Battlemap
Saltmere Drowned Ruins
The tide took Saltmere, but the dead kept the keys.
Saltmere was once a hard-working fishing village built against the tidal flats, until a tidal wave and mud slide buried it twenty years ago. What remains beneath the silt is a drowned maze of shattered shrines, flooded chambers, and the dead who never left their nets behind.
Cold salt air clings to every stone, even deep underground. The halls sweat brackish water, mud dries in cracked ribbons across the floor, and distant dripping mixes with the faint creak of timbers that should have rotted away years ago. Lantern light feels weak here, as if the dungeon itself drinks it down.
☠ Threat
The ruins are haunted by the Tidebound dead, led by Captain Varyn Saltwake, a drowned wight who commands the flooded halls from the old shrine crypt. He is bound to a failed sealing rite that keeps the deeper dead restless, and each disturbance in the ruins strengthens his hold over the waters and the corpses beneath the mud.
History
Saltmere was a small fishing village that built its shrine district to honor the sea, the dead, and the dangers between them. Twenty years ago, a tidal wave struck during a moonless night and a mud slide followed, burying homes, piers, and the lower chapel in one choking surge. The survivors left, but the drowned were never fully laid to rest, and the sealed undercroft beneath the shrine district still holds the village's last prayers and failures.
Encounter Table
CRA soaked corpse in a fisher's coat drags a net full of bones behind it, searching for the living by sound.
A bloated undead rat swarm chews through cloth, food, and the edges of resting gear.
A half-seen spirit of a drowned child hums a tune that lures travelers toward dangerous side paths.
Rumours & Whispers
They say Saltmere was cursed before the wave ever came, and the sea simply finished the job.
Fisherfolk claim you can hear a bell ringing under the mud when the tide is lowest.
One old survivor swears the drowned captain still walks the shrine rooms, searching for his missing prayer chain.
Salvagers found pearls in the ruins once, but every crew that went back came home sick or not at all.
A priest in the next town says the dead there are not evil, only waiting for the right rites to be remembered.
Quest Hooks
Quest giver: Mira Voss, dockside widow
A fisher from a nearby settlement begs the party to recover a family charm lost when Saltmere sank, swearing it lies in the old shrine ruins.
25 gp and a hand-carved pearl charm worth 50 gp
Quest giver: Brother Halden, village priest
Travelers have gone missing near the exposed mudflats at low tide, and one survivor claims he heard singing from beneath the ground.
40 gp and sanctuary in town
Quest giver: Reeve Talan
The local reeve wants proof that Saltmere's curse is broken before allowing salvage crews to enter the area.
75 gp and salvage rights to any non-religious relics
Quest giver: Edda Marr, antiquarian
A collector offers payment for anything bearing the mark of Saltmere's shrine, especially a tide-stone fragment rumored to be hidden below.
60 gp and a rare appraisal of found relics
Corridor Notes
Barnacle-crusted hooks and broken nets hang from the walls like pale ribs, snagging cloaks and torchlight alike.
Thin seams of saltwater seep through hairline cracks, leaving slippery white crusts on the floor.
Faded chalk marks from a rescue party lie half-erased beneath mud, pointing toward safer side passages that no longer feel safe.
The sound of water rushing below the stone rises and falls with the tide, though there is no open sea in sight.
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