Patron Saints

Which blessings matter

Four saints do most of the work. Saint Benedict blocks one killing blow per day — a free life, no argument. Saint Dymphna dispels madness effects, which makes her the only hard counter to the sanity system's worst tricks. Saint Eulaliastops the rain, which quietly doubles as a firearms buff: matchlock guns can't fire wet. And Archangel Saint Raphael's regeneration compounds over a long expedition.

The weapon patrons — Michael for blades, Barbara for guns, George for polearms, Sebastian for bows — reward a crew that commits to a loadout instead of carrying one of everything. Match the patron to the contract's issued weapon pool and the blessing is never wasted.

How you actually get a blessing

Blessings do not appear on their own — the chain has three links, and missing any one of them locks the whole system.

1. Rescue the Woodworker. He is a Lost Survivor out in the jungle, not a starting crew member. Until you find him and carry him back to the Tempestad, nobody aboard can carve anything.
2. Find Sacred Figures. These are small wooden saint figures scattered through the expedition — one per saint, nine in all. They sell for 60–90 coin each, which is the trap: sell one and you have sold the model the woodworker needs.
3. Commission the carving. The woodworker uses your small figure as the model for a full-size one on the ox-wagon, and that is what grants the blessing. Commissioning all nine earns Nine Guardians.

So a Sacred Figure is worth far more than its 60–90 coin sale price, and the Slave Finder — which pings any human presence — is the tool that finds the Woodworker in the first place. See treasure values for what else is worth carrying home instead.

The crucifix you can carry

Faith here isn't only a menu of blessings — some of it you carry in your hand. The iron crucifix is a real carried item: held up against a transformed creature it slows the thing's aggression and can briefly stun some horrors — a hand-held pause button, not a sword. Explorers grip it alongside a buckler embossed with a tentacle-face Tulu relief: sixteenth-century conviction raised against something that predates the faith entirely. Pair it with a weapon patron — Saint Michael for blades, Saint Barbara for the guns — and the gesture stops being only a symbol.