DeepWars
DeepWars
DeepWars V 1.1 - Copyright ©2012-2013 Eric Louchard
Art by Victor P. Corbella, Marcelo Blanco, Giovanni Castro, Eric Louchard, Sergio Leon, Kennon James
Miniatures sculpted by Patrick Keith, Sergio Leon, John Winter,Brother Vinni, Lejla Santic
Photos of miniatures painted by Worthy Painting Studio and Lonebrushman Studio.
Book layout, art design and painted miniatures by Eric Louchard
Playtesting and Editing by Enos Kline, Patrick Weaver and Andrea Sfiligoi
Song of Blades and Heroes rules by Andrea Sfiligoi
Game models available from AntiMatter Games
No portion of this book can be reproduced without consent from the publisher.
Published by AntiMatter Games www.antimatter-games.com
Special Thanks
A big thank you to those that supported DeepWars as Generals and Gamemasters Aaron Wong Christopher Musgrave Jeremy Holley Nathan Herron Adam Poots Christopher Snyder Joe Kushner Nicholas Evancich Addam Robertson Colin Miskowitz John Burnham Patrick Weaver Alexander Lucard Damon Richardson John Ivicek Jr. Paul Wellner
Alice Schoen Daniel Petersen Jon Leigh Rick Rambo
Andrew Maxwell Dave Lopata Jordan Sanderson Robert Nelson
Andrew Morrow David Pardy Ken Robinson Rockheads Comics & Games
Barry Chapman Deon Beswick Kevin Bailey Ronny Heinz
Barry Sawada Tucker Dirk Koch Kirk Damman Sam Dale
Benjamin Cook Enos Kline Kyle Hagan Samuel Punzel
Brad Kane Eric Palmero Kyle Miller Scott Deas
Brendan Dever Franz Georg Roesel Linda Leyshon Shaun Phillips
Brian Scott Gareth Jenkins Louise Bernard Shaun Webb
Cameron J. Smith Goergen David Marc Bevan Shayne Cummin
Carl Tchoryk Guillaume Bernard Matt Lawrence Steven Blaske Charles Velazquez Hunter Thomas Matt Leitzen Temoore Baber Chris Langevin Ilias Mastrogiorgos Matthew Pena Viktor Carlson Chris McKenzie James W. Keller Michael A Nunez Warren Austin Chris Troxell Jamie Bamforth Michael Miocevich Wayne Coburn Christopher Mcfarland Jason Saldana Micheal Hunter Willem-Jan Bertram
ConTenTS
Introduction ... 6
Background ... 7
- Preparing for the Return - ... 7
- The Quest Begins - ... 8
- Into the Darkness - ... 8
- The Shallow Shelf - ... 9
- The Abyssal Darkness - ... 9
- Exploring The Seafloor - ...10
June 2, 1691 ...11
- We Are Not Alone - ...11
- A New Enemy - ...12
December 19, 1691 ...13
- Fate of the Ancients - ...13
explorers of the Abyss
-Fortune Hunters ... 16Dark Mariners ... 17
Ancients of Atalán ... 18
Scaly Horde ... 19
Playing the Game
-Rules Overview ... 21Model Profiles ...21
Game Cards ...21
Example Game Card ...22
Warbands ... 23
Gameplay ... 24
Underwater Gaming ...24
Units of Scale ...24
Preparing for Battle ...24
Setting the Defenses ...24
Starting the Attack ...24
Depth Levels ...24 Activation Rolls ...25 Activated Miniatures ...25 Movement ...25 Difficult Terrain ...25 Changing Depth ...27 Group Activation ...27 Regroup ...27
Facing & Field of View ...28
Turning ...28
Complete Cover ...28
Line of Sight ...28
Visibility ...29
Illumination ...29
Alone in the Dark ...29
Checks and Balances ...30
Quality Check ...30 Resistance Check ...30 Will Check ...30 Strength Check ...30 Physical Activities ...30 Exhaustion ...30 Drag ...31 Force ...31 Break ...31 Fast Dive/Ascend ...31
Combat Beneath the Sea
-Hand-to-Hand Combat ... 35Weapons in Combat ...35
Armor in Combat ...35
Fallen Models in Combat ...36
Transfixed Models ...36
Recoiling Models ...36
Rear Attack ...36
Flank & Surround ...36
Coordinated Attacks ...36
Number of Attacks ...37
Partial & Complete Cover ...37
Ambush ...37
Charge and Rush ...37
Mounted Models ...37
Death from Above ...37
Size in Hand-to-Hand Combat ...37
Leaving Hand-to-Hand Combat ...37
Ranged Combat ... 38
Long Shots ...38
Concentrated Fire ...38
Shooting into Hand-to-Hand Combat ...38
Weapon Malfunction ...39
Tactical Cover ...39
Ranged Weapons for Defense ...39
Evasive Action ...39
Aimed Shots ...39
Size in Ranged Combat ...39
Targeting Subsystems ...40
Damaged Weapons ...40
Healing and Repairing ...40
Weapons and Armor
-Morale ...41When to Check Morale ...41
Weapons ...43
Armor ...43
Weapon and Armor Effects...43
Armor Break ...43 Blast ...44 Breach ...44 Corrosive ...44 Deflect ...44 Disintegrate ...44 Entangle ...45 Fragile ...45 Grab ...45 Guided ...45 Harpoon ...45 Hazardous ...46 Homing ...46 Irradiate ...46 Knockback ...46 Natural (Armor) ...46 Poison ...46 Powered (Armor) ...47 Precise ...47 Pressurized (Armor) ...47
Reach ...47 Reflect (Armor) ...47 Refract ...47 Reinforced (Armor) ...47 Reload ...47 Resonate ...47 Shock ...47 Sluggish (Armor) ...47 Spray...47 Unbreakable ...47 Unstable ...47
Fortune Hunter Armaments ...48
Projectile Weapons ...48
Hand-to-Hand Weapons ...50
Explosives ...50
Armor ...51
Dark Mariner Armaments ...52
Energy Weapons ...52
Projectile Weapons ...53
Hand-to-Hand Weapons ...54
Explosives ...55
Armor ...55
Ancients of Atalán Armaments ...56
Energy Weapons ...57
Projectile Weapons ...57
Hand-to-Hand Weapons ...58
Explosives ...59
Armor ...59
Scaly Horde Armaments ...60
Projectile Weapons ...61
Energy Weapons ...62
Hand-to-Hand Weapons ...62
Explosives ...63
Armor ...63
Abilities and Powers
-Special Abilities ... 