Shipping industry in KoL
A KoL Thing
Popoids / Minor Mistake
With the recent appearance of Bigg the Archaeologist in the Nearby Plains, I was once again left wondering about the KoL crates. Those big, sturdy shipping containers that invariably contain a single item tightly packed with a lot of nothing else. What’s up with that? The inquisitive mind that I am, I quickly set out to investigate the ins and outs of KoL’s shipping industry.
First step was, of course, to find the existing shipping companies and routes to figure out where the experts are. First surprise: In a world that has only one continent and not much else, there doesn’t seem to be anywhere to ship things to. There is the Mysterious Island of Mystery, of course. But said island, having only a hippy camp, which probably buys nothing, and a frat house with no universities in sight, ditto, does not look like a good idea, business-wise. Granted, there are a few other denizens out there, but seeing that the only port in the island is a pirate port, it just doesn’t look like a place where merchant ships would really want to go, right?
Examining shipping manifestos and insurance claims shown to me almost voluntarily by an unnamed city official, I found a very dynamic and busy industry. These forms report crates chuck-full of surprisingly expensive merchandise like toys, tools, Crimbo paraphernalia and other goods, headed to faraway ports like Uh, Umm and Huh? Shipping manifestos are very specific about this, which leaves me still wondering where the one-item crates actually come from. Not from the aforementioned ports, for sure, since no ships ever seem to come back from there. It could be the pirates, or some of those legendary sea monsters, but most likely it’s that those cities are so awesome people just choose to stay there for good. So they don't appear in the map - big deal.
All the insurance forms and crazy price tags on the merchandise gave me an idea, but it was so ludicrous I discarded it immediately. I mean, I have no doubts whatsoever that TPTB are straight as an arrow, Skully being Canadian and Jick being, well, Jick. I’m sure all that cargo safely reached the great ports of Uh and Umm; while the near empty crates we find all the time in shipwrecks and warehouses here and there are, you know, just a KoL thing…
