Mermaids: Not what they used to be!

Just watched Pirates of the Caribbean: on Stranger Tides the other day. One of my favorite things in the film were the Mermaids. Not just for the obvious eye candy, but the movie really turned them into creatures to be feared and respected.

It made me think about the underwater races of Blackmoor. From Supplement II to the Voyage of Captain Castagere's Blossom in Module DA4, Underwater or Sea Based Adventures have always been a part of the Blackmoor Setting. Blackmoor is home to many Sea Monsters. Perhaps Mermaids should claim their rightful place among them?

-Havard

Sea Monsters of Blackmoor

As I mentioned in my blog article on Dinosaurs the other day, the First Fantasy Campaign reports of a great battle in Blackmoor Bay between sea vessels and sea monsters. In the same article, I also speculated that the aquatic dinosaurs from OD&D Supplement II. Let's take a closer look at these creatures:


Mososaurus:
These Gigantic marine lizards are over 40 ft long. They sometimes use their great bodies to overturn ships. Fortunately their main diet is other aquatic beasts.

Elasmosaurus:
This creature is about 14 m (46 ft) in length and weighed over 2,000 kg (2.2 tons), making it the second longest plesiosaur. It has a large body and four flippers for limbs. More than half of its length is its neck, which had more than 70 vertebrae, more than any other animal. It has a relatively small head with sharp teeth. According to Supplement II, it loves snatching crewmen from ships.

Plesiosaurus:
These huge serpents have short necks, but large heads. They will not hesitate to attack ships venturing into their territories.

These are but a few of the various aquatic monsters mentioned in Supplement II. It seems likely that these creatures have some times been encountered in the deep rivers of the swamps near Blackmoor and in the Black Sea. Some speculate that these monsters are being bred in the realm of the Egg. Perhaps the Egg also has some way of controlling the beasts. Fortunately not all denizens of the Black Sea are this hostile.




Image Sources
Elasmosaur
Plesiosaurus
Mosasaur




-Havard

Denizens of the Black Sea

The Black Sea is the sea to the north of Blackmoor. Until about a century ago, it was merely a great lake surrounded by land on all sides, and connected to the Skandaharian Sea to the north by the enormous Firefrost Canal. In the years that followed, the land began to change. The Black Sea grew as some of the lands surrounding it began to sink, creating disastrous floods across the northern Redwood. Unknown to all at the time, this was the Egg of Coot preparing for its ascension to the surface. As the realm of the Egg rose from the Sea, other lands around the Black Sea began to sink, wrecking havoc in the lands of humans and elves. This altering of the landscape caused the Black Sea to join with the Great Ocean (North Sea), changing the water in the Black Sea from fresh water to brackish water.

The Sar-Aigu
The oldest known civilization to have existed beneath the water of the Black Sea was the race of the Sar-Aigu. These mysterious Sea Devils share their origin with that of the Temple of the Frog, but soon found their way from the swamps and into the Black Sea. Eventually they gained the courage to rise from beneath the waves and build their stronghold on land, on the peninsula which would later be the site of Castle Blackmoor. They remained there until driven back into the sea by a greater evil. They were never heard from again, though they may still be lurking down there in the deep.

Merfolk
The Black Sea is also home to other intelligent life. The Merfolk of the Black Sea are said to have a civilization which “rivals that of humans” (Supplement II). They use Giant Seahorses (Hippocampi) as mounts and their warriors favor the trident.  Rumours speak of great Merfolk cities on the bottom of the sea. They maintain regular underwater communities where schools of fish are kept penned in with nets for food. Dolphins are allies of the Merfolk and the two races often work together.

It is difficult to say how the Egg’s devastating alteration of the seas affected the Merfolk. They seem to have been able to adapt from living in a fresh water environment to living in a saltier one.  The joining of the Black Sea and the North Sea allowed more clans of Skandaharians to get access to the Black Sea and the Merfolk quickly learned of the ruthlessness of the Northmen (See DA4 for details). Some speculate that it was in fact the Merfolk who accidentally awakened the Egg of Coot from its long slumber.

Sea Monsters
Both the Black Sea and the rivers that run through the Dismal Swamp are filled with various Sea Monsters. Many of these are believed to be spawned by the Egg of Coot. This is true in the case of the dreaded Sea Serpents known as Naliseth whose blood can turn drowning men into zombie like creatures. The Egg of Coot has used Sea Monsters in its attacks on Blackmoor, something that has proved to be quite successful against Blackmoor’s navy (See the FFC)

More ideas for underwater adventures in the Black Sea can be found here.








