// THE PREMISE
What this world is
Saltmarsh Bay is a decaying New England fishing town in the autumn of 1925, and something ancient is waking under the sea. The fish have come back after a decade of empty nets, and the town has grown strange and prosperous in the same season. People who leave do not come back; people who stay are changing - their eyes, their gait, the things they will and will not say. You arrive as an outsider with a reason to dig: a missing relative, a folklorist's commission, a reporter's nose, an unwanted inheritance.
This is investigation first and dread always: legwork, old records, interviews with people who answer the wrong questions, and the slow uncovering of a truth the mind is not built to hold. The Order of the Deep Tide, the secret theocracy under Reverend Obed Marsh-Coram, made a pact generations ago and tends it on the nights of the high tide. The Old Families, intermarried bloodlines led by the matriarch Hepzibah Gilman, are changing into something that belongs to the sea. Roric Blackwood's dwindling Holdouts refuse the change and know they are being culled. The Fenland Runners smuggle through the labyrinthine waterways. And the thing in the trench beyond the Devil's Reef stirs toward a waking.
The pact is succeeding too well - the change is accelerating, the high tides are climbing, and the Drowned God's dreams leak into the town. You, digging into one small mystery, pull a thread that runs all the way down to the trench. Gather the truth, hold onto your mind while doing it, and decide what to do with knowledge that cannot be unlearned.
// PLAY PROFILE
What this world plays like
Begin with the small mystery that brought you: a missing relative, a commission, an inheritance, or a story worth reporting. Visit the harbor, ask about the chapel, and listen for the question people keep answering instead of yours.
You could investigate Reverend Marsh-Coram's Order, seek Roric Blackwood's Holdouts, or follow the Fenland Runners through the waterways. The Old Families know another version of the town's history, though asking for it may have a cost.
The pact and the rising tides can draw the investigation toward the reef. Decide whom to trust, what evidence to pursue, and whether a truth beneath the reef is one you want to bring back.
// FACTIONS IN MOTION
Principal factions
The secret theocracy that rules Saltmarsh Bay, composed of the Old Families and their sworn enforcers. They venerate the Drowned God, uphold the ancient Pact for prosperity and longevity, and quietly manage the town's slow, horrifying transformation. Their primary goals are to maintain secrecy, manage the 'Change' in their bloodlines, and ensure no outside influence disrupts their bargain.
The economic engine of Saltmarsh Bay and the public face of the Gilman and Marsh-Coram families' power. The Cooperative controls every boat, sets the price for every catch, and runs the cannery, effectively holding every fisherman in a state of debt peonage. They enforce the Old Families' will through credit, script, and control over who is allowed to work the sea.
A dwindling community of Holdouts who have fled the town's corruption for the perceived safety of the deep woods. They are deeply paranoid, fiercely self-sufficient, and cling to a puritanical faith as a ward against the influence of the Drowned God. Desperate and isolated, some have begun listening to the faint, dry whispers of the other ancient power that sleeps beneath the forest floor.
A pragmatic crew of smugglers and bootleggers who use the labyrinthine waterways of the fens to bypass the Cooperative's control. They trade in mainland liquor, untaxed gasoline, and other contraband, dealing with both desperate Holdouts and, discreetly, members of the Old Families. They value profit above all and are careful not to draw the full attention of the town's true rulers.
// KEY FIGURES
People you'll meet
// SITES OF RECORD
Places that matter
A vast, ancient forest of gnarled oaks and pines that crowds the edges of Saltmarsh Bay, growing right down to the high tide line in places. The canopy is so thick that the forest floor is in a perpetual twilight. The trails are few and twisted, and it is said the woods actively try to lose travelers.
A sprawling marshland of brackish water, sucking mud, and tall reeds that obscure the border between land and sea. The Fens are a maze of tidal creeks and stagnant pools, home to smugglers, recluses, and things that wash ashore. The air is heavy with the smell of decay.
A cluster of salt-bleached buildings clinging to a hook of land around a deep-water harbor. The air is thick with the smell of fish, low tide, and coal smoke from the cannery that never seems to stop running. The town is too quiet for its newfound prosperity, and the stares of its inhabitants linger too long.
A treacherous black reef, visible only at low tide, that guards the entrance to Saltmarsh Bay. Beyond it, the sea floor plummets into an abyssal, uncharted trench. The water above the trench is unnaturally cold and still, and fishermen give it a wide berth, casting their nets only at its edges.
// STORY PASSAGE
A passage from the published profile
Reverend Marsh-Coram pours the tea you will not drink. "You've been to the harbor at the low tide," he says, gentle as a sermon. "You've seen how far out it goes now. How the reef shows itself." He smiles, and there is something wrong with the number of his teeth. "We don't fear it here. We were afraid, once, the way you are now. It passes. Everything passes, and then it comes home."
He is the kindest man in Saltmarsh Bay and the most dangerous, and they are the same thing.
Selected story passage. Your choices can lead elsewhere.
BEFORE YOU ENTER
Choose a first decision
Start with a person you want to meet, a place you want to see, or a problem you want to understand. You make choices through written actions and read the Narrator's response. The people and places above introduce this world; they do not promise a fixed sequence of scenes.
Completed turns save to your account. Review the latest scene and the relevant in-game information when returning. Check current access and Spark allowances before a longer session, and use the player guide for help with saves, artwork, possessions, and other supported features.
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