Formless Sea Bestiary

Mycondids: Roughly looking like a cross between a squid and a mushroom, Mycondids are by far the most peaceful of the intelligent creatures in the Formless Sea. They have a single large black eye as well as a beak in the center of their stalk. They have six large tentacles lined with suction cups that hang down from their gills that allow the Mycondids to grasp objects. Two of these tentacles are longer than the others and have paralytic poison in their tips. They have large wide caps that can expand greatly in volume along with a very elaborate external gill system more common to amphibians than fungus. The caps and gills are the source of the Mycondids two most amazing abilities; its levitation and its musicality.

By capturing and filtering various gases Mycondids are able to float a few inches above the ground, an ability that allows them to glide above the muck of the Formless Sea. While not fast creatures Mycondids are can expel their captures gasses to give them a rapid burst of speed. They can also expel their gasses to make music and sing. The sounds that Mycondeid produces sounds like crystals ringing and they most commonly have a range of about sixteen octaves, the top four of which are above the level which human ears and perceive. It is in these octaves that the Mycondids communicate with one another. Even more amazing is that because of their unique vocal systems they can speak in multiple voices at the same time. Their voice when speaking to humanoids has been described as being choir like, as if multiple people are talking at once.

is fungaloid insensitive?

Fungaloids: These creatures look roughly like a cross between a man and a mushroom. They have a set of arms and legs which are made of wrapped and knotted mycelia. Their stalks are thick and their caps are stubby in comparison to other mushrooms. They have a savage intelligence, somewhere between pack animals and man. They have no verbal communication, rather they communicated by small clouds of psychoactive spores. They are broken up into colonies, each lead by an immobile mold like queen. They eat anything dead, standing immobile over the corpse, their tendrils wrapped all over it. On a clear day if one looks out from the tops of the Ubershrooms they often see whole Fungaloid colonies on the move, their queens held high above their caps marching to the next corpse fall.

if it aint broke

Oozes: Oozes are a catch all term that encompasses a number of different creatures as the difference between oozes, jellies, puddings, or slime is mostly semantic. They are blind, quiet, slimy, semi opaque, and dissolve stuff. Most are just globular nuances but a few breeds are of particular note. Splitter Slimes, that divide when hit. Helmet Jelly, who eat hair and have a metal shell. Walking Lawns, vast green mats that start to digest anything that stops moving on top it. Arcane Slimes, who are attracted to magic and occasionally fart spells out. Yolks, a parasitic ooze that feeds on other oozes from the inside. Androgynous Blobs, who are attracted to large amounts of estrogen and testosterone. Flesh Clouds, who can be best described as flying cysts. Violet Molds, who perch from the bottoms of large mushrooms, emit powerful strobes to color to stun prey. Blue Slimes, which are harmless, safe to drink and serve as one of the best sources of fresh water in the Formless Sea (some settlements even herd them). Sparky Puddings, electrically charged blue spheres attracted to metal.

this is a bad movie if it is anything like the trailer

Hogs: Pigs, imported by the first settlers to the Formless Sea as a foodstuff, have now become an invasive species. The Formless Sea is a literal hog heaven, an unending mud wallow filled with truffles, chewy oozes, and sweet green goblin flesh. Gone feral, the hogs of The Formless Sea are massive tusked creatures, with thick hides and bad temperament. The Goblins have adapted well to the new creatures, using them for food, mounts, beasts of burden, and population control.

there were always a ton of these things in the creeks where i grew up

Sludge Strider: This large water bug like creature can be seen skimming across the sludge of the Formless Sea. They are mostly docile, unless you approach one of the nests, and eat the caps of the mushes that grow in abundance. Some have been tamed by the settlers of this sea to be used as transportation and as beasts of burden.

