The Drowned Fortune

The Drowned Fortune

Type	Undersea Pirate Ship
Government	Captain
Location	The Quelmar Ocean

The Drowned Fortune is an accursed pirate ship that haunts the seas and coasts of Quelmar's oceans. Traveling beneath the waves, this ship pillages the depths, captained by a cruel and ancient Aboleth, Thal'xxis, the Brine Tyrant. They are the rival of the great sea dragon, Vyrmthys the Tidebreaker

About

The Drowned Fortune is a mysterious ship that thrives and hunts beneath the seas of Quelmar. Fashioned from the wood of sunken ships with masts made out of leviathan bones, and bound together with kelp sinew, the vessel glides silently through the deep, propelled by manta-like fins and lit by the glow of anglerfish lanterns. When it rests, it lays dormant at the ocean depth, camouflaged amongst the reef and other sunken wreckages in the deep. At its heart lurks Thal’xxis the Brine-Tyrant, an ancient aboleth who abandoned the stillness of the the deep unknown for conquest and plunder. Using their psionic abilities, Thal’xxis bends the Drowned Fortune into both its warship and its lair, guiding it across the dark seafloor as if it were alive all its own on the search for its next quarry.

The crew, once mortal sailors, are now the Gilled Corsairs, or more simply, Thal'xxis' Corsairs, and were enslaved long ago by Thal’xxis’ corrupting mucus and alien mind. Their forms have merged with the life on the sea floor: barnacle-crusted brutes, eel-limbed boarders, sirens with gilled throats, and manta-winged scouts who strike from the dark. Utterly loyal to their aboleth captain, they raid passing ships with ruthless efficiency, dragging survivors into the deep. Among sailors of the surface world, the Drowned Fortune is simply a ghost tale, but for those that have seen it in person, they know that the Drowned Fortune is anything but fiction.

The Drowned Fortune will wait beneath the sea, waiting for a ship heavy with wealth and gold to pass by. Then is a torrent of waves and water it will breach the surface, unleashing its oceanic crew unto the unsuspecting sailors. All gold and valuables are taken aboard, while any survivors are either executed on the spot, or dragged back into the depths with the Drowned Fortune.

Now and again the ship will make port at small sea faring villages or hovels, the locals doing their best to ignore the crew of the Drowned Fortune, content to let them do whatever business they have and leave quickly. Villages who have not learned there lesson have paid the price in fire and blood.

The Crew of the Drowned Fortune

Thal’xxis the Brine-Tyrant

Thal'xxis the Brine-Tyrant

In the realm of Quelmar, Aboleths inhabit the deepest depths of the realm on the edges of imagination and insanity. It brings grim tidings if an aboleth ever chooses to leave the endless abyss to enter into the seas and rivers of Quelmar. Few can match their alien psionic magics, and the mucus they secrete turns any creature that comes into contact with it into willing and devoted thralls.

Thal'xxis is one of these aboleths, drawn to Quelmar by the shining light of gold and jewels. It does not seek the corruption of mortals nor the domination of the surface world, but rather its driving force is much more, human: greed. Its body is a writhing mass of slime-slick tentacles and glowing red eyes, with golden jewelry from its latest blunder adoring its slimy body. But Thal’xxis is more than a collector of wealth. Its mind, vast and ancient, seethes with cunning and patience; it plots with the meticulous care of a master thief, calculating not just raids but the slow accumulation of fortune and wealth across Quelmar's oceans. The Drowned Fortune is animated by Thal'xxis psionic magic, captained through the depths before emerging on poor unsuspecting ships on the surface.

The Golden Corsairs

The Golden Corsairs are the loyal, and grotesquely transformed, crew of the Drowned Fortune, bound to Thal’xxis by the aboleth’s corrupting touch that reshaped into something of the sea. Once mortal sailors, crew of the Fortune's Wake, they were drawn into the depths when Thal'xxis first emerged into Quelmar and bound to forever serve as its crew, emerging decades later as fishlike hybrids of man and sea predator. Their forms vary wildly: some bear barnacle-encrusted armor fused to their flesh, others sport elongated eel-like bodies with rows of needle-sharp teeth. Over time, the ranks of the Golden Corsairs have expanded, with more drowned sailors added to the crew along with other inhabitants of the briny depths such as Sahuagin, Sirens, and Merfolk.

Many share in Thal'xxis' endless greed and alien evil. Like their captain, the corsairs are obsessed with treasure, hoarding small baubles beneath the ship’s planking, while others delight in sabotage and cruelty, finding joy in the chaos they spread. As a unit, the Golden Corsairs are terrifyingly efficient: swift in the water, vicious in combat, and relentless in pursuit of any prey that ventures too close to the Drowned Fortune.

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  Thal'xxis Fishy First Mate, Barnicle Breath

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  Golden Corsairs

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  A Red Sahuagin Corrupted by Thalxxis

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  The Bosun of the Drowned Fortune, Finhead

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  The Quartermaster of the Drowned Sailor, "Scuttles"

Vyrmthys the Tidebreaker

The Sea Dragon Vyrmthys the Tidebreaker

When the War of Many Names began, the Drowned Fortune was no longer the greatest greedy predator beneath the waves. As now great sea dragons loyal to the dragon goddess Tiamat prowled the depths. During this period, the crew of the Drwoned Fortune would enter into a bitter rivalry with one such sea dragon, Vyrmthys, the Tidebreaker. Every four years, the Drowned Fortune faces off against Vyrmthys in battles over gold and the right to be called the apex predator of the seas. The clash is a deadly spectacle beneath the waves: psionic blasts from Thal’xxis, snapping jaws, barbed tentacles, and swirling currents all combine as the ship maneuvers around the serpent, snatching gold and hoards from its grasp. Despite the danger, so far the Drowned Fortune has always emerged victorious, its hull scarred but its treasure laden with the spoils of the encounter. Yet Vyrmthys never forgets, returning after four years with renewed fury, each time more cunning and more relentless in pursuit of the wealth it covets.