Introduction

Give a loose overview of the world, the dark ocean before establishing the mission

That Livingston’s extremely valuable cargo has been lost in the dark waters and that he values this cargo enough to hire a newly built German U-Boat and crew to go and return what he lost. This crew includes the party, hired on as experts to ensure the mission goes smoothly.

If someone has decided to play the captain then the opening scene will be of them coming on deck overseeing the preparations for the voyage while the rest of the party arrives one by one.

If nobody is playing the captain than the GM will stand in for the captain for this scene.

Basically everyone gets their overall appearance described, gets to introduce themselves and make their initial reaction rolls to one another to get a sense of how they feel about each other. The crew will also be making a reaction roll for these experts to determine how they collectively feel about them.

Roleplay the characters getting settled into the ship, have the captain familiarize them with the map of the vessel, giving them a tour and explaining how the ship works, also the GM should be willing to have various crew NPCs interact with the players as well to set the overall tone.

Before the ship is ready to set off however Livingston’s Representative will arrive to officially launch the ship, the party can rename the ship if they want before that happens. Additionally the workers loading weapons will offer to sell the party additional weapons for the ship, the machine gun and the harpoon cannon namley. Characters can pool their money together or attempt to use the merchant skill (or IQ-5) in a quick contest with a merchant skill of 10 to try and lower the price.

Once Livingston’s people arrive they will have a private word with the captain before launching the ship, with a rather solemn and sober fair well.

Setting sail

Once Aboard the ship players can freely interact, move around, talk to each other or the crew as much as they like. Give players some breathing room and let interactions come up naturally. Things should generally be smooth sailing for the most part at first, with only the looming clouds of the dark ocean in the distance being any major indicator that anything is unusual. As these clouds begin to overtake the sky above the ship the GM may feel free to pepper in a couple of cinematic moments for flavor (see “flavor scenes”) before the first major encounter in the campaign.

The flying dutchman’s arrival (encounter 1)

Once everyone is invested a faint glow on the horizon should alert the crew to a fastly approaching presence in the water. On closer inspection they should realize it is a ghost ship, their first true sign of the supernatural, a roll of Lore! Will identify this ghost ship as the Flying Dutchman, a legendary ghost ship said to have sunk in the southern hemisphere which has been sighted very frequently in the dark ocean. It is said that it’s captain, Van Der Decken works for Triton himself patrolling his waters. However as this is a spectral vessel no attempts to harm it with cannons or torpedoes will work, and as it is supernaturally quick evasive maneuvers will fail. However if the players look carefully they will notice ghosts aboard the ship are attempting to hail the boat and parlay. Anyone with spirit empathy will be able to tell the ghosts are uninterested in a fight. The dutchman seems to ignore currents and wind, as well as reach speeds that the boat is incapable of. With fleeing rendered impossible and fighting not an option yet players will have to eventually be boarded by the ghost ship even if it simply phases into the boat.

Once aboard Van Der Decken will glide onto the deck alone and request an audience with the captain, quite casually. The ghostly dutch sailor will seem especially weary and haggard to anyone with spirit empathy and will reek of supernatural corruption to those able to detect it.

During this meeting the dutchman will tell the captain that his little doomed voyage is of no real concern to him, nor is Triton especially threatened by it. Instead he was sent to ask something of the party. Van Der Decken will explain that this is Triton’s sea, that he knows everything that happens in it and has always been pulling the strings, which is exactly why a recent event has been so troubling. A sea monster has moved to attack a ship fleeing the dark waters, nothing unusual normally apart from the fact that Triton never ordered it to do so. Triton wishes this rogue sea monster be destroyed, and for reasons unknown to Van Der Decken wants the party to do it for him. The crew may be wary to take a direct order from Triton, but Van Der Decken will simply shrug and say that its no business of his if the party should want to let that fleeing ship die, and in any event they are already on course to meet the monster as is. With a final remark to anyone with Weirdness Magnet that Triton is watching what they choose to do with interest the captain and his ghost ship will simply vanish into mist.

The crew will have members of it that want to assist this vessel and save the people on it, some other members will insist that its better that ship than theirs and that they should press on with the mission. Others still will want to change course to avoid the danger all together.

However the crew decides to respond they should take one of these three options, which will lead to encounters 1A if they decide to fight, 1B if they decide to abandon the fleeing ship and 1C if they change course.

Turn and face the beast! 1A

The party decides to help the fleeing ship, which comes into view not soon after, it is a vessel flying the colors of her majesty’s coast guard and the ship is in bad condition. The ship soon passes by the boat and hails them for assistance, signaling that they have been fleeing a sea monster and are very near the edge of the dark waters, with the boats help they stand a chance of escaping and hope that two against one may be enough to drive the creature off. The party, already having resolved to fight the beast, should welcome this assistance, but even if they insist on battling the sea serpent alone the encounter has the benefit of the sea serpent’s attention being split between two targets. The secondary ship can assist by launching small arms fire and weaker cannons at the creature, none of which will get past it’s DR but it can burn the mutant sea monster’s dodge actions leaving openings for the ship to attack. With the boat starting between the sea monster and the ship this gives them a distinct advantage and they will start with the hulking beast 80 yards away from them as the encounter begins, it moves at a rate of 14 yards a turn meaning it will be in striking range in five rounds or less. This gives the ships cannons a chance to fire twice and torpedoes a chance to fire once. If a captain is smart or rolls well on tactics the boat will be facing sideways and thus each deck cannon will get the chance to fire  Once the creature is in range it will attempt to smash into the boat with its claws and tentacles and once it is up close and no longer moving it becomes much easier to hit given how large it is (see speed and range table on B550).

See “Sea serpent” in the monsters booklet for stats and details.

Helping the ship results in no gain on corruption for normal characters, but for characters sworn to oppose triton they do gain 1d corruption for following triton’s orders even unwillingly

Once the creature is gone the boat will receive thanks from the ship, who will briefly meet with the party. The party will learn that this ship had been on a rescue mission attempting to reach a settlement of stranded sailors known to exist on the dark ocean but that they ultimately failed to reach them. The crew of the ship will hint that almost any wreck that floats around the dark sea long enough ends up there and will show the captain where it is on a map. This is a strong hint that their missing cargo may have ended up there.

Once the ship is safely gone from the scene the crew is faced with the option to either check out this settlement or get right back on course and continue their charted route toward the last known location of the shipment. If they choose to check out the settlement go to 2A, if they choose to stay the course go to 2B

Stay the course, its not our problem 1B

If players choose this path they encounter the fleeing vessel and ignore it’s hails, with the sea monster rearing up and destroying the wreck utterly with a single swipe of it’s tentacles, yet it will only be occupied destroying the ship and devouring its crew for so long, and may attack the party if they are still around, with some dense fog to the east rolling in this could be their only chance to avoid combat

Each player character takes 1d corruption, but faith based characters only take 1d-3 for disobeying triton

The crew may choose to use the fog to escape, if so they go to 2A, or they may choose to fight it, after defeating or escaping the monster this way they will see a light in the distance, but hear activity in the hydrophone that sounds like people and boats coming from the other direction. If they follow the light they will also go to 2A, otherwise they will go to 3A

Avoid danger, take the detour 1C

If players decide to avoid the monster altogether they will enter a mysterious fog. This fog will at first cause all their instruments, hydrophone, radios and even electric systems to go a bit haywire, slowing the pace of the boat.

Each player character takes 1d-3 corruption, but faith based characters don't take any

Once in the mist characters will be stuck in a bit of a loop, unable to know if they are on course or if the ship is really moving at all. During this period each player will experience a personalized hallucination, which will tie to their backstory and give them a fright check at -3 ignoring all bonuses due to its extremely personalized nature, any stress they take on this way will carry over to the next encounter. These visions will be narrated to everyone, but only the character will see them and the attacks will come one by one while characters try and get the instruments working or figure out how to get on course.

The visions will also be specifically geared toward making player character’s suspicious of one another, signifying some form of guilt and hinting at their secrets so this is a good opportunity to slip in some hints to the party and really get them at each other's throats in pursuit of those bonus character points.

