Leviathan Fall¶

Civilization

A town built inside something six hundred blocks long that fell from the sky, and is not quite dead.

At a glance
Kind of world	Civilization
Serum in the arrival Box	2 ampoules
Native Serum stand-in	Marrow Dust
Quests	Yes: see your Traveler's Guide

Screenshot comingleviathan-fall-wound

Standing in the wound in her side, looking out over the whole length of the Leviathan lying in her dust crater

What happens when you arrive¶

Something six hundred blocks long fell out of the sky, lay down in the crater it made, and a town grew inside it. Your Box opens on a landing in the middle of her chest, under a tear in her hide. Ribs as wide as roads curve up over you, the light through her skin is the colour of honey, and houses hang on decks up the inside of the ribs. A woman calls up to you from the mine heads below: that is Brine, and she has work for you.

She is not quite dead. Every morning her heart beats, and it throws people off the decks.

The rule: she beats every morning¶

Once a day, early in the morning, her heart thumps twice and the whole of her shudders for a few seconds.

What happens	What it means for you	How to deal with it
You are thrown	On the second thump, anyone not holding on is flung sideways and up. On a high deck that can be a long fall.	Crouch next to something solid (a wall, a post, a block beside you, not just the floor under you). The town's people do the same.
Creatures are stunned	Every hostile creature within 32 blocks of you is badly slowed, weakened and forgets you for a few seconds.	A free moment to run or strike.
Loose things fall	Cracked bone and crater dust with nothing under them come down.	Don't stand under them at dawn.
The mine squeezes clamp shut	The narrow squeezes halfway down the leg mines close for 15 seconds (unless someone is inside one).	Wait, or be past them before dawn.
Marrow grows back	Fresh gold seams appear in the mine walls.	Mine again the next day.
The Gut's valves move	The open valve in each fold of the Gut shifts.	See The Gut below.

The beats grow stronger the further anyone has got toward her heart. You can't sleep through them: beds don't work here, and compasses spin. A Bone Stethoscope laid on her anywhere tells you how many seconds until she next beats.

Screenshot comingleviathan-fall-heartbeat

Dawn on the rib decks: residents crouched against posts as dust pours off the ribs and a player is flung into the air

Safe near people

Her creatures leave you alone while you are talking to someone, and anywhere within about 12 blocks of one of the townsfolk with something to say. A mine head with Brine on it is a safe place to come back to.

The places in her¶

Place	What is there
Ribhollow	The town, on decks and bridges up the inside of her ribs. Floor traders on the chest floor, apprentices, miners.
The Marrow Mines	Down the stair behind Brine, dug into her leg bones. Gold marrow seams, and Marrow Mites.
The Gut	Past the door in her diaphragm, at the back of the chest. A swamp of flesh and moss behind folds of muscle, where the Gut Blooms grow.
The Heart Chamber	Under the Seal on the chest floor, guarded by the Bone Wardens.
The Silent Cathedral	Her skull, eye sockets open to the sky. Mother Sallow and the Hush Priests keep it.
The Crater	Dust and stone outside her, with a field of shining star glass past her southern flank.

Chests in homes, mine heads, the cathedral and the Gut hold marrow, hide leather, candles, string, rope, bones, sometimes a Bone Harpoon or a Star Glass Shard kept like a relic.

Your quest: The Heart of Her¶

The quest tracker points the way at every step. Three people want three different things from her, and nobody has asked her.

Step	Who	What to do	Reward
1	Brine, at the union board on the east mine head deck	Ask her for work.
2	Brine	Mine 8 Leviathan Marrow in the leg-bone mines down the stair behind her, and bring them back.	2 marrow, 6 Hide Leather, a Bone Harpoon and 16 Leviathan Bone
3		Hold on through a heartbeat. Your first one comes within a minute of being paid. Thrown or not, it counts.
4	Osric Fell, the old ribwright	Talk to him.	A Bone Stethoscope
5		Lay the stethoscope on the Seal over her heart (on the chest floor) and listen. Keep still while you do.
6	Mother Sallow, in the Silent Cathedral	Talk to her, then bring her 3 Star Glass Shards from the shining field past her southern flank.	A Hide Coat
7		Go through the diaphragm door into the Gut and find the bloom that speaks.
8	Osric	Go back and tell him what you heard.	The Seal Hook
9		Pull open the Seal with the hook. It opens for everyone, for good.
10		Kill the Antibody that guards the heart.
11		Climb down the rope from the open Seal and lay your empty hand on her heart (right-click).	A Heart-Ember

The Bone Wardens around the Seal turn back anyone who walks onto it, until it is open or until you carry Osric's hook. Then they step aside.