65 Acoustic Command ...65 Air Breather ...65 Amphibious ...65 Animal ...65 Animist ...65 Arcanist ...65 Artificial ...65 Assassin ...66 Assistant ...66 Battlemage ...66 Benthic ...66 Big ...67 Biomancer ...67 Bio-Weapon ...67 Bloodthirsty ...67 Bombard ...67 Camouflage ...67 Combat Master...67 Combo Attack ...68 Command ...68 Compass ...68 Conjuror ...68 Corrupted ...68 Counter ...68 Coward ...69 Critical Hit ...69 Crusher ...69 Deadeye ...69 Deep Caller ...69 Deep Eyes ...69 Demolition ...69 Dim Witted ...69 Dimension Shift ...69 Distract ...69 Dodge ...70 Echolocation ...70 Electric Skin ...70 Elder Sorcerer ...70 Elementalist ...70 Energy Resistance ...70 Energy Shield ...70 Energy Tracker ...70 Engineer ...70 Ether Tech ...71 Ethereal Attack ...71 Ethermancer ...71 Evasive ...72 Fanatical ...72 Fast Load ...72 Fearless ...72 Feeding Frenzy ...72 Free Disengage ...72 Greedy ...72 Gregarious ...73 Group Fighter ...73 Gulp ...73 Healer ...73 Hero ...73 Huge ...73 Inhale ...73 Iron Will ...73 Jet Burst ...73 Leader ...74 Lethal ...74 Long Move...74 Lure ...74 Madness ...74 Magic Resistance ...74 Maneuverable ...74 Marine ...74 Mind Shield ...74 Mounted ...74 Moving Attack ...75 Mutant Spawn ...75 Obfuscate ...75 Opportunistic ...75 Pack Hunter ...75 Pack Leader ...75 Power Dive ...75 Powerful ...75 Psychic Command ...75 Psychic Wall ...75 Rapid Shot ...75Re-animator ...76 Relay ...77 Resilient ...77 Ruthless ...77 Salvager ...77 Savage ...77 Scent Tracker ...77 Scientist ...77 Sea Shaman ...78 Sentinel ...78 Sharpshooter ...78 Shoaling ...78 Shooter ...79 Short Move ...79 Slimy ...79 Slow ...79 Steadfast ...79 Stealth ...79 Swimming ...79 Sunder ...80 Tailslap...80 Terror ...80 Telepath ...81 Teleportation ...81 Thick Skull ...81 Tough ...81 Uncontrollable ...81 Undead ...81 Warbeast...81 Weak Willed ...81
ethereal Magic
-Magic Spells ... 83 Spellcasting Roll ...83 Spell Mishap ...83 Group Channeling ...83 Amplifying Spells ...83 Elemental Magic ...84Elemental Magic Attack Spells ...84
Elemental Magic Conjuration Spells ...85
Psychic Magic ...86
Psychic Magic Attack Spells ...86
Psychic Magic Conjuration Spells ...87
Dimensional Magic ...88
Dimensional Magic Translocation Spells ...88
Dimensional Magic Conjuration Spells ...89
Protection Magic ...90
Personal Protection Spells ...90
General Protection Spells ...91
ether Technology
-Technology ... 93Technology Types ...93
Ether-Tech Devices ...93
Salvaging Tech Items ...93
Ether-Tech Device Listing ...93
Complexity Level 1 ...93 Complexity Level 2 ...94
Battle Campaigns
-Campaigns ... 97 Scenarios ...97 Battle Layout ...97 Controlled Aggression ...97 Turn Limits ...97 Scenario Archetypes ...98 Skirmish ...98 Ambush ...98 Breach ...98 Salvage ...98 Survival ...99 Capture ...99 Battle Aftermath ...100Surviving the Battle ...100
Reinforcements ...100
Experience and Victory Points ...100
Warband Advances ...100 Buying Mercenaries ...101 Personal Advancement ...101 Technology Upgrades ...102 Technology Development ...102 Upgrading Constructs ...102
Ancient Technology Artifacts ...103
Treasure Artifacts ...103
Scenic Artifacts ...105
Scenic Weapons ...106
Wild Sea Creatures ...107
Predators ...107
Defensive ...107
Deep Sea environments
-Marine Zones ... 109The Shallow Shelf ...109
Shallow Shelf Map Layout ...109
Shallow Shelf Scenic Terrain...109
Coral Outcropping ...110
Coral Reef ...110
Kelp Forest ...110
Sandy Patch ...110
Macroalgae Bottom Cover ...111
Giant Soft Coral ...111
Ruined Structure ...111
Living Cloud ...111
Shallow Shelf Deadly Terrain ...112
Anklebiter Barnacles ...112
Doom Clam ...112
Angry Eels ...112
Deep Sediment Trap ...112
Seafloor Eruption...112
Unstable Seafloor ...113
Whirlpool Hole...113
Ethereal Disruption Field ...113
Shallow Shelf Wild Sea Creatures ...113
The Abyssal Zone ...114
Abyssal Zone Map Layout...115
Abyssal Zone Scenic Terrain ...115
Deep Sea Coral ...115
Whale Carcass ...116
Silty Bottom ...116
Uplifted Rock Wall...116
Crystal Caverns ...116
Wrecked Submersible ...116
Abyssal Zone Deadly Terrain ...117
Hydrothermal Vent Field ...117
Unstable Seafloor ...118
Seafloor Rift ...118
Ether Crystal Outcropping ...118
Ether Vortex ...119
Abyssal Zone Wild Sea Creatures ...119
Deep Sea Outpost ...120
Deep Sea Outpost Map Layout...120
Structures ...120
Geothermal Power Plant ...120
Research Station ...120
Research Station Doors ...121
Dimensional Launch Site ...121
Attacking Submersibles ...122
Submersible Layouts ...122
Attack Scenario...123
Capturing the Bridge ...123
Scuttle ...123
Cargo Theft ...123
Amphibious Warfare ...123
DeepWars Forces
Fortune Hunters
-Commander Angus McBain ...126Communication Mech Construct ...126
Tactical Dive Soldier ...127
Marie du Chatelet - Scientist of the Ethers...127
Heavy Support Trooper...127
Anti-Ship Breaching Mech ...128
Sea Dog ...128
Recon Trooper ...128
Dr. Heinrich Cornelius - Arcane Researcher ...129
Big Game Hunter ...129
Silent Soldier ...129
Combat Engineer ...130
Assistant Mech Construct ...130
Medic ...130
Templar Shadow Slayer ...131
Templar Sentinel of Light ...131
Dark Mariners
-Mad Inventor ...131Elluvi Darkeye - Commander of the Night Sea ...132
Vanguard Marine ...133
Cephalid Scientist ...133
Annihilitor Biomech ...133
Octopod Stealth Biomech ...134
Nautiloid Chrysalid ...134
Cephalid Scavengers...134
Vanguard Heavy Support Marine ...135
Cephalid Biomancer ...135
Vanguard Marine Captain ...135
Deep-Spawn Reaver Biomech ...136
Siren of the Deep ...136
Hunter-Killer Biomech ...136
Summoned Ethereals ...137
Cephalid Ethermancer ...137
Gothagga (Elder Ethereal) ...137
Shapeless Horror (Ethereal) ...137
Thotag Spore (Ethereal) ...137
Proto-Race of Yosoth (Ethereal) ...137
Thotag Crab (Ethereal) ...137
Ancients of Atalán
-Alahál the Immortal, Commander of the Ancients 138 Assault Soldier ...139Matlal the Elder – Technologist of Atalán ...139
Acolyte of the Ethers ...139
Chariniform Light Assault Mech Construct ...140
Mantaform Hunter-Killer Mech Construct ...140
Exoform Salvage Mech Construct...140
Elite Soldier ...141
Xicana - Elementalist of Atalán ...141
Medic of Atalán ...141
Copeform Repair Mech Construct ...142
Hydraform Light Combat Mech Construct ...142
Muraniform Stealth Mech Construct ...142
Conjuror of the Ethers ...143
Sniper Soldier ...143
Reconnaissance Scout ...143
Scaly Horde
-Cthan The Ravenous – Scaly Horde Commander ..144Abyssal Gark ...145
At-Atck - Clal-Chk Scientist ...145
Steel-Jaw Placoderm Fish ...145
Dagathonan Salvager...146
Draconid Sea-Demon Shaman ...146
Dire Fish-Lizard ...146
Clal-Chk Warrior ...147
Dagathonan Brute ...147
Draconid Warrior ...147
Abyssal Gark Mangler ...148
Hag-Ray ...148
Giant Angler Fish ...148
Wild Sea Creatures ...149
Dagathonan Deep Caller ...149
Shallow Shelf Creatures ...149
Gray Pointer Shark (predator) ...149
Sharptooth Dolphin (defensive) ...149
Sharptooth Dolphin Alpha (defensive) ...149