Characters with lore! Intuition or a blessed form of clairvoyance will be able to pick up on the fact that theres something unusual about this mist. Ultimately it isn't mist at all, but the congealed mass of the drowned, as flairs or floodlights will reveal faces in this mist. Characters can analyze this with Lore! Holy warrior! Or Cleric! And if  they pass the role they can use either religious ritual, exorcism or ritual magic to dispel the mist. If no such characters are available a sufficient blast of explosives (such as the decks cannons) could blow away the mist. If the player characters never figure any of this out then the mist simply dispels after everyone has had a personalized hallucination, or two for weirdness magnets. This mist can also be used to justify flavor based scenes later on, especially if one of the npc crew was secretly driven insane.

If the party later on encounters the looping current, the possessed party member will be one least effected by these fright checks

Once the mist is gone characters will detect a faint light blinking in the distance, but the hydrophone will also pick up big band music and paddling coming from the other direction. If they choose to follow the light they will go to 2C, if they choose to follow the music they will go to 2B.

2A The settlement of castaways

The party arrives at the place where all drifting wrecks end up, a makeshift floating man-made island constructed of timbers and materials from shipwrecks becalmed and at the mercy of the currents. From a distance the ramshackle mass of masts and timbers appears like a huge collection of jetsam but on closer inspection the lights of cooking fires and torches can be seen. The settlement itself is a series of man-made walls and harbors all loosely connected together with residences, a large meeting place, guard posts on the walls and a few other shacks here and there. The survivors, a huge number of raggad castaways in rags and tattered remains of uniforms, some clearly mentally unhinged, some clearly hiding back sporting lumpy body parts under fabric, evidence of mutations but all of them extremely desperate. The first thing they will do is swarm onto the docks to get a look at the ship and try to wave it down, and they will form a throng trying to get the party to take them on board. There are far too many for the ship to hold, over fifty in number.

When told they aren't being rescued many of the crowd will be dismayed and slink off, but some will remain. These will consist of a few people who want to at least talk to the outsiders, a few who want to trade with them are a bit down the way and a few who are too desperate to listen and stay put and may facilitate the captain ordering his men to guard the boat. (If no player character does this there can be a stow away or two on the ship for later!)

Those who want to talk with the party will have a few things to say:

That the ship the captain is looking for isn’t there but that they have seen a metal ship in the distance that has not yet drifted into the settlement for whatever reason despite clearly being unmanned, they know where this ship would be now and say that it had cannons on board. They will beg the party to tow this ship to them or at least bring back weapons as the metal and supplies it has could be life or death to the settlement. The party will also learn that weapons and other loot can be found there.

They will ask any characters with clerical investment to bless the settlement, perform last rites etc as well as absolve some of the more corrupt castaways who the dark ocean has left its mark on. Refusal to do any of this will add corruption but doing any of those actions will cleanse corruption for the character and if they roleplay it especially well the GM may choose to give a resolve point but the character won't be free to do anything else while staying at the settlement.

They will ask any medical characters to tend to their sick comrades, which will result in an encounter where a supernatural illness is affecting a small number of them. Refusing to treat them adds corruption but treating them cleanses corruption. The supernatural nature of the illness means treating it is at -3 to Medic! But a success roll stabilizes the sufferers. On a failed roll they make a HT+1 roll to avoid contamination. If they fail this roll they take 1 toxic damage per period of down time until they can make a HT or a Medic! roll to overcome it, penicillin gives them +3 to this roll. Until recovered the victim will suffer from an irritating condition identical to moderate pain (B428). This is a pretty annoying drawback but once recovered the character is immune unless the contagon wants to feature in their corruption in some way down the line. If the medic goes above and beyond, such as performing surgery on a corrupted castaway or training other castaways in medical basics they may gain a resolve point.

The first character to make a vow to return for the castaways and lock it in as a disadvantage on their sheet gets that many resolve points but nobody else can do it. (dont tell the party this, someone should think to do it on their own)

Those who wish to trade with the party will have a few offerings, they don't want money as that cant help them. Instead they will want food, medical supplies, tools, gadgets, weapons, alcohol or other tangible goods. Stealing from these guys adds corruption proportional to  the value of what they stole. The food on the ship is only enough to feed the crew for a couple of weeks, and so going overboard on trading will cause problems later on!

        An ammo seller will trade for ammo for any hand weapons the characters have, or even alternate ammo such as shotgun slugs instead of shells, no more than ten or fifteen pieces total merchant skill 12, will 14

A salvage seller will have rare valuables to tempt characters with Greed, material wealth that is of no use for the castaways including items made from silver. merchant skill 11, will 12

A workshop exists where a castaway with smithing skill can melt down silver or other metals, perform maintenance on weaponry and the like in exchange for goods, also in the workshop are tools to modify and repair weapons Mechanism! 14, Smith! 14, Armory/TL6 14 Merchant 12, Will 13.

An especially deranged looking stranger will actually have a lesser relic for sale among a bunch of mundane trinkets and good luck charms (the lucky charms are good luck for the superstitions rule), which anyone with Lore! Could identify as such. The relic has clearly corrupted them and damaged their sanity a bit and hence they are half willing to part with it half unwilling to do so, a fast-talk or Psychologist! Roll may be needed to even convince them to trade for it, merchant skill 12, Will 13

Regardless of if they decide to use any of these opportunities to trade or roleplay the party will be faced with a choice of what to do now that the ship they are looking for isnt there. The party could follow up on the battleship lead, but the ship they are looking for isnt a battleship and it would only be a detour that burns fuel and risks danger, even if there are tangible rewards.

If the party wants to go to the battleship anyway then they proceed to 3A. If they Choose to move on they go to 3B

2B The Mysterious Riverboat

The boat will come upon a strange sight, a modern river boat paddling away down a smooth stretch of the dark water. This river boat is especially deluxe, sporting electric lights, a stage and dance floor on the main deck complete with a sizable band with singers and there appears to be some sort of party going on. The boat’s flag flies this symbol:

The ship will hail the boat and invite the party aboard and the people on the deck are normal to all outward appearances but are entirely relaxed and not even slightly alarmed that they are on the black sea! Characters may feel inclined to get on there and explain things or warn these civilians that they are clearly in danger, or they might just be suspicious of the boat and want to leave, but they will soon hear that a Mister Legba has been expecting them, even going as far as to steer the river boat all this way. These party goers speak with an American Louisiana accent and all wear somewhat antiquated formal clothing. It is clear that whoever Legba is he knows about the lost shipment and the party goers wont have much information to give them, saying they should come below decks. The party goers wont seem corrupt to anyone trying to detect that, in fact they wont “seem” like much of anything, just relaxed party goers with a surprising lack of any sin or virtue. Those with empathy wont pick up anything at all beyond what they see. The party will be told to follow a dog bellow decks to Legba, the dog is apparently the ship’s first mate.

Bellow decks the party will find the interior just as lively as the deck, with a full restaurant and open bar on the first floor with cajun seafood boils, fried chicken and seasoned rice and beans, thick potatoes in gravy and decadent king cake with a huge bar filled with just about any alcohol one could want. They will be told that the food and drink are free and anyone with gluttony or alcoholism will have some self control rolls to make. Eating the food offers no ill effects, in fact the characters will gain 1 FP and lose 1d-3 stress for enjoying the well prepared meal, though it will have a hint of a gritty texture and an odd aftertaste they can only faintly detect that wont actually trouble them in any way directly.

The chief and waiters will have a bit more to talk about, explaining that Mister Legba is no stranger to the mystical nature of these waters but is a man who knows enough to be able to sail through them without fear of Triton, that there are more people like that than one might  think. They will also explain that this entire boat and everything on it are provided by Legba’s tremendous wealth, comparing him to Livingston, which the party never expressly mentioned, though at this stage that could be a coincidence since the party is clearly English. The staff wont actually know how Legba made his money of course and will just imply hes in the entertainment business.

The next floor down will be a high ceilinged smoking room complete with a little casino, card tables, a roulette wheel, dice games and even a state of the art mechanical slot machine. Characters with compulsive gambling and greed will need to make self control rolls here.

Seated at the table in the back of this room, on a high backed chair on which the Skull of Benjamin Brigs is fitted with a festive top hat, sits Legba.

Legba is an older gentleman with a swarthy appearance, smoking a pipe with a glass of sparkling water in hand, a bottle in a bucket of ice nearby and a cane propped up against his large chair. The dog will scamper over to him and sit at his feet and Legba will enthusiastically invite the party over to his table.

