Flotsam Graveyard
A century after Aroden left Absalom to its own devices, a succession of scoundrels besieged and extorted the city in a 106-year-long conflict that became known as the Pirate Siege. The siege claimed thousands of lives, but the aggressors had no way of knowing that they were laying the groundwork for one of Absalom’s most important defenses—the ships sunk in those battles were the first to form what is now called the Flotsam Graveyard, a shifting labyrinth of masts and sails that acts as a barrier protecting Absalom’s harbor.
More ships have joined the graveyard over the centuries, and it has become a veritable living reef of shellfish clusters and local sea life. Time, tides, and wood-eating shipworms erode the sunken maze, and the bits that make their way into the city are recovered and taxed by the Salvagers’ Guild. To replenish the barrier, derelict craft and unsellable ships confiscated from smugglers and criminals are towed out to the reef and scuttled to add yet more to the barrier. Conversely, when the graveyard becomes too densely packed to navigate, specialized divers patrol the reef and clear passageways for incoming ships.
Since the Graveyard’s geography is in constant flux, it’s illegal for ships carrying more than six people or 500 pounds of cargo to pass through with their own captain at the helm. Any ship that wrecks trying to navigate the Graveyard is forfeited to the primarch along with its cargo, a risk very few are willing to take. Instead, they must signal for a trained pilot to be rowed out to them from the Harbormaster’s Grange on Pilot Island, which is staffed by Pilot’s Union experts kept up to date on hazards and clearings through the aquatic maze.
A variety of aquatic creatures call the wealth of empty nooks and crannies between shipwrecks in the Flotsam Graveyard home. Several azarketi enclaves live there, including Lemaria Kumari, the official ambassador of the Low Azlanti. Wild hippocampi also live amid the wreckage. More dangerous creatures dwell there as well, including a variety of urchins, sharks, rays, grindylows, and bunyips. Though there have not yet been any confirmed sightings, rumors suggest that an enormous eel or sea serpent lurks beneath the waves within Absalom Harbor itself. How such a large creature would fit through the small gaps in the tangled wreckage unnoticed—or where such a behemoth would reside—remains a mystery.
More ships have joined the graveyard over the centuries, and it has become a veritable living reef of shellfish clusters and local sea life. Time, tides, and wood-eating shipworms erode the sunken maze, and the bits that make their way into the city are recovered and taxed by the Salvagers’ Guild. To replenish the barrier, derelict craft and unsellable ships confiscated from smugglers and criminals are towed out to the reef and scuttled to add yet more to the barrier. Conversely, when the graveyard becomes too densely packed to navigate, specialized divers patrol the reef and clear passageways for incoming ships.
Since the Graveyard’s geography is in constant flux, it’s illegal for ships carrying more than six people or 500 pounds of cargo to pass through with their own captain at the helm. Any ship that wrecks trying to navigate the Graveyard is forfeited to the primarch along with its cargo, a risk very few are willing to take. Instead, they must signal for a trained pilot to be rowed out to them from the Harbormaster’s Grange on Pilot Island, which is staffed by Pilot’s Union experts kept up to date on hazards and clearings through the aquatic maze.
A variety of aquatic creatures call the wealth of empty nooks and crannies between shipwrecks in the Flotsam Graveyard home. Several azarketi enclaves live there, including Lemaria Kumari, the official ambassador of the Low Azlanti. Wild hippocampi also live amid the wreckage. More dangerous creatures dwell there as well, including a variety of urchins, sharks, rays, grindylows, and bunyips. Though there have not yet been any confirmed sightings, rumors suggest that an enormous eel or sea serpent lurks beneath the waves within Absalom Harbor itself. How such a large creature would fit through the small gaps in the tangled wreckage unnoticed—or where such a behemoth would reside—remains a mystery.
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