Dal Mazaar
Okay so for the Five Incursions (invasions) into the water plane, the second incursion is the one that has the least information about it. Here’s the sum total of information I have in World Anvil about this:
Event: 3204 BF to 3203 BF Title: Incursion of Dal Mazaar
“Cursed by visions of an endless sea, an old barbarian named Dal Mazaar launched a campaign to conquer a Triton city with his bandit hordes.
Little is known of this incursion but that it was a swift defeat at the hands of the Triton armies.” I want to add in a Davy jones type character in our world. A pirate or sailor that could have been one of the ones that attempted to invade the water plane but someone else is keeping him alive so rutar potentially has him cursed since rutar can’t kill him because of the other entity’s involvement Okay so my idea is someone else is the one that was giving him the visions. A living person not a god or anything. Dal wasn’t a sailor he was a barbarian. Maybe his first mate or navigator was forcing the visions but needed the people that dal had to try and invade the water plane. Rutar knew of the trickery and decided to curse the person that caused the mess. We can play around with where they are from. But we can say Dal doesn’t know and that whole main crew is cursed still. So Dal is trying to figure out how to die and the first mate is the reason they can’t https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-LM0-jXWk9oPH47Dm3bz The Naval Code by BS_DungeonMaster The Naval Code by BS_DungeonMaster - Created with GM Binder. Image Like what being would have a need in the water plane. And what did they sneakily take while there was a distraction from this invasion There’s a very small city in Heron’s End called Louden, it’s on Bittern Island and right now I have nothing for this city other than it’s where the spouse of one of my campaigns shipmates resides and owns a small tavern. World question to help us flesh out that hierarchy - who rules hell right now? I seem to remember a war between demons and devils or two hell affiliated factions in our world Right the blood war. Devils and demons are both obviously evil but devils lean more to lawful evil and demons are chaotic evil. In regular DnD the devils are over hell, demons are over the abyss. Idk how I want that to work in our world but the war is ever going because they can’t agree on the way to be evil. If they ever end the blood war all the planes are in trouble. I like the idea of the multi levels of the hells like Dante’s inferno. How long has the war been going on? More specifically, would the war have been raging during the second incursion 3204 BF? The war has been going on for as long as there has been history. As soon as the abyss and the hells knew about each other they were at war but there is no time frame as to when it started just as long as they have been around Ooooooo okay so to your earlier question “what would someone need from the water plane” …
What if there was a magical item in the water plane that could conjure water at extreme volume and speed.
Something a demon (or devil) could use to rapidly cool a massive lava-covered portion of Hell.
What if that item being stolen during the second incursion is what allowed said devil or demon to create an enormous obsidian fortress in hell - a stronghold from which an awesome battle was waged and won by the side that controlled the fortress.
What if that item is still in that fortress, and its return to the water plane is what would need to happen in order for Dal Mazaar’s crew to be released from their curse.
With that you get:
-the chance to flesh out a big turning point in the Blood War -a magical item that could be retrieved by the players -a mysterious, gargantuan, dangerous, exciting potential setting for a portion of the story Turning point wouldn’t be a turning point but a huge step that hadn’t been made one way or the other in thousands of years Maybe it’s the first time the demons are able to establish a permanent stronghold in hell, where before they launched their attacks from the abyss Yes, idk about the water thing but something that helps create the fortress and hold it Maybe onir based the enchantment of her pommel fixing structures off of this item For sure, I felt like it being something that dispensed water both made sense for why it had to come from the water plane and it plays off what we all intuitively know happens when water and lava mix, plus if it’s still there then you get the opportunity to say that over time the demons have used it to expand and expand until now thousands of years later it is one of the largest physical structures in all the planes.
But if we can come up with some other kind of item, all we’d have to do is figure out why it had to come from The water plane instead of anywhere else Could be an item holding an entire city together in the water plane that a demon stole and doomed the city now that it is in the hells I feel like them expanding that much into the hells is way too much of a tipping point and the shit that would be protecting that would be tough even for a level 20 party Fair fair, in that case the fact that it was stolen and led to an entire water city collapsing does make sense why Rutar would both curse the person who stole it and command the leaders of the invasion that distracted Rutar from protecting the item to walk the earth in a tortured immortality until they brought it back.