Skum Dogs: A friendly teardrop shaped ooze, they come in a variety of colors, most commonly blue or green. These slimes have a rough dog like intelligence and demeanor. A single antenna with a ball like sensing organ on top protrudes from the bodies and they emit a faint glow that changes with their emotions. To many of the settlers here they serve as watchdog, companion, and garbage disposal. 

this is p close

Sluggernaughts: Goblins, like monkeys, if given enough time and resources produce masterworks. Sluggernaughts are those masterworks. With a scavenged iron shell, bristling with firearms, and a function still-engine Sluggernaughts are up gunned and up armored oozes that might be best thought of as Ships-of-the-Slime. Goblins might be a nuance, but Sluggernaughts are a threat to all but the most power of fortifications and ships. They are thankfully slow and hard to control, like a bucking bronco going at quarter speed.

Gummy Snakes: Not actually snakes but oozes, gummy snakes look like large bright colored worms. Their ‘skin’ is much thicker than an oozes and they can only consume things that go into their ‘mouth’, a large gap in their thick skin. Most Gummy Snakes are about a foot long, but can grow up to thirty.

Goblins In-Depth

its rare that i find exactly what i want but thanks malfoux

Goblins, by nature, are a wild and chaotic bunch and are just as likely to be running into trouble as they are as running away from it.  Goblins gravitate to acts of stupidity like moths to a flame and most goblins last words are “HEY Y’ALL WATCH THIS” or some deviation thereof.  They seem to lack a concept of property beyond ‘mine’ and ‘soon-to-be-mine.’   Often squabbling, fights, even over little trinkets can lead to a gunfight.  Goblins are pint-sized horrors with an unhealthy fascination with hogs, hooch, and hand cannons.

Physically goblins are squat, bright green creatures not much bigger than a human child.  They are wiry and thin and seem to always been twitching or fidgeting when not napping or inebriated.  Their large eyes are oversized for their small faces and their ears are long, pointed, and often have whole chunks bitten off.  Their smiles are rife with gaps and mismatched teeth, with the occasional false gold tooth.  The most distinctive feather about the goblins however is their apparent lack of a nose - presumably an advantage in the fetid swamps.

They speak a chittering mock of common and sound like a drunk even the few hours of the day when they aren’t.  Their clothes are raggedy and patched, often mud caked blue overalls or just shorts with rudimentary camouflage (or are just dirty to the point that the overlapping stains look like camouflage) and pig-leather boots.  They wear an eclectic menagerie of hats, all of which are studded with things like fishing lures, coins, hunting trophies, good luck charms, ammo, and anything else shiny that has caught the goblin’s eye.   Always close to each goblin is his hooch jug, often clay or glass, marked with the universal symbol for alcohol, the triple ‘x,’ and his gun, less a firearm and more of a tube filled with explosives that is hopefully pointed the right way.

Goblin society is a dark childlike mockery of human society.  They have small shanty huts made from driftwood, broken crates, pig leather, and what other scrap they can grab out of the muck.  They play music, mostly banjo, harmonica, or ‘bucket with strings’.  They have farms and grow strange stumpy looking corn (actually a mushroom) for their liquor mash and fatten hogs on slop.  Goblin villages are all based around a still, a chugging cranking ramshackle device covered in knobs and levers with long spiraling lengths of copper that extrude clear liquor the goblins refer to as ‘shine’.  The highest station in society that a goblin can ascent to is that of brew master; as he who runs the stills runs the village.

The central lynchpin of goblin society is that of its clear homemade liquor.  This liquor goes by a number of names; hooch, shine, whiskey, firewater, and most appropriately ‘trouble.’  The brewing process it not difficult, the organic nature of the Formless Sea and the sheer amount of fungus and molds that exist within it means that distilling consists mostly of throwing things in a bucket and waiting.  Goblins will do just about anything for just a taste of shine.  Many tides of battle have turned in favor of the goblins with just the idea that the boss might up the daily ration if they win.  The quality of this brew is questionable and bad batches have been known to drive goblins blind, insane, or both.

Goblins have an understanding with their hogs, this is not to say that the relationship is one where the goblin sits firmly on top.  Rather the hogs and the goblins are relatively equal in standing.  The two in fact keep each other in check and without this balance either the hogs or the goblins population would bloom to unstable levels.  Only by aping humans have the goblins learned domestication, and have begun to have the upper hand in the hog/goblin dynamic.  The domesticated hogs the goblins use for just about everything; from a food source, to a beast of burden, to mounts, and to even to a rather efficient corpse and trash removal system.

