HYPERBOREA » Megadungeon Idea: Lost Sea-Hold of the Hyperborean Captains

Blackadder23 · 8/22/2023 12:17 pm

Many centuries ago, between the retreat of the glaciers and the coming of the Green Death, a new power arose on the seas of Hyperborea. These Hyperborean captains ranged far and wide from their island Sea-Hold, plundering ships and burning towns. The true Hyperboreans of Khromarium were too lotus-addled to act, and the other races of men lacked the power to do so. The reign of terror lasted two centuries, during which half the wealth of Hyperborea is said to have flowed into the Sea-Hold. Yet all things must end, and doom came to the Sea-Hold most suddenly. None can now say whether it was a natural disaster or literal divine wrath which laid the pirates low. But the Sea-Hold became a charnel place, and the buildings themselves crumbled; during the disruptions caused by the Green Death, all memory of the location of the lost pirate kingdom was lost. But the underground delvings remained: tombs, treasuries, shrines, and more, connected by a maze of secret passages. And now the Lost Sea-Hold of the Hyperborean Captains has been rediscovered…

This is an idea for an unusual megadungeon that I’m working on for a possible Hyperborea campaign. The inspiration for this project was watching two documentaries (or maybe “documentaries”) that have nothing to do with gaming: The Curse of Oak Island and The Lost Pirate Kingdom. The setting is an island in Brigand’s Bay honeycombed with the underground works of an ancient pirate kingdom. The megadungeon thus sprawls over several square miles, with numerous small “lair” size dungeons connected by long secret passages. There are minimal works still found on the surface of the island, heavily overgrown by forest. Some features I have in mind so far:

* A town (Flotsam) was founded by ship captains in the last sixth months to support exploration of the Sea-Hold. Many amenities, services, and goods desired by adventurers are available there. Naturally there are numerous rival adventuring parties.

* One of the “lords” of Brigand’s Bay has built a wooden fort on the island, Pike Keep, and claims control of Flotsam and the Sea-Hold itself. These pretensions are generally ignored, but the forces of Pike Keep have been known to collect “tolls” and “taxes” from outnumbered adventuring parties.

* On one end of the island is a fortress lighthouse that has stood for a few centuries, operated by a sect of Helios worshippers. Allegedly they remained unaware until very recently that their light was located on the site of the Lost Sea-Hold. They are very secretive and resent the presence of adventurers on “their” island.

* Somewhere in the underground maze of the Sea-Hold is a magical artifact that formerly allowed the ancient pirates to hold sway over the waters of the Hyperborean Sea. The Invisible Empire of Atlantis, a secret conspiracy by Atlantean pirates to restore their long-sunken empire through terror and sorcery, has established a hidden base on the island (and infiltrated Flotsam) in order to seek this artifact.

* Some of the surviving descendants of the original pirates still live in the heavily-forested interior, which is the only place where aboveground ruins still exist. There are plentiful monsters in these forests as well.

* As mentioned, the bulk of the megadungeon is basically disconnected “lair” dungeons, at most two or three levels deep. Many of these are underground treasuries guarded by death traps (a la the supposed “Money Pit” on Oak Island), along with some tombs, storerooms, and shrines. Lengthy secret passages connect many of the dungeons.

* I see areas flooded by seawater as a prominent feature of these dungeons, perhaps restricting and channeling exploration. Magic that allows water breathing (and possibly Atlantean divers) will be extremely valuable here. Some of the dungeon entrances are underwater.

* Treasure maps (both to simple buried treasures and to the various dungeons) will be a prominent theme. False maps will abound as well.

* In the center of the island is a larger dungeon (maybe four levels deep) that can only be accessed by passing through a number of smaller dungeons. The artifact lies in the lowest level of this.

* There is a conclave of undead pirates dwelling in the dark passages beneath the Sea-Hold. Now that their rest has been disturbed, their ghost ships may sail again.

* Needless to add, fish-men have entered the Sea-Hold through underwater entrances and established shrines to Kthulhu and shoggoth breeding areas. Hybridization in Flotsam has begun.

* Factions in the megadungeon so far: captains’ council of Flotsam, rival adventurers, Pike Keep, Helios cultists, Invisible Empire of Atlantis, forest dwellers, undead pirates, fish-men (and human Kthulhu cultist collaborators).

That’s what I have to this point. What does everyone think? I would welcome ideas and suggestions!

Carnby · 8/22/2023 9:24 pm

That seems pretty complete to me. Good selection of factions and hazards unique to the area.

rhialto · 8/23/2023 5:30 am

That sounds awesome, and a campaign I'd love to adventure in. It reminds me of the old Black City campaign referenced here from quite a few years ago.

