Frosty Puppy Deserves A Tasty Little Treat Every Now And Then

Frosty puppy deserves a tasty little treat every now and then

Awww he gives hugs too

So excited to see me home :))

my new weird dog :]

Listening to Sunless Sea OST while you’re playing Dredge hits so different. Gettin absolutely lost in the brine tonight. Oh my god.

I am a mature adult. I have a robust, high-brow sense of humor I will NOT giggle at a the cartoon alien saying “Peepi” several times back to back!

Ok I lied.

Every Dredge Aberration (2024), Part 5

Gnashing Perch

Encyclopedia #130

Aberrant form of oceanic perch

Description:

Eyeless and mindless. Driven only by the desire to consume. A purpose satiated many times over.

Comment: A rose by another name, gone sour, but bearing thorns all the same. Like those above, and like those below- once dangling from the hook they become just another example of reckless hunger’s final destination… straight into the jaws of a greater monstrosity.

How to catch: Despite oceanic sitting in the sweeter name, the Gale’s rosefish prefer to linger in coastal depths from dawn to dusk. Even the most basic of a rod, or net, can outmatch the gnasher.

Flayed mackerel

Encyclopedia # 131

Aberrant form of tiger mackerel

Description:

Rended flesh with muscle and bone exposed. This gory mess of a fish can't have lived like this for long.

Comment: It’s unclear what sort of changes the rift’s influence has inflicted this poor grey. Either we are witnessing a body being unmade by malevolence, or, perhaps its wounds are completely natural, while its continued survival is its truely twisted curse.

How to catch: Tiger mackerel’s habit is none much different from oceanic perch around the cliffs. Haul or trawl them in daylight at coastal depth.

Bearded mackerel

Encyclopedia #132

Aberrant form of tiger mackerel

Description:

The wispy tendrils sprouting from its mouth and flanks continue to writhe long after the fish has stopped flailing.

Comment: At last! It took us long enough to run aground something like this- bountiful barbels appearing in true lovecraftian fashion. Like before, this victim also sparks a silent question about its affliction. While the new additions could possibly be a parasitic drag, it’s potentially more likely they too extend the fish’s survival, serving as excellent distractions to less intelligent predators.

How to catch: ^^^

Scouring Bass

Encyclopedia #133

Aberrant form of black sea bass

Description:

Shapes swirl inside bulging, clouded eyes. Blinded by the light of the surface, but perfectly suited to searching the depths.

Comment: That’s a pity. He won’t be needing them where he’s going.

How to catch: In similar fashion to arrow squid, the black bass are night feeders. Prowl the coastal waters of Gale Cliffs to find one of these on your hook or in your net.

Gelatinous Stonefish

Encyclopedia #134

Aberrant form of stonefish

Description:

Flesh and scales intent on shuffling away from a creature struggling to maintain its mortal form.

Comment: Oh dear, the poor thing was given the blobfish treatment, even though it’s merely a reef dweller. Quite a cruel twist of irony for something that is called stonefish.

How to catch: Haul or trawl by daylight. They live in shallow water by the cliffs.

Enthralled Stonefish

Encyclopedia #135

Aberrant form of stonefish

Description:

A hollowed husk, hosting a hostile dweller. The eyes inside begin their search for a safer vessel.

Comment: I hate this. I love this. A deliciously horrible implication. To think the fisherman actually allows these things into the cargo hold and can still sleep at night…

How to catch: ^^^

Every Dredge Aberration (2024), Part 4

When whispers and fleeting tastes weren’t enough, the flotsam took up their metal and their lies, and they lanced the darkest primordial core.

From it spilled our past’s phantoms to rise- no longer in eons’ slumber, glimpsing the light once more. ₊˚.༄

Plated Osteostracan ༄.°

Encyclopedia #123

Aberrant form of Osteostracan

Description:

A shell of bone, pierced by spurs of something stronger. A horned mitre shielding eyeless sockets.

Comment: The true osteostracans (the powers below only know how much I have struggled to spell that word right with every use) would, among many of the ooze’s surprises, already have been a discovery defying of all reason. Here from the drill’s disturbance is an individual not only of a kind thought to have vanished from our world some hundreds of millions of years ago, but changed and reshapen anew where evolution did not touch its brethren. On a sidenote, a mitre is the actual name of the headwear iconically worn by the upper clergy of the Catholic hierarchy, most famously associated with the pope. Could this creature’s helm also be a symbol of importance? Regarding the mystery of the shell’s makeup, I personally speculate it to be a form of enamel. It would certainly be stronger than mere bone, and suit some of the Deep’s penchant for the sardonic: a jawless fish, gilded in teeth.

How to catch: Though they rose from the darkest, inky depths below the Marrows, the osteostraci prefer to gather in the shallows beneath pollutants’ gleam. The unique “habitat” they spawn from however, requires the aid of specialized equipment to harvest these fish.

Axial Matron ༄.°

Encyclopedia #124

Aberrant form of tullimonstrum

Description:

Mouths within mouths. Chambers within chambers. The matron's grip is terminal.