Legba will ooze supernatural corruption and magic to those capable of detecting them through supernatural means, though all mundane means will just show an old man. Empathy will reveal he is simply an old man who is bored and bears no malice toward the party, but isn't as benevolent as he seems either.

Legba will freely admit that things on the boat may seem a bit out of place and strange, but that its not that tricky to give old Triton the run-around if you know how. He explains this is hardly his first voyage in this area and that his river boat is a tough old girl whos stood up to worse in the past. When pressed how a north American river boat gets from the mississippi river to the north sea off the coast of England Legba will admit openly that he had to use a little magic, and wont think twice about mentioning that to the party.

Legba wont be interrogated for long however as hell soon cut to the chase: he knows what the party is after, and he knows where it is, but he won't be intimidated or threatened into giving this information up (in fact all attempts to do so will automatically fail due to cinematic rules), he will be happy to tell them, draw a map even, but first they have to beat him in a game of chance. Cards are his favorite but any table will do.

Players can wager: their Signature gear, their youth or their Souls. Legba won’t accept money or supplies. If players make a fast talk roll vs Legba’s will they can talk him down to also accepting a lock of their hair.

To further entice players Legba will have more prizes than just the information on offer, including a minor relic, his own personal major relic (the skull), valuable items and jewelry, any supplies the party might be short on and of course Legba will know enough about the party to tailor his offers to them specifically and may even use elements of their character against them as leverage, such as mentioning non-secret related elements of their backstory.

If players don’t agree to play against Legba he won’t ultimately force them, however he will comment on the fact that the party is bound to run into trouble without his advice and also that “whats on the ship might not be there by the time you get to it” but of course players are free to simply leave the encounter. The GM may want to include a fright check or two when the servants leaving are in fact zombies leaking sand, which explains the gritty after taste of the food, with the fright check being -_ and -_ to anyone who ate on the previous floor but the zombies won't attack players unless provoked.

If a player does come forward and offer to gamble against Legba they must choose which player will go first and are allowed to pick the game, cards, dice or the roulette wheel. As well as what the player wagers and what prize they want to get for winning.

Legba will gladly accept any steaks or reward they agree on and will even give players a chance to check his cards, dice etc to ensure he isn’t cheating and go as far as to step away from the table.

Players will make gambling rolls or IQ-5 to check to see if anything is afoot, and find nothing if they make that roll as t he game itself isn't actually rigged, meaning any cheating would have to come from Legba himself.

They will find decks of cards, dice, poker chips and the aforementioned sparkling water behind the table, as well as a drawer containing several small hourglasses, paper, a fountain pen, some straw, some cloth and a needle and thread and nothing else.

When Legba returns he will make a gambling roll to passively check for any funny business and gets down to the game, once again stating the terms and that the player has decided to gamble of his own free will.

If players want to cheat or try and use their IQ to count cards or otherwise game the statistics than it’s a quick contest of IQ-5, Mathematics (Statistics) or Gambling vs Legba’s own Gambling skill, but legba is familiar with every game so he gets +3 meaning they are unlikely to win this way as Legba is capable of mind games and reading his opponent’s tells even when they didnt know they had one. If players want to cheat during the game they can use Slight of Hand or Gambling to count cards, this will again be a quick contest against Legba’s gambling skill.

If players want to leave it up to chance than you can resolve each game the following ways:

Cards (Blackjack, 1 hand):

Legba acts as a player rather than the dealer here, and a third party will deal the cards if the players insist. Both Legba and the player are dealt two cards, one face down that they are aloud to look at and the other face up. Players take turns Hitting, Standing, Doubling down (requires an additional wager or prize for 1 more draw than standing), or Splitting (requires an additional wager or prize before splitting doubles into one hand each. Legba’s choices depend on this chart, with S for Stand, D for double down and H for hit. The second chart on top is if Legba has an Ace which can be 1 or 11, and the chart below that is if Legba has a pair, with P being “split”

If players win at exactly 21 Legba will give them his hat!

Dice (Two player Craps): The player gets to roll 2d, if a 7 or 11 is rolled the win right there and there (22.21% chance). If they roll a 2, 3 or 12 the player loses right then and there (11.09% chance). Otherwise the number they rolled becomes the point number. The player and legba continues to take turns roll dice until they either get a 7 or the point number, if they get a 7 (16.66% chance) they lose. If they get the point number (variable) they win. If the player’s first roll  of the game wins with a 7 exactly Legba will give the player his hat.

Roulette (1 spin): Place your bets than roll 3d;

Odd/Even, Red/Black, 1 to 18 or 19-35: 10 or less (1:1 means no prize and nothing to gain!)

1st, 2nd or 3rd Dozen/Column: 9 or less (agreed on prize)

The six line: 7 or less (agreed on prize + 1 other chosen prize)

Top Line/Basket: 6 or less (agreed on prize + 2 other chosen prizes)

Row/Split: 5 or less (all prizes on the table)

Straight up (any one number): 4 or less (all prizes on the table + Legba gives you his hat!)

If he players lose:

Gear

If the players lose depending on what they wagered the following happens:

If a player lost signature gear or supplies that item is merely teleported onto the prize table with the other items, attempts to take it off the table without winning it in another game will result in a battle, the last chance to reclaim the signature gear by force.

Youth

If the player lost years of their life Legba will hold up an hour glass and the sand will flow backwards, causing the character to age rapidly (to 50 for most characters or to 70 for anyone over 50, whichever comes first! This is horrific and results in a fright check -_ for the victim and -_ for witnesses. Reduce their ST, DX and HT by 10% (rounded up) for characters that were under 50, and reduce them by 20% and IQ by 10% if they were already 50 or older! Characters can win their youth back if they win another game but the hourglass itself is simply an object unless a player can make a Ritual Magic roll at -6 to undo the effects.

Soul

If the player lost their soul then Legba will open an hourglass under his desk and pull a shimmering stream of sand from the character’s nose, mouth, eyes and ears which will pool into an empty hourglass before losing its shine and closing. The character is a zombified human now until Legba is defeated and the hourglass is broken or someone else wins their soul back!

 Zombified Human Meta trait: DX-2 [-40]; IQ-2 [-40]; HT-2 [-20]; FP+2 [6]; Basic Move-1 [-5]; Automaton (under Legba’s control) [-85]; Cannot Learn [-30]; Delusion (“I’m dead”) [-15]; Doesn’t Sleep [20]; High Pain Threshold [10]; Night Vision 2 [2]; Reduced Consumption 2 [4]; Reprogrammable [-10]; Social Stigma (Dead) [-20]; Temperature Tolerance 2 [2]; Unfazeable [15]; Wealth (Dead Broke) [-25]; and the quirk “Body odor” [-1].

Hair

If a player loses some of their hair Legba will produce a pair of scissors and cut it off, before wrapping it in cloth and string and doing some remarkably quick sewing, making a doll and setting it on the prize table, nothing else will actually happen at first. Of course any injury inflicted on the doll causes debilitating pain on the victim its linked to but Legba will say plainly he dislikes the trick and doesn't use them, finding it a bit offensive really; but that some of the other folks he meets on the dark ocean love to gamble for the dolls he makes, saying it wont stay  there long. If the party leaves the doll still there than it will come up later. Cultists or Van Der Decken may have access to the doll later on in the end-game and use it to debilitate the character in question and once per session the GM will make a roll of 3d6 before every session, on a roll of 11 or less they are aloud to inflict one second of severe pain on the character once during that session! Treat this as a minor, version of cursed.  Otherwise an exorcism with true faith, divine favor and or clerical investment is needed to cleanse the doll of its power (this removes 1d corruption from the exorcist).

If players are unsatisfied with legma and attempt to take prizes or their losses back by force any violence to legma will do nothing at all, as he will be revealed to be an insubstantial spirit’s manifestation (any weapon that can affect spirits can in fact hurt him). Instead the people on the ship will reveal their true form as monstrous voodoo zombies (fright check at -_, or -_ if the character ate the food as they recognize the gritty aftertaste as sand leaking from their bodies) The zombies will attack in a mob and try to overwhelm the players while Legba will work some magic to prevent the characters from leaving the room. (Will -8 to cross the threshold).

Ten zombies are in the room with Legba

See “Voodoo zombies” in the monsters list. These zombies will attack the players but a Lore! Roll at -2 will tell players that the undead voodoo zombies are vulnerable to salt, including that found in sea water.

