The adventure ahead
This campaign will be deleted in 6 days. Create a free account to claim all your generated content.
Along the Brine Coast, fishing boats vanish and the tide brings back strange debts. The village of Brinewatch needs help: three fishermen are missing, the lighthouse has gone dark, and something in the sea caves is buying silence with silver.
This opening act is a coastal mystery for level 1–3 characters. Expect salt-soaked investigation, a rescue, and a first brush with a cult that serves something far older and hungrier than itself. The campaign begins with small losses and ends with the name Maren Vex — and a hint that she answers to a deeper power.
Tone: cold water, warm taverns, folk who know more than they say, and a villain who smiles while the rope tightens.
Share with your players
You have come to Brinewatch on the Brine Coast, a village of net-menders, smokehouses, and one stubborn lighthouse. The ale is thin, the wind is worse, and the folk are worried: three boats are overdue, and the lighthouse has not shone for two nights.
Your hook: Halda Brine, the innkeeper of the Salted Lantern, offers food and a little coin to anyone who will find out what happened to the missing crews. She is not the only one asking. A young urchin named Pell has been watching the tide come in wrong, and Sister Ivy at the shrine says the sea has begun leaving offerings of its own.
Tone: grounded coastal mystery with folk horror undercurrents. The sea is not evil, but something in it is patient.
Behind the screen
Act I: The Salted Debt is a self-contained opening arc for four level 1 characters, taking them to level 3. The party arrives in Brinewatch as three fishing boats fail to return. Investigation reveals that the lighthouse keeper, Bram Tallow, was coerced into signalling ships onto the Black Reef for a smuggler-cult led by Maren Vex, the Tidecaller. Vex is not the campaign's ultimate evil: she is a mid-level opportunist who has found a fragment of a drowned entity's power and is using it to harvest debtors and secrets.
The act ends with Vex defeated or driven off, her ledger recovered, and the first mention of the Drowned Choir — the larger threat. Keep Vex human and desperate, not a monster. The free villain sheet is built for a hard fight against four level 2 characters.
Hook 01
Halda Brine, innkeeper of the Salted Lantern in Brinewatch, offers the party free room, board, and what coin she has saved if they find out what happened to three overdue fishing boats — one of which carried her nephew. The party arrives at the harbour at dusk to find empty moorings, cut ropes, and a dark lighthouse on the cliff. This hook suits parties who like a clear employer, a warm base of operations, and a debt to repay.
Hook 02
Sister Ivy at the shrine of the tide has been finding coral shards in the offerings left on the shore, and she quietly asks any armed travellers to look into it before the village panics. The shards match carvings on the half-drowned chapel to the south, and the shrine's door has been marked with a drowned spiral. This hook suits parties who prefer mystery and folk horror over a direct job offer, and it leads to the same trail: Corin Salt's lantern sighting, Pell's cloaked rower, and Gull's Perch.
Three fishing boats vanish from Brinewatch. The party traces the disappearances to a coerced lighthouse keeper, a smuggler hideout in a drowned chapel, and finally to Maren Vex, the Tidecaller, who is using a shard of drowned power to harvest debts and secrets. Defeating or driving off Vex recovers her ledger and reveals the first hint of the Drowned Choir.
Read aloud
The Salted Lantern is warm and crowded, but the talk dies when you enter. Halda Brine sets down a tray and looks at you with red-rimmed eyes. 'Three boats,' she says. 'Nine men. The lighthouse dark two nights running. I'll pay what I have if you find out what the sea took.'
Halda gives the opening job. The party can question Corin (guilt, debt), Ivy (coral shards, drowned altar), and Pell (cloaked figure, Gull's Perch). Corin's lantern-sighting and Pell's rower both point north. If the party presses Corin, he admits he owes Maren Vex money. The scene ends when the party has a clear lead to Gull's Perch.
Read aloud
Bram Tallow does not run when you enter. He sits by the cold hearth with a signal lantern between his feet. 'I knew someone would come,' he says. 'I did not think it would be you. The light is not broken. I drained it. She said she would burn the cottage and my granddaughter with it.'
Bram confesses under pressure. He names Maren Vex and says she forced him to signal ships onto the reef. He does not know where she hides, but he saw cultists row toward the Drowned Chapel. He will guide the party to the cliff path if they promise to protect his granddaughter. The scene ends when the party has the chapel lead and Bram's cooperation.
Read aloud
The cave stinks of salt and fear. Chains rattle in the dark, and a cold fire burns where no fire should. A woman's voice cuts through the gloom: 'If you are here to rob Maren, you are late. If you are here to help, the keys are on the hook by the crab. Try not to die.'
