Nightmare Fuel / DREDGE

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

One of the many things you can pull up in these waters... And he's not even one of the monsters that can hurt you.

Thought Dredge was going to be a cutesy fishing game? You couldn't be more wrong. In this world, horror can come from the very fish you use to feed the Marrows, and they're the least you've got to be worried about...

Beware of Unmarked Spoilers Ahead!

In General

• If there's one thing this game is talented at, it's making you dread the setting of the sun. Dark Is Evil is in full effect here, and as soon as the sunlight is gone an eerie mist settles over the entire archipelago. As scary as the mist is, what it hides is infinitely worse.
  • If your panic is high enough and you are sitting out at sea at night, you can suddenly be assaulted by a myriad of wonderful things, such as a bioluminescent ghost shark, malevolent whispering patches of red Miasma, and tentacles with no obvious owner.
  • Having the boat's light turned on agitates the miasma even more, so you're taking the risk of leaving the light off so as not to aggro any miasma close enough to chase you, or turning it on so as to see further ahead and lower the insanity down just a bit but risk getting chased.
  • Your path can also be altered at night. Patches of ocean that were once safe may now have a rock jutting from them, causing a shocking hit to your hull that may strand you out in the middle of the ocean with no working engine, waiting for any number of Eldritch Abomination to come for you.
  • Not to mention the eerie eyes that will peak out at you from the Mist. Though harmless, they are certainly one of the more eerie aspects about fishing at night, whispering out indistingushiable things in Black Speech.
  • Hell even the icon for high panic can raise player anxiety. You may notice the longer you are away, the more frantic the small eye icon at the start of your screen gets, going from slow to fast and darting, quickly changing colors. It is very effective at visually portraying Gone Mad from the Revelation.
• The Aberration Fish. Though functionally harmless with some definitely being scarier than others, many of their designs (especially as you get further into the game) can cause your skin to crawl with anything from Uncanny Valley to Body Horror.
• The Mimic Crabs. You may think that you have found some treasure or a good dredge spot but nope. Instead, your hull is immediately smashed by a Giant Enemy Crab as it lets out a horrible roar before immediately returning to its unassuming disguise.
• The Leviathan, the greatest monster in the seas. While usually passive, it has absolutely no problem devouring your boat should you wander too far from the Isles. As we learn later, it has a very good reason for this.

NPC Interactions

• The Mayor of Greater Marrow is somewhat unsettling, at first, immediately strongarming you into fishing for the town with the caveat of paying back your debt. He also has mysterious packages delivered to the Dockworker in Lesser Marrow, causing said worker's descent into becoming an Empty Shell. While ultimately harmless to the Fisherman, he clearly knows a great deal more about the Cosmic Horror nature of the setting than he lets on and can be seen as Ambiguously Evil at best.
• The Fishmonger, as his quest progresses, becomes seemingly obsessed with acquiring an Aberrant Fish. After you deliver one to him, he will decide to consume it in private. While the effects of this action aren't shown, they are clearly unpleasant as he immediately will close his shop for several days on end. A player can be forgiven for thinking they have accidentally caused the Fishmonger to be Killed Off for Real or subject to a Fate Worse than Death. We are never told what happened to him, and he immediately tries to pretend it never happened once he returns.
• One of the sidequests involves delivering oozing, wrapped packages to the Dockworker. At first, while creepy, they have no immediate effect on the worker so the player can be forgiven for continuing. However, upon delivery of the last package, the sidequest abruptly stops. The Dockworker becomes ashen grey and cannot be spoken with any longer. This is all you get when trying to interact with him. A Fate Worse Than Death and Gone Mad from the Revelation in one neat... package.
  The Dockworker is standing motionless on the edge of the dock, staring down at the water. He seems paralyzed by fear of what he sees.
• The Hooded Figures: A quartet of In the Hood creepy figures that can be found throughout the game world, demanding certain kinds of fish to sate their Horror Hunger. While they reward the Fisherman with helpful perks for his ship upon completion, what they do to the fish is not pretty. This quote from the Figure in Red quest shows that even the Fisherman has reached his limits with these things.
  They drag the shark's body around and find the right angle before plunging the knife in and pulling out the heart. They place it on a stand beside the others... You leave before they decide they need any more hearts.
• Though the Courier is hardly malevolent himself, finding him isolated and scared out of his mind next to the Marrows can be distressing for a new player, especially as he spouts a fair bit of Foreshadowing to the existence of the Leviathan, which attacked his boat and stranded him.
• The Old Mayor, who you can find at a number of locations looking like a skeleton and rambling like a lunatic about your past, even if you don't remember him at all. He begs you to get rid of some sort of Artifact of Doom, even though you may have no idea at this point in the game what he's talking about. He serves as the first hint of the backstory of the game, and is a look at what can happen to those who get too close to the mysteries of the sea.
  • Hell, compared to what happened to the Fisherman's mind after finding the Tome, the Old Mayor may have gotten off light.
• The Fanatic, quest giver of Devil's Spine. Unlike the other quest givers (besides the Collector), who are generally good people trying to make their way without looking too deep into the Mist or other Cosmic Horror elements of the world, the Fanatic is a straight up worshipper of these horrors. His crazed appearance serves as a stark contrast to the rest of the NPC locale, being Obviously Evil in a game of Ambiguously Evil characters. To say nothing of his fate at the end of the Devil's Spine quest...

