Chapter 1 - The Light

Shaw starts up the engine of the Fading Dawn again and starts running the bite across the dense tangle of branches towards the closest rope in their way. He runs the engine at full power but throttles the speed of the saw, giving it as much power as he can to break through, hopefully without getting the sticky material stuck in the saw.

After some resistance, the rope in front of them snaps. It seems like it was under a lot of tension as, to both sides of the Dawn, it shoots away. The sailors notice that the rope seems to have been connected to many of the others here as multiple ropes slacken now that the tension is gone from this one. As long as Shaw keeps overclocking the bite and navigates carefully, the Dawn will make it out of this area of extra-thick tangle.

As the ship is moving ahead, Cait and Elrenna notice something beneath them. Something large, larger than the Fading Dawn, is attached to a tree. While from the distance and through the branches, it is hard to identify what it could be, both women are fairly certain that it is some sort of gigantic, shining black beetle. Four white strings are attached to its back, one of which has just loosened. It appears that this web of sticky tripwires was some sort of alarm system in case anyone travels through here, but fortunately, the beetle seems to have somehow not noticed that one of its ropes was cut. It appears to be sleeping, unaware of the wildsailors traveling through its web.

"That is... not what I was expecting." Elrenna blinks a few times, genuinely surprised by the thing, she could've seen some kind of plant-spider, or a giant carnivorous sundew, but this would have been... significantly more dangerous than that, and it's a good thing that it somehow didn't awaken despite their saw-toothed threshing.

"If I’m being completely honest," Caitriona says, "I was expecting more legs and less armoured shell."

Cait turns and looks back at the scar the shank left when it collapsed, "I wonder if if came up from down there, down in the dark where the eyes were."

Shaw pauses from his checks long enough to join his friends. I see your point. I'm just glad we didnt have a chance to meet it.

Extra careful after seeing the strange bug creature beneath them, Shaw manages to navigate the Fading Down out of this region without further trouble. They snap a few more of the ropes but make certain not to hit any of the still tightly strung ones in order to not disturb the sleeping beetle.

After clearing the thick tangle of where the crown of the fallen Tallshank integrated into the regular Tangle, the Dawn continues again to make good progress. They don't run into any more obstacles, though the ship keeps getting harassed by huge insects, ranging from mouse- to cat-sized.
So far, their seals manage to keep all of the vermin outside, however.

Eventually, the ship closes in on the location marked on the wooden chart they received from the people of Narrowplate and finally reach what they immediately recognize must be the right place. Branches and twigs ahead have been woven sideways, presumably clearing an area behind them in which the colony itself must be located. It's one of the only ways to actually have a colony down here in the Tangle as the quick growth of the Ironroots would immediately make the town uninhabitable again if the region was just cut free. This way, the growth continues sideways instead of into the town, leaving it free.

However, as the Dawn breaks through this woven barrier, they find not a town but instead, a huge, mostly open space, though partially already reclaimed by the surrounding branches, some of which have broken their woven formation and are already growing into this space again.
There are clumps of what appears to be earth in the branches, as well as fragments of what clearly were wooden houses, indicating that this was really the location of the town of Earthhaven. But if it was here when the Tallshank fell, it no longer is now...