Rutar would probably assume someone from the material plane stole it, so he cursed Dal Mazaar to search that plane, not knowing someone from Hell was the true culprit This could make Dal Mazaar almost a sympathetic villain, someone who was manipulated into making a mistake and is now doomed to live the consequences until a demon decides to do the right thing. Tragic as fuck Much in the same way that I feel bad for Davy Jones, I’d feel bad for this guy Just how I like my villains. They saw themselves as the hero of their own story only for everyone else to see it as evil without them knowing, there is always a bigger picture. Oooooo you know, it does also allow for a cool combat in that Dal Mazaar’s pirate crew can attack the party, either they succeed and the party can escape/briefly incapacitate Dal Mazaar’s crew only to watch them rise again and sail back into the ocean until the next confrontation,
or they lose to Dal’s crew and the party thinks it’s certain death until Dal’s crew searches their affairs and finds no evidence of the item. In that option, Dal can reveal part of why he’s cursed and what he’s searching for, and potentially hook the players into helping him find it Honestly he would have no idea who took it and probably wouldn’t know what he was looking for. Rutar would not tell him anything other than bring back what you stole. So dal would just find shit and bring it to some kind of alter PrototypeSeb — 7/24/2025 8:28 PM That would mean he’d be eager to chase any rumor of anything stolen from the water plane If he doesn’t know what was stolen, that’s all he has to go off of right? I think you can do both. Have the first one be a first encounter and the second they find the real reason but you know he is pissed all the time. And yeah that’s all he has to go off of. Or just a pirate of pirates… a ghost story that pirate crews talk about I like the idea that he is a scary ghost story pirates tell each other We need a good ship name and I think it should be in the stories that he is the only ship that can cross the whirlpool Something fearsome, iconic and potentially ironic The Sea Kings Verdict. Ship originally was sunk by one of the kraken but was brought back as the sea kings verdict I don’t think the Kraken existed yet by this point - the kraken are created from Rutar and Funza’s kids after the 5th incursion.
Maybe there’s another, older titanic monster that takes revenge on Dal Mazaar’s ship? One that lives in the water plane, and has some unique defining characteristic that is given to The Sea King’s Verdict and her crew as a permanent mark of their encounter with it? Like “the crew’s skin is covered in a black webbing that remains from being in the old monster’s stomach” or something like that Well rutars avatar on the material plane is a giant leviathan. So technically that is the sea king. I like the webbing but I think almost like the ship is covered in chum that is webbed. So it’s always followed by sea hunters like sharks and stuff. Maybe the crew were turned into undead triton types similar to Davy jones being the squid octopus thing in pirates of the Caribbean?. The ship can fully control and sail in the whirlpool but can also submerge and “sail” underwater for its characteristics of being like the leviathan. The ships wake and trail of sea monsters following it would almost look like a giant serpent if submerged so it would look like the leviathan too Oooo I like the idea that the ship’s chummy exterior attracts other sea creatures to follow - that would add to the lore sailors would tell each other that whenever The Sea King’s Verdict appears, danger immediately follows Whether it is after you or not And yeah giving the crew Triton-like features with a little dose of godly magic from rutar tossed in would make them formidable creatures both above and below the water And perhaps occasionally when the Verdict travels near islands or land, some of those sea creatures wash ashore and terrorize coastal communities Some kind of plague spreads to the sea life so they can’t fish? I want to flesh out the full crew Have snippets of backstory for each I’ll have to look up actual crew terms and what they do A plague - what if it’s like a temporary bloodlust or frenzy? When the Verdict passes by sea creatures, they are infected with a mania that overrides their typical nature for a time, another way Rutar exacts his revenge on the material plane I like it. I think that makes the creatures inedible or it will cause the people to do the same thing. Entire small fishing villages would tare themselves apart Lasts for like a week or two so it brings famine to small villages too. Ooooohhh yeah like seasoned fisherman will be able to recognize the signs that the Verdict has passed through these waters, but inexperienced ones will continue to fish, eat the infected food, and then become