Savage Tide 5e
Fisseha Aranda
"The first savage tide has already touched the mortal world. Unleashed from the cruel heart of a shadow pearl, the tide swept over an ancient civilization, transforming the citizens into feral, cannibalistic fiends. The hateful architects of the savage tide watched, taking pride in the ruin they had wrought. Now, after a thousand years, the savage tide is about to return. Yet this time, the doom will not be limited to one hapless city. This time, all of civilization waits unknowing on the shore, blissfully ignorant of what the tide is about to bring in..."
Savage Tide is an Adventure Path released for Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition during Paizo Publishing's run of Dungeon, and was both intentionally a Grand Finale for Paizo's run of Dungeon... and unintentionally, an informal finale and sendoff for D&D 3.5 itself, being one of the very last 3.5 adventures published under the WotC umbrella. The adventure begins when the adventurers are hired by a noblewoman of the port city of Sasserine, Lavinia Vanderboren, to track down her missing brother, Vanthus. Over the course of twelve adventures that follow, the Player Characters go from adventures in Sasserine to exploring the infamous Isle of Dread to braving the terrors of the Abyss itself in order to stop a plot by one of D&D's greatest villains to cast the entire world into savagery.
Savage Tide nominally takes place in the Greyhawk setting, though far to the south of the Free City of Greyhawk. It is the third in the Dungeon adventure path series, after Shackled City and Age Of Worms; the three adventure paths are in the same continuity, and Savage Tide assumes that the previous two campaigns have occurred. (This conceit would later carry forward to Pathfinder's Adventure Paths.)
The adventure path is notable, as per above, for being the final adventure path released in Dungeon prior to its cancellation and relaunch as an online-only title for D&D Fourth Edition. The Grand Finale, "Prince of Demons," was the final adventure published in the printed era of Dungeon Magazine, and so served not only as a finale to the campaign, but to the magazine as well.
The Kopru had, themselves, once commanded a great empire; but by this date, that empire was in sharp decline. The Kopru had a reputation for three things; their great intelligence, their cruelty, and their absolute devotion to their deity; Demogorgon.
Working with their Demon-Lord, the Kopru labored for decades in their plans to destroy the Olman trespassers. Kopru sorcerers and priests labored in dark subterranean lairs unfolding their vile plot; the creation of the largest black pearl the world had ever seen.
This was no ordinary pearl, but instead one of the dreaded Shadow Pearls. Spawned by a gigantic fiendish oyster, and imbued with Demogorgon's demonic powers, the pearl was both irresistibly beautiful and deadly. When the great black pearl was completed, The Kopru released the pearl in a place where they knew the Olman would find it; The trap had now been set.
Local pearl fishers soon found the ebony prize and triumphantly brought it back to Thanaclan, where the pearl was ensconced on the altar of the high temple, as a trophy from the Gods. But once in place, the curse of the pearl began, corrupting everything it came in contact with. Soon the Olman Gods turned their backs on Thanaclan. The effects of the curse grew ever stronger, and the resulting calamities grew. Terrible storms battered the island, crops failed, wild beats began rampaging the city, and a eerie fog descended upon Thanaclan.
Soon the very ground beneath the city began to shake violently. In a panic, Olman priests tried to use magic to cast the pearl into another dimension. But this final enchantment only sealed their doom. The pearl opened and an oily, green mist poured forth, engulfing the entire city. Soon after, a great explosion rocked the central plateau of the island, opening up a gateway between worlds.
In a rush of filthy water, the entire city of Thanaclan was consumed by the Abyssal domain of Demogorgon. The entire region was saturated by this dark force, and those Olman not immediately killed were driven completely mad with Savage Fever. This fever infected the entire population, which succumbed into a violent, homicidal rage that consumed the entire population of the island.
Now, after thousands of years, the true masters of the Isle of Dread look upon new targets and new cities beyond the horizon, compelled by the hateful will of their demonic overlord to prepare for his coming glory. This time, the new Savage Tide will not be limited to one hapless city; rather all of civilization waits unknowing, blissfully ignorant of what the incoming tide brings in.
After a maddening eternity of deafening wind the tunnels you follow open up onto the middle of a steep cliffisde. Rock looms above to to port. The river runs along a jagged channel on the steep slope, and to starboard a vast void is filled with twisting rivulets of flame, floating rocky debris, and globules of liquid, all constantly stirred by a whipping wind. As you sail beside this sight the elemental mixture you see changes constantly, fire becomming water, only to vanish into air, then to solidify into stone again.