Euripterid Sea Scorpion (predator) ...149
RazorJaw Fish-Lizard (predator) ...150
Ravenous Cordoba Squid (predator) ...150
Blacktip Whaler Shark (defensive) ...150
Giant Marine Crocodile (predator) ...150
Orthocone (predator) ...150
Stonebreaker Crab (predator) ...150
Leviathan Shark (defensive) ...150
Lion’s Mane Jelly (predator) ...151
Ridgehead Leviathan (defensive) ...151
Giant Devilfish (predator) ...151
Beast of Kronos (predator) ...151
Abyssal Zone Creatures ...151
Nine-Gill Shark (predator) ...151
Kraken (predator) ...151
Dragon Fish (predator) ...152
Isopod Swarm (predator) ...152
Hagfish Swarm (predator) ...152
Thorny Spider Crab (predator) ...152
Demon Squid (predator) ...152
Giant Fireworm (defensive) ...152
Custom Models ... 153
Blast Templates ... 156
Measurement Sticks ... 157
InTroDuCTIon
DeepWars is a tabletop wargame where forces battle below the waves of a lost underground ocean beneath a frozen southern continent, vying for control over ancient sunken ruins and wrecks holding powerful artifacts and golden treasure. Players command warbands from one of four main forces, developing their warriors as they gain experience though combat, exploration and recovery of treasure. DeepWars is a continuation of the adventures from the ShadowSea game, taking place in the same time period and involving many of the same forces, but introduces new rules for combat beneath the sea, battles aboard breached submersibles, new magic and ether technology.
The setting is in the late 17th century, many years after the initial discovery of the underground world of the Shadow Sea, a realm located miles underneath lands of perpetual ice and snow. The subsequent recovery of ancient technology by these first Fortune Hunters has fueled the development of advanced undersea vehicles and personal dive suits that allow adventurers to explore previously inaccessible areas of the deep ocean floor and locate tunnels that connect the underground sea to the oceans of the surface lands. The Fortune Hunters are not alone however, as other forces have been drawn to the deep ruins, all of which are entirely adapted to underwater environments: the enigmatic Dark Mariners, advanced Ancients of Atalán and the vicious Scaly Horde.
These four forces can be played in many different Scenarios, including exploration of wrecks on the seafloor, adventures in ancient cities of cyclopean structures, battles among fields of geothermal chimneys or boarding of submersible vehicles. Adventures within flooded tunnels inside wrecked ships or crumbing cities may be played with “tiles” to represent stretches of passage and chambers, while games in open environments are played with scenic terrain pieces on the tabletop. Two or more players take their warbands into battle Scenarios, or optionally, players may compete to recover artifacts and treasure, using solo rules to control vicious creature of the deep.
DeepWars uses a modified version of the rules from ShadowSea, and all rules needed for gameplay are included in the rulebook. The core rules are based upon the Song
of Blades and Heroes (SOBH) game engine by Ganesha Games and are designed for fast and furious play with plenty of heroic action, arcane magic and advanced technology, all handled with a few rolls of 6-sided dice.
The rules have been designed for battle using 28 mm “heroic” scale miniatures, with one figure representing one character or creature. Miniatures are referred to as “models” in the rules, as some larger creatures may not quite be miniature in size. Typical round bases sizes are 30 mm for man-sized or smaller models, 40 mm for bigger models,
such as large dive suits, and 50 mm for huge models. Some exceptionally large models, such as undersea vehicles and mechanical contracts, may be mounted on larger oval bases. The nominal ground scale is roughly 15 mm = 1 meter, so most man-sized models are approximately 30 mm tall.
Games are played on the tabletop or a gameboard with typical dimensions of one meter square, where one turn represent a few seconds of combat and heroic actions. Distances for movement and combat range are measured either using a ruler or with three measuring sticks of 75 mm (Short), 120 mm (Medium) and 180 mm (Long). If one wants to use Imperial units, the sticks would be 3 inches (Short) 4.75 inches (Medium) and 7 inches (Long). The measurement sticks make movement and range calculations quick and easy, an important consideration because of the depth component of an underwater game.
Above all, DeepWars is about fun and fast gameplay, with Scenarios lasting less than an hour. The rules are designed to be modular, so they are easy to learn but have enough complexity that players can game in a variety of styles, blasting their opponents, stealthily sneaking into ruins to steal artifacts, or wielding Ethereal Magic spells to control the minds of their foes. Players can also create their own unique characters or improve them, RPG style, using a flexible point system. Whether you are a novice to tabletop gaming or an experienced player, DeepWars will provide a fun way to spend an evening with friends. AntiMatter Games sincerely hopes you enjoy the game as much as we have enjoyed making it.
BACkGrounD
expedition Log of Pilny the Aged
March 3, 1689
Preparing for the return
It has been many years since I last stepped foot in the underground world discovered by Captain Brewer in 1676, and this will be the first expedition to the deepest parts of the Shadow Sea, a region I only explored briefly in a salvaged submersible. The Underlands was the name given to this lost world under miles of treacherous ice and snow, a place unknown until Brewer’s ship drifted off course when making a turn around the cape at Isla Hornos and passed into a graveyard of ships among floating mountains of ice. Through skillful navigation and the fortunes of the bold, he steered his ship through a wall of mist, finding a rough harbor and the entrance to this mysterious land, spewing clouds of steam into the frosty air.