-Havard

Realm of the Egg Part II

Here's the second installment of my take on the Realm of the Egg. 

The Land

The Realm of the Egg is a place filled with sinister disorienting mists. Large towering structures can be seen surrounded by smaller ruined and abandoned buildings. Cities and towns appear desolate, although there are always creatures lurking in the shadows. Structures originally built by Merfolk can be seen among ruins.

Travelling through the land, the landscape will seem surreal to explorers. Magical experiments, permanent gates to other planes of existence and rampages of demonic creatures have turned the lands of the peninsula into a bizarre twisted realm.  Woodlands such as the Thornwood, the Forest of the Druj and the Weirdring Woods are dark and sinister places, where even plantlife seems hostile. These are not green wonders of nature, but black and thorny areas bearing little resemblance to forests in other lands. Mountains and hilly landscapes can be found in the humanoid infested Trollop Mountains and the infernal Locust Hills.

Four major settlements are hidden in this terrifying landscape; The Egg’s Nest, Ohmfet, Trollgate and Harbol.

The Egg’s Strongholds
The Egg’s Nest is an impenetrable fortress. Colossal rocks enforced by rusting steel bars and huge iron doors are some of the most prominent features of the Nest. Going deeper underground, the halls are a mixture of metal rails, cold rock, mushy swamp like growths covering some of the walls and slime dripping from the ceilings.

In addition to the Nest, three other strongholds guard the corners of the realm: Ohmfet, Harbol and Trollgate. Harbol lies to the south. It is from this nefarious place that constant attacks towards the Glendover are sent. Baron Bascom Ungulian made an attack on this fortress, but was captured and stripped of any memories of the place. Ohmfet occasionally sends envoys to meet with the people of the Duchy of the Peaks, but the people of the Peaks are frustrated that these envoys are oblivious to the temptations the Peaks have to offer. Trollgate guards the northern border. As the name implies, this stronghold is populated by Trolls and other humanoids who carry our raids on the Skandaharian and Frisian neighbours. At times, they Skandaharians have attempted to fight back, taking the war to the Egg. The last time they did this was a raid lead by one of the Skandahar’s greatest warriors; Moorkok the Slayer. When Moorkok succumbed to the domination of the Egg, the Skandaharians fled. They have not forgotten this loss.

















-Havard

Realm of the Egg Part I

The Realm of the Egg

Overview
• Location: North of Blackmoor.
• Area: 7000 sq. mi. Population: 20,000. Languages: Thonian. Coinage: Egg (pp), Prince (gp),
• Government Type: Dictatorial Magocracy. The Egg is the law within its realm.
• Industries: Piracy, slavery.
• Notable Sites: The Egg's Nest (pop. 6000), capital city.
• History: About 25 years ago, the seas to the north of Blackmoor mysteriously receded, as a rocky peninsula rose from its depths. Shortly thereafter, messengers bearing tidings from the Egg of Coot, lord of the northern peninsula, traveled to all the major cities in the North.
• Important Figures: The Egg of Coot (MU?). Moorkok the Slayer (F17), Prince of the Egg, Soukup (Balrog), Abler (MU)
• Flora and Fauna: Due to the experimentations of realms sorcerers, and the nature of the realm itself, encounters with nearly any sort of monster imaginable are possible.

Background
The origins and true nature of the Egg remain a mystery. For centuries, it rested deep underwater. Untill something, or someone awakened the evil entity from its slumbers. Some sages speculate that it was the sea folk who first discovered the Egg somewhere within their realm. Others claim that evil wizards, perhaps from the Red Coven, or even Abler the Demonologist himself.

The men of the Duchy of the Peaks were the first who reported to have made contact with the servants of the Egg, as early as in NC 970. The Egg used its powers to raise its city, Coot’s Nest, from the bottom of the Black Sea and at the same time made the surrounding lands sink below the level of the ocean. This greatly reduced the kingdom of the Redwood Elves. The changing of the landmass also connected the Black Sea to the North Sea which in turn gave access to the Black sea to the Skandaharian Raiders of the East. It is unknown what havoc these dramatic geological upheavals caused for the Black Sea Merfolk, but they have obviously no love for the Egg.

(Notes: Some of this information was based on the works of Andrew Theisen and David Ross)

-Havard