The Darkness over Nijmauwrgen

One of the most comfortable inns in Nijmauwrgen, it is frequented by foreign merchants and captains of foreign ships, who enjoy the view over the bay from the sheltered upper terrace or through the charming stained-glass windows of the lounge. The inn has one of the few kitchens that offers something other than fish. But today, Baart the owner is upset: last night, intruders came through the roof into the room of one of his guests ("a funny little guy with a funny moustache") and wrecked everything. Fortunately, the guest had just hurriedly left the hostel with all his belongings. "A real scandal! A real scandal!"

Every mid-morning, the sale of the fishermen's catch takes place in this imposing colonnaded building. A place where fishermen, merchants, and busybodies from all over the city meet daily. Rumours, gossip, and rum are shared in a noisy atmosphere. The auction is organized by a priest of the Temple, and many are grumbling about double standards and price cutting.

Three floors of long tables with hardly a free seat at any time. Food is served all day long in a noisy and hectic atmosphere, and it's fish stew for everyone. An eatery for the workers and common people. A good spot to pick up the latest gossip.

A noisy basement tavern ran by Zik and Puk, hybrid Siamese brothers, one an outstanding wrestler and the other a renowned chess player. Patrons comparable to the One-Eyed Cat's, but most of them are hybrids. It hosts an underground arena; Gjilbarde, the local champion is a colossus of a woman and the fights are to the death. The losers' heads are rolled in salt and staked around the sand circle for decoration. Some nights, for a selected audience, one or more unfortunate persons are thrown to half a dozen Deep Ones (coming through a sewer tunnel from the sea). The defeated end up being eaten on the spot.

Gjilbarde [LVL 3]
```
▶ Kick & Punch (DEX): 6
▶ Wrestling (DEX): She sends you to the ground and keeps you there. Your only possible action is to try to get up (Strength test every turn)
▶ Ground & Pound (STR): 6, elbows, knees, headbutt, anything goes to annihilate an opponent on the ground.
```

Lady Po is a very old woman who says she came from a forgotten continent far to the east. Her teahouse is spread over several narrow floors, with plenty of private rooms and secret alcoves for discreet meetings. She lives in her kitchen, full to the brim with the bric-à-brac of a lifetime's memories.

In the cellar, behind a secret door is the safehouse used by three Dominion of Might agents. They came aboard the Grey Heron (see loc. 6) and clandestinely moved under the teahouse (see sidebar). Lady Po has been a faithful supporter of the cause of Law since she was a young woman, and she's known to be willing to help however she can.

DOMINION OF MIGHT AGENTS. You'll learn all about the Dominion of Might in the next issue of the Chaos Crier. For now, suffice to say it is a conquering nation, slowly uniting many islands and coastal kingdom ruled by a queen who was a former Agent of Law. These five men and women (a priest, two knights, and two assassins) travel the world tracking down pawns of Chaos, hoping to destabilise Chaos aligned polities to further their cosmic cause and help with conquest down the line. Rumours and stories from expatriates have drawn them to Nijmauwrgen, and they might be convinced to help taking down Sarakasas if someone shows them a good plan.

Numerous boats are moored at the docks, but one can certainly notice this merchant junk from the East. It carries tea, silk, and perfume. It has been in port for two weeks. The crew only speaks its own language and stays on board most of the time. Curiosity that attracts onlookers: a cannon at the bow of the boat (see also loc. 5).

The Cult has long decreed that all dead bodies must be cremated within the soot covered walls of this grim looking, squat building. The ashes of the wealthy are kept in urns, those of the poor are thrown into the sea. Grazno, the chief cremator, regularly delivers bodies to hungry Deep Ones in exchange for small treasures found at the bottom of the sea. It is said Grazno is helped by three skeleton guardians who never exit the crematorium (use Skeleton Warrior, BSH p.76).

The vampire duke Taineri is known for his parties, which always start after dark. The porch is guarded by two mercenaries (Hired Blade, BSH p.54). An inner courtyard full of trees where a tamed giant snake (BSH p.52) lives freely. All shutters are hermetically sealed. Taineri lives alone with his factotum Orturo. The cellar contains his sarcophagus.

The duke has felt a disaster coming, and he wants to leave the city. He would rather do this in his sarcophagus, which would need to be guarded by a group of competent people until it is through the gates. He pays well.

