[CURSE OF THE DROWNED is here! Pyke, the new Dark Waters skins, and more are now available.]
As we sail into the Curse of the Drowned event, the Universe has been updated with Pyke's lore, new biographies & stories, and a six part Legends of Bilgewater audio drama!
Continue reading for more information!
As we sail into the Curse of the Drowned event, the Universe has been updated with Pyke's lore, new biographies & stories, and a six part Legends of Bilgewater audio drama!
Table of Contents
- Bilgewater Region Page
- Legends of Bilgewater Audio Drama
- Pyke Bio & Story
- Miss Fortune Short Story - Down Among the Dead Men
- Biography: Nautilus, the Titan of the Depths
- Biography: Fizz, the Tidal Trickster
- Biography: Tahm Kench, the River King
Bilgewater Region Page
"Nestled away in the Blue Flame Isles archipelago, Bilgewater is a port city like no other—home to serpent-hunters, dock gangs, and smugglers from across the known world. Here, fortunes are made and ambitions shattered in the blink of an eye. For those fleeing justice, debt, or persecution, Bilgewater can be a place of new beginnings, for no one on these twisted streets cares about your past. Even so, with each new dawn, careless travellers can always be found floating in the harbor, their purses empty and their throats slit...
While incredibly dangerous, Bilgewater is ripe with opportunity, free from the shackles of formal government and trade regulation. If you have the coin, almost anything can be purchased here, from outlawed hextech to the favor of local crime lords."
Legends of Bilgewater Audio Drama
"Listen as Lars spins a tale of four Bilgewater legends - Nautilus, Fizz, Tahm Kench, and Pyke - and discovers the terrifying fact woven into his fiction. Click on the links below for more.
Tall Tales of the Deep Sea | Audio Drama (Part 1 of 6): https://youtu.be/1wj21zLtgAA
Nautilus & The Ophidian | Audio Drama (Part 2 of 6): https://youtu.be/aSNzccB5hbc
Fizz & The Lucky Kraken | Audio Drama (Part 3 of 6): https://youtu.be/fwOHxTMyew4
Tahm Kench & The Gambler’s Woe | Audio Drama (Part 4 of 6): https://youtu.be/u00fZC1Z5Rc
Pyke, the Drowned Man | Audio Drama (Part 5 of 6): https://youtu.be/eFRwP9lsLEo
Never Turn Your Back on the Sea | Audio Drama (Part 6 of 6): https://youtu.be/O4is-IBs-MI
Tall Tales of the Deep Sea | Audio Drama (Part 1 of 6)
Nautilus & The Ophidian | Audio Drama (Part 2 of 6)
Fizz & The Lucky Kraken | Audio Drama (Part 3 of 6)
Tahm Kench & The Gambler’s Woe | Audio Drama (Part 4 of 6)
Pyke, the Drowned Man | Audio Drama (Part 5 of 6)
Never Turn Your Back on the Sea | Audio Drama (Part 6 of 6)
Pyke Bio & Story
Biography: Pyke, the Bloodharbor Ripper
"As a youth, Pyke started out like many in Bilgewater: on the slaughter docks. All day, every day, monstrous creatures of the deep were hauled in for rendering in the butcheries that lined the waterfront. He found employment in a district known as Bloodharbor, as even the tide itself was not strong enough to wash away the red slick that ran constantly down its wooden slips.
He became well acquainted with the trade—both the gruesome work and meager paychecks. Over and over, Pyke watched heavy purses of gold being handed to captains and crews in exchange for the daunting carcasses that he and his fellows would hack into salable chunks. He became hungry for more than a few copper sprats in his pocket, and managed to talk his way onto a ship’s crew. Few individuals dared to hunt in the traditional Serpent Isles manner: launching themselves at their targets to secure tow-hooks with their bare hands, and beginning to butcher the creatures while they yet lived. Fearless and highly skilled in this regard, Pyke soon cut a name for himself as the best harpooner a golden kraken could buy. He knew meat was worth pennies compared to certain organs from the larger, more dangerous beasts… organs that needed to be harvested fresh.
Depending on the difficulty of the hunt, each sea monster commanded its own price, and the most desired by Bilgewater traders was the jaull-fish. From its razor-toothed maw, priceless sacs of sapphilite were coveted across Runeterra for various sorcerous distillations, and a small flask of the glowing blue oil could pay for a ship and its crew ten times over. But it was while hunting with an untested captain that Pyke learned where a life of blood and guts would land him.