Main Story

• The game's opening can set this up from the get go. You awaken on the shore of Greater Marrow to the smirking face of the Mayor, who immediately puts you in his debt while warning you not to stay out past nightfall.
• The Collector. An Ambiguously Evil (later revealed to be truly evil) quest giver who tasks you with collecting artifacts all around the Isles for some vague purpose that the Fisherman for some reason never truly questions, he is quite rough around the edges and comes across as Obviously Evil in most situations. To say nothing of his true identity as an Enemy Within.
  • The Tome of the Deep, a powerful Artifact of Doom that the Collector has in his possession. Though mostly used to grant your vessel upgrades as the Collector's patience wanes, it's clear from the get-go that this thing is bad news. Later revealed to be the cause of the entire story, unleashing the curse upon the Isles when it was found in a submerged coffin, it can eventually be used to cause The End of the World as We Know It.
  • The Collector's backstory makes him no less horrific. A split personality of the Fisherman (yes, ''you''), caused both by the death of his wife and exposure to the Tome of the Deep, he has resolved to gather the artifacts necessary to revive her by any means necessary, even if it causes the rise of a God of Evil.
  • Even after he is exposed as an Enemy Within, there is no Split-Personality Merge caused by The Reveal. The Collector can still beg with the Fisherman to allow him to complete the ritual and, based on character choice, it can come to fruition.
    • What's worst about the Collector is the ambiguity. Is he a Superpowered Evil Side caused by the Tome's influence on the Fisherman? A manifestation of the God of the Deep, tempting the Fisherman to releasing it? Or is he truly just a Split Personality caused by the Sanity Slippage of a trauma filled man? We get no concrete answers.
• The Night Angler in the Marrows is rather terrifying for a Starter Villain. Imagine you are out late at night, having just started the game and ignoring the warnings you've received. You see a boat passing by in the mist, and turn so you can have a better look. You more than likely have your light on for clarity. Now imagine that boat stops, turns around, and immediately begins speeding towards your light. Oh, Crap!. You can turn around and immediately speed away but by this point in the game you are more than likely too slow to outrun it now that it's seen you. Soon after, you see the boat illusion fade away to reveal a multi-eyed anglerfish with a maw filled with More Teeth than the Osmond Family. Before you know it, you've had a bite taken out of your hull and quick as the horror began it's over.
  • What's more, you're now more than likely stuck out in the bay with a disabled engine. With no indication if the Night Angler will return or not.
• The Gale Cliffs can seem a lot more desolate than the Greater Marrows but still not without its quirky inhabitants. Then you meet the Serpent of the Cliffs, who's responsible for all the burrows that have been destabilizing the land mass. A true Wake-Up Call Boss than can strike day or night and isn't afraid about hitting your boat twice if it gets the chance, it will punish any hesitation on your part. What's worse, it cannot be warded off with any tricks like the Night Angler, so your best option is to pull Screw This, I'm Outta Here.
  • Its appearance also counts. A single red eye full of hatred adorns its face, complemented by a horrifying maw full of sharp crooked teeth.
• The Monster in the Stellar Basin may not be as intimidating appearance wise as the Serpent, but it can pull a nasty shock on the player by smashing their hull from a long range away with its powerful tentacles. It is so powerful that the quest around the Stellar Basin revolves around temporarily neutralizing it as much as it does retrieving the artifact for the Collector. It is also massive, possibly even bigger than the Leviathan.
