Maelstrom (Monster/Effect/Portal-Type)

Image by Harry Clarke from the 1919 edition of E. A. Poe's 'Tales of Mystery and Imagination.'
You can also download a copy of this image to use via Wikimedia Commons, as it is in the Public Domain.

Halloween is fast approaching and this is my favorite time of the year to revisit and re-read a bit of Mr. Poe's gruesome, decadent tales and poetry. Or listen to that album by Alan Parsons...while re-reading some of Mr. Poe's lurid prose. And a piece of fresh-baked pumpkin pie or a really good pumpkin stout...yeah.

ahem.

"The ways of God in Nature, as in Providence, are not as our ways; nor are the models that we frame any way commensurate to the vastness, profundity, and unsearchableness of His works, which have a depth in them greater than the well of Democritus."

Joseph Glanville (Note: Poe substantially revised the original quote...)

In Poe's tale 'A Descent Into the Maelstrom,' he presents a survivor's account of having nearly been swallowed-up by a massive whirlpool. The old sailor recounts his terrifying experience in the course of a mountain-climbing trip in Norway. He tells his companions of his shipwreck during a hurricane, getting caught in the swirling, churning grasp of the watery vortex and his eventual rescue, after witnessing the horrific descent of his brother into madness and oblivion while he survived because he made good use of his powers of observation and reasoning. The sad, lone survivor of this encounter with the Maelstrom was wizened, weakened and aged terribly by his ordeal.

Much feared as hazards to navigation, even as monsters unto themselves, whirlpools such as those off the coast of Norway such as Mokstraumen, one of the most notorious such vortexes known since even before medieval times, have featured prominently in old sailor's tales and in folklore as rivals to sea serpents, leviathans, and krakens. Whirlpools were regarded with awe and a healthy respect, as they could break-up or sink a good ship, and there was little that could be done about it, save to avoid the things in the first place.

But are they best represented as Monsters or Environmental Effects/Events?

Here's a Monster write-up for Labyrinth Lord to consider:

Maelstrom
No. Enc.: 1
Alignment: Chaotic (Evil)
Movement: n/a
Armor Class: n/a
Hit Dice: 8
Attacks: 1
Damage: see below
Save: n/a
Morale: n/a
Hoard Class: Detritus & Debris

Special: On the outer periphery the Maelstrom inflicts 1d6 damage to anyone/anything coming within reach of its swirling, churning turbulence. A Save must be made or the victim (be it ship, sailor or shark) becomes trapped in the vortex. Those so captured either suffer a progressive 1d6 in damage (either roll to Hit or use a Save), or they are drained of 1 point of CON or WIS (player's choice). This process repeats itself for 1d6 turns, after which the victim either is sucked down to the bottom of the sea, or they are rescued by someone operating outside the perimeter of the vortex. Those lost to the vortex are non-recoverable and never seen again. Anyone surviving such an encounter is aged severely (becoming Elderly or Venerable, using the Ability Adjustments Due to Age Table on p.23 of Advanced Edition Companion, or something similar.)

As a Monster, such a vortex might be some sort of Elemental Being. Or it could be the effect produced by a gargantuan fishy-thing deep below the surface of the water, such as Charybdis, some folk's re-interpretation of the Welsh Afanc or the afore-mentioned Leviathan, but that tends to get Biblical, enviously demonic or Moby-Dickish...even Hobbesian. But all that could just be so many odd-ball tangents to waste spend a few hours following the links down the rabbit-hole. If a Maelstrom is some sort of specialized Elemental, the special attack of a demented demonically-possessed albino whale, or some dreadful crowned prince of the Infernal Regions who somehow got lost at sea (possibly there is some evil artifact down there, beneath the waves, stirring up all this turmoil and terror? Could be. (We really need to write-up a Charybdaiad now though...)

...

But what if the Maelstrom were a more natural sort of thing, a large, and dangerous Environmental Effect, and not just another monster in some scribe's exaggerated bestiary? (or it could be both, really...)

That sounds like a job for a Random Table...

Maelstrom as Hazard to Navigation Table

1. The turgid, foamy waters subside within the next fifteen minutes; you just missed it. Ship or swimmers take 2d4 damage and make a Save at +2 to avoid getting dragged under by the last dregs of the whirlpool. It will be back in another 1d6 hours.
2. Everything seemed peaceful, serene and reasonably calm...then the waters became agitated, choppy, increasingly chaotic as a huge roaring, spiraling cataract formed in seconds, smashing everything caught within it for 4d6 damage and threatening to capsize or split asunder any vessel unlucky enough to get snared in the treacherous currents.
3. It started slowly, at first. A weak swirliness in the waters just off the point. So many tiny ripples. Easy to overlook or ignore as just some minor churning brought on by the weather, the passage of some whale, or whatever. Then it got worse. More intense. Every minute the waters grew more and more agitated. Then it was too late. A whirlpool churned and turned, making the channel a death trap for any ship caught within its watery grasp. (Save or Sink. Extends for a substantial circumference, perhaps up to half a mile...)
4. "All of a sudden, it's got you..." Everything went blue. Deep, vivid blue. You've gotten snared by the vortex produced by a hitherto unknown Blue Hole. It strikes by surprise, from below, forcing a Save at -2 to avoid getting swept away in the powerful currents.
5. The tides shift even as the winds pick up from the south. Menacing clouds boil across the darkening sky as heavy weather moves in fast. There's a hurricane blowing in and this stretch of water is now riddled with 2d6 whirlpools of random size and strength. Good luck.
6. The whirlpool was clearly marked in the Carta Marina and other such charts. But your captain insisted on risking the passage. Now whatever demons might have been haunting him, driving him on so recklessly have done for you all--the Maelstrom is raging and roaring and spinning at full force and the ship is crumbling to pieces beneath you...

