Sorcerous Scrutinies: Sailors on the Starless Sea

Sailors on the Starless Sea (& The Summoning Pits)

A Level 0 Adventure by Harley Stroh

Goodman Games

A thundering pulse shakes the vine-covered walls of the pit.   Like a heartbeat, you think, but too slow.  Your companions look down upon you in muted fear, their eyes wide as you descend your knotted rope.   ‘Very brave, or very foolish,’ the Butcher says.  

Nauseating heat rises from below, and a faint whisper pierces the relative silence of the ruins.  “Power unimaginable.”  Green light flickers from an adjacent chamber.  The torc you ripped from the Beastman Champion’s fallen form vibrates upon your scorched chainmail hauberk, as though excited.  The bodies of missing villagers hang from chains at various heights below you.  As you climb past them, they shamble into horrid animation.  You scream, but you are alone.  You draw your longsword, grit your teeth, and swing for your life…

What It Is

Sailors on the Starless Sea (DCC# 67) was the first funnel release for DCC RPG, and is a counterpoint to Portal that veers into an epic-scale adventure for gongfarmers.  Stroh has wasted no space in these 15+ encounters, and I believe that the Summoning Pits addition enhances the already classic module.  

I must confess, I love Sailors to pieces.  I own three copies: the original version, the reissue that added the Summoning Pits, and the lovely hardcover that adds a wealth of bonus content.  I have run the adventure for every table I have ever judged.  

 In Stroh’s words, “If Sailors got one thing right, it was in showing us that you don’t need to be high level to have epic adventures.”  So simple, and yet so mind-blowing.   After years of saving the ‘good stuff’ in my homebrew for the final encounters of campaigns that many tables never reached, I ran Sailors and felt the same thrill of deadly climax that I had been withholding.  Your players don’t need to be 20th level Pathfinder number-creep monstrosities to experience thrilling, epic play.  They can be gongfarmers with 7 Strength, given Luck.  

At The Table

Sailors has a linear flow to its structure, but has several off-shoot encounters that are optional for players to find or engage with.  Some of my tables have never seen Felan’s bier, others never mustered the courage to descend into the Summoning Pits.  Many of the module’s treasures are stashed away in these dangerous encounters, and Stroh is very careful not to force these upon the party.  

The cornerstone encounters are the climactic battle against the Beastmen Champion and his minions in Area H, the Leviathan in Area 1-4, and the Ziggurat in Area 1-5.  All players will have to navigate these hazards to finish the module, regardless of their other explorations within the keep.  

Unlike many funnels, Sailors is not a quick romp. With the Summoning Pits, my longest run clocked in at nine hours across three sessions.  

It should be noted that Sailors is one of the few DCC funnels to have an official VTT Map pack, and I found it simple to set up and very effective to run on Roll20.  

Play Highlights

Sailors begins with a tricky combat intro in Area A (remember the vines don’t deal damage until the following turn with their 2d20 attacks), and a hazardous entry to the keep through Area C.

Those encounters set the tone and typically off a few gongfarmers, but the Tomb of the Fallen in B-1 is where the magic began for me.  Felan’s Tomb is deadly, rewarding, and mysterious.  Players get their first glimpse of a magic weapon, but must contend with how they will retrieve it.  Ten foot poles, chains, and cheese wheels fly every time my tables enter, and players usually land on some gonzo solution that frees the axe.  Watching a greedy dwarf freeze to death trying to rip the armor free is one of my most treasured memories of the module!

Stroh often confronts players with overt danger that leads to a great reward.  The Charnel Ruins in Area E are so obviously a bad idea for players to explore, and yet precious armor waits for them inside.  The Fiend-Blade in H-3 is the quintessential sword in the stone, but is clearly trapped in some way.  This type of optional risk vs reward design is excellent for player agency.  If they’ve sustained heavy losses, they avoid the danger.  If a player has 4 gongfarmers left, maybe they send the unluckiest one forward and roll the dice.  It’s never a cheap save-or-die situation, players dictate how they engage.

The Summoning Pits offers some of the module’s most deadly risks, for some of its greatest treasures.  At one table, a chaotic PC wound up with both the Fiend-Blade and a fruit of the Old God, totally transforming his already charming blacksmith into a powerful Blackguard with indomitable stamina.  I love 0 level transformations and modifications, and the climactic encounter with the Vine Horrors offers some tremendous payoffs in exchange for its lethality.  