  • What's more, there are many huts in and around the Stellar Basin, although aside from the Researcher in the Old Castle and the stray dog there are no apparent inhabitants in the area. Which begs the question, is the basin monster responsible, or did something else cause them to disappear?
  • Whatever that thing in the Basin is, it's corrupting the entire ecosystem, and there's no way for you to stop it. Or worse, the corruption is far, far larger than the Researcher realizes, and the horrible giant tentacle monster is just a symptom of the larger threat.
• Stellar Basin in general is a dose of Dissonant Serenity in the game world. It is eerily calm and quiet compared to the likes of Twisted Strand or Devil's Spine, with little destruction to the structures being shown. Visually, it almost invokes a feeling of the people there being quickly whisked away without any chance for destruction to take place.
  • The Researcher, while on the surface a sweet character, is mentioned as having gone to school at Ironhaven College. This name is shared with the organization at the center of the Ironhaven DLC, making one wonder if there is much more to her than meets the eye, or if perhaps Ironhaven is responsible for the abandonment of the Stellar Basin.
• The Mind Suckers of the Twisted Strand. Paranoia inducing serpentine monsters with a head resembling a sea cucumber or other deep sea oddities, they look just plain wrong even in the context of the story. What's worse, they are directly responsible for the deaths of the Airman's brothers in arms by causing their fall to madness. Luckily, you can take sweet revenge on all three and rid the Strand of them, bringing peace to the Airman in the process.
• The Twisted Strand itself is a nightmarish labyrinth of vines and mangrove even without the aforementioned Eldritch Abomination, changing or blocking off paths in a moments notice.
• The Devil's Spine, full stop. Even without the typical eldritch horror, the area is the site of a lost civilization on top of volcanic thermal vents, truly giving the impression that you are stuck in Fire and Brimstone Hell. Wrecked structures litter the area and cause maze like navigation zones. The fish here take on bizarre forms even without accounting for aberrations, and the quest of the area involves placing certain fish onto certain podiums for ritual sacrifice.
  • The implication that this civilization once worshipped the Eldritch Abomination currently entombed in the Isles, the very same one that the Collector is trying to free is quite disturbing and leads to many questions: Is this creature responsible for the ruined state of the Devil's Spine? Is this why the Fanatic is the only NPC populating the area (aside from the Traveling Merchant, of course)?
  • The Fanatic, as detailed above, is a Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant, full stop. While his appearance is enough to set you on edge, the fact that he seems to know about your quest to find the artifacts (as well as the Tome of the Deep) makes him come off as wrong compared to the other characters. Once all three flames of sacrifice are lit, he himself is completely immolated to ash before the Fisherman's eyes, only leaving behind the artifact you need to complete your long quest.
• The Unseeing Mother, a gigantic pirahna monster that was apparently responsible for the destruction of the civilization of Devil's Spine. Though she is blind, she makes up for it by having her babies constantly on patrol, themselves only being able to be repelled by either the volanic vents littering the area or the Banish ability. The babies can then call over their mama, who's more than capable of taking a bite out of your hull like any other monster.
• The encounter with the Old Mayor, where he implores you to fix things by returning the book to the sea, our first outright indication that the Collector and the Fisherman are one and the same.

