Sailors on The Starless Sea

You are simple peasants, serfs, commoners, and tradesmen.

Your home is an unnamed and drought stricken village a two days walk from the nearest town, a cluster of one room hovels around a tired old inn, a smithy, and an ancient stone church to a silent god. A two story stone manor house is the largest building other than the squat windmill on the outskirts. A dusty dirt road snakes through the hamlet, passing a lopsided old well in the village square.

Recently, a string of mysterious abductions in the dark of night have plagued your decrepit hamlet. Screams piercing the thick summer nights, awakening even the hardiest of sleepers, yet stifled before anyone can clamber from their beds to investigate. Your mouths painfully dry and your heads aching, it has been difficult for any of you to find rest these past few nights.

You open the door of your hovel to the sweltering air outside and squint against the searing light of the sun. You fretfully cast your gaze over the wide flat fields broken by rocky knolls and hillocks. There, on the horizon, looms the ominous dust blurred silhouette of the ancient stone keep atop it’s tall boulder strewn hill. The keep dominates the countryside, as abandoned as it is forboding. It is slightly blurred by the rays of the harsh sun in your eyes and the dust churned by passing carts and oxen. Every time a villager is taken in the night, bestial tracks lead straight to that damnable, looming stronghold.

Hi! My name is John Duper. I am a Judge and GM who lives in Philadelphia. I have been running campaigns and one-off games regularly for five years, and I am a work study at ComedySportz Philadelphia with two years of improv and storytelling classes and several live shows under my belt. I have run Sailors on the Starless Sea for many groups who are completely new to tabletop RPGs. The adventure is always a hit, and many of my friends here have gotten hooked on the hobby because they grabbed a couple of level 0 character sheets and delved into the depths of a long abandoned keep to save their fellow villagers with me as their guide.

At the beginning of the adventure, I have added a brief but fun opportunity for players to have their characters interact with their fellow villagers at the local tavern, as they are given ale and vittles to fill their bellies before heading towards what may very well be certain doom. This always allows new players to enjoy a few minutes of classic role playing before entering one of the best introductory dungeon crawls I have had the pleasure to run. If we are unable to finish the adventure, players are welcome to take my contact information to schedule a follow up game. Surviving characters get to advance to level 1 and choose a class!