GM-SS One Shot Chapter 17: Breaking Waves

Our seventeenth downloadable GM-SS Dungeons and Dragons One Shot Adventure – a maritime horror tale for new players!

Whether it’s for a one-shot adventure, starting a longer story, or just another day in your players’ lives, we hope this adventure module will inspire all you DMs and GMs out there. Our seventeenth adventure seas our adventurers undertake a perilous journey on a mysterious ship. There are whispers of a curse and the smell of mystery and rotten meat permeates the atmossphere… Have fun!

Overview

RPG: D&D 5e
Number of players: 4 or less recommended
Recommended level: 3-4
Duration: medium (2-5 hours)
Difficulty: medium – highly adjustable difficulty for new GMs
For your campaign: This adventure relies on a variant of the Hag found in D&D 5e and takes place in a part of the world, where magic is known but not common. The difficulty of the adventure can be scaled by using water hags as minibosses.
This Adventure Module contains:
- The story for a single maritime adventure – ideal for introducing D&D 5e to new players
- Builds for 2 new monsters and 1 new boss monster
- Builds for multiple tough NPCs
- A simple treasure riddle
- Detailed Maps of the mysterious ship called the “Selandia”
- A loot table for plundering a passenger ship
- Multiple social, exploration and combat encounters
- Two different endings, depending on player choice

The Story

The self-proclaimed Captain Thakore Bhatt raised more than a few eyebrows when he showed up in port Marit. His weird ship – proudly wearing the name “Selandia” on its bow – was mastless and manned by a crew of about 25 people. Yet, it appeared to have no trouble navigating the harbour. All this strangeness could have been overlooked, had Capt. Bhatt not started dramatically underbidding the fares of other passenger ships. He was able to take twice the number of passengers for half what they would have paid on other vessels. They all reached their destination safely on time. The only catch appeared to be, that no-one apart from its crew was allowed on Selandia’s deck after dark. The sailors’ guild tried to investigate the matter, but Capt. Bhatt kicked all their spies of his ship. As a result, he was barred from docking the Selandia in their harbours. Since then, Capt. Bhatt was forced to establish his own network of harbours for his lucrative venture. However, the expulsion from the sailors’ guild meant his clientele grew ever seedier. Additionally, rumours spread by the guild, that Captain Bhatt was pursued by the cursed Sherden Galleon deterred all but the most desperate passengers from travelling on the Selandia.

In this 2 – 5 hour introductory adventure, a party of 3^rd to 4^th level characters will board the Selandia for a two-day journey. However, all goes awry in the second night and they find themselves trapped on the lower deck with no crewmembers left in sight. The screams piercing the ship’s planks suggest, that the Selandia has been boarded. Can the players fight their way out or will they be crushed by the “Breaking Waves”?

Notes for the GM / DM

This one-shot can be used to introduce new D&D 5e players with RPG experience to the system. To this end, it is recommend to use the NPC Arbina Yarric to give the players combat tipps on e.g. how to use the dodge action.
The encounters below deck of the Selandia can be played in any order and can be used to lengthen or shorten the adventure depending on the time available.
The final battle is potentially deadly – the GM might use the companion NPC to make a meaningful sacrifice to allow the players to win and add more drama to the fight.