The Greatclub Tunnels

Overview

The Greatclub Tunnels lie beneath Odrun’s Handle and run through the petrified marrow of the titan’s weapon. The tunnels mix worked stone, fossilized bone, old insect hives, and natural seams of ore and strange metal. Some routes allow carts and beasts. Others force a person to crawl. The deeper levels bend and split in irregular patterns. Passage shapes change after collapses, molts, and seasonal shifts in hive activity. The city treats the tunnels as both a worksite and a battlefield. Every guild depends on them for materials, contracts, and influence, and every crew that enters accepts the risk of injury or death.

Layers and Boundaries

Most crews divide the tunnels into four practical bands. The Upper Runs sit just below the Hilt gates and hold the heaviest reinforcement, lantern lines, and patrol routes. The Middle Routes begin where reinforcement ends and where resident insect colonies are common. The Deeps start at the first stable drop shafts and run to the last mapped chambers. Beyond the last map lies the Quarantine Rim. This rim touches the cordon around Odrun’s Head. The guilds keep this area sealed with wards, molten chitin barriers, and posted crews. No public permits exist for work beyond the rim. The Cudgel enforces this ban.

Access and Control

The main surface entry is through the Hilt gates and their internal locks. Each crew must present a stamped route sheet and a gear check before descent. The Cudgel reviews headcount, rescue contacts, and return window. The Promissory records cargo bonds when a job involves high-value harvest or relic retrieval. The Ashcoats certify blasting charges, solvent acids, and cutting tools. The Barleys certify live capture cages, larval feed, and pheromone lures. Crews without all four sign-offs do not pass the inner locks. Emergency entries for rescue use a separate stair and are tracked by Captain Orin Vellak’s office.

Mapping and Wayfinding

The Threadspire Archive maintains the official maps and the Living Loom. The Loom is a suspended web of tensioned threads that represent route status in near-real time. When a corridor collapses, the connected thread slackens. When workers cut a new path, the thread shifts and draws taut. Wayfinders copy updates to field sheets before each launch. In the runs, crews leave simple marks that match archive standards: three vertical cuts for a safe return, a single circle for a vertical drop, a barred square for a sealed nest, and a chevron for gas risk. Unauthorized marks are scraped clean during maintenance sweeps.

Light, Air, and Water

Upper Runs use mounted lantern worms in glass panels, spaced every twenty paces. Middle Routes rely on crew lamps and on phosphor smear lines that last for one week. The Deeps have no public light. Crews carry spare worm-panes or oil, plus dark-sight caps if issued. Vent shafts in the Upper Runs keep air moving. Some Middle Routes contain stagnant pockets, especially near old hives. The Deeps hold dangerous gasses that pool in low spaces. The common test is a copper wick or a fungus candle. The safe signal is steady burn. A dull sputter means low air. A flash-out means evacuate. Surface water rarely reaches below the Upper Runs, but drip seams and sump bowls are common. No one drinks from unmapped pools. Boil or distill everything.

Common Hazards

Huskboil Mite Swarms strip exposed flesh and soft gear in minutes. Standard defense is body wrap, insect oil, and retreat behind smoke. Giant wasps establish hanging nurseries over vertical shafts and attack light and heat. Harvester beetles move in trains and will push anything that blocks their path. Web dens can stop a falling body but will also hold it for nest guardians. Some spiders respond to sound and heat more than sight. Burrowbacks collapse ceilings when threatened. The worst danger is a multi-nest chain, where a crew flees one hive into another. The second worst danger is a false quiet that hides a pressure pocket, a gas bloom, or a brood on the verge of a molt.

Environmental Events

Molt Season occurs twice yearly. Shells slough off and clog corridors. Predators range while new armor hardens. Collapse Season occurs after heavy ground tremors or large extractions. Loose plates fall. Ribs shear from ceilings. Crews treat every drop shaft as live. Flood Runs happen when a rupture connects to a high sump. They are rare in the Greatclub but not unknown. During any event, the Threadspire posts a red ledger, the Hilt shortens permits, and The Cudgel doubles muster at the hooks.

