Ravenloft Archive Part 6: Marina

[brothersale]

Marina

(Nocturnal Sea Domain)

By L. De Pippo

Website: Alanik Ray's Library


The Land:

Marina is an island sorrounded by shoals and small islands. The island is U-shaped and in the center has a deep water harbor and the only big city Minos. The open edge of the island, the bay, faces to the north with the city of Minos nestled therein. The isle is in fact an atoll, an island where the mountain forged up from the sea, the coral reef built up around it, and the main island blew itself to kingdom come in a massive eruption. This eruption blew part of the ring out, making the "U" shape.

Big Mountains, above 4000 mts, dot the side and underside of the "U" while near the sea the mountains give way to hill and plains. A single river, known as Giver, crosses Minos. Overall the island is about 20 miles long.



Cultural Level:

Medieval and Classical



The Folk:

The island is inhabited by two different human races.

The hill-folk, as the city folk call them though not to be confused by real hill-folk, are the descendants of the original inhabitants of the islands. They are short, standing about 1.60 m and have olive skin and black hair with usually black eyes. They have not developed tools above bronze working and are extremely territorial. Any intruder found in their ancestral lands, unless it can explain its presence, is killed. The lands of the Agnathi, as they call themselves meaning the first people, are in the hills. They dress in simple clothing and the males carry a spear to show that they are adults.

By contrast the city people, Naxams, are a fair-skinned lot. They average 1.75m and have blonde or light brown hair. They are the descendants of race of explorers that found the island to their liking. They built the city and began trading. They had conflicts with the "hill-folk" and briefly engaged them in wars of anihilation. Now the relationship between them are strained. They trade with Necropolis (Darkon) even though they are at loss about the position of their island.



Native PCs:

Those of Agnathi descent can be warriors, rangers, shamans or bards (without spellcasting abilities). The Shamans are the leaders of their communities and the warriors and rangers are higly respected. The Bards (Trouvadors) roam the communities. Every member of a tribe, regardless of class, receives the spear weapon proficiency for free.

The Naxams can be of any class, except for Anchorites, Arcanists anfd Gypsies.



Personalities of Note:

Trevor Hunt is the mayor and the half-brother of Elena. He is the only one that suspected about her when she was alive but had no proof.



The Law:

The Naxams have all the normals laws that a medieval society has. Thieves are not tolerated and the mayor is responsible for the peace. Since the island arrival in Ravenloft, orders from the continent have stoped and the people have declared their independence. The taxes are not harsh and are used mainly to supply the merchant fleet.

The Agnathi have few laws and use customs as guides. The Shamans commune with the spirits to guide the people. Lately the shamans have become more demanding and the spirits are more savage. Wise men ponder about the meaning of this.



Encounters:

In the plains there is the possibility of the odd wolf here and there. In the hills the spirits of the Agnathi guard against intruders. The ghosts (second magnitude semicorporeal spirits) are attacking the miners and have became dangerous. Another danger of the hills are the Agnathi huntmen (the chance of an encounter is 25% twice per day).

The sea is full of sharks and the odd Giant Sunstar Starfish (see Ship of Horrors).





Estela Arbizu

(Darklord of Marina)



Ravenloft Siren, Neutral Evil

Armor Clas: 6 Str 10
Movement: 8, Sw 18 Dex 14
Level/Hit Dice: 4 Con 13
Hit Points: 20 Int 18
THAC0: 17 Wis 10
N° of Attacks: 2 Cha 3
Damage/Attacks: 2d4
Special Attacks: Hold, Revulsion, Disease
Special Defenses: Immune to sleep, charm, hold, poisom and death magic
Special Vulnerabilities: Water, Mirrors
Magic Resistance: 10%



Estela Arbizu is a hideous undead creature with the upper body of a woman and the lower body of a fish. Her hair is tangled and entwined with rotting seaweed, and her body is gray and bloated. She always appear in a rocky outcropping as if unwilling to touch the sea.



Background:

Estela Arbizu was the daughter of Marlo Arbizu a powerful sea captain and Elena Sorin, one of the cloth merchants of the island. Her father was always out in his ship, trading with the continent, and she grew to resent the attention that he payed to the sea.

When she was eight the news arrived to Minos saying that her father had died when his ship sunk. Grief striken she cursed the sea and promised never to go into it. Her mother remarried with Charles Hunt and she found herself with a little brother Trevor. When she was nineteen she met Armand Jones, a young and dashing sea captain. Feeling herself attracted to him she began to court him. He responded her affections and even made the promise to never sail again should she marry him, because she was beautiful.

They were happily married but the lure of the sea proved stronger and Armand began his career as a sea captain again. She was incensed an a messy discussion followed, but she still loved her husband and she promised him to wait for his return.

Alas that was not to be. The day when he embarked, when the ship had not quite left port, the greatest storm in anybodys memory came. It sunk lots of ships, including that of her beloved. Grief striken she cursed the sea again and made a vow to forever deny Ny (as the sea goddesses was known) any other man.

It was during that time that the misterious deaths of the sea captains rocked Minos. Every sea captain was found murdered with a stake through the heart. Of course Estela had commited the murders [1], using her beauty as a deadly weapon, but no matter how many she killed more stepped to take their place. She met a young sailor and fell in love with him, but fearing the lure of the ocean she decided to act in accordance to her oath.

She went to the Agnathi lands in search of the shrine of Solar the flame king. When she found it she asked the priest for a way to kill the sea. The old priest [2] was crafty and gave her a bead of summons so she could call Ny and murder her so killing the sea. Of course the bead was worthless and the priest knew that.

