NIGHT 1 OF 8Slack Water
FORCE 3
- 12TIMBER
- 5OIL
- 10CANVAS
- 6IRON
- 4CREW
DAWN, NIGHT 1
Spend the day before the light goes
WATCH 1 OF 4
The sea rises
A swell is standing up out of the west.
NIGHT 1 HELD
Dawn again
A KEEPER'S LOG, EIGHT NIGHTS
Tidewright
The reef is drowning and you are the only one left on it. Each dawn you spend what you have on timber, oil, canvas and salvaged iron. Each night the sea comes for the tower, the lamp or the crew's quarters — and you have three pairs of hands to answer it. If the lamp fails, everything after you on the water dies. Hold eight nights.
- DAWNSix works, repeated as often as the stores allow. The skiff goes out once a day and may not come back with its man.
- NIGHTThe sea rises in named stages, from slack water to the Drowning. Watch the swell, spend a hand, take the blow.
- THREE PARTSTower, lamp and quarters. Only the lamp ends the run. The other two cost you crew.
THE KEEPER'S RULES
How the reef is held
The day
- Shore the tower — 2 timber, +18 tower.
- Mend the optic — 1 timber, 1 iron, +22 lamp.
- Trim and lamp — 1 oil, +8 lamp.
- Case the quarters — 2 canvas, +18 quarters.
- Patch the reef — 1 timber, 1 iron, +1 seal. Each seal takes 12% off every blow that night. Four is the most the rock will take.
- Send the skiff — one man, once a day. He comes back with 4 timber, 2 iron, 3 canvas and 2 oil, if he comes back.
- Take on a hand — 1 timber, 2 canvas, once a day, up to four aboard. Without crew there is no salvage.
The night
Each night the sea breaks on the reef a set number of times. You see which part it is coming for, then spend one hand:
- Brace — 1 timber. Halves the blow, and shores the tower if that is what is coming.
- Shutters — 1 canvas. Turns the sea off completely, and saves the optic if that is the target.
- Dredge — 1 iron. Turns this swell aside and weakens the next one.
- Relight — 1 oil. Burns the blow down and puts 14 back into the optic.
- Let it come — costs nothing. The sea takes the full blow.
Losing
If the lamp reaches zero the night is lost and the run ends. If the tower or the quarters go, they come back ruined and a man is lost with them — and if the quarters are still bad at dawn, another goes. Salt and vibration take a few points off the optic every night whether or not the sea touches it.
Keys
1–7 choose a work at dawn, Enter faces the night, 1–4 answer a swell, 5 or Space lets it come, Esc pauses, M mutes, R stands another watch once the run is over.
THE WATCH IS HELD
Paused
The sea will wait. It is the only thing out here that will.
THE LOG IS CLOSED