Chapter 4

The Moonmere Coast and Lanternport

Tide pools, lantern-lit piers and a walled stone harbour with a castle on the lagoon. The night market never quite closes, and everyone loves a bargain and a riddle.

The map

Numbers on the map match the list. Levels are the creatures' levels round each place.

Lanternport Safe
Home: a walled stone harbour city of blue banners, lantern-lit piers, the night market and the ferry.
Mistshore Lv 1–6
Beaches, tide pools, dunes and a kelp lagoon. Fish off the pier, dig for pearls, gather driftwood.
The Drowned Lighthouse Lv 12–18
A ruined lighthouse on an island the tide covers every night, with sea caves underneath. Its lamp still burns underwater. Anyone may cross the causeway, but what waits at the bottom stirs only for Residents of Moonmere.
Saltbriar Orchard Lv 5–10
An old orchard gone wild with briar. Thorn sprouts by the fallen wall, briarbacks in the west rows and, at the bottom of the cart road, the way down into Matriarch Hollow.
Brinestack Shoals Lv 7–12
Past the Mistshore, where the southern horn breaks into sea stacks: tide pools, stack bats and the Lantern Walk out to Beacon Rock. Some nights a light burns out there that no keeper lit.
The Stonewake Road Lv 15–22
The old quarry road up into the mountains. It climbs to the Stonewake Highlands, where Stonewake hangs on its lifts and chains, and the roads from all three homelands meet. It opens once A Mother of Thorns is done.
Purrwick Lv 1–5
A catkin fishing village on the lagoon shore: huts on stilts, an old ship turned upside down for a hall, and a punt out to Moth Isle. Everybody here has an opinion about the weather.
Moth Isle Lv 2–6
A little island in the lagoon, reached by the punt from Purrwick. An old hornkin keeps glass lanterns there for the moths. Nobody is sure why, and he will not say.
Saltpan Mill Lv 3–7
The salt pans and the tide mill on the creek. The sea comes in through the sluices and goes out as salt. The miller counts every tide out loud.
The Thousand Gates Lv 5–9
A foxkin shrine in the pines: a path under a tunnel of small gates, each one given by somebody. Pilgrims count them and always get a different number.
Hornstep Lv 8–12
Hornkin goat terraces out on the tip of the northern horn, and a star dial in a ring of old pillars. The goats go where they like, which is everywhere.
The Gull & Lantern Lv 10–14
An inn in a smugglers' cove under the sea cliffs, with beds, gossip and a blue lantern in the window that is never put out. Bats in the caves.
Gullcrag Fort Lv 13–18
A ruined sea fort on the southern cliffs. Gale bats roost in its towers, and one old sergeant still keeps the watch, because nobody told him to stop.
The Undertide Lv 27–30
Under Lanternport's sea: take the lantern-divers' bell at the end of the east pier down to Keelhollow, a salvagers' village in a dome of air, and out into the Kelpwood and drowned Lowharbour. Bring your breath. Opens after Chapter 3.

Don't miss!

Night Market
Open late, louder later. Vix the Fair plays Tales here after dark. Fair games, mostly.
Granny Neap
Down the long boardwalk in Stiltwater. She reads the lagoon before she casts, and she'll teach you to as well.
The Drowned Lighthouse
An island the tide covers every night, with sea caves underneath. Check the tide before you go. Then check it again.

Who's who

Job mentors in the square: Warden Kestra (Knight), Astrologer Ilex (Wizard), Tidesinger Moro (Cleric), Quickpaw Sly (Thief) and Bosun Harl (Brawler), in Lanternport. Battle trainer: Drillmaster Fennick.
Teachers of the callings: Herb-wife Orla (Foraging), Granny Neap (Fishing), Clammer Tobiah (Digging), Sizzle (Cooking), Gardener Thrift (Farming), Boat-builder Jory (Woodcutting) and Shipwright Dagny Holm (Shipwright)
Tales players: Saffi Brightwhisker, Minnow, Ama Fen, Mapmaker Tobiah and Vix the Fair
Doors worth opening: The Crescent Inn, Night Market, Stargazer's Tower, The Watch House, The Glassworks, The Upturned Hull and The Gull & Lantern

Pro Tip

The Purrwick cats stare at things. Don't ask what. Don't look. Keep walking, lu.

Local creatures

The full stat boxes are in the Bestiary.

Spoiler: tap to peek Where the Oolen village might be

Rumours from round the coast. One of these places is where the village has its door this week.

The heath beyond the diving bell: The bell-hand on the east pier says there's singing on the heath past the diving bell, at the hour the lamps go out. Two notes, he says. The second one higher.

The salt grass above the Mistshore: Little round footprints in the salt grass above the Mistshore, going in circles. Not lost circles. Dancing circles, the salt-wife says.

The foothills west of Purrwick: Purrwick's cats have all been sitting facing west, toward the foothills, for days. A cat only faces something it can't be bothered to chase. Or something it's afraid of. Nobody can tell which.