Description
At the center of the city is the immense coral covered storm-giant retreat, a ruin rebuilt and repurposed as the city's magical center. The retreat’s runic circle still channels elemental power from a portal to the Plane of Water deep in the trench, and crystalline archives hold lost knowledge of the giants who built them.
Library
The library holds five crystalline, coral archives that contain knowledge preserved in crackling lightning. The formations are 10 feet across and 20 feet high.
Lightning Archive. A creature touching an archive can use an action to access the stored knowledge. Roll a d10. On a 1 or 2, the archive surges with lightning. Each creature in the room must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 22 (4d10) lightning damage on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one. If the d10 roll was 3 or higher, the creature can query the archive as by a commune spell. Once a creature uses the archive successfully, that creature can’t do so again for 24 hours.
Meditation Chamber
The great dome holds the ocean at bay. The restless spirits of the slain storm giants congregate in this chamber, harmlessly but mournfully wailing their sorrow. A circle of
Giant runes on the floor hums softly.
Storm Call. A creature that meditates within the Meditation Chamber’s rune circle for 10 minutes and succeeds on a DC 20 Intelligence (Arcana) check can create the effects of either the control weather spell or the control water spell, or both simultaneously (user’s choice). The
Magic affects the ocean and surface above the retreat within a radius of 10 miles for up to 8 hours, requiring no concentration.
Trench
The oceanic trench dives into darkness. The region around Coralia is well guarded, but dangers still occasionally slip past the Billowing Patrol. The trip to the Trench takes 2½ hours for characters who have a swimming speed (or 10 hours otherwise). Along the way, the characters might encounter a variety of deep-sea creatures, such as three giant sharks feeding on the remains of deep sea whales.
Planar Crossing. The trench below Coralia pierces the fabric of the planes. A rift in the planar fabric open in the depths of the trench leading to the
Elemental Plane of Water. Sluggish currents flow from the rift, traveling about 500 feet upward, 200 feet below Coralia. By swimming against the current, a creature can pass through the rift that’s the current’s source and enter the Elemental plane of water.
The trench is 200 feet deep. At the bottom is the wreck of the Girscamen. Read the following description as the characters come within sight of the wreck:
Midnight-colored coral covers the trench’s sheer walls. As the bottom of the trench comes into view, you see the wreckage of an ancient longship gripped by the spreading coral. Silt and debris cover the deck, but the name Girscamen is still visible on the hull.
Characters within 10 feet of the Girscamen feel a harmless supernatural chill—an effect of the unquiet spirits haunting the ship. If characters succeed on a DC 14 Intelligence (Arcana or Religion) check, they can tell restless spirits dwell nearby.
The Girscamen evidently broke in two when it sank. Half the ship is embedded in the trench wall and the coral around it; the rest was lost to the tides. A sizable hole pierces the deck and the hull below.
Palace
On the northern side of the city stands a tall palace, home of the queen and her council. The palace is composed of tall coral towers, bubbles emerging from its base, and a magical ward protecting it from intrusion.
During the assault of the pirates, the ground floor of the palace was mostly destroyed, weakening the structure as a whole. The palace is now under construction and won't be used until it is repaired, forcing the Tritons and Plasmoids to move the council to another location within the city.
History
Fundation
The coral-covered ruins of a
Storm Giant retreat cling to the ocean floor at the edge of an undersea trench. Storm giants once used this place as a haven to contemplate omens, to refine experimental
Magic, and to commune with the ocean. Its peace shattered during the
Draco-Giant War.
The ruins where then repurposed by the
Triton to serve as their new capital, Coralia.
The cloven crystal war
The
Cloven Crystals, ancient seals binding the mighty
Tromokratis, had fallen one by one. Either destroyed or stolen by the pirates of the
Kraken King, their loss heralded the return of a monstrous force. Only one crystal remained, and with it, the last barrier to the Kraken King's dominion over the oceans. Queen
Morganyn, its warden, stood as the final bulwark against his conquest.
A desperate war erupted as the Kraken King rallied the
Longstraw Pirates, assembling a fleet of over twenty ships crewed by hundreds of bloodthirsty raiders. Their target: Coralia, the Triton capital, where the final crystal lay embedded within the queen herself. Morganyn, knowing the threat, sent her Triton warriors to meet the enemy on the surface, while Coralia’s
Plasmoid allies took charge of the city’s defense.
As fireballs and arcane barrages rained down from pirate mages, the battle raged across the sea.
Katarina Nessi’s fleet soon arrived, striking not from above but from below, as her shark-riding warriors launched an underwater assault on the palace.
As the hours passed, the tide of battle shifted. The Tritons, forced to withdraw from the surface, reinforced the palace, pushing back Katarina’s forces. But this retreat allowed the Kraken King’s pirates to dive beneath the waves, preparing a new strategy.
Under the cover of night, Morganyn, her advisors, and
Wellan escaped the palace, using magic to disguise themselves as jellyfish, then polymorphing into sharks to flee undetected. Their destination: The
Garrot, the one ship that might offer them passage to safety. Soon after learning of the queen escape, the forces of both Katarina and the Kraken king followed the Garrot.
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