When the zombies in the room are defeated Legba will step forward, Holding any voodoo dolls he made along the way and flanked by any possessed party members. A lore! Roll will reveal that the possessed party members can be saved while still newly zombified and an IQ roll can link that to the hourglass Legba will be holding. Killing possessed party members without trying to save them is +250 for everyone who did nothing to stop it and the player who does the deed gets another +125.

Players should try to restrain or tie up zombified party members to avoid corruption.

If Legba has no dolls or minions at his disposal he will smile, laugh and say that if everyone leaves now he will let that slide if they give him back what he won fair and square and depart, otherwise he has two more floors worth of zombies.

If players have a means to injure the insubstantial they can use it to attack Legba and fight him directly. If so he will battle them while sending in waves of zombies every few rounds from the far door, three at a time. Until he is defeated or the party surrenders. If he is defeated than he and the dog will vanish, leaving only his hat behind and the ship will begin to sink with the zombies outside collapsing into sand and players having all their losses returned to them. The prize table will tip into the water first, meaning that anyone who wants to grab items from it will have to make a swimming roll -_ to locate them (+_ for goggles) and they will only get one chance before they need to flee the floor for their own safety.

If players have no means to injure the insubstantial they cant actually hurt Legba and so must fight their way back to the deck through the middle floor of the ship (10 more zombies) and the upper deck (15 zombies) and make it to their ship and wait for 5 rounds while a plank is raised to let them run off the ship, at which point the cruise ship will vanish!

If players stay and kill EVERY zombie than legma will appear on the deck and be genuinely amused by the unnecessary heroics. If the players were holding any prizes from the table Legma will offer a deal, he will trade them back their losses for what they stole from him. Otherwise he will vanish, not leaving his hat behind and the ship will begin to turn to sand, giving the party only 5 rounds to flee the ship or go overboard.

If players won Legma’s games and got the map they will proceed directly to 5 after a two flavor scenes, If they escape without the map they will go to 3B instead.

The lighthouse, 2C

As the boat approaches the mysterious light something begins to go wrong. Random crew members begin to sabotage the ship’s controls, this may not be inherently obvious at first, it may seem like the ships systems acting up or the leadership rolls going badly but little by little more of the crew will begin to be effected. Eventually the crew members steering the boat will automatically steer directly toward the lighthouse. Restraining or pulling effected crew away is fine but attacking them adds 1 point of corruption per point of damage delt and killing  them adds 150 corruption. The effected crew wont listen to anyone and will mindlessly try to steer the boat toward the lighthouse and accelerate. They may even damage the controls if left to their own devices.

As the shape of a lighthouse becomes faintly visible  through the fog the party member with the highest perception will make a per roll, if they pass they will make a will roll at -2, if they fail this roll they too will begin to try and ensure the boat crashes into the light house. Repeat this process with the next most preceptive party member until someone becomes affected or everyone can hear the song. Affected crew members can actually be snapped out of this trance by having the sound drowned out or having their hearing muffled. If they successfully order the men to cover their ears they can avoid the lighthouse, but otherwise the ship will continue to approach it.

Once the ship has gotten close enough to see the jagged rocks by the lighthouse the party will have either dealt with the affected crew or at least wrestled their way to the controls and will need to make a control roll, a basic control roll if the party dealt with the affected crew right away, -1 if they didn't deal with the crew but no party members were effected and -1 for each party member still affected. If the character at the helm passes the control roll to avoid the rocks, the ship will cinematically be too late to avoid the sandbar where the lighthouse is. If they fail by 6 or less the run aground, if they fail by six or more the ship crashes.

-If the boat crashes the rocks have an HP of _ and a DR of _ meaning a maximum of _ damage to the ship from a head on collision at full speed, also the people inside will take  damage from bouncing around 6 yards inside the ship.

-If the ship runs aground on the sandbar everyone gets knocked only 2 yards for _ damage when the ship runs aground.

-Otherwise everyone needs to make a dx roll for unstable footing to avoid falling down when the ship pushes against the sand.

No matter what happens the ringing in the players ears from the sound will break the mind altering effects on them. They make an IQ roll to notice that and a DX roll to cover their ears in time. Otherwise the mind control resumes with a normal will roll. The crew will be mind controlled to walk out onto the sand, revealing the lighthouse.

The lighthouse itself is no ordinary structure, it is made up of three fleshy tendrils coiled around something, with a bundle of bio-luminecent globes slowly twirling to mimic a light house, the jagged rocks the ship was faced with are almost like jagged stone teeth. Players make a fright check at -3 due to the unearthly horror of the thing. Then the npc crew will begin marching towards this monstrosity. The party will have a chance to cover their ears before heading out. Closer they will find the sirens, eight foot tall grotesque creatures growing out of long, fleshy tendrils who have huge, underbitten jaws like that of an angler fish with milky eyes hiding behind a head made of a human ribcage, fins, or maybe wings, sprouting from their sides and sharp clawed hands on the end of abnormally spindly, long arms (fright check -2). These sirens will begin to feed on crew members who will simply stand there helpless.

The party will then be faced with three of them as the ship will be in no condition to retreat and most of the crew will be compromised (see “Sirens” in the monster list)

As each tendril is cut or its siren defeated the light house will begin to sag and twitch abnormally and as the final siren is destroyed the tendrils supporting the structure will recede, causing the ruins of a light house to appear, with a cabin at its base somewhat in-tact and a distant, furious rumbling heard from the sea before it goes still and quiet.

Inside the lighthouse they will find the remains of three keepers, each of which is long composed to only bone, and none possessing a ribcage. In the center of the table around them will be a conch shell (this is the relic of the same name).

Once the men are back to normal they will commence getting the ship sea-worthy and repaired, as they finish and board her again the sound of music from the hydrophone before chimes in and a river boat is seen approaching.

If the party successfully avoids the lighthouse they go to 3B, If the party defeats the sirens they can choose to wait for the approaching boat and go to 2B instead.

3A the abandoned Battleship

Players will sail around searching for a while the party will find the drifting battleship, a protected crusader class from before dreadnaughts were invented a few years ago. The ship will be slightly larger than the u-boat, tipping in a barely perceptible slant toward the aft. and it’s looming structure will be totally dark inside. The stained deck will be totally devoid of any signs of life and some of the doors to the interior will be knocked off their hinges. The hydrophone will detect no sounds coming from the interior. Players with intuition will guess that theres some valuable cargo left but that it may be dangerous. Supernatural methods of detecting magic will not find anything but a faint corruption permeates the area. All players will get the sense that the area “feels evil” (+1d-2 corruption on boarding).

Once on board the party can search the ship, starting with the decks, they will find several large gun emplacements all far too big to dismantle and carry back to the ship, but oddly find very few of them damaged by more than corrosion and normal rusting. They will find stains on the deck leading out from the interior and trailing overboard to the starboard of the deck. They will find some ammunition next to the guns that could be used for the ship’s cannons (1 per margin of success on a scrounging roll, minimum 1). Not a single life boat will be present.

Most of the exterior doors will be jammed or have their hinges bent as if by unnatural strength, but two will be locked and of course two will be open.

The open door near the center will lead to the navigation room, which has a few broken windows and desks with scattered maps, instruments etc. The map won’t actually tell the crew anything they don't already know but if the ship has lost any navigation equipment they can replace it here. There will however be a leather bound book open on the central table which is the captain's log.

Captains Log

If players read the captain's log they can gain more information on the wreck and what happened. The log should tell an unfinished story about how the ship was initially sent to deal with a truly massive megalodon-giant squid hybrid threatening England's coast, a feat in which they were successful, the beast was blown apart by the ship’s cannons and rose to the surface dead, the crew discovered the remains of several smaller craft, sea creatures, humans and other miscellaneous items, including a very curious items which the men wanted to sell when they returned to england. On the way back from their mission the sea turned strange and a dense fog fell over the ship obscuring all but a roiling school of sharks following the vessel. Over the days stranded this way, confused as to why england hasn’t become visible yet, the men’s morale worsens. The ship fires on the ever growing swarm of sharks, but no matter how many times they are dispersed they continue to follow. The captain orders the men to throw their trophies overboard, suspecting something supernatural, which they do. The fog clears after a few days revealing that they are many miles off course, though the mens mood is improved by the fact that they can now correct this. However a man becomes bitten by one of the sharks in a freak accident in which the creature appeared to jump many times it’s height to snag his arm out of one of the port windows. This man is treated by the ships doctor but comes down with a strange fever. The attacks from the sharks worsen, with some managing to beach themselves on the deck and attack the sailors who retaliate with guns, blades and clubs. Two more men get bitten by these sharks but do not develop the fever the first man has. Eventually men on night watch start disappearing, while the crew blames the sharks for this judging by the gory mess left behind. However  sharks can’t climb aboard ladders, sharks can’t force open steel doors… Worse yet three of the men disappeared from their bunks. The man in the sick bay is revealed to have hidden away a trophy, a curious statchue. The captain had the trophy confiscated and returned to the sea. Only to find it left at the scene of yet another disappearance in the night. This process repeated three times, and he eventually just left the statue in the brig, disliking the idea of keeping it in his quarters. The log simply ends there with the line “its something about the teeth, I could have sworn they weren't on the statue before…”

The locked door to the left of the first open door leads to the radio room, where a radio and sonar system in decent working order can be found as well as any replacement equipment for the boat’s hydrophone.

