Adventure Structure

1. Opening Scene Aboard the Starborn Gale
2. Kraken Encounter (Optional bypass)
3. Shipwrecked: Waking Up on the Island
4. Discovery of the Cursed Compass
5. The Shrine’s Puzzle Gate
6. The Shrine Interior Puzzle
7. Encounter with Moh'Rakk

1. Opening Aboard the Starborn Gale

Read-Aloud Description:

The sun sinks low behind a wall of dark clouds, its last light turning the sea to molten brass. The Starborn Gale rides the rising swells with a groan of straining wood and taut rope. Wind lashes the rigging as crew members scramble across the deck, their movements sharp with urgency.

The storm is coming fast. Thick clouds boil on the horizon, carried on a wind that tastes of salt and something metallic. Waves slap harder against the hull with every passing minute, and the sky darkens into a bruised, roiling gray.

“Trim those sails and brace the lines!” the captain roars over the gathering gale. “Storm’ll be on us before the sun’s gone!”

He spots you across the deck and waves you over with a sharp gesture. As you approach, you hear him muttering to a nearby sailor: “Secure the co... the cargo in my quarters. Aft of the ship—double-lock the damn thing. I don’t want it sliding loose if the storm gets worse.” He turns to you then, jaw set and eyes scanning the blackening sea. "Spread out along the railings, keep your eyes on the sea. Somethings off about this storm."

Captain Thaddeus Rook

Description:
Captain Rook is a weathered man in his early fifties, with sun-leathered skin etched by years of hard sailing. His graying black hair is tied back in a rough knot, and his sharp gray eyes scan the horizon with a mixture of experience and unease. Known for his stern but fair command, Rook carries the weight of many voyages and a reputation for steady leadership in storms and skirmishes alike. The crew respects him, though they say he is a bit superstitious.

Roleplay Traits

• Rook rarely speaks unless necessary but when he does, his words carry weight. He values discipline and doesn’t suffer fools gladly.
• Though a master of the waves, there’s a subtle tension beneath his calm exterior.

If players question him about his mood or the storm:

“Sailor’s senses don’t lie,” Rook grumbles, voice low. “There’s a wrongness in the wind, a weight behind the thunder. I’ve seen storms before, but this one… this one feels like more than weather.”

Insight DC 16 - You notice a flicker of something beneath the captain’s calm — a sharp, almost wary glint in his eyes that suggests he’s not just uneasy about the storm, but fears something specific.

• If pressed on this information: “You can call it superstition if you like, but I’ve sailed these waters long enough to know when a kraken’s near. This storm isn’t natural—it’s a warning.”

Once the players move to the rails, move onto the next section.

If you are not using the Kraken encounter, read the following and skip section 2:

As you move toward the rails on the captain’s order, the storm swells with terrifying force. Waves crash against the hull like fists, and the wind howls loud enough to drown out shouted voices. Rain pelts your faces in sheets, and every flash of lightning reveals a frothing, angry sea — no stars, no horizon, only water and black sky.

The ship groans under the strain. Mast ropes snap and whip through the air. A wave slams across the deck, tearing away barrels, crew, and footing alike. Another hits — harder — and then another. You feel the vessel twist beneath your feet, timbers shuddering with every hit.

Then the hull gives way.

Timbers crack, crates explode into splinters, and bodies — yours included — are flung through the air.

You crash into the sea. The cold is brutal and unrelenting, sinking into your limbs and dragging the breath from your lungs.
In moments, the world is only dark water—
—and then, nothing.

2. Kraken Encounter

• Players face a massive storm and the emergence of a kraken’s tentacles
• Two combat rounds with access to deck-mounted cannons (4 total above deck, one on each corner - 1d20+dex mod (8d10 bludgeoning damage)
• After round two, the kraken destroys the ship — fade to black
• The Kraken encounter is a bridge to get to the main section of the adventure. The encounter should not drain the players of all their resources. They can take a short rest after they awaken to regain some hit points.
• Prioritize the krakens attacks on the ship and not the players.
• 1 of 3 attacks each round should target the players
• Do not use legendary actions or layer actions
• Only use the Krakens Tentacle attack

As you move toward the rails on the captain’s order, the storm swells with a terrifying force. Waves crash against the hull like fists, and the wind howls loud enough to drown out shouted voices. Rain pelts your faces in sheets, and every flash of lightning reveals a frothing, angry sea — no stars, no horizon, only water and black sky.

