Ravenloft the Sea of Sorrows | D&D Lore

hello everybody jordan here the ph is silent and i have returned with another look at ravenloft the campaign setting and specifically the domains of dread now the domain in question is the sea of sorrow which is odd to think of the entire sea that surrounds the other domains as a domain itself but it is lost in the ocean for all eternity or an ocean of your sorrows the skeletal forms of mass tangled with tattered sails and knotted riggings protrude from the shallow waters the ship ran aground here long ago lost in a storm or blind in the fog the rocks jut upward like curving tusks like barbed daggers waiting to puncture the soft underbellies of wayward vessels a wave crashes with a flurry of salt laced mist and you catch sight of the ship itself buffeted by the tide half drowned overgrown with barnacles now some say the sea of sorrows is the culmination of all the tears people have shed while living in the domains of dread and by some people i mean me i'm some people because that's just not true i just came up with it now but it still sounds legit right the sea of sorrow is the western sea now there is an eastern sea to the core called the nocturnal sea the sea of sorrows is enormous probably i mean nobody really can tell because the fog is so thick that distance is difficult to measure the mist might keep you forever drifting within ravenloft never finding your destination now the ones who find their way to ravenloft from the sea of sorrows are usually sailors ships lost at sea that have become enveloped by the mists now some ships actually sail to and from the sea of sorrows leaving ravenloft and coming back as is the case in the adventure ship of horror the waters are extremely cold and the sky is dark and stormy there are scattered islands throughout the sea of sorrows that can behave as part of the whole domain of dread known as the sea of sorrows or they might be little separate pocket domains it is thought to be the largest domain of dread within ravenloft despite what i said earlier where nobody truly knows how big it is but still looking at this map i think the intention from tsr was that the domain is in fact extremely large sailing beyond this map it is thought you will re-enter the ethereal plane and potentially find a way out of ravenloft now if you do leave the domain of dread via this method you're in undocumented territory perhaps a life drifting through the deep ethereal until you wind up in the astral sea or maybe you'll be lost forever haunting parts of the forgotten realms as a spectre you can see your home but never touch it it's a it's a rough afterlife markovia is a well-known island within the sea of sorrows thought to be a part of the inner core that somehow broke away it seems impossible it could have ever happened the island's dark lord is frantisic markov the beast lord he takes humans and animals and adds traits of the other to the first humans take on animal traits and animals get weird human limbs attached to them there are no natives here just markov and his abominations now markov believes visitors to the island are a gift from the dark powers more test subjects for his experiments and anyone who lands on the island will be attacked by the beastmen their orders are to bring all humanoids to markov there markov grants animal parts to people and uses odd hormonal injections to transform them into beastmen using no anesthesia the transformation is so painful it breaks the minds of the subject they end up following markov out of fear the land of markovia is wild and undeveloped no towns exist except for some screwed huts built by the beastmen an island of dr moreau vibe there is a whole ravenloft adventure around this island known as neither man nor beast a fairly straightforward adventure you find yourself on the island through some means and soon discover the odd beastmen that live there you'll eventually navigate to the doctor's estate and find his experiments now this adventure would be a great side trek for players starting off as an exploration of an unknown island most of the adventure is finding land discovering the bad and trying to escape now famous islands aside let's talk more about the sea of sorrows as a whole the domain's dark lord is captain peter van reese a powerful ghost who sails the sea in a spectral ship called the relentless the captain and his ship appear as translucent rates and he is the only crew member the deck of this ghostly ship is completely empty except for captain vanreece however to keep the players guessing the captain is capable of wheeling the ship into a corporeal form in case you need to visit vanreese and meet up with another ship lost in the mists now in life captain peter vanreece was obsessed with plotting a passage through the northern seas through ice and arctic waters he pushed his crew farther and farther their last voyage the crew begged him to turn back and captain vanreece killed the crew's spokesperson and pushed onward the waters were too much and a storm overtook his ship in the most amount of rage the captain had ever felt he cried out to anyone or anything offering his life and the lies of his crew to any being that would get him passage through the arctic waters his offer was accepted and suddenly the storm settled the ship set straight and the captain and his crew found themselves sailing through a thick fog for what seemed like forever the crew eventually vanished leaving vanreece alone on the