The Sinking Isle

The Sinking Isle has haunted the waters near the Isles of the Sea Barons from time immemorial. The earliest Oeridian tribes to fish the Solnor there knew of it; the Flan before them had legends of it; the seagoing elves of Lendore Isle have tales yet more ancient. Neither our own civilization nor even that of the Elvenfolk was the first in the Flanaess; there were others in times so far past that the very shape of the lands has since changed. The Sinking Isle is a reminder of them.

The region about Asperd Isle, the northernmost held by the Sea Barons, is prone to infrequent if powerful quakes. Perhaps it was one of these which in the distant past carried an island city to the sea bottom, and perhaps it is the same restlessness that on occasion raises it again into the air. Local mariners hold that while these movements are never predictable they are at times presaged by tremors and a boiling and bubbling that stirs dark mud from the bottom and releases bubbles of foul smelling gas. It is also said that the rise of the Sinking Isle is most likely in storms or fog. At such times coastal traders and pirates, who normally seek the protected inner passage between Asperd Island and the Solnor’s unpredictable waves, either go the long way round or stay aport. Many northern captains raiding southward will not attempt the strait at all, for lack of friendly informants.

The Sinking Isle is not always so kind as to give warning of its reemergence. Neither does it always show itself entirely above the waters. Often only the highest extremities jut upwards, as if they were lying in wait for unwary ships. Indeed seamen credit the isle or its manipulators with a malign will, and attribute any disappearance in the strait to its action. More than one will tell tales of a near-grounding, a suspicious darkness in the water on a clear fair day, or the sight of breakers where none ought to be. A very few claim to have watched the island, or even landed on it. They do so in whispers, as it is said that foolhardy boasters are apt to vanish from their homes on some dark and rainy night thereafter. So it is that for the most part only a faint rumor reaches the outside world of the Sinking Isle and its twisted ruins.

In the past one notable man was far less circumspect than modern adventurers: Atirr edorich, a hero of the Great Kingdom in the days of its youth. In 155, as a young man, he was sent southward by his father to the university at Rel Astra, then a great center of learning in the magical arts. The Sinking Isle was less active in those days, but as the fates would have it Atirr’s ship was caught in a sudden squall, and driven onto the hidden claws of the Isle itself. Atirr was fascinated rather than terrified (such were the Great Kingdom’s nobles in those days). For a full hour, while the crew sweated at the pumps and strained to place a patch over the hull’s single rent, the young man gazed at the strange phosphorescent landscape, and prepared several sketches, until one of the Solnor’s strange and unpredictable great waves came questing into the strait and lifted the wounded vessel clear. Atirr vowed to return and discover the island’s secrets.

Atirr did return northward some years later, but as Herzog of North Province. Not until his middle years did he have the leisure to take up his study. Through the examination of certain ancient Suel tomes, and the exercise of the arts he learned at Rel Astra, he devised a way to either predict or command the vagaries of the Sinking Isle. This knowledge, like much else, was lost in the Turmoil Between the Crowns, but several different descriptions survive of what he found when he drew alongside the risen city.

In the short time before the island sank once again beneath the waves’ Atirr and his fellows were able to recover and record information about a great many artifacts from among the spiky and highly decorated ruins. Among these were many panes of fine stained glass, some still intact, and some in tints never yet achieved by modern artists. Besides these were a number of twisted ornaments of gold and lead, later discovered to be Of sahuagin manufacture. Attir also discovered a book sealed against the water in a lead casket. All of these were returned to the court at Rauxes in honor of the Overking. The patient Atirr hoped to study them further in his retirement. He declared the book in particular to be most interesting, being among other things a recording in a lost language of “an ancient history together with magical secrets.”

Tragically, Atirr was never to attain his goal. Two years after his discoveries he and all hands went down in a storm off the coast of North Province in a storm which apparently even the Herzog’s powers could not quell. The book has since disappeared, though it may yet be found somewhere in the catacombs at Rauxes; it is difficult to be sure, as 90 little word now reaches the outside world of the doings at that court. It is known that Atirr was convinced from a preliminary study that the city itself was not primarily of sahuagin construction but must have been built by a terrestrial race, though sahuagin-like creatures and other sea life are depicted frequently in the architecture.

Later observers have examined the coastlands and sea near the site of the Sinking Isle, and have on a dark evening seen what may have been its upper towers. The region is chill and forbidding for such a southern latitude. Fishermen say that the catch in those parts is extraordinarily good, but that nets are often fouled. Those attempting the water, find it dark and chill. Most are content to leave the Sinking Isle to the sahuagin, or whatever race of the deeps now holds it.

Notes to the Dungeon Master

The Sinking Isle is held jointly by sahuagin and krakens, according to the local currents at the time. The waters about the isle are alternately very clear and warm as the southern current reaches it, or chilly and dark as it is touched by the northern currents. Each sort of water has its characteristic fauna, the former typified by sahuagin and the latter by krakens. There is a 10% chance in any month that the currents will change Over the course ofthe following month to the opposite direction.

The risings and fallings of the island are controlled by sacrifices of intelligent creatures at an altar in the middle of the largest ruin. The city is not of sahuagin manufacture, but it would not be amiss to suggest that the builders were the once-human ancestors of the sahuagin themselves. They were in any case an evil race toward the end. The ruins are reminiscent of Gothic architecture, with much decoration and many high pointed arches.

The isle is relatively uninhabited during changeovers from one current to another. It is 15% likely to rise on its own each month that characters are in the area, and will remain above water for ld6 hours. It normally rests on the bottom. Local fishermen are 10% likely to know the precise location; local mermen 50% likely. Neither will be eager to reveal the information or serve as guides. The sahuagin and krakens have a few allies ashore to apprise them of events.

It might be suggested that the House of Rax holds the book discovered by Atirr. Aside from historical information it is both a libram of inefable damnation and a book of vile deeds,