The early expeditions were decimated by the savage wildlife, deadly plants and giant fungal overgrowth. Scores of good soldiers and scientists made the Underlands their final resting place and many other turned back to make the journey home empty handed. This was not to be our fate however, even though our expedition ended in the death of many of our team members at the hands of a former associate and rival, the black hearted Dr. Kurtz. By the grace of God, we were able to recover many glittering artifacts, including a fully functional submersible ship and suits designed to explore the deep sea, left behind by the mysterious ancient race of this strange world.
Our chief scientist, Dr. Wormwood, refused to leave the Underlands without this prize, to the consternation of the remaining expedition members. It clearly could not be carried back many miles through deadly terrain and pulled through the narrow cavern entrance. All were convinced that he was mad and only his knowledge of the function of an ancient weapon that blasted out a spray of infernal fire protected him from certain mutiny. On the final dive in the vehicle, Wormwood deciphered the controls sufficiently to guide the craft to the bottom of the Sunless Sea, where our mutinous crew gasped in wonder at a glittering cavern of crystal and ice, passing into the solid rock wall of the underground sea. Wormwood steered the craft into the cavern and through a twisting tunnel, back for what seemed like an eternity, until the craft exited into the ocean of the surface world. The sight of deadly walls of ice amid crashing waves was never so sweet...
Our return in this salvaged craft during the summer of 1679 was intended to be heralded by the Lords that had subsidized the expedition, providing the men, ships and supplies needed to bring back artifacts and treasures. The docks
were dark though, and we were quietly escorted into dungeons beneath the palace of Zena, where we were encouraged to restrict our discussions of the mission and its bounty to only a select few scientists among the annointed universities and, of course, members of the papal leadership.
Wormwood has worked in secret for the last ten years on the recovered submersible, the diving suits and weapons that fire out harpoon-like spears at frightening velocity. I have had little access to his laboratory, but have been witness to many esteemed scientists, engineers and inventors spending many weeks visiting the complex, as well as cloaked figures that had a disquieting look about them. My lack of access to the artifacts has not stopped our work altogether, as Wormwood has required my expertise in decoding ancient pictograms when investigating the murals uncovered in the steaming jungles of Belix, along the coast of the New World. Those images still haunt me, appearing so similar to those we found in the temples of the Underlands, and having advanced mathematical equations far beyond my comprehension. A second collaboration took us to the bowels of the great library of Al Iskandariyya, where mouldering pages from a dusty tome contained diagrams of items eerily similar to the weapons recovered by Wormwood. A schematic design of a ship in the book was too similar to the shape of the submersible to be the coincidence that Wormwood insisted.
Wormwood has only now finished his work and revealed his improvements to the undersea vessel. Most impressively, he displayed new designs for the diving suits, which included armor plating and utilized aspects of the ether technology we recovered from ancient autonomous constructs to generate the power needed to move the hulking bronze suits. The weapons were also modified, with new types of spears and rapid loading mechanisms. There was a veritable armory of new devices, and I knew then that it was time to prepare for the return expedition to the depths of the Shadow Sea.
September 14, 1690
The Quest Begins
-Preparations for the expedition were excruciatingly slow for a year, as different factions within a number of kingdoms squabbled amongst themselves for the rights to any artifacts and treasures that would be recovered. All of these political machinations were restricted from the public, which was more consumed with avoiding the numerous plagues that seemed to perpetually afflict the cities. It was only when a convoy of ships carrying gold from the New World failed to return to port, and a subsequent fleet discovered the wreckage and remains of the crewmen was there a quickening of the pace.
It was rumored that the remains were found strewn about the fortress, a structure thought to be easily strong enough to withstand attack by the natives and their crude stone weapons. A few large lizardlike creatures were mentioned in reports and I immediately knew that the accursed draconid creatures had finally taken the next step in their migration. I believed that some foolish commander had attempted to abscond with eggs from the nests of these deadly creatures but had not realized how quickly the eggs would hatch and the size and speed of the hatchlings. All my attempts at confirming my suspicions were rebuked by the impudent lords, and I was threatened with arrest for broaching the subject a second time. Had but
a few of these creatures escaped into the humid jungles of the surface world they would quickly grow and learn to conquer their surroundings, something we had discovered firsthand in our encounters with them in the Underlands.
While the leadership denied the significance of the loss of the ships and gold, within a few weeks we had been fully funded and outfitted. Ours was a team of fortune seekers, a motley group of pirates, soldiers and adventurers, all led by the few who survived the first expedition.
Into the Darkness
-The return trip was uneventful until our ancient submersible dove into the gloom to find the entrance to the underground sea. Wormwood narrowly avoided wrecking the craft on a massive wall of ice and finally found the entrance as our air supply was reaching a distressingly low level.
We have been safely encamped at the quay of a ruined city for two weeks now, having found a relatively safe area in this deadly land. The city itself has proven to hold magnificent treasures but the sea has largely been unexplored, save for a few expeditions made with our salvaged undersea vessel. We initially believed that some of the race of elder beings living in this realm had migrated to the deeper zones, and the sunken citadels of crystal and gold was evidence for this theory, but it was not until some time later did we discover the extent of colonization that the Ancients had achieved on the seafloor.
Our first discovery was of massive structures on the bottom, all similar in architectural style to the pressurized sunken citadels we had previously found in shallower waters, but abandoned and apparently flooded. Other sites we found in very shallow water near inlets and bays. These were more akin to the monolithic temples and pyramids we had found on shore but must have been covered over by rising sea levels in ages past. There were also a multitude of ancient submersibles scattered on the bottom of the sea, most hulking wrecks, impossible to recover. We were fortunate that our own craft was functioning in proper order and could carry a small team down to the bottom of the sea quickly and easily to explore these wrecks. Our ship was designed in such a way that divers could exit and enter the through sophisticated portals, connected to water-filled chambers that drained and repressurized before opening into the ships’ interior. There were also numerous doors and walls that sealed off sections of the craft in case of flooding, an occurrence I unfortunately witnessed in person when our craft collided with some enormous creature of the deep.
Wormwood’s work on the diving suits has proven to be time well spent. The suits allow a person to drop to the seafloor, untethered to any surface ship, while breathing air created from the surrounding water, not unlike how a fish survives in the deep. Wormwood had been able to interpret the elegant design of the salvaged suits and improve upon them, but he cautioned some of the mercenaries that their suits would need more work to be entirely trustworthy in the deep sea. Heedless of his warnings, the captain of the mercenaries took a small team to a deep bay where gold spilled from a wreck. Their dive proved to be a costly one for our team, but we gathered valuable information about the dangers of the underwater environment.