Ten long minutes crawl by under the thunder’s roar.

Then the sea beneath you suddenly stills, just for a heartbeat.

The wind drops unnaturally. Somewhere below, a deep groan reverberates through the hull — not wood shifting, but something else… something alive.

Then it hits.

The ship jolts to a dead stop, the deck pitching forward as though the entire vessel just slammed into stone beneath the waves. Before anyone can react, a dull, sickening thump sounds from below — followed by a terrible crack as planks split near the port side.

A sailor screams — and then vanishes into the air, tossed like a rag doll by something massive and slick. From the churning water, a huge, glistening tentacle rises and writhes overhead, followed by another, and then another — thick, gnarled coils slapping onto the deck and railings, each one easily the width of a wagon.

They reel back, ready to strike.

Combat Begins.

Once the first round of combat concludes, the sea surges outward in all directions, pulled by something immense. Then, with a roar like a mountain breaking, the head of the kraken breaches the surface — ridged, alien, and immense — its abyssal eyes glowing dimly beneath a veil of seawater and lightning. Its maw opens, releasing a deep bellow that rattles the bones of the ship itself.

After round 2 concludes: A dozen tentacles now coil around the ship — splintering railings, crushing cannons, and flinging crew into the void. The deck tilts as the Starborn Gale rises, caught in the kraken’s grasp like a child’s toy.

And then — it comes.

From either side of the ship, a monstrous maw erupts from the sea, impossibly wide and filled with rows of jagged, coral-encrusted teeth. With a single, horrific crunch, it clamps down across the hull, ripping the ship in half.

Timbers crack, crates explode into splinters, and bodies — yours included — are flung through the air.

You crash into the sea. The cold is brutal and unnatural, as if it clings to your bones and drowns your thoughts.
In moments, the world is only dark water—
—and then, nothing.

Fade to black. Move onto the next section.

3. Shipwrecked on the Shore

You awaken sprawled across a stretch of beach where sand gives way to scraggly grass and windblown palms. The heat is stifling, and your skin is crusted with salt. Around you lie the bodies of shipmates—yours the only ones stirring—and the broken carcass of the Starborn Gale, its shattered hull washed up along the shore in splintered pieces.

Farther out, just past a jagged break wall, you spot the midsection of the ship wedged between two towering rocks, about sixty feet from shore. Waves slam into the stone with thunderous rhythm, sending mist into the air.

As you rise, the weight on your belts and backs feels off. Some of your gear is missing. Then, above the distant wreckage, you spot something familiar—an item caught high in the tangled rigging of a broken mast, still clinging to what remains of the ship's center.

If the players used too many resources during the Kraken encounter, you could allow them to have partially completed a full rest. You could say due to the conditions of their rest and their unconscious state, that they only replenished half of their hit points, up levels worth of spell slots (ie... two 2nd level spell slots or four 1st level spell slots).

Scattered Loot - The players may also find the following loot scattered around the beach:

• Potion of Healing x2 - Found in a medical satchel
• A bottle of ancient sea-wine that restores - 3d4 HP +1d4 temp HP
• Ring of Swimming - On a dead body (I would give advantage to Athletics checks made for the purposes of swimming as well)
• Driftglobe - Found nestled between 2 crates
• Explorer’s Pack components (rope, rations, tinderbox) scattered across the shore.
• 50 gp in loose coins tucked in a cracked lockbox.
• 200gp worth of salvaged cargo (spices, pearls)

Skill Challenges: Lost Gear Retrieval

Using the chart below, designate 1 or 2 pieces of gear belonging to the players and assign them to two of the Lost Gear Locations. The players will need to find them and retrieve them.

Essential Class Items by Role

Four Lost Gear Locations

Split Mast
 1. Item Dangling 20 ft up, off the top of the split mast of the ship’s midsection
 2. Checks: DC 14 Acrobatics or Athletics to climb; DC 13 Sleight of Hand to retrieve without splintered wood breaking off
 3. Failure: Player falls, taking 2d6 bludgeoning damage; splintered wood breaks from the mast. Give players an opportunity to react as the character begins to fall

Below Deck (Collapsed Hull)
 1. Item Trapped deep in cargo debris below the ship’s midsection
 2. Checks: DC 13 Investigation to locate; DC 14 Strength or Dexterity (player’s choice) to climb in and extract
 3. Failure: Debris shifts — player takes 1d8 bludgeoning damage and becomes pinned between crates
 4. A pinned player may attempt a DC 14 Athletics check to free themselves; otherwise, other players must enter and succeed the same checks to assist

