1 Unofficial Game Accessory The Sea of Dread Colin Wilson Table of Contents Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 3 What Everyone Knows About the Sea of Dread ...................................................................................... 5 History as the Immortals Know It ........................................................................................................... 6 Isles of the Open Sea ............................................................................................................................... 12 The Thanegioth Archipelago .................................................................................................................. 19 Emoren ......................................................................................................................................... 19 Arachne ........................................................................................................................................ 20 Utsiwano ....................................................................................................................................... 20 The Isle of Dread .......................................................................................................................... 21 Bararna ......................................................................................................................................... 21 Therian ......................................................................................................................................... 22 Sekorvia ........................................................................................................................................ 22 Phema ........................................................................................................................................... 23 Teki-Lo-Kia .................................................................................................................................. 24 Teki-Moa-Ha ................................................................................................................................ 24 Roatana ......................................................................................................................................... 25 Islands of Interest ......................................................................................................................... 26 The Isle of Dread..................................................................................................................................... 31 The Empire of Twaelar........................................................................................................................... 36 Monsters .................................................................................................................................................. 43 Magic Items ............................................................................................................................................. 46 Adventures .............................................................................................................................................. 47 DUNGEONS & DRAGONS and D&D are registered Credits: trademarks owned by Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Design: Colin Wilson Hasbro, Inc. Editing: Colin Wilson Content Contributors: Geoff Gander, James This book is a work of fan contributions and does not possess official recognition by Wizards of the Coast. The editor and Mishler, Sean Meaney, Colin Davidson, contributors make no representations to imply otherwise. Eldersphinx, Jesper Andersen, Håvard Faanes and Donald Eric Kesler This work may not be sold commercial in the United States of Special Thanks: JTR America or abroad. It may be electronically replicated (“downloaded”) in its entirety for personal use. Cover Artist: Colin Wilson Typography: Colin Wilson The contributors retain copyright to their individual contributions with a fair-use understanding of citation in subsequent works. The cover artist and cartographer retain all rights to their works as typically construed for art. © 2017 Colin Wilson The editor retains all rights to the product “The Sea of Dread” 2 INTRODUCTION Foreword surface, but these have never been monster hunts at various levels of Welcome to The Sea of Dread, a fan- accurately mapped and they change over character experience and adventures in made gazetteer describing part of the time due to vulcanism, storms and the region should stand alone with no world of Mystara – the only game world erosion. The northern part of the Sea trouble. Even the smallest atoll can be designed for the classic box-set series of also lies over an exceptionally deep used for a quick adventure while sailing, Dungeons & Dragons™ by trench which prevents any islands and if a party is shipwrecked on TSR/Wizards of the Coast™. forming above it. This area is truly a Thanegioth simply finding a way of This module details the ocean region blue desert, containing almost no getting home could provide a number of between the continents of Brun and surface life whatsoever. interesting opportunities. Davania including the Thanegioth Roughly halfway between Brun and As the focus of a campaign, the Sea can Archipelago. The region was first Davania lie a series of large islands, be used in several ways. A campaign of described in X1 The Isle of Dread, but known as the Thanegioth Archipelago. exploration and mapping would perhaps that module only detailed the largest These islands, ranging from a few be the simplest. The ancient ruins and island on the Archipelago. X7 War Rafts square miles to several hundred, are treasures would provide a party with of Kron and X8 Drums on Fire host to a series of little known cultures plenty of reward if they went under their Mountain added some new locations, both human and humanoid. They are own auspices, and scholars and generals and XSOLO Lathan’s Gold outlined also home to some of the more feared from the mainland would pay good some of the smaller islands. Beyond pirates of the region. money for information on the islands. that, the Sea of Dread remained an Despite lying off the coast of several Such an approach could lead to a unknown quantity (barring a passing sea-faring nations, the Sea of Dread has political or military campaign for mention of an undersea kingdom in PC3 a dark reputation due to its control of the Sea of Dread. This would The Sea People). unpredictable weather, dangerous necessarily centre on the Thanegioth The thematic link between these wildlife and shifting terrain. Sailors Archipelago as control of those islands modules was the pulp adventure stories avoid its interior and prefer to sail the essentially grants control of the shipping of the late 19th and early 20th Century; coastal routes, despite the long travel lanes between Brun, Davania and specifically The Lost World by Arthur times this imposes. Consequently, the Ochalea – a hugely influential position. Conan Doyle, the film King Kong, and islands of the Sea, and particularly those Several countries, most notably Thyatis Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the of the Archipelago, are barely known. and Minrothad, would support such an Sea by Jules Verne. The adventures They appear on a few maps and endeavour and would need adventurers contained all the famous tropes of the sometimes sailors claim to have visited to get the process going and found the genre, including dinosaurs, giant them, but few pay much attention to first dominions. A particularly confident creatures, restless natives and merman these stories. It is a region of legend and party could even try it themselves, civilisations. rumour, where the truth is often stranger carving a new country out of the This module is based on the four still, and a truly dedicated adventurer mysterious islands. In either case, the primary modules and then expanded to could make their fortune there, or perish challenge would be enormous. Among include much of material suggested by in the attempt. the obstacles standing in their way are the Mystara community. It also contains The only true culture in the Sea of undying princesses, half-real fiends, some ideas generated specifically for the Dread is found under its surface. The planar gates, Immortal magic and the Gazetteer, and much of the information merrow kingdom of Twaelar occupies greatest gathering of pirates outside of from the Greyhawk version of the Isle almost all the shallows surrounding the Hollow World. The local of Dread published in several issues of Thanegioth. It is known about by the population, human and humanoid, Dungeon magazine. To maintain the merrow of Undersea and by a few land- would have to be co-opted, driven out or thematic integrity of the module, we dwellers, but most inhabitants of enslaved, and even then, the merrow of have used those ideas most compatible Mystara are unaware of its very Twaelar would take a very dim view of with the pulp adventure literature that existence. This is probably for the best, any attempt to colonise the islands. inspired the original works. as the Empire is paranoid to a fault and We hope you enjoy the final product. is likely to respond poorly to any Who Should Play attempt at communication. Any combination of races and classes The Sea of Dread can play on the Sea of Dread. Its nature The Sea of Dread is an enormous