Coldhearth

Civilization

A people who never discovered fire, in a world where a flame in the open gutters out in seconds.

At a glance

Kind of world	Civilization
Serum in the arrival Box	2 ampoules
Native Serum stand-in	Rime Salt
Quests	Yes: see your Traveler's Guide

Screenshot comingcoldhearth-gatehall

The arrival Box under the open oculus of the Gatehall dome, snow drifting in, glowworm light on the walls

What happens when you arrive

The Box stands in the Gatehall, the carriers' dome at the crossroads, under an open hole in its roof. Outside, the Frost Barrens stretch away under a cold, damp, restless sky. There are towns and people here, and lights, but not a single flame: the Lumen grow their light on the ceilings of their Vault, and the Pressguild forges iron cold. They never discovered fire, because no fire here ever lasts. In the chest by the Box's door there is a cassette and a Box of Matches the last traveler never dared to use. What you do with fire decides what happens to these people.

The first person to meet is Tamsin, the courier, in the Gatehall.

The rule: fire can barely live here

What happens	Details	How to deal with it
Placed flames gutter out	In the open, a torch dies in 4 seconds, a candle in 3, a campfire in 6, a lantern in 20, and at once in rain, snow or the Barrens wind. A dead torch or lantern drops as a Snuffed Torch or Snuffed Lantern.	Flames live only sheltered: a roof close overhead and walls close on three sides.
Held flames burn down	A torch in your hand in the open lasts about 3 seconds, a lantern about 50 seconds. Sprinting triples the drain, rain quadruples it, the Barrens wind adds half again. Sneaking cuts it to a third. Under a roof it drains at half speed, and in shelter it refills.	Carry lanterns, not torches. Sneak in the wind.
Relighting	Use a snuffed torch or lantern with matches or flint and steel in your other hand, somewhere sheltered.	Duck into a hut or doorway first.
Furnaces need a sealed room	A furnace only works in a fully enclosed room with the doors shut. In the open the draught takes it.	Wall yourself in.
The cold at night	Out under the sky at night with nothing warm nearby, after about two seconds you start to freeze, as in powder snow.	Get indoors, or stand near a flame.
Frostmoths	Big pale moths drawn to any flame. One on a placed flame puts it out; around a carried one, they drain it fast. Harmless if you carry no fire.	Put your flame away, or outrun them.
Rime Hounds	Packs of two or three around anyone out on the Barrens at night. They run from fire.	A lit lantern is your best weapon.
The Unlit	Blind hunters in the Deep under the Vault. They find you by your flame's heat, through walls.	Put your flame out and you can walk past them.
Wormkeepers' Golems	Rimestone golems tending the Vault's ceiling. Break a glowworm colony and every golem within 48 blocks comes for you, slow and very hard to stop.	Leave the worms alone.

Every fire-making thing in your pockets says "No one here has seen this."

Places

• The Gatehall, at the crossroads, where you arrive.
• The Lumen Vault, west: a barrel-vaulted hall cut into a ridge, its ceiling a farmed field of glowworms. Off the nave are six districts (Silkrow, the Warm-Room, Lampwell, Old Brood, the Refectory, the Scriptorium) and at the far end Sister Wick's apse and altar. A ladder in Old Brood drops into the Deep, where the Unlit live.
• Holdfast, east: the biggest Press Town, walled in mud brick round the Great Press. Houses with chimneys that have never smoked, Anvil Row, the canal, and Forgemaster Corran Ashby's Forge Hall, the one sealed room in town.
• The Strike Field, south: scorched ground where lightning has fallen for centuries, with the Fulgurite Spire, the Commons Hearth, a ring of standing stones, and the Strike Shrine on its edge. Two Carrier's Huts on the road are the only shelter between the Field and the Vault.
• Frost Knoll, north: a rocky hill in the Barrens.

Screenshot comingcoldhearth-vault

The Lumen Vault's nave, its ceiling glowing blue-green with glowworm colonies, silk chandeliers hanging

The people

Who	Where	What they offer
Tamsin	The Gatehall	A courier who believes fire is real. Show her your flame before anyone else and she keeps your secret.
Sister Wick	The Vault's altar	Head of the Lumen, the glowworm priesthood: light is alive and must be grown.
Corran Ashby	The Forge Hall, Holdfast	Forgemaster of the Pressguild. Trades press-forged tools (see below).
Lumen and Pressguild folk	Their homes	Gasp at fire and run from fighting. Lantern-Wards (staves) and Press Wardens (pressure-crossbows) guard each home.

The three named people can't be hurt.

Rumors: they will find out

Every time a Lumen or a Pressguild member sees you holding a flame, standing by one, or setting one down, that people's talk grows. Two Rumors bars (the Vault and Holdfast) show on your screen. When one fills, that people's head sends for you. When you meet them, you can:

• Show them the flame. That people claims your fire, and the war starts (below).
• Talk it down ("They saw a lamp, Sister." / "Tell them to lay off the still."). This buys time and halves the bar.

The quests

Quest	Given by	What to do	Reward
Arrival	Tamsin	Find Tamsin in the Gatehall.	A friend who believes you.
The Long Carry	Sister Wick, once the Lumen have claimed your fire	Light a lantern at the Strike Shrine or on the Field, then carry it lit, in your hand, across the Barrens to the Lumen altar. Return to Sister Wick.	2 Glowworm Lanterns, 8 Glowworm Silk, a Luminous Quilt Hood and a Luminous Quilt Coat.
The First Furnace	Corran Ashby, once the Pressguild has claimed your fire	Build a furnace in the Forge Hall's hearth niche, shut the hall's door and light it. Return to Corran.	A Press-Forged Pickaxe, a Press-Forged Sword and 4 Press Iron.
The Second Flame	Whoever trusts you (Tamsin, Wick or Corran)	They give you the Storm Lantern. Hold it up at the Fulgurite Spire, and catch the flame the lightning leaves.	The Second Flame.
Who Gets the Flame	You	Give the Second Flame to one of four.	An ending.

