Babel

Civilization

The scribes will trade you anything, once you learn their words for it.

At a glance

Kind of world	Civilization
Serum in the arrival Box	1 ampoule
Native Serum stand-in	None: bring spare Serum
Quests	None

Screenshot comingbabel-tower

A stepped sandstone tower rising over warm savanna grass, a robed scribe standing at its foot

What happens when you arrive

Warm, golden savanna steppes roll away in every direction, with sheep and wild horses grazing and, on the horizon, a stepped sandstone tower. The scribes who keep the towers are polite, patient, and will trade you almost anything, including the Serum that gets you home. There's one problem: you don't speak their language. Somewhere a scribe is reading aloud, and you catch one word in ten.

The rule: learn the words to trade

Right-click a scribe and you get an ordinary trading screen, except that every offer is written in glyphs and crossed out. You can't buy anything you can't name.

You start knowing exactly one word: emerald. Every other word you learn here, one at a time, and you keep them for good:

How to learn a word	What happens
Make any trade	The scribe points at one more of its wares and says the word slowly.
Show a scribe the thing itself	Sneak and use a scribe while holding the item. Now you know its word.
Read a Lexicon Page	Right-click it to learn one word you don't know yet. The page is used up. If it has nothing left to teach you, it stays in your hand.

Since emerald is the one word you share, the first trades are always open: sell them wheat or paper for emeralds. Each of those trades teaches you something new.

Screenshot comingbabel-trades

The trading screen with half the offers in enchanting-table glyphs and crossed out, the rest readable

The scribes' market

Each scribe carries 7 offers: all of the first four below, plus a random pick of the rest.

You give	You get	Always?
20 Wheat	1 Emerald	Always
24 Paper	1 Emerald	Always
2 Emeralds	1 Lexicon Page	Always
24 Emeralds	1 Serum Ampoule	Always (2 per scribe)
1 Emerald	4 Bread	Sometimes
3 Emeralds	2 Somnium Powder	Sometimes
4 Emeralds	1 Lotus Extract	Sometimes
5 Emeralds	2 Quantum Dust	Sometimes
4 Emeralds	2 Phase Salt Crystals	Sometimes
2 Emeralds	2 Hush Glass Ampoules	Sometimes
1 Emerald	6 Lapis Lazuli	Sometimes
6 Emeralds	1 Saddle	Sometimes

The towers

Towers are spread far apart: usually one on the horizon, rarely two. At the top of each is a shrine with a chest that always holds 2 to 4 Lexicon Pages, plus a handful of paper, ink sacs, emeralds, bread, lapis, and sometimes Somnium Powder, Quantum Dust or a Hush Glass Ampoule.

Climb a tower first: the pages and emeralds there give you a head start on the vocabulary.

Screenshot comingbabel-shrine

The shrine at the top of a tower, a chest and scattered paper, the steppe far below

What lives here

Sheep and horses on the open grass, and the scribes. Nothing hostile spawns. Bring a saddle (or buy one) and a horse makes the long rides between towers much shorter.

Serum and getting home

• The arrival Box's cache holds just 1 Serum Ampoule.
• There is no native ingredient, but the scribes sell Serum Ampoules for 24 emeralds, once you know the word. Here the way home is a vocabulary, not a lab.
• They also sometimes sell lab ingredients (Somnium Powder, Lotus Extract, Quantum Dust, Phase Salt), if you'd rather brew.

Tips

• Bring wheat or paper. 20 wheat or 24 paper per emerald is your income, and every trade teaches a word.
• Bring one of everything you want to buy. Showing a scribe an item (sneak and use) teaches its word straight away, so a single Serum Ampoule from home unlocks the Serum offer on the spot.
• Save Lexicon Pages for words you can't learn any other way.
• Words are yours for good in this world, so a second visit is much easier than the first.

Everything this world adds

1 blocks and items (click to open)

Lexicon Page

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 scribes here are polite, patient and completely incomprehensible. Their stalls are full of things I need, every one labelled in glyphs I cannot read, and they will not sell what I cannot name. Emerald is the one word we share. Every trade earns me another: the scribe points at something and says it slowly, and after that I can ask for it. Showing them a thing works too, and the towers keep torn word lists in the shrine at the top. They sell ampoules of the Serum for those who learn to ask, so the way home is a vocabulary, not a lab.