BlackKnight · 8/23/2023 8:00 am

Definitely a coo Idea!

Blackadder23 · 8/23/2023 11:07 pm

Thanks guys! Just thinking out loud and seeing what develops.

Ghul · 8/24/2023 6:12 pm

Very evocative! I'd like to play a legerdemainist exploring this place. ;)

Blackadder23 · 8/25/2023 12:38 pm

^
Thanks! I do see this as being a "thief class" heavy campaign.

Continuing to brainstorm, the island needs a name, so I don't have to keep calling it "the Sea-Hold" or "the island". I'm thinking "White Pine Island", named for the unusual stands of albino pine trees (and an obvious homage to "Oak Island"). This could be tied into how the Sea-Hold was rediscovered in the first place - e.g., a ship's captain came across an ancient pirate journal taking about the white pines that covered the Sea-Hold, and immediately connected this to White Pine Island, a place he had seen during many previous voyages. Unfortunately for his desire to privately exploit his information, members of his crew talked while drunkenly carousing, and other captains showed up to stake a claim of their own. After numerous misunderstandings and some deaths, the captains' council of Flotsam was formed to try to keep violence and theft (or at least violent theft) to a minimum.

Hmmm... the Sea-Hold rediscovered, fighting between crews, Flotsam built and the council formed, Pike Keep built... I probably need to push the rediscovery back to about two years before the campaign begins.

Carnby · 8/25/2023 2:42 pm

White Pine Island sounds good. Probably a sign of something funky down below, albino plants as I understand it generally only survive if they can get some way of stealing nutrients from other plants, so a large stand of albino pines is probably not growing totally naturally.

rhialto · 8/25/2023 4:53 pm

Blackadder23 wrote:
^
Hmmm... the Sea-Hold rediscovered, fighting between crews, Flotsam built and the council formed, Pike Keep built... I probably need to push the rediscovery back to about two years before the campaign begins.

I think six months is better: that sounds reasonable if at least some fantastic treasure has already been discovered, leading to a "treasure-rush" type environment (i.e, "there's treasure in them thar pines!"). If nothing has been discovered, or only moderate wealth, you probably don't have a boomtown. And along those lines: there might be an early explorer who struck it rich with a discovery, leading all the following explorers to rush in?

Blackadder23 · 8/27/2023 10:10 am

rhialto wrote:
Blackadder23 wrote:
^
Hmmm... the Sea-Hold rediscovered, fighting between crews, Flotsam built and the council formed, Pike Keep built... I probably need to push the rediscovery back to about two years before the campaign begins.

I think six months is better: that sounds reasonable if at least some fantastic treasure has already been discovered, leading to a "treasure-rush" type environment (i.e, "there's treasure in them thar pines!"). If nothing has been discovered, or only moderate wealth, you probably don't have a boomtown. And along those lines: there might be an early explorer who struck it rich with a discovery, leading all the following explorers to rush in?

Good thoughts! There will have been at least one major treasure found, hence the "treasure rush". The reason I was thinking about extending the timeline was because of Pike Keep notionally being built after Ghost Pine Island was identified as the Sea-Hold. But maybe the keep has been there for years? Maybe the only land the "lord" could manage to claim was a shore of this godforsaken island, which he bitterly resented, never dreaming of all the wealth that lay underfoot? And now that treasure has been found there, he's trying to claim the whole island, but lacks the strength to do so as long as the captains' council remains united. That would allow for an older stone keep, with a dungeon underneath that possibly connects to the ancient delvings of the Sea-Hold in some way. Hmmm...

rhialto · 8/28/2023 7:16 am

Blackadder23 wrote:
But maybe the keep has been there for years? Maybe the only land the "lord" could manage to claim was a shore of this godforsaken island, which he bitterly resented, never dreaming of all the wealth that lay underfoot? And now that treasure has been found there, he's trying to claim the whole island, but lacks the strength to do so as long as the captains' council remains united. That would allow for an older stone keep, with a dungeon underneath that possibly connects to the ancient delvings of the Sea-Hold in some way. Hmmm...

I like this development, and the possibility of the lord not even knowing there's another access to the ancient dungeons. Right under his nose...

Blackadder23 · 8/31/2023 8:57 am

This is the timeline for the megadungeon at this point (I split the difference on the timing of its rediscovery). Little of this is known to the players, of course.