Days into their journey, a huge jaull-fish breached, opening its maw wide to reveal rows of sapphilite sacs. Several harpoon lines secured the beast, and though it was far bigger and older than any he had encountered before, Pyke leapt into its mouth without hesitation.
As he set about his work, a deep vibration began to stir in the creature’s cavernous gullet. Roiling bubbles broke the ocean’s surface, and an entire pod of jaulls began to push against the tethered ship’s hull. The captain lost his nerve, and cut Pyke’s lifeline. The last thing the doomed harpooner saw before the beast’s jaws snapped shut was the look of horror on his crewmates’ faces, as they watched him being swallowed alive.
But this was not the end for Pyke.
In the deepest fathoms of the unknowable ocean, crushed by the titanic pressure, and still firmly trapped within the jaull’s mouth, he opened his eyes once more. There were blue lights everywhere, thousands of them, seemingly watching him. Tremulous echoes of something ancient and mysterious filled his brain, crushing his mind, showing him visions of all he had lost whilst others grew fat.
A new hunger overtook Pyke, one for vengeance and retribution. He would fill the depths with the corpses of those who had wronged him.
Back in Bilgewater, no one thought much of the killings at first—for so dangerous a place, the occasional red tide was nothing new. But weeks became months, and a pattern began to emerge. Captains from many ships were found carved up and left out for the dawn. Bar-room patrons whispered it was a supernatural killer, wronged at sea, gutting his way through the crew manifest of some damned ship called the Terror. Once a mark of respect and celebrity, the question “You a captain?” became a cause for alarm.
Soon it was the caulkers, too, and the first mates, merchant officers, bankers… indeed, anyone associated with the bloody business of the slaughter docks. A new name went up on the bounty boards: a thousand krakens for the infamous Bloodharbor Ripper.
Driven by memories twisted by the deep, Pyke has succeeded where many have failed—striking fear into the hearts of unscrupulous businessmen, killers, and seafaring scoundrels alike, even though no one can find any mention of a ship named the Terror ever docking in Bilgewater.
A city that prides itself on hunting monsters now finds a monster hunting them, and Pyke has no intention of stopping."
Pyke Story: Then, Teeth
"Mazier is sprawled on the rotten planks, waves lapping at stone underneath. Her slowing heartbeat pumps blood into the seawater. She stares, unblinking, at the shanty-dwellings above, and the stars beyond.
Pyke studies her face once more. Mazier’s dead eyes stab at his mind.
A jaulling vessel. Four-master with tattered sails. Waves the size of mountains.
Long hair in high-sea wind. Dozens of faces on deck. Watching. Blue eyes. Mazier’s blue eyes, wide in disbelief.
Then, teeth.
Not Mazier’s pearly whites. Gunky, sword-sized teeth. Criss-crossed the boat. Losing light. Closing. In the jaull’s mouth. Lifeline slack. Cut.
The tongue was too slick. Eyes stung with sweat. Fingers finding no purchase. Get to open water. Swim, swim...
The jaull’s teeth clamped shut. Then pain. Then darkness.
Ship was gone. So were the eyes.
Mazier’s eyes.
An able-bodied sailor. Aye. She was there. She cut my line.
Pyke nudges the body with his boot, gazing downward all the while. He nudges her until she reaches the edge of the dock. One more kick, and Mazier is floating. The sharks are quick to feast. Circling. Snapping. The ocean never wastes time.
Gulls shriek, their warbled cries caught on the wind, as Pyke finds Mazier, abled-bodied sailor, on the list. Red ink strikes her name from the parchment.
The last name on the Terror’s crew manifest.
That’s it. No more names, just a lot of red crosses. Where did I get all that ink...?
A feeling gnaws at Pyke. Restless, unsettled, unsatisfied. The churning lurch of bile in his belly. He can’t be done. There were too many of them there, on the decks. Maybe he got the wrong manifest. Maybe it doesn’t even matter.
They let me die. So many hands. So many times.
Another sound. Not gulls. Not waves. Not teeth closing. Not the voice in the back of his mind screaming out “You’re not done!” over and over and over. Not the music he remembers from the swimming city, all those years ago.
It’s a new sound. A real sound. A here-and-now sound.
Pyke looks with his living eye, and sees wooden stairs sagging under heavy bootfalls. A thickset man, walking down toward the moored, bobbing vessels.
He stops when he sees all t
from
http://www.surrenderat20.net/2018/05/bilgewater-lore-update.html
No comments:
Post a Comment