ravenous maniacs that then wreaks havoc in the towns Fighting or subduing these creatures could be one of many services that a sailor’s guild in the Ends could specialize in doing Yeah there needs to be some kind of signs after it passes through We have so much to plan. Also brings an icy current of some kind so that could be a sign This is great because it adds to the general “Damn this place is dangerous and fucked” reputation that we’ve had and want to expand for the Ends in general Like this would incentivize people to take a much longer route around the whirlpool even if it takes 2x or 3x as long…because “while it’s faster to sail through The Ends, you risk an encounter with the Sea King’s Verdict” I feel like what I put in quotes there would actually be said in port cities throughout Tal’drasil, Uskod, etc I think there are books about him too Signs that the Verdict is near…icy current, maybe blackened seaweed rising to the surface, an eerie stillness/saltiness/smell in the air, compasses don’t work as well, what do you think Like “dangers of the ends: stories, tales, and facts about life in the ends” That’s something Wren Maw would have the experience to write! I think wren found it incomplete and finished it Could have been Dal who started it himself and never finished, wren finds their old cove hideout uses it to help his travel and finishes it Like maybe Dal was the wren maw that failed Hmmm, that raises a question for me that you ought to think through as we flesh out the Verdict’s crew - is Dal Mazaar smart? Competent? Is he a strategist? An Independent thinker? Is he more a simpleton? A drone who knows/cares for little but finding what was stolen from the water plane? Does he have his own ends, his own goals/pursuits? How is Dal’s time spent? Is it mostly searching for the item? Or has he mostly given up on finding it, now doing whatever he wants but cursed to live until he finds the stolen item regardless? What do you think I think in life he was a colonizing merchant. Decently smart but very trusting of people that got close to him. That’s how he got tricked by the first mate/devil follower. I think he was strong and charismatic but easily influenced. When some of his settlements failed because they were attacked by pirates he went all vengeance and turned to piracy because the first mate told him that’s what he needed to do to get payback for the settlement. The pirates ran away from him and his fleet, maybe tried to escape to the water plane and he took his whole fleet in after not knowing about the rutar stuff. He searched for thousands of years and now he is just vengeful on anyone else that can steal but still can die since he can’t.
Spitballing all of that can be reworked I don’t think he thought far ahead but was normally very lucky. When his luck failed he jumped head first into the shit and didn’t think things through.
Now I think he sees himself as a strategist because he doesn’t believe in luck or doesn’t trust it any more I like all of this! One addition/tweak is that he started as a merchant, wanted to lead settlements, but those settlements failed because of pirates. As revenge, he assembles a small crew and - brilliantly - uses them to destroy a large pirate crew and take their gold/weapons/goods.
Almost all are killed, and one of the survivors (the bad guy with designs on stealing something from the water plane) thinks to themselves “if this guy can do this to us, he can do this to others and build a massive army” so he joins Dal’s crew and begins to influence him to conquer more and more pirate crews to do just that. Then, once the army is large enough, he starts giving Dal visions of the water plane and enticing him to invade and attack. Dal obviously fails, the bad guy steals the thing for the devil, and Rutar curses them all I think the pirate that joins might corrupt the first mate then the first mate causes everything to set in motion. Based on how we are describing dal I don’t think he would let someone get so high up in his crew if he was fighting them at one point Unless it was someone that said they were a captive to get out of being killed
The Sea King's Verdict
Causes a mania
NOTES FROM CALL
Dal is a stingray-triton first Mate is a Jellyfish man Dal offers gifts to rutar - stolen items from other pirates - daily ritual First mate and Dal met early - when Dal's first city was attacked by pirates First mate was a captain, but posed as a prisoner when Dal killed his crew First Mate was born into nothing, works, is on the rise, makes a huge bet on a ship, loses it, and just before death makes a deal First Mate hates pirates, parents were killed by them, but uses pirates
Event: 3204 BF to 3203 BF Title: Incursion of Dal Mazaar
“Cursed by visions of an endless sea, an old barbarian named Dal Mazaar launched a campaign to conquer a Triton city with his bandit hordes.
