Harrowtoll The world
The tide and other hazards
One tide rises and falls for the whole realm. It opens and closes ground, hides creatures and leaves flotsam.
The tide
The sea rises and falls once every 30 minutes, for everyone at once. The tide gauge on your screen shows the water's height and your own. A traveller whose head goes under drowns.
| Where | Low water | High water |
|---|---|---|
| Saltmere | -4.5 m | 3 m |
| Every other island | -4.5 m | 18.5 m |
Away from Saltmere the sea swings 23 meters. It closes cave mouths, covers the low shore, and hides the creatures that live there until it falls.
The rising water does not take a creature the moment it reaches it. A creature stands and fights in the shallows until the water has covered 50% of its height, so a low creature goes before a tall one. Then it goes under with a splash, and it rises again when the tide has left its ground dry. A creature that is in a fight stays until the fight is over, however deep the water.
The Tidecut Gate
The Tidecut Gate stands across the gully below Bellwether on Saltmere. Turn the winch on its walkway with E to lower the shutter and hold the basin behind it at its present level, or raise it and let the sea back in. The gate moves for everyone on the island.
Strands and flotsam
A strand is a broad tide flat on an island's lowest ground, dry for less than half of each tide. An island has up to 4. Sea creatures stand thick on a strand in packs close enough that a careless step brings the next one.
Every high tide strews fresh flotsam on each strand, in new places, and takes back whatever nobody reached. The richest pieces lie on the deepest sand, which is dry for only a few minutes.
A piece can be opened while any part of it still shows above the water, so you can wade out to one the tide has begun to cover. Once the water has closed over its top it cannot be opened. The same holds for a chest in a building the sea reaches.
| Flotsam | What it holds | Its scrap | Covered by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wrack heap | A little gold and scrap | Wood | 0.59 m of water |
| Sea-worn crate | A fair hoard | Metal | 0.89 m of water |
| Brine cask | A fair hoard, and it may hold a potion | Wood | 0.65 m of water |
| Lashed bale | A little gold and scrap | Leather | 0.61 m of water |
| Drowned chest | A rich hoard, always with a piece of gear, and it may hold a potion | Metal | 0.76 m of water |
Falls
Cliffs have no safety barrier. A fall of up to 6 meters does no harm. Past that, each meter costs 10 health, so a fall of 16 meters kills a traveller with 100 health.
If you are stuck
If your traveller is wedged and cannot move, open the menu and
press "I am stuck", or type /unstuck in the chat. You
are set back to where you stood at least 6 meters
ago along your own path. It works in a fight too, and can be used
again after 10 seconds.