Undersea Adventures: Comments, Concerns, & Concepts

[Aeolius]

Add this little tidbit, to your swarm of shrimp: "Some squid and shrimp produce a luminescent glowing cloud similar in function to the ink cloud of squid in daylight." Bioluminescence Q&A

Video: Edith Widder: Glowing life in an underwater world

[hamishspence]

What about deepwater rivers? The Amazon Abyss section of Blue Planet was pretty interesting- giant catfish, candiru acu (almost as scary as piranha), and others.

Maybe Locathah could be a major power centre in tropical rivers, as well as estuarine waters?

[Aeolius]

What about deepwater rivers? The Amazon Abyss section of Blue Planet was pretty interesting- giant catfish, candiru acu (almost as scary as piranha), and others.

awww... c'mon... there's nothing in a river that can hurt you! ;)

[Debihuman]

So does anyone have the stats for that thing?'

Debby

[Aeolius]

Animal Planet is showing "Blue Planet" episodes from 8pm-2am (Eastern), tonight. Enjoy!

[hamishspence]

I saw a programme about the Snakehead (Asian fish introduced to america- aggressive) recently - and thought larger ones might make for a good fish hazard.

[Emberion]

Alluria Publishing has a 290 page undersea sourcebook (and aquatic campaign setting) that covers everything from aquatic PC races, aquatic classes, weapons, combat rules, spells, feats, 90 new monsters, ...everything you need for an undersea campaign. It is for the 3.5 d20 and Pathfinder RPG.

You can find it here: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.p...ducts_id=86538

[The Tygre]

I saw a programme about the Snakehead (Asian fish introduced to america- aggressive) recently - and thought larger ones might make for a good fish hazard.

SyFy did a cheesy movie on giant snakeheads. Was actually kind of fun in a 'so bad it's good' kind of way. Had swarms of lil' baby giant-snakeheads, too. Maybe we should commission Bhu for something?

[Aeolius]

SyFy did a cheesy movie on giant snakeheads. Was actually kind of fun in a 'so bad it's good' kind of way.

In the same vein, you HAVE to watch Sharktopus! ;)

[0tt3r]

Aeolius! I love your underwater stuff. This is otter, if you could not pick that up, from the #dnd3e room. I always thought it would be interesting to play in an underwater campaign.

Though you said it was combat lite, the first thing that crosses my mind is 3D combat. (This may have already been covered in this thread, but I only read snippets of it)

[Emberion]

Though you said it was combat lite, the first thing that crosses my mind is 3D combat. (This may have already been covered in this thread, but I only read snippets of it)

Cerulean Seas has solutions for 3d combat, including full plans to build an affordable and easy-to-make miniature platform that lets you move your minis in 3d dimensions to-scale. Follow this link to get a discount on this product:

http://www.rpgnow.com/index.php?discount=8192

See you at 50 fathoms!

[Aeolius]

Cerulean Seas has solutions for 3d combat, including full plans to build an affordable and easy-to-make miniature platform that lets you move your minis in 3d dimensions to-scale.

I have been known to put minis in one of my aquariums, just for the effect. ;) If only some of the free VTTs like MapTool handled 3D movement/combat a bit more graphically, I might give those a shot.

[0tt3r]

On the river front (haha), there are several river monster shows that could give ideas. Also, if river creatures are used, there should be some magic for not dieing from the change in saltiness of the water.

[hamishspence]

Possibly "Salt Poisoning" and "Freshwater Poisoning" rules- that creatures can resist with the appropriate spells or templates.

Maybe a special ability- "adaptable" for creatures like the bull shark, the salmon, and various other creatures that cope with the change.

[Debihuman]

Thanks for the head's up regarding the Cerulean Seas Campaign Setting by Alluria Publishing. I picked it up and read through it yesterday. It compares quite favorably to The Deep by Mystic Eye Games.

