Wanted: Sea Monster Sighting Reports!

[Jakob]

17th level ranger who's a mountain loup-garou, right? Yeah, I can do that.

If you don't have access to Mordenheim or the short story Dragonov appears in, Nathan, I can check if there are any particular feats or skills he should have.

Yes, that would be good, thanks!

Remember his equipment: Champions of the Mists lists many item he carries around (like arrows of every material one could think).
IMC, I had some troubles giving him equipment: 220'000 gp are a lot of money. He ended up REALLY powerful.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Many of the critters on Roti's list are intelligent enough. If you mean civilized QtR5 describes Kuo Toas as the Lovecraftian Deep Ones of Ravenloft, it mentions Sahuagin society too. I'm not sure if merrow would be considered civilized.

Sahuagin and koa-toa are civilized enough that we'll be describing their societies (if any) in the Surveys, like the goblins in GazV or those little lizard-guys in the Souragne netbook. At the very least, we know there are officially sahuagin in Saragoss, although they're not all that settled due to the endemic savagery of that domain.

Guys read QtR5, it has loads of good stuff on the seas!

I think you mean QtR9, there. Issue 5 is the desert issue, which is kind of at the other extreme.

On another note, are there any new critters in the NS report? Qtr5 has some. Sea Zombies and Sea Vampires iirc.

Now, that would be telling, wouldn't it?

There's also a nice Kraken Hunter Ahab-like NPC in there who's worth salvaging. (Maybe as a narrator for the Kraken reports? ...or use his captains log)

Nice! I'll look into that.

[The Giamarga]

Right, I meant QtR9.

In fact I've been going through that one again yesterday. Here are some notes:

New Monsters:
Giant Jellyfish
Barracuda( normal and dire)
Sea Zombies, Sea Zombie Swarm
Sea Vampires & Spawn
Dread Siren (Roti is this your remembered dread selkie?)
Soulless/Vasharan (... a very nice expansion on the Vasharan from BoVD)
Langoir
Meredoth´s Horror
Wereshark

Articles with material that could be included:

-Character Development: The Old Salt by ScS
This one has Captain Jonas Wyldman , Male human Exp 7 / Avn 6, he hunts giant squid (not krakens per se) and sea monsters in general. His captain's log would be great narration for the relevant monster chapter.

-A Guide to Underwater Adventures by Alhoon
Together with the above these make a good Player's Guide chapter unless already covered in the NS Gaz.

-Island Domain of Nedragonne (wereorca npc, gr. seawolf darklord)
-Sub-sea domain of Sahuagin
covered in NS Gaz?

- Augustin von dem Meer, a Sea Vampire
possible NPC?

- a very nice illustration of a Ghost Shark

[Rotipher of the FoS]

New Monsters:

Barracuda( normal and dire)
Sea Zombies, Sea Zombie Swarm
Sea Vampires & Spawn
Dread Siren (Roti is this your remembered dread selkie?)
Soulless/Vasharan (... a very nice expansion on the Vasharan from BoVD)
Langoir
Meredoth´s Horror
Wereshark

Official stats for the barracuda (including a dire version IIRC) are in Stormwrack, and weresharks were detailed in Monsters of Faerun. Sea zombies are in Denizens of Dread/Darkness. Their stats should probably follow the official versions when there's a contradiction, but the QtR9 fluff-text ought to be usable.

Sea vampires, I'd like to have two types: one based on the Viking-vamp from CotN:V, the other on the Mystaran velya. That way, there'll be one strain for the Sea of Sorrows, another for the Nocturnal Sea. This is Ravenloft, after all: we've got as many strains of vampirism as FR has, strains of elf!

The dread siren's listed with the marine fey. The dread selkie should have different traits.

The Soulless, I think we can do without. They'd be too civilized to fit with the rest of the netbook, and the BoVD reference is kind of strained IMO.

Langoir, nobody's picked yet. Anyone...? Anyone...?

Meredoth's little fishie will have a place in the NS Gaz.

-Character Development: The Old Salt by ScS
This one has Captain Jonas Wyldman , Male human Exp 7 / Avn 6, he hunts giant squid (not krakens per se) and sea monsters in general. His captain's log would be great narration for the relevant monster chapter.

Good catch! Yes, he'd be a cool narrator. Somebody, call dibs on him quick!

-A Guide to Underwater Adventures by Alhoon
Together with the above these make a good Player's Guide chapter unless already covered in the NS Gaz.

The NS Gaz won't contain much of that sort of "crunch", as it's already addressed in products like Stormwrack. Referring the readers to alhoon's article would be simpler than re-printing its contents, but we can present ideas that supplement what he'd written.

-Island Domain of Nedragonne (wereorca npc, gr. seawolf darklord)
-Sub-sea domain of Sahuagin
covered in NS Gaz?

There might be a reference to it tucked in there somewhere.

- Augustin von dem Meer, a Sea Vampire
possible NPC?

Sounds good. Alternately, recounting a close encounter with this villain would make for neat fluff-text, in the section on marine vampirism.