The Shallow Shelf
-Near the shore, the seafloor is relatively shallow and the glow of ethereal light penetrates down to the bottom. The floor is generally hardbottom, with a layer of sedimentary deposition, generally higher near river outflows from the Underlands, that can slow progress during salvage expeditions but is usually not dangerous. Most wrecks are visible and unburied, but are encrusted with different plants, corals and large shellfish, including some that are quite edible.
The seas here teem with life: schools of fish and cuttlefish abound, and predators roam at all times, some of fantastic size and appetites. We have lost a number of inexperienced divers to the deadly wildlife, and have had many maimed by gigantic barnacles that lurk on the bottom or on the sides of wrecks, waiting for an unwary diver to step or reach into their open maws. I named them “Anklebiters” in jest, although my humor has been lost on the crippled members of our team.
The shallow shelf is a dangerous area to explore but many wrecks can be found on the rocky bottom and we have been successful in recovering valuable artifacts from the sunken hulks, including dive suits and lamps of gold and crystal. A number
of these lamps contain a type of crystal I had not encountered before, one that emits a pure white light as opposed to the bluish or purple-tinted light from the other crystals. I have called these “sun crystals” because of the purity of the light and similarity to sunlight. These lamps have proven to extremely valuable for exploring the deeper zones of the sea.
The Abyssal Darkness
-Beyond the shallow shelf the seafloor drops off precipitously into a pit of blackness, with the intervening water column lit only by small phosphorescent fish and the occasional glowing tube of translucent jelly. The darkness is almost tangible, like a mass of black ink, and monstrous creatures may appear suddenly from the gloom, a terrifying sight that has caused some members of the team to panic and mishandle the pressure and ballast controls of their suits. Those poor souls shoot to the surface and are dragged onto our boats in apparent safety, only to convulse horribly and die screaming with bloody froth spewing from the their mouths or with their limbs twisted grotesquely. Some of the divers wearing lighter suits of stitched fabric, the mercenary
crystals channel the ethereal energy fields of this underground realm more powerfully than the crystals we recovered in the Underlands and have been most useful in powering our dive suits and other ancient artifacts. It is this treasure that is more valuable than gold or platinum.
Exploring The Seafloor
-When finally landing on the bottom of either the shallow shelf or deep sea, explorers must carefully manage their ballast and pressure control, lest they float upwards and become separated from the team, lost in the emptiness above. This has been a cruel lesson to some of our new recruits, however those that survive the first dive seem to learn quickly and there have been fewer accidents during the most recent expedition.
The dive suits are truly amazing devices, with their own internal air supply, temperature control and assisted power to help move quickly and efficiently. The Ballast system pumps air into chambers throughout the suit and allow one to control descent and ascent through the water column with ease. Wormwood recently discovered an artifact that may be some sort of propulsion system held by the suit that could provide additional maneuverability.
Experienced wearers of the dive suits have discovered that they can utilize the ballast control along with the propulsion system of multiple belt-driven fans to cruise for long distances Sea Dogs as we call them, have been less fortunate and have
ruptured their suits a number of times, causing a massive loss of pressure and an explosion of bubbles. We have found light suits crumpled on the bottom that appear to have no diver inside, the only remnant a thin veneer of flesh and pulverized bone adhering to the inside of the helmet. Wormwood has not yet identified the solution to this unfortunate side effect of our underwater expeditions but we have been able to bring more mercenaries, hungry for golden treasures, to replace the casualties. So far, the armored suits worn by the more experienced soldiers are able to withstand damage without collapsing. These suits have allowed much more freedom for the expedition and are good protection against most, but not all attacks from the wildlife.
All of our expedition now carry crystal lamps down with them, but close the shutters and would rather descend in total darkness than risk attracting the predators that prowl the deep. We have found that many of the largest predators, such as the crocodilian Sea Dragons, have excellent eyesight and are unrelenting in their attack once they follow a trail of light. Shutting off the lamps does not ensure safety though, as some of our divers have been carried off by some devil that we have not yet identified.
The deep Abyssal Plains have solid rock on the bottom, covered with a layer of light-colored sediment, almost as if the bottom was covered with snow. A sample of the sediment appeared to be almost entirely composed of tiny shells and bones, more than likely the remains of countess creatures consumed by predators over the eons. There were also a multitude of strange looking crystalline objects visible when examining sediment samples under our new microscope, donated by the esteemed Dr. Hooke for the expedition, and many appeared similar to snow flakes or symmetrical spheres and plates. It is possible that this crystalline snow falls continually from the waters above, as many of the wrecks seem to be dusted with this fine white sediment as if they were outside on a cold winters day.
There is considerable volcanic activity in many places, with active thermal vents that spew boiling water from the bowels of the earth. Some appear like infernal chimneys, shooting up gouts of black water with the appearance of dense smoke. Surrounding the chimneys, or “black towers” as I have named them, are vast fields of indescribably foul sea life. There are enormous tube-like creatures that shoot out powerful jaws to drag the unwary diver down into their bellies. Crawling among them are massive crab-like creatures with pincers that can pull off limbs or smash helmets. Swarms of smaller arthropods obscure one’s view and cause havoc by eating into the soft joints of our dive suits.
These areas, while deadly to those that linger within for more than a few moments, are also abundant in precious metals, such as gold, silver, copper and platinum. Those that brave the toxic, acidic water around the “black towers” may well recover a veritable horde of wealth, as well as many glowing crystals that illuminate the bottom like blue torches, which appear to be some accreted form of aragonite. These
right over the seafloor. Energy for the suit is produced by a power plant on the back, containing glowing ether crystals, that uses their magnetic properties to turn gears and pull levers. The energy from these crystals is drained at a rapid rate though, and there is a constant need to recover more crystals to continue our expeditions.
June 2, 1691
We Are not Alone
-My original belief that the bottom of the sea was an empty graveyard of sunken corpses and skeletal wrecks of sea vessels has been shattered during a recent exploration of a wreck at one hundred fathoms. Our team of Fortune Hunters discovered schools of predatory fish and masses of arthropods, some equipped with vicious jaws and chelae that can penetrate even our steel armor. The wildlife was of less concern though, than the appearance of old enemies from the Underlands.
Our force has had pitched battles with the foul Dark
Mariners, beings named for their terrifying vessels, amalgams of living flesh, metal and crystal. They are completely at home underwater, and their warriors and sorcerers appear to be even more effective when fighting at the bottom of the sea. Here, they utilize an unknown type of vibrational weaponry that has caused such horrific deaths to our men, liquefying their flesh and bone within their suits, that many quake now at the sight of the enemy. Our heavy steel armor seems to afford little protection against these weapons, but we are fortunate that they
are only effective at close range so that we can engage them at longer range with our spear-guns and explosive torpedoes, which thankfully still devastate their light carapace armor.
