Cadmus's Bell

The bell already hangs from its crane, quiet as the wind as it washes over a moss covered forest floor. Cadmus’ Bell exists now, as steel and glass and rope, ready to slip beneath the waves when called. It began with a simple wish: a party out of Kairos needed to reach a sunken ship off the archipelagoes and bring back scrying powder from its drowned hold. The sea there is not the endless black of the Abyss, but it is still a cold and pressing thing, the kind that fills lungs and stills hearts if treated lightly. What was needed was not a grand ship of discovery, but a small, stubborn answer to a dangerous question: how to go down, retrieve, and come back.

So the bell was made. It sits on the quay like a seed waiting for rain, suspended from the crane assembly known as the Styx. The name is apt. The Styx is the arm that lowers the bell into the water and draws it up again, the thin thread between the world of air and the world below. Where other designs dream of galleons and ships of the line, of knotted fathom lines and great pulleys groaning under strain, the Styx is the quiet fulfilment of that dream: a dedicated crane and pulley, tuned to this bell’s weight and shape, mounted where it is needed most. Bell and crane together make a single creature: one part carries divers and tools into the deep, the other part decides how fast they fall and how gently they rise.

Cadmus’ Bell itself is a compact chamber, round and sure as a deer’s flank. It carries a handful of souls with enough air for the work below and the climb back, its viewing ports thick enough to stare into the pressure without cracking, like eyes that have learned to watch the forest dark without flinching. A sealed hatch opens onto the sea, so divers can step out at depth, pick the wreck clean, and climb back in before the bell begins its ascent, much as a stag steps from the treeline to drink and returns to cover before the hounds can close. Detachable weights or ballast, handled by the Styx crane, grant a measured rise to the surface. The bell rises as a deer rises through the trees, deliberate and controlled, not panicked or headlong. Inside, there is no grandeur: no sweeping benches, no lockers for long voyages, no pretence of exploration. There is only what is needed: space for divers, their gear, and the containers that will hold the scrying powder once it is won from the wreck, stowed as neatly as a deer’s hooves among the roots.

The work is done. The bell has been forged and fitted; the Styx crane stands ready, its pulleys oiled and its ropes sound. The party’s request for a simple, practical diving device has been answered in metal and motion. Cadmus’ Bell is a focused instrument, shaped by the same instincts that guide other deep-diving projects but honed to a single purpose. The bell waits, quiet and patient, for the order to descend: a small, hard promise that those who go down into the cold dark can still come back, as a deer comes back from the water’s edge to the safety of the trees.

Cost of Construction	1 Legend 2+6 Myths
Additional Requirements	Additional Build Cost for Faster Construction - 6 Myths
Location	Kairos
Build Code	BG.FSM.117
Nation	Kairos

Contributions

Contributor	Source	Amount
Pandora Di Amichi	Bankers Guild	4 Myths
Kalikrates Steliokontos Honoured of the Dodekatheon of the Line of Telemach of Aerphos, Archon of Aerphos, Patron of the Aerphos Irregulars, Honoured Tyrant of War & Past Tyrant of Politics of the Dodekatheon, Builder of the Wisteria Canopy, Spectrum's Folly, & Cadmus' Bell, Guardian of High Bulwark, Witness to the Child at the Menhir, the Laughter that Echoes from the Mountains	Kairos	16 Myths
Aurelian, Scion of Aeneas	Kairos	7 Myths
Senicus the Lost Herald	Kairos	1 Myths
Note: Contributions are tracked by the Bankers Guild. Contact them for full records.