When I was designing my interpretation of the
Jungle of Lost Ships (World of Greyhawk), the current region where the party is adventuring, I began with the sparse information written in the ’83 Glossography. From that point forward, I looked to nature, to gauge the feasibility of such a site.
I came across
seamounts , which “Because they project out above the surrounding sea floor, they disturb standard water flow, causing eddies and associated hydrological phenomena that ultimately result in water movement in an otherwise still ocean bottom.”, seemed a perfect natural explanation for the slow rotation of the Weed-Sea.
From that point, I looked over
drift seeds , to see what a population of humans stranded on the dense
floating island might have to eat, in addition to fish, mollusks, and migratory birds.
Recalling the immense about of debris generated by the Tsunami in Japan, including whole structures torn from the land and washed out to sea, I imagined such a supply of timber available to the residents of the Weed-Sea, to supplement the wooden ships already entrapped within the seaweed. I used
Popeye Village , the Sweethaven set erected for the movie “Popeye” in 1980 and still in used as a tourist attraction today, as the template for the ramshackle village that might arise from the debris.
I suppose it may add a degree of realism and thus believability to the adventure in hand, but truth be told I enjoy seeing the bits of research come together as a whole.
In the undersea reaches where the party will be traveling I envisioned three undersea shelves upon the seamount. The first overgrown with a
kelp forest , the second holds a massive forest of
tree-sized coral , and the third holds
mysterious ruins tended by a tribe of water dwarves (who in turn were inspired by
tube worms ).
Upon the seamount are the ruins of a forgotten temple guarded by a beastie inspired by
sea salps and
giant siphonophores .
I have too much fun, for people.
