Quick facts
Type: Arlia’s ocean, the one sea that surrounds every continent and island · Ships: Rootbeer Float (C1), The Odd At Sea (C2) · Undersea peoples: the mermaid kingdom of King Triton, the water genasi of Buttermilk · Sea monsters: aboleths and worse (see Bestiary)
The Grave E. Sea is the name of Arlia’s entire ocean. Every coast in both campaigns, from North City’s harbor to the Saline Coast, looks out on it, and both parties spent long stretches of their stories sailing it.
Geography
Arlia’s two main continents lie in the Southern Hemisphere, and the Northern Hemisphere is a vast stretch of the Grave E. Sea dotted with five smaller island continents. The sea washes against the easternmost point of North City’s continent and across to the western lands; at the start of Campaign 1, rumors about the Rose Ribbon Army drifted west across it (C1 Chapter 01). Its coasts and islands include:
- Port cities and coasts: North City, the Saline Coast, Cherudo Beach, Buttermilk and the coast of the Ranchinian Peninsula, Bellyport, Hamhock Harbor, and Buttermere in the Republic of Fat.
- Islands: the island nation of Beerlia; the casino city of Scotch on the Rocks with the Silent Vaults off its shore; Choco Island, headquarters of the Velvet Truffle Company; and the Dwarven Isles, home of the prince of Burreetoe whose death Arghen has sworn to avenge.
- Island havens: the VTC keeps havens for moving cargo and running private operations, such as Salted Caramel Cove with its sand barge and underwater base.
Beneath the waves
- The mermaid kingdom. King Triton rules the merfolk. His daughter, Princess Athena, was taken three years before the Cacklers met him; they won her back from a sea hag, and Triton pledged aid against “the land walkers in the east” (C1 Chapter 13; see C1 Minor Characters).
- Buttermilk Under the Sea. Part of the town of Buttermilk sank in a past conflict, and a community of water genasi lives there. Terra, Oolong and Juliette won a Star Orb in its depths and fought a sunken Rose Ribbon battleship and Grand Admiral Blue (C1 Chapter 05).
- Merfolk ashore. Merfolk live along the Saline Coast; a hate crime against them was part of the case the VTC built against Catman (Session 81). A mermaid was among the prisoners freed from the vats in Coghaven (Session 79).
Sea monsters
- Aboleths. In Campaign 1 an aboleth fought beside a sea creature under Buttermilk and killed all of the party’s water genasi allies. In Campaign 2 an aboleth rose out of a cloud of mucus beside the C.P.H., charmed Escher and dragged Ellery under before she kicked it in the eye (Session 37, Session 38).
- The “sea creature” of the Saline Coast. The journalist Isabella Thorne was said to have been killed by a sea creature; Kip found she had been stabbed (Session 3).
- The orca. The “orca” that carried Kellem Stormforge’s chest toward Chonkerton was The Gnoloo in disguise (Session 34).
See the Bestiary for more.
The sea legs of Campaign 1
Captain Barqs and the Crew of the Rootbeer Float carried the Cacklers across the sea for much of the campaign. They sailed to Scotch on the Rocks for the raid on the Silent Vaults (C1 Chapter 04), picked the party up on the cliffs where the Ranchinian Peninsula meets the Tabasco Forest (C1 Chapter 05), fought the naval battle in North City’s harbor, where the unsteered ship began rising into the sky (C1 Chapter 10), and lost and recovered the ship to Greylock, Ibeesee and Captain Rootbeard (C1 Chapter 09). From then on it sailed the skies, and at the end of the war Greene took its helm toward North City (C1 Chapter 14).
The sea legs of Campaign 2
The FAM’s voyage began with a job: recover a chest from the Sapphire Tide, a merchant ship torn apart by Khalor. They found it in the wreck, and Khalor took it from them (Session 29, Session 33). Following him to Salted Caramel Cove, they took Kellem Stormforge’s ship and its union crew under Captain Teft (Session 34, Session 35). The ship, first the Cresting Pearl Horizon, then the C.P.H., and finally The Odd At Sea, carried them past the aboleth to Bellyport, Hamhock Harbor and Buttermere, through a blockade of five VTC vessels, and back to the Saline Coast (Session 37–Session 44). Bulma later converted it into the first airship not powered by magic (Session 80).
The VTC rules much of the sea’s trade. Seraphina Rusk’s Islands Dominion controls ports, shipping, customs and smuggling, and Gravy Bones holds the rank of Licorice Baron of the East Grave E. Sea; he oversaw the prisoner transfer in which Masha was moved after her capture.