Tipene was cursed by an evil bat god. Ever since then, he has taken on a palsy that has permanently reduced his Dex by 6 points. In combat, he usually casts cause serious wounds and uses his great teamwork feat to flank his opponent with his companion, Tirapiki.
We made a rocky truce with the strange new-comer and almost immediately after the mutated dinosaur that had been inside the cave feasting on the flesh of his own kind came out to attack. Llinus stopped it in its tracks with some sorcery of his while we gathered our senses. Tina managed to enfeeble the beast somewhat but still Mpada Mbada and the lizard-man were hurt. Luckily the bravery of Flitteran brought Mpada Mbada, her dear friend, back to our aid and thus gave him the power to inflict one of the finishing blows that would bring down that disturbing monster. Thus he lashed in his death throws and burst into the acid remains of his spent body.
But the day had been long and the night half gone and so, after much convincing of the lizard-man, did the company retire with Dervish on the ship. Mpada Mbada used his natural cunning to heal the wounds of the party and all were held in the gentle arms of sleep, all except one. While the company rested as they are bound to do I searched. And as morning broke I waited for my companions on the beach with the stench of those mutated and mutilated bodies all around and the nights rest behind.
Kes and I have started to adapt to the horrid feeling of wrongness in the air, at least enough to fight our way back out as we know we must. The night before when I had searched those changed waters and found something that seemed to be at the heart of the savage chaos; a black pearl the size of a man fist lie broken on the ocean bottom. This and some useless finery i recovered for my company from the ravaged ocean floor. The learned ones tried to find its old power but could not and Dervish excited over the finery as we set out to search the caves for some clue or treasure that could lead us to Vanthus.
We first came upon a room that had trapped within it four caged creatures, oh how Kes and I did cry out at the sight of such torture. Mutated they where by the curse and desperate and trapped but the lizard-man and I waisted no time or words and quickly dispatched these half dead beasts out of decency.
The next room required breaking down the door and when the inside was revealed we saw that it was filled with fungi and lichen and some potions of sorts everywhere. We entered thinking ourselves safe and then we turned to see a human sized tentacled mushroom coming for the lizard-man; but he is strong and the mushroom only vegetable matter. After the shock was over the mushroom beast had no chance and was cloven in two in a minute. Inside we found poisons and a dead gnome.
As we stood on the shore contemplating the dusk, an alligator crawled up on shore, then stood upright. It suffered from the same savage fever affliction as the other beasts, monkeys and pirates of the land, so I attacked it before it could bite us. He then shouted something at my comrades in some slithering tongue. Fundiani treated (too kindly) with it, and it shouted something back in its alien language. It sounded rather mad, the blood shooting from its neck spewing onto the sandy beach.
Then from the mouth of the coastal cave, a dinosaur let out a roar. We jumped and a few of us ran to the cliff to gain higher ground. It charged and we charged, flanked it, swung madly, I was clawed and bitten to pieces, falling over in a lump of manflesh. Flitteran popped over and healed me in a flash while the others (even our new lizard friend in his chain shirt) kept the beast contained. I jumped up with my sword and stuck it in the neck (a common attack this day) and through our collective diligence the beast fell. I removed a few of its teeth while we healed up.
He lives in a small camp on Parrot Island (off the Shadowshore) and rides the tides at night on his makeshift raft, living off fish and what he collects along the shore. He has befriended a cadre of homeless kids from Shadowshore who bring him information and small goods in exchage for warrior training and occasional protection.
Recently Pada had a run-in with the slaver that originally brought him to the area and sold him to Captain Adelard. After helping some other slaves to escape, Pada ended up with a new friend: a grig who calls herself Flitaround Jumpkins. Flit now lives with Pada in his cave on Parrot Island.
The next room was octagonal. Each face had a carving of a monster. We quickly realized that starting with the wall immediately to the left of the entrance, and proceeding in a clockwise fashion, each monster had successively one more eye. One eye, two eye, three eye, four, and then some more. In the center of the room was a wide pillar that descended from the ceiling to just a few inches above the floor. The ceiling had a symbol of a black 8-pointed star with one arm a crimson color. Rotating the central pillar moved the red arm of the star around the room. A cryptic note that had been found in the cabin of the Vanderboren ship gave us the clue we needed to solve this particular puzzle.
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