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The Mariner’s Torments
The Well, The Mists, The Maelstrom and The Doomed Abyss: The four great perils when sailing on the Karkino Sea: navigating through them is the key to successfully crossing the region, and they ensure that only the captains who really know their trade will even attempt it.
The Salted Shore
A tropical paradise of azure waters, sandy beaches, and palms swaying in the gentle breeze.
Lonely Island
The safest route in and out of Boundary Reef, that encloses the Salted Shore and Mutiny’s End, is the straits between the Last Crowsnest and Lonely Island. The alternative is “the Outer Roads” that pass terrifyingly close to The Maelstrom. As such Lonely Island could be considered nothing of the sort, since shipping passes it constantly. But it’s a rare day if even a small ship will take in sail and drop anchor on its coast, let alone make landfall there.
Mutiny's End (LVO location and RP channel location)
A freebooter’s metropolis on the coast of the Karkino Sea. A “neutral” port with very little in the way of government or laws. Replete with inns and taverns, and merchants willing to exchange goods in barter with no awkward questions. The population is an eclectic mix of peoples from all realms: Humans, duardin, orruks, aelves, seraphon, sylvaneth, even skaven and beastmen.
The buildings of Mutiny’s End are as varied as the citizens: from half-timber houses with tiled roofs and salvage-built shanty huts, to domed marble towers, ornately carved timber halls, and much more. Colourful awnings and sun-sails can be seen everywhere, to keep the streets shaded from the heat. Palm trees often grow in the gaps between structures. Tattered but colourful flags, representing both pirate crews and their victims, flap wildly in the wind. Their ragged edges and faded symbols tell stories of distant shores and long-forgotten treasures.
The Docks
A bustling dockside area lined with weathered wooden planks that creak underfoot, surrounded by dilapidated warehouses and the latest batch of ships to pass through, that lean precariously against the salty breeze. Dominating the waterfront is a gigantic, twisted anchor, covered in barnacles and rust, protruding from the wharf. Its chain snakes across the sand beyond the wharf like a slumbering sea-serpent, serving as a gathering spot for local mariners who swap tales of the sea and debate the best methods for navigating the hazards of the region.
Gallows Market
A busy quayside market in the Mutiny’s End docks, where all manner of goods and services can be bought and sold.
The Cod and Cutlass
A waterfront inn and tavern decorated inside and out with thousands of individual items of nautical paraphernalia. It’s known for strong drink, raucous music, hoarsely bellowed sea-shanties, preposterous tales of the sea, and frequent bar-fights.
The Marooned Chandler
A run-down merchant’s shop selling salvaged chandlery - the likes of sailcloth, rope for rigging, pitch and oakum, woodworking tools, barrels of blackpowder and salted food and rum, cannonballs and grapeshot.
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Boundary Reef (LVO location)
A cluster of islands along the saw-toothed reef that encloses Mutiny’s End and the Salted Shore. The only routes in and out of the wide gulf behind the reef are the straits between the Last Crowsnest and Lonely Island, and “ the Outer Roads ” that pass terrifyingly close to The Maelstrom .
The Last Crowsnest
Surrounded by razor-sharp submerged rocks, this island is peppered with shipwrecks. It’s a testament to the much-repeated saying that Boundary Reef will punish any sea-captains who do not know their trade .
Green Island
A lushly forested island filled with aggressive flora and fauna. The glimmering white sands of its beaches are deceptively inviting. But both the tunnel-riddled cliffs and the forests beyond them are filled with hungry and truculent things.
Rusted Anchor
It’s widely believed that there was once a Realmgate to Chammon on this island. It’s not known what happened to the gate, but it’s nowhere to be found. Still, the island is covered in coarse reddish-orange dust and flakes of oxidised metal, so there seems to be some truth in the old tale.
Old Smokey
Dominated by a towering volcano, jagged and black but silent. The air has a tang of sulphur and steam sometimes hisses from cracks and crevices around the coast. Smoke spirals from the summit, caught in the tail-end of the Maelstrom’s gales. The small port of the south coast is called Cinderglow . A duardin brewery uses the port to export their wares. The brewery itself uses geothermic energy to heat the pure clear water from volcanic springs. The beverage they make is strong and slightly acidic but this is seen as a positive in Aqshy. The locals of Mutiny’s End sometimes call it Old Smokey, after the island, but more often it's known as Dragon Rum .
The Brig
The deep waters of the bay on the west side of The Brig would be a perfect harbour and safe-haven, if only the serrated claws of Boundary Reef allowed anything larger than a single-masted sloop to enter.
Tumblehome
Named for its oddly rounded cliffs that curve inward at their top and bulge out in the middle. It’s hard to make landfall everywhere except the wide open bay to the east, where a long sandy beach has several paths that wind up through the cliffs. Inland, behind the cliffs, the island is lush and fertile and a small but successful outpost has taken root there.