Endings *SPOILERS*

• After overcoming much of the horrors that the Isles have to offer, you can finally return to the Collector for one final batch of nightmarish revelations.
  • The Collector orders the player to now come with him to complete the Ritual and return 'her' to the world of the living. The Fisherman can agree without comment or begin to fight with the Collector over the Tome, leading to an attempted punchout where the Collector's face shatters to reveal a mirror. You and the Collector are one and the same. And the mysterious woman he's been pursuing is your dead wife!
  • After this, the Fisherman can either do as the Collector asks or go to the Lighthouse Keeper as the Old Mayor asked, leading to the Good or Bad Endings respectively.
• The Bad Ending: Regardless of whether or not the Fisherman chooses to confront the Collector, this path leads to them going out to the middle of an eerily calm, mist covered ocean. They then return all of the relics to the sea, and a small chiptune begins to play. A feminine figure rises from the side of your boat, signaling that the ritual was a success! However, there is a deeper rumbling as a giant figure rises in the distance. This figure is revealed to be the head of a gigantic Eldritch Abomination God of Evil who instantly covers the sky in miasma. Neither the Collector or Fisherman even say anything to their wife brought Back from the Dead as the entity continues to rise, cutting to...
  • The credits! We are shown the aftermath of the entity's rising, and it's not pretty. The sky is covered in Miasma while Greater Marrow burns... There is little sound, invoking Nothing Is Scarier while letting us know how utterly fucked the rest of the world is because of our decisions.
  • What's worse is that the wife is not only floating above the water without moving towards the boat, but also surrounded by red miasma. Either she Came Back Wrong, or this woman was only a hallucination, meaning that the Fisherman has doomed the world for nothing.
• The Good Ending: While less terrifying outright and moreso bittersweet, it nevertheless manages to instill a lot of backstory horror by truly revealing the Fisherman's Dark and Troubled Past: he was an angler who discovered a coffin along with the Old Mayor, the Lighthouse Keeper, and his wife. Upon opening it, they discovered the Tome of the Deep. The Leviathan, sensing its evil, immediately attacked them, resulting in the death of the Fisherman's wife and the Old Mayor's Gone Mad from the Revelation. The Fisherman, gone mad with grief, keeps the book and has his personality split into his and the Collector's.
  • The Lighthouse Keeper then admonishes you for taking so long to come to your senses, but is relieved. You dispose of the book, finally bringing an end to the curse of the Deep... But not before the Leviathan arises and devours your ship whole as punishment for your crimes... Good Is Not Nice, indeed...

The Pale Reach

• The Pale Reach itself. A frozen biome that appears and disappears at random intervals. While it’s possible this could be explained scientifically, in the world of Dredge, it’s more likely there’s something supernatural at work.
• The Narwhal. Despite the name, the only similarity it shares is a glowing horn on its head. It actually more closely resembles a polar bear-cat hybrid, especially the way it leaps out of the water to attack you. Somewhat mitigated once you realize it’s only attacking out of hunger, and can easily be placated by keeping it full of fish.
• When you first arrive at the Pale Reach, the Merchant points you towards the wreckage of an old arctic expedition. This immediately raises an important question: What happened to the crew of that expedition? Turns out, while exploring the Pale Reach, the Captain, Boatswain, Navigator and First Officer began hearing something calling to them. Something that wanted them to free it from the ice. While it’s not clear what exactly happened, what is clear is that they’re still there, trapped in blocks of ice, unable to escape or even die. And if their Apocalyptic Logs are anything to go by, they’ve there for roughly 100 YEARS! As for that "something" that was calling to them…
• The Thing In The Ice. An absolutely massive creature lying dormant within the ice of the Pale Reach. The most information we get about the nature of this thing is from one of the Vision Stones, which details how it was ripped to pieces battling another massive creature, but froze itself within the Pale Reach to avoid permanent destruction. This however, just raises more questions: How big is it really? How long has it been here? What killed it? And what’ll happen if it gets free?
  • The way the game reveals it to you is a great example of slow-burning suspense. The first hints of its presence you get is the faint sound of a heartbeat. Then there’s the aforementioned logs mentioning an ethereal voice speaking to the Captain in his dreams. Then you head East and West looking for pieces of the icebreaker ram and find its hands. Its huge, clawed hands. Then you assemble the ram and head South. And you finally see it. An enormous, multi-eyed Eldritch Abomination peering down at you from its icy tomb.
  • One other detail you might notice about the creature is the huge glowing horn on top of its head…not unlike the Narwhal that chases you around the area. Which raises even more questions: Are they connected? Are they the same species? Is the Narwhal just a younger version of the Thing in the Ice? If so, will it grow to that size someday?