Debby

[Emberion]

I worked closely with Mystic Eye Games when it began (you'll see my name in many of their early titles including Mystic Warriors, Nightmares & Dreams 1&2, etc). The first draft of Cerulean Seas actually came before the Deep was released, and both titles had influence on one another during their formation. The Deep was actually one reason that Cerulean Seas did not see the light of day until recently.

[The Tygre]

Can we ever expect to see a print version of Cerulean Seas?

[BarroomBard]

Aeolius, I was wondering how you tend to handle spell casting in your campaign. Do you reskin all the spells to make them more suitable for the environment?

[Debihuman]

I worked closely with Mystic Eye Games when it began (you'll see my name in many of their early titles including Mystic Warriors, Nightmares & Dreams 1&2, etc). The first draft of Cerulean Seas actually came before the Deep was released, and both titles had influence on one another during their formation. The Deep was actually one reason that Cerulean Seas did not see the light of day until recently.

It's a shame the errata never came out for the The Deep. There were a lot of critters that were supposed to be included but were left out (probably cut for length). At least, I never found any errata :-( Sadly, I suppose this means I'll never know what a slitherscum is.

The other problem with the The Deep is that it doesn't state whether it contains any open content. One of the things I appreciate in Cerulean Seas is that the game mechanics (other than what is covered by IP) are open content.

Debby

[akma]

What about freshwater underwater campaigns?
Besides the fish being diffrent fish (if you don`t want to ignore that certain fish are saltwater fish), what other changes are needed to be made to the "standerd" saltwater underwater camapaign?

[Debihuman]

Aboleths could be encountered in a freshwater campaign (assuming there is underground access).

Sahuagin have freshwater vulnerability and so wouldn't likely be encountered. Of course, you could have a variant creature with saltwater vulnerability.

Merrow dwell in freshwater lakes and rivers.

Scrags seem to live in any body of water, so it wouldn't matter if it was freshwater or not.

The PCs might not have to deal with risks of dehydration and thirst from a freshwater environment but that doesn't mean it isn't risky. How cold or hot is still a factor.

Speaking of Sharktopus--did you see the stats for it by Michael Tresca here: http://www.examiner.com/rpg-in-natio...ess-sharktopus.

Debby

[GodGoblin]

Ah I have always wanted to play in an under water campaign and this thread has really got me wanting to play one! Im thinking of starting an thread in Recruitment looking for a DM and some other players for a Pbp game, thought you guys would want to know first

[Aeolius]

And now for something completely different:

Christmas Tree Worm:
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...541&pcatid=541

Christmas Wrasse:
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...75&pcatid=2675

Christmas Tree Coral:
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...639&pcatid=639

(searches for Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Festivus, and Kwanzaa had 0 results)

Deep-Sea News Holiday Gift Giving Guide:
http://deepseanews.com/2010/12/dsn-h...-giving-guide/

[Thomar_of_Uointer]

What about freshwater underwater campaigns?
Besides the fish being diffrent fish (if you don`t want to ignore that certain fish are saltwater fish), what other changes are needed to be made to the "standerd" saltwater underwater camapaign?

Rivers are treated like roads, with all the usual trade, banditry, etc etc.

There's also a lot more interaction with air-breathing and amphibious creatures.

[Aeolius]

For a freshwater campaign I would take a bit of inspiration from the Amazon (and "River Monsters"), liberally mixed with "Creature From the Black Lagoon". Catfish mermaids, half-dragon (black) alligators, and the obligatory swamp witch might all make for an interesting adventure.

[akma]

I want to make a monstrous frog that would have multiple tounges with which to hold opponents (the explanation for it to exist, in short, is a cleric did it). Is there stats ready for monstrous frogs? Becuse I don`t feel like making a monster from scratch, and I feel like there is somewhere a monstrous frog that with slight modifications would fit perfectly.

[Debihuman]

Giant Monstrous Frogs were statted out in the Tome of Horros by Sword & Sorcery under the permission of WotC. I'm not sure if WotC made use of these stats or not in any of their products.

