Domain of the Month
The Nocturnal Sea
Adventure Hooks
Darklord: Meredoth
3rd Edition: RL3E / RLPH
Second edition: Domains of Dread
Adventure: Ship of horrors
Graben Island created in 635 (as an Island lost in the mists by then, and as a domain formerly composed of: Graben Island, Todstein, Nebligtode)
The Sea appeared in 750. Graben island is now located in the Nocturnal Sea and its darklord now rules the whole sea.
Undead Cabbage
Meredoth's Trap
The players are approached by an old friend (ideally a close one that they trust) at an inn in Darkon (or other realm). This friend of theirs proposes to the players a deal. He knows of the location of a lost ship within the Nocturnal Sea that is said to be the personal ship of a wealthy merchant. On this ship are crates of valuable goods as well as a large cache of gold. The friend offers to split it with them if they aid in excavating it. Little do the players know that their friend had since been turned into one of Meredoth's Lebentod servants.
After a long journey (possibly with some encounters) they find the ship. Inside the hall the players find a fortune. On the ship they easily defeat an army of ordinary skeletons and zombies that look to be the old inhabitants of the ship. After a few more encounters, the players do some research to find that the ship was lost helplessly in the mists, and that everyone died from starvation or plague. The players should discover some typical, Ravenloftesque reason why the Ship is the way it is.
In truth, this ship is an elaborate Mirage Arcana spell devised by Meredoth to collect more subjects for his experimentations. Scrying from afar, Meredoth then begins to toy with the players. He shows them illusions of family members and loved ones being torn to shreds by zombies. The players begin to see themselves in twisted and corrupted forms (if your players know about Power Checks, you might make them think they've failed a couple). Meredoth tests to see just how far he can push these new test subjects before they reach insanity.
Eventually, Lebentod on the ship capture the players, in hopes to bring them to Meredoth himself for 'hands on experimentation'.
Irving the Meek
Heart of Ice
Late one night as the PCs are travelling the coast, they see a flash of blue over the moon-lit sea. When the PCs investigate, they find a young girl, clasping a chalice to her hands, entombed in a black of solid ice. No heat the PCs can muster can melt this ice... and a violent storm looms on the horizon. The only shelter to be found is a half-collapsed farmhouse a half-mile from here. After the short, violent storm passes, a chill mist clings to the ocean... and a horde of Meredoth's zombies and skeletons come climbing from the depths of the sea, their creator's name on their bloated lips. A ghostly knight of Meredoth leads this horde as they attempt to retrieve the maiden in the ice. After a long, hard-fought battle that takes the PCs to the shoreline to confront the ghostly knight, the PCs return to the ice tomb to find it smashed to pieces, and the maiden vanished. Who was she, why did Meridoth want her, and where is she now? The next adventure reveals more...
ScS of the Fraternity
Here's one from an old QtR article of mine:
The taverns and salons of the Eastern Coast are abuzz with rumours of the latest pirate menace; the demonic Captain Teach.
A privateer gone rogue, Captain Teach terrorizes the coast of the Core. He has raided countless vessels and even sacked the docks of Egertus. A terrible figure to behold, Teach is a massive man distinguished by a jet black beard. In battle he is said to wear burning slow matches underneath his hat so as to wreath his head in demonic smoke. Some whisper that he is in fact a man possessed, becoming more like a true devil with each passing year.
The rumors are no exaggeration - Teach is being transpossessed by a true fiend. Soon, he will be damned completly and a terrible demon will be unleashed upon the sea. Until then, Teach is dedicated to slaughter.
Drinnik Shoehorn
The party arrive in the Vaasan coastal village of Inglecrook, investigating the kidnapping of a friend. When they arrive, the residents are all hostile, refusing to speak to the party. Investigating the village, they come across a cult who worships a sentient reaver.
The reaver received its intelligence after chasing prey into the ruins of Shay-Lot. After touching a strange stone, the creature received the powers of a Sor5. The reaver has used the powers of a ring of dominate to coerce a sea-spawn into infecting all the villagers.
The PCs must confront both the reaver and the sea-spawn to save their friend, who is to be a sacrifice to the sea creatures.
Loosely based on the Shadow Over Innsmouth.
David of the FoS
- While traveling by boat the Mists rise up and the wind dies. Stranded the party must cope with limited food and water and increasing claustrophobia. How long can the heroes and the ship survive with no outside contact and the fog-like whiteness on all sides?
Things only become worse when one of the crew turns up dead. Was it another crewmember? Another passenger? A fellow party member gone mad? Is it something from the water? Or has someone -or something- stowed aboard the boat - Though the thick Mists a new island is spotted floating in the Sea. The party (presumably on a boat because why else would they be on the sea?) stops for supplies. Fresh water and fruit are always needed on journeys and the crew is anxious to stretch their land legs. However, things are not well on this new island, the people act strangely. They are friendly enough, willing to share their ample supplies, but something is odd about their behavior.
Perhaps they only sleep during the day. Perhaps they are never seen to eat or drink themselves. Perhaps they have few emotions. Perhaps there are no children or elderly on the island. But something is odd.
Is it there way? Is this how they have adapted to some outside threat or are they themselves the threat? What happens if the crew or party begins to demonstrate the same habits? - Pirates! A small band that has moved from the typical corsair infested waters of the Sea of Sorrows to strike at fresh targets. The heroes might be hired to defend coastal villages or sent to hunt them down. Or perhaps they are simply encountered and conflict erupts.
But what if, either shortly after the pirates (or when they are first encountered) the boat is found adrift. Has the entire crew been slaughtered? Or has ever man-Jack of them vanished into the Mists? Or is it a trap? Either way it is tempting target as their plunder must still fill the hold. - The party is hired by a woman whose brother/husband/fiancée/son has gone missing on the waves. He went out sailing and fishing for an afternoon and never returned. The seas were calm and the skies clear so it is a mystery where he went. No wreckage has washed up on the shore.
Did he spring a leak or run aground? Or did something grab him from below the waves? - A man washes ashore wearing only rags. He claims to have no idea who he is or how he ended up on the Sea. But for some inexplicable reason he has an intense phobia and aversion to _____. Is he telling the truth or is there something he is not sharing? Can he be trusted? And what happens when his past catches up to him?
Cure
The Groom of the Sea
Seafarers are a suspicious lot and those of Arbora are not an exception. They know well that the Nocturnal Sea is a fickle mistress, caressing one day, killing the next. To divert her fell attentions, every year they kidnap a youth possessed of great beauty, array him in fine garments, put a coral ring upon his finger, and wed him to the sea in holy matrimony the night of summer's first new moon. Much stock is put in this rite for the groom is always seen to go willingly and the sea is invariably calm, as though the bride were awaiting her lover's coming. The rite is performed by an ancient ship's chaplain. The few sailors who have accompanied him, rowing him out of sight of land, whisper variously of the sea reaching up with taloned hands, webbed-fingers, tentacles, or even black mists to claim her prize. Of course these men usually imbibe not a little rum before setting off, so who can say what is truly to be seen.
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Send your adventure hooks to Joel@fraternityofshadows.com