#gale cliffs

A beastly lord slinks through cavern and cliff. He slugs through earth and time and the wind joins his bellow before he returns to his recluse. Eventually, a pestilent sound rouses him from his burrow. There is an interloper above his halls, and they will know his wrath. No trespass evades his infernal gaze, and no vessel escapes his collection. Well, maybe all but one. “Serpent” they call the cliffs’ master, a name which lends the mind to instance threads of devilry and epic mythos. Such analogies are definitely not inappropriate for the giant aberration that stalks the Gale Cliffs. For two decades, he has patrolled and altered their passageways with slow lurch, one burning coal of an eye scanning for food or foe. Armed with strength to grind through rocksides, petrified scales, and a toothed maw fit to cleave through the largest of the world’s mammals, not even the seasoned whalers of the region play challenge to this monster. No mere fisherman could hope to test his ire and return unscathed…none, save the very man who may have indirectly led to its birth.

Hatched in the Hollow

Unlike the hostile angler of the previous area, the Gale Serpent has had no shadow of mystery set over its creation. Originally approaching this, and gathering information, I assumed I was to theorize some horrible mutation of a local fish gone awry, as I did with the Marrows Angler. The conger eel aberration was of special interest for demonstrating the ability of the Entity’s corruption to transform flesh to crystal and rock. Howbeit, there is an obelisk to the Southeast corner of the Gale Cliffs which flips this original hunch completely around. The Serpent, in fact, was not life turned to stone, but lifeless rock given soul.

All it had taken was for the crimson sorcery to seep into a deep crevice, as it is adept to, far down into the hearth of the very mountains themselves until this great eel had breached through- The wyrm, sculpted my malice, and animated by a dark energy, is in fact the one behind the detriment of the settlements around its home. Its tunneling through the underwater crags was named as causing the collapse of an entire village, which also coincided with the disappearance of the whales that the neighboring town so relied on for a thriving industry. Stories told of both corroborate that, like all strange occurrence fanning out from The Marrows, the serpent’s creation was spurred by someone dredging up the Book of the Deep. This would put the age of the beast at 20 some odd years, likely the same as the other nightmares of the major islands. In all of that time, the Serpent has in turn sculpted the cliffs into a proper domain for his liking. One that all but the well-prepared and bold dare encroach upon.

A Dragon of the Depths

The concept of the Gale Cliff’s snake would appear delightfully inspired from a great shadow of the horrors thought of by men. From the biblical leviathan, to coiling Jormundgandr, to the many aquatic wyrms of Greek tales, the sea serpent has been a subject repeated through vast swaths of oceanic legend. Where landlubbers dreamed of great scaled predators that ruled the skies and earth, there were likewise the dragons of the seamen’s paranoia, equally as tenacious and fearsome. Through the power of the Deep, these fears were brought to reality in this massive eel. His length alone dwarves the fisherman’s boat by about 5 or 6 times, and his bite is twice as punishing as the Night Angler’s. With the whales he once feasted on no longer in range of his hunting ground, he’s more than willing to make meal of the pirates and sailors that are brave enough to return. Though having no use for human trinkets, he greedily drags our treasures down to keep in his lair, and he turns quick rage to those who venture to plunder his burrow. Like so many of the terrible dragons of men’s tales, he guards his hoard, he devours the livelihood of those living too close, and he lives in a labyrinth of his own design.

Tactics

Several factors about the Serpent make him a far less avoidable threat than the Angler, and many investigating the cliffs for the first time will learn this the hard way. Even still, he is far from an inevitable threat to one’s journey. For one, the light of day provides no protection from his attacks as can be expected in The Marrows. The serpent listens for visitors in the narrow wind tunnels between the mountains at all times. By the time he emerges from the cliffs, he has already began to hone in on the ship, making silence or shutting off the lights to hide a useless action. There is an amount of predictability to his charge, if one pays attention to the rockwalls throughout the Gale cliffs. There are a number of visible, gaping tunnels beneath the waterline, where he will reliably emerge from, or retreat into. Avoid passing directly by or over one of these if a quake begins. The landslides and shaking rumble are the telltale sign that he is both awake and hunting you. While he behaves no differently at night, the fog and its own effects make encounters with him all the more dangerous. The sudden rocks that will appear at high panic can slow down an escape or even present their own lethal threat. All except for his hateful eye, the fog makes him more difficult to spot at a distance, lending an even more sinister appearance to the monster in the darkness.

Another way to tell if one is being pursued is attention to the red tinge that will increasingly encroach on their vision. Its intensity can serve as an indicator of how closely he is approaching as well as a warning to quickly stop any fishing/dredging activity in order to make a getaway. As far as speed is concerned, it is the single weakness of the Serpent; this makes an upgraded engine or the use of the words of Haste most key in evading his attacks. Even a slower vessel might be able to corner him sharply enough for a near miss, but distance will be the greatest shield. Banishing words, when available, can also serve as a reliable deterrent.

Interestingly, the Serpent’s eye only opens when he is in a hostile state. If slinking away, or passive, it will remain closed.