The locked door to the right goes to the armory, which has a fine stock of ammo for the party’s guns and rifles on a rack though the supplies are somewhat picked over. (Ammo found is 1 per margin of success on a scrounging roll).

The last open door leads into the darkened interior of the ship, with hallways stretching down the length of the vessel into stairs that lead bellow. The party will encounter rows of cabins for the officers, they can search these one at a time if they want until they find something, then that character wont find more. A search of which will reveal different things depending on the margin of success:

Critical Failure: Fright check at +3 from something falling on the player, making a loud noise, the character will be embarrassed or intimidated out of searching other bunks.
Failure: nothing, can try again in the next room.

0: A life Jacket, photos of some random civilians, pinup girls, a deck of cards or a religious necklace.

3-4: Rope, Flairs, goggles, leather gloves, a bottle of alcohol or a compass

5: A grappling hook and rope, or flairs and a flare gun, or a pair of leather gloves and goggles

6: A backpack containing one object from 5, and two from 3.

7: A medium helmet, or light body armor for arms / legs, or a cutlass

8: Net gear with a knife and 1 reload of handgun ammo or two objects from 7.

9: A bullet proof vest with net gear on it (nothing inside), or

10: A bulletproof shield or an SMG with one reload of ammo.  

11+ or a crit sucess:  A full suit of light body armor, steel toed boots and a medium helmet, leather gloves and goggles.

Down the stairs they will find the mess hall with an unexpectedly large store of food and water in good condition. The Sick bay, where doctors and medics can restock their supplies and potentially acquire surgical tools, sedatives and other drugs (requires a scrounging roll). They will also find miscellaneous cleaning products in a janitor's closet and basic living facilities for the crew.

Down the stairs again they will encounter mostly flooded sections of the ship and curious sloshing sounds very faintly audible (hearing -3)  but they will be able to wade into the torpedo room, which will contain 6 more still dry torpedoes suitable for the ship, but the party will need the full crew of the boat to help them move these. They will also find the engine room with replacement parts for the turbines and the engines should the ship need them and more than enough usable fuel to refill the ship’s supplies. The rest of the ship and the floor below will be flooded apart from the brig.

Inside the bring they will find the “Fiji Mermaid Idol” relic just sitting on a box unattended. Whether the party takes it or not they will eventually head back upstairs, only to hear a loud, wet sound and some rumbling. After them from the lower decks will be a berserk wereshark (see “weresharks” in the monsters list). If the party should effortlessly blow through this first one without anyone even being in danger feel free to add another from the opposite door and should that too prove no problem as well you can add a third on the deck as the log mentioned three men who got bitten. If the party does have trouble with the one wereshark then don't include the others, define a “win” here as having someone in the party get bitten by one and survive.

If the party wants to return to the settlement either towing the ship or carrying loot go to 4A, if they want to ignore the settlement and keep the loot go to 4B instead and gain 25 corruption each.

3B, the Kraken attacks!

The party will be sailing along against a very curious, abnormally looping current when a warning will come up from the hydrophone room, that something is coming up from bellow and its big. (See “Kraken” in the monster list).

If a player character was at the hydrophone than they will have a number of seconds to take evasive action equal to the margin of success on their electronics operation or Boat! roll, otherwise use the crew’s boat! skill instead. They get the ships speed (6) plus the margin of success on the roll in seconds. If they get at least 20 seconds the ship can fully overtake the kraken and avoid it’s initial Grapple, or if they get a crit success on their roll they will avoid it via evasive action.

If they fail to avoid the grapple than one tentacle per margin of failure will wrap around the ship. Starting the encounter as an ambush! (make a DX roll to avoid falling, taking damage by crashing into stuff on a crit fail, +2 for sure footed naval training). The ship will be held in place, forcing players to deal with the tentacles. When at least half have been destroyed the Kraken will slink away towards some odd shapes on the horizon, giving the party a chance to go after it and finish the beast off for good. Oddly that current will remain even after the Kraken flees, showing that the beast was not it’s source.

The Kraken will be fleeing towards strange structures in the distance but if attacked again will turn and fight till destroyed. Leaving players with the option to investigate the structures it was fleeing toward.

If the party chases down Kraken they will go to to 4C, if they escape the Kraken they go to 4D

4A, the settlement under attack!

When the ship pulls back into the settlement, towing the battleship with them or not the castaways will be in a frenzied state. In a cinematic scene the players will see that the settlement is being over-run by gigantic swarms of the Fiji Mermaids depicted in the relic and that they cant risk using the ships weapons against them as it could destroy the settlement. The party will be forced to disembark and run into the settlement if they want to aid the castaways!

If the party leaves them to their fate they will all gain 25 corruption, 50 if they didn't leave them with the battleship nearby and 75 if they didn't leave them any loot at all! The party will be reacted to at -3 if they ever return to the settlement.

If the party decides to help than the castaways will already be busy dealing with the rest of the swarm and the party will go up against the swarm that already breached the walls. (see “Fiji Mermaids (Swarm)” in the monsters list.

Once this swarm is defeated the castaways will be very grateful to the party, if the party brought the entire battleship back with them they will be welcomed as heroes with everyone reacting to them at +5, if they brought back a load of weapons and food they will still be reacted to at +3, if they came back empty handed but helped them anyway they will still be reacted to at + 2, if they have some openings in the crew they will get +1 and the numbers will be fully replenished (parties can sort of spend as much time as they want choosing new crew). If however they insist on using the loot to trade instead of giving it away they will be reacted to at -2 on top of the other modifiers in spite of all they've done.

The castaways with appropriate skills will offer to upgrade the u-boat with the leftover scrap from the salvage with a ramming prow. This will give the ship +5 to d-scale ramming damage and the ship will suffer -5 D-scale damage from the collision.

Weather they leave as heroes or abandon those in need the party presses on to 5.

4B, the cursed figure head

As the crew sails off they will detect a presence following them on the hydrophone, and eventually in visible range, a drifting derelict wooden tall ship looming in the distance which somehow keeps pace with the u-boat without any wind. This will continue as long as the party allows it and the boat will gradually get closer and closer. The crew will begin to panic over the ship and their morale will suffer. Especially if they see the long decayed corpses hanging from the yard arm. (fright check at -1, -2 up close).

If the crew decides to shoot down this boat they will succeed regardless of their roll, the boat will sink instantly. Then it will rise back up from the water unharmed, and closer than before. This will keep happening if the crew keeps shooting it until the ship is too close for the cannons to be used safely.

The longer this goes on the more the crew will panic, despite there being no real rational cause. The party cannot recover stress points as long as the ship is there and if left to follow them this will continue indefinitely and players will be told they flat out cant relax or even calm down in it’s evil presence, slowly gnawing away at their sanity. Forcing the crew to have to investigate and try and find a way to be rid of the ship. Exorcism would require the exorcist to be aboard the vessel, as would any rituals to affect the spirits of it as it is not an insubstantial ghost.

Observation skill rolls on the ship or a Per-2 will show something shiny on the front of the boat which is always the first part to rise back up out of the water every time the ship reforms. They might also notice that the ship is actually putting itself back together every time. Lore! Rolls reveal nothing about this ship, it is not a famous wreck nor are there any legends about something like this but it is clearly supernatural. IQ based Boat! Will tell players it’s not an armed vessel, rather it’s a civilian one from the age of sail and that her propulsion shouldn't be possible given the wind.