Resources and Harvest

Barleys crews target live captures, viable egg clutches, pheromone sacs, and silk harvests that do not trigger brood panic. They also recover larval oils used in medicine and alchemy. Ashcoats crews focus on bulk chitin plates, horn ridges, mandible scythes, and crystallized marrow used as a high-grade abrasive or reagent. Promissory agents contract specialty pulls: venom nodes with known purity, rare pattern shells for commission armor, and intact spinnerets for high-tension cord. Ore seams and titan-metal inclusions exist but require Ashcoats oversight. The usual rule is simple: no explosive charge within five body lengths of a marked nest, no flame under a phosphor bloom, and no cut that might breach a gas pocket.

Operations and Law

Four standing orders govern all licensed work. First, carry a return line to the last reinforced segment. Second, log a turn-back point at half time or half fuel, whichever comes first. Third, mark hazards for those behind you. Fourth, if a brood moves, you move. Illegal work brings fines, license loss, or Span labor. Poaching from a marked route or a posted job voids guild protection. Selling unlogged harvest in the Spindle carries heavier penalties. Waspjaw Way smuggling attracts audits and raids. The Dregvault holds dangerous live specimens until a tri-guild review decides their fate.

Crews and Roles

A standard crew of six includes a lead delver, a second, a shield, a cutter, a puller, and a wag. The lead handles signals and route choice. The second tracks time, marks, and fuel. The shield anchors the return line and holds ground during retreats. The cutter opens paths and sets charges or solvents. The puller handles harvest gear and haul. The wag handles field medicine and the ledger. A seventh slot for a Wayfinder or a Barley tender is common on risk jobs. The Cudgel patrols run four to eight with a mage or engineer attached. Patrols do not harvest except to clear threats. They prioritize rescue, route security, and enforcement.

Equipment and Methods

Every crew carries: line, hooks, wedges, masks, vent cloths, splints, solvent vials, smoke pots, and spare light. Ashcoat-made kit includes chitin plates that hinge rather than buckle, cutting saws with acid teeth, and horn-edge blades that hold a keen line against carapace. Barley kit includes collapsible cages, silk slings, lure vials, and brood-calming drapes. Common field methods are wedge-and-winch for lifts, sling-drag for bulk plates, quick-saw for mandibles, and cut-then-cool for marrow seams. Crews avoid dead-end harvests unless the return path is secured.

Rescue and Recovery

When a crew misses its return window, the hooks ring. A rescue team leaves within the hour if a route is known. The team follows the last marks to the turn-back point and then searches in widening loops. Lost bodies return to the Emberhook Hall by nightfall when found. Names are cut into the Wall when a body cannot be recovered or when the Hall accepts that the tunnels have taken them. Tools and boots are placed on the floor beneath the names until families collect them. The city keeps a ledger of owed shares to next of kin.

Known Routes and Sites

The Faned Walk is a rib-vaulted artery where old hives cling to the ceiling like shelves. It links several stable Middle Routes and serves as a training ground. The Sawline Pass is a narrow switchback with two fixed winches. It is safe in dry months and risky after molt. The Amber Sump is a bowl of hardened marrow with a slow drip that feeds orange pools. It hosts both harvest and ambush. The Triptych Cradles are three pendant nests over a vertical shaft. They are marked for study and not to be disturbed. The Glass Split is a seam of translucent bone that rings when struck. It is fragile and dangerous. All five appear on standard maps and in briefings.

Odrun’s Head and the Quarantine Rim

Odrun’s Head remains sealed. The guilds agree on this policy. The rim that faces the Head uses molten chitin walls, silk triplines, and posted watch. Any breach triggers a city-wide lockdown of lower gates and a muster at the Hilt. Reports from the rim describe bioluminescent cysts, spore fogs, and insect colonies with coordinated patterns that do not match normal behavior. No licenses authorize entry. Crews that drift into the rim withdraw and report. The Cudgel prosecutes violations without exception.

Commerce and the Spindle

Most legal harvest flows to the Hookline Gantry, Eurven’s Forge, the Varlas Breeder’s Archive, and then into Spindle markets. High-value parts move to the Chitin Vaults and private auctions in the Sprigs. The Bentroot Exchange handles bulk that is chipped, cracked, or mixed grade. Waspjaw Way attracts smugglers who skip contracts, often with unstable product. The Promissory uses surprise weighings and contract stings to limit leakage. Fines from seizures fund replacement kit for the Hilt.