Little is known of this incursion but that it was a swift defeat at the hands of the Triton armies.” I want to add in a Davy jones type character in our world. A pirate or sailor that could have been one of the ones that attempted to invade the water plane but someone else is keeping him alive so rutar potentially has him cursed since rutar can’t kill him because of the other entity’s involvement Okay so my idea is someone else is the one that was giving him the visions. A living person not a god or anything. Dal wasn’t a sailor he was a barbarian. Maybe his first mate or navigator was forcing the visions but needed the people that dal had to try and invade the water plane. Rutar knew of the trickery and decided to curse the person that caused the mess. We can play around with where they are from. But we can say Dal doesn’t know and that whole main crew is cursed still. So Dal is trying to figure out how to die and the first mate is the reason they can’t https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-LM0-jXWk9oPH47Dm3bz The Naval Code by BS_DungeonMaster The Naval Code by BS_DungeonMaster - Created with GM Binder. Image Like what being would have a need in the water plane. And what did they sneakily take while there was a distraction from this invasion There’s a very small city in Heron’s End called Louden, it’s on Bittern Island and right now I have nothing for this city other than it’s where the spouse of one of my campaigns shipmates resides and owns a small tavern. World question to help us flesh out that hierarchy - who rules hell right now? I seem to remember a war between demons and devils or two hell affiliated factions in our world Right the blood war. Devils and demons are both obviously evil but devils lean more to lawful evil and demons are chaotic evil. In regular DnD the devils are over hell, demons are over the abyss. Idk how I want that to work in our world but the war is ever going because they can’t agree on the way to be evil. If they ever end the blood war all the planes are in trouble. I like the idea of the multi levels of the hells like Dante’s inferno. How long has the war been going on? More specifically, would the war have been raging during the second incursion 3204 BF? The war has been going on for as long as there has been history. As soon as the abyss and the hells knew about each other they were at war but there is no time frame as to when it started just as long as they have been around Ooooooo okay so to your earlier question “what would someone need from the water plane” …
What if there was a magical item in the water plane that could conjure water at extreme volume and speed.
Something a demon (or devil) could use to rapidly cool a massive lava-covered portion of Hell.
What if that item being stolen during the second incursion is what allowed said devil or demon to create an enormous obsidian fortress in hell - a stronghold from which an awesome battle was waged and won by the side that controlled the fortress.
What if that item is still in that fortress, and its return to the water plane is what would need to happen in order for Dal Mazaar’s crew to be released from their curse.
With that you get:
-the chance to flesh out a big turning point in the Blood War -a magical item that could be retrieved by the players -a mysterious, gargantuan, dangerous, exciting potential setting for a portion of the story Turning point wouldn’t be a turning point but a huge step that hadn’t been made one way or the other in thousands of years Maybe it’s the first time the demons are able to establish a permanent stronghold in hell, where before they launched their attacks from the abyss Yes, idk about the water thing but something that helps create the fortress and hold it Maybe onir based the enchantment of her pommel fixing structures off of this item For sure, I felt like it being something that dispensed water both made sense for why it had to come from the water plane and it plays off what we all intuitively know happens when water and lava mix, plus if it’s still there then you get the opportunity to say that over time the demons have used it to expand and expand until now thousands of years later it is one of the largest physical structures in all the planes.
But if we can come up with some other kind of item, all we’d have to do is figure out why it had to come from The water plane instead of anywhere else Could be an item holding an entire city together in the water plane that a demon stole and doomed the city now that it is in the hells I feel like them expanding that much into the hells is way too much of a tipping point and the shit that would be protecting that would be tough even for a level 20 party Fair fair, in that case the fact that it was stolen and led to an entire water city collapsing does make sense why Rutar would both curse the person who stole it and command the leaders of the invasion that distracted Rutar from protecting the item to walk the earth in a tortured immortality until they brought it back.