It has been difficult to continue on dives when confronted by these beings, as many of the soldiers claim to see visions and hear voices commanding them to do horrible things to their bothers in arms. In two instances, divers turned on the team, killing many but recalling nothing later after being dragged back to the surface. Just last week, three divers suddenly released their ballast, dropping down into the inky darkness below as if called by some siren of the deep. I now suspect that there is some tentacled demon below that has the capacity to enslave the minds of our men, even more so than the Cephalids we encountered in the Underlands. Our only defense will be to steel out wills, girding against the siren’s call as it were. Thankfully we still have a few of the Templar order of Shadow Slayers among the expedition, many of which have battled against the Dark Mariners in the Underlands, their iron wills unbroken by this vile enemy.
Toughened troops will be valuable as Wormwood has been continually devising new techniques to combat the apparent overwhelming strength of the tentacled horrors. One of his new ideas is pure madness - he plans to have a team of divers breach the hull of the living vessels of the Dark Mariners, which he believes to be completely filled with water, and then scuttle the ship or capture the commander...
A week ago we were confronted with a new enemy in the deep, a cadre of reptilian beings cruising through the ruins on a shallow shelf, their powerful tails propelling them through the
water the same way as the ocean crocodiles of Terra Australis. We had a brief skirmish with this Scaly Horde but needed to retreat after the battle was joined by an enormous sea dragon, apparently controlled by a draconid beastmaster swimming nearby. These variants of the cold-blooded monsters we had fought on land were equipped with webbed hand and feet and could dive down great distances with little effort. Named Sea Demons by our men, these beasts also seem to be able to travel out of water easily also, as we discovered during one of their raids upon our encampment.
We are discovering new dangers from this force with each passing day now, including a sighting of powerful humanoid beasts, nauseatingly manlike with an appearance that hinted of the savage garks of the Sunless Kingdom. They seemed completely adapted to the deep and were unaffected by the frigid water or scalding jets from undersea thermal vents. Their barbed spears and tridents were charged with crackling energy and caused heavy casualties to our team, and we were unable to keep them from stealing a great deal of gold and crystals from the wreck we had rightly claimed. Back on shore, Ensign McCardell declared that he had seen one of these things skulking about the caverns at the harbor, near a group of troglodytes that, upon interrogation, claimed to have no knowledge of such a creature, a dubious claim knowing their scheming nature.
We have continued to encounter more of these vile things accompanied by blasphemous fishmen referred to as
Dagathonans by our troglodyte guide, and enormous fish with jaws that crushed our suits as a parrot cracks a nutshell. Just the previous week we encountered an insectoid monstrosity carrying curious breathing apparatus and displaying skill at handling the technology of the deep wrecks. I now believe that they are all part of coordinated effort to salvage treasures of the deep...
A new enemy
-Wormwood’s plan for the submarine assault is progressing slowly and I fear for the future of the expedition. There is cause to believe that the dives themselves may be causing instability in some of the men, beyond the battles with nightmares of the deep. After an expedition not two nights past, one of our divers claimed to have seen a pair of female divers, clad in glittering golden harness but without breathing gear of any type or protection from the deathly cold of the deep. These mermaids, as he called them, were freely swimming through a wreck, accompanied by slender men in golden armor wielding some sort of projectile weapons. I sent the man back to the brig for his own protection but only a day later did we meet with the force we now know as the Ancients of Atalán. Their ability to harness the energy of the ethers astonishes even Wormwood, who still steadfastly claims that he can replicate their technology with time and resources. From what we have gathered from salvaged engravings and from a captured Axibalán amazon,
these new enemies are actually descendants of the last true elder race of the Underlands, whose ruined civilization we scour for bits of gold and trinkets. The race had migrated from their monolithic temples on land to elegant towers of crystal and metal on the bottom of the sea, becoming further twisted by their experiments with the ethers and the unholy creatures that reside beyond the windows of our vision. They left behind a few sorceresses to act as keepers of the Underlands, controlling the savages that had only just migrated to the underground realm. No trace of the elder beings remains though, save their artifacts and structures, and the amazon provided no more information on the subject.
From what we could gather, The sect of Atalán was a small group that rebelled against the decadence of their leaders and travelled out into the open seas of the surface world to create their own kingdom. The she-devil spoke of these beings with reverence, claiming that the gods had finally returned from their exile to reclaim what was taken from them by their elders, and that they will rebuild their fractured empire of land and sea forces into a new power. The connection to the female divers was all too clear now, and we feared that this new enemy would be as dangerous as the Axibalán sorceresses had been on land or more so if they were able to consolidate their forces.
Our fears were justified. Only yesterday, our troops were assaulted by these mysterious enemies, the only survivor describing terrifying vortices being created by the female sorceresses and watching his unit decimated by piercing beams of light from the male soldiers that cut through their armored suits. The last of the team was slaughtered by soulless automatons in the shape of massive sea creatures, cruising through the waters and finishing off the wounded with glowing blades and metal claws. The shaken survivor did state though, that their armor was susceptible to damage from our crude steel spears and torpedoes, so all hope may not be lost...
December 19, 1691
Fate of the Ancients
-Is it now apparent to that our expedition is battling for control of the undersea artifacts with these other forces, and that we are in a race to decipher the reasons for the disappearance of such an advanced civilization. Just this afternoon one of our men, from the deepest dive yet attempted, surfaced with a small piece of metal that I could not identify and told of seeing a craft, half-buried in a cooled lava flow. This craft appeared unlike any of the other ancient submersibles we explored and yet still had design characteristics unequivocally from the elder race.
This craft had not been sunken, he stated, which would be patently impossible I must say... He continued to claim that this vehicle was untouched, and the unburied part of the seafloor it lay upon had the unmistakable signs of being a man-made structure. I scoffed, as this diver did not have the requisite
background to make such as claim, but there is a part of me that cannot discount the possibility...
My dreams have been fitful this evening on the shores of this inner sea. I have had unshakable visions of cyclopean arches and monoliths covered in inscriptions similar to those in the ruins under which I now sleep. There are no stars in this underground world but there are in my dreams, clear and distinct, glittering in a sky of swirling blue and deep purples, surrounded by the dark of the deep sea...
-S
ilt roiled up in clouds below my feet but I could still see clearly enough in the glow of the crystal lamps and continued the descent down into the canyon. Fish darted away from my view and I strained to see them through the restricted viewplate but could not identify them clearly. A massive creature, possible some sort of devilfish, lurched away from the bottom, shaking off sediment from its back and cruising out of sight.There was not a sound within my suit of steel, save for the droning hum of the air creation device, a masterful piece of engineering created by Wormwood after his studies with ethereal artifacts recovered during the previous expedition. It was becoming more difficult to breath though, and I could feel a slight burning sensation in my lungs. The seafloor grew hazy, shifting in color patterns that should not be seen in this realm of darkness.
The canyon floor leveled off and I knew that the bottom of the abyssal canyon was near. The others were up ahead and I finally could see their bubble trails, a welcome sight after so long being separated. Voices echoed into my helmet, reverberating from the canyon walls and amplified by Wormwood’s crystal tube designs, urging me to climb a low rise ahead.