Duke Taineri [LVL 5]
He appears as an obese, powdered fifty-year-old nobleman with a gluttonous gaze. His behaviour is closer to an overexcited teenager most of the time, though.
```

• Vulnerabilities: sunlight; dies if moves further than 50m from his sarcophagus.

▶ Scimitar (STR or DEX): 6
▶ Bite (DEX): 8, roll Doom (if the die deteriorates, lose a level).
```

See page 27 — full description and wares list at the `location` entity shanizar-s-bazaar-cc0 / table [New Arrivals at Shanizar's Bazaar].

Open every morning, crowded all the time. The merchants who have paid their fees to the Cult have the best spots, the others settle for the adjacent alleys. You can find anything here.

A luxury inn offering several suites in an ancient villa consisting of three colonnaded wings arranged around an atrium. Mazelius, the king's representative (see The King's Men, p. 12) is staying here, guarded by three knights. He has been trying to meet with Sarakasas but all his audience requests have been declined so far.

(see hook #3.) Abandoned for a long time. The once beautiful formal gardens are overgrown with brush and weeds, and the colonnaded building has started collapsing on itself. A makeshift camp in the corner dovecote: at night, it is here that Alcantor of Zysifus sleeps fitfully. He has trapped the garden with booby traps (1d4 damage) and alarms.

A high, conical tower of blue stone, engraved with alien constellations. Inside its windowless walls lives a congregation of doddery old men. It is said that the tower was already here long before the city's first house. The door has remained closed and protected by deadly charms since the arrival of Sarakasas. No one has seen anyone enter or leave nor met the occupants since. A flying turtle is carved on the closed door, its mouth wide open: drop a piece of paper with a question at midnight, along with a lock of your hair, one of your teeth, and a large sum of money. When you next wake up, you'll hear an answer, more or less sibylline, more or less satisfactory, whispered in your ear.

It has not been used for decades, after the Black Sun made cremation in the House of the Dead mandatory. Most of the tombs are in ruins. At the back of the cemetery, a tumulus houses the four oldest tombs (see The Tumulus, below).

At night, there is a 1-in-6 chance of coming across a curious ghost, who will only be aggressive if one tries to plunder a grave without politely asking her permission.

Ghost [Lvl 2]
```

• Resistance: incorporeal. Attacks ignore armour; only weapons freshly dipped in the blood of its wielder (d6 damage) can wound the ghost

▶ Claws (DEX or STR): 5
▶ Howling sadness (WIS): all targets Nearby are stunned for 1d4 Turns
```

THE TUMULUS

Four grave entrances are dug in a mound at the bottom of the cemetery. These are the oldest. The third one is the Kahnvisser's grave.

1. This tomb was looted a long time ago. A stone sarcophagus still contains some bones.

2. The stone slab that serves as a door is engraved with grimacing skulls. Recently unsealed (chisel marks) and half-opened.

3. The door is a green stone slab engraved with a trident. Touch the stone: the trident points come alive with a greenish glow; roll Doom. Tip it: a total of 40 Strength and 3 actions is needed (triggering three Doom rolls).

4. A stone slab engraved with an insect (a mix of wasp, cricket, and urchin).

5. The ground has collapsed: a pit lined with stakes; a Templar corpse skewered at the bottom.

6. Recently dug tunnel. You have to crawl.

7. Pallid reddish glow (from 8). Bones and skulls cover the ground, cracking underfoot. The corpse of a Black Sun cultist, a few days old, lies in the passage to 8, their back lacerated by claws.

8. A throne made of bones and skulls supports a mummified body wearing a silver crown. The crown is adorned with a crystal sphere radiating a disturbing pale red light (WIS test or roll Doom). Whoever touches the crown finds their hands stuck to it (STR test each turn to free themselves). Meanwhile, in 4, the cluster of bones begins to undulate and, in 1d4 Turns, forms a grotesque animal shape. The bone golem attacks everything within its reach. It does not leave the room however, and it disintegrates as soon as no one alive is left in the tomb.

Bone Golem [LVL 5]
```
▶ Claws and bite (DEX or STR): 5 to all Close targets.
```

9. Floor of irregular slabs, only three are perfectly circular. On one of them (X on the map): a charred corpse (a few days ago) surrounded by pieces of pottery. Walk on one of the two others: it sinks very slightly, a jar of oil in a niche of the ceiling falls on this spot (if the target carries a torch: Ud6 ongoing damage. If the target is next to someone carrying a torch, 50% chance of the above damage for both characters.).

