Eye of the Sea God - 1st level Limited Sandbox Region

[Yora]

I am deep in the preparation of a new D&D campaign and decided that I want to try making it a series of small sandboxes, intended to cover two or three levels over 10-12 sessions of play. It will be one region in my Kaendor setting and will be the starting adventure of the campaign, aimed at taking characters from 1st to 3rd level.

The plan is to make it a situational sandbox, consisting of a relatively small stretch of coast that holds only a handful of sites, which all are related to a central conflict that involves five competing factions. There will not be a script or outline for events, but it will be primarily a location and NPCs, which is why I think it's perfectly well suited for the worldbuilding forum.
I'm already having so much fun with it that I am seriously considering to turn it into a playtest document after I've run it and based on that input turn it into a proper adventure. We'll see how that will go.

Concept and Goals

My initial problem was that I had a good number of ideas what I want to put in my campaign, but most of them involve opponents and sites that really require 3rd level characters or higher to have a decent shot at besting them. There are actually a really good number of low-level creatures in 5th edition, but I have arrived at a point where I can no longer get any enthusiasm for making goblins and bandits exciting and interesting to the players. My setting is also meant to feel very fantastic, highly magical, and supernaturally mysterious, and I think it would be a disservice to everyone to start the life of the PCs with more generic and mundane activities.

Going through the low level monsters that are populating my setting, one has always been standing out particularly. Kuo-toa are only Challenge 1/4 in 5th edition, which makes them perfect for 1st and 2nd level parties and they are a fantastic blend of simple humanoid creatures and being alien and inhuman.
Another good option that really works well for the setting are cultists and warlocks. I've long been thinking that warlock cults should be something rarely seen and a shocking twist when they do appear, so I've been hesitant to use them too often too early. But that's really the oposite of what I just mentioned about making the world and the campaign feel fantastic and exciting right from the start. Cultists are easy opponents for 1st level parties to face, and with two or three warlock priests of 3rd or 4th level that have a pact with a Great Old One, I think they can be another great element of this sandbox.

Background

The region consists of a stretch of coast, maybe some 30 miles long, and the nearby forests. At the center lies the main town with a couple of nondescript surrounding farming villages, and there is a village of shipbuilders to the south and a somewhat remote fishing village that makes up the edge of civilization in the north.
There are a couple of caves in the cliffs along the coast, an old ruined serpentmen city beyond the fishing village, and an even older ruined city several miles into the forst on the main river in the area.
Some miles out at sea, there are a number of reefs, some of which have been raised above the surface by tectonic activity. One of these rocky islands is the site of a fishmen temple where their priests perform rituals under the full moon and their craftsmen come up to work on weapons and tools that require fire to make.

The fishing boats of the town frequently clash with fishmen hunters in the waters neer the reefs, where fishing is always exceptionally good. There is not much risk of the fish ever running out, but the fishmen don't really like any land people hanging around close to their temple and they often threaten the sailors to stay away from the reefs.
There are two major factions among the fishmen priests. The Sharks have had enough of the fishing boats and want to start a full out war against the town and drive the land people from the area for good. The Squids want the hunters to stop attacking the boats and let them fish in the open waters outside the reefs in peace.

Things get set into action when some warlock of a Great Old One learn about an ancient artifact that was used by the people who lived in this region a long time ago. The Eye of the Sea God is a dried up and crystalized eye of a giant squid god that ruled over these waters. It has the power to control the weather over the sea and influence the movement of fish swarms for many miles around, which greatly increased the safety and prosperity of fishermen and sailors in the area. The leader of the warlocks thinks that the artifact has much greater powers than that and set out with his followers to try recovering it.
The warlocks set up camp in one of the sea caves where they discovered an ancredibly old temple from an unknown age long ago. In this temple, they found a magic shell horn, and when they blew it outside, the call was soon answered by the fishmen priests from the reefs. He explained what he is looking for and they agreed to help him in his quest.

The warlock thinks that with the Eye, he will be able to enslave the fishmen and with his new army conquer the town and become its lord. The fishmen think that he is a clueless idiot who completely misunderstands the nature of the Eye, but they are happy to play along and let him think he is in charge until they find it. The Squid priest regard the Eye as a sacred relic to be placed in the temple on the reef and worshipped. However, the Shark priest want to use it as a weapon to launch an war against the land people and destroy the town. The Squid priests believe that this is heresy and that the bounty of the sea is meant for everyone. They'd be happy to leave the Eye forgotten wherever it is hidden, but before the Shark priests desecrate it they rather take it themselves and use the authority it gives them to force the sharks to leave the fishing boats and the town alone.

The two powers in the town are the Lord of the town and the Priests of the Sea God temple. When the lord learns of the Eye, he wants to have it for himself, to make the town grow rich and powerful and get rid of the annoying fishmen. The Sea God priests are strongly against that. Like the Squid priests, they believe that the sea is for everyone and nobody should try to exploit it for personal gain. Also, the sea is incredibly powerful and capable of great destruction. All sailors know that anyone who doesn't respect the fury of the sea and thinks to be above it will be crushed by it without mercy, and claiming control over it will doom the whole town.