Rutar would probably assume someone from the material plane stole it, so he cursed Dal Mazaar to search that plane, not knowing someone from Hell was the true culprit This could make Dal Mazaar almost a sympathetic villain, someone who was manipulated into making a mistake and is now doomed to live the consequences until a demon decides to do the right thing. Tragic as fuck Much in the same way that I feel bad for Davy Jones, I’d feel bad for this guy Just how I like my villains. They saw themselves as the hero of their own story only for everyone else to see it as evil without them knowing, there is always a bigger picture. Oooooo you know, it does also allow for a cool combat in that Dal Mazaar’s pirate crew can attack the party, either they succeed and the party can escape/briefly incapacitate Dal Mazaar’s crew only to watch them rise again and sail back into the ocean until the next confrontation,
or they lose to Dal’s crew and the party thinks it’s certain death until Dal’s crew searches their affairs and finds no evidence of the item. In that option, Dal can reveal part of why he’s cursed and what he’s searching for, and potentially hook the players into helping him find it Honestly he would have no idea who took it and probably wouldn’t know what he was looking for. Rutar would not tell him anything other than bring back what you stole. So dal would just find shit and bring it to some kind of alter PrototypeSeb — 7/24/2025 8:28 PM That would mean he’d be eager to chase any rumor of anything stolen from the water plane If he doesn’t know what was stolen, that’s all he has to go off of right? I think you can do both. Have the first one be a first encounter and the second they find the real reason but you know he is pissed all the time. And yeah that’s all he has to go off of. Or just a pirate of pirates… a ghost story that pirate crews talk about I like the idea that he is a scary ghost story pirates tell each other We need a good ship name and I think it should be in the stories that he is the only ship that can cross the whirlpool Something fearsome, iconic and potentially ironic The Sea Kings Verdict. Ship originally was sunk by one of the kraken but was brought back as the sea kings verdict I don’t think the Kraken existed yet by this point - the kraken are created from Rutar and Funza’s kids after the 5th incursion.
Maybe there’s another, older titanic monster that takes revenge on Dal Mazaar’s ship? One that lives in the water plane, and has some unique defining characteristic that is given to The Sea King’s Verdict and her crew as a permanent mark of their encounter with it? Like “the crew’s skin is covered in a black webbing that remains from being in the old monster’s stomach” or something like that Well rutars avatar on the material plane is a giant leviathan. So technically that is the sea king. I like the webbing but I think almost like the ship is covered in chum that is webbed. So it’s always followed by sea hunters like sharks and stuff. Maybe the crew were turned into undead triton types similar to Davy jones being the squid octopus thing in pirates of the Caribbean?. The ship can fully control and sail in the whirlpool but can also submerge and “sail” underwater for its characteristics of being like the leviathan. The ships wake and trail of sea monsters following it would almost look like a giant serpent if submerged so it would look like the leviathan too Oooo I like the idea that the ship’s chummy exterior attracts other sea creatures to follow - that would add to the lore sailors would tell each other that whenever The Sea King’s Verdict appears, danger immediately follows Whether it is after you or not And yeah giving the crew Triton-like features with a little dose of godly magic from rutar tossed in would make them formidable creatures both above and below the water And perhaps occasionally when the Verdict travels near islands or land, some of those sea creatures wash ashore and terrorize coastal communities Some kind of plague spreads to the sea life so they can’t fish? I want to flesh out the full crew Have snippets of backstory for each I’ll have to look up actual crew terms and what they do A plague - what if it’s like a temporary bloodlust or frenzy? When the Verdict passes by sea creatures, they are infected with a mania that overrides their typical nature for a time, another way Rutar exacts his revenge on the material plane I like it. I think that makes the creatures inedible or it will cause the people to do the same thing. Entire small fishing villages would tare themselves apart Lasts for like a week or two so it brings famine to small villages too. Ooooohhh yeah like seasoned fisherman will be able to recognize the signs that the Verdict has passed through these