10. Amphoras of wine (gone bad a long time ago) sealed with wax against the wall. One has been opened recently. The one in the northwest corner contains no wine but is filled with precious gems (enough to live a life of debauchery in royal attire for a couple of weeks).

11. Wooden skiff. The keel, the framework, and the figurehead (a dragon's head in bronze) are still well preserved. Inside: a collection of harpoons, remains of nets, and two dog skeletons. On the walls: a blue-black and white mosaic shows the exploits of a bearded giant (Kahnvisser) slaughtering sea monsters and pirates with his ferocious dogs, landing at a deserted bay, and bringing to him a large population that builds a harbour and houses under a bright sun.

12. Skeleton of a sea monster: long serpentine spine, elongated skull with impressive fangs and the remains of claws each as big as a man. In the skull's orbits: two fist-sized black pearls, enough to buy a small villa in any city. The owner of the pearls will have nightmares every night, preventing any long rest until they get rid of them.

13. Blood splashes all over the room. Stone sarcophagus (the upper slab is tilted to the side) engraved with patterns like those of the mosaic in 11. In front of it, the shredded, barely recognisable corpse of a Templar, holding a bronze horn engraved with runes. Sound the horn: the two skeleton dogs in 11 come to life and attack. (Even if you do this outside, a year or 10 years from now, the dogs will track you down wherever you are.)

Skeleton War Dog [LVL 3]
```

• Relentless: Once at 0 HP, comes back with 1 HP on a roll of 5-6 an a d6

▶ Bite (DEX or STR): 6
```

The sarcophagus contains a skeleton, a harpoon with a bronze tip, a primitive compass, and some bone amulets.

Sound of waves: can be heard at different times. Comes from behind a dry stone wall to the north. It takes an hour to clear a space and discover a well dug in the rock (goes down about twenty metres to 14).

14. Natural cave with a 30-metre cliff plunging into water (you can reach the sea from there if you stay underwater, fighting against the current for about two minutes). Every ten minutes: 1 chance in 6 that 1d4 Deep Ones emerge and climb the cliff. Real sarcophagus of Kahnvisser: dug in the rock, closed with a golden slab inlaid with ivory, pearls, precious stones. Contains: a large skeleton with a full red beard wearing a nine-pointed aquamarine crown, gold and silver necklaces, and bracelets of old workmanship, and lying on a heap of gold coins. (This and the slab are enough to live like kings for a year!).

15. Empty and dusty.

16. Domed room. Four mummified corpses, each wearing a golden, insect-like mask sit in the lotus position along the wall. Touch a mask: the other three come to life, spitting out a roaring swarm of black bugs bristling with stingers. Automatic damage to anyone in the tomb: Ud4 ongoing damage (poison), plus 1d4 damage per Turn, halved if holding a torch. If the door is left open, the insects disappear in d6 Turns. Each mask can be sold to buy a war destrier or a full suit of high quality armour.

Perpetually in the mist, one can easily get lost in this area of rocks, scrub, and broom. There is nothing to do here anyway, and for some time now the place has been said to be infested with evil, hungry creatures.

Now rented by Pokelino's Pantomime (their wagons are installed in a backyard). The company is known for their satiric shows; the current one is very critical of the Black Sun ("They should soon get into trouble; I've heard a priest of the Cult will attend the show tonight!") Pokelino is a bearded man of advancing years, sort of a constantly daydreaming gnome. His three pantomimists are sylvs: graceful and mute, slender, blessed with glowing green glares and breathtaking acrobats. No one knows where these asexual humanoid of vegetal origins come from (not even them). They obey Pokelino in every way, and he's the only human who can communicate with them. Pokelino is in fact an informant of Alcantor; the sylv's splinters can hurt Sarakasas (you decide if anyone is aware of this fact).

Sylv [Lvl 3]
```

• Tumbling: disadvantage on all attack rolls

▶ Splinter throw (DEX): 3 + Ud4 ongoing damage (poison), as thrown knives, created at will
```

In the sewers under the amphitheater live three giant spiders (BSH p.53). The monsters have filled their territory web traps (STR with disadvantage to escape unless helped or burnt). In their lair, four cocoons contain a beggar, a cultist (still alive), and two Deep Ones. The spiders can speak, even if they're not much more intelligent than an ape. They are very annoyed by the invasion of the Deep Ones in "their" sewers.

