Curators, ye be warned...
Nightmares from the Deep is a hidden object game trilogy developed by Artifex Mundi between 2012 and 2014.
The trilogy follows the Caribbean Naval Museum curator, Sarah Black, as she is pulled into investigating nautical terrors after acquiring artifacts tied to them. When the artifact of the day is brought in for inspection, something nightmarish pulls her on an adventure to put to right what tragedies or malice had done wrong.
The three games listed are:
- Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart: When curator Sarah receives the discovered remains of Captain Henry Remington, things go south fast when her daughter is kidnapped. She must go on a quest to save her daughter from being used by the undead pirate for a goal that involves a love doomed to tragedy.
- Nightmares from the Deep: The Siren's Call: Sarah gets a mysterious visitor who wants to hand an artifact to her museum, only for fishy intruders to attack and take it away. The same visitor takes her to the city of Kingsmouth, where the residents are turned into fish people because of a terrible event instigated by greed.
- Nightmares from the Deep: Davy Jones: After Sarah acquires notes that prove the existence of Davy Jones, she is about to make a press conference when the sea-devil himself arrives and kidnaps mother and daughter. Now, both of them have to find a way to survive and uncover the secrets of Davy Jones's true goals.
Nightmares from the Deep sets sail with the following tropes:
Shared Tropes
- Deal with the Devil: In the case of these games, a deal with the sea-devil, Davy Jones.
- Captain Remington asked to be invincible against his enemies and was given three magical items to aid him in that.
- Mayor Murray asked to be provided a means to deliver resources to Kingsmouth, in which he was provided the siren Calliope.
- Ghost Ship: Sarah has had two encounters with such ships.
- MacGuffin: The chests holding the deposits for Davy Jones' pact.
- Mama Bear: Sarah doesn't let nautical terrors stop her from rescuing her daughter twice.
- Museum of the Strange and Unusual: The Caribbean Naval Museum, a place where nautical artifacts are brought in for display, where Sarah works as the curator.
Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart
- Ambition Is Evil: Mary's father, being newly wealthy, aimed for higher goals - which meant destroying Remington and (unknowingly) ruining his daughter's happiness.
- Arranged Marriage: Capitalizing on defeating and executing Remington, Mary's father married her to a royal navy captain against her will.
- Beware the Skull Base: Skull Island, where Remington meant to take Sarah's daughter.
- Due to the Dead: Mary had a crypt prepared for when she and Remington would be buried together.
- Retirony: Remington had planned on ending his pirating career in order to be with Mary for real. Sadly, that didn't come to pass.
- Together in Death: With his heart returned to him and realizing where he went wrong, Henry Remington and Mary Bannister are at last reunited in the beyond.
- Unwanted Rescue: Baron Bannister launched an attack on Skull Island and captured the pirates with the intent on rescuing his daughter. Problem was, Mary never wanted to be rescued in the first place.
Nightmares from the Deep: The Siren's Call
- Bathtub Mermaid: How Calliope was first introduced, attempting to hide from Murray. Later she would be found imprisoned in a tank in Murray's lodgings.
- Defector from Decadence: A fishman, after listening to Calliope's tragic situation, betrays the mayor and the praetorians to find a way to break Davy Jones' pact.
- Derelict Graveyard: Sarah has to pass through one in order to reach the lighthouse and warn the coming ship.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: In the newspaper office, an article header read "Shadow Over Kingsmouth", which would call to mind the title of one of the works of H.P. Lovecraft involving fish people.
- Fish People: What the people of Kingsmouth have become due to the pact with Davy Jones that Mayor Murray had made.
- Greed: Mayor Murray's fatal flaw, which built up when the boon of using the Siren to deliver fish wasn't enough for him.
- Interspecies Romance: The fishman who guarded Calliope fell in love with her after feeling sympathetic to her terrible situation.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: After Murray's downfall, the rebel released Calliope back to the sea where she longed to return to despite knowing they'd likely never see each other again.
- Knockout Gas: One of the praetorians uses a smoke bomb to knock out Sarah to make retrieving the Golden Octopus easier.
- Kraken and Leviathan: The kraken is used to wreck ships that approach Kingsmouth at the call of the Golden Octopus.
- La Résistance: Some townspeople tried to rebel against the mayor but suffered horribly for it.
- Meaningful Name: Calliope's name means "beautiful voice" in Ancient Greek and is the name of one of the Muses.
- No Man Should Have This Power: It's agreed between Sarah and the rebel fishman that the powers of the siren should never be in Murray's hands.
- Praetorian Guard: Murray formed his own praetorian guards to make sure Calliope can't escape.
- Sirens Are Mermaids: Calliope is regarded as a siren as by the guardian of the chest.
Nightmares from the Deep: Davy Jones
- Davy Jones: Davy Jones lived a happy but poor fisherman's life with his daughter until he demanded better for them and was gifted with luck. He worked himself up to merchant, but was dishonest and compensated his long absences from home with gifts that his daughter grew to resent. A gang of pirates attacked the Jones' home when they got the short end in a deal and killed her. Davy Jones wished to live long enough to resurrect his daughter, which was fulfilled by him getting immense demonic powers, including immortality, but nothing useful for reviving. More or less as he operated as a merchant, as a pirate he arm-twisted his prisoners into enlisting their souls until his daughter lived again. At first, he was optimistic, but after the first and best shot at reviving the girl failed, he stopped hoping. After some centuries, the curator Sara Black found the missing ingredient, brought the daughter back to life, and put Davy and his crew to rest.
- Island of Mystery: Davy Jones's island, where he conducts the rites to revive his daughter.