Lys Marsh and Tomas Reed are chained in the cells. Two cultists guard the cave, and a giant crab lurks near the keys. Use 2 Cultist and 1 Giant Crab. If the party frees Lys, she identifies the ledger page and Maren's plan. Tomas saw the tide shard and heard the name Drowned Choir. The tide rises after six rounds; treat the lower cave as difficult terrain and then flooded.
Read aloud
Maren Vex stands on the black rock with the sea at her back, a shard of coral and bone glowing in her hand. 'You have come a long way for a few dead fishermen,' she says. 'I am not the one who drowns them. I am the one who collects. Give me the ledger page, and I will let you walk back before the tide.'
Maren offers a bargain: the ledger page for safe passage. If refused, she fights with 2 Cultist and 1 Giant Crab. She uses the tide shard to create slippery ground and saltwater bursts. The tide returns after eight rounds; the lower platform floods and becomes difficult terrain. If the shard is destroyed, Maren's cultists flee and she surrenders or retreats. The ledger names the Drowned Choir as her patron.
Milestone: The party reaches level 2 after rescuing the captives at the Drowned Chapel, and level 3 after defeating or driving off Maren Vex and recovering her ledger.
Maren Vex, the Tidecaller
Failed
Generating character sheet.
Free campaign generations include one villain sheet. Additional villain, NPC, and player-facing module character sheets are available in premium campaigns.
Subscribe NowFree campaign encounters use official monster sheets, plus the campaign villain character when referenced. They do not include generated custom monster sheets. Subscribe to create custom campaign monsters and enemy stat blocks.
Subscribe NowMaren Vex wants to escape a life of debt and obscurity by mastering a shard of drowned power. She believes the sea owes her a fortune and a name, and she will drown anyone who tries to collect first.
Warm, practical, and unnervingly reasonable. Maren speaks to fishermen like a neighbour and to enemies like a banker closing an account. She never raises her voice; she simply explains what the tide will take next.
Maren opens with talk and a demand for the ledger's return. If pressed, she uses the tide shard to call saltwater and commands her cultists to flank. She fights from high ground or shallow water, retreats into the surf when bloodied, and surrenders only if the shard is destroyed or her cultists fall.
Maren can be killed, handed to the village, or bargained with: she will trade the ledger and the reef's secrets for her life. If spared, she warns that the Drowned Choir will not forgive her failure — and that the party has now been noticed.
Recommended party: Four characters of level 1
Before play, agree on the tone: coastal folk horror with real drownings, coerced NPCs, and a villain who threatens a child. Establish lines and veils for drowning, child endangerment, and debt-driven coercion, and use a shared safety tool such as the X-card. Confirm the party has a reason to be in Brinewatch — travelling sellswords, a salvage crew, or folk returning to a home village — and that they are willing to take a paid job from an innkeeper. Ask each player what their character owes someone, since debt is the act's central theme. Set expectations that this is a mystery first and a fight second, and that talking to frightened people is the main skill.
The act is written for four level 1 characters reaching level 3. For a party of three, remove one Cultist from the Drowned Chapel and Black Reef rosters and delay the tide flood by two rounds. For a party of five or six, add 1 Cultist to each encounter and give the giant crabs maximum hit points. If the party reaches the Black Reef at level 1, have Maren bargain rather than fight and let the shard's destruction end the encounter early. If they arrive at level 3 with the ledger page and allies, run the full roster and start the flood at round six to keep the pressure on. Never scale Maren by giving her a monster stat block — adjust her tactics, her allies, and the tide clock instead.
Run Act I as a pressure cooker, not a dungeon crawl. Let the party hear three conflicting rumours in the Salted Lantern before anyone gives them a straight answer, and make every NPC's fear legible: Halda's briskness, Corin's drinking, Bram's shaking hands. Keep the tide clock visible — announce the water rising each round so the Drowned Chapel and Black Reef fights feel urgent. Maren Vex should always be reasonable and always be a step ahead; she bargains before she bleeds. Plant the Drowned Choir early and quietly: a spiral carved on a shrine door, a phrase in Tomas's retelling, a line in the ledger. The act succeeds when Brinewatch is safe, the ledger is in the party's hands, and the players are uneasy about what noticed them.
Discover intricate areas, locations, and points of interest that will bring your D&D world to life. Premium users get access to fully detailed locations including taverns, dungeons, cities, and more!
Level Up to Premium!Join the ranks of Dungeon Masters creating unforgettable adventures!