Debby

[bondpirate]

Ah I have always wanted to play in an under water campaign and this thread has really got me wanting to play one!

Ditto. Even though I'm not an aquatic buff like others posting, I still find it amazing in what it can offer to the depths (no pun intended) of the imagination.

You can easily have multiple locations and aquatic types if you include an underwater jet stream, using underwater sailboats to easily zip from place to place.

I'd also break it up or make a mini-campaign to get the party enchanted to survive the pressures of the deep or even the ability to have a swim speed and water breathing. Sometimes losing your landlubber status to the unknowns of the sea in search of exploration is half the adventure.

Using psionics underwater, or a variation with sound (instead of astral shaper you have a sound shaper), would give quite a few ease of use abilities at your disposal. Especially for limbless races.

Having stone tablets that when activated impart a memory or display an image could be pretty cool. Or a stone that's blank, but where touched, glows and reveals hidden text.

Since sound is an important part of detection, having a sound elemental or construct luring potential prey to itself to... do something to it. I think it would at least look cool. Think any invisible man in the rain, but as an elemental. Or an earth elemental or demon that has magnesium as nails where it claws against itself or nearby stone to ignite itself and you have a nasty, but cool, creature (I really wish I could draw so I could show what's in my mind right now, arg).

As for fire as the least element, I think it's probably more likely converted or thought of as steam in terms of mechanics if I recall Stormwrack properly (afb for a while). Actual fire is either misunderstood, unknown, sacrosanct or something else depending on the the creature/culture/environment. Beholders with ears and uses it's main mouth to jet along through the water, possibly crashing into the PCs.

I'm probably rambling now, so I'll think up some locations and stat some monsters later and see what people think.

[Aeolius]

A recap of last Sunday's game session, just to set the mood:

In the last session (12/26), the party arrived at the site known as the Chamber of Dissolution. Charged with the task of inspecting and preparing the ancient clockwork mechanisms within four sites, they recalled freeing the hivemind witch Guri from the Grail of Impurities but leaving the site without attending to the musical machine within. At the second site, known only as the Orb of Purification, the party encountered the spectral kraken Mikrokosmus. One site, the Deadwater Fountain, remained undiscovered.

It was the undead kraken that shared the means of destroying the enclave of mermaid witches which now wore his tentacles, grafted in place of their tails. The four sites must be prepared with care and a sacrifice must be placed upon the altar hidden beneath the isle, causing the Sinking Isle to rise once more. Then ancient gears would spring into motion, acting in unison to forge a weapon of the mysterious metal known as Oerthblood.

The tsantsa Meir, once a shellycoat of great power but now an unliving shrunken head slain by her own daughter, reflected upon the party’s predicament. Having visited Turucambi Reef, the party collected the first of three tomes which outlined the means by which her mother Xaetra might be restored to life. With the knowledge gleaned from the first tome, they collected Xaetra’s soul within an artifact known as the Lazarus.

Transported from Turucambi to the waters near the Sinking Isle, in the realm of the Sea Barons, the party recovered the second tome which trapped the hag’s soul within a magical construct, an eidolon, fashioned from ambergris. The third tome, which would restore the hag to life, was supposedly lost within a region known as the Jungle of Lost Ships.

Upon Xaetra’s resurrection, the evils of the blackwater hag Diadema would be undone, for her unliving form incorporated the mortal remains of Xaetra herself, as well as Xaetra’s sea hag granddaughter Tempest and daughter Salkt, a salt hag. Xaetra had learned that, upon her return to life she would embrace the path of the Chronomancer. She would travel to far future to witness the destruction of Oerth, before being trapped in the distant past. Upon her temporal travels, she would leave clues to her future self, in the form of the three tomes.