The Gut¶

Each fold of muscle across the Gut has three valves, and only one hangs slack and open. Walk through the open one; the others are clenched shut and can't be cut. Every heartbeat moves the open valve on, so the way through changes each day. The tracker's compass points at the open valve of the next fold.

The Gut Blooms on its floor are rooted pods that puff spores at you within 5 blocks (a few seconds of poison and nausea). The oldest one, on the mound at the back, does not puff and can't be hurt: that is the Voice, many small voices in one bloom, and it was here first.

Screenshot comingleviathan-fall-gut

Inside the Gut: three valves in a wall of muscle, one hanging open, glowing blooms on a mossy floor

The Antibody¶

The heart's own guard: a white cell the size of a cart, all spines and one lidless eye. It has 220 health and armour, drifts round the chamber, rams you every few seconds for heavy damage, and every seven seconds pulses, throwing back everyone within 7 blocks. Once it is hurt past half, it buds Marrow Mites. When it bursts, the way to the heart is clear for everyone. It drops 4 to 8 marrow and 2 to 4 star glass shards.

The choice at her heart (spoilers)

Lay your hand on her heart and you choose what she becomes. The first player to choose decides for everyone, forever, and the whole world is rewritten around the choice.

Choice	What happens
Wake her	Her heart surges faster and harder, she gets up, and at the height of it everyone inside her is carried home through the Box. On every later visit she walks: the crater is a sea of dust to the horizon, her legs swing under her, and each footfall shakes her like a small heartbeat.
Let her rest	The heart slows and stops, and she turns to stone around whoever is in her. No more beats, and nothing lives in her any more.
Give her to the Gut	Only offered if you have met the Voice. The bloom takes the heart, and moss and glowing tendrils grow through every deck. She keeps beating, and Gut Blooms grow everywhere.

Everyone who finishes the story gets a Heart-Ember. If someone else chose first, talk to Brine and she closes the story for you, and the ember is still yours.

The Helm (after she wakes)¶

If she was woken, a new quest appears: use the Helm behind the cathedral's altar to open the priests' chart and pick where she walks. She covers about a league a minute and can be turned at any time. Arriving somewhere builds that place in the dust around her and marks new places beyond it on the chart.

Places on the chart (spoilers)

The Calf's Grave, the Shallow Sea, the Field of Fallen Giants and the Place She Fell From are known from the start. Further out lie the Nursery, the Eye of the Storm, the Star Glass Reef, the Drowned Caravan, the Rib Forest and the Buried Spire.

Screenshot comingleviathan-fall-walking

From the skull, the Leviathan's legs striding across an endless sea of dust

Side quest: Six Clues to What She Was¶

Once you find your first clue, this quest opens. Bring all six to Mother Sallow for 8 Star Glass Shards. Each clue counts when you come within about 10 blocks of it.

Walk into the field of star glass beyond her south flank.
Find the old claw scars low on her north flank.
Find the small skeleton curled up far out in the crater, south of her.
Ask the Voice about the long cold (only once the story sends you to the Gut).
Ask the Voice whether she was alone (after the long cold).
At night, stand in the Silent Cathedral under her eye sockets and look straight up.

Creatures¶

Creature	Where	What it does	Drops
Marrow Mite	The leg mines, one at a time out of the walls, up to 3 around a miner.	Pale cat-sized lice. Weak alone. They keep to their own stretch of tunnel and burrow back rather than follow you home.	Marrow Dust, sometimes marrow
Hide Kite	Over the open decks by day.	A ray of loose hide that circles, swoops, grabs you and climbs, then drops you when hurt or tired: a long way up.	Hide Leather
Bone Warden	Round the Seal.	Hits very hard (80 health, heavy armour), but only fights what fights it.	Bone
Gut Bloom	The Gut floor.	Rooted; puffs poison spores.	Gut Moss, Marrow Dust
The Antibody	The Heart Chamber.	The boss. See above.	Marrow, Star Glass Shards

Grabbed by a kite?

