D&D 5E Greek Sea Based travel encounters

[GreyBeardDM]

I am currently running the 5e Odyssey of the Dragonlords, and my PCs are about to get to the Island hopping sea based part of it. So my question to the group is does anyone have any good ideas or books that I need to read in order to flesh out encounters on the sea?

Thanks in advance

 

[DEFCON 1]

Encounters In Theros is a good-sized book on the DMs Guild that has lots of different Greek-styled encounters. There are chapters on City, Wilderness, Mountain, and Water. I don't know if a list of 15-16 water-based encounters is enough to make it a worthwhile purchase for you... but it's there as an option. I've used several of their ideas in my Theros campaign myself.

 

[Quickleaf]

A senator with a love for wine has miscalculated the rocky reefs, damaging the ship and the precious cargo, spilling hundreds of gallons of red wine into the sea. This has attracted some sea creature(s) that laps up the wine (and any sailors that get in the way). Magic or clever thinking might prevent further spillage from the cracked casks. Bard song might distract or lull the sea creature(s) to sleep. Investigation might reveal that the sabotage was intentional to keep the senator away from an important vote and/or reduce their standing due to poor decision-making in the captain's chair.

 

[kigmatzomat]

You could get summaries of the Odyssey. From memory there are pirates, sirens, cyclops, witches, harpies, plus the original "rock and a hard place" of Charbydis & Scylla.

One good starting point are the gods Phorcys and Ceto. Phorcys became the god of sea hazards and Ceto was the mother of monsters. They had hundreds of offspring, some monstrous, some less so.

 

[aco175]

There was an old Dungeon Magazine series for the Isle of Dread. In the first or second adventure there is a series of ship encounters getting from town to the isle. I liked the undead sargasso the best. The PC's ship becomes stuck in the seaweed and the PCs need to go to some of the other ships captured over time to find a means to free themselves.

 

[Dioltach]

You could get summaries of the Odyssey. From memory there are pirates, sirens, cyclops, witches, harpies, plus the original "rock and a hard place" of Charbydis & Scylla.

Or Red Dwarf: Psirens!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You might read The Odyssey. You haven't experienced Homer until you have read it in the original Klingon!

 

[AnotherGuy]

The Minrothad Guilds (ship ranks, skills, sailors tricks, merchant prince spells, cargo, ship construction & maintenance, port sizes, weather, navigation, and sea encounter ideas) and The Kingdom of Ierendi (basic naval combat, interesting islands that could be reskinned) are possible options to look at.

You could also include the destruction of Santorini into the mix (the effects on the ocean, animal life and weather - i.e. dark skies with a taste of ash, warm waters, dead/scarred sea life...etc)
Save Icarus from certain death as the party sees him fall.
Rescue an oceanid from betrothal to a cyclops - she swims to the party's vessel for safety.
Recover the body of Orion after Artemis unknowingly fires a kill-shot at him (depending on which version of the tale you decide to make canon for your campaign).

There are literally 100's of tales that can be infused into the party's voyage.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Animated movie Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas. Despite being very loosely based on 1001 Nights it has a Greek feel, and lots of at-sea action.

 

[jgsugden]

As a reminder, as part of the lore of that setting you could be seeing visitors from far away lands getting trapped in the area.

Given the finite calendar of the campaign, I would not get too caught up in a lot of augmentation, though. A few sea based encounters can be fun - but you might also just want to make sure the PCs have enough time to explore the islands.