Battlemap
Harbor Undervault
Where the dock wars spill into old stone and the tide answers with dead hands.
Beneath the port lies a half-flooded warren once used to tax contraband and hide seized cargo. Now rival dock factions fight for control of its chambers, while something older stirs in the lowest vaults and feeds on their dead.
Salt air mixes with lamp oil, mildew, and old blood. Echoes of boots, dripping water, and distant shouting carry through brick-lined halls, while greenish dock lanterns and cracked mage-lights cast uneasy shadows. The dungeon feels damp, cramped, and always one argument away from violence.
☠ Threat
The dock factions are tearing each other apart over contraband routes, but their violence has awakened a bound tide-wight sealed in the oldest vault. It feeds on spilled blood and broken oaths, and every skirmish below gives it more bodies to raise and more water to move through the complex.
History
A century ago, the harbor council built these chambers as a customs vault, quarantine block, and emergency flood refuge. After a string of tariff riots and faction coups, the tunnels were abandoned and later seized by dock gangs, ledger thieves, and smugglers. The lowest vaults predate the port entirely, remnants of a tidal shrine swallowed by later construction.
Encounter Table
CRFast-moving thieves carrying lanterns, rope, and stolen keys.
Bloated vermin that feed on offal and corpse scraps in the drains.
Armed faction toughs searching for rivals and stolen cargo.
One or two drowned dead dragged up by the tide magic below.
Rumours & Whispers
The underdocks are cursed because the port council paid for a shrine to be buried instead of blessed.
Two rival crews have been killing each other over the same ledger, but neither seems to know who hired them.
At low tide, you can hear chanting under the customs hall, like the dead are calling ships home.
A black lamp was found in the water last month, and anyone who touched it started drowning in their sleep.
The best smugglers in the city avoid the undervault because something down there remembers every oath ever broken.
Quest Hooks
Quest giver: Magistrate Elsin Vane
A harbor magistrate hires the party to end the fighting without destroying the evidence hidden in the undervault.
250 gp and official pardon letters
Quest giver: Tessa Moor, fishmonger
A dockworker's sister vanished after following a smugglers' runner into the tunnels. The family begs for rescue.
120 gp plus a family heirloom charm
Quest giver: Captain Brannic Holt
A rival captain offers payment to recover a stolen ledger from the lower vault before the other faction burns it.
300 gp and free passage by ship
Quest giver: Sister Maela of the Salt Chapel
Priests of the tide temple want the old shrine re-sanctified before something below breaks free.
A blessing, healing, and 200 gp
Corridor Notes
Rust-stained chain hooks hang from the ceiling, many still swaying as if someone just passed.
Shallow seawater sheets across the floor in low spots, reflecting lantern light in broken stripes.
Scratched gang marks and shipping tally signs are layered over each other on the walls, showing years of competing claims.
A narrow drainage trench runs beside the corridor, carrying brackish water and the occasional pale fish bone.
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