Submerged Wreckage (Reef Pool)
 1. Item Trapped in a submerged panel of wreckage just off the shore, at the center of a shallow reef
 2. Clues: Bubbles rising from the reef pool draw attention to the site
 3. Checks: DC 13 Perception to notice the bubbles; DC 14 Sleight of Hand or Strength to extract the item from the panel
 4. Failure (Strength): The panel breaks, shifting a structure above — a cannon falls. Player must make a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw or take 1d6 bludgeoning damage and become pinned
 5. A pinned player may attempt a DC 12 Athletics check to lift the cannon or a DC 12 Acrobatics check to wriggle free; otherwise, they require help

On Wreckage Out to Sea
 1. Item Floating 60 ft away on a chunk of splintered hull
 2. Checks: DC 15 Athletics to swim through the rough waters. Same check to swim back to shore
 3. Failure: Player gets tossed around by the waves, receiving 1d4 piercing damage from the sharp coral below the water. The Athletics check is repeated until they make it to the ship/ashore, or until they receive assistance.

4. The Cursed Compass

Survivor Encounter: (If players decide not to look for the compass, describe that they hear coughing near the wreckage, and see a human woman, using every ounce of strength she has left, crawling out from beneath the aft of the destroyed hull)

• In the captains quarters, a barely clinging to life human woman, recognizable as one of the guards guarding the mystery item is laying on the floor, outside the captains doors.
• Her name is Sergeant Elarna Vesh — a middle-aged, no-nonsense woman with a broken arm and a deep gash across her temple. She’s bloodied, half-soaked, and clearly dying, but still lucid.

Roleplay Notes:

• She spits blood, gives a hollow laugh, and says:
  “That damned thing... was never meant to reach the mainland.”
• She doesn’t care about orders — she just wants the party to know:
• “They said it was cursed. Said it’d lead to power — riches buried deep in some shrine on an island out here. Captain was going to make a stop… but the sea had other plans.”
• If asked about the shrine:
• “No name. Just that it’s old. Forbidden. But it calls to you… like it wants to be found.”

Elarna is certain she will die and has accepted that. She will not attempt to stop the players from retrieving the compass, but she will warn them against taking it.

If the players attempt to save Elarna, any amount of magical healing or a DC 13 medicine check will save her from death. She will, however, not be in any condition to travel.

Captains Quarters

You duck under a fractured beam and push aside a salt-soaked curtain to enter what remains of the captain’s quarters. The room is in utter disarray—half the ceiling has collapsed, letting in shafts of sunlight and trickles of seawater. Splintered wood and broken furniture litter the tilted floor, and a shattered desk lies smashed against the far wall. Books float in ankle-deep puddles, their ink bleeding into the brine. You then feel a sharp tugging at your mind, toward the corner of the room.

The players can find the Compass in the corner of the room. The compass appears to be a generic compass, except it has no direction indicators, just a single needle, pointing in one direction.

Mechanics:

• Whoever picks it up must succeed a DC 13 Wisdom save or take 1d4 psychic damage
• Regardless of success: player feels compelled to walk northeast
• The compass can be passed between players
• It takes 6 total checks (1 for every 150ft nearer to the shrine the players get)
• Each check triggers the same Wisdom save and psychic damage

The compulsions to travel North-East will take the players to the shrine. Move onto section 5.

5. Shrine Entrance Puzzle

Note - If you are running short on time, you can skip this puzzle or the next. Simply describe the compass being placed into the receptacle and the floor of the shrine opening up, revealing the slide heading down.

Location Description:

Nestled in jungle stone, a weathered arch of coral and black stone rises from the foliage. It’s supported by three cracked pillars and framed by the wrecks of rusted anchors and shattered bones. In its center is a steel plate embedded in the stone — its face engraved with pirate skulls crowned by barnacles and claws. A single indentation in the ground: perfectly shaped for the compass.

Puzzle 1: The Three Trials of the Drowned

Step 1: After the compass is placed into the receptacle:

As the compass settles into the stone groove, a low hum vibrates through the earth beneath your feet. The air thickens—saltier, heavier. A sudden gust of warm, briny wind swirls around you, as if the jungle exhales.