Goblins seem to have been born with an innate understanding of their simple machinery as well.  Any goblin can operate a gun almost straight out of the womb.  Most tinker with their guns adding all sorts of ‘gubbins;’ sights made from old telescopes and old bottles; bayonets from jagged pieces of scrap metal; and extra barrels, some of which even shoot!  The more inventive goblins have made their own guns from the ground up and these ‘gun nutz’ pack enough firepower to put a gun line to shame.  Goblins have nefariously poor aim and the kickback from their supped up guns often sends their tiny green bodies flying with a misfire.  In addition to firearms goblins can, with enough trial and error tinkering, make a still from any pile of scrap they find.  Not all goblins are as technically skilled as the others; some are born with ‘da spark’ and have the ability to build all sorts of half-mad and full-mad inventions.

An individual goblin is not much of a threat.  They can’t hit the broad side of a barn and are more likely to scurry under a stump than take on anything equal or larger to them.  Some of the more friendly, or dumb, goblins may be open for trade but would much rather steal or bully what they want out of their target.  Unlike other more ‘savage’ creatures goblins see outsides not as an immediate threat but as something they can copy and learn from.  The goblin fascination with hats came with early interactions with ship captains; seeing that the captains wore the hats and were in charge, therefore if they wanted to be in charge, they to needed to wear a hat.

The Formless Sea

this + ALOT of mud

At a distance one could mistake the Formless Sea as a vast plain of savanna with copses of strange trees, but the smell gives it away.  The air here reeks like stale beer, mildew, and a low tide on a hot humid night.  The 'water' in here is more like a thick brown organic soup than an open ocean.  This soup is a churning, undulating mass, a slurry sea of a semisolid sandy sludge.  It gurgles and bubbles in places making sounds more fitting to a digestive problem than to a geographic feature.  Most is thin enough to sail through however in some places hardened masses have solidified and formed temporary islands.  Temporary is the key word here, and with a few exceptions these islands rarely last more than a few months until they break apart and fall back into the mass.

In addition to the clods of earth that pass as islands in this sea large mats of fungus and mold grow on the muck.  In fact, no flora outside of fungus and mold seem to grow in this sea.  Thick yellow clouds of fungal spores lay thick and lazy just above the mucky surface of this sea.  These clouds sometimes settle and great agglomerations of mushrooms and strange molds spawn where they fall.  These islands, known as spore falls, are more of a green spongy mass than terra firma.  Fungus and mold grows and knots upon one another until little islands form that covered is strange vegetation that reek of wild fermentation.  The valleys and divots in these islands make for narrow waterways and quaggy paths choked with green and purple fungal blooms.  When pressed the ground yields slightly and excretes a thin orange liquid that looks like clay rich river water.

These spore falls are thick with ‘vegetation.’  Great bulbous gardens of mushrooms that bear strange fruits common only to this sea spring up in the spore falls.  As do thick ropy stands of mycelium that bob in sync with the winds and the tides.  Parasitic mosses hang from large nets from tree-like mushrooms that sloop like drunks.  Many these blooms are poisonous, but a few are edible and some have valuable medicinal and alchemical effects.

some get you high, some kill you, some get you high THEN kill you

Some of the mushrooms grow tall and strong, their stalks becoming hard as oaks.  If they are left to grow unmolested these mushrooms will keep growing indefinitely.  These mushrooms can grow vast, hundreds of meters tall and some with caps of over a kilometer in diameter.  These are known as Ubershrooms they are by the largest objects in this sea.

There is a suppressing amount of animal life in this Sea.  Insects are common here and can grow to massive proportions, Sludge Striders being a prime example.  Oozes too are common, and run the gamut from simple amoebic like creatures, to globs with an animal like intelligence, to a few that are even sentient and can speak.  There are even two types of fungus people, the savage Fungaloids and the more intelligent and docile Mycondids.  Imported from other seas, hogs have exploded in population growing fat and feral.  The most dangerous inhabitants of this sea however are the vile inbred goblins.

