The Tireless Mechanic

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"Afternoon. Ready to offer my services. I'm an engineer. Finest you'll ever hire. Treat engines like my own children. Not that I have children. Too busy. Usually busy."[1]

"Does he ever sleep? His eyes are dark-circled, but his hands are steady."[2]

The Tireless Mechanic is a talkative and somewhat scatterbrained engineer.[3] He does not sleep and takes a draught to compensate, which lets him retain his faculties[4] but does not prevent him from perpetually having dark-circled eyes.[5] To stave off sleep, he eats simple meals and refuses wine.[6]

The Mechanic's passion for engines once led him to dream of them, and then of the Stone Pigs - the engine-creatures that allow the Bazaar to travel the High Wilderness.[7] The Pigs sleep for now, but the Fingerkings can breach their dreams. They recruited the Mechanic to steal a secret from the Pigs' dreams:[7] the design[8] for an engine unlike any other.[9] The fascinated Mechanic stole the secret for himself rather than giving it to the Fingerkings as they asked,[10] and stashed the secret in Frostfound where the Fingerkings could not follow.[11] Enraged at his deception,[10] the Fingerkings will hunt him down the moment he sleeps and enters Parabola.[12]

The Mechanic wants to defeat his serpentine pursuers so that he may sleep again.[13] He also hopes to reacquire his secret[14] and use it to build an engine called the Fulgent Impeller,[15] which runs on the same forces that propel the Bazaar.[16] The Impeller also requires a "heart" to function,[17] so the Mechanic has contracted a humanoid Rubbery Man called the Unsettling Sage[18][19] to act as a willing subject when the time comes.[17]

References[edit | edit source]


  1. ↑ Engage an Officer: The Tireless Mechanic, Sunless Sea
  2. ↑ Character description, Sunless Sea
  3. ↑ Engage an Officer: the Tireless Mechanic, Sunless Sea "I'm an engineer. Finest you'll ever hire. Treat engines like my own children. Not that I have children. Too busy. Usually busy."
  4. ↑ Invite him to dine with you, Sunless Sea "There's a draught I take nightly, to substitute for sleep. It works well enough, and it keeps me sane and upright, [...]"
  5. ↑ Tireless Mechanic, Sunless Sea "Does he ever sleep? His eyes are dark-circled, [...]"
  6. ↑ Invite him to dine with you, Sunless Sea "His tastes are spartan - he eats little, drinks only water, barely sleeps at all [...] "Thanks for the meal. [...] No, no wine. It makes me sleepy. Oh, yes, I can sleep! Too easily - that's the problem.""
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Ask the Mechanic to explain exactly what the hell is going on, Sunless Sea ""I talk about engines. All the time. [...] And I dream about them. I found myself dreaming of the Stone Pigs. They're, oh, I don't entirely understand, still. But they're how the Bazaar travels between stars. [...] And they sleep, so the Fingerkings can crack their dreams open. So the Fingerkings recruited me.""
  8. ↑ The Mechanic's Secret, Sunless Sea "This is the design he stored in Frostfound."
  9. ↑ Ask the Mechanic to explain exactly what the hell is going on, Sunless Sea "I found a secret in those dreams. An engine like the zee's never seen."
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Ask the Mechanic to explain exactly what the hell is going on, Sunless Sea "I stole a secret from the Echo Bazaar. With the help of the Fingerkings. You know, the serpents who rule dream. Then I reneged on the Fingerkings. [...] Would you rather I'd given them the secret?"
  11. ↑ Objective: The Mechanic's Secret in Frostfound, Sunless Sea "I had to hide the secret somewhere the Fingerkings couldn't go. I hoped they'd leave me alone then. So I put it in Frostfound. [...] quite close to the heart."
  12. ↑ Excavate the cellar, Sunless Sea ""The Writhing River flows near here," the Mechanic remarks. "One of the tributaries of dream. My enemies find me when I sleep [...]"
  13. ↑ Invite him to dine with you, Sunless Sea "[...] I wish I could enjoy just one night's sleep. If you could help me..."
  14. ↑ Tireless Mechanic, Sunless Sea "Oh, captain, captain, let me build it for you. You won't be sorry! [...] Find Frostfound, in the north, and retrieve the Mechanic's secret from the penultimate chamber."
  15. ↑ Construct the Fulgent Impeller, Sunless Sea "My work is done. Thank you. Thank you!"
  16. ↑ The Fulgent Impeller, Sunless Sea "'These are the forces that drive the Bazaar.' The Impeller runs very, very hot."
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Construct the Fulgent Impeller, Sunless Sea ""Almost ready," he affirms. "It just needs a spark, and a heart." He looks to the Unsettling Sage. "Yes, I know," the Sage says, a little sadly."
  18. ↑ Invite the Unsettling Sage to dinner, Sunless Sea "His tastes are piscine in the extreme. [...] "I am aacustomed," he admits frankly, "to be being used aas a tool. [...] My people maade me aas a repository of secrets. It will be a relief, when that ends. But until then, I shaall keep the secrets a little longer." [...] He hands you a little nodule of deep amber."
  19. ↑ That Which Has Taken a Name, Fallen London "A black stone thing made of spikes floats near the surface. [...] "I hate it here," says the grey-skinned man, to nobody in particular. A thrown pebble bounces off the spiked stone thing. "I have no secrets to take.""
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