St. Amaro's Western Adventure

While researching my folk saints I came across a most intriguing real-world figure, the legendary, uncanonized Santo Amaro.

This blessed wanderer set sail from the land of Alia, "whose cities now lie in ruins," searching for the terrestrial Paradise, convinced it lay across the oceans - he is assumed to have sailed west, although the direction of travel is not always clear from the manuscripts. He gathered a crew (could YOUR PARTY be that crew?) and set forth into uncharted waters, guided only by faith.

The Spanish texts of his adventures (available here, at the end of the monograph) bear a certain resemblance to themes in pagan Celtic literature of the journey across the western ocean to the Otherworld (imramm) and to the similar legend of St. Brendan the Navigator from Irish Christendom. C.S. Lewis (who was Northern Irish) may indeed have drawn on these tales of curious islands, moral lessons and marine perils for his Narnia book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Amaro's encounters, to the gaming mind, look like the kernel of a saltcrawl map.

1. Tierra Desierta, island of five cities and many castles, where the men are ugly and the women beautiful. Abundant animal encounters. Provisioning and trade available. Handsome male party members are at risk of entanglements, jealousy.

2. The Ruddy, or Vermilion Sea.

3.  Fuente Clara, island of many sins and vices, but where everyone is beautiful and courteous, disease is unknown and the lifespan is 300 years. Henchmen and hirelings must make a loyalty check or remain in this false paradise.

4.  The Coagulated Sea traps the ship among seven other abandoned ships, where fierce sea monsters the size of horses and larger fight over the corpses of the ships' crew. (Inspired by prayer, Amaro escaped this deathtrap by inflating waterskins with air and tying them to the ship, whereupon the beasts attacked the waterskins, believing them to be corpses, and pulled the ship out of the clotted waters.)

5. Ysla Desierta, bare of growth, overrun by fierce lions and populated by hermits, a fortified abbey with basic supplies. Each Saint John's Day the lions and other fierce beasts fight and the stench of the resulting corpses is such that anyone staying on the island for up to a month afterward is sickened.

6. Further on the monastery Val de Flores, in an abundant land with rich supplies. The leader of Val de Flores is a friar, Leonatis, whom the local savage lions respect.

7. The Port of Three Houses, a rich and beautiful land but without inhabitants and the port with no more than three houses.

8. The two hermits in the valley beyond do not know where the Earthly Paradise is, nor do the high-born women of the convent Flor de Dueñas.  but the wandering holy woman Baralides does, who only appears to the virtuous. She can give directions to the gem-encrusted castle gates of Paradise.

9. Paradise: whose porter allows a timeless glimpse of that land (Amaro spent 277 years gazing without realizing it) and gives as a gift the fruit (complete healing) or the earth (a tree planted in it will give fruit as healing potions) from the trees of paradise. You want to pry some of the gems loose? I double dare you to try...

Amaro's voyage is short, however, compared to the wilder adventures of St. Brendan, which curiously manage to cover some of the same ground. Maybe a Greater Neo-Imramm Western Sea map is in the offing?

For Your Seacrawling Consideration

Is this not the most remarkable, extraordinary adventure location?

* An island owned by some kind of high-level evil rogue/fighter/beastmaster-by-intimidation (Bluto, in the role of Sindbad)
* The average, everyday, boring guard monsters are vultures, war dogs, lions, apes, snakes, and dragons
* The lieutenant-grade guard monsters are an ettin and a roc
* A chest of diamonds, undoubtedly the least of the treasures
* A cave, huge castle, chasm, steep stairway, skull-shaped rock formations, canyon, and active volcano in the vicinity
* Furthermore, the whole shebang sits on the back of a giant whale
* An enchantment renders combat damage into highly implausible ouchie-effects, with several additions to this excellent table.
* Popeye, aided by no useful henchmen to speak of, rolled over the whole place in ten minutes flat.

Monster Monday: Jenny Haniver, Sea Clergy, and Morkoths

I guess it's another Monster Monday.

"Jenny Haniver" is a term with any number of possible etymological fathers but no clear origin. It refers to folk-art creations of sailors in the medium of dried skate (the fish), purporting to be preserved carcasses of fantastical monsters.

Sometimes a Haniver is made in a squid-headed humanoid form, further reinforcing age-old tales ...

  

of humanoid creatures under the sea with pointed and tonsured heads ...

argued by the eminent Danish scholar of cephalopods, Japetus Steenstrup*, to be little more than misidentified giant squid:

But we know better, don't we? We know about the morkoth. Does this look like a Jenny Haniver to you?

 Um ... okay, well maybe it does.

JENNY HANIVER: Size S, numbers appearing 2d10, HD 1+1, AC 8 [11], MV 6 flying/6 swimming, AT d3 bite, Intelligence: animal.

This is a curious flying marine predator of far-away climes, with leathery skin, about the size of a small cat. They travel in flocks and are known to leap on board a ship en masse to harass and bite the crew. For this eventuality, wise captains keep stocks of netting on board when sailing haniverous waters. They mummify easily and some sailors make a living from selling them.

SEA MONK: Size M, numbers appearing d12 or d12x3 in lair, HD 3+1, AC 5 [14], MV 6 swimming, AT d3/d3 nonlethal flippers, spell use as 3rd level cleric, Intelligence: average.

These gregarious creatures collect in small communities to farm seaweed, raise sea snails, and serve various undersea deities, with some "abbeys" being lawful and some more sinister. Lairs are often guarded by 1d6 monk seals.

SEA BISHOP: Size M, numbers appearing d3, HD 7+1, AC 3 [16], MV 6 swimming, AT d6 headbutt nonlethal, spell use as 7th level cleric, DF ink cloud. Intelligence: high

Be they pious or debauched, these creatures have a strong connection to the kind of deities worshipped by sea monks, but prefer to lead and advise others rather than group together. They can be found in communities of sea monks, mermen, tritons, locathah, or sahuagin. In danger they can spew a 20' radius ink cloud in the water to confuse enemies and make good their escape.

* As far as I can tell Steenstrup and "Mr. Sluperius" were real guys and not fake tome authors from an off-brand Mythos tale.