The Long Carry is carried in the hand

If you put the lantern away to dodge the wind, the flame is gone and you must light it again. Sneak across the Barrens, rest in the Carrier's Huts, and never sprint.

The Fire War

Whoever you first show your fire to claims it, and from that day the other people is your enemy. Their guards close in on sight, and the two sides go to war: Pressguild wardens raid the Vault, Lumen pilgrims march on Holdfast, more of them every day. From the second day the map itself changes: if the Pressguild claimed fire, Silkrow in the Vault burns; if the Lumen did, their banners hang on the Great Press. Only an ending stops the war.

Catching the Second Flame

Hold the Storm Lantern up by the Fulgurite Spire and the sky over the Field answers with a thunderstorm. Every few seconds a bolt strikes the spire, and the spire holds a flame for six seconds. Hold the lantern to it then and it catches. If the war is on, both peoples see the storm and race for the Field.

Screenshot comingcoldhearth-spire

Lightning striking the Fulgurite Spire in a storm, the player holding the Storm Lantern up beside it

Who gets the flame: the four endings (spoilers)

The first ending anyone reaches is permanent, for every visitor and every later visit.

Give it to	Ending	What happens
Sister Wick	The Lumen Crowned	The pilgrims march on Holdfast and take it. Its leader and guards are gone, and Lumen builders remake the town street by street: Vault stone, blue glass, quilts and glowworms.
Corran Ashby	The Pressguild Crowned	The guild marches on the Vault. Its worms starve, its silk is torn down, and guild builders fill the nave with furnaces, banners and iron.
The Commons Hearth	The Gift	Fire for everyone at once. Fireworks go up, the war ends, furnaces glow in every Holdfast house, glass replaces mica, the cold no longer bites, and some of the glowworm farms start to die.
Tamsin	The Secret	She hides it from both peoples. Nothing changes, except that Tamsin builds a home for it inside Frost Knoll (look for a tunnel at its west foot). Visit her: she gives you a tour, and her thanks.

After the Secret, Tamsin gives you Tamsin's Stormglass Ember: a sliver of the Second Flame in her own glass. It lights fires like flint and steel, never wears out, and whoever carries it never freezes, in any world. She will also work her fire-room for you, for one Rime Salt a batch of up to 16: cook raw food, make glass from sand, or fire clay into bricks.

The Second Flame itself, carried or set down within four blocks, keeps you from freezing anywhere.

Corran's trades

You give	You get
3 Iron Ingots	1 Press-Forged Pickaxe
3 Iron Ingots	1 Press-Forged Axe
3 Iron Ingots	1 Press-Forged Shovel

Press-forged tools are iron-tier but tougher: 600 uses, faster than iron, a little more damage. Repair them with Press Iron.

What to bring home

Find	Where	Why it's worth it
Rime Salt	Break Rime Salt Crust on the Barrens; Vault chests.	Preserves food, and runs the Cryo Stabilizer.
Glowworm Silk	Break glowsilk strands and glowworm colonies (but see the golems). Vault chests hold 2 to 6.	Quilts, lanterns and warm armour.
Fulgurite	Break fulgurite veins on the Strike Field.	Lightning glass.

➜

Glowworm Lantern (Crafting Table)

WWWW

➜2

Padded Quilt (Crafting Table)

➜

Luminous Quilt Coat (Crafting Table)

The hood, trousers and boots follow the usual armour shapes in Padded Quilt, with Glowworm Silk in the middle of the top row (boots: silk in the bottom row). Any wool works in the quilt.

Preserved food, two from each:

WW

➜2

Sourcake (Shapeless: any arrangement)

RBRB

➜2

Cured Strip (Shapeless: any arrangement)

CC

➜2

Pickled Roots (Shapeless: any arrangement)

Four Rimestone or four Vault Stone make four bricks; two Padded Quilts make three Quilt Mats.

Serum and getting home

• The arrival Box's cache holds 2 Serum Ampoules.
• Native stand-in: Rime Salt. Right-click it into the Cryo Stabilizer and it runs without ice.
• The Gatehall is open to the sky, so don't count on lighting anything inside the Box's dome.

Tips

• Bring lanterns and flint and steel. Torches are nearly useless here.
• Decide early whose side you're on. The first people to see your fire claims it, so if you want Tamsin's quiet path, keep your flame hidden from everyone else and show it to her first.
• Watch the Rumors bars. If one is filling and you're not ready, talk the head down when they send for you.
• At night on the Barrens, a lit lantern keeps the Rime Hounds off; going down into the Deep, put it away.
• Build furnaces in a sealed room with the door shut, or they won't light.

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)

Three days here and I haven't seen a single flame. Not a candle, not a stove. They grow their light on the ceiling and sleep in heaps to stay warm. I have a box of matches in my coat and I've had my thumb on it every night. I won't strike one. I don't know what a whole people does with a thing like that after a thousand years without it, and I don't want to be the one who finds out. Whoever reads this: keep yours in your pocket. When you have seen enough, step back into the Box with the Serum still in you and shut the door.