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Every Dredge Aberration (2025), Bonus III

A single glimmer gazes up from the floor of the world. It remembers promise and oath, the splendid little treasure- a ring of gold, circled snug in a ring of jewels. They foretell and beckon a task unfinished. Girdling them is a ring of teeth, and rung around this maw are arms by dozens, poised in a deceptively languid sway. The whole of all these circles gaze upward from the floor of the world. They belong to hateful roots that watch the quiet waters above. They spiral out to wind the walls of a great blue hole, almost reach to touch the echoes of human life the stellar basin once welcomed.

Now, the bay’s shores sit empty, and all in its reefs and majestic sky seem at peace, while a sinister infection simmers down below. Tourists and traveler seeking their sights will be greeted with a monster’s wrath instead. Though some have tried to understand the creature’s true nature, it proves as inscrutable as the nadir which nurtured it. Though it is a bottom dweller, there is no hunter above which tops its dominance; its breadth alone could put all these regional guardians to shame. However yet, there is a way to surmount even this mighty obstacle, and what secrets it hides beyond the dark can be easily stolen with the right approach.

Sink Above, Rise Below

The process assumed to have resulted in this beast’s becoming is, like many of the Deep’s creations, the product of random happenstance and the mysterious wiles of dark miracles. A single obelisk in the Stellar Basin grants us a vital clue in the search for its origin, shown below.

Whether the hardiest, or luckiest of its brood, this living fleck survived to fall close to the barrier between sea and the elder forces below. Perhaps it was through such a journey that it was deemed worthy, or perhaps it was those roots that seeped down through thinning rifts and lapped from the primordial blood that Ironhaven discovered. I have long theorized that there is strong intention shown in the pattern of our ‘neighbors’ from under when their children take charge of a region, for they in almost every case known are correlated to the discovery of supernatural relics and other peculiar happenings in an island chain’s history. It is not impossible that such artifacts conduit the essence of these elder things, radiating their influence throughout the waters they were lost to. I conclude that it is these relics which gave rise to and anchor their own guardians, most apparent of all in the Stellar Basin Creature.

When that larval speck had settled within the pit’s bottom, it settled along with the gilded coil it was destined to envelop and protect from unworthy hands. Where the Creature holds the edge over its aberrant lessers is ironically in its stationary nature. Sitting contently where it does, both in closeness to its charge and to the True Deep, had led to it being notably more inundated with evil corruption. So much so, in fact, that it may itself have become a source of spreading it further.

Crustaceous Carbuncle, its Crater

For all purpose of categorization, the Creature is an abomination of its own kind, liberated from the rules of whatever biology it once followed. Though it bears superficial resemblance to the great kraken myths of old, and has been compared to that of cnidarian animals, I believe it’s true nature to be closer to that of the lowly barnacle. By this I mean its beginning was once as a mundane larva, wandering and battling the odds for survival as any other of its kind, before eventually settling into a mature and sedentary form, and it grew. Because it was in no more perfect a place and time, it grew, and grew, and though it was trapped at midnight depths, it was granted more than enough power to still be able to punish interlopers above. Curiously, the surrounding life still flourishes around its presence. It is the presence of ships over its home that rouses the creature’s fury, but I doubt the notion that it is actually a hunter of men like the other beasts. It gives clear warning before it strikes, and is just as quick to calm once its target is no more, or fled. It lashes out with a single arm while dozens simply rest. It’s frightening ‘teeth’ I conclude could in fact be movable shell plating, and most of these appendages developed from filter-feeding organs.

This could mean that the relationship between the stellar reef’s ecosystem and it is symbiotic in nature. The basin creature survives off of the rich biodiversity that it both protects and bolsters with the Deep’s gifts. The blue glow that tinges several parts of its body looks like an incredible parallel to an actual barnacle feeding on bioluminescent dinoflagellates,

Tactics

While the creature is a force worthy of respect, able to swiftly destroy weaker ships with its strikes, thrice as destructive as the dreaded Night Angler, it is ultimately defanged by its predictable nature. Being seated at the bottom of the blue hole, it will only sense and attack fishermen who approach directly above it. Initially, it will even stir and growl in a warning display, giving unintentional trespassers an opportunity to flee. When agitated at night, its blue glow gives way to a crimson hue, able to be seen on its main body below and the attacking arm it sends upward. It has also been observed that a fast enough ship can also take advantage of the creature’s sluggish reflexes and simply dodge each lunge when crossing over the pit, so long as they keep moving and do not linger in one place.

A wise man would take all of this to mean that the best way to prevent one’s demise at the tendrils of such a monster would be to just avoid its territory in the first place. But wise and brave men know how to not let this abomination keep them from the treasures it guards. Like all aberrant behemoths, it knows and obeys the spell of banishment, but such curses from the book only allow a brief window of protection- not nearly enough to make real headway on adventurous pursuits or a hunt. This is where a technological edge has proved key to victory. The aptly named repulsion machine stationed in the area can actually mimic the banishment spell’s command for upwards of 12 hours at a time. This allows an ample chance for fishing and dredging activities while the creature recluses back to the sea floor.

* Additional Note- Until recent years, the machinations behind why the device’s signal was so effective at warding off the basin creature, or even if its effects could apply to similar beasts was not known. Now with the records and gathered observation from the Iron Rig incident, we have a stronger understanding that The Deep’s children in fact flee from the signal that it emits- a broadcasted distress call made of the cries of several species. This could mean one of two very interesting things- either that the language of the Deep is an ancient, primordial communication that is understood at a primal, instinctual level, and these aberrants which understand it are compelled to obey no matter the circumstance… or, that even these monsters still retain enough similarity to natural animals that they can feel fear and can be fooled. If the former is true, it speaks to fascinating implications about the elder forces and their influence on the planet’s life as we know it. If the latter is the case, it begs a concerning question- What higher threat would something like the Basin Creature have to be so afraid of that it would hide from?