Having escaped the destruction of
Flora Isle, the characters can take stock of their situation and make some new acquaintances. After the characters depart the docks on
Wavechaser, read:
| "Flora Isle and the rest of Palma Flora grows ever smaller on the horizon as Wavechaser cuts through the choppy waters of the Lucidian Ocean. Several refugees from the village are huddled on the deck of the ship, while the crew tends to the vessel." |
This part of the adventure is an opportunity for the characters to catch their collective breath, interact with some of the NPCs on the vessel, and plan their next moves.
Character Advancement
At some point during this part of the adventure, ideally at the end of your first session of play, each of the characters advances to 2nd level. Where you place the end of your first session is up to you, but two good points to conclude a game are when the characters first board
Wavechaser, and when they speak with
Captain Three Earrings and decide their next destination.
Interacting with the Crew
The crew members of
Wavechaser are all easy to spot as they attend to their duties around the ship. Read:
| "A burly, hairy man is playing a card game with some of the refugees. A half-orc gazes out at the waves, as she smiles at a dolphin leaping through the ship’s wake. A young male elf with pale-green skin and watery eyes is speaking to a female dwarf with a thick, knotted beard at the ship’s helm. A handsome, muscle-bound man is flirting with one of the refugees." |
Most of the crew of
Wavechaser are secretly
Revelry pirates, as is the captain of the ship—a female tabaxi with snow leopard-like spots named
Three Earrings (on account of her three earrings). The captain is in her cabin, plotting the ship’s next move.
If you want to roleplay the interactions between the characters and the crew, you can fill these NPCs with as much personality as you want, making them fully fleshed-out characters.
Captain’s Invitation
Once the characters are done chatting with the crew, have the NPC they’re currently speaking to tell them that
Captain Three Earrings would like to see the characters in her cabin.
Palma Flora Refugees
If the characters want to speak to any of the refugees, read or paraphrase the following:
| I"sland refugees have created makeshift shelters from the sun all across the deck of Wavechaser. Those you saved during the raid are here, as well as a handful of others who managed to reach the ship before it left the dock." |
The NPCs saved by the characters after the earthquake are mostly in a state of shock, though their gratitude toward the characters continues. They and the other refugees have personalities and attitudes that you can improvise based on how the characters acted toward them when
Palma Flora was in crisis.
If a character wears or displays the shark tooth necklace taken from the
Sahuagin in
Area P2., one of the refugees recognizes it as theirs. (If
Joao the shark hunter survived the raid, the necklace is his.) If the necklace is returned, its owner pledges eternal devotion to the character who found it, and that character gains inspiration.
Three Earrings’s Plan
When the characters meet with
Captain Three Earrings in her quarters, read:
| "A tabaxi is hunched over a wide table, puzzling over a map pinned to its surface by a half dozen knives and daggers. Several golden rings glisten on her paws as she traces potential paths through the ocean. She glances up at you with her emerald eyes as you open the door, and her feline face spreads into a sharp-toothed smile that is equal parts cheerful and unsettling.
“Ah, welcome,” she purrs. “You are the heroes from the pretty village, yes? Welcome aboard Wavechaser. We have much to discuss about the sinking isle—and the treasure we can find if we return.” |
Three Earrings is a pirate. More accurately, she is a member of
The Revelry, a highly organized coalition of buccaneers headquartered on the dread isle of
Darktow, many leagues west. The tabaxi is interested in the adventurers she has brought on board, wanting to appraise their skill and enrich herself in the process. Ultimately, she intends to use them as tools in her hunt for sahuagin treasure and invites them to join her crew. First, however, she needs a plan.
The captain of
Wavechaser is a cunning tabaxi bandit captain with a climbing speed of 20 feet, the Feline Agility trait, and darkvision out to a range of 60 feet. She can read, write, and speak Common and Sahuagin. As an action, she can make a melee weapon attack with her claws (+4 to hit), dealing 1d4 slashing damage on a hit.
Three Earrings has a knack for knowing exactly what a person wants and how to offer it to them. Unless a character has a passive Charisma (Deception) score of 15 or higher, she is able to discern that character’s ideal, bond, and flaw simply by observing them for 10 minutes. To determine this passive score, add 10 to a character’s bonus to Charisma (Deception) checks.
