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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Benthicus" data-source="post: 5715131" data-attributes="member: 100281">Something I have been working on recently is a detailed campaign outline/summary that I'm hoping to start soon with my players. I was inspired to write this up after skimming Paizo's Rise of the Runelords adventure path. This would take place in my own undersea setting, Pelagia, in the wild frontier of the Northern Reach. I was having some trouble with certain elements of my setting like history and local flavor, and I realized that Pathfinder didn't create it's campaign setting all in one sitting, they did it slowly by focusing on one particular area, and slowly expanding through their adventure paths. So I've been trying that same approach.Anyway, I might as well post what I've written so far, in pieces. I should also note that I was inspired to use Sea Hags as the primary antagonists by Aeolius, and his many colorful characters (feel free to point out any glaring plot holes or confusing bits).Black TideSave your homeland from an ancient evil.Background/History: Before the frontier of the Northern Reach was claimed by prospectors, freethinkers and adventurers it was ruled without dispute by the Sea Hags for more than a thousand years. It was the vile offspring of Chthondryse, the Bloated Sea-Mother, who held sway over the wild places and dark depths. Her three most gifted and powerful daughters formed a coven, Imalga, the Black Tide, Thorse the Storm Surge, and Aveldine the Sinful Bloom. After the fall of the Ninth Tribe of Sea Elves, the three sisters reigned over the Northern Reach in secret, but their influence was felt everywhere. The Deepholmers who swam the Northern waters lived in fear of them, and rightly so. Any encroachment on their territory around Hashul's Claw resulted in curses, plagues, poisonous blooms and wild animals that suddenly turned against any settlers. It was Imalga who was remembered as the most fearsome and profoundly evil of the three sisters. Thorse was known for her rages and Aveldine was remembered for her cunning and manipulative ways, but Imalga was an embodiment of cruelty. She had an affinity for plants and all things that grew, and she was a master at spreading plagues, causing poor harvests and famines, and even spreading the growth of kelp and sea weeds to consume whole villages. Along with her considerable powers, she had forged alliances and pacts with the Fey and other deep-dwelling monsters. In 905 SA, she caused what is known as a the Great Black Tide, a wave of dark algae that enveloped the Northern Reach completely. The algae had strange effects on life in the ocean, transforming simple creatures into monsters, and raising dead creatures as horrifying wights and zombies. Imalga seemed to be omnipresent during the Black Tide, appearing to attack a Kanaloan fortress in the Velanthi Isles, and then on the same day seen raiding Elven settlements in Kyrene Bay. The Kanaloans sent wave after wave of soldiers and even mercenaries to deal with the problem, but Imalga overcame them all. The empire was eventually driven from the Northern Reach completely after the witch single-handedly overwhelmed Lakaika fortress, a place now known to be infested with undead. The only survivors of the Black Tide were a few scattered villages, the Sea Elves of the Lost Tribe, and the nomads who knew where to hide. The Northern Reach once again was a wild and forbidding place, and the Hags ruled freely. Imalga seemed to disappear, and almost nothing was heard of her for over a hundred years. Her sisters ruled in her place, and had numerous progeny of their own. All was fairly quiet and stable for hundreds of years, even after Imalga returned from her mysterious absence. No one dared challenge the witches, and the people of the South would not settle beyond the Anuvel Coast. It wasn't until after 1300, when the Sea Hags became complacent, and interest in the Northern Sea's riches grew, that conflict began anew.The creation of Athune Reef City, and the rise of civilization in the North, came about because of the destruction of Imalga, and the valiant efforts of a party of adventurers known today as the Crimson Coil. The Coil was created with the specific intent of defeating Imalga and her sisters, and making the ocean safe for all peoples. As settlers began to move North again, Imalga responded slowly, but with a disproportionate amount of strength to these encroachments. The Coil was formed from a diverse range of people and backgrounds: Khozed Thross, a paladin from Kanaloa, Rythal Laneir, a Sea Elven sorceress who lost her home to Imalga, Arrluk, a warrior of Inuvaq whose people had suffered at the witch's hands, and even the Sahuagin champion Ar'Thrussk, whose people had recently recovered from a plague spread by the witch. The Crimson Coil gathered armies to fight Imalga, they searched for ancient artifacts of the Agwe Sea Giants, and they even found ways to turn Imalga's allies (including her own sisters and daughters) against her. In the end, they destroyed Imalga in her own lair, and dispersed the Black Tide so it could never again grow in the North. With the worst of the Sea Hags defeated, the other supernatural elements in the North retreated to the wild reefs and kelp forests. Kanaloa again settled the North, and found ways to exploit it's bountiful resources, while still working to preserve them. Athune Reef sprang up quickly, and a massive migration from the South was triggered. The temporary alliance with Ar'Thrussk and the Sahuagin crumbled as they instigated war once again (they lost). In another century, the rule of Kanaloa would be overthrown in Northern Pelagia, and Athune would become it's own independent anarcho-state.</blockquote>

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