Before issuing the summons she researched the way to kill Ny and found a book [3] in her library that told that to kill the Queen of Ice and Water (as Ny was know) she needed to use an harpoon that had been drenched with the blood of a relative.

Undanted by the requirements she killed her mother and called Ny. Surprisingly an avatar appeared and she threw the harpoon and hit her. The avatar, livid with rage, told her: "You have done everything in your power to deny me of my domain, and now you want to kill me? I would be amused, but I am wrathful. I will exile you to a place where you will forever live inside me yet never would you be able to stand me. As ugly as your heart is you would became and no harm will you cause anyone on me, until you found the heart of water [4] and deliver it to the priests of fire".

Strange mists rolled and she found herself in the waters sorrounding the island, transformed into a hideous parody of a Siren.



Notes:

1) Estela was partially mad so she began her revenge on the sea by killing her lovers (namely the captains). As in the world the sea is represented by a goddess to her it was logical to try to kill her.

2) The priests of Solar are a special bunch (see the Appendix). He was in his burning phase so he tricked Estela without a motivation. As an aside, as with the book, the bead should not have worked and if it was a real bead of summoning it would have called Estela's deity, not Ny.

3) The book she found had not been there before. No one knew from where it came and Trevor could not find any trace of it later.

4) The heart of seas (or the heart of water or the heart of ice as is also know) is a chunk of ice in form of a human heart. It is a sacred artifact of Ny (even though it has no powers) and was to be given to the priests of Solar in exchange for certain favors. The heart was lost when the hill-folk attacked her temple a hundred years ago. The dark ones are the only mountain dwelling Agnathi and are outcasts of their society. They live near the center of the domain in a place heavily guarded by spirits of the deceased. They want to continue the war against the naxams and attack them from time to time. They have been exilied because of that so they hate Agnathi and Naxams.]



Current Sketch:

Estela have been a Siren for only 20 years and still rages against Ny. She found that the water was painful to her, but she has to return to it to sustain her undead (once every week she must spend a day in the water or suffer incredible pain). She still loves the young sailor, but also despises him. She wants nothing more than to be free of her curse for her horrible vissage is a cruel remainder of what she did.

Ironically the heart of water is not in the sea sorrounding the island. The heart is in the possesion of the shaman of the Dark Ones tribe and is considered a token of good luck, so the tribe will be unlikely to part with it. The temple of Solar stands in the mountains but the priests will refuse to deal with anything associated with the Queen of Ice and Water so her efforts to escape the curse are doomed to failure.

As for the curse: She cannot bear the thought of been in the sea yet there she is. She hates to touch the water, but must touch it once every day (the week post was a mistake). She considered herself beautiful, yet she cannot present herself to men because they suffer revulsion just seeing her. She still loves a sailor but may never be reunited with him, as he is a "servant" of her worst enemy. She wants nothing more that being loved and kill Ny, but she cannot do that.



Closing the Borders:

Estela cannot close the borders.



Combat:

Estela is unable to attack anyone in direct contact with water or aboard a ship as part of her curse. In those cases she retorts to her magical song that can held anyone on a ship for 5d4 rounds, hoping that the crewless ship will crash into a rock and sink. Anyone who sees her must make a fear check or suffer revulsion (unable to attack for 1d4 rounds rooted in place).

Once her prey is within reach she attacks with her sharpened bony fingers twice for 2d4 points of damage. In addtition the victims must pass a saving throw against poison or catch a fatal disease and die of water in the hearth. Any person who dies of her disease will rise as a Sea Zombie (95% chance) or as a Jolly Roger (5% chance) under her control. She currently has 10 such zombies and one Jolly Roger.

Using a mirror can keep her from attacking but she cannot be turned. Any attack using water does 1d2 points of damage. Inmersing her causes her to stop fighting and suffer. When a turn passes she will became water and flow away. When she is killed she will become water as described above. The only way to permanently kill her (without lifting the curse) is to put the heart of water into her watery form and deal a blow with a flaming sword (not necessarily magical).



APPENDIX



Solar (The three sided one)

Solar is the god of fire and the sun. As the world where Marina originated has three suns, he is a three sided god. Every 4 months his alignment (and that of its priests) change.

The first four months are known to the priests as the renewal phase. He is a NG deity and uses fire to help people, burning evil things or old things.

The next four months are known as the true phase. He is an aloof True Neutral deity interested in the balance. he neithers helps nor hinders.

The last four months of the year are known as the burning phase. He is a reckless CN deity that starts fire for pleasure and goes about making mischief. The priests echoes this disposition (This one was the phase that the priest that Elena went to see was).



Ny (The Queen of Ice and Water)

Ny is a CN deity concerned with ice, water, ships, navigation, seas and storms. She is a fickle goddess capable of bestowing her favor upon the unworthy, and not hearing the prayers of her worshippers. She likes the worship of the sailors and will usually appear at least once per voyage to collect gifts or praises. She is not an evil deity but guards her domain with passion. Any attack upon her dominion may invoke one of two responses:

1) She will do nothing.

2) She will curse the offender to a fate worse than death.

She is not much worshipped than placated, but many sailors like her.

The heart of water Estella has to offer Solar is a relic that Ny intends to use as a peace offering towards Solar. In fact, in the past Ny slew the Solar King's child, for the child was destined to do battle with her. The baby's blood coated the weapon used to kill him and ignited it, scarring Ny badly (thus leading to the belief that a baby's blood upon a weapon allows the baby's parents to attack Ny). Solar has ever since opposed Ny, but she constantly tried to make amend for her sin in order to avoid direct confrontation with Solar.