Great Dam

Where it stands

World: The Lees
Places: Ooze Basins, Silt Flats, Mire Thicket, The Still Bed

Who lives there

Sodden

Bubbleback

Keener

Its guardian

Spoiler: this describes a guardian and its moves.

Views

Chests

The structure holds 22 chests with loot, 13 kinds of contents; the chance is to find the item at least once per chest.

Chest 1 × 2

Great Dam (journal page)× 1always
Silt× 3–870 %
Bedsilt× 2–658 %
Knotted Cord× 133 %
Bone× 1–333 %
Ray Barb× 123 %
Lees Shell× 123 %

Chest 2

Great Dam (journal page)× 1always
Silt× 2–558 %
Bedsilt× 1–450 %
Brown Candle× 1–242 %
Paper× 1–342 %
Knotted Cord× 133 %
Lees Shell× 123 %

Chest 3

Great Dam (journal page)× 1always
Silt× 2–668 %
Niello× 1–251 %
Iron Nugget× 2–651 %
Ray Barb× 140 %
Channel Record× 128 %

Chest 4 × 5

Great Dam (journal page)× 1always
Silt× 2–659 %
Niello× 1–234 %
Knotted Cord× 134 %
Iron Chain× 1–334 %
Brown Candle× 1–334 %
Tally Tablet× 126 %
Lees Shell× 118 %
Channel Record× 118 %

Chest 5

Great Dam (journal page)× 1always
Candle× 1–466 %
Brown Candle× 1–358 %
String× 1–349 %
Lantern× 139 %
Quickdust× 1–227 %

Chest 6

Great Dam (journal page)× 1always
Ray Barb× 1–258 %
Silt× 2–558 %
String× 2–558 %
Knotted Cord× 1–239 %
Lees Shell× 127 %

Chest 7

Great Dam (journal page)× 1always
Dried Kelp× 2–664 %
Cooked Cod× 1–347 %
Candle× 1–347 %
Bread× 1–237 %
Lees Shell× 126 %
Bowl× 1–226 %

Chest 8 × 2

Great Dam (journal page)× 1always
Tally Tablet× 1–258 %
Knotted Cord× 1–258 %
Paper× 2–558 %
Channel Record× 133 %
Quickdust× 1–233 %

Chest 9 × 2

Great Dam (journal page)× 1always
Silt× 2–566 %
Lees Shell× 1–258 %
Niello× 1–249 %
Purple Candle× 1–349 %
Sunken Lament× 114 %

Chest 10

Great Dam (journal page)× 1always
Niello× 2–455 %
Opaline× 1–347 %
Fluxsteel Ingot× 1–339 %
Antimony Regulus× 1–339 %
Tide Shard× 1–231 %
Strata Shard× 1–231 %
Niello Inlay× 111 %

Chest 11

Great Dam (journal page)× 1always
Hubstone× 164 %
Niello× 2–437 %
Opaline× 2–432 %
Quickdust× 3–632 %
Fluxsteel Ingot× 2–426 %
Antimony Regulus× 2–326 %
Woven Record× 120 %
Drive Drawing× 120 %
Lees Shell× 1–220 %
Tide Shard× 1–320 %
Strata Shard× 1–320 %
Niello Inlay× 114 %
Sunken Lament× 17 %

Chest 12

Great Dam (journal page)× 1always
Silt× 2–666 %
Iron Chain× 1–249 %
Lees Shell× 139 %
Bone× 1–339 %
Ray Barb× 127 %
Niello× 1–227 %

Chest 13 × 3

Great Dam (journal page)× 1always
Iron Chain× 1–356 %
Stick× 2–656 %
Copper Ingot× 1–347 %
Knotted Cord× 1–247 %
Antimony Regulus× 1–237 %

Notes found there

The pages the structure keeps in its rooms; the hints to its locks are among them.

Spoiler: this reveals part of the walkthrough.

Rule of the weir: the murk is held, not fought. Walk the lanes only when the winch is still, and stand behind a pile when it turns.
Winch book: the head-race over the crest is full to the brim. Every gate below takes its share through the dam, and the dam holds the rest.
Keeper of the weir: the eldest stopped sleeping. He sits on the crest under his gate and says the murk will settle if someone keeps it long enough.
Last watch: the silt came in through the windows. The others went down into the bed. I hear them singing on the crest at night.
Measure basin: the left wheel lets in three spans, the right lets out two. The gate rises when the water stands at the lit mark.
Cistern order: the left wheel lets out three spans, the right lets in two. Leave only the lit span, and the gate will rise.
Gauge keeper: the left wheel lets in three spans, the right lets out two. We never fill to the brim and never drain to the stone: the gate opens at the lit mark.
Under the crest: the strongroom lies beneath the eldest. Its seals answer to him alone; while he keeps the weir, it stays shut.
What the weir held: the hub of the old wheel, the measures of every span, and the figure of the first of us.
Gauge records: the murk stood at the third mark the year we closed the weir, at the fourth the next. We stopped writing when it passed the last.
Offering at the weir: a shell for every span we hold. The eldest says the murk listens; the rest of us just keep the candles lit.
Wheelwright: a wheel turned the wrong way floods the chamber. Keep the spares greased, and never mount a wheel you have not counted.
Strongbox rule: the signs over the box are read from the left. Step on them in that order, and the seals will know you for one of us.
Winch well: the chains run up to the head-race and down to nothing we ever found. Whatever falls here stays here.
Night of the silt: it came through the wall while we slept, quiet as breath. By morning half the bunks were under it.
Outlet mark: this pipe drained the bowl in four days. Close the wheel before you walk it; the murk remembers the way out.
Lampkeeper: a lamp on every pier and one in every alcove where we breathe. Down in the bowl the air is thin; the light shows where it holds.
Ray nets: the rays came up the bowl at night for the last of the murk. We caught them by lamplight and dried their barbs here.
Sample keeper: one jar from the head-race every tenth day, sealed and marked. In the old jars the murk has settled; in the new ones it stands to the brim.
Watch rule: when the murk passes the third mark, ring until the crest answers. Nobody answered the last time.
Rod keeper: every staff is cut to the span of the first one. If a new rod does not match the old, the new one is wrong.
Watch stores: kelp for the night watch, candles for the long one. Whoever takes the last of anything brings back two.
The drowned rest: we lay our dead in the wall of the weir, so that they keep holding it. Some of them still do.
Watch roll: one keeper at the bed door from bell to bell, and a light on the board for every watch kept. The last ones were never lit.
Gate smith: a gate leaf is cast, never forged. Here we only mend the chains, and the chains always break first.
Silt crew: what the weir holds back, the bed lets in from below. Dig it out every day, or the dry bed is not dry.

In the Codex

The Great Dam