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Death's Door
Deathsdoorstep ambience
Death's Door (Sidebar)
Located in the Blue Kingdom
Ports The Catafalque
Shops Trinity's Hoarding

Death's Door is a port in the north of the Blue Kingdom.

Guide[ | ]

Captains of any status can visit the shops and bazaar.

Captains of any status can come to reclaim their face or name at The Quartermaster’s Office.

Captains of any status can use A Bag of Faces to become Yoked.

Captains must be Ephemera to Acquire a Shovel. This requires a difficult hearts challenge, having a litigator, or costs 3 Undistinguished Souls. Success leads to The Catafalque.

Location Map[ | ]

Death's Doorstep <-> The Catafalque <-> The Test of Substance <-> Deeper into the Catafalque <-> The Test of Definition <-> Death's Door Event <-> The Opening of the Door

Captains can change from Ephemera to Invisible at either the Test of Substance or the Test of Definition.

Captains with A Bag of Faces can change from any status to Yoked at Death's Doorstep.

Bags of Faces can be acquired at Deeper into the Catafalque, and getting there requires losing your face, effectively costing 1 Testament of the Feather.

The Opening of the Door can reward you with a Searing Enigma, effectively costing 2 Moments of Inspiration, 1 Testament of the Feather and 1 Indulgence.

Log Entries[ | ]

A stoker sings: "The wind doth blow today, my love, and a few small drops of rain. I never had but one true love, and in cold grave she was lain."
Even from here, you can hear digging. This is Death's Door, where the dead tunnel to their final progress.
Shafts of light burnish the sky ahead: Death's Door, the final horizon.
Your crew are quiet as the grave. "Please, Captain," a navigator pleads. "No nearer."

The Fatalistic Signalman is quiet as you approach Death's Doorstep. "I'll stay aboard, if it's all the same to you."
The Navigator turns away from the window, and the looming shape of Death's Door. "Let's not linger, Captain."
Usually the Vagabond has a story for everywhere you visit. But now he is silent and nervous.
Your Aunt examines the throngs of the dead. "Oh good. I have a number of friends I wish to be certain made it here."

The Catafalque[ | ]

A knot of houses surrounds the station. Past these, the landscape declines into mud and misery. Somewhere beneath that bleak mire lies the Catafalque, where spirits approach their end.

Death's Doorstop
Locomotive
Category Story Event
Type Story
Data ID 302110


Death's Doorstop[ | ]

An austere, ugly little town has sprung up around the station, built and inhabited by spirits too afraid to pass beyond the Door.

It has no official name, because officially it should not exist, but some of the Blue Kingdom bureaucrats sneeringly call it Death's Doorstop.

the Endless Furrows. An endless expanse of churned black mud.

Interactions

Actions Requirements Effects Notes
Wander the streets of the officially-nameless town
A town of spirits too cowardly to pass on. There are few such specimens – only the most committed kind of cowardice can survive death.

Advanced query needs investigation


Make your way to the Endless Furrows
Careful. The mud can devour a boot whole.
Treacherous ground
As you make your way to the Furrows, the mud seems softer, more yielding than usual. First you sink to your ankles, then to your knees. You find yourself wading, torso-deep, and finally come to a stop with the cold mud reaching your chin.

A heavy boot falls inches from your nose. You crane your neck to meet the empty gaze of a porcelain mask. A Yoked spirit, as tall as a stone column.

"The Arbiter of Fates will see you now," booms a voice from the clay urn on his back, in a tone that brooks no argument. An arm plunges into the mud and hauls you free.

Advanced query needs investigation


Make your way to the Endless Furrows
Careful. The mud can devour a boot whole.
Make your way to the Endless Furrows
Careful. The mud can devour a boot whole.
Advanced query needs investigation


Meet with the Mesmeric Orator
A stocky spirit is waiting, buckling under the weight of a golden urn as tall as he is. This is the Daughter's chosen ambassador.
    • Maskedshade icon The Philosophy of Culmination = 1 [You have agreed to help the Arbiter of Fates establish an embassy in the Reach. You can meet her chosen diplomat, the Mesmeric Orator, in Death's Doorstop]

The Mesmeric Orator
Some of the Yoked spirits speak through the voices of the departed, which they carry in jars or other containers. You've never seen an urn quite so large, though.