relentless and this is his torment to stay within the sea of sorrows never finding passage through it never finishing his quest captain venerys wills his ship in the direction he chooses looking for a way home and charting islands as he finds them now next i'd like to talk about the adventure ship of horror now this adventure doesn't really tie into captain van reese but it is a more popular raven loft adventure that takes place within the sea of sorrows so i felt it prudent to touch on with some interesting twists and turns i think ship of horrors would be an excellent side trek for a seafaring campaign with or without ravenloft involved however your party gets this quest or job is up to you but the pcs must find themselves in the employment of captain garvin and his ship known as the endurance now garvin is delivering some expensive goods and is short sailors for the voyage he'll pay handsomely and once you agree to the terms the ship sets sail and odd things start happening the pcs discover a lost little girl living on the ship looking for her doll her hands are ice cold and she's been crying helping her find the doll you discover a secret room on the ship and the next day going back the room isn't the same there's no little girl no little girl's ever lived there and nobody else on the ship has ever seen this mysterious girl captain garvin is a pretty vile human being he's been pulling people into the midst of ravenloft for his own twisted reasons or perhaps as a way to lift his cursed existence what's worse he is guilty of grave robbing whole bodies and shipping them to a remote island within the sea of sorrows his punishment is to be doomed and tormented by the spirits of those he has wronged spirits like the little girl and other lost souls that appear and haunt the endurance gavin and his crew can't go far from the ship their sea of sorrow's domain of dread confines them to the vessel once the pcs realize the horrors of captain garvin the ship itself seems to change deep in the mist the ship becomes broken down rotted with torn sails like an abandoned skeletal ship and in the adventure it's a really cool scene where hopefully one of your pcs is in the water next to the endurance and they see the name of the ship written on the side as it changes from endurance to ship of horrors now despite this change the captain continues to sail and more ghosts appear on the deck of the ship the pcs discover that the ghost haunt garvin because he has wronged their remains captain garvin convinces the pcs that they can potentially leave the mist leave ravenloft if they help him atone for his sins narrative exposition now gavin was hired by a wealthy family to transport the bodies of their dead to a small island mausoleum three times he took the money but dumped the bodies overboard rather than ferrying them to the island the spirits that belong to these bodies well these are the ghosts that haunt the ship and captain garvin the pcs must find the bodies on the bottom of the sea of sorrows and take them back to the island no small task but after a difficult search and some creative use of water breathing magic your party procures the coffins with the bodies however delivering these bodies to the mausoleum reveals more evil as the wealthy family that hired garvin is not transporting their dead family but collecting bodies for an evil necromancer now stopping the necromancer becomes the highest priority both for the pc's safety and to let the dead finally rest meridoth is a level 20 necromancer with loads of magical equipment and some strong tactics a head-on approach might not work as meredith controls the island where he conducts his experiments he is the dark lord of this small island and knows exactly when someone has stepped onto the land a frigid cold island meredith actually carved out his abode with a new spell he created called snow to stone now the adventure culminates with a battle against meridoth and his undead abominations once defeated the domain of dread opens up and captain garvin can return you to where you came from or perhaps ferry you to another domain of dread there is no core area within the latest edition of ravenloft for dungeons and dragons all domains seem to float around in this mysterious mist but perhaps all domains of dread are a type of island in the sea of sorrows if so this particular adventure would be even more alluring for a ravenloft campaign thank you for watching everyone thank you for subscribing and liking this video many thanks to describe and their fine flavor text which was added to this video check them out at describe dot com slash jordan with a ph for finely crafted box text in your next game and if you are curious about the adventures i went over in this video as well as all of my resources they are linked down below where you can grab pdfs i'll be back next week with more videos take care and i'll see you all

Channel: Jorphdan

Views: 42,533

Keywords: jorphdan, D&D Lore, DnD Lore, Dungeons and Dragons Lore, D&D 5e, D&D5e, DnD5e, DnD, D&D, Ravenloft, Ravenloft campaign setting, dnd ravenloft, ravenloft lore, ravenloft domains, ravenloft domains of dread, domains of dread d&d, domains of dread, ravenloft sea of sorrows, Ravenloft Ship of horror, d&d campaign settings, dungeons and dragons ravenloft, advanced dungeons and dragons, domain of dread, old d&d modules, old school d&d modules

Id: AzxB51LklqM

Length: 11min 24sec (684 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 25 2021