Since firing on the ship has no tangible effect in the long run players will eventually have to board her, which they will do without incident (apart from gaining 1d-2 corruption). Once everyone who was going aboard has reached the deck the ship will unexpectedly and violently shift starboard and drift away from the sub, stranding the party and forcing a DX-2 roll vs unstable footing to avoid falling over when this happens. When the players get back up they will hear loud sounds of timbers cracking and splintering as the prow warps and elongates, bending and twisting around on itself, revealing the ship’ figure head (See “cursed figure head” in he monsters list). This creature controls the entire ship, the sails, the ropes, even the very wood the ground is made of and has an astonishing ability to repair itself. Only the curious storm glass embedded in it’s chest (-3 to hit) is truly vulnerable for long. However if this “heart” should be damaged enough it will be knocked out of the wooden body, causing the figure head to reach out and catch it even as the action removes the ship’s source of animation and causing it to start to sink instantly as the damage it had suffered rapidly begins to split the ship into splinters, forcing players to make a mad dash to the edge of the ship to grab on to drift wood before the whole thing collapses. This can be a cinematic scene and luck can determine who safely catches drift wood and who gets tossed into the sea without it. This is a great chance for anyone with lifesaving to shine. The party will find the hand of the figure head still clutching the Storm glass relic which they can take with them as the crew of the-boat comes around to get them back.

Regardless of what happens the next stop is 5, but if they dont do something about the cursed figure head it will follow them for the rest of the game and aid either the flying dutchman, the empowered scion or try to prevent the party from entering the island of cultists, whichever comes first.

4C, the ruins and monoliths

The Kraken had been fleeing to four, evenly spaced spiralling monolithic obelisks of warped geometric design which the ship will drift over to in a cinematic scene. Everyone will get a seriously evil feeling from these and the crew will want the party to just leave them alone.

 A Cleric! Or Holy Warrior! Roll will reveal these to be monuments to Triton. A Lore! Roll will reveal them to be atlantean ruins. Each symbol on the monolith corresponds to a different domain of triton.

If the party wishes to destroy these pillars with the ship’s cannons they have a D-Scale HP of 8 and a DR of 9. Destroying them will cleanse a massive 150 corruption each to the one who does the act and 100  to anyone who insists on destroying it. Also each destroyed monolith removes that domain’s options from the scion of triton final boss battles, unless they are all destroyed. If all of these are destroyed then the faith diminishing effects of the dark ocean subside and the scion final boss battles start with the scion being mentally stunned for the first round of combat.

If the party wishes to instead study the pillars they make further Lore! Rolls at -2. These can be used to:

Realize that you can enhance a relic from the same path with a ritual magic roll (choose another one of the optional spell packages and give it that) The ritual’s caster gains 100 corruption. This can only be done once per relic.

Gain understanding of the ritual magic of that path. If the character already has ritual magic they can take a fright check and go up a level in the plath's technique upto a maximum of +6. They can spend resolve or character points to do this, otherwise they take 25x the points needed to do this in corruption! Each repeated attempt requires another Lore! Roll but single minded characters get +3 to the roll and to the fright check once they start.

Learn entirely new forbidden lore: If your character does not have Lore! Or Ritual Magic they can gain the skill by paying points or taking corruption as described above. They can repeat this until they have ritual magic at IQ+0.

The ritual to obtain magery can be cast then and there using one of the pillars and triton will bargain with the player (see “ritual to obtain magery” in the players guide). This version of the ritual works instantly.

If the player reads from one monolith completely (six times) they can't use it again, having learned all they need to learn from it. Destroying this monolith now has no beneficial effects!

If the player reads from all four monoliths and none are destroyed then the scion final boss battles get to choose TWO spells from their lists!

If they avoid the monoliths entirely the crew will react to them at +1 and they will be no worse for wear, but characters with fanaticism against triton and curiosity will definitely not want this option!

No mater what happens the next stop is 5, but the monoliths can leave their mark on characters who are changed by them.

4D, the sabatour and the looping current

Escaping the Kraken the party will notice the current is only intensifying, a Boat roll or a casting of the Current spell will stabilize the boat but it will begin to slow down regardless for a while before getting back up to speed.

However before that happens the ship will suffer a sudden mechanical failure in the night, costing them progress. Then in the afternoon this will happen again, and again the following evening! Eventually proof of sabotage can come to light, with Mechanism! or Ten-Hut! being able to detect evidence of mechanical sabotage and Lore or Psychologist's criminology skill can deduce that this saboteur could be anyone on board as the crime was committed during periods where most of the crew was gathered somewhere else and the engine room would have been left unguarded.

This mystery is going to be pretty different every time because it should depend pretty heavily on which character is the saboteur. Fully corrupt characters will never be chosen as the saboteur, though they will actually be secretly told who it is and to try and help them avoid suspicion. If the captain is the saboteur then only options 1, 3 and maybe 6 below are viable.

The source of the sabotage is….(pick one)

1. The saboteur is possessed by a spirit which makes them perform sabotage while asleep, or daydreaming, this saboteur will find themselves unable to sit in on religious rituals and be suffering from fatigue. Affected by exorcism and spells that target spirits. This is great if someone has been possessed already of used Legba’s hat before.
2. The saboteur is a shape-shifter who can be anybody on the crew, this is fun because you can have evidence pointing to literally everyone because the shape shifter WAS everyone at different points in time NPCs will have conflicting stories about which player character they were with, implying they were in two places at once. Affected by “hybrid” spells. The shape shifters true form is a fright check at -1 but it has no real combat abilities of its own and will flee overboard before being shot in a cinematic scene. It can be detected via Science, or Medic rolls should the players decide to do blood tests or examine the character in some way, or should they take damage in front of the party.
3. The saboteur is insane and is not aware they are sabotaging the mission so as to avoid more danger (this works well if someone failed a sanity check and already has a permanent effect of some kind). Psychologist! Rolls can detect this if players decide to analyze them and hypnotism can stop the effects.
4. The saboteur is actually an invisible spirit trying to turn the party against each other, Lore! And Holy Warrior/Cleric can detect this if characters try to make a roll to analyze evidence this way. Exorcism or spells that banish/repel spirits will get rid of it, so will religious ritual or ritual magic (the drowned).
5. The saboteur is actually a fully corrupt character who volunteered to do this in secret. This saboteur may work with the other corrupt characters to try and cover it up and will fake number 3 or number 1 if caught (requires the acting skill).
6. You can work with a player character you chose in order to tie their sabotage to a specific character trait like an alternate personality or a curse! They might have accomplices in among the npc crew or be brainwashed by another character, really its all up to you.

The Saboteur Is….

When choosing the saboteur from the party you first ask if the fully corrupt characters want to risk outing their secret and be the saboteur by having triton mention it to them in their dreams, if they agree triton will deduct 25 corruption from each fully corrupt character and give them 1 character point as a token of his favor, double that amount if they are personally going to be the saboteur themselves. If no fully corrupt characters want the job they still know the true identity of the saboteur and why its happening.

If there are no fully corrupt characters or that rule isnt in play than the saboteur is just whoever has the most corruption points.

Regardless, the party cant move on until they stop the sabotage, each of the three times its happened before should give a clue that points to someone, but these clues should be vague. Nobody's signature gear is gonna be found wedged into the machine unless the saboteur stole it in game! You can treat this like a game of werewolf really, with everyone having periods where they seclude themselves and message the GM back and forth individually, making rolls, asking unsuspecting non-saboteurs to make perception rolls etc than meeting back up and telling everyone what happened and give players a chance to investigate and interact.

Each successful attempt at sabotage after the first damages the ship in a way that needs repair. (1d-3 of d-scale damage). The party is encouraged to create a makeshift brig, interrogate npcs, interrogate each other, accuse one another and so on.

If the saboteur succeeds in three additional sabotages than any fully corrupt characters all get 2 additional character points and the GM may start offering more hints to the party to try and wrap things up.

No matter what happens the next stop is 5, they just need to stop the saboteur to get there!

5. The remains of the previous expedition! The captain’s secret is revealed!

Note: if the captain has npc enemies that are survivors of the previous crew and they haven't shown up till now, they automatically show up here as part of how the secret gets revealed.

The party will arrive at the coordinates of Livingston’s wreck, however it will not be a shipping container at all, but a battleship! The name on the side of the wreck confirms that it’s the same as the lost vessel, but this simply does not add up. Nothing in the mission briefing said the lost vessel was armed, only that it was a cargo vessel.