It was there as the survey team had indicated, draped onto the rocky floor of the canyon like the decaying corpse of a massive sea creature. My lamp shone on the ribs of the craft and I could almost swear that the material appeared as bone, although my training would not allow me to believe that it could be anything other than some sort of unnatural metal, pitted and corroded. The front was a twisted ruin, and the yawning entrance into the belly of the craft beckoned my colleagues. The last I saw of them was the glimmer of their crystal lamps as they climbed through the shattered remains of the front of the wreck.
I felt an iron grip pull violently on my suit, smashing my head against my helm. I was disoriented and fired wildly into the darkness. The thudding shock of my explosive harpoon blasted into my suit, knocking me off balance amid a cloud of purple fluid. I regained my footing and turned my lamp towards the darkness...
Journal entry – Phillipe Lesson 1691
explorers of the Abyss
-ForTune HunTerS
Whispers of the legendary lost realm beneath ice and snow has tempted many grizzled adventurer, devious brigands and adventurous scientists among the kingdoms of the Old World. Many of these seekers of golden treasures answered the call on dark and misty docks, unprepared for the dangers they would be asked to face. Only a few of the bravest, or most foolhardy, joined the expedition to the underground Shadow Sea, combining their skills and experimental dive equipment to make up a ragged yet dangerous force.
Fortune hunters come from many different countries, often hired as mercenaries with backgrounds as veterans of wars or scientific expeditions. Some bring their own equipment, specially designed for underwater exploration or salvaged from previous treks through the Underlands, while others are simply soldiers trained in the use of the new armored diving gear created by Dr. Wormwood in his dark and mysterious
laboratory. The main expedition has been funded by wealthy nobles and shadowy forces at the highest levels of the kingdoms of the Old World. A recent discovery of the deadly draconid creatures of the Underlands spreading across the southern continents of the New World has forced these kingdoms to put aside their petty squabbles and work together to recover the powerful ether technology artifacts sitting on the cold seafloor of the underground ocean. The teamwork of many of the most esteemed scientists of the age within Wormwood lab has made this goal a possibility. How the salvaged treasures of the deep are shared amongst the jealous, backstabbing kings will be of concern later.
The Fortune Hunters have a variety of different troop types, but they all share a need to wear heavy dive suits of thick, oiled leather or bronze, pressurized so that they can survive under the crushing weight of hundreds of feet of water. Their helmets are designed to resist the water pressure but still give some level of visibility through multiple viewing windows of solid crystal. The helmets restrict visibly though, and the armored suits are clumsy and slow to turn, but they keep the divers alive in the deadly world at the bottom of the sea.
Though their technology appears unsophisticated, a crude mixture of recovered ancient technology and rough modifications, it is still reliable and effective in combat. Their weapons are especially efficient killing tools, though relying too often on explosives that may cause collateral damage. Their primary weapons are spearguns that fire heavy steel spears and harpoons that punch through the armor of the opposing forces with relative ease. All of the weapons are fired using the same basic principles as gunpowder weapons, using an explosion to hurl a projectiles or multiple projectiles out at high velocity. In the case of underwater weapons though, the explosive is a small bit of unstable crystal that explodes when hit with a firing hammer. The crystals are a finite resource and are only found in the underground Shadow Sea, making them valuable treasures to recover during any dive.
The team of Fortune Hunters is based on the shores of the sea in the Underlands, repairing and upgrading their equipment between dive missions. When they are prepared, they board the submersible salvaged and modified by Dr. Wormwood for combat dives and exploratory missions down in to the watery gloom. The craft has multiple bulkhead doors that can seal off different sections, so that if breached by an enemy the ship will not collapse or become flooded as long as the doors are closed quickly. The weapons of the Fortune Hunters can operate in air almost as well as in water, so they are may be used to protect the submersible if boarded. Their heavy suits are slow in air though, unless having augmented power systems.
Upon reaching the seafloor, the team exits from a water lock, a pressurized room on the bottom of the craft, and make its way out to search for ancient treasures, carrying glowing lamps with crystal lights. Well armed and armored, the Fortune Hunters present a powerful foe to any other forces vying to recover the treasures of the deep.
DArk MArInerS
It has been theorized that these foul beings may actually be the degenerated remnants of the once powerful and proud civilization that ruled the Underlands and all creatures residing there, the creators of the ancient artifacts now coveted by all of the competing forces. It is not clear when their transformation began, but there have been some recent discoverers that have illuminated some of the dark mysteries.
A number of stone monoliths, discovered by Fortune Hunters of the Shadow Sea, were pulled up from the muck below and, when examined, displayed inscriptions of experiments and rituals practiced by human forms and blasphemous shapes. The forms of these creatures were indistinct, eaten away by encrusting sea life over untold ages, but they had an appearance similar to native tentacled monstrosities of the deep. They were larger though, and most offensive to the explorers, were holding instruments in their tentacles of the same design as those found buried in the silt nearby.
Other stone and metal artifacts of more recent design, found shallower in the sedimentary layer or laying right on the surface, showed the forms of the ancient race with a more twisted and inhuman countenance, becoming progressively on more recent finds. These discoveries have been interspersed with those of highly advanced artifacts, engraved metal plates and mosaics of precious stones showing the ascension of another group of humans from below the waves into fields of heavenly constellations. These were most likely made by the Ancients of the Underlands after they had migrated to settle under the ocean, and show their fanciful notions of the afterlife, although the constellations in these artifacts have not been identified as of yet.
The prevailing theory now is that the Dark Mariners were a faction of the elder civilization, composed of scientists and scholars that rebelled against the religious beliefs of their people. This faction chose to indulge in esoteric experiments with creatures from the darkest parts of the sea, mixing their blood with these awful monstrosities to produce abominations with powerful abilities to manipulate ethereal energy fields and even the thoughts of those around them. The experiments went to extreme ends, warping the minds of the scientists as they experimented on themselves and their chosen group of believers, until the pureblood elder race would have no more, and exiled them to the vastness of the underground sea, never to return to the submerged citadels of the Ancients.
The Dark Mariners survived and continued their experiments, creating terrifying combinations of living creatures and mechanical constructs, some for combat or research, and other for transportation. There are reports of massive living vessels that cruise through the deep sea, often near areas believed to be ruins of ancient cities, and terrifying being exiting from various regions of the vessel, if it can be called as such.
Dark Mariners are a dangerous foe to all that dare to
enter the deep ocean. Their weapons still utilize many of the technologies of their ancient predecessors, though much has been rebuilt or redesigned over many centuries and does not share the elegance of elder technology. Their primary weapons utilize the power of sonic energy to cause disruption of tissue and bone as well as metal structures. These are devastating at close range, as are their other weapons that focus ethereal energy fields to cause their targets to melt into piles of gore, even inside armored diving suits.
