Publisher's blurb:
Sunlight glistens past rippling waves, landing like dappled rainbows on this underwater village. Built into a coral shelf, small circular dwellings stand, their rounded domes decorated in highlights of brass. Walkways are paved with tiles and spiralling walls, while seaweed clumps along the edges.
Different sea life grows off the surrounding shelves, inhabited by various types of fish and a shark. Further down is only the blue of even more ocean, descending to unknown depths.
Adventure Seed
The last thing you remember is being thrown off the deck of a ship. White noise as you splashed into churning ocean waves, followed by sudden, deafening silence and a high-pitched ringing in your ears. You sunk down into the frothing sea, your lifeblood leaking like crimson ink into the water; tattered clothes drifting in the currents…
You wake, surprised to be alive, in a bed within a small hut—breathing water. A merwoman, noticing you, shyly explains that her people rescued you from the wreckage. To save your life they dissolved a magical pearl beneath your tongue, allowing you to breathe water. When they brought you here, she wrapped your wounds with healing seaweed. You’ve been asleep for days, and she suggests you remain here for a few more until you’re healed.
As you slowly recover, an elderly merman gives you tours of the town. It’s much larger than the sparse amount of merfolk within it, and they look thin and dishevelled. Your guide explains how his people have been at war with evil underwater races for years now, and that they’re losing. How, desperate, a band of young soldiers swam down to a ruined temple in search of an ancient weapon. They retrieved it, but something terrible was asleep down there. Something they woke up—the very same monstrosity that felled your ship.
While touring beautiful coral gardens, you overhear a group arguing about the destruction of nearby reefs from the monstrosity. Many insist that something must be done. But an elder barks that they have already discussed this, and the council has decided to leave the monster alone, trusting it will go away.
The next day, however, the monstrosity is sighted close to the village—heading straight for it. There aren’t many warriors left, and the merfolk can see from your body language and possessions that you’re no stranger to combat. They beg you to aid them in defending the town—if you do, they’ll reward you with more, highly valuable magic pearls.
WHAT’S HAPPENING? The monstrosity is the guardian of the ruined temple. It rages across the ocean, searching for the stolen weapon—destroying reefs and ships as it goes. Should you return it, the monster will go back to its slumber in the ruins. However, that would condemn the merfolk to losing the war, and allow the evil races they fight to invade the lands above. But if you don’t return it, the guardian will fight to the death to retrieve it.