Life in this sea is not easy and most people would consider living here a punishment.  Only a small number of hardy human settlements exist on the Ubershrooms as well as a few hermits and isolated communities that live out in the swamps.  Food from outside this sea rots extremely fast once exposed to the air.  It’s rare for one to be able to finish more than a few mouthfuls of imported food before creeping mold fuzzes it over.  Open bottles of wine will turn to vinegar in a matter of hours.  Even the hardy staples of sailors are not immune, hard tack and fatback soon turn to moist slop.  The air here is way too thick with fungal spores to be comfortable.  Great green-yellow gales can whip up, blanketing whole areas like a foux blizzard.  Even the muddy water of the sea is awful; it manages to be both sticky and slick at the same time and great globs of it gets everywhere; in your boots, in your clothes, in your hair, in your eyes, and in your very soul.

There are however, very good reasons to reside in this sea.  The material that the Ubershrooms are made out of is similar to a hardwood, but is very light in comparison to those harvested from trees.  If treated properly this shroomwood is an excellent building material.  Many of the mushrooms and molds here are edible and as export some worth their literal weight in gold.  Legends abound of foragers that have located truffles the size of kegs, truffles that allow them to retire to pleasure palaces in faraway seas.  Many of the mushrooms can be fermented into powerful liquor or into a more subtle wine.  While having its one rather ‘unique’ taste this mushroom wine is nearly immune to spoiling and is great for long voyages, even if it tastes like whiskey and gravy got into and fight and whiskey lost.

Sample Encounters for the Sea of Wrecks

• Crashed ship converted to a shrine to an Aboleth. A lick layer of sticky mucus oozes from a rough hone statue of a tentacle in the center of the ship. It’s sticky and hard to move it. 1d6+1 cultists and their wizard priest leader.
  
• Crashed whaler ship infested by ghouls. They are feasting on the corpse of a whale. While it smells bad a casual glances shows a large hunk of ambergris at the center of the whale corpse. A better glace shows that the ghouls are once the whalers. 2d6 ghouls. Large hunk of ambergris (200gp to the right buyer) and an enchanted harpoon (counts-as +1 spear).
  
• Friendly Koa-Toa have set up shop in a ruined barge. They sell raw seafood, chum stew, and coral charms. They are kind of backwards, easily distracted, and easily hoodwinked by fast talkers. They are also extremely vengeful once they relies they have been tricked.
  
• Hermit wizard is looking to buy paper at a very high price. He has a few minor magic items. The exterior of his ship is covered in a thick layer of seagull guano. He is always yelling at the gulls and says that he has been cursed by cheating on a sea nymph with her sister.
  
• Sauhagin breeding layer. Huge masses of translucent eggs bob in the water of the half sunk hull. They look like leather pouches and a tiny silhouette of a Sahuagin tadpole can be seen if you hold it up to the light. 50% chance that there will be adult Sahuagin guarding it. The eggs are considered a delicacy by many races (think of it as a cross between an egg and an oyster). Sauhagin can be distracted if you throw the egg pouches at them. Hang on to them for too long and they may hatch.
  
• A water elemental got trapped in this ships hull during the last storm. Will attack anyone who enters but will make a break for the nearest open exit (trap door or porthole) if given the chance. There is a large cache of non-soluble treasure (mostly copper bars with a heavy patina)
  
• A Golem Ship (living ship that is a remnant from a long forgotten war) is stuck in some rocks. It promises a reward (hidden treasure, some of its weapons) if freed. 50% chance it attacked the PCs when freed, 25% is zooms off to attack the nearest ship, 25% chance that they never see the Golem Ship again, but here rumors of a ghost ship in the future.
  
• A single canoe lies moored to a large rock. THEY ARE COMING in over a dozen languages are carved in the stone along with the symbol for a dark god/pirate fleet/pelagic nightmare creature/the PCs names. Close inspection of the rock shows it to be hollow with a hidden supply cashed, for fighting said prophesied entity.
  
