Battle in the Depths
The sea bubbles violently and quickly begins to turn red. The red bloom stretches as far as the eye can see, evidence of some great conflict between titanic creatures below the surface.
Difficult Sailing. The combination of choppy water, chunks of viscera floating to the surface, and frayed nerves means navigating through the patch of bloody water takes twice as long as it normally would.
Spell Solve. Casting control water or gust of wind , or a similar spell can ensure the ship keeps moving at its normal speed (though at the Narrator’s discretion this solution may require multiple castings). This eases the crew and the party gains an expertise die on ability checks made against this challenge. Use of control weather triggers an automatic success.
Unsettling. The thrashing below brings to mind the terrible dangers of the deep. Each creature on board makes a Wisdom saving throw , becoming frightened for 1 minute on a failure. At the end of every round a frightened creature repeats the saving throw, taking 1d6 psychic damage on a failure or ending the effect on itself on a success. On a success, a creature is instead rattled for 1 hour.
The party can attempt to tough it out, relying on rousing speeches, religious reassurance, and gritted teeth to get through. A group check is required, with each adventurer choosing individually whether to roll Performance, Persuasion, or Religion. Alternately, the adventurers can make a group water vehicles check to eke every bit of wind from the sails in order to get through quickly. If more than half the NPC crew failed their Wisdom saving throw above, water vehicle checks are made with disadvantage .
Critical Failure. The remains of one of the combatants rises to the surface, threatening to capsize the ship. This immediately triggers a Floating Corpse exploration challenge.
Failure. The tension of making their way through takes its toll on the crew, adventurers included. Each creature on board suffers a level of strife .
Success. You manage to make your way through the suddenly bloom of bloody water without incident.
Critical Success. As success, and you manage to catch glimpse of some treasure amidst the mess. Roll on the Boons and Discoveries table.