:
Role: Role:

141
 Links
The Shrike is accompanied by this bunch of ramshackle tools and gizmos. Use the Voyage Generator
(sadpress.itch.io/the-shrike-rpg) to cough up your own unique oracle, and voyage into a true wilderness.
Use the Glimpse Generator or the Shrike Deck to inspire and enrich your storytelling visually.

✦ Voyage Generator (and Solo Playtest Tool)

✦ Glimpse Generator
✦ Shrike Deck (or PDF)
✦ Strange Cities
✦ Profuse Possession

Cards from The Shrike Deck

142
 Acknowledgements
Contact: Alice the Candle aka Jo Lindsay Walton / @jolwalton on Twitter / Sad Press

The Shrike is based on Avery Alder's The Quiet Year and Mark Diaz Truman and Avery Alder's The
Deep Forest. Other influences include Star Trek, FTL: Faster Than Light, John Harper's Lady Blackbird,
Takuda Okama's Alone Among the Stars, Yoon Ha-Lee's StarSwept, Ursula K. Le Guin's 'The Ones
Who Walk Away from Omelas,' Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, Becky Chambers's Long Way to a Small,
Angry Planet, and Samuel R. Delany's Nova. The Shrike system is from Sad Press Games.

The fonts are Goudy Bookletter 1911, Cormorant SC, and Emilys Candy. Thank you to the mysterious
Gref Elves of Twine for teaching me things, and to Jacob D.C. Ross, /u/fleetingflight,
/u/GoldBRAINSgold, Alex Butterworth, and everyone at Conjured Games for feedback, encouragement,
and advice.

All artwork by Tithi Luadthong, except as follows. Cover art by Poskryakov's Games (Shutterstock).
Skyship on title page by Apokusay (Vector Stock). Adventurers lying sprawled with their heads together
by Vagelio Kaliva. Grand ramshackle town roofs against a mountain backdrop by Firstear (Shutterstock).
Flying islands wreathed in prismatic mist by Liu Zishan (Shutterstock). Steampunky zeppelin by Atelier
Sommerland (Shutterstock). Curling sky islet with crescent moon swing by e71lena (Shutterstock).
Dirigible soaring over cloud-wreathed snowy peaks by Digital Storm (Shutterstock). Figure in green mist
prepares pad for drying harvested rice by Herry Faizel (Shutterstock). Giant toadstool structures sprouting
in snowy landscape by Algol (Shutterstock). Shadowy and incandescent figures on fingers of giants by
Amanda Carden (Shutterstock). Delicate, bulbous, insectile craft sailing above cloud layer by Melkor 3D
(Shutterstock). Collages on adventure title pages and portraits of crew were created using Dall-E Mini and
Midjourney by Jo Lindsay Walton and the many artists whose work trained those models.

Quotations are from Denis Wood with John Fels and John Krygier, Rethinking the Power of Maps
(2010); Matthew Sparke, In the Space of Theory: Postfoundational Geographies of the Nation-State
(2005); Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life (1980), Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man (1900);
Magali Carrera and Raymond B. Craib in James R. Ackerman (ed.), Decolonizing the Map: Cartography
from Colony to Nation; Aishwarya Subramanian, ‘Centuries ago, explorers like Columbus and Vasco da
Gama played a real-life version of Pokémon Go’ (2016). Citation follows the Crot Citation Guide.

Dedicated to Gwydion, Stefan, Evan, and Jan.

143