• A wreck has been converted to a fish and chips shop. But the fish that’s being fried is Koa-Toa. It has been so long since the PCs have had anything besides ship biscuits and brackish rum and the fish and chips smells great and the price is right. Eating it will fill their bellies (and hp) but eating an intelligent creature is an immoral act.
• A massive anemone has begun to grow in the hold of a ship and is now seen as an object of worship by a Koa-Toa family. Unfortunately there is a hole in the hull of the ship, and the family must keep adding more seawater to the hold or else the anemone begins to dry out and begin to die. The hold in addition to the anemone is also filled with treasure and supplies. Letting it dry would make the hold easy access, but would also involve most likely killing the Koa-Toa family. Maybe if the PCs are willing to help patch the hole, the Koa-Toa, long scene immune to the poison will share some of the bounty
  
• Sargaussm tangled webs cover this ship. A seal wriggles in wrapped in webbing. The faint sparkle of treasure can be seen through the webbing. Then you see up in the masts. Eight wall crawling tentacles, eight eyes, black beak, bright poisonous skin, shoots web or ink as needed - Arachnopuss. Thankful it is sleeping. Maybe if your careful you can get that treasure without tangle in the web and waking the beast. Maybe it's best to let a sleeping arachnopuss lie.

The Aquatic Races in the Sea of Wrecks

 (I'll do in depth versions of these sometime in the future, but this is just for the Sea of Wrecks)

Koa-Toa

"Yummy Yummy Yummy Chummy for my Tummy! ssssp"

Koa-Toa, are fishmen, are not insane, merely have a religion that is very alien to land dwellers.  They have a deep reverence from the sea and Koa-Toa religion is a mix of shamanism, animalism, and polytheism.  They see spirits everywhere, their gods or spirts are often other sea creatures or aspects of the ocean themselves, and they have a divine right to protect the oceans and its creatures.  To what extent they are to protect the ocean and its creatures (along with what creatures) vary greatly from Koa-Toa to Koa-Toa.  They are best thought of as man like fish.  They are semi amphibious - they can breathe air, but need to constantly be wet with salt water.

Sahuagin

Jawsome

Sahuagin, are sharkmen, and are very insane.  They are related to the Koa-Toa, (much like how a human may be related to an orc), they also worship things from the sea, but focus more on the might makes right and apex predators of the ocean.  They ritualistically butcher and then devour their captives.  They like Koa-Toa have legs with webbed feet but are much better swimmers than the Koa-Toa and are much worse on land then they are.

Fin-Folk

This is the closest I could find

Mermaids are known as Fin-Folk.  They live near the bottom of the oceans in great cities made from coral.  They rarely come to the surface, typically only to trade for metal goods.   They can survive out of the water only for moments at a time.  They do not have legs but big tails.  They are best thought of as fish like men.  They do not like most land dwellers.  The Fin-Folk in the Sea of Wrecks are on the fringe of Fin-Folk society.  They are rugged survivalists and fierce individualists.  They herd Seacows and ride Hippocampi around.  They wear cowboy hats. (They are !notTexans)

Bestiary for the Sea of Wrecks

The Sea of Wrecks is a rocky and broken seascape, a vast ship graveyard, dominated by ravaged ships, jagged rocks, and marine detritus.  Below are some of the animals that live there.

Long-Necked Seal

 

Pinniped is a very fun word to say.

Long-Necked Seals are pinnipeds with a long streamlined body with four powerful flippers. They have an elongated and flexible neck and a long powerful tail. They have a thick layer of blubber and a fine water wicking fur that together keep them both warm and dry. They eat mostly shellfish and small fish but it is not unheard of them to eat sea birds or other creatures if they get close. They use their long flexible necks to probe crags and holes in the sea floor (of which the Sea of Wrecks has many) where food might hide. They are mostly aquatic, but will bask on the rocks and beaches when it is warm out, or when it is mating season. They have strange and complex barking songs (the Inked Mages think that it might be code). They are hunted for their fur, blubber, and their meat. All of the major wrecking crews eat seal meat. They also all do not hunt the pups. Most lamps and torches in the Sea of Wrecks burn thanks to Long-Necked Seal blubber.

Sea Centipede
 

Everything about this guy is real except the last two sentences.  Nature is the best DM.