The Leviathan in the titular Starless Sea (1-4) is a standout.  Veteran players of different systems are delighted when they encounter a horrible monster they can’t possibly kill.  Their combat brain turns off, and they scan their character sheets with fervor.  The Leviathan forces our players to think quickly and act chaotically; so in tune with the module.  I’ve had halfling sacrifices, beloved cow offerings, Fiend-Blade intimidation attempts (not successful!), and of course the solutions that Stroh had in mind.  

The climax of the adventure at the Temple of Chaos is so vivid, so exciting, it is sure to be a memorable encounter for your table, regardless of how they approach it.  My players always seem to use the hostage ruse wearing the Chaos Robes, but however your party gets to the top, that’s where the fireworks await.  The Chaos Lord is awesome, the battle is fierce (I usually send in 1d3 Beastmen up the ramp per round to add tension), and the rewards are incredible.  The subsequent escape sequence can be riveting if played tight by the judge.

Art Spotlight

Mullen’s full page reveal of the Chaos Lord on p.17  is monumental.  I could describe it to death, or tell you how much I love it, but the piece stands on its own and makes the emergence so effective.  Just flip your book around and watch players’ reactions, then say, “Roll Initiative”.

Judge Takeaways

Don’t Spill the Beans

You will be tempted to offer some hint to Felan’s Tomb, the hidden cache, the hidden pool, the secrets of the Summoning Pits; hold your breath and let your players explore.  After biting my tongue, occasionally my players will return to a site that I might have spoiled before continuing on in the adventure, finding the secret organically without my intervention.  

The Leviathan encounter can stump players, let them puzzle over the roadblock and maybe offer a, “Check your inventories?” 

Let the Monsters Kill

Do not hesitate to inflict the full lethality of Sailors on your players!  Stroh gives us two opportunities to refill 0-Level PCs in the middle of the adventure (Hanging in the tower at Area H and in baskets in the Hot Pits of Area H-1), and certain encounters are absolute meat grinders.  In one of my runs, the Tower of the Beast encounter went sideways for the players, and their roster of 14 diminished to under half that number!  DCC is swingy, and when players aren’t burning luck to turn near-misses into hits, things can get deadly.  Stroh reminds us with these extra PCs that it’s ok.

Don’t forget the Beastmen

We have a wonderful Beastmen table on page 7, make sure to give it some love and cook up some specific mutations to give your players more insight into their wretched condition.  Alternatively, use post-its to gradually reveal the nine amazing depictions in the front matter of the book as encounters progress.

Sweeten the Pit

After having two tables opt to skip the Summoning Pits due to (justified) fear and diminished numbers, I said, “No more!”  Now, when I run it, I have a villager cry out from the bottom of the Hot-Pit, trapped in a vine-covered wicker basket.  Additionally, when a chaotic player peers down, I add a telepathic whisper from the Fiend-Blade (something like, ‘Power Unimaginable…’ and a vision of green, glowing steel).

This goes directly against my earlier takeaway, but the Pits are too good for parties to skip!

Emphasize numbers on the Ziggurat

I’ve had two unfortunate tables that insisted on fighting their way up the Ziggurat, and it just doesn’t go that well.  The combat turns into a slog, numbers are already thin from the Tower and the Pits in succession, and it delays the fantastic climactic encounter.  We want to emphasize to the players that there are countless beastmen that are largely lost in the trance of the ritual.  I have a note from my last VTT run adding the line, “You must ascend, but how?” to Stroh’s flavor text.  It’s a little on the nose, but it may emphasize to players that the obvious rush is not the way to go.

Conclusion

Sailors is a triumph of module design, a cunning sequence of varied challenges and dangers that players will never forget.  I believe every judge should run it once, and I encourage my players to run it for their tabletop-curious friends and family after I’ve led them through it.  It is versatile, and can be enjoyed as a strict funnel, a funnel with a break to allow one PC to level per player, or as a level 1 adventure from the get-go.  

The Summoning Pits are a large part of that charm for me, and though it feels a bit standalone, I believe it ties together Sailors’ first encounter to the whole of the module and adds even more mysterious depth to the keep.  

Would I run it again?

Absolutely, at the drop of a hat.  Whenever I begin playing with a new group, I hook them with Portal, then show them Sailors over the next few sessions.  At that point, they understand the mechanics at play, and can make a more educated decision when I ask, “What type of campaign should we play?”

If your group is new to DCC, has already played Portal and wants to see what else the system can do, run Sailors.  If you have an adventure path of modules set out (Chanters in the Dark and Doom of the Savage Kings are excellent follow-ups), skip Portal and start here with Sailors.  It’s the gongfarmer adventure of a lifetime — and it remains the gold standard for imaginative long-form funnel design to this day.