"Greetings, Addressed As(SpeechFormal)." A voice echoes from the urn. A voice that is honey poured over thunder. You could huddle around it for warmth. "I understand we are to be partners in the Blue Kingdom's first diplomatic enterprise."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" asks the Mesmeric Orator, chuckling the warmest, kindest chuckle that has ever issued from a pot. He marches aboard your engine. "We are to establish the embassy at a place called Hybras."



The Endless Furrows
Category Story Event
Type Story
Data ID 306067


The Endless Furrows[ | ]

Once, the vast grounds around Death's Door were called the Seven Concentric Gardens. There were flowers. Grass. Trees, leaves still attached. Now there is mud. A squalid, black, hungering mud. And a seething sea of the masked dead, digging and scrabbling, churning, overturning, searching. Useless now to try to cultivate even a blade of grass, but a few Yoked gardener-spirits dash between the trenches, rakes and hoes aloft. They are still stubbornly attempting the impossible.

Interactions

Actions Requirements Effects Notes
Speak with a Sedulous Devil about the Navigator's quest
The devil rushes towards you. He is charged with handling a specific set of unusual cases, and apparently Altan, borne upon his friend's back, is one.
    • Fortunatenavigator icon The Navigator's Promise = 1300 [The Fortunate Navigator wants to take his friend to Death's Door, in the Blue Kingdom]

A firm handshake
"Let's get you where you need to be. Just the one?" The Devil pulls out a pair of calipers to measure Altan's left ear. "This way." He leads you past rows of shuffling dead. As you walk, the Devil squints at the Navigator first through one eye, then the other. "Oh! That is clever."

He gestures downwards, to a stone slab coated in mud. "This door for Altan." The Devil turns to the Navigator, shaking his head. "Your circumstances were a poor fit for your soul, so you changed your circumstances. A neat trick. Man fits you much better." He turns several pages on his clipboard. "Sign here, please."

And then, with another handshake, he's scurrying back across the furrows. You heave Altan's door open, and drop into the darkness below.
    • Fortunatenavigator icon The Navigator's Promise = 1350 [The Fortunate Navigator has spoken with the Sedulous Devil. He knows which is the correct line for Altan to pass through Death's Door]

    Triggers event: Deathsdoorstep ambience The Catafalque

Dig for your door
Occasional flashes of thunderless lightning illuminate the blighted land. Shades burrow in the mud like eager worms. You should join them.
    • Iron icon A Shovel ≥ 1 [You have acquired a shovel.]

Committal
The mud is a miserable ocean, vast, uninterrupted. You hold your shovel like a dowsing rod, and somehow, know exactly where to go.

Your blade bites earth. Again, again, again. Your hands bleed, your arms ache. Eventually you resemble some kind of splattered mud-wraith.

Finally, your shovel slams against something solid. The blade breaks. On your knees you scrabble and uncover a stone door with your name inscribed upon it. Your very own door to death, ancient and brutal and familiar. It has been here, waiting for you, since the beginning of all things.

You heave it open and drop into darkness.
Acquire a shovel
Everyone has a door to their death, buried somewhere in the mud. The trick is to find it. To find it, one must dig.
The Trenches
Many of the shades are digging with their hands, bolstered by the grim patience of the dead. You don't have that kind of time. You drop into one of the trenches that criss-cross the churned landscape, and walk until you find a Yoked spirit with a bundle of shovels slung across her back.
The Trenches
Many of the spirits are digging with their hands, bolstered by the grim patience of the dead. You don't have that kind of time. You drop into one of the trenches that criss-cross the churned landscape, and walk until you find a Yoked spirit with a bundle of shovels slung across her back.

She looks you up and down for a moment, then shakes her head. Voiceless, she drops to one knee, extends a finger, and scrawls shakily in the mud at her feet.

