SECOMBER

Synopsis: Secomber is a small river town, well-known only because the great wizard Amelior Amanitas makes his home there. The party should make a point of visiting Amanitas early in the game. He will give them the Crown of Amanitas, a device they can use throughout their adventures to communicate with him.

Resting: The party can rest safely anywhere inside any building.

Wandering Monsters: None.

Objective: Capture the Statuette before it gets loaded onto Vaalgamon’s ship. Experience: Once the party reaches the statuette, the alarm is sounded. Even after the quest is completed, the large Kraken army in Event 14 spawns perpetually, allowing the party to rack up the experience. When in close combat, use Hold Person and Stinking Cloud. In more open combat, use Fireball and Lightning Bolts. The Wand of Ice Storm, if found in Luskan, is useful here. Quests: This is a timer quest. When you land on the island, the timer begins. If you doused the Lighthouse light in Purple Rocks, then you have an extra 10 minutes. If you trigger the alarm, then the chest containing the statuette moves further within the fortress where additional monsters join the fray. If the party leaves the island without the statuette and returns, the timer is reset again. Despite Krevish’s warning (if he is still with the party), head directly down the middle of the map to Event 14, and if you don’t intercept the statuette there, move to 15, then 16. On the way to the statuette, you will have many encounters, try to flee if you can. Once the statuette is secure, then attack away. Leaving: When taking the boat of the island, the current will take the party pack to Neverwinter. If the party has the statuette with them, there is a significant ambush upon arriving at Neverwinter. After leveling up in Neverwinter, head to Loudwater by foot. It is South East of Neverwinter and Yartar.

Here, like in rural communities all over the North and other outer islands like Tuern, magic use was punishable by death. People of the Purple Rocks appeared to worship Tempus (called Tempos), Auril and Umberlee, the usual Northman deities, but their idols of those gods all showed many tentacle-like arms.

By the time of the War of the Silver Marches in the late Fifteenth century DR, the people of Utheraal and Trisk were under the sway of the kraken Slarkrethel. The islanders wore tattoos of krakens made with squid ink and built longships that boasted kraken-shaped figureheads. They greeted visitors with food and shelter, but didn’t speak of Slarkrethel or the absence of children from their communities. Visitors who tried to investigate the mysteries of the Purple Rocks were asked to leave. Those who refused to do so were captured and sacrificed to the sea.

The islanders showed their devotion, among other ways, by tossing their newborn children into the sea to be claimed by Slarkrethel. The experience transformed the children into fanatics dedicated to the Kraken. They returned from the sea as humans, but when they reached old age, they transformed into sea spawn and rejoined their master in the dark depths. Some children returned having suffered partial transformations, leaving them semi-bestial until their full transformation when they reached old age. These wretches were hidden until their final change, to keep the secret of the Purple Rocks. Kraken priests were the tenders of the kraken’s flock. Most of the priests were island natives, but some were merfolk, merrow, or sea elves that lived in the water around the Purple Rocks.