Nandy Slumps/IF-1667
Rumor / Community LoreThis article contains lore created collaboratively by the Blaseball community. It is just one of many Rumors that we've found in the Interdimensional Rumor Mill. You can find more Rumors about Nandy Slumps at their Rumor Registry.
The waters beyond this point are uncharted, tales from distant shores echoed back into our reality.
Background
The following accounts can be traced to a single leather-bound journal originally found in a locked wooden chest alongside a sextant-like device of indeterminate origin and a shell that matches no known species of mollusc. The chest was located in a storage room in the Legscraper’s lower levels that was described as “smelling faintly of the sea”. Subsequent attempts to locate and navigate to said room have been unsuccessful thus far. The journal details the exploits of the crew of a large sailing vessel, The Tokyo Adrift, descriptions of which are largely consistent with mid-17th century galleons.
With The Tokyo Adrift
The Slumps are a series of sand and gravel banks located just outside of The Tokyo Adrift’s home harbour. The journal describes them as “requiring a perfectly coordinated crew led by a deft hand to navigate” and “a pain in the butt”. Located at the confluence of several oceanic currents, they have been pejoratively described by some as “the centre of the whole damn world”. The Immateria Seas’ currents ensure that no two journeys through the Slumps are the same. Routes through the shallows had to be planned on the fly, necessitating both skill of the highest calibre and a healthy amount of improvisation from a captain and their crew. An entry quotes the head of a notable merchant fleet as saying “Those damn Slumps ruin my plans week after week.”. “Down in the Slumps” appears to have been a phrase roughly analogous to modern day usage of “down in the doldrums”.
Despite these challenges, The Tokyo Adrift and its crew were notable for their high rate of success when navigating through the Slumps. Led by Captain Strongbody, the Adrift expertly slalomed its way through the Slumps with minimal casualties and time lost. This meant that having the Slumps barring the only entry point to their harbour became a strategic advantage for the Adrift. However, they too were not exempt from its dangers and on at least three separate occasions, found they had run aground on a gravel bank. Out of those three, one entry quotes crew member Cudi Di Batterino as stating “that place gives me the creeps” and urging the crew to extricate themselves quickly, citing “an unshakeable feeling that [they] were being watched, and judged”. In yet another incident, Cudi claimed to have seen someone attempting to board the vessel while it was lodged atop a gravel bank but was unable to get another crewmate to corroborate his story.