The compass needle jerks violently, spinning in frantic circles. Then, with a harsh click, it snaps to a stop, pointing straight ahead — toward the leftmost pillar shrouded in vines and sea-scoured coral.

Trial Locations:

Trial 1: The Tidal Pool

You follow the compass’s point to a moss-covered stone basin nestled beside a large, clear tidal pool about 5 feet in diameter and a foot and a half deep, set slightly into the floor. The water within is perfectly clear and completely still. Carved along the inner wall of the pool, just beneath the surface, are dozens of small, weathered stone figures—carvings of people with mouths agape and eyes wide in panic, their arms outstretched as if reaching toward the surface. Carved into the stone beside the pool are worn glyphs and a single line in common: “The way is only open to the drowned.”

Solution:

• A player must willingly allow themselves to drown, per 5e rules.
• Once they fall unconscious due to lack of air, they can be pulled out.
• A DC 10 Medicine check (repeatable) can resuscitate the drowned character.
• On success, the character awakens coughing up water into the pool, taking 1d6 damage per Medicine check made during the process.

once complete:

As the player surfaces, coughing up seawater, the air around the basin stills. A shimmer passes across the pool like heat haze, and a narrow rivulet of water snakes its way from the pool, curling toward the second pillar.

The compass needle clicks, slowly rotating to point at the next trial.

⮕ Trial 2: Stone Basin

The second pillar looms half-buried in black vines and barnacle-covered rope. A wide, cracked stone bowl sits at its base, ringed by coral carvings of faces twisted in agony.

Etched above the bowl: “Only the water of death quenches the path.”

• Solution: The bowl must be filled with water from the tidal pool

once complete:

As the seawater hits the bowl, it hisses like oil on flame. The bowl pulses green, and a thin stream flows down a hidden groove toward the final pillar. The air grows colder.

The compass needle shifts again, now pointing at the final trial.

⮕ Trial 3: Carved Skull Fountain

The third pillar is carved in the likeness of a leering skull, mouth agape. Its eyes weep green liquid that trickles into a cup-shaped stone held by skeletal hands.

Above, the inscription reads: “The living drink it to suffer. The dead are fed.”

• Solution: The same water (now turned greenish) flows into a new bowl
• One player must drink it — takes 1d8 poison damage

once complete:

The liquid turns a cloudy black as it touches the lips of the player who drinks. A sharp, bitter pain twists in their gut — but the shrine responds.

The central steel plate groans with ancient weight. Lichen falls away in clumps as it slowly slides open, revealing a wide hole beneath.

A rush of air spills upward, smelling of salt and rot. The compass falls off and slides down the revealed slick tunnel descending steeply into darkness.

Move on to Section 6

6. Shrine Interior

Description:

The chamber is square, carved from coral-pocked stone. At the center stands a short pedestal with a compass-shaped recess. In each corner, a stone statue of a drowned pirate stands, facing random directions. The air is damp and thick, the sound of distant water lapping against stone echoing unnaturally. No exits are visible.

When all statues face the central pedestal:

The room trembles as an invisible force pulses outward from the compass. The water in the room flashes with dim bioluminescent light. Each of you feels your vision blur for a moment — not from pain, but from pressure. Pressure from beneath, from something deep. Something watching.

One by one, the players feel a change. Choose 1 of the following below to effect each player. You may choose the same option for more than 1 player:

• Coral Budding beneath the flesh: Your forearm itches. Looking down, they see a rough patch of raised, jagged skin, tinged faintly pink.
• Dorsal Fin: You feel a twinge in your spine. Reaching back, you feel a small, sharp ridge forming between their shoulders.
• Webbed Finger: A slight pull between your fingers catches your attention. Looking down at your hands, a thin membrane has formed between your fingers.
• Gills: You feel a sudden sharpness along your neck. Reaching up, your fingers brush against a series of raised ridges—thin lines of scar tissue forming on either side, just beneath the skin.
• Eyes (Read this one to the not affected players): As you glance at -------, you recoil slightly. Their eyes have shifted. They’re larger now, rounder, the whites swallowed in glossy black. Alien. Deep.
• Each player also gains 1d6 temporary hit points (Rolled separately by each player)

After describing these, read: Suddenly, a roaring sound begins to build behind the walls. A crack splits open in the coral-lined stone, and seawater surges into the chamber with terrifying speed. Within seconds, it reaches your knees and is filling at an equally rapid speed.