Other Stuff
As a hook, I got the following idea: The players start discovering a shipwreck and inside of it is an arcane lock sealed box. The seal can easily be identified as belonging to a wizard in the next city (which I intend as the main hub for the longer campaign). The players might try to return it for a reward or try to get it open. They might do it by force, or they will need the wizard who sealed it or any other wizard who can cast knock. Among the various fun items in the box, there is a fragment of a stone tablet that holds information useful for finding the hiding place of the Eye. The warlocks had hired some smugglers to get it from the wizard but the encounter turned out badly with the wizard and some smugglers killed. They searched his house and took the magically sealed box, hoping the tablet would be inside it. Then the ship got wrecked and the smugglers on board drowned. Sooner or later other smugglers will learn that they have the box and try to get it or the tablet, which creates the trail to the main sandbox area.

I know I will need at least one cave for the Warlock Lair and one ruined city on the coast and one in the forest. The warlocks and fishmen focus their search on the ruins on the coast, but the eye is really in the forest because the coastlines have changed quite a lot over the centuries. I want to make a rough hand-drawn map of the area, and an ancient stone tablet with a map on it. I want them to be rough enough to make the misidentification plausible, but still good enough to make it possible to spot the misidentifaction by the players. If they don't do it, this can be revealed by consulting any sage in the area. Or they don't figure it out and end up in the forest ruins only because they hear of fishmen activity in that place. That also works.

Another good site would be another cave that is the Smugglers' Lair. There the players could get information on the warlocks. I like the idea of the warlocks making some side money by getting alchemical ingredients from the fishmen and selling them on to the smugglers. Smugglers dealing with rare ingredients from the bottom of the sea could also be a clue for players to follow.

I also decided that I want to have a brakish swamp that is home to a Coast Druid who serves as a hard to reach sage.

And I think having a big ancient lighthouse on a cliff nearby, with tunnels leading down to the water, would also be great. Big towers have become something of an iconic part of the setting. Really not sure how it could play into anything yet.

Outcomes

Having considered all the factions and various factors, I've concluded that there are rally just five likely outcomes.

1. The Shark Priests get the Eye and use it to attack the town.
2. The Squid Priests get the Eye and use it to force the Sharks to leave the town alone.
3. The Warlock gets the Eye and tries to enslave the fishmen, they kill him and the Shark Priests use the Eye to attack the town.
4. The Lord gets the Eye, antagonizes the Shark Priest, and they attack the town to get it.
5. The Sea God Priests get the Eye and the Shark Priests attack the town to get it.

If the Shark Priests get the Eye, the town is pretty much doomed. They drive away all the fish and destroy all ships in the area with storms and eventually raze the town to the ground.
If the Shark Priests try to attack the town to get the Eye from either the palace or the temple but are repelled, they are weakened enough that the Squid Priests take sole control and the fishmen will leave the town alone. If the Eye stays in the Temple, everything will be fine. If it stays in the Palace, things will be great for the town for a couple of years, but there will be big trouble in the future.
In all scenarios but one, there will be a big attack on the town.

However, someone suggested that for a sea themed sandbox, there should be a random giant kraken somewhere. And I just had the idea that it's actually a semi-random, one-eyed giant kraken. Returning the Eye to the kraken is the only way to get rid of it for good. Perhaps the players could get the Shell Horn of the warlock and use it to call the kraken?

It took some work to get to this point, but I really like how this is coming along so far. Fishmen priests, a temple on the reef, warlocks, cultists, two artifacts, a very probabl big battle, and the possibility to encounter an ancient monster god. And all of that at 1st and 2nd level.

Summary

Factions

• Lord of the Town
• Priests of the Sea God Temple
• Warlock Cultists
• Smugglers
• Shark Priests
• Squid Priests

Sites

• Palace of the Lord
• Temple of the Sea God
• Fishing Village
• Shipbuilder Village
• Reef Temple
• Cult Lair Cave
• Smuggler Lair Cave
• Sea City Ruins
• Forest City Ruins
• Ancient Lighthouse
• Swamp

I think there are two main things that will be needed to do now: Creating the sites, and placing the clues. Figuring out the clues so that the players can meet with the different factions, have a shot at getting the Eye, and deciding who they should give it to is mostly a matter of adventure design. If you have suggestions for that, they will of course be wellcome.
But what I really would love to see is any kinds of suggestions or ideas for how to flesh out the sites and populate them. What kind of stuff do you think might be great fits for this environment and what additional sites might perhaps be good additions to what I have so far?

[the_david]

Do you really need so many factions? Usually it's just 2 or 3 in addition to the protaganists. I assume that's to keep things simple and to not confuse the audience with a large cast of characters that have no character development.

Is there any reason why more factions would make your story better? Could you tell the same story if you'd remove some of the factions?

[noob]

I think that in 5e reducing the power of a creature is rather easy(reduce proportionately attack rolls, hit points ,saves and damage and you instantly have a lower level equivalent creature. the only thing that gets complicated is special powers/spells/immunities).

[John Out West]

My main concern with running an adventure like this is "What happens if/when my low-level PC's die/go unconscious."

I might suggest writing some Savior Scenarios that get added as rewards for players completing quests, or as an introduction to a faction. This is where the players are rescued by either an ally they have made or by a new faction.
I would also make capture scenarios. The cultists would most likely want to sacrifice them to the old god, which could make for a really intense escape scene. (I'm imagining them about to be thrown into a giant boiling cauldron, breaking free, and tipping over the cauldron onto the cultists.) The Fishmen might want to transform you into a fishman, or they prefer to eat you while you're still alive.

Adding this to the GM's toolbox would help them prepare for the worst case scenario.