Crouch to let go before it climbs too high, or hit it to make it drop you. A Hide Coat makes the landing far kinder.

Gear from the story¶

Item	What it does
Bone Harpoon	Hold use to draw it (fully drawn after a second), let go to throw. It bites a creature and tugs it in, or bites bone or stone and hauls you after it: how Ribhollow crosses gaps. It always comes back on its line. Mend it with bones in the crafting grid: 64 make it whole.
Hide Coat	A priest's coat (chest slot). On top of its armour you can fall 6 more blocks before it hurts, and you take half the fall damage after that.
Bone Stethoscope	Tells you how long until the next heartbeat.
Heart-Ember	Place it at home. Once a day it beats: every crop within 6 blocks grows a step. Hostile mobs that come within 10 blocks lose interest and are pushed away.

➜

Bone Harpoon (Crafting Table)

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Hide Coat (Crafting Table)

What to bring home¶

Find	Where	Why it's worth it
Leviathan Marrow	Marrow Seams in the leg mines (or smelt the seam).	Food that heals slowly (Regeneration for 15 seconds), and fuel that burns twice as long as coal.
Marrow Dust	Grind marrow, or from mites.	The native Serum active.
Hide Leather	Hide Kites, Brine's pay, chests.	Hide blocks, the Hide Coat.
Star Glass Shard	The glass field south of her. Smelt Crater Dust into Star Glass blocks.	Sallow's quest, pretty glass.
Bone blocks	Everywhere.	Polished bone, bone bricks, lashed bone planks, fat lamps.

➜

2

Marrow Dust (Shapeless: any arrangement)

Ribhollow has no trees, so its timber is bone: two Leviathan Bone and two string, set diagonally, make 4 Lashed Bone Planks. Three string in a column make 4 Sinew Rope. A marrow over four bones (two legs of two) makes 2 Fat Lamps, and marrow with string makes Tallow Candles. Hide Leather in a 2x2 square makes 2 Leviathan Hide blocks.

Serum and getting home¶

The arrival Box's cache holds 2 Serum Ampoules, and the chest by the Box holds 3 Leviathan Marrow.
Native stand-in: Marrow Dust. It takes the place of Somnium Powder in the Synthesizer. One marrow grinds into two.
If you choose to wake her, you are carried home through the Box automatically as she stands up.

Tips¶

Learn to crouch beside a wall at dawn before you go anywhere high. Getting thrown off a top deck is the most common way to die here.
Do Brine's job in the morning: the marrow grows back on each heartbeat, and the squeezes are open again 15 seconds after it.
Keep the Bone Harpoon on your hotbar. It crosses gaps, gets you out of falls, and pulls kites down.
The choice at the heart is permanent for everyone on the server. Talk it over before you lay your hand on it.

Birds¶

Birds you can photograph for your bird log here. Open one to turn it round, watch it move and hear its call.

Heartbeat Swift: common
Gut Bittern: rare

The traveler's tape¶

Every arrival Box has a chest by its door holding a cassette: the last traveler reading their journal of this world aloud. This is what they say. It gives a lot away.

Read the journal (spoilers)

The Box opened on a landing in the middle of a ribcage. Every rib was as wide as a road, and the light came through the skin between them the colour of honey. There were houses built on decks up the inside of the ribs, and bridges, and lamps burning fat. Nobody there agrees what it is they live in. The miners call her the Old Girl and dig gold out of her legs. The priests in her skull call her the Sleeper and keep a seal over her heart. Something in her gut calls her the big one, and was there first. I walked out through the wound in her side and saw all of her at once, lying in the crater she made, and I sat down in the dust for a while. In the morning her heart beat. The whole town crouched and held on, and I did not, and I went off the deck. She is not dead. Whoever reaches her heart first will decide what she is. When you have seen enough, step back into the Box with the Serum still in you and shut the door.