As the crew climbs aboard the captain will order the ship searched in a cinematic scene and the crew will begin to explore, with the party escorting them. As they wander through the small ship each new room reveals another grizzly sight. In the cabins there is a body who’s internal organs had been transformed into a writhing mass of sea-snakes which sank their teeth into the other sleeping men before perishing. (fright check -3), In another room a man has been plastered to a far wall, charred to a crisp by lightning (fright check -2) there are signs of the crew fighting one another and even returning as undead, with everything coated in a fine layer of sea water. (Fright check -1). The men will find a ships log and a map.

The log will tell the story of the previous expedition successfully finding the pearl shard on a strange casino boat and winning it from an old man who was glad to be rid of it, but facing resistance from pirates armed with supernatural abilities who were also after the pearl.  As they tried to flee  the dark ocean they captured one of these men and got information about where the cult of triton was, and why they wanted the pearl. The map contains the island, but its pretty clear this cultist was no prisoner, but a man with considerable magical powers as he seems to have single handedly killed nearly everyone on board and fled the scene with the pearl. However judging from the time frame this all happened in that was about a month ago, meaning that the stars will be right for the ritual very, very soon.

The captains secret is now revealed, Livingston duped the party into taking on a suicide mission that three other expeditions failed at, thats why he kept everything so quiet, he isnt interested in getting cargo back, hes interested in recovering the shard of the pearl which used to be Triton’s prison and using its power to gain a monopoly on ocean travel the world over and he didnt mind using the party as cannon fodder to accomplish his task, worst of all the captain knew the entire time!

This is especially bad for the captain as he risks being mutinied against should the party influence the crew enough or should their reputation with the crew be bad enough (make a loyalty check). This does in fact count as a possible death secret on player character captains for this reason!

If the party decides to pursue the mission, go to 6A, if the party decides to abandon the mission, go to 6B

6A, the Island of cultists

The party tracks down the island using the map they found in the remains of the previous expedition, finding it just in time, as a storm gathers over the U-shaped beachline, lightning striking the temple hune into the living rock of the volcanic island’s mountain peak.

The party can attack this island at range if they want, despite the fact that the mission is specifically to retrieve the pearl shard but their shells will simply detonate against a flat surface of nothing but air, the shrapnel scattering into the sea, proof that the ritual is already underway and that triton’s magic is protecting the island.

If the log left on the previous expedition is anything to go by then the cultists aim to use the shard to summon a physical avatar of triton into our world.

The Barrier

Once the party gets close the the shore of the island the barrier will be faintly visible, a roll of Lore!, Cleric! or Holy Warrior! will reveal that the barrier will stop ships and their weapons but not living human beings from entering, meaning the party can wade through the shallows and approach the island on foot. Without these rolls the party can still discover it by reaching out and touching the barrier, with their hand passing through what the ship would not.

The beach

The party will find the beach to be made of a huge stretch of dead, dried reef with white decorated coral and boulders jutting out from the sand. As the party gets about halfway through the reef the boney remains of discarded sacrifices enchased in the reef’s coral will advance on the party in four directions! (See “reef shambler” in the monsters list). The party doesnt actually have to kill these things, only get past them and into the unguarded building behind the reef and the shamblers will not be able to follow past the steep steps, possibly designed to prevent that from happening.

The temple complex

Once inside the temple proper the party can explore a bit, down the hallway they will find basic living facilities, as well as rooms with murals and art depicting Triton’s various forms through out mythological history, as Typhon, as Jormangunder, as Leviathan, as Dagon, as Tiamat etc and a rack with a ceremonial trident as well as three daggers.

In another room there will be a large driftwood cage in which a few castaways are present who will plead with the party to free them before the cultists come back using either lockpicking (Mechanism!/Theif!), forced entry (Pirate!Theif!) or by simply blowing the lock off with Demo-Man! or a gun. If the party does not free them they all gain 1d+3 corruption, they lose 1d-3 for freeing them. The castaways will want to flee but can be convinced to fight with the party using fast-talk or any influence skill, their will is only 10 after all. The castaways also know where the ritual is being held (+10 seconds on the battle against the cultists if they are lead there by castaways!). The castaways will explain that whatever they summon will need to walk into the sea before it reaches its full power, and that they should stop the summoning before it can happen.

The altar room

Outside the alter room are three cultists (see “Acholites of triton” in the monster list), one of which will run inside once they see the party, the others will be armed with daggers and attempt to attack the group. The party knows that whatever comes out of those doors will be the summoned creature, and that inside  them the cult will be waiting for the attack, what happens next is up to them.

If the party wants to disrupt the ritual go to 7A, if they Don’t want to stop the ritual go to 7B

6B, Van Der Decken's return!

As the party elects to forget this suicide mission, or at least chalk this one up as a loss and return with the salvaged materials from the previous expedition they will change course and turn around. This will cause the Flying dutchman to come back into view where they will once again be hailed by Van Der Decken. Unlike before, Van Der Decken does not come with a message from Triton, rather he explains that due to the cultists using the pearl shard at present Triton’s power is weakened for a while, and this gives him a chance to break the curse of Triton keeping him and his men trapped in the dark ocean. However he needs the party’s help to do this. Van Der Decken proposes that they follow him to a specific place where they can perform a ritual that will release the dutchman from triton’s control. If they agree, Van Der Decken will be able to personally escort them to safety without any problems before crossing over and he will agree to do so. However should the party not wish to agree to this Van Der Decken is just as ready to sink their ship and add their numbers to his ghostly crew, the choice is theirs.

If the party agrees to help, go to 7C, if the party does not agree to help, go to 7D

7A, The attack on the cultists and the ritual.

The cultists inside the temple’s inner sanctum will have a ritual well underway hiding behind a magically conjured barrier, which takes over four hours. However by the time the party arrives in the temple chamber they will have only a minute remaining. Giving them sixty rounds of combat to get past the second, far more powerful barrier and stop the high priest.

To ensure the ritual is complete the cultists will sick their 12 of their blessed brothers upon the party (See “Mutant thralls of triton”) in order to buy time. When this fails the remainder of the 6 acolytes (see “acolytes of triton” in the monsters list). will maintain a barrier which prevents moving and attacking into the space where the high priest is and try to survive. However with the barrier broken down the party can take a clear shot at the high priest (See”high priest of triton” in the monsters list), which will disrupt the ritual and force him to deal with the party himself, empowered as he is by the pearl shard.

If players stop the ritual then they gain the pearl shard and can take it back to England for ending 1 or go to 8. Otherwise they fail to stop the ritual in time and the scion is summoned, killing all the cultists, go to 7B!

7B The summoned sicon of Triton boss battle!

Note: if the party destroyed 1-3 of the monoliths that limits the scion’s spell options, if they destroyed all four it starts stunned for the first round. If they read from all four than it gets two spells.

If the party decided to not fight the cultists than the scion will form and start to move toward the sea, growing in size as it gets deeper into the water, the party will have to fight it on the beach or risk it becoming the upgraded Scion! (7C, but without the dutchman’s help!) However it wont be so stupid as to walk out in front of the docked u-boats guns, and will simply flee the other way, forcing the party to confornt it on the altar rooms steps. Otherwise they will fight it inside the altar room proper.

The ritual will be completed, and the scion will form from a mass of living sea creatures, dead flesh, murky sea water and electricity from the air, both rising up from the pools and crashing in through the ceiling before the abomination solidifies around the pearl. Instantly devouring the High Priest as well as any other surviving cultists. It will then advance on the party after its initial horrifying fright check.

This is the final boss battle, the character’s either win or die!

If the players win against the scion they can take the pearl shard back to england for ending 1 or go to 8

7C The ritual to save the ghosts and the empowered scion boss battle!

Note: if the party destroyed 1-3 of the monoliths that limits the scion’s spell options, if they destroyed all four it starts stunned for the first round. If they read from all four than it gets two spells.