A small, cube shaped brick building with a terracotta dome. A single room smelling of shrimp and kelp. A statue of a four-clawed crab, standing, with a pleading human face on its belly. Callinoctos is the god of edible crustaceans and protector of all net casters. Old Karlst (See event #14), last priest of Callinoctos, sleeps on a straw mattress behind the statue and feeds on the few offerings left by the few remaining believers. Karlst is more depressed than usual: the statue's last copper claw was stolen a few nights ago despite the chain and magic glyphs around it. He would perform his (actually effective) blessings to someone bringing the claw back.

A conical building of dry stones. Inside is a statue of a mussel with the head of a sobbing woman carved on its back. Palinuridas is the goddess of shellfish cooking and protector of walking fishers. Old Huliga, last priestess of Palinuridas, sleeps in a niche above the statue and picks the pockets of the few faithful still coming to pray. She's been pretty busy these days: she's fashioning shell-shaped trinkets out of an odd piece of copper. Her masterful healing arts would be granted to anyone letting her sell these trinkets at the market.

Mounts are not allowed in town. Held by Derk, the stables are a good source for all kinds of rumours. The portly man remembers Alcantor: his mount (a dappled grey stallion called Venger) is still here.

Black iron doors under a black stone arch. Closed at night. Always guarded (half a dozen Templars are stationed in a small tower close by). The tone is given by the gallows right by the gate (the rotting corpses of two thieves and one blasphemer, picked on by seagulls).

Inexplicably, Black Sun members or sympathisers never find this vast, abandoned, and strangely silent garden, wedged between two houses. A small pool of water surprisingly limpid considering the degradation of the garden invaded by brambles and vines. An alabaster statue representing an androgynous being of ineffable beauty with seven eyes and a dorsal fin starting at the top of its skull, half hidden by the ivy. One can recognize Vooreenja, deity of swell and waves, guardian of the drowned. She smiles gently while pointing to the basin. Whoever drinks the water from the pool has one of the following dreams the next night:

1. A decapitated warrior descends from a throne, kneels down, and raises both hands to offer you his trident.

2. On a reef beaten by high waves, chained men look at you accusingly while they are eaten alive by humanoid fish.

3. You are on top of the lighthouse. Gigantic waves enter the bay, each one loaded with dozens of humanoid fish that rush into the city and slaughter everything. A demented laughter covers the screams of agony, and two skeletal arms grab you and throw you down from the lighthouse.

4. The sun rises and the fog dissipates, and you have never been so happy, looking up to the ruins of the lighthouse.

5. You wander at night in a ruined and deserted Nijmauwrgen, everything is covered with algae and sticky goo. Behind you come cackles and giggles. A horde of humanoid fish are chasing you.

6. You are swimming alone in the middle of the sea, an eye watches you from underwater, black as the void. It gets closer and bigger until it fills your entire field of vision. You are facing Dagon, the demon arch-prince of underwater darkness. Roll Doom with Disadvantage when you wake up.

An avowed enemy of the Black Sun the Guild has escaped several attempts at eradication. Entrenched in a block of houses linked together by labyrinthine, trapped corridors. Even the Templars do not dare enter by force. The Guild has seen better days, it only has about twenty active members, whose undisputed leader is Zvoorinius. He commands, it is said, half a dozen lesser demons (see BSH p. 50). The thieves are looking for allies in their fight against the Cult, and conversely, will target the Black Sun's allies as often as they can.

Zvoorinius [LVL 5]
A small man with a grey complexion, affable and unassuming, always with a busy look about himself. At least that's how people describe him, but no one has ever been able to recognise him among other people...
```
▶ Dagger (DEX or STR): 8, 16 if the target is surprised
▶ Dart (DEX): 4 + poison: either Ud4 ongoing damage; or test CON to stay conscious
▶ Darkness spell (see BSH p. 38)
```

Thieves [LVL 2]
Good at thieves' stuff.
```
▶ Knife (DEX or STR): 5, 10 if the target is surprised
▶ Flee: moves twice
```

Doctor Dosteyoz, a travelling healer and astromancer, has parked her wagon on this busy plaza. Along with her herbs mixes, potions, and salves, she offers all sorts of magical and mystical services at affordable prices. What few realise is that the price is often one's soul, fed to one of the bound demons the good doctor has bound to her employ.

