Tide of Retribution

Tide of Retribution is a starting adventure in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, taking place in 835 PD. The adventure takes a party from level 1 to level 3.

Background
For generations the sahuagin clan of Sharkfeather Abyss had feuded with the citizens of the Clovis Concord village of Palma Flora over their tradition of shark hunting. The Sharkfeather clan annually raids the village to spoil the shark hunting tournament, but was easily repelled by the village's hunters and mercenaries. When the parents of a sahuagin named Selachai were killed in one of these raids in 834 PD, she prayed for vengeance and made a pact with the leviathan Uk'otoa. He granted her a scepter, a Rod of Retribution, to seal this pact. With her new powers, Selachai rose through the ranks of the Sharkfeather clan and sought to lead a deadly raid against Palma Flora.

Through informants keeping tabs on Palma Flora and the Sharkfeather clan, the Revelry pirate Three Earrings learned about Selachai and her newfound magic, as well as their plan to raid the village. Three Earrings and her crew set course on her ship, the Wavechaser, to be in Palma Flora during the attack in order to plunder the ruins of the town after it was done.

Attack on Flora Isle
In 835 PD, when Palma Flora was one again preparing for its shark hunting festival, Selachai set her plan into motion. Using the Rod of Retribution as a conduit to her patron, Uk'otoa thrashed within his prison beneath the Lucidian Ocean, wracking Flora Isle with an earthquake. During this, the sahuagin raiders attacked the island.

An adventuring party present on the island's southern beach sprung into action, defending a pair of teenage shark hunters, Elanza and Joao. When the island was struck by the earthquake's aftershock, it became apparent that Flora Isle was sinking into Sharkfeather Abyss. Elanza urged the party to flee to the eastern docks and escape on a ship, while Joao went north to continue the fight and help more villagers escape.

The party went north and defended a half-dozen villagers swimming across the channel to the northern part of Palma Flora from a sahuagin telepathically commanding a group of sharks. They then went to the docks and aided the crew of the Wavechaser in fending off another pair of sahuagin and their trained giant crabs, with the help of a young acolyte named Aurelio. The party and any villagers they saved then boarded the Wavechaser and escaped from the sinking island.

Sailing the Swavain
Once away from Flora Isle, the party took stock and met the crew of the Wavechaser: sailors Boerth, Dajarkal, and Dillyu, the navigator Kijori, and the first mate and helmswoman Heidi Axebeard. The party was then invited below deck to speak with the ship's captain, Three Earrings. There she told the party about Selachai and her Rod of Retribution, and convinced them to return there with her to defeat the sahuagin warlock and retrieve the rod, as doing so would prevent her from wreaking more havoc like the earthquake that sunk the island. She also promised that by selling the rod on the black market, the party would be given a 500 gp, a third of the share.

The party then chose one of three ports of call to gather supplies and drop off Palma Flora's refugees, then went to sleep for the night. By morning, the Wavechaser had arrived at the chosen port. If they chose Bisaft Isle, the party went inland to speak with Grimalda, a tortle shaman who granted them a Charm of Water Breathing, allowing the recipient to cast the spell once on the rest of the party. If the party went to Brokenbank, they met the sea elf Aldageam, a friend of Three Earrings and an alchemist who sold them Potions of Water Breathing at half price. Finally, if the party went to Port Damali, Three Earrings had the party deliver a threatening letter to the blacksmith Hektor, who gave the party Breathing Bubbles, magic helmets that would let them breathe underwater.

During this time, Three Earrings had become conflicted. While she originally intended to use the party as disposable tools to get the treasured Rod of Retribution, she had taken a liking to them and was having second thoughts on using them. If the party caught on to her conflict, she subtly asked a question of the party about a captain having trust or pride in their crew. Their answer could convince her not to use them as pawns.

At midnight after leaving port, Kijori noticed another ship moving to intercept the Wavechaser. This ship was the Moonbeam, a Clovis Concord caravel captained by Lieutenant Commander Voskiir Larth of the Zhelezo. Secretly, Dajarkal had been hired by the Concord to identify Revelry pirates, and had been sending Animal Messengers to report the location of the Wavechaser. Voskiir lead a boarding party and zealously attacked the party and crew. The Moonbeam retread after Voskiir was defeated. If he was captured, he could be interrogated and reveal that Three Earrings and her crew are pirates (if the party didn't know already), after which she has him thrown in the brig.

Confronting Selachai
The next day at dawn the Wavechaser arrived at Sharkfeather Abyss. Nearby, Palma Flora had been abandoned in fear of another sahuagin attack. As the party prepared to dive below, they and the crew were ambushed by a boarding party of eight sahuagin and a pair of sharkbody abominations, shark-like aberrations created by Selachai from the corpses of Flora Isle's drowned civilians. The sahuagin retreated when one of the abominations were killed, and the party followed them into the depths, using the method of breathing underwater that they obtained from port.

One hundred feet below the surface, the party arrived at the sunken Flora Isle, wedged into the trench of Sharkfeather Abyss. There the party found Selachai, surrounded by more sahuagin, in the middle of a ritual to create another sharkbody abomination. The party did battle with Selachai, two abominations, and the sahuagin. If the party lost the battle, Selachai knocked them unconscious and dragged them to the surface, where she would attempt to recruit them in her fight against the surface dwellers. Otherwise, party slew Selachai and retrieved her Rod of Retribution.

When the party returned to the Wavechaser, what happened next depended on Three Earrings' disposition towards the party. If she wasn't convinced to not use the party, she demanded they hand over the rod and attempted to subdue the party, throwing them in the brig and taking them to Darktow for Plank King Wyatt Maranoss' judgement.

If however Three Earrings had befriended the party, she invited them to join her crew and become pirates of the Revelry. If they refused, she sadly accepted but allowed them to leave. If they accepted, the Wavechaser set sail for Darktow to pawn the Rod or Retribution and earn their cut of the treasure.