The viletooth lizardman Dorman was the first to see that, standing atop the remains of the tower walls which held the Chamber of Dissolution, were six skeletal forms. NeeKaa, the oceanid, spied gears turning beneath the bony ribcages of the strange creatures and plates of opalescent pearlsteel bolted to their bones. The sea elf Sakura watched as the skeletons ascended the tower walls to throw the bones they had collected into its hollow interior.

Wielding spears seemingly fashioned from the spines of dolphins, the clockwork skeletons closed upon the party. The diminutive anemoid known as Knot, member of a race of intelligent anemones, divined that their opponents were not creatures of the undead. Dorman was the first to discover that the bony spears held electrical magics.

As Sakura’s young ward Reiko watched two of the skeletons fighting one another, the party’s locathah companion Canthus used his magical cuttlefish quill to coat the gears of one skeleton with viscous ink. The skeleton turned upon the unwary artisan and unleashed the fury of its spear upon him. Canthus noted the spears were actually the skeletons of eels, coated similarly with pearlsteel.

Sakura felt her own powers of stealth and darkness grow, in part due to her growing attraction to the unusual blackwater currents within a shallow trench upon the isle. Her ward Reiko, however, had been dealt a crippling blow during her recent abduction by the mermaid witches and their benefactor, a sea hag fleshwarper known only as Purl. Purl removed Reiko’s legs and grafted in their place the body of a water naga, while simultaneously grafting two tentacles from a giant squid and an eye from a powerful beast known as the eye of the deep.

Reiko’s fragile sanity had been saved, in party due to her timely bonding with Shadow, a ghostly visage. Dorman had previously bonded with the living tattoo Echo, another of the soul shards cast off by Xaetra before her murder at the hands of a covey of hags led by Tempest. The third shard, known simply as Me, remains undiscovered.

During the ensuing battle, NeeKaa, Canthus, and Dorman were injured by the magical spears. One of the skeletal assailants was destroyed in a cloud of bubbles spewing from the base of the tower, while another was destroyed by one of its own. The part noted that each skeleton seemed to have one component which was made entirely of metal and enshrouded in eldritch fire of azure hue.

In due time, the battle was won, in part due to the aid of the party’s many companions, including the amphisbaena eel Jur, hatchling coral dragon Gobble, and Hasu the half-dragon sea cat. The locathah Canthus, struck twice by the electrical spears, was slain in the course of the combat. Removed from the innate abilities she once held in life, Xaetra relied upon the components held within her mystic apothecary. Using an arcane infusion, she transformed the corpse of Canthus into a statue of stone.

Examining the base of the tower in closer detail, the party noted it was ringed by a circle of statues, each of an unknown humanoid that seemed both reptilian and fish-like. One statue stood out from the rest, however, as it appeared as a concave depression instead of a sculpture.


DM’S NOTES: To be honest, I wasn’t sure if anyone was going to show up on the day after Christmas. We gamed an extra hour, so I was more than pleased. The players of Ryllis the shoal halfling, Junae the mermaid, and Sir Boral the aventi did not attend tonight’s game.

The four sites of ancient clockwork mechanisms were inspired by equipment used to keep saltwater reef aquariums. The Grail of Impurities, Orb of Purification, Chamber of Dissolution, and Deadwater Fountain were simply a protein skimmer, ultraviolet sterilizer, calcium reactor, and reverse osmosis/deionization filter, albeit in a grand scale with some magics thrown in.

The clockwork skeletons, inspired by the Antikythera Mechanism, were actually gold clockwork horrors.

[hamishspence]

Giant Monstrous Frogs were statted out in the Tome of Horros by Sword & Sorcery under the permission of WotC. I'm not sure if WotC made use of these stats or not in any of their products.

Debby

There's a Dire Toad in Monster Manual 2.
Oriental Adventures also has Giant Toad stats (2 are Beasts, 2 are Magical Beasts. The 3.5 update might covert the Beasts to animals).

And I think at least one of the adventures had a Giant Frog- the Miniatures game had one in at least one of the boxes (Deathknell?)- and on the card was D&D stats as well.