Thursday, May 4, 2023

The Lore of the Sea

The Depths are Silent:

The Depths are Hungry


The depths are home. You...

  • (1 Secret) ...breathe water as air of the same purity.
  • (2 Secrets) ...move with dolphin's grace when submerged.
  • (4 Secrets) ...have whale's sight beneath the waves.
  • (8 Secrets) ...suffer no harm from crushing depths or frigid water.

Secrets of the Sea

  1. Drink seawater until you retch. Your bile is foulest poison, with a [DICE]-in-6 chance to risk death if applied topically, or [HIGHEST]-in-6 if ingested.
  2. Simultaneously tap the surface of two basins of seawater. Until they are spilled, each shows the reflection that should appear in the other. Range is limited to...
    • (1 die) ...a whaleslength.
    • (2 dice) ...the distance a tuna can swim in a day.
    • (3 dice) ...the breadth of an ocean.
  3. Hum a tune from the abyssal plain. All who hear it, unless they know Secrets of the sea, are afflicted with nausea. [HIGHEST]-in-6 chance that they double up vomiting.
  4. Stir  a body of water to induce a current therein: extending within shouting distance, with a strength [SUM] times your own.
  5. Call out and indicate a point within a stone's throw. All water (up to [SUM] times your body's volume) within shouting distance rushes to that point in a single heartbeat.
  6. Make eye contact with someone and snap your fingers. Their lungs fill with water, doubling them up with a fit of coughing. [DICE]-in-6 chance they risk death.
  7. Salt water is driven away for [SUM] paces around you, up to [DICE] dozen paces high. Walk dry-shod across the seabed.
  8. Call up the Ocean Below. Saltwater infiltrates the soil for [SUM] dozen paces around, turning dirt to soupy mud. Nothing will grow here for years to come.
  9. Apply black sludge to a person or object. For [SUM] hours, water for them has the consistency of air (though this does not let them breathe it). The target may be no larger than...
    • (1 die) ...a tuna.
    • (2 dice) ...a whale.
    • (3 dice) ...the leviathan.
  10. With an agonizing grown, your body distorts into an amorphous sack of liquid. You can squeeze into any space larger than an eyeball, but your oozing form is extremely fragile. Changing back is exhausting, and any given attempt has only a [HIGHEST]-in-6 chance of success.
  11. Place your hand on the chest of a willing or helpless subject. The water leaves their body in a puff of steam, instantly mummifying them. Submerging the remains in saltwater reverses the effect and revives the subject. The mummy will crumble after...
    • (1 die) ...a moon.
    • (2 dice) ...a year.
    • (3 dice) ...an eon.
  12. Stand on the seashore and loudly demand judgement. After [SUM] minutes of such invocation, a wave arrives to punish you for your sins, large enough to...
    • (1 die) ...kill you and all those within shouting distance.
    • (2 dice) ...uproot trees; wreck a fleet.
    • (3 dice) ...shatter stone; wipe a city from the map.

Marks of the Sea

  1. Barnacles cover half your face
  2. Faint noise of waves is always audible around you
  3. Any place you linger for more than a few minutes grows damp: condensation on walls, clammy skin, smell of mildew
  4. Prominent gills open on your neck
  5. Your fingers are webbed
  6. You sprout a beard of waving tentacles

Dooms of the Sea

  1. Whenever you are not wet, cracked skin causes you terrible pain
  2. Your legs fuse into a flipper tail
  3. You lose the ability to breathe air, and sunlight sears you. At the bottom of the deepest sea-trench grows a mollusk whose touch can reverse this doom

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