A luthier's workshop, it is said the owner Cornelis can imbue instruments with almost magical qualities, and it is true. But since the Cult has suppressed all music outside the Temple's sacred chants, which ruined its trade, he only wants to be paid in Templar heads.

Beyond the door of this abandoned, ancient looking townhouse is… a deep sinkhole. According to the neighbours, the house's three floors sunk into the earth about two years ago, leaving only an empty shell. Some say the Black Sun of the Deep called its inhabitants to join It in the Infinite Sea Under the Land, others that a ritual to some Elemental Earth Duke transported the whole house to a world that still has a future.

A sacred figure for the inhabitants, Dioogeen is a whimsical beggar and philosopher who lives in a barrel. A provocative iconoclast, he delights in monologuing about sexual freedom, gender equality, the negation of the sacred and any form of government and law, and self-sufficiency through destitution. For some months now, he has also been predicting the end of civilization and the return to nothingness, which he encourages to welcome with open arms.

Conversation with him is impossible, as he simply does not listen. Anyone insisting on bothering him will get a faceful of garbage and an irritated call to "stand out of my light!". Nonetheless many people enjoy standing next to him and listening to his complex soliloquies. Each time the characters pass by him, he loudly declaims a sentence while pointing at them. roll d6:

(The first five are, as you probably knew, quotes attributed to the real Diogenes.)

1- I pissed on the man who called me a dog. Why was he so surprised?

2- In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.

3- Sell me to this man; he needs a master.

4- Why not whip the teacher when the pupil misbehaves?

5- We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.

6- The king who owns the best trident often loses his head.

In the middle of a silent plaza permanently drowned in mist, is a black oak tree with the widest trunk anyone has ever seen. Its bark forms dozens of faces, those of dead citizens, which are gradually replaced by more recent dead. Families come to light candles and colourful lanterns, farewell messages, and offerings at the foot of the tree. Sometimes, one of the faces comes to life and speaks.

Bonifacio lives in a shack made of odds and ends, wedged between two houses at the end of an alley. A travelling tooth puller and dog shaver, he has been in town for a few weeks. Always friendly and cheerful, he knows many rumours and doesn't mind sharing gossip. In truth, he's a renowned assassin and poisoner on tour (his gold, contracts, and work 'tools' are buried under a pile of junk in a corner).

Maybe the only good doctor and apothecary in the city. Lives alone in an austere house. He spends as much time as he can in a back room, toiling on his life's work: eternal life. He regularly tries to reanimate a body he's bought off Grazno (loc. 7) or off some innkeeper who doesn't want to alarm the Templars about a murder. In the cellar, behind a locked gate, the result of his experiments: 8 zombies in various stages of decomposition.

Zombie [LVL 1]
```
▶ Bite: 4, a target killed by a zombie's bite becomes a zombie in 1d4 hours

• Resilient: dies automatically if the damage die result is 5 or more, but takes no damage if it is 4 or less.
• Slow: moves half as fast as the average adventurer

```

One of the few, and arguably the best metalworker in town. Everyone else's skill stops at making nails and sharpening axe heads but this ageing, redheaded grump has worked for several mercenary lordlings in his youth. He'll tell you his war stories over and over again if you ask.

Heroes following Roodr's trail (from loc. 37) can, with enough coins or threats, get the story: Arro explains that "a funny moustache man" paid him handsomely to secretly forge a steel trident, looking just like the one Kahnvisser's statue holds and paint it with verdigris. He spent the whole night working on the copy and they both went to switch the weapons… The funny man then left with Roodr, saying something about "talking to the knights". It happened over a week ago.

The fog here is thicker. You can't see three paces ahead. Scraping and snickering sounds come from all around until you lose all sense of direction. When the fog finally lifts, you are:

1- in a dead end behind the Black Sturgeon (1)

2- at the top of the steps leading to the old cemetery (10)

3- in the basement of the amphitheater (12)

4- in front of the city gates (14)

5- on the cliff behind the lighthouse (20)

6- in an alley leading to Taneiri Manor (25)

And if you didn't give a coin to any of the seven mute beggars at the entrance of the alley, roll 1d6:

1- roll Doom with Disadvantage

2- you have aged 1d4 years

3- you lose 1d6 HP

4- time has advanced by 24 hours

5- you lose all your hair

6- you lose an important piece of equipment

Upstairs and in the attic, dormitories (a flea-ridden straw mat costs a handful of coins). On the ground floor, four private rooms with locks on their doors. Popular with passing sailors and penniless travelers. Sometimes members of the church drop by to invite strangers to attend the service in exchange for a good meal. Some never come back...