ONLY THE DEAD MAY DIG, she writes. NOT THE INVISIBLE. NOT THE ANTEDECEASED. ONLY DEAD OR EPHEMERA.
The Trenches
Many of the spirits are digging with their hands, bolstered by the grim patience of the dead. You don't have that kind of time. You drop into one of the trenches that criss-cross the churned landscape, and walk until you find a Yoked spirit with a bundle of shovels slung across her back.

She looks you up and down for a moment, then shakes her head. Voiceless, she drops to one knee, extends a finger, and scrawls shakily in the mud at her feet.

WOULD YOU ABANDON YOUR DUTIES? she writes. ONLY DEAD OR EPHEMERA MAY DIG.
Reclaim your face
You tramp through the mud until you find a bureaucratic outpost: half-cairn, half-bunker.
Reclaim your name
You tramp through the mud until you find a bureaucratic outpost, half-cairn, half-bunker.
Search for the Industrialist's Lost Love
Perhaps you'll be lucky, and she hasn't already entered the Catafalque.
    • Deathsdoorstep icon The Long Passage = 5 [The Industrialist's lost love has already been judged. You should find her at Death's Door, if she has not yet passed beyond]

On the trail
You trudge up and down the Furrows, calling the Lost Love's name and asking shades if they've seen her. They respond with a shrug. You're forced to pause when you lose a boot in the mire.

"She's already entered the Catafalque, you know," says a voice from below.

Rescuing your boot from the mud, you turn to discover a Yoked spirit looking up at you from a nearby trench. "I heard you calling her name," he says apologetically. "I met her a few weeks ago. She found her door, and she's in the Catafalque now. If you want to follow her, you'll have to dig."
    • Deathsdoorstep icon The Long Passage = 6 [The Industrialist's lost love has already entered the Catafalque. You'll have to advance through the tunnels until you find her]

Return the Lost Love to the land of the dead
The Arbiter's conditions have been met. The Lost Love must now face her fate.
    • Deathsdoorstep icon The Long Passage = 30 [You successfully collected the Lost Love before the Arbiter's deadline. Now you must return her to Death's Door]

    • Stainedglass icon The Lost Love ≥ 1 [The Lost Love has boarded your engine.]

A final reunion
The Lost Love disembarks from your engine. Without looking back, she begins to track her way along the muddy ground. A figure falls in step with her. It's another spirit, and even at this distance, you recognise the mask. The Industrialist has finally managed to meet his Lost Love in person. They walk along, heads bowed, hands clasped, and descend together into the Catafalque.
Make your way to the Hall of Stoics
The Curator there is awaiting a delivery of confiscated masks.

Game note: This will change your Status to Yoked.

    • Tea icon A Bag of Faces ≥ 1 [You have been given a bag of faces. It clinks.]

The Hall of Stoics
The Hall is a tower of ochre stone. You show the satchel to a Yoked spirit at the door, who waves you through.

Inside you find a spiralling corridor, walls lined with impassive masks. After hours of walking, you finally come across the Curator, studying one of the masks on the wall.

"Ah, are you the new Mortpostem?" The Conscientious Curator takes the bag from you, his own porcelain mask as impassive as the ones racked behind him. "Thank you."

He lays the masks on the floor, one by one. "I try to commit all their faces to memory. Someone should, don't you think?"
Return to Death's Doorstop
You need a change of clothes. These ones are stiff with mud.


Shops[ | ]

Trinity's Hoarding

A masked, silent trio of spirits trade in souls here. Their motivations are obscure and they are forbidden from passing on. Their eye for quality, however, is impeccable.

Item Buy Sell
Fuel square icon Fuel Sovereigns icon 20 Sovereigns Sovereigns icon 10 Sovereigns
Petrichor square icon Petrichor Sovereigns icon 60 Sovereigns Sovereigns icon 30 Sovereigns
Selectionofimmaculatesouls square icon Selection of Immaculate Souls Sovereigns icon 250 Sovereigns
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