Whether or not there's anyone out there to rescue those who run afoul of such a whirlpool...well...that's best left up to the DM.

...

But what if such vortexes and whirlpools were not just monstrous things or environmental quirks? What if they also somehow provided a highly dangerous means of crossing-over to some Adjacent World, Parallel Realm, or some other plane of existence? Could such a whirlpool connect to some alien ocean or weird elemental realm of some sort?

Why not? Maybe that whirlpool you've just discovered is some sort of fluctuating gateway to some other place, some distant region of existence where things aren't quite the same as here. Maybe it is some sort of Weak Point, or the ongoing effect of some malfunctioning Transition Mechanism trapped deep beneath the waves. It could be a gateway to all kinds of adventures. Maybe such a thing might make for another entry in Porky's ongoing Community Project 'The Ends,' which you can find here.

A Tenebrous Scarlet Portal (Scenario Seeds)

Chaotic Shiny hosted a fun mini-contest to celebrate the release of their nifty Portal Generator back in August. We didn't win, but we did have fun using the Portal Generator--it's pretty useful for a lot more than just Planescape. We used the Random Portal Gen to come up with the following Portal description for our original entry:

"This portal appears as a gleaming, tenebrous scarlet triangle. It smells faintly tangy. The key to opening it is a word."

Here are six Scenario Seeds for this particular portal.

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One
Since those adventurers returned from the fifth-level of the old monastery ruins, people have been dying in a peculiar and grisly manner. A Smoldering Shadow from some broken plane escaped from the tenebrous scarlet portal after they inadvertently dispelled or disrupted the wards that would have kept the thing at bay. Everyone in the local village/town/city is starting to think that the party had something to do with the murders, or that they might even be the perpetrators. Some spells and detective work can reveal that something definitely followed them back from the dungeon, but how will they track the thing down? And can they stop it before it kills again? The locals are restless and angry and a mob is almost certain to form soon--and then it'll be too late to convince anyone that it was some strange monster from another plane who has been on a murderous rampage. (A Smoldering Shadow is essentially a hybrid of a fire elemental and an undead shadow. Labyrinth Lord stats will follow in another post. You can always make up your own version, or swap it out for some other loathsome monster of your own devising or choice.)


Two
The daughter of a rich and powerful local merchant has been kidnapped by a foreign sorcerer. The party has been hired to track them down and return the daughter to her father. It all sounds fairly prosaic and run-of-the-mill until the players discover that the daughter is pregnant and the 'foreign sorcerer' is actually a being from another plane who is using the tenebrous scarlet triangle portal to travel back and forth from this world to another. He intends on taking the daughter through the portal. There's not much time left before they reach the location of the Portal. On the other side things will be much riskier for the party as the sorcerer has allies and perhaps has arranged some nasty surprises for anyone foolish enough to follow him to his home.


Three
Deep beneath the glacier-tunnels of the frost giants who've been raiding your lands is a portal to another plane, a tenebrous, scarlet triangle that opens unto the domains of a fire giant emperor whose massed ranks of fire giant heavy infantry, ogre mage pike-men and dire baboon-mounted lizardfolk janissaries are poised to storm through the Tenebrous Scarlet Portal and invade the icy stead of the frost giant jarl who had been foolish enough to trust the Emperor of the Black Flame. [This is a really fun surprise to drop on a table of players who've been exploring the old G1-2-3 series, or who expect things to be just like in the old modules...]


Four
The word required to open this portal is inscribed inside the dust-jacket of a signed copy of E. Drood's Amazing Collectiana & Marvelous Miscellany. A reliable source has informed three competing collectors and sorcerers that this particular copy of Drood's Book is currently in the hands of a certain disreputable book-seller down at the local open market. This book-seller has known connections to various underworld elements both criminal and infernal. They sometimes act as a fence and re-seller for items deemed too hot to handle by more reputable sellers. The Player Characters have been engaged to serve as either back-up muscle, moral support or witnesses for one of the collectors who are interested in acquiring this book. Or they might have over-heard something of the situation in one of the local wine-sellers and being adventurous-types they've decided to get involved in things a bit. What no one has been told (or bothered to find out yet) is who put the book into this seller's hands, and why...


Five
There is a small, mostly forgotten tomb of a minor noble just thirty odd miles past the other-side of this portal. You know this because you found a map that was hastily copied from one scratched into the wall of a room back at the inn you've had to vacate rather hastily after it caught fire. The map on the dead man's wall was put there by a Grobbly-Bonk demon. You know this because one of your associates sold the poor dead bastard the scroll you'd found that contained the spell required to summon the thing. The demon was rather helpful--it even gave you the name required to open the portal...


Six
In the course of recovering from a previous expedition, your group has found itself inadvertently trapped behind enemy lines and the town/city-state you thought would be a good place to re-supply is now under siege. But not to worry. The local Rector owes you all a favor for your previous discrete efforts on his behalf and it only takes a brief reminder of said services already rendered to get the Rector to agree to assist you in slipping past the besieging army. He knows of a portal deep below the local ecclesiastical compound that will grant you access to an adjacent plane from which you can locate several dozen other portals that will lead you back to at least two or three places you've heard of or know something about. It might sound a bit extreme, at first, at least to some of your associates, but the more you learn about who is behind the siege and what your prospects are if...when really...the besieging army takes this place...you start to see some advantages in making use of the Rector's secret portal. But you'll want to make up your mind fairly quickly--the entire compound is working furiously to evacuate everything before they get caught-up in the mayhem their seers are predicting.

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