An all but forgotten museum to the glory of Nijmauwrgen. Under a monumental, leaky glass roof, the hall still contains the dusty skeleton of a gigantic whale, a collection of grotesque figureheads, rows over rows of mismatched harpoons, a skiff eaten away by worms, a handful of old-fashioned nets, and strange stuffed fish... Deesmon, the curator, lives alone in the company of rats and ghosts of the city's past, always busy copying and archiving ancient manuscripts. If asked, searching his archives, he will discover that Roodr once belonged to the museum's collection. It was removed for the city's five hundredth anniversary about a hundred years ago. "The year we built this statue on the harbor if my records are correct..."

Interesting finds in the Hall's cellars:

1- A diving suit: one hour autonomy, walk at the bottom of the water with leaded shoes

2- A compass that always points to Nijmauwrgen

3- A very realistic, possibly enchanted, white shark decoy

4- A stuffed mermaid – probably a hoax, but what if it isn't?

5- A maritime chart marked with several hideout locations

6- A living lobster in a dusty fishbowl. Wait, did it just say something?

Mechanical noises coming out of a basement window. An illegal printing house, producing pamphlets mocking the Temple's ruler and exposing the Templars' corruption. The anonymous pamphleteers are number one on the Templars' shit list. Greeg and Moost are foolhardy youths ready to risk everything for the freedom of the press.

A hidden library specialising in rare (and dangerous) occult books. Gergonna the Suave accepts payments in human blood only. 1d6 pints for most books, 2d6 for the rarest ones. "But if you bring back blood from the so-called fish-men some people say they saw in the sewers, I'll give you a 50% discount."

Low ceiling, barrels and crates for furniture, filled with the smoke from a few whale oil lanterns. A stuffed one-eyed cat's head, above the counter (meows every night at midnight, nobody knows why). Sailors passing by, some representatives of the Thieves Guild (see loc. 22) and other bad people. The place has the advantage of having four exits opening on four different streets, and another one towards the sewers. Ol' Kreeps the owner is a scrawny elder and former pirate, protected by the master of the Thieves Guild; Zvoornius can actually be seen here from time to time.

Hero of the city's founding tale, standing brandishing a net and a trident. It has been decapitated, covered with obscene and defamatory inscriptions. On closer inspection: the trident is made of a different metal and covered with a bronze paint. Could it be...? With half an hour of hard and noisy work, one can remove it from the statue. Sadly, this is not Roodr but a recently made copy bearing the mark of Arro the weaponsmith (see loc. 30).

(see hook #2, p. 10). A 60-foot ketch moored at the end of a dock. Sfen is a jovial captain, part-time merchant, part-time pirate. The ship's rudder broke and she is waiting for repairs. Two members of the crew of eight sailors disappeared two days ago. "I am eager to leave this port of woe, things are happening and that Black Sun stinks worse 'n rotten octopus' guts... Good company is scarce, wanna drink a shot or ten of rum?" Hidden in one of the Babaselem's smuggling cashes bunkers, a quantity of weapons and some barrels of a black powder with strange powers…

Sfen [LvL 4]
A red-haired giant with a wooden leg.
```
▶ Scimitar (DEX or STR): 7; a 2 or 3 on the player's roll is considered a critical failure.
▶ Harpoon shooter (DEX): 10, his wooden leg hides a deadly spring-loaded harpoon that can hit a Nearby target
```

Crew [Lvl 1]
Merry rascals, good for nothing but ready for anything.
```
▶ Sabre (DEX or STR): 4
▶ Hatchet throw (DEX): 4 to a Nearby target
```

A cigar-shaped inflatable structure with numerous fins. Julovern the royal geographer is looking for volunteers: his airship leaves soon to explore uncharted islands. Pay is relatively poor, but think of the adventures! A way out of this place? Maybe, but for now, Julovern is busy speeding up the administrative hassles preventing him from taking off. The Cult insists on studying the flying machine and Templars are stationed near the moorings.

