Sunken Isles is a seafaring-themed supplement, setting and adventure for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition published by Ghostfire Gaming in partnership with Eldermancy. It introduces new subsystems, creatures, player options, and a quasi-sandbox adventure spanning all 20 levels of the game. Sailing is seamlessly integrated into normal combat, with unique jobs that both players and NPCs can take on.
The Sunken Isles adventure is set in the Isles of Manaki, a magical, tropical archipelago that has been isolated from the rest of the world for most of history. Its people find themselves facing multiple existential threats, all of whom must be stopped by the player characters. The adventure takes place over 20 weeks and roughly resembles a sandbox. During each week, the party has the choice of visiting two or more locations, levelling up at the end of the week. The story changes entirely depending on the route chosen, with both rewards and consequences resulting from choices.
The Sunken Isles project has been created in consultation with Honua Consulting and Purple Mai'a to ensure that all cultural sensitivity due diligence has been considered and addressed.
This game contains examples of:
- Bag of Holding: An ecliptic hauler's net has an interior space considerably larger than its outside dimensions. It can hold up to 500 pounds but only weighs 15 pounds regardless of contents.
- Big Bad Ensemble: The reason the Sunken Isles campaign is set over a 20 week course is because there are multiple factors threatening the Isles.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: The first threat to be presented to the island, and the most obvious, is the undead dwarf prince, Evil Sorcerer and godhood seeker Skati, as well as his two reluctant undead henchmen; Captain Keelhaul, a ruthless pirate who indirectly exposed the Isles of Manaki to the outside world; and Kumuhea, a Makani geomancer who attempted to unite the isles of the archipelago with an underground tunnel network and was crushed in a cave in when her goals affronted the spirits. Semi-united in cause, each leads their own army of the undead to conquer the Isles.
- Booze-Based Buff: Moondew is a special moonshine whose ingredients include an infusion of arcane energies from the Flux. Due to the entropic nature of its ingredients, drinking a shot of moondew can have varying effects.
- Chaos Architecture: The Isles of Manaki is a region of ever-changing environments, so drastically so that islands can sink and rise again during the course of the adventure.
- Dying Race: The minax were sealed away in an underground tomb where they were made unaging but sterile when the Star-Breather deemd them a Flawed Prototype. Over the centuries, they killed so many of their kind in their prison that there are very few of them left. However, once the seals are broken, the curse making them sterile is broken as well, and depending on the party's actions, they may have a chance to flourish after all.
- Flawed Prototype: The Star-Breather's first attempt at an aquatic race was the minax, but it grew dissatisfied with their independent natures, aggressiveness, and reverence for strength, so it sealed them away in a city-turned-tomb buried under the sea floor.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Captain Keelhaul was once a simple shipwright whose family was mistreated and abused by the wealthy and powerful merchant-princes of his home town. One day, he snapped, murdered his latest customer, stole the ship he had built for him, and became a pirate who grew to be notorious for his bloodlust and cruelty.
- Gender Rarity Value: Because male kia'i are only born very rarely, and only the oldest females turn into males, kia'i society is patriarchal, with the males leading their communities.
- Hostile Weather: Starting from the end of week 11, the spirits grow agitated, and the sea becomes an active adversary to the player characters. When magic is restless, the sea manifests a living wave to fight the characters and their ship.
- Lizard Folk: The Mirescales are a race of small, highly emotive, Boisterous Weakling humanoid dinosaurs with a deep love of liquor.
- Loads and Loads of Races: Zigzagged. Officially, there are only five (technically six) races native to the Isles. However, as the Isles' backstory involves their recent discovery by foreign nations, players could still justify playing characters of any D&D race that they desire by flavoring them as travelers or migrants. A halfling and a tiefling both appear in the adventure as NPCs.
- Manaki are the native human ethnicity of the Isles.
- Ikolf are dwarves, descended from a migratory expedition led to the Isles centuries ago by a mad prince turned Evil Sorcerer.
- Decapodians is the name collectively given to two races of crustaceans — the lobster-based Ula'ula and the mantis shrimp-based Mant-i — that evolved sapience and semi-humanoid forms due to the Wild Magic imbuing their island.
- Kia'i are a race of aquatic humanoids who dwell in the seas surrounding the Isles.
- Mirescales are a race of Lizard Folk created when a ship full of pirates and animal smugglers were exposed to a massive surge of Wild Magic that fused them with the dinosaurs they were hauling in their cargo hold.
- Load-Bearing Boss:
- The island of Kadaur will sink if the party slays Kada, who is its spirit made manifest.
- Taken to the extreme with the Star-Breather. It is the ultimte life-source of the Isles, so if the party slays it with the super-weapon they are given the chance to build over the campaign, or uses the wrong command with the mega-spell that can affect its mind, then they will wipe the Isles and everything on them from existence.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: The Ecliptic are a nightmarish array of artificial lifeforms created by splicing together body parts and even souls harvested from multiple organisms. Different types of Ecliptic incorporate different creatures; larger, more complex organisms grow increasingly intelligent. They are united in their common cause: killing and devouring all life to create more of themselves.
- Monster Organ Trafficking: Monster parts can be used in poisons and potions, making them rather valuable.
- Power Tattoo: Magic tattoos are an art form, a tradition and a way to transcribe protective talismans that can permanently alter their bearer in both positive and negative ways.
- Riddling Sphinx: One of the most powerful spirits of the Isles is a sphinx. In her normal form, she looks like a small(ish) winged cat with a human face, but she often spends time in the form of a Manaki girl-child.
- Story Branching: Each week, the party can choose between multiple adventure locations, each of which leads to their own rewards and consequences. The story adjusts depending on the location(s) explored by the player characters and their successes or failures. This allows the players to choose exactly how they go about fulfilling their overarching goal of saving the islands.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Kada is beloved amongst the denizens of the Isles of Manaki for his role in defeating Captain Keelhaul years ago. The fact he is conspiring to "purge" the Isles of those he considers undesirable and is ultimately to blame for every misfortune afflicting them comes as a complete shock.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Kumuhea only wanted to create an underground tunnel network that would allow people to travel freely between the isles of the archipelago without needing to sail across what she considered to be a dangerous and untrustworthy sea. This angered the sea-spirits so much that they collapsed her tunnel atop her. Upon returning as an undead, she cares only about resuming and completing her life's work.
- Wild Magic: The Isles were created from powerful magic, and there are still pockets of it across the archipelago that can trigger strange effects; the Decapodians and the Mirescales both owe their existence to Wild Magic. As the campaign advances and the native spirits become more upset, the increasing instability of magic becomes one of the obstacles facing the party.
