Diving Deep #2

Same as last week. Away we go.

Crossing the Rubicon by Jason deCaires Taylor

Here we see the remnants of a group of pilgrims, believed to have been members of Atlantean lower classes. Around the time of the collapse of Atlantis - this being, of course, after the city was swallowed into the ocean - impoverished members of society were swept up in zealous fervour by an unnamed prophet, who told them of a promised land far from Atlantis, which could only be reached through the marching of feet and the sweat on their brows. In a mass migration, they fled the crumbling city and traveled onwards.

They were promised eternal life. That their presence would be felt throughout the centuries.

Like most promises of that scale, they were empty and twisted. It is unknown what caused the petrification. Some suspect a mistranslation of a time stop spell; a last-ditch attempt to save their people from the oncoming plague that seemed to expand from the city they left behind, leaving them unblemished by foulness in the water. Others suspect the prophet was simply mad, or cruel, or just tired of the ceaseless marching. A minority believe that this was the cause of Atlantis's downfall, and elsewhere in the depths there must be a larger collection of statues from the city itself.

These statues still think and remember and regret. Telepathy can reach them, but spells to commune with the dead do not. Their speech and thoughts are slow, like communing with the spirits of mountains. They ask if they've arrived yet, if the walk has ended, why the waters have become so cold and numb.

They move sometimes. Small increments, less than a metre a year. Still shuffling towards the promised lands. Slow enough fro corals to embed in the rock, for worms to make homes in their petrified circulatory systems.

another sculpture by Jason deCaires Taylor

Homebrew: Underwater Mechanics and 3D combat in Roll20 (D&D 5e)

"There is heroism and brute warfare on the ocean floor, unseen by land-dwellers. There are gods and catastrophes."
~ China Mieville, The Scar

That which lies below the waves is an interesting and terrible place indeed. It is also a great location for stories and campaigns, and as such saddens me that I cannot enjoy it more often. One of the primary reasons for this is due to the additional rulings, which are seen as limitations on characters that want to flex their entire skillset. Personally I am of the belief that these rules should not be seen as limitations, but as demonstrations of the pressures on aquatic life, and as a way to explore how these pressures have been overcome or coexisted alongside.

Below are some rulings that can be used by DMs that want to emphasise the effect of being in an aquatic environment on characters and objects. These rules would also be good to consider for subterranean games, as many underground rivers and sea caves and the like exist below the earth.

Core Rules

Official rules related to underwater gameplay can be found in the following areas:
Player's Handbook: breathing underwater/suffocation (pg 183); underwater combat (pg 198)
Dungeonmaster's Guide: extreme cold, frigid water, high altitude aka effects of pressure (pg 110); swimming (pg 116); underwater visibility (pg 117)
Ghosts of Saltmarsh: ocean environs (pg 202-207); currents, depth illumination (pg 203); pressure and objects (pg 204)

In addition, Appendix A of Ghosts of Saltmarsh includes rules on ships and naval combat; Storm King's Thunder also includes a ruling on damage at 3,000 feet below sea level (pg 203).

Consider the Sahuagin

Deciding how I want to do sahuagin - or shark-people in general for non-D&D settings - has been difficult, mostly because I haven't wanted to categorise them as inherently 'evil', but at the same time want to evoke the feelings of the official sahuagin and address the elements one would expect from a society of mutant hexapodal shark-men. Here's where I'm up to so far.

character concept by Giorgio Baroni

Sahuagin are predators at heart, and are fully aware of it. They haven't succumbed to bestial fury, but have instead built a culture around their instincts to hunt.

Their connection to sharks is one akin to man's first relations with wolves; not full domestication, but not outright hostility. There is a mutual recognition of kinship and respect, and the sharkfolk have over time developed the ability to manipulate sharks and their relatives to aid them in their hunts, or shoal in designated waters.

Different sharks are chosen for different purposes and regions. Tiger and lemon sharks aid in pack hunting; many a diver has been caught off guard by how tactical a sahuagin hunting pack can be. Hammerhead groups of ~100 individuals guard treasure and lairs, whilst white sharks are bargained with by leaders as guards and enforcers. A few tales speak of gargantuan, ancient sharks being called allies of the sahuagin, with the beasts coming and going for decades at a time, depending on what suits their fancy.