Sea Centipedes are horrific looking aquatic centipede. They grow anywhere from one to two feet in length, have segmented bodies that are a dark, greenish-black color, and long pale legs. Underwater they swim powerfully like an eel with horizontal undulations. Water will roll off of their body and they will dry in seconds. They have a large set of mandibles and a venomous bite. While a single bite is not deadly, the venom is excreted along with a pheromone that attracts other Sea Centipedes, causing them to swarm over the wound. When not in the ocean they like to hide under rocks and pieces of driftwood. If the internal organs of a Sea Centipede are all mashed together and fermented they make a powerful psychoactive known as ‘bug meat.’ Inked Mages take bug meat to ‘better understand the universe’ and Dragur mix it in their berserker brew.

Arachnopus

Arachnopusi sounds like a knock-off Bond villain

Arachnopusi are large amphibious cousins to octopuses. They are larger than their sea based cousins, often growing to an arm span of 30 feet. They have a thick toad-like skin that must stay damp with sea water that is a deep reddish purple with bright blue rings. Eight large eyes ring around the base of their bulbous heads. Eight powerful tentacles with suction cups allow Arachnopusi to walk on land, even upside down, albeit slowly. In the water they are extremely fast using jets of water to propel themselves. They have a black beak that hides no only their mouth but two different glands, one that shoots black ink, the other that shoots webbing. Arachnopusi are known for coating their webs in their ink making them all but invisible in darkness, then dropping on their entangled prey. They are prolific breeders laying dozens of egg sacs at a time, each one with thousands of eggs. Thankfully they have relative short lifespans, the upper limits of which are about five years.

Hippocamp:

Aqua horse, not the part of your brain.

Hippocampi are aquatic horse like creatures that are not originally from the Sea of Wrecks. They have the head of a horse, with two front legs that come to great translucent fins, and a long and powerful tail. They general have green-blue scales except for their bellies that are a pale blue. They sometimes have dark blue stripes or patches of gray scales. They live in herds of about twenty members, including foals and are spooked easily. They munch on the abundant see weeds and kelp that grow on the wrecks. The Sahuagin despise them, a mixture of fear and loathing, as the Fin-Folk use Hippocamp riders to hunt down Sahuagin that get to close to their domain. The Hippocampi in the Sea of Wrecks are all feral; either escapes from deep sea Fin-Folk domains not far from the Sea of Wrecks or the descendants of wrecked sea carriages.


Other animals and plants that you may find in the Sea of Wrecks:

Tidal Pools are cool as heck.

Brilliant green and yellow anemone that are squabbling for dominance in the tidal pools, squat ugly fish the color of the rocks, colonies of algae that look like a diminutive copse of palm trees, hairy crabs with tufts of white fur, starfish all the colors of the neon rainbow, slicks of green algae that when dry bloom with small white flowers and smell like a corpse, huge clusters of blue mussels with thin white stripes, pale shells with fractal shapes, sea snails leaving a slimy trail on a wreck, parasitic clusters of barnacles hanging from smashed ships hulls like tumors, jumping limpets that can hop from host to host, fat red blood worms that wriggle now exposed by the waves, cephalopods that scurry into the gaps between submerged rocks, razor clams that pop out of the sands like a switchblade, schools of striped prawns growing fat on plankton, sea roaches that scurry from the rocks when you pick them up, nearly unseen jellyfish with poisonous tentacles, bulbous spiny urchin the colors of a fresh bruise, slow sandcoins that bury into black sands, gray birds that looks like the bastards between a pelican and a pigeon, flocks of flying fish that skip on the crests of waves.

Wrecking Crews

Wrecking Crews

Wrecking Crews is the colloquial name for the various groups of pirates, shipwreck survivors, bandits, and madmen that inhabit the Sea of Wrecks.  Most wrecking crews are tied to a single ship or area and will rarely venture outside of their domains.  However there are three primary wrecking crews, The Ironclads, The Inked Mages, and The Dragur, who hold domination over vast swathes of territories and their machinations and influence can be felt all over the Sea of Wrecks.  The information for these groups is as follows:

Ironclads

Ironclads are a wrecking crew that wears heavily modified scavenged diving suits.  They look something like a cross between a set of full plate, a wet suit, and a robot.  While few in number each Ironclad is a juggernaut.  Their suits are heavily armed and armored.  They fight with equally heavily modified spear guns (counts as heavy crossbows/ballista/etc.).  They have modified Jarred Sun tubes that project light out in front of them (essentially a powerful headlight). Many have rebreathers or hookups that allow them to connect to an air pump station, so they can spend extended amounts of time underwater.

