Supernatural Sea Hazards

Supernatural Sea Hazards

Stormwrack has only a few supernatural hazards compared to long lists of Frostburn and Sandstorm.

Airless Water: The sinister opposite of airy water, airless water is a cold, lifeless dead zone. Within a pocket of airless water, aquatic creatures cannot breathe (nor can air-breathers, for that matter). Water-breathing creatures can “hold their breath” in order to enter or pass through a mass of airless water, just as air-breathers can hold their breath to enter water. Pockets of airless water have a dark, slightly viscous look that can be detected by observant characters.

Airy Water: Considered a boon by any air-breather who encounters it, airy water is a stretch of water that is breathable by both air-breathers and water-breathers. It is filled with streaming effervescent bubbles, and normal marine animals usually avoid it.

Characters in airy water are subject to all the normal movement and combat penalties for being in the water - they just have no risk of drowning. Airy water is typically found in or around specific rooms or chambers and does not often occur in open water (although stories of shallow coral reefs or kelp beds filled with airy water abound).

  

Dead Calm: The terrible dead calm is a horror that terrifies even the boldest of sailors. Some portions of the ocean are cursed by evil sea gods and remain forever still and unmoving. No breeze stirs the waters, no current flows to carry a trapped vessel out of the calm. Those who enter all too often die slow, miserable deaths of starvation and madness, unable to escape from the dead calm’s grip.

Dead calms are often found in conjunction with vast sargasso mats. In a dead calm, the weather is always hot and still, without a hint of a breeze. Characters in a dead calm who lose FP from heat must risk contracting suntouch. Dead calms are also notorious for attracting undead such as ghosts, spectres, lacedons, and worse.

Regions of dead calm normally extend for 20d miles. Oared ships can, with some work, free themselves, but sailing ships often have to resort to exhaustive towing work or powerful magic to escape the doldrums.

  

Maelstrom: Naturally occurring whirlpools are dangerous enough, but some whirlpools are supernatural maelstroms - places where portals to the Elemental Plane of Water, divine manifestations of sea deities’ power, or ancient curses have created monstrously powerful vortexes in the water.

Maelstroms come in one of four sizes: minor (3 to 13 yards in diameter), major (14 to 40 yards in diameter), greater (41 to 130 yards in diameter), and immense (131 to 800 yards in diameter). Maelstroms usually have a depth equal to their diameter.

Maelstroms are surrounded by strong feeder currents that can snare swimmers or boats far from the vortex itself, carrying them within the vortex’s grasp.

Maelstrom Size	Current Strength by Distance
	Strong (1-3 knots/3-10 yards per second)	Dangerous (4-6 knots/11-20 yards per second)	Irresistible (7-9 knots/21-30 yards per second)
Minor	100 ft.	50 ft.	20 ft.
Major	500 ft.	250 ft.	100 ft.
Greater	1,000 ft.	500 ft.	200 ft.
Immense	1 mile	½ mile	1,000 ft.

Once a swimmer or ship is sucked into the maelstrom by the currents sweeping toward it (or simply has the misfortune of falling into the vortex directly), the target endures three distinct phases of danger: trapped, battered, and ejected. Minor maelstroms can only trap and batter SM+3 objects or smaller; major maelstroms can trap and batter SM+4 objects or creatures or smaller; greater maelstroms can only trap and batter SM+5 objects or smaller; immense maelstroms can only trap and batter SM+6 objects or smaller.

Maelstrom Size	Object Size	Time Trapped	Roll Penalty	Battered Damage
Minor	SM+3	6d seconds	-4	2d
Major	SM+4	8d seconds	-6	3d
Greater	SM+5	10d seconds	-8	4d
Immense	SM+6	12d seconds	-10	6d

Trapped: The creature or vessel is trapped in the whirlpool, slowly being drawn down. Escaping from the trap region requires a successful Swimming or Boating roll with a penalty based on the maelstrom’s size. This moves the creature to a hex adjacent to the maelstrom (the current doesn’t sweep him or her back in immediately but can do so in subsequent seconds). Failing that, the creature or ship is unable to move of its own accord, and revolves helplessly in the whirlpool. At the end of a trapped character’s turn, move him or her 10 yards clockwise around the rim of the whirlpool.

Battered: At the end of trapped time, the creature or vessel sinks into the maw of the maelstrom. This takes 5 seconds, during which the creature or object takes the indicated crushing damage. For ships or vehicles, every section is damaged. Creatures can only Do Nothing in this round.

Ejected: On the next second, the maelstrom ejects the creature or vessel at its bottom. The creature or vessel is now at the bottom depth of the maelstrom. If the maelstrom has a particular exit—for example, a hole in the bottom of a lake, or a portal to the Elemental Plane of Water—the creature or vessel passes through. Otherwise it comes to rest on the bottom or is adrift in the water a short distance from the bottom of the maelstrom’s funnel (1dx3, 5, 10, or 50 yards, depending on the maelstrom’s size). A maelstrom without an exit simply generates currents flowing away from it on the bottom with the same strength as currents flow toward it near the surface. Buoyant creatures or objects return to the surface, but there’s no reason they couldn’t be caught in the maelstrom’s grip again.

Stormfire: In the most terrible storms and hurricanes, ships are sometimes struck by stormfire, a capricious and seemingly malevolent phenomenon that has brought more than one vessel to complete ruin. Stormfire gathers slowly, beginning as a faint green phosphorescence dancing along a vessel’s rigging and rails. In many cases it proceeds no further; it is simply a disconcerting omen but not dangerous. But sometimes (on a result of 1 on 1d roll) stormfire continues to gather and grow stronger, until suddenly it seems that the whole ship is wrapped in glowing green fire.

A creature entering a square containing stormfire is subjected to a brilliant emerald discharge on a result of 1-3 on a 1d roll. This discharge deals 1d burning surge damage and 1d burning damage. Stormfire manifestations usually last for no more than 6d seconds before guttering out, beginning in one random square on a ship’s deck and spreading to one random adjacent square each round until the manifestation ends.