As she talks to the characters,
Three Earrings glibly answers any questions they put to her (see below) and attempts to manipulate them into suggesting that they want to save Palma Flora. She only aggressively suggests a course of action if the characters appear out of their depth. Part of her strategy is to make the adventurers feel as though they are in complete control, even as she subtly directs the conversation.
A character who succeeds on a DC 16 Wisdom (Insight) check catches the tabaxi captain trying to subtly goad the characters into action. If confronted,
Three Earrings slyly smiles and takes note of this clever adventurer. She blithely says that she appreciates initiative, and she wants to know what the characters are capable of. If she thinks this character would make a successful pirate, she visits them during the night and offers them membership in
The Revelry—if they can convince the rest of the party to help her claim the sahuagin treasure.
What Three Earrings Knows
The tabaxi captain knows exactly what happened in
Palma Flora, thanks to
The Revelry spies that have been observing the village and the Sharkfeather Abyss for the past few months. She reveals any of the following information:
- The earthquake dragged Flora Isle into the Sharkfeather Abyss, a nearby trench that is home to a clan of shark-herding humanoids known as sahuagin.
- The Sharkfeather sahuagin and the people of Palma Flora have been at odds for generations, since Palma Flora hosts an annual Palma Flora Shark Hunting Tournament.
- A young female Sahuagin named Selachai recently took charge of the Sharkfeather clan and wields unusual powers. She carries a magic scepter that has been recognized as a rod of retribution, which has become a conduit for unearthly levels of magical power. (The rod is a new magic item detailed in chapter 6.)
- No one knows exactly how this young Sahuagin managed to cause an earthquake powerful enough to drag Flora Isle under the waves, but that isn’t important. What is important is finding a way to delve beneath those waves and take the scepter from Selachai. Doing so would stop her from causing any more chaos, and the relic would doubtlessly sell for a pretty penny on the black market.
- Three Earrings wants to sell the treasure and split it three ways—a third to her and the ship’s upkeep, a third to the crew, and a third to the adventurers. She offers them a total of 500 gp as their one-third share if they help her retrieve the rod.
- A number of nearby ports or islands are good sites for Wavechaser to dock, unload its refugees, and find gear that could help a group of brave adventurers take on the sahuagin in their underwater lair.
If the characters tell Three Earrings that they want to challenge Selachai, she lays out several of the ports of call they could visit before turning about and sailing for the Sharkfeather Abyss. If the adventurers would rather leave this mess behind them, she scowls and scoffs, but eventually acquiesces. The captain agrees to drop the party off in Port Damali, where she hopes to find “a few sellswords with real courage.”
Bisaft Isle. This tiny island has a small port. A shaman living in the hills beyond the port might be able to provide the characters with a charm of water breathing (see “Charms” in chapter 7 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide). The charm allows the character to cast the water breathing spell, after which its magic fades.
Ports of Call
For characters set on returning to Flora Isle and facing down the sahuagin threat, three viable ports are close by, any of which would take in the refugees and let the characters seek supplies for their mission. Chapter 3 has more information about all the following locations:
- Bisaft Isle This tiny island has a small port. A shaman living in the hills beyond the port might be able to provide the characters with a charm of water breathing (see “Charms” in chapter 7 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide). The charm allows the character to cast the water breathing spell, after which its magic fades.
- Brokenbank. This village is the smallest settlement recognized by the Clovis Concord but is nonetheless filled with foreign ships. An apothecary here might be able to provide potions that would grant the ability to breathe underwater.
- Port Damali. This city is too large for the characters to fully explore in this adventure. Three Earrings knows a smith with black-market connections, and who can help the characters obtain a number of experimental diving helmets that would allow them to breathe beneath the waves..
Next Moves
As thanks for their bravery, the characters are offered the use of a cramped but comfortable spare cabin as sleeping quarters. Unless Three Earrings visits one of the characters (see “Three Earrings’s Plan” earlier in this adventure), the night passes uneventfully. Read:
| "Seagulls squawk and chase behind you as Wavechaser sails on to your next port of call. Night settles around you, the crew guided only by the light of the stars." |
The characters’ decision on where to travel next might be the point that marks the end of the first session of this adventure. If you ended the first session before completing this section, this is still a good place to take a short break before continuing into the next part of the adventure. Remember that the characters should now be 2nd level.
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