Give the players time to cast one spell, use one ability or prepare 1 thing before the water completely engulfs the room

As the room becomes engulfed in water, something feels different, a strange warmth grows in your core. Looking up, you see water rushing to the only exit of the room, the same chute you came down, now becoming obstructed by debris from the room.

Explain now that the heat grows more intense, and each player takes 1d4 necrotic damage.

The chute used to get down here is now partially obstructed.

• Players will need to go through one at a time and must succeed on a DC 13 acrobatics check to get through.
• Players may receive help to get through the first obstruction.
• After the first obstruction, the same check will need to be made again for a second obstruction.
• Due to the players now being in the narrow chute, the checks will need to be made without help.
• The second obstruction can be cleared with a successful DC 16 athletics check. If cleared in this way, subsequent players will not need to make the second acrobatics check.
• After each obstruction, the players take 1d4 necrotic damage +1 for each failed attempt, as it results in prolonged exposure to the water.

After the players emerge from the shrine, they should head back to the ship. If they wish to further explore the island, you can allow them to do so, but explain that the island is small enough that you can see the sea in all directions, and aside from the shrine, all they can see are trees, sand and the top half of their destroyed ship in the distance.

When the players are ready to head back to the ship, move onto the final section.

7. Final Encounter

As your ship comes into full view—Shipwrecked where you left it.

A lone humanoid figure stands tall near the helm on the raised aft deck, the wind catches his long coat as he turns, and his gaze locks onto you with eerie precision. He watches make your way toward the shipwreck.

As you draw neared, you notice one of his arms ends not in a hand, but in a massive, rust-red crab's claw. Additionally, scattered across the ship’s deck, you spot more figures:
– A humanoid with slick, scale-patched skin and gill-slits down the sides of his neck pacing near the main mast.
– At the stern, standing unnaturally still, a towering figure with a wide, hammerhead shark’s head watches silently.
– scattered around the mast and the sand, 3-4 skeletal pirates wait with anticipation.

The figure at the helm raises his claw and grins, voice booming out across the water. “There y’are… just in time to be late. Yer debts are drownin’ in salt, and I’ve come to see ‘em paid.”

Captain Mohr’Rakk has been sent by Cordon to claim the players as new crew. The curse placed upon them ensures they will rise again upon death. Mohr’Rakk's task is simple: ensure their deaths and welcome them into undeath as part of Cordon’s growing armada.

Roleplay points for Mohr'Rakk:

• Calm, resolute, not cruel — sees death as a transition, not a punishment.
• Charismatic, theatrical, speaks like a proud captain welcoming new recruits.
• Offers conversation, but will fight decisively if resisted or delayed.
• Speaks of Cordon with deep respect, near-reverence — calls him The Deep Captain.
• Makes it clear — they must die to join, and there is no escaping the deal.

If the players react with hostility, or if Mohr'Rakk feels as though the conversation is dragging on, he will insist upon getting to it, and attack the players.

Players may find a map (See Resource section at the bottom) on Mohr'Rakks body.

Epilogue

The battle ends as the last echo of steel fades into the crash of the waves.

The beach is littered with wreckage—splintered masts, shattered crates, and the sun-bleached bones of those lost long ago. Captain Mohr’Rakk lies defeated, the briny air finally losing its taste of dread. But the sea does not give up its secrets so easily, and silence never lasts long upon its shores.

As you catch your breath and gather what remains of your strength—and your gear—you notice something nestled in the cove beyond the rocks, half-hidden by sea-worn boulders and overgrown vines: a ship. Modest compared to the Starborn Gale, weathered, but intact. Her sails are furled, her deck mostly sound, and her figurehead—a serpent coiled around an anchor—watches the sea with glassy eyes. It's as though the vessel had been waiting.

The wind shifts, and for the first time since the wreck, you feel it: freedom.

But even as hope returns, the weight of what you’ve endured lingers. You were not meant to survive. You were marked, cast adrift for a reason. The curse may have been beaten back today, but deep below, darker tides stir still.

Now, the choice is yours.

Will you walk away from the waves, live a quiet life inland, and pray your debts are never called?

Will you set sail on this newfound vessel, hunting the truth behind the curse, seeking to end it before it claims another soul?

Or… will you embrace what you’ve become, and when the sea calls your name once more—answer it—and join Cordon’s rising armada beneath the waves?

The tide is turning. And your story is just beginning.