waters, but inexperienced ones will continue to fish, eat the infected food, and then become ravenous maniacs that then wreaks havoc in the towns Fighting or subduing these creatures could be one of many services that a sailor’s guild in the Ends could specialize in doing Yeah there needs to be some kind of signs after it passes through We have so much to plan. Also brings an icy current of some kind so that could be a sign This is great because it adds to the general “Damn this place is dangerous and fucked” reputation that we’ve had and want to expand for the Ends in general Like this would incentivize people to take a much longer route around the whirlpool even if it takes 2x or 3x as long…because “while it’s faster to sail through The Ends, you risk an encounter with the Sea King’s Verdict” I feel like what I put in quotes there would actually be said in port cities throughout Tal’drasil, Uskod, etc I think there are books about him too Signs that the Verdict is near…icy current, maybe blackened seaweed rising to the surface, an eerie stillness/saltiness/smell in the air, compasses don’t work as well, what do you think Like “dangers of the ends: stories, tales, and facts about life in the ends” That’s something Wren Maw would have the experience to write! I think wren found it incomplete and finished it Could have been Dal who started it himself and never finished, wren finds their old cove hideout uses it to help his travel and finishes it Like maybe Dal was the wren maw that failed Hmmm, that raises a question for me that you ought to think through as we flesh out the Verdict’s crew - is Dal Mazaar smart? Competent? Is he a strategist? An Independent thinker? Is he more a simpleton? A drone who knows/cares for little but finding what was stolen from the water plane? Does he have his own ends, his own goals/pursuits? How is Dal’s time spent? Is it mostly searching for the item? Or has he mostly given up on finding it, now doing whatever he wants but cursed to live until he finds the stolen item regardless? What do you think I think in life he was a colonizing merchant. Decently smart but very trusting of people that got close to him. That’s how he got tricked by the first mate/devil follower. I think he was strong and charismatic but easily influenced. When some of his settlements failed because they were attacked by pirates he went all vengeance and turned to piracy because the first mate told him that’s what he needed to do to get payback for the settlement. The pirates ran away from him and his fleet, maybe tried to escape to the water plane and he took his whole fleet in after not knowing about the rutar stuff. He searched for thousands of years and now he is just vengeful on anyone else that can steal but still can die since he can’t.
Spitballing all of that can be reworked I don’t think he thought far ahead but was normally very lucky. When his luck failed he jumped head first into the shit and didn’t think things through.
Now I think he sees himself as a strategist because he doesn’t believe in luck or doesn’t trust it any more I like all of this! One addition/tweak is that he started as a merchant, wanted to lead settlements, but those settlements failed because of pirates. As revenge, he assembles a small crew and - brilliantly - uses them to destroy a large pirate crew and take their gold/weapons/goods.
Almost all are killed, and one of the survivors (the bad guy with designs on stealing something from the water plane) thinks to themselves “if this guy can do this to us, he can do this to others and build a massive army” so he joins Dal’s crew and begins to influence him to conquer more and more pirate crews to do just that. Then, once the army is large enough, he starts giving Dal visions of the water plane and enticing him to invade and attack. Dal obviously fails, the bad guy steals the thing for the devil, and Rutar curses them all I think the pirate that joins might corrupt the first mate then the first mate causes everything to set in motion. Based on how we are describing dal I don’t think he would let someone get so high up in his crew if he was fighting them at one point Unless it was someone that said they were a captive to get out of being killed
The Sea King's Verdict
Causes a mania
NOTES FROM CALL
Dal is a stingray-triton first Mate is a Jellyfish man Dal offers gifts to rutar - stolen items from other pirates - daily ritual First mate and Dal met early - when Dal's first city was attacked by pirates First mate was a captain, but posed as a prisoner when Dal killed his crew First Mate was born into nothing, works, is on the rise, makes a huge bet on a ship, loses it, and just before death makes a deal First Mate hates pirates, parents were killed by them, but uses pirates
Children