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Dread Tides
Dark waters, said to flow straight from the Realm of Chaos itself.
Bosun’s Breach
At the beginning of the Age of Chaos the ships of Khorne’s own fleet sailed through the Breach.
A powerful sorcerer, remembered only as The Bosun , stitched the Breach closed by using his own soul as the thread. But now those stitches are strained; the soul-thread is coming undone and may not hold much longer. Small gaps have started to appear for a few moments at a time, like a great force is being applied to reality from the other side. Sometimes the gaps are enough for a daemon to slip through…
Emberstone Bay
The waters of Emberstone Bay boil in heat from either an underwater volcano that constantly spews magma onto the seabed or massive deposits of Realmstone - depending on who you ask. Great clouds of steam erupt from the waves in stinking sulphurous banks of fog. Both the waters and the air are poisonous to all but the most hardy of creatures.
The Well
One of the four Mariner’s Torments . A spewing whirlpool, and a one-way Realmgate from Ghur.
“That whirlpool entrance is guarded by fearsome monsters large enough to swallow your ship whole, or tear it to splinters and drag you and your crew to the depths!”
Cutlass Point (LVO location)
A chain of 6 small islands and many more tiny islets, some of which are not much more than a large rock protruding from the sea. The archipelago is a scattered line, roughly north-west to south-east. Sparsely populated but becoming fiercely contested by the various factions now active in the region.
Gallows Cross
A rocky island with two narrow sandy beaches - one on the west shore and one on the south. Above the approaches to the western beach a weathered tavern is carved directly into the cliffside, its uneven wooden floors echoing the waves crashing against the rocks below. Above the bar, a massive chandelier made from salvaged shipwreck parts sways precariously, its fractured glass pieces refracting light into a dazzling spray of colours across the room.
Reaver’s Reach
The ancient ruins scattered all overReaver’s Reach have been partially rebuilt using repurposed timbers from ships (some shipwrecked in storms, some captured by force and sailed here).When the mists envelope the island sound is smothered - an eerie silence descends over the dilapidated settlement. The residents hang crude hand-made charms and totems; and paint symbols of warding and protection, over doors, shutters and hatches. The fear what comes with the fog far more than any pirate or sea-raider.
Wrecker’s Bight
A low, sandy island on a highpoint of the reef, built up around a number of large rocks caught in the coral in a forgotten age. A small number of fast-growing plants have taken root but the Bight is often submerged at high tide. Many ships have run-aground on the Bight over the years. Whenever they have, swarms of small boats have soon descended upon them. The boats always announce themselves and offer to help haul the ship off the sandbar. On occasion they have done just that. More often though, they’ve overwhelmed the struggling crew and stripped the ship of anything valuable in just a few short hours.
Sharkbait Island
The vast skeleton of a gigantic sea-beast dominates the southern shores of this island. The white sand beaches fringed by lush palm trees and undergrowth could fool new arrivals into thinking it a paradise, but the truth is far darker. The ruins of ancient settlements and the bones of settlers hidden among the palms and ferns hint at the island's history.
Barnacle Rock
Nearly every inch of Barnacle Rock is covered in a sprawling wooden stronghold made from salvaged shipwrecks. A higgledy-piggledy conglomerations of ships’ hulls piled against one-another and lashed together with the remains of their own rigging. Constantly repaired, reinforced and modified, it has slowly changed shape over the years. Some hulls have been repurposed as inns or shops by adventurous, eccentric (or mad) traders.
Traitor’s Hook
Hanging from the rocky outcrops that overlook this desolate island, there are ship's wheels decorated with countless tiny bones strung together as macabre ornaments, spinning gently in the wind. Traitor’s Hook rises like a broken tooth from the sea, jagged cliffs framing a barren expanse punctuated by twisted, skeletal trees.
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Port St Marien
“In a sea of faces, in a sea of doubt
In this cruel place your voice above the maelstrom
In the wake of this ship of fools I'm falling further down
If you can see me, Marian, reach out and take me home
Can you hear me calling you to
Save me, save me, save me from the deep..”
A Strongpoint built as the final destination of the ill-fated Dawnbringer Crusade of Saint Marian the Luminant. Infected and undermined by the madness of the Flesh-Eater Courts the citizens still believe themselves to be successful Dawnbringers. To their eyes the city is a gleaming example of Sigmar’s Plan achieved: White stone houses with terracotta-tiled roofs, gilded with gold decoration and adorned with celebratory murals and statues, depicting their triumphs and victories. Holy smoke wafts from censors and choirs raise their clear voices in worship. In reality their blood-daubed and rotting timber huts lean haphazardly as they sink into the vile, stinking swampland. Gibbering cannibals howl at one-another through the smoke of charred flesh.
