D20 SYSTEM✦ Normal

The Sahuagin's Gilded Bargain

# Nautical# Arcane# Wilderness

The coastal village of Tidewatch is plagued by increasingly brutal Sahuagin raids. Their priest-king, a creature of terrifying intelligence, claims a pirate's cursed hoard was stolen from a sacred Sahuagin burial reef centuries ago. The 'cursed' gold coins are now poisoning the sea and driving his people to madness. The human pirate confederation, the 'Scarlet Sails,' believes the hoard is their birthright, won with blood, and that the Sahuagin are simply monsters to be exterminated. Veteran players are cast as neutral arbiters, diving into a murky conflict where both sides have legitimate, desperate claims to survival and retribution.

Chronicle Prelude

The salt-sprayed, hardscrabble docks of Tidewatch. Ramshackle buildings lean against each other, adorned with nets and dried kelp. A pall of fear hangs in the air, punctuated by the distant sounds of construction on hastily erected palisades. The mayor, a weary woman with sea-weathered hands, pleads for aid against the aquatic onslaught.

Environmental Traits

A tripartite conflict between the coastal settlement of Tidewatch, the subterranean Sahuagin Coral Throne, and the hidden pirate cove of Blacktide. The region is dying—the sea grows sick, raids grow more desperate, and the cursed gold's influence spreads through the water. Victory requires navigating this moral quagmire and deciding the fate of both civilizations and the cursed treasure itself.

Legendary Archetypes

Rayan

HP:45

STR:16

WIS: 12

CHA:11

Key Factions & Autonomous Nodes (8)

Mayor Elara
A weathered human woman in her late forties, with sun-bleached hair and the calloused hands of a former fisher. She wears a practical wool tunic beneath a mayoral chain of office, her expression a constant mixture of worry and determination.
Priest-King Vorrik
A towering, gaunt Sahuagin with scales the color of deep-sea obsidian and eyes that glow with a faint, golden light. He wears a mantle of woven seaweed and shark teeth, and carries a staff tipped with a large, dull pearl. His movements are deliberate and radiate a weary, regal authority.
Captain Bloodfin
A powerfully built Sahuagin warrior, his blue-green scales scarred with ritualistic white paint depicting crashing waves and lightning. He wields a barbed spear and radiates aggressive, coiled energy. He is Vorrik's war-chief, utterly convinced of the need for violent reclamation.
Captain 'Bloody' Redwater
A charismatic human woman with a shock of fiery red hair tied back with a bandana. She has a network of scars across her arms and a confident, predatory smirk. She wears practical leather armor adorned with gold coins and shark teeth, her hand resting casually on the hilt of a cutlass.
Quartermaster Finn
A stout, balding man with a meticulously groomed mustache, wearing a slightly cleaner version of the pirate's leather jerkin. He has a ledger perpetually in hand and eyes that constantly calculate odds and inventory.
Gill-Breath the Exile
A gaunt, sickly-looking Sahuagin with dull, mottled scales and a haunted look in its milky eyes. It lurks in the shallow tidal pools, avoiding the open sea and its own kin. It moves with a furtive, pained gait.
Hermit Thalor
A wild-eyed human man with a beard matted with seaweed and shells, wearing tattered robes that were once fine. He lives in a makeshift hut on the windswept Serpent's Tooth Island, muttering to himself and the sea birds.
Sea Hag Morwenna
A wretched, amphibious humanoid with webbed hands and feet, draped in rotting kelp and the bones of sea creatures. Her green, warty skin is slick with slime, and her mouth is filled with needle-like teeth. She radiates a palpable aura of malice and hunger.

Chronicle Prelude

Environmental Traits

Legendary Archetypes

✦ Related Cases ✦

The Salted Maw of Whitewater

The Shattered Spires of the Sunken Sky