Adventure Background
Campaign Overview
This campaign begins on the Menagerie Coast of Wildemount, near the tropical settlement of Palma Flora. What starts as a coastal adventure quickly opens into something larger: ship travel, ancient ruins, forgotten histories, pirate threats, sea monsters, political intrigue, and mysteries buried beneath jungle islands and storm-worn temples.
The story centers on discovery. The coast remembers things that history has tried to bury. Old powers stir beneath the waves. Ruins long swallowed by jungle and sea begin to reveal secrets tied to the first people of the coast, the Ki’Nau, and the darker forces that once sought to claim their homeland.
This campaign focuses on:
- Coastal exploration and ship travel
- Ancient ruins, temples, and lost civilizations
- Pirates, sea monsters, and island mysteries
- Player backstories shaping the campaign
- Political intrigue along the Menagerie Coast
Player Agency
Your Story
This is not a fixed story with one correct path. The campaign is built around your characters, your choices, and the connections we create together. Your background, allies, rivals, beliefs, and goals will help determine where the story goes.
The Menagerie Coast is a place of trade, danger, beauty, and secrets. You may arrive as sailors, scholars, pirates, mercenaries, pilgrims, exiles, locals, or wanderers. What matters is that your character has a reason to care about the coast and the mysteries hidden beneath it.
Your choices may determine:
- Which factions gain influence along the coast
- What ancient powers are awakened or sealed away
- Who controls forgotten relics and lost knowledge
- Whether the Shattered Coast becomes a place of hope, conquest, or ruin
Table Setup
How We Play
The experience is cinematic, character-driven, and collaborative:
- D&D Beyond character sheets
- D&D Beyond Maps for tactical encounters
- Syrinscape audio and atmosphere
- Roleplay, exploration, and tactical combat
- Bosses and major encounters may use epic actions
- Rules As Written as the foundation, with selected table adjustments
This campaign will include exploration, travel, danger, mystery, and meaningful choices. Combat matters, but not every problem should be solved with violence.
Rules
Character Creation
Allowed Character Options
- Player’s Handbook 2024
- Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount
- Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
- Heroes of Faerûn
- Approved D&D Beyond options for this campaign
Table Adjustments
- Wildemount subclasses are allowed
- We will use a best-of-both-worlds approach between 2014 and 2024 rules
- Weapon Masteries will not be used
- Custom ideas should be discussed before Session Zero
Each Player Should
- Create a character with a reason to travel the Menagerie Coast
- Choose or create a personal hook tied to the campaign
- Write a short backstory
- Prepare character and token art
Personal Quests
Character Hooks
Choose one of these hooks or use them as inspiration for your own. The best character hooks give your character a personal reason to explore the coast, sail into danger, and uncover what lies beneath the old ruins.
Blood of the Coast Ki’Nau Legacy
Your family claims descent from the Ki’Nau, the original seafaring people of the Menagerie Coast. You have heard stories of a lost island, an ancestral relic, or a sacred site swallowed by jungle and sea.
The Lost Expedition Explorer Hook
Someone you knew joined an expedition into the Shattered Coast and never returned. Their final message mentioned ruins, serpent markings, and something sleeping beneath the waves.
Debt to Pirates Revelry Hook
You owe a debt to pirates, smugglers, or privateers. They now want you to recover a chart, relic, or secret hidden somewhere along the coast.
Dreams from the Sea Mystery Hook
You dream of a temple beneath black water, a serpent’s eye opening in the dark, and a voice promising truth if you follow the tide.
The Sahuagin Threat Coastal Defense
A coastal village, ship, or loved one was attacked by sahuagin. Their raids are becoming more organized, and you want to know who or what is uniting them.
The Serpent Mark Forbidden Power
You found a symbol carved into stone, tattooed onto a corpse, or hidden in an old book. Since then, serpent cultists have watched you from the shadows.
Powers of the Coast
Factions
Clovis Concord
The ruling coalition of the Menagerie Coast. The Concord values trade, order, ports, ships, and political control. Characters tied to the Concord may serve as agents, sailors, investigators, diplomats, or private contractors.
The Revelry
A loose confederation of pirates, raiders, smugglers, and free captains who reject the authority of the Concord. Some are brutal criminals. Others see themselves as free souls resisting coastal power.
Cobalt Soul
A monastic order devoted to knowledge, truth, and exposing corruption. A character tied to the Cobalt Soul may be sent to recover lost history, investigate ancient ruins, or uncover what the local powers are hiding.
The Golden Grin
A secret network of performers, spies, and rebels who oppose tyranny and oppression. They are ideal for characters who operate through disguise, influence, rumor, or hidden resistance.
The Ki’Nau
The Ki’Nau are the original seafaring people of the Menagerie Coast, whose legacy remains tied to the land, islands, reefs, and old stories of the region. Their history may hold the key to understanding the forgotten ruins and the forces now stirring beneath the coast.
Followers of the Cloaked Serpent
Serpent cultists devoted to shadow, poison, secrets, and the dark power of Zehir. Rather than simple monsters, they are an old and patient threat with roots in forgotten temples, hidden bloodlines, and forbidden rites.
Sahuagin Tribes
Predators from beneath the waves, the sahuagin threaten ships, reefs, and coastal villages. If their attacks are becoming more coordinated, something deeper may be guiding them.
Faith & Myth
Gods and Greater Powers
Melora, the Wildmother
Goddess of wilderness, nature, and the sea. Her presence is felt in storms, reefs, jungles, tides, and all living things that refuse to be controlled.
Avandra, the Changebringer
Goddess of freedom, travel, luck, and change. Sailors, wanderers, gamblers, and rebels often whisper prayers to her before taking risks.
Kord, the Stormlord
God of storms, strength, courage, and battle. His influence is felt in crashing thunder, dangerous seas, and warriors who test themselves against impossible odds.
Zehir, the Cloaked Serpent
Betrayer God of serpents, poison, assassins, darkness, and hidden corruption. His followers may be tied to ancient temples, serpent rites, and secrets buried beneath the coast.
Uk’otoa
A legendary leviathan power tied to the sea, storms, and forbidden worship. His name is spoken carefully by sailors who know that some things beneath the waves still listen.
Table Expectations
Safety Tools
This campaign includes danger, horror, ancient evil, cults, sea monsters, violence, political intrigue, and difficult choices. The goal is adventure and drama, not discomfort.
- PG-13 / Age-17 tone
- No sexual content
- No harassment or discrimination
- No PvP hostility
- Players may message the DM privately at any time with concerns
Boundaries can be discussed privately before or during the campaign.
Checklist
Before Session Zero
- Join Discord
- Create your character in D&D Beyond
- Review this primer
- Choose or create a personal hook
- Send your character concept to the DM
- Prepare character and token art