“There's a weight above me
And the pressure is all too strong
To breathe deep
Breathe long and hard
To take the water down and go to sleep
To sink still further
Beneath the fatal wave
Marian I think I'm drowning
This sea is killing me”
The Mists
One of the four Mariner’s Torments . A rolling semi-sentient fog bank that moves unpredictably and unexpectedly. Sometimes it remains stationary for weeks at a time. Sometimes it expands to shroud a vast area of the sea and land. Other times it all but evaporates, receding to a small area centred on the three islands at its heart. Within this fog dwell unspeakable eldritch horrors; tentacled, toothed and clawed.
Groggy Head
A ramshackle outpost built into the craggy cliffs overlooking the foggy sea, accessed via paths made of damp wooden planks that creak perilously underfoot. The place is seldom visited and the few residents have strangely large eyes and cold pallid complexions.
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The Maelstrom
One of the four Mariner’s Torments . A permanent hurricane. A raging tropical storm that seems to have a malign intellect. Some even suggest it might be a vast combination of hundreds of Endless Spells. Others assert that it must be an elemental godbeast. The skies are laden with ominous dark clouds and any ship sailing the turbulent waters beneath them is beset by blinding rain squalls, high seas, and gusty, irregular gales that veer or back unexpectedly. Often seeming to maliciously redirect ships toward the many hazards within the storm.
The Bay of Wrecks
The combination of unpredictable storms and sharp rocks hidden just beneath the waves means this cove is the graveyard for a vast number of wrecked ships.
Hullbreaker Harbour
Not actually a harbour at all. The shores of the Bay of Wrecks are home to bands of beachcombers who make a living from salvaging the cargo that washes ashore after every storm passes.
“The deep brings all manner o’ strange things to these here shores. Some, as you’d expect, are simply the bounties of the sea. Others are more unusual, like cargo from distant Realms, and visitors of infamy and renown. But once-in-a-while the deep gives us something truly out of the ordinary, the likes of which you’ll not-never see twice: Not were you to live a hundred lifetimes on this very spot!”
Skinflint's Hollow
A small twisted bay that offers a little shelter from the perpetual storm known as The Maelstrom. The calmer waters are a welcome relief, despite the incessant rain, but many ships have been lost as they tried to leave the Hollow; swept into Hullbreaker Harbour by treacherous tides and dashed on the razor-sharp rocks there. On the wet sands of the Hollow there is an inn and gambling den called the Rusted Anchor - built decades ago by Sebastiano Skinflint, a retired pirate of some renown… in his day.
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The Cursed Deep
A churning green sea, festooned with sea monsters and other unseen hazards.
Razor Shallows
The straights to the north are littered with sandbars. There are deeper channels between them but they twist and turn, often leading to dead ends. The tides shift the sands bars constantly making them impossible to chart reliably.
Skuttle Lagoon
Bioluminescent algae casts an otherworldly glow in this deep lagoon, illuminating the shattered remains of vessels sunk by their own crews. Some of the wrecks still cling to their cargo of shimmering shells and exotic treasures, luring the greedy to a tragic fate.
The Doomed Abyss
One of the four Mariner’s Torments . The fathomless depths of the Doomed Abyss are so dark and impenetrable they defy mortal comprehension. Where much of the Karkino sea is crystal-turquoise and clear enough to almost see the seabed even beyond coastal shallow waters, the darkness beneath these waters haunts the soul of any sailors unfortunate enough to sail over it. Sailors here say that the souls of all the dead who drowned in the Karkino Sea are trapped in the Abyss.
Skull Sands
Hundreds of tiny rocky islets, each with a small fort or stronghold clinging to it like a limpet. Most of them are simply the hull of a wrecked ship, braced with salvaged timbers and lashed with rigging, and the odd rusted metal plate riveted over joints. Some have lasted for decades (although many have been washed away). Each stronghold was once home to a paranoid pirate captain and their crew who built a stronghold to defend their loot from their greedy neighbours. Now they’re each home to a paranoid Wight Captain and their Deathrattle crew! There is a strong chance that they share the same names are their “predecessors”.
Spyglass Tower
A ramshackle but imposing fortress that looms precariously atop rocky cliffs, its spiralling exterior adorned with black banners and scraps of tattered sails. Weathered timber decks encrusted with salt and stained by seaweed and green slime. An enormous brass telescope, that was once mounted in a marvel of clockwork articulation, is suspended in a web of ropes. It not only offers panoramic views of ships passing by on the surrounding ocean, it also offers a glimpse into the souls of their passengers and crew.
Blacktar Refuge
An ill-fated name, for there is no refuge here. The souls of the damned haunt the ruined fortress and the waters around it.
