Adam's Way

**Adam's Way** is a large inland waterway leading from the southern Unterzee into the Elder Continent. Its mouth is flanked by giant stone carvings of bees. The port is called **Apis Meet**.

Sailing south off the map via **Adam's Way** will reduce both your Hull and Crew to 1 and award you The Touch of the South, and Judgements' Egg.

## Port description

*"On a bed of monumental ruins, warehouses and waystations of shroom-timber rise."*

## Interactions

### Near Adam's Way

All ships that approach Adam's Way are intercepted by the Gracious - the Presbyterate's splendidly head-dressed coastguards. A quaint but inviolable tradition governs entry: you must tell them one of three stories. In return you will be permitted to spend a single day in the port.

The Gracious are always eager for news from London.
Is their interest strategic? Or do they just enjoy hearing about London's miseries? Regardless, they permit you to dock.
The day has just begun. In the town's square, a yellow-robed priestess plants a seed in a bed of black soil. No sooner has she patted down the soil than a tiny shoot pokes forth. By mid-morning it will be a sapling; by lunchtime a budding tree. By the evening's end it will wither and fall. You must be back on your ship before then.
 Adam's Way: the Tree of a Single Day = 1 [The Tree of a Single Day is a hopeful sapling, green and budding.]
 -1 x Recent News
The Gracious lean forwards, avidly.
The log ends immediately after an intriguing discovery. Did the captain survive? Did she return to her sweetheart? The Gracious are unconcerned. "Endings always disappoint, don't you think?"
The day has just begun. In the town's square, a yellow-robed priestess plants a seed in a bed of black soil. No sooner has she patted down the soil than a tiny shoot pokes forth. By mid-morning it will be a sapling; by lunchtime a budding tree. By the evening's end it will wither and fall. You must be back on your ship before then.
 Adam's Way: the Tree of a Single Day = 1 [The Tree of a Single Day is a hopeful sapling, green and budding.]
 -1 x Unread Log
The Presbyterate has never explained its interest in devils. They are keen to hear what you learned in Mt Palmerston.
An exchange of glances. Your ship is waved on, toward the long stone jetty.
The day has just begun. In the town's square, a yellow-robed priestess plants a seed in a bed of black soil. No sooner has she patted down the soil than a tiny shoot pokes forth. By mid-morning it will be a sapling; by lunchtime a budding tree. By the evening's end it will wither and fall. You must be back on your ship before then.
 -1 x A Port Report: Mt Palmerston
 Adam's Way: the Tree of a Single Day = 1 [The Tree of a Single Day is a hopeful sapling, green and budding.]
"For your own protection," one of them explains, kindly.
The soil of the Elder Continent is dangerous to incomers, they claim. Those who linger can contract unfortunate conditions: hysteria, rapture, animescence.
And the rumours that Presbyterate law offers no protection to foreigners after dark? "Arrant nonsense."

### Adam's Way

To the south: the Elder Continent, and the seventy-two cornucopian kingdoms of the Presbyterate. Are the stories true - rivers of honey; castles of ivory?

Who can say? Foreigners (that's you) are forbidden from the interior. The closest most get is Adam's Way: a shouting, feasting, thieving riot of a port.

*Game note: The options available may change as the day progresses.*