Aspirants are unarmored Ironclads.  They are young and often new to the Sea of Wrecks.  They do a lot of menial tasks for the Ironclads, like scraping off barnacles and rust, making minor repairs, and doing much of the work a traditional squire might do for a knight.  They are all armed with spear guns, but much smaller versions.  Each hopes to get their own suit one day.  Each Ironclad typically has 3-4 Aspirants that work underneath them.

Much like their suits, each Ironclad is very individualistic.  Each Ironclad also views their suit as an extension of themselves.  They will never get out of their suit unless they have too.  They move with a slow and deliberate certainty.  They university dislike it when someone tells then what to do.  They do not believe in charity and expect some sort of payment for any action.  They are cocky, but not arrogant.  Each has earned their way into a suit, and each Ironclad respects that.

Ironclads spend most of their time either scrapping wrecks and adding to their suits or hunting squids and sharks.  Their settlements are open, but at  visitors own risk.  They barter for most of their supplies and will take scrap above gold.  They sell squid jerky, fish meat, shark leather, and strange things they find below the surface of the water.

Inked Mages

Inked Mages are a  wrecking crew that is obsessed with tattoos and magic.  Most are either shaved completely bald (including eyebrows) but may have a single ponytail or top knot.  Inked Mages are covered head to toe in magically infused tattoos that serve as their spell books.  As paper fairs very poorly in the Sea of Wrecks they have their spell books tattooed into their skin.  They wear loose fitting armless robes made from dyed scavenged cloth and armor made from shark leather.  Most keep a dagger hidden on them, just in case.

Inked Mages fight almost exclusively with spells and magic items.  They prefer to fight from range and to blast their opponents apart with magic before closing in.  They make wands and staffs out of heavily scrimshawed and inked bones.  They also have ‘scrolls’ – slaves that they have captured and inked spells on to that they drag out into battle.

Acolytes are young Inked Mages that still have significant portions of virgin skin.  They do a lot of the grunt work for the full mages saving up for new spells and new inks.

The Inked Mages think that if they can figure out how it works, they can control La Luz.  They have a bunch of rumors about the lighthouse (superweapon, mind control, teleporter, space beacons, planar gate, etc).  They collect mirrors, lenses and other glass stuff for experimenting with Jarred Suns.  They will also pay for reports into the lighthouse.  They take slaves which they then tattoo with whatever books they can find, they call these slaves 'fleshbooks'.  You dont want to know what a 'fleshscroll' is.  Sometimes they extract the ink from the books that they find before the degrade thanks to the effects of the Sea of Wrecks.

The Dragur

Early in the history of the Sea of Wrecks a fleet of sea raiders, a Viking like people, were caught in a storm and dashed upon the rocks.  A number of the sea raiders lived through the ordeal.  Those that lived envied the dead as one of the sea raider myths was of a place similar to the Sea of Wrecks.  This mythical land was a sort of purgatory where sea raider warriors who die cowardly deaths before landing for a raid go.  This purgatory traps the souls of the warriors, forcing them to reincarnate, unless they are given a proper sea raider funeral; in a boat loaded with treasure that is then burned.

The Dragur are a wrecking crew that consists most of people who believe that they are reincarnated sea raiders, and who are seeking a proper funeral.  The view the Sea of Wrecks as some sort of purgatory something that has denied them a proper death.  They think that they are caught in a preputial state of reincarnation and if they can have a proper Viking funeral then they can finally leave the Sea of Wrecks.  They abduct new arrivals to the Sea of Wrecks, believing them to be reincarnated versions of their fellow Dragur.  They are not shamed, as each Dragur thinks that they themselves have failed a few times on the reincarnation trick.



