Skip to content
CharGen Icon
CreatePricing
Dungeons
Costal trade city · Medium · Medium

The Sunken Scriptorium

Knowledge drowns in the salt and shadow of the deep.
Rooms
6
Foes
9, CR 1/2 to 6
Traps
2
Treasure
7,025 gp
123456Entrance
Select a room on the plan to open it.

The party is in

1. The Tide-Locked Archway

Seen

Something wanders by

At a glance

The threat

The Brine-Bound Horror, a massive aberration of ink and necrotic seaweed, haunts the flooded halls.

Wandering monsters (1d2)

  1. 1

    2× Swarm of QuippersCR 1/2

    When: Spending more than 10 minutes in a flooded room.Vicious carnivorous fish that enter through cracks in the floor.
  2. 2

    1d4× Water-Logged GhoulCR 1

    When: Making loud noises like breaking doors or using thunder damage.Pale, hairless ghouls that move with terrifying speed through the water.

Rooms

6
1

The Tide-Locked Archway

1 trapsecret

What they see

Read aloud

A natural sea cave transitions into carved basalt pillars slick with green algae. Crushed shells and driftwood litter the floor where the tide recently receded.

Features

  • A heavy iron gate rusted into an open position
  • A faint trail of blue slime leading deeper inside
  • Piles of salt-crusted kelp

What the GM knows

Traps

Slick Algae SlopeDC 14 bludgeoning

A steep incline coated in razor-sharp barnacles and slippery moss.Disarm. A character can spend 10 minutes scraping the path clear with a tool or weapon.
Room secrets · GM only

Notes

This is the primary entry point. Players should feel the time pressure of the rising tide here.

2 doors: E (archway), W (archway)

The place

What it is

An ancient, pre-cataclysm library preserved in an air pocket beneath the cliffs of Marrowport.

Atmosphere

The air is heavy with the scent of brine and decaying parchment.

The threat

The Brine-Bound Horror, a massive aberration of ink and necrotic seaweed, haunts the flooded halls.

History

Built millennia ago by an obsessed magocracy to catalogue the movements of the sea, the Scriptorium was swallowed by a massive shelf collapse.

Rumors

1d4
Roll a rumor

  1. 1A local fisherman claims the sea cave only opens when the stars align with the Marrowport lighthouse.
  2. 2They say the scrolls in the Sunken Scriptorium aren't written in ink, but in the blood of those who drowned building it.
  3. 3A merchant guild in the city is offering a fortune for a specific blue-bound ledger lost in the library.
  4. 4Old Pete says he saw a giant eye staring at him from the surf near the cave entrance.

Plot hooks

2
Trade/ThieveryThe Guild's Missing LedgerThe Trade Guild needs their ancient tax records recovered before the city council audits them.From: Master ThistlethwaiteReward: 800 gp and a favor from the guild.
RedemptionMercy for the ArchivistAn old priest believes the spirit of the Head Archivist can be laid to rest if his favorite book is burned.From: Father OrymReward: A Blessing of the Sea Goddess (Resistance to Cold).

Corridors

2

  • Between and

    The walls are lined with niches containing the petrified skulls of librarians, each engraved with a number.

  • Outside

    A stream of black ink flows along the ceiling, defying gravity and dripping slowly onto the floor.

Media

0 images

No images yet.

Visual sheet

Turn The Sunken Scriptorium into a sheet

A high-res, share-ready sheet you can post or print.