An austere building where the hundred or so Templars of the Black Sun are housed. It contains a paved inner courtyard where they train and drill every morning.

An ancient lighthouse of green stone. See below for the map and description.

THE TEMPLE BENEATH THE LIGHTHOUSE

People in the Temple:

• Cultists are always on drugs and half-stoned; they care little about their surroundings or any weird newcomers that might show up… but they instantly turn frantic and suicidal when the alarm is sounded or the priests give them a direct order.

• Templars take their task very seriously. But since they rarely mix with the cultists, anyone with a stupid smile, a tattooed head, and green robes has a good chance to be let in.

• Priests are always on the lookout for suspicious activity.

• Every room, except 3, is filled with smoke from the ubiquitous incense lamps. The atmosphere is suffocating, and visibility is limited to a few metres (well inside Nearby range). Apart for 2, 6, and 10, the ceilings are also very low, reinforcing the feeling of claustrophobia.

• Every time the characters enter a new room, or every 20 minutes if they stay in the same place, there is a one in six chance that they encounter:

1. 2 cultists, having just stolen food from the storehouse

2. a priest chanting psalms while rhythmically hitting their forehead with a wooden board

3. a Templar carrying a message for Sarakasas

4. 1 cultist raving in a hallucinatory attack

5. 2 priests violently arguing theological issues

6. a prisoner who managed to get out of their cell and is looking for the exit

7. a rich foreign merchant and their bodyguard, coming out of an meeting with Sarakasas himself

8. 2 Templars, briefly abandoning duty for a game of dice

9. a priest looking for cultists to unload a boat in 13

10. 1d4 marauding Deep Ones

11. an informant from the Thieves Guild, about to report to the priests

12. Sarakasas, wandering, lost in dreamy thoughts and half-conscious conversation with Dagon

1. Esplanade. Where public ceremonies take place. Most days: priests in formal attire (golden robes, grotesque caps in the shape of sparkly fish heads); cultists chanting abstruse psalms while throwing flowers and treats to the crowd or playing tambourines and horns. New cultists, often out of their skulls from welcome drugs, are presented to the crowd, immersed in a cistern of salt water, joyfully flogged to drive their old demons out, shaved entirely and sprinkled with fish blood, before being taken inside where the top of their skull is to be tattooed. Sarkasas sometimes deigns to greet visitors from here.

2. Audience hall. Where dignitaries of the Temple receive important visitors. The only light when the high black metal doors are closed comes from lamps nestled in the walls; an uneasily flickering green glow. Circle of columns, engraved with subaquatic scenes, which get lost in the incense fumes high above. A long staircase along the wall reaches the top of the lighthouse in three revolutions. An imposing throne made of shells and fish bones where Sarakasas sometimes deigns to greet visitors from.

3. Top of the lighthouse. A globe of steel and glass thirty metres above the ground. Mostly filled by a gigantic crystal casting a pulsating green ray to the other end of the bay (it is dormant during the day). Telescopes on tripods. A priest is always here watching ships come and go and reporting through a bronze tube communicating with 11.

4. Magically dark vestibule. People from outside the Temple are rarely invited to cross this room. No mundane light can dissipate the darkness here. A conical pit six meters deep in the middle of the room: the floor tilts, then becomes steeper and steeper; it is too late after a couple steps (3 damage from the fall). Meditation niches carved into the wall. In each of them, a cultist is humming a strange polyphonic hymn. 1-in-6: a priest is present to flog the weaklings.

5. Supplies. Barrels and crates, food for the temple. Cultists' togas and robes. A small room contains a whole collection of tridents of all kinds, dumped in a pile.

6. Upper temple. A black, white, and green mosaic on the floor depicting the Black Sun. At every sundown: about a hundred cultists take turns walking in three concentric circles between the columns, chanting. When one of the two presiding priests orders a change of direction, the cultists turn around and vigorously slap their neighbours before resuming the ritual walk. This is said to awaken the crystal at the top of the lighthouse. The other priest holds a censor diffusing an addictive, stupefying smoke. On holy nights (the fifth day of the week): sacrifices are performed at the centre of the room. The blood flows through the eye of the mosaic and sprinkles the statue in 10.