One 'original' sea raider still exists in the Sea of Wrecks, Ulf the Black.  Ulf was the navigator for the great sea raider fleet that spawned the Dragur.  Ulf is now a ghost, caught in karmatic limbo for his actions while among the living.  Ulf the Black is the reason why the great many sea raider ships ended up being caught into the grasp of the Sea of Wrecks.  Before the fleet meet its fate Ulf had behind the backs of the other sea raiders brokered a deal between himself and the target of their raid.  He promised to lead the fleet into a storm in exchange for his own princedom.  Unfortunately for Ulf his ship was also claimed by the storm.  His ghost now haunts the ruins of his longship.

Ulf despises The Dragur, as they remind him of the sea raiders he betrayed, and the The Dragur are terrified of him because well, he is a screaming Viking ghost.  He was given a down payment on his betrayal; his hold is filled with silver ingots and whale ivory.  He pays handsomely for anyone who brings him the head of a Dragur.

La Luz: The Burning Heart of the Sea of Wrecks

This is a real place is Spain (minus the blue light)

(La Luz lies at the center of the Sea of Wrecks, a rocky and broken seascape, a vast ship graveyard, dominated by ravaged ships, jagged rocks, and marine detritus.)

La Luz looks like no other lighthouse in any other sea. Dozens of angular columns, each made of pale white stone and of unequal and increasing heights rise out a central triangular base. The columns culminate in a final square pillar reaching just above 150 meters in the air. While at sea, no matter what direction you face the apex column always seems to face towards you. While on the small island where the lighthouse sits, the apex column always appears to be facing away from you.
The oldest reliable records of La Luz are almost 800 years old, reported by some of the earliest Gray Sea sailors. Their description of the tower matches nearly word for word how it looks today. The stone that the lighthouse is made of appears to be immune to the pitting and weathering that plagues other structures located by the salt water. The tower stands in stark contrast above the rotting and rusted hulks below.

The tower emits an incredibly bright blue light that is painful to look directly at. This light can be seen from any given point in the Sea of Wrecks at any given time. The light itself appears to have some sort of hypnotic effect, sailors that stare too long into it become mesmerized and absentminded, steering their boats towards the light like moths to a fire. It is difficult to break a sailor out of the spell of the azure light of La Luz. It seems only the violence of a hull smashing into rocks seems to break the trance.

Strange still is the source of the light. No fire burns at the apex, nor is there any sort of spell or magical sources. The only thing at the top of the tower is a large mirror set at a 45 degree angle and a large focusing lens. The light of La Luz comes not from the top, but from the bottom.
A great pillar of blue light issues forth from the center of La Luz. Entering the lighthouse, even during day, is like emerging from a dark room into the bright sun. Even with eye protection it would take you a moment for your eyes to adjust to the light. A great triangular staircase goes both up and down the tower. Climbing up the tower the light gets less intense and at the top eye protection that would be required on the ground floor is no longer needed.

Climbing down, the light is brighter the farther down one goes. After a few meters most eye protection is useless and one needs to close their eyes or else be blinded by the light. Many of those who have attempted to delve the depths of La Luz beyond this point have carved instructions, warnings, and their own names into the stone.

KILLROY WAS HERE

A few more meters and any exposed skin will begin to tan turning quickly to sunburn. Farther still and closed eyes no longer keep out the light, it has become bring enough to blind through eyelids. Special fully enclosed helmets are necessary to make any further progress without suffer permanent eye loss.

Going much further than this requires a full reflective suit as it has become so bright that anything capable of absorbing light will burn. No one has been able to make it to the bottom of La Luz. Even the most reflective of suits fail after a point and no magic spell or alchemist’s potion seems to halt the burning of the light.

The light of La Luz can be harvested. Past the point where a protective suit is required special mirrored jars and boxes know as Jarred Suns are filled with captures of the light. These Jarred Suns are particularly prized by hunters of the undead and by adventures alike. If opened a Jarred Sun will issue forth bright blue light, much like that of La Luz, but unfocused. The light is comparable to a torch, but has the benefit of required no fuel, issuing no smoke, and being able to used where a normal fire would be unable to be made. Destroying a Jarred Sun creates a burst of light, the issuance of which is like that of a thousand noons, which besides blinding most will severely harm most light sensitive creatures, if not outright annihilate.

This is my first post!

Moo! Moo!