[cure]

Since the Nocturnal Sea is notorious for a lack of sunshine, that absence might have notable effects.

It would be very pleasant for blood sucking (as opposed to energy draining) vampires who are weakened but not harmed by the rays of the sun. They could operate during the day virtually unhindered.

Further a Nocturnal Sea vampire strain might have merit. Perhaps a mild energy drainer with no need for rest so long as it does not so much as glimpse the rays of the sun.

The want of sunshine also brings into doubt the entire food chain. In the absence of sunshine, how can there be plankton blooms, and without them, what does everyone else ultimately eat? A solution would be a lot of black smokers, basically superheated vents on the sea floor that spew extremely hot water laden with chemicals that microscopic life forms feed upon. This might have consequences up the entire food chain, might result in some unique creatures who call black smokers home, and might make for an interesting lair or two.

[NeoTiamat]

Hmm.... I think it might also lead to plants that are hyper-sensitive to sunlight. Even with clouds, a *little* bit of the sun gets through. Thats why its not pitch black on an overcast day and you can still get sunburned.

Hmm.... I just had a thought for a *really* vicious Dread Possibility. Will have to remember to write it up.

[Isabella]

The dread siren's listed with the marine fey. The dread selkie should have different traits.

Actually, some of the Finfolk myths (selkies by another name) said that the Finfolk women started life as beautiful maidens who sung to lure mortal men to them and snatch them away; they had to marry a mortal man or they would lose their unearthly beauty.

I ended up cutting that from my article because it's too at odds with the best known selkie myths, though, but I thought it was interesting.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Further a Nocturnal Sea vampire strain might have merit. Perhaps a mild energy drainer with no need for rest so long as it does not so much as glimpse the rays of the sun.

That's one reason I thought a velya-type would be appropriate for there, aside from Meredoth being the token Mystaran darklord. A velya dies if it's forced out of contact with seawater, much as a standard vampire dies in sunlight; this would ensure the NS strain doesn't rampage unchecked across the overcast islands. (It's got a hypnotic song to draw victims into the water, so is still dangerous even if it can't hunt on land.)

The want of sunshine also brings into doubt the entire food chain. In the absence of sunshine, how can there be plankton blooms, and without them, what does everyone else ultimately eat?

I doubt if the layers of cloud obstruct much more of sunlight than a dozen yards of seawater would. Perhaps you'd simply get algae on the surface that you'd normally find farther down the water-column? Brown, red, and golden algal strains might take the place of green ones.

[NeoTiamat]

That might make for some very oddly colored water.

[cure]

Thinking about it, 'nocturnal' in Nocturnal Sea is not only saying that the weather is very, very often cloudy. It is further saying that the cloud is thick, low, oppressive. Not making the day literally as dark as night, but certainly less well lighted than merely a grey day. This should have some sort of biological consequences . . . beyond vampirism that is . . . .

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Some consequences, certainly. OTOH, we shouldn't overturn the entire marine ecology, merely because it's so overcast: that's more of a sci-fi thing than a fantasy or horror theme, inventing alternate ecosystems, and the Core is meant to be a reasonably familiar game region. Truly "alien" environments ought to be reserved for rare, weird domains like Bluetspur or Aggarath; the Nocturnal Sea is dark, but it's still productive enough to sustain fishing vessels and big critters like krakens, particularly in its cold southern waters.

Sure, the local Grabenites can have a high incidence of rickets and other vitamin D-deficiency diseases. But the waters should have a reasonable amount of life at shallower depths, not just the seabed ... else, there won't be any cause for sea monsters to come to the surface, get noticed by humans, and wind up in this netbook!

[DocBeard]

Plus, if you start having biological consequences for that sort of stuff, the whole Demiplane'll end up looking like Mordent.

[Sylaire]

And as Vorostokov teaches us, the ecology of any given domain functions The Way The Dark Powers Want It To.

Either that or the Mists are constantly reaching out to other worlds and constantly bringing in a supply of such life as couldn't otherwise be sustained in the environment. I mean, hey, if they can create whole domains full of people just because somebody sufficiently evil happened to walk across a border, a few plankton shouldn't be all that hard.

(First one to say, "Yeah, but are the plankton real?" gets shipped to Todstein. )

[Jakob]

Hmmmm... My NPC and Dragonov are in Lamordia. Should I avoid the sea stalker's community, since it's being done by someone else?

Maybe just a passing reference, then a note by the twins, saying it will be covered in another section of the report?

BTW... When is the deadline, again?

[Rotipher of the FoS]

If at all possible, I'd like to receive drafts of the main text submissions by February. That'll allow plenty of time for revisions, artwork, and requests for any additional supporting text we might need (e.g. monster-stats, NPC write-ups).

A passing reference to "sea werewolves" would be okay for Dragonov, but try not to be more specific and/or accurate than that, as NeoTiamat is still working on that topic. Given what JWM said about how "sea stalkers" wouldn't have been introduced in the first place, has official seawolf stats been available for 3E at the time, I think the were-sea-lions may be going the way of the lurker above.