7. Cultists quarters. Spartan cells for two to four cultists. When not on duty, they sleep on rough straw mattresses, eat from wooden bowls, make necklaces of underwater flowers while reciting psalms, look stupidly into the void, grinning and smoking mind numbing seaweed.

8. Tattooing room. Three mute and blind cultists live in this stinking, smoky room. When not tattooing newcomers, they sleep or meditate.

9. Priests' cells. A little more comfortable and spacious than the common cultist's cells, but not by much.

10. Lower Temple. Except for the priests, a few selected Templars and cultists, and some wandering Deep Ones, no one is allowed here. The only source of light is a brazier burning seaweed and driftwood emitting an opaque and nauseating smoke. A monumental statue covered with layers of dried blood stands in the middle of the room: a bipedal being with four arms ending in webbed claws; a screaming maw lined with rows of long fangs from which escapes a tentacular tongue; and a single, bulging eye seeming to suck in the light and guide you into nothingness (test WIS or roll Doom with disadvantage). Dagon. 1-in-6: 1d4 Deep Ones kneeling, as if stupefied, at the foot of the statue. A throne of living coral in a raised niche, facing the statue. It is here that Sarakasas spends most of his time, mostly in a daze, in direct dream-communication with Dagon himself. Two priests are sharing his trance at any time, prostrated by his side. If something unexpected happens in the temple, they only wake on 2-in-6.

11. Prisoner cells. Carved into the walls and closed with steel grates. Perpetually in the dark, except when new prisoners are brought in. About twenty poor souls (sailors, troublemakers, drunks, foreigners passing through, recalcitrant cultists) waiting for the next hybridisation ritual. A priest regularly walks by with a censor diffusing a soporific smoke (CON test or become dazed for 1d4 hours). At the bottom of one of the cells, a loose stone hides a tunnel that quickly becomes an almost vertical pit. At the end of it, a skeleton still holding a steel pick. Two more days of work and the tunnel would have reached the open air, somewhere on the edge of the cliff behind the lighthouse.

12. Drum cave. A saltwater basin whose bottom meets the sea. A gigantic steel and shark skin drum, half submerged. A priest is always here, listening to the bronze pipe coming from 3. By drumming complicated rhythms, they communicate to the Deep Ones in the vicinity which boat's nets should be empty and which ones should be blessed with a miraculous catch, by directing the schools of fish around the bay.

13. Marine cave. A narrow opening to the sea, closed by a portcullis controlled from the dock. A pontoon fits a dozen boats used, among other things, to send prisoners to the reef for hybridisation rituals. On 2-in-6, a handful of Deep Ones are lazily swimming here.

TAKEN BY THE CULT

Captured characters are ruthlessly taken to the cells (11). Sarakasas may ask to see them, in which case there are put in chains and brought to 10. And depending on past events, he may want to hire them.

If they are of no use to the Black Sun, the characters are sentenced to the hybridisation ritual. 1d4+4 days after their capture, they are drugged (test CON or WIS or follow any order you are given; roll again after an hour) then loaded on boats (13) with others. After dark, they are taken to the reef where the priests, a dozen Templars and about thirty cultists are waiting (on 1-in-6, Sarakasas is also present). Braziers diffusing euphoric smoke (regain as many HP as half your CON score) to help the priests and cultists get into their chanting trance. While cultists play drums and horns, the prisoners are chained to the reef as female Deep Ones appear to perform the copulatory act. Depending on the number of prisoners, the ceremony can take several hours. And when the chanting reaches its climax, the Deep Ones devour the prisoners.

Note 1: Female characters are taken to the reef as well, and sacrificed at the end of the ritual.

Note 2: During the entire ceremony, the members of the cult reach a paroxysmal trance. Should there be a fight, all characters actions and reactions get Advantage for the first 6 Turns. The Deep Ones flee at the first sign of trouble and no reinforcements arrive before an hour, as the ritual is taboo for male Deep Ones.

Shortly after the arrival of Sarakasas, an earthquake made this rocky ridge a few cables away from the bay appear above the water. The currents are treacherous, and more than one boat has capsized while approaching it, as testified by the wrecks that can be seen there. About once a month fires can be seen on the reef and, when the wind blows from the north, strange songs sometimes reach the port. It is here the hybridisation rituals take place. And it is underneath the reef, in a complex network of underwater caves, that the colony of Deep Ones lives.