If the party agrees to help than they will need to travel to the sight of the monoliths (4C) that they may or may not have encountered before. With the Dutchman there Van Der Decken will  part the water and raise up a fith platform the party didnt encounter before and explain that it is possible to perform a ritual there at the sight of Triton’s defeat that will release his ship and crew from their devine curse. This ritual can be performed with Hidden Lore (Occultis), Religious Ritual, as well as Cleric!, Holy Warrior!, Ritual Magic, or Lore! If nobody in the party has any of those skills than Van Der Decken will perform it by possessing a crew member (this will not add corruption as normal and will not have any detrimental effects on the character such as the stun on exiting). Once the ritual is performed the upgraded Scion will lumber into view in the distance. This will signal that the cultists succeeded in their mission before the ghosts could be banished! However, now that Van Der Decken is freed he and his crew will assist the party against the Scion’s final form before departing for good.

When the scion dies it will crumble apart into hunks of decaying fish meat leaving the pearl shard on a revolting pedestal which is will slowly begin to drift toward the sunken temple of triton, accelerating to about ten miles an hour, inviting the party to catch it and prevent triton from getting the pearl shard back, which they will easily accomplish, getting close to the sunken temple of Triton in the progress.

If the players win against the scion they can take the pearl shard back to england for ending 1 or go to 8

7D The flying dutchman boss battle!

If the party refuses to help the ghosts then they must face the flying dutchman herself! Without some way to affect or harm spirits this fight is utterly hopeless, but with such an ability the ship can be defeated. (See “The flying dutchman” in the monsters guide. Even if the ship sinks, Van Der Decken and 1d of his crew will be powerful enough to fly aboard the ship and start trouble with the crew, forcing them to defeat him as well. If the party realizes they cant actually defeat the dutchman Van Der Decken will accept their surrender if they agree to help him (go back to 7C, with whatever HP you have left) Otherwise once he actually is defeated the party will be free to leave while they still can.

If the players win they get ending 2, this is also the ending they get if they simply abandon the mission and go home at any point in the game.

8. The sunken temple of triton and the broken pearl!

With the pearl shard in hand the party decides to end things once and for all while Triton’s power is weakened! Following the legend that says the shard being placed back inside the pearl will once again sever Triton’s connection to our reality. The ship sails down into the sea behind the island of cultists, now so quiet and remote and into the pitch black water. The party will need to dive down in order to go further.

If the party is playing with the full corruption rule:

Here all fully corrupt characters will reveal themselves and the party may come to turn on eachother on the deck before the dive. The corrupt characters may attempt to sway or fight the others but fully corrupt characters cannot be convinced to change

1 or 2 corrupted characters who are defeated means the party is relatively pure

3 or more corrupted characters who are fully corrupted who are defeated means the party is neutral

If the corrupted characters win, the remaining party is fully corrupt.

If the party is not using the full corruption rule:

Add everyone’s corruption together and divide by 25

A total of 16 or less means the party is pure

A total of 17 to 32 means the party is neutral

A total of 33 and up means the party is corrupted

Regardless of what happens the u-boat will dive down. There they will find no sea monsters, no drowned hoards of the dead but rather the ruins of Atlantis, a cyclopean city nothing like the utopia of myth and down toward the temple of Triton himself, which has curiously been breached by depth charges in the past, with the remains of a battleship of recent design laying at the base of the temple, still discarded on the ocean floor. Proof that some humans had at some point deliberately tracked down the temple and tried to wake Triton, resulting in the dark ocean, and that these men had a country’s navy at their command (the country itself doesn't mater, but it shouldn't be one anybody in the party is from). Then the party will dawn the diving suits and carry the pearl into the elder god’s former prison and present inner sanctum.

Inside Triton will assault the party directly with mental powers, the vast cosmic forces behind the mind of a god crushing down on them!

If the party is sufficiently pure they get ending 3, if the party is not sufficiently pure or sufficiently corrupted they get ending 4, if the party is sufficiently corrupted they get ending 5.

Ending 1: Return with the pearl (default good ending)

There are  no follow up campaign possibilities for this ending, everyone gets what they wanted. Livingston goes on to exploit his newfound monopoly and as promised the party are all made very wealthy indeed, going their separate ways, but the mental and physical scars will last a lifetime and they may never be the same.

Ending 2: Escape with your lives (default bad ending)

The party abandons the mission and escapes with their lives, but nothing else. Livingston is furious and will try and have his revenge, forcing most of the crew to go into hiding or leave the country.

There are no follow up campaign possibilities for this ending but players may have characters try again in future sessions without a secret and with debt to Livingston instead.

Ending 3: Save the ocean, save the world (true good ending)

The party is strong enough, rebuffing Triton’s mental assault and refusing his offers, jamming the shard back where it belongs and sealing the pearl, causing it to reform into a solid, unbroken sphere. As the cracks recede a rush of intense force radiates from the pearl, sending everyone on board crashing backwards against the rocks and ultimately out of the temple doors, where they lose consciousness. The party wakes up in their beds, somewhat worse for wear but still alive, finding themselves still on the u-boat, but on a calm and normal ocean with a bright sun overhead.

Triton is defeated for the foreseeable future as the pearl shard is returned. The dark ocean is gone, and with it the horror and opportunities it possessed. The world is saved, though public knowledge of the supernatural will always be there and the plot to breach the sunken temple is left unsolved.

In this ending Livingston becomes england’s official minster of the preternatural and the party gets jobs working for him. Becoming 1910s era men in black just before world war one! Future campaigns could take them to other ruined lost cities to gain occult secrets before the axis powers can.

Ending 4: Strangers in a strange land (true neutral ending)

The party is strong enough, rebuffing Triton’s mental assault and refusing his offers, jamming the shard back where it belongs and sealing the pearl, causing it to reform into a solid, unbroken sphere. As the cracks recede a terrible pulling force drags at the party, causing them to rely on their breathing lines to climb their way out of the slowly building whirlpool and swim out into the atlantean streets where the crew can extract them. On the surface they will find a terrible storm brewing and a cloud in the shape of a screaming human face will be descending towards them. The party will try to flee but the raging wind and water sends the u-boat spinning out of control. When the party recovers they look out on a calm, bright and natural looking sea, breathing a sigh of relief, only to then look up and notice that the sky is purple, and that those trees on the shoreline in front of them have red leaves. In triton’s final moments of power he threw the boat into another world out of spite, the adventure isn't over yet...

The follow up campaign begins exactly where this leaves off, dimension hopping castaways trying to take their u-boat back go their home universe.

Ending 5: Bow before the father of krakens (true corruption ending)

With the few pure remaining crew members dealt with the u-boat makes its way to the deepest part of the temple of triton and the first character to become fully corrupted has the honour of laying the pearl shard at the elder god’s feet. With this they are re-made, blessed and warped by their new god in his image and shown how to wear their former human guise for a time. Then, they are given a new order from their master and months later aboard a Legba’s riverboat, having long since been declared dead.

Now the party are the cultists, and their mission is to bring the power of triton to the british isles for their overlords, the monstrous previous party.

Alternatively the party could be investigators who stumble onto this cult and must defeat their former player characters new monstrous forms!

Cinematic Scenes for Flavor (examples):

A smoking aircraft is seen lowering towards the water in the distance, then a colossal set of jaws split the water, opening to reveal another set nested inside them, and another, and another, and another, till this impossible nesting doll of a fish reaches into the sky and yanks the aircraft down, retracting into the sea faster than it emerged, and there's no sign of anything underwater once its gone.

Fish start to flop on deck, they have human faces yet still drown on the surface. These are infected with Cymothoa exigua and can speak to the party but only say cryptic or unsettling things.

A buoy on which a mad castaway sits perched passes by the ship, he laughs at the doomed u-boat before his metal platform swims away on it’s fleshy tentacled legs.

Seagulls fly by the boat and cackle in a human voice, knowing a weirdness magnet by name before diving into the water and disappearing.

The u-boat sails over a submerged sandbar in the shape of a screaming skull which shifts to smile as they pass it.

The sky is no longer visible, instead the sea just appears both bellow and above the boat, with rain falling up into this upside-down sea in the wrong direction until the storm passes.

A ship-wreck drifting in the distance is revealed to simply be a pile of strange brown crabs which scatter away once the boat gets close, this is especially strange since the ocean is far too deep for them to be touching the ground.

Something with impossibly long legs sticking out of the water strides by along the horizon, scooping a ship in its hand and lifting it up into its body, a flash of lightning echos from inside it and debris falls into the sea, then it wanders up into the dark clouds and is gone.

What appears to be a school of dolphins at first is in fact bodies buried at sea wrapped in sail cloth and rope, swimming in a school.