Roughly 1500 years ago: Corsairs of uncertain (but definitely non-Hyperborean) origin built a base on Ghost Pine Island, taking advantage of a sheltered cove and the high value of the albino pines for mast-building. Within a decade they had begun to range all over the Hyperborean Sea, raiding shipping and sacking coastal towns. The pirates were possessed of an artifact that rendered them invincible at sea, though no surviving records describe precisely how or why this was so. The crimson banner of the Ghost Pine Island pirates, emblazoned with a crab marked with a human skull, led to their being nicknamed “The Death-Crab Corsairs”.

Roughly 1250 years ago: The Sea-Hold of the Death-Crab Corsairs reached the height of its power, with great stone fortresses, bordellos, docks, and storehouses above ground, and the entire island honeycombed with underground treasuries, tombs, shrines, and more, all tied into an existing system of caverns. It’s said half the wealth of Hyperborea flowed into the Sea-Hold, much of it never to be seen again. The pirate kings and queens of the Sea-Hold were second only to the Hyperborean King in power, if indeed they ceded primacy to that august personage. Besides its veil of secrecy, a mysterious fog bank of unknown origin protected Ghost Pine Island from any chance of discovery.

Roughly 1150 years: After a century of gradual decline for the Death-Crab Corsairs, a major pirate fleet was caught by a rare Hyperborean punitive expedition and wiped out, the pirate queen being killed in battle. From this point the decline of the Sea-Hold became sharper, with many corsair raids failing and only the protective fog bank preventing the pirate kingdom from being found and destroyed.

Roughly 1100 years ago: For reasons unknown, the protective fog bank around Ghost Pine Island dissipated, leaving it vulnerable to attack. An alliance of several other pirate bands, barbarian reavers, and the Hyperborean navy attacked the Sea-Hold, killing the inhabitants to the last man and plundering the buildings on the surface. However, the vast underground works went undiscovered by the conquerors. Some of the victorious pirates occupied parts of the Sea-Hold and made a nuisance of themselves to shipping for a few years. An earthquake and tsunami toppled most of the buildings on the island and destroyed the ships of these lesser pirates; the survivors took to the forest and became the ancestors of the modern forest dwellers.

Roughly 1000 years ago: The Green Death struck Hyperborea, killing 90% of the population. The location of Ghost Pine Island, and the fact that it had once been the Sea-Hold of the Death-Crab Corsairs, were lost to history. Forest swallowed the last remaining vestiges of the Sea-Hold on the surface.

Roughly 700 years ago: Ghost Pine Island was rediscovered, though widely shunned due to the eerie and unwholesome appearance of its albino pines. According to legend, a mysterious fog bank occasionally concealed the island for weeks or months at a time.

Roughly 500 years ago: Under the aegis of Khromarium, a secretive cult of Helios worshippers bult a lighthouse on the north shore of Ghost Pine Island. This lighthouse was known as “The Red Flame” due to its crimson-tinged light (produced by unknown processes). It’s assumed that the lighthouse keepers knew nothing about the ancient history of the island until quite recently. Notably, the mysterious fog bank hasn’t been reported since the lighthouse began operation.

30 years ago: Kain Dellos, a fighter of some renown, landed on the east shore of the island with a force of mercenaries and declared himself Lord of Ghost Pine Island. His men reared Pike Keep to support these pretensions, but did little to explore or develop the land. Emissaries seeking a pledge of fealty from the Red Flame were never seen again, and Kain didn’t press the issue. Ten years later, Kain died and was succeeded by his son Kaliban, who bitterly resented being saddled with a “desolate, godforsaken, worthless island” and little gold to go with it.

1 year ago: Kimmerian corsair captain Antigonos the Tall discovered an ancient document written by one of the Hyperborean ship captains involved in sacking the Sea-Hold of the Death-Crab Corsairs, which described the unusual stands of albino pines on the island. Antigonos recognized this as a description of Ghost-Pine Island, and realized it must be the ancient Sea-Hold. He immediately sailed for the island on his ship, The Argossa. There he and his crew somehow discovered a buried trove of gold and exotic gems. Despite their captain’s desire that the rediscovery of the Sea-Hold be kept secret, many of the crew boasted about their luck while carousing back in Port Zangerios. When The Argossa again left port, it was pulled down by a whirlpool and lost with all hands. Superstitious sailors attributed this disaster to a curse on the wealth buried in the Sea-Hold, but that didn’t stop their captains from planning expeditions to seize more of it.

9 months ago: Ships, many of them crewed by pirates and other disreputable types, began arriving at Ghost Pine Island to ransack it for treasure. After a few tense days, there was open bloodshed between the crews. A truce was called after several deaths, and the captains of the various ships met to work out an accord. “Finders keepers” rights were asserted over any discoveries, and open violent theft was banned on pain of punishment by the “captains’ council”.

