Chapter 8: The Styes - Ghosts of Saltmarsh

Chapter 8: The Styes. A series of mysterious murders shakes the downtrodden folk of the Styes-a decaying port fallen on hard times and slowly being reclaimed by the sea. Even after the so-called Lantern Ghost killer is caught and executed, some in the district believe that the true killer is still out there. It's left to the adventurers to follow the clues that the local militia ignores, exposing corruption, the clandestine activities of a dark cult-and the alien presence whose evil lurks beneath it all. The Styes is an adventure designed for four to six 11th-level characters. About the Original Richard Pett conjured this ghastly sea port for Dungeon 121 in 2005. "The Styes" feels like it was pulled straight from the mind of H. P. Lovecraft, but in Richard Pett's capable hand we're treated to perhaps the most memorable depiction of both a cunning aboleth plot and a sinister cult of Tharizdun. Many adventures are set aboard a ship at sea. Can you name another that challenges you to infiltrate a moldering ship held aloft by a crane, above the streets of a slowly dying city? Background There exists an underwater abyss known as the Endless Nadir-a haunted place shunned by the aquatic races of the region, for this realm is the site of a submerged city of aboleths. For the most part, the alien denizens of this city are content to plot and lurk in the depths of the ocean trench. But a few of them are cursed with curiosity. One such creature is Sgothgah, a scholar, crafter, and explorer-and an outcast among its kind. Sgothgah's life changed forever when it encountered and consumed a cult of lunatics who worshiped Tharizdun, an ancient deity of darkness. As it read the minds of its victims as it devoured them, some of what it gleaned of Tharizdun-between their screams and their unheeded pleas for mercy-found purchase in Sgothgah's mind. For centuries, the aboleth mulled over the concept of Tharizdun in idle moments, and eventually those thoughts flowered into something al...