Supporting the warriors are hideous telepathic beings with tentacled bodies and hard armored shells, as well as living constructs of golden alloy and slippery flesh, wielding weaponry attached to their bodies. Their pureblood commanders are the few that retain a semblance of the nobility of their former race. These are the most dangerous of the Dark Mariners as they have knowledge of the nature of ethereal dimensions and may even be able to call forth beings of utter madness from places earthly beings should not be allowed to see.
AnCIenTS oF ATALán
The ancient civilization of the Underlands disappeared suddenly, leaving behind its arcane devices and elegant structures beneath the surface of the Shadow Sea. Theories regarding the sudden vanishing are varied, but none can question that a force related to that elder race has now returned. The Ancients of Atalán use many of the same devices that have been dredged from the seafloor, though their weapons and tools have been designed more recently. It is therefore believed that this force was originally a group of the elder race that splintered off to explore the oceans of the world and establish new colonies.
There have long been legends of a fallen city beneath the waves, off the coasts of the New World, but it may be that those legends actually spoke of a city that had been built underwater, the city of Atalán. Sailors in this part of the world have whispered of seeing slender shapes, mermaids as they called them, dancing through the waves for centuries, and of seeing
them breathing water as fishes of the sea and having bluish colored skin.
The Ancients of Atalán can indeed breathe water through gills on the sides of their necks, whether an unnatural modification or adaptation to their underwater existence Dr. Wormwood has not concluded. These beings appear to be incapable of life above the surface though, their lungs now unable to function properly in air. Ocean water can be just as foul as the air in some places, so these beings must use purification systems to supply clean seawater into their suits to ensure that they are able to breath in all underwater areas.
Their bodies are long and slender, some with webbed feet and others with more human features. The legends describe them as peaceful beings, rarely venturing to the surface and never attacking the ships of men, so it may be that they are reluctant warriors, killing when they must and only if there is no other choice. Their passive nature may explain their relatively weak armor and overall combat ability, which is lacking when compared to the other forces. In battle, almost all wear streamlined diving suits to protect from the bitter cold of the deep or heat from boiling water flowing up from hydrothermal vent systems, but offer little protection from attack. Ornate armored suits are rumored to be used by commanders but few have been seen.
Some of their females do not wear suits at all, protecting themselves through their control of water temperature and purity around their bodies. These sorceresses appear to have powers of the ethers similar to their counterparts on land, the witch queens of the Axibalán Empire, and are capable of controlling the flow of water to create deadly vortices that disorient enemies, blasts of intense pressure that rupture diving suits, boiling walls of water or even eruptions from undersea volcanoes. Other sorceresses fire intense beams of light from their hands, channeling ethereal energy to melt through metal and flesh.
The most dangerous aspect of this force though, is their use of advanced ether technology. Their weapons are deadly and precise, some designed to fire focused light beams, similar to those used by their sorceresses, while others shooting projectiles at incredible velocity using a mixture of magnetic forces in the weapons and ethereal energy in the projectiles themselves. The weapons hit targets at long range and cause little collateral damage. Warriors of this force shun crude explosives and prefer to target only those that interfere with their exploration and salvage operations, although they do have some forms of controlled explosives that breach metal hulls and the walls of ruined structures with ease.
The population of the Ancients is small compared to the other forces, as only a few have made the trip to the Underlands, bringing with them a number of mechanical constructs to assist them in salvaging the artifacts of their elders. Their trip represents the last expedition of a dying race attempting to rebuild itself to former glory and discover the reason for the disappearance of their original kingdom beneath the sea.
SCALy HorDe
The first explorers of the Underlands discovered a world of incredible beauty and mystery, with a multitude of creatures that appeared to defy the passage of time, animals seen only as skeletons in dusty museums. While the majority of these animals were simply dumb brutes that could be avoided by adventurers with experience on the savannahs of the Dark Continent, a few others proved to be exceptionally dangerous. These scaly devils were described as being similar to dragons of legend, but with superior intellect compared to the other ravenous beasts. The creatures were named the Draconid Legion by the early expeditions, and were feared for their capability to learn and emulate the tactics, weapons and armor of the adventurers. Most feared though, was their ability to adapt to nearly any environment, from freezing ice to burning lava flows, and a phenomenal rate of reproduction that seemed to spawn two for every one killed.
Only a few years since the discovery of an inner world below a frozen continent, the nightmare of the scientists of the surface world has now occurred as the draconids have managed to colonize the southern continent of the New World. This news has brought the most recent Fortune Hunter expeditions to the Shadow Sea, where they soon learned that the draconids were even more dangerous than before. Now, the scaly devils have adapted to marine life and established alliances with some of the vicious creatures of the Sunless Kingdom, a fungal forest stretching for hundreds of miles underground.
This alliance has formed a combat force called the Scaly Horde by explorers, one which has wreaked havoc on diving salvage missions. The main warriors of the force are draconid sea demons, so named for their spiked back ridges and horns and an unnatural ability to hold their breath on long dives to the deepest areas of the sea. These creatures seem to be most interested in finding submerged tunnels to the outside oceans, a sobering thought for all surface dwelling beings. Fortunately, Wormwood assures us that they would not be capable of swimming the many leagues from the underground ocean to the open seas.
Some draconids are masters of controlling aquatic animals, such as massive armored fish and incredibly fast and toothy fish-like reptiles, sending them into battle to tear apart their foes. These shamans are able to command the animals through some sort of unspoken communication, one that allows them to command over long distances, even in murky waters. The marine draconids are not as advanced in their choice of weapons as the other forces, but their sheer ferocity makes up for their simple weapons, whalebone spears, knives and, of course, their sharp teeth, claws, and clubbing tails.
One of the more dangerous aspects of the force is the addition of the nefarious Clal-Chk to the ranks, beings that do not appear to have any relation to other earthly creatures. Their origins are unknown, but the Clal-Chk reside in the
dankest regions of the Sunless Forest, although their cities or colonies have never been found. These dire beings have their own form of technology that relies on modifying living creatures into vile biological weapons. Their underwater weapons spit out corrosive projectiles that can eat through armor and flesh with ease, some even able to track their targets around obstacles or attack in swarms. The Clal-Chk are the only members of the force that have any interest in ancient technological artifacts, actively searching for them along the seafloor and sometimes leaving the battle once any are found.
A number of other strange creatures assist the Scaly Horde, including Dagathonan fish-men and Abyssal Garks, massive humanoid monsters from the deepest caverns under the Sunless Forest with a frightening ability to channel a devastating shock through their crystal weapons, not unlike how some species of eels and rays paralyze their prey. These creatures are more concerned with salvaging artifacts and gold from the wrecks on the bottom of the Shadow Sea than combat though, so they are not always the most brave of enemies. This lack of cohesion among the members of the Scaly Horde seems to be one weakness that may be exploited, although the sheer power and variety of combat abilities can shatter the other forces.