6 months ago: The town of Flotsam was founded by the captains’ council to provide treasure hunters with supplies, booze, and harlots. Soon afterward, Lord Kaliban became aware of the entire situation, and asserted dominion over the whole island and any treasure found on it. He was ignored, but is said to be augmenting the force at Pike Keep with mercenaries attracted by the promise of a share of the fabulous wealth to come.

4 months ago: The Invisible Empire of Atlantis, seeking the ancient artifact, established a hidden base somewhere on Ghost Pine Island.

Blackadder23 · 8/31/2023 1:52 pm

Brainstorming some thoughts about monsters:

* Lots of human “monsters” on the island: pirates, bandits, mercenaries from Pike Keep, agents of the Invisible Empire, Kthulhu cultists allied with the deep ones. Rival adventuring parties/treasure hunters are a major element; if the PCs don’t promptly follow leads, a rival party may clear out a dungeon or treasure cache instead.

* Crabs are going to play a major role in this megadungeon. In addition to the giant and colossal crabs from the Hyperborea rules, I’m going to add “large” and “huge” crabs. Of course, crabs of a more normal size may also form flesh-eating swarms on occasion.

* The ancient pirates aren’t resting in peace; those who commanded the artifact in life serve it in death. The bulk of the undead pirates will be juju zombies or sea zombies imported from AD&D, with the more powerful ones perhaps being wights. Now that treasure seekers have disturbed them, the rotting hulks of their ships will sail again from hidden coves on foggy nights.

* Some other monsters to be imported from AD&D: hook horrors (because they’re cool, and because of the pirate theme), carrion crawlers, cave fishers.

Carnby · 8/31/2023 4:35 pm

Excellent. I'm interested in the Helios cult, they seem like a good way to have a little bit of variety in a very sea-dog heavy adventure site.

I do love me a hook horror.

rhialto · 8/31/2023 6:44 pm

This is shaping up really nicely, and very Hyperborean! Have you consider any kind of weird science-fantasy stuff, e.g. Captain Nebo's Amazing Submersible?

Blackadder23 · 9/01/2023 12:56 pm

rhialto wrote:
This is shaping up really nicely, and very Hyperborean! Have you consider any kind of weird science-fantasy stuff, e.g. Captain Nebo's Amazing Submersible?

Very possible! If nothing else, an apparatus of the Atlanteans would certainly be a useful item to find...

Also, I'm considering adding the crab-men as another faction and rivals to the deep ones (they could have disguised crab-kin agents in Flotsam), which could be another way for weird tech to get involved in the campaign.

Blackadder23 · 9/24/2023 12:24 pm

The Font of the True Sea: This artifact is a large vessel, of unknown material and appearance, which holds a portion of the True Sea, a sort of Platonic ideal of ocean that is thought to exist primarily in some ultramundane dimension. No matter how much water is removed from the Font, the apparent level never changes. This water can be placed in a crystal phial of the True Sea and worn on a chain around the neck. A ship's captain wearing such a phial is master of the seas, and may enjoy other benefits as well. (Note that the Font is apparently malicious and desires to cause suffering; it will serve pirates or a thalassocratic tyrant, but not an honest merchant league or the like.) Members of the crews of ships blessed by the Font in life become revenants after they die, desiring nothing other than the watery death of all living men. Nothing has been heard of the Font since the fall of the Death-Crab Corsairs who were believed to have owned it, though some few crystal phials have been seen. The phials lack obvious power at the moment, perhaps because their modern owners have been unable to commune with the Font, but the phials may be able to provide clues to the current location of the Font.

rhialto · 9/25/2023 4:28 am

Cool concept, I like it.

Caveman · 9/25/2023 5:31 am

Blackadder23 wrote:
rhialto wrote:
This is shaping up really nicely, and very Hyperborean! Have you consider any kind of weird science-fantasy stuff, e.g. Captain Nebo's Amazing Submersible?
Very possible! If nothing else, an apparatus of the Atlanteans would certainly be a useful item to find...

With a manual of how to operate it, of course?

Blackadder23 · 9/25/2023 11:33 am

Caveman wrote:
Blackadder23 wrote:
rhialto wrote:
This is shaping up really nicely, and very Hyperborean! Have you consider any kind of weird science-fantasy stuff, e.g. Captain Nebo's Amazing Submersible?
Very possible! If nothing else, an apparatus of the Atlanteans would certainly be a useful item to find...
With a manual of how to operate it, of course?

Maybe pieces of one.