Sea of Sorrows
A chill wind rolls in from the sea. Fog gathers thick over dark waves. The scent of brine and rot chokes the air, and in the distance, the mournful creak of a ship’s rigging groans like a noose swinging in the wind. This is the Sea of Sorrows—a boundless, black expanse where no coast is far enough, and no soul is safe from the wrath of Captain Pietra van Riese and her ghost ship, the Relentless.
Once a feared pirate admiral, Pietra van Riese was a woman of ruthless ambition and unmatched cruelty. She scoured the seas not merely for gold, but for the satisfaction of control, exacting her will with rope, keelhaul, and iron.
- Keelhauling was her signature punishment—dragging victims beneath her ship until their bodies were flayed by barnacles or drowned in silence.
- Her final voyage was marked by mutiny. But the crew underestimated Pietra’s resolve. She chained herself to the helm and drove the Relentless into a maelstrom, cursing her betrayers with her final breath.
The Mists rewarded her with command over an eternal hunt, sailing an ocean that can reach into any waters in the Domains of Dread, claiming those who dare forget fear.
She is bound to her ship, unable to leave it—but the Relentless can sail anywhere the Sea of Sorrows touches.
The Relentless is no ordinary ship. A massive, timeworn frigate with sails of flayed skin and cannons that fire screaming souls, it is fueled not by wind or current, but vengeance. Its hold is full of drowned wretches, ghostly echoes of victims chained eternally to its hull.
- Crewed by undead, bound spirits, and silent, masked sailors whose eyes leak brine, the Relentless never sleeps, never stops.
- Its lanterns burn with ghostly green fire, and its keel leaves behind no wake, only silence and ice.
Ships that see the Relentless approaching rarely survive. Those who are captured are offered one chance at mercy: take the place of someone already chained to the ship. Otherwise, they join the collection.
Themes and Horrors
- Relentless Pursuit: Nowhere is safe. Even crossing a placid lake may summon the Sea of Sorrows. Travelers live with the fear that any voyage might be their last.
- Guilt and Treachery: The sea responds to betrayal. Liars and oathbreakers are the first to vanish. Ghosts of drowned sailors whisper secrets and scream for justice.
- The False Hope of Land: Some islands appear on the horizon—lush, warm, promising. But most are illusions, or worse: traps set by Pietra to lure victims.
Key Locations
- Isle of the Keelhauler’s Cross: A jagged rock rising from the sea, draped with seaweed and the rusted chains of the damned. Here, victims are ritually chained and drowned to fuel the Relentless.
- Port Freedom: A floating, ever-drifting collection of half-sunken wrecks where survivors trade rumors of the Relentless, too afraid to make landfall or sail away.
- The Drowned Fleet: Beneath the waves lies an entire navy—ships dragged down by van Riese’s wrath, now haunted and still manned by their undead crews. Sometimes they rise.
Geography
The Sea of Sorrows appears infinite. It can spill into other domains, appearing as a coastal harbor, a misty cove, or an inland lake seemingly connected to nowhere. Ships that venture too far may find themselves ensnared in the Mists, their maps useless, their compasses spinning.
- Waters run deep, cold, and cruel, dragging ships down into wreck-strewn canyons where light dies and shapes move in the dark.
- Storms follow betrayal. When lies are spoken or deals broken aboard a vessel, the sea responds with hunger—rogue waves, spectral whirlpools, or worse, the sudden approach of the Relentless.
- No shore is safe. Harbors in nearby domains that touch this sea may be swallowed by it, replaced overnight by the crashing surf of the Sea of Sorrows, dooming entire towns to its fury.
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