Comment: In a spectacular twist, the bastardization of the living fossil has actually… produced a creature much less monstrous, if only in appearance. The retraction of stalk eyes and the repurposed proboscis-like organ of the corrupted specimen has brought its visage closer to that of a fish than the enigmatic, impossible to class Tully Monster.

How to catch: This will be the last I repeat of what I already gestured to before. Learn quickly the recurrent pattern of the sludge’s offerings, no regular rod or reel will be able to drag ANY of these ancient wretches out of their favored home- of course being the newly spotted oil slicks released by the seabed’s running wound. A lucid mind, armed with steady hand and advanced tools, is best to send to those unsightly lesions. Take your pick of the Marrow’s coastal scabs, and then you may try your luck with old Tully.

Anvilfish ༄.°

Encyclopedia #125

Aberrant form of paddlefish

Description:

A head hammered flat against the alluvium of the world. Every shaper needs a surface.

Comment: Definition of alluvium: a deposit of clay, silt, sand, and gravel left by flowing streams in a river valley or delta, typically producing fertile soil. Behold here as well the rarity of a rarity. There isn’t much to this victim’s purpose easily concluded. What I have noticed, though, is that this fish and the next proceeding entry compliment each other and the nature of the Iron Rig itself- an extraction and transformation of the deep’s bed, bringing out the evolution of our tools.

How to catch: With infused reel aboard, feel around for the Marrow’s costal waters, where and while the oil still flows.

Ivory Impaler ༄.°

Encyclopedia #126

Aberrant form of swordfish

Description:

Strips of flensed flesh course around a spike of impossible metal. Underneath roped tendons, it bears a name unremembered.

Comment: Spear-fisherman beware… the quarry that finally stands (really swims) on an even playing field. The savage beauty of this one appeals to me greatly, the grisly paleness of its flesh, rended asunder. The permanent grin beneath so evil a gaze. A predator that no longer lunges for the meal, simply for the satiation of even more bloodletting.

How to catch: Strangely, though neither returned fossils nor commonly seen in the Marrows before, the seismic anomaly has brought in the first sightings of swordfish gathering in the region, specifically in the same stained waters as other new findings. To begin catching them, one will need oceanic suitable fishing equipment also fitted with improved modifications.

Cerebral Crab

Encyclopedia #127

Aberrant form of common crab

Description:

A turquoise mass swells from within this small crab. The growth pulses, quickening in the light of the sun.

Comment: Would it be to awry of me to say that there's something almost... cute about the look of this scuttler? I find it difficult to not think there would be strange beauty in the sight of the island sands at night, pulsing and peppered with a gathering of these crabs' light, like jewels beneath the foam. I can at least be sure that their hue is enamoring once smeared across the hull of my boat. This is one of two mutants you must bring to the painter in Little Marrow to unlock the sharp mint pigments to customize with.

How to catch: As the name would suggest, this animal can only be harvested with patience and the use of a crab pot. Aim for a depth below 25 meters, such as close to, or even within the Greater Marrow harbor.

Malignant Pincer

Encyclopedia #128

Aberrant form of fiddler crab

Description:

Teal tumours secrete a slimy substance over cracks and joints. Its massive claw shudders as it fights for control.

Comment: Now THIS victim's predicament actually lends some fascinating implications about what ails the previous. These pustules look so alike to the same as the common crab's infection in both shape and color that I will go on a limb and decide that the same entity finds a host in either species. The "cerebral" part of the former's name indicates that this mass is in fact a brain of its own, with its own imperatives and will that overrides the poor vessel's. Because the infection has decided to root within the fiddler crab's claw, rather than its head, the animal's original brain has remained intact, despite everything. The body survives to stage a losing battle between nature and another's unknowable plan.

How to catch: They generally share roaming space with the common crabs of The Marrows, albeit preferring slightly shallower water, under a mere 10 meters to be exact. Due to their size, the basic crab pot can only hold one of them at a time, so, barring a speedrun to acquire the maw of the Deep, check the traps frequently if you are looking to snag one of these in the early game. I never found error in placing the pots right next to the Marrow docks for convenience. Bring one of these to the painter along with the cerebral crab to unlock the sharp mint paint for your ship.

Inverted Husk༄.°

Encyclopedia #129

Aberrant form of sea cucumber

Description:

Flesh, prolapsed and shed to the seafloor. A moult discarded, ready to envelop another.

Comment: Most horrid thing among the Iron Rig additions I have examined so far. Finally, the long missed taste again of utter revulsion and bewilderment that this grand sea had inspired in me from the beginning. With new novelties will come even more unsettling revelations.

How to catch: Unlike the other slick-swimming things we have encountered, this aberration requires no fancy or new tools at all to find. Any crab pot will do, placed directly into the tar-blackness at a depth between 25 meters and the surface. Depths from 10-25 meters are advised to prevent the space-demanding fiddler crab from turning up in the traps instead.

*holding a green paintbrush* Uhm yea it’s called character design sweaty and the neurodivergents (me) go crazy for it I hear

oops all 🟩