Maren Vex, the Tidecaller
Failed
Generating character sheet.
Free campaign generations include one villain sheet. Additional villain, NPC, and player-facing module character sheets are available in premium campaigns.
Subscribe NowFree campaign encounters use official monster sheets, plus the campaign villain character when referenced. They do not include generated custom monster sheets. Subscribe to create custom campaign monsters and enemy stat blocks.
Subscribe NowMaren Vex wants to escape a life of debt and obscurity by mastering a shard of drowned power. She believes the sea owes her a fortune and a name, and she will drown anyone who tries to collect first.
Warm, practical, and unnervingly reasonable. Maren speaks to fishermen like a neighbour and to enemies like a banker closing an account. She never raises her voice; she simply explains what the tide will take next.
Maren opens with talk and a demand for the ledger's return. If pressed, she uses the tide shard to call saltwater and commands her cultists to flank. She fights from high ground or shallow water, retreats into the surf when bloodied, and surrenders only if the shard is destroyed or her cultists fall.
Maren can be killed, handed to the village, or bargained with: she will trade the ledger and the reef's secrets for her life. If spared, she warns that the Drowned Choir will not forgive her failure — and that the party has now been noticed.
Get access to detailed NPCs, faction relationships, and character backgrounds that will make your campaign truly memorable!
Unlock Premium Features!Create compelling characters and factions that your players will never forget!
Unlock detailed quest structures, branching storylines, and meaningful rewards that will keep your players engaged for months!
Start Your Epic Journey!Join DMs creating unforgettable adventures with our premium quest system!
Free campaigns can't be played as a game. Premium campaigns become a 3D adventure you play in the browser: explore settlements, wilderness and dungeons with your party, and fight in real time with pause.
Level Up to Premium!Suggested Level: Level 1–2
A narrow ledge with a 30-foot drop to the surf on one side and a slick rock wall on the other. The tidal pool is difficult terrain and the crab has advantage while standing in it. The cache boulder provides three-quarters cover. A DC 12 Strength (Athletics) check is needed to cross the wet stone at speed without slipping; failure costs half movement.
A cask of lamp oil, a crate of smoked fish, 12 gp in mixed coin, and a waxed note from Maren Vex ordering that the lighthouse be kept dark until the next wreck. Returning the oil earns Bram's signal lantern and 15 gp.
For a strong level 1 party, drop the crab to a single non-combatant hazard (it flees when struck) or reduce the cultist's hit points. For a level 3 party, add 1 Cultist and let the crab begin the fight hidden in the pool, granting it surprise.
Suggested Level: Level 2
The lower cave is difficult terrain as water sheets across the rock, and it floods entirely on round six, forcing movement to the upper ledges. Crates give half cover. The brazier of cold fire sheds dim light and cannot be extinguished by water. Rusted chains (DC 14 Strength (Athletics) to break) hold the captives.
The cell keys, a crate of silver from the *Merry Dancer* (worth 40 gp but evidence), a salt-stained ledger page hidden in Lys's cell (DC 13 Wisdom (Perception) to spot), and a potion of healing in the cultists' kit.
For a level 1 party, remove one cultist and start the flood at round eight. For a level 3 party, add 1 Cultist and have the crab begin grappled onto a captive, forcing a rescue under pressure.
Suggested Level: Level 2–3
The platform is exposed only at low tide; the lower half floods on round eight and becomes difficult terrain, then deep water. Wet rock requires a DC 12 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to cross at speed. The tide shard's glow creates slick patches that count as difficult terrain. Crates of silver provide half cover, and the brazier of cold fire sheds dim light.
Maren's ledger (the act's key document), the tide shard (see magic items), 75 gp in salvaged silver, a potion of healing, and a sealed letter naming a contact in a larger port who serves the Drowned Choir.
For a level 2 party, remove one cultist and delay the flood to round ten. For a level 3 party, keep the full roster and have Maren begin with the shard already active, granting her cultists advantage on their first attack. If the party is struggling, let destroying the shard break the cultists' morale and end the fight early.
Bram's Signal Lantern
Completed
Act I — given by Bram Tallow at Gull's Perch after the party returns his lamp oil
False
Salt-Eaten Compass
Completed
Act I — reward from Corin Salt for recovering his nets from the Drowned Chapel sea cave
True — by a character who has spent a night aboard a ship
Shard of the Drowned Altar
Completed
Act I — taken from Maren Vex at the Black Reef finale
True — by a spellcaster or a character who has sworn an oath to the sea
You need to register to create and view player characters in this campaign.
Register Now