Isle of Storms

Isle of Storms Map

Islands

Isle of Storms

The Isle of Storms is a tropical island in the Summer Sea, with a lagoon in the center and an active volcano inside that. It sits on once major north-south trade routes and Trade Town was once a bustling town, with ships coming and leaving daily to trade, buy sugarcane, and restock supplies on the way to major cities. The decline and political instability of some of the cities on the northern trade routes, as well as changing weather patterns, has left Trade Town a shell of itself. While the Isle of Storms has always been subjected to major storms, particularly coming in from the northeast, ships sailing up from the southwest, docking, and then continuing on to the northwest or vice versa, as the trade routes went, were spared the worst of it. Over the last hundred years though the storms have moved farther south in their path, making it harder to reach the Isle from some of the main southern cities.

As trade has declined, the number of people on the island has also. This has lead to the Kuo Toa population in the seas and caves of the island growing more aggressive, and their raids on shipping has hurt trade, as well as the increased presence of lawless pirates on the outer islands.

The area around Trade Town is cultivated, with sugarcane fields making up the majority of the worked land, as well as some smaller, family farms that grow produce for local consumption. But further than five or so miles from town, the island turns into thick jungle full of beasts, old ruins, and precious few paths.

• Bleak Cave: A large cave entrance that's known to lead down to the winding caverns where the Kuo Toa dwell.
• Bone Cove: The best cove on the northern half of the island. However, due to the frequent storms from the north, the cove is mostly populated by the wrecks of old ships and the sailors who died on them.
• Bullyburg: A number of Bullywug settlements dot the southeast corner of the inner volcanic island that sits in the lagoon, with Bullyburg (so called by the residents of Trade Town) being the largest. It's inhabitants are typically hostile to those who enter their territory unbidden, but while they sometimes venture across the lagoon to raid the northeastern sugarcane fields and crabbers, they almost never venture as far west as Trade Town itself, and have been known to trade with an occasional merchant who knows their customs.
• Dasal's Peak: A volcano that rises some 8 thousand feet above the lagoon. While active, the last eruption was hundreds of years ago. Fire and earth elementals are sometimes spotted on its slopes.
• Mirabella's Lagoon: No one now alive remembers who Mirabella was, but the name remains. Though locals are more apt to simply call it “the lagoon”. The water is clear in most place but in some spots near the old temple the water is murky (travelers should beware the giant leeches that live there), and on the eastern end it is swampy. While crabbing in the waters near Trade Town can be profitable, the farther out into the lagoon you go the bigger the crabs get, to the point where some are so big they can eat a goliath whole.
• Old Port: The ruins of a city from hundreds of years ago. Were the inhabitants human? No one remembers. The city has been pretty well picked over in terms of loot, but some say there are vast caches of treasure buried underneath the old palace at the heart of the city. Though others say the treasure is cursed, and the last ruler of the city was a Medusa queen who the gods smote after she turned all the citizens in the city into statues.
• The Southern Cells: The remains of what seems to have been an underground jail, it's origin are mysterious.
• Temple of Storms: An old temple to Umberlee, the Goddess of Storms. Some say it was her first temple, others that it was built by the locals to appease her, but she could not be appeased because her appetite for destruction and storms was boundless. Now it lies in ruins, and worship of her has fallen out of favor, but rumors say some still maintain her cult and sail out to the temple, making a dark pact with her. Of course, there are always such rumors around Trade Town, as the power of the storms is endless.
• Trade Town: At its height perhaps a hundred years ago, this town was populated by ten thousand people, with often a transient population of half of that again, from all over the world. While humans and halflings constituted a majority of the population, the cosmopolitan nature of it, with traders and sailors arriving and leaving on ships by the hour, meant half a hundred other races might be found here as well. Now with trade in decline, the population is down to maybe one thousand souls who have no where else to go. They eke out a living fishing, crabbing, and raising sugar cane for the few traders who still make the trip. The once great marketplace, with goods from the four corners of the world, now sits in ruin. Many buildings and shanties on the edge of town have been abandoned for decades, making a place to sleep easy to come by, if you don't mind squatting under a leaky roof. Only one tavern remains open, The Archer and Tankard. Trade Town was originally a human town (called Hemi in those days), before the coming of halfling traders. Human buildings in town are typically still traditional bures, while halfling built dwellings are a mishmash of styles, reflecting the cultures of where the builders came from. Most (though certainly not all) craftspeople and merchants in town are halfling, while humans mostly fish, crab, and work in the sugarcane fields. On occasion these differences have resulted in tensions or even violence, but for the most part the town is peaceful.
• Westridge: The cliffs here rise high above the sea, and are usually clouded by a thick fog that doesn't feel natural. Many have reported hearing the voices of long lost loved ones in the fog.

West Island

The largest of the peripheral islands, it was once the home to small farmers cultivating bamboo shoots and okra. Now it lies largely uninhabited, with the jungle retaking the once cleared farmland, and tigers stalking the shores.

• Aramore Keep Ruins: The ruins of an old keep and lighthouse. An abandoned way-station of a forgotten empire. Dead soldiers still keep to their posts, awaiting orders that will never come.

Far Island

A sandy island with a good harbor on the south side. A band of pirates called the Seawolves operates from here, though even they have a hard time supporting themselves with trade ships becoming so infrequent.

Duchess Island

An island named for a long dead duchess who lived here. Now primarily the home to monkeys and other jungle creatures. During the rainy season, the rains are especially strong here.

• The Lady's Crypt: An elaborate crypt for a buried noblewoman. Many have tried to enter the crypt over the years, but most have failed. Some say the Lady's ghost only allows those she deems worthy to enter.

Lonely Reef

The top of a much larger, submerged, coral reef. Almost completely under water at high tide, but several feet above the water at low tide. Legends has it that an ancient kraken swims deep beneath the unfathomable waters between the Isle and Lonely Reef.

Isle of Faces

A rocky island without much vegetation. Ancient carvings of faces in the rocks dot the island. The faces appear to be elven, but no record of an elven civilization on the island exists.

Turtle Mound

A small, rocky island, famous for its snapping turtles and not much else, though one past resident of Trade Town was notoriously convinced it's the final resting place of the pirate warlord Xartigan the Bloody and his treasure, and spent much of her life fruitlessly searching for it.

• Blue Bluff: On this high cliff overlooking the sea, the stone remnants of a gallows stands, and a graveyard lies nearby. Long ago pirates and mutineers were hanged here.

Languages

• Trade Tongue: A creole language that is a mix of Onesh and Torricade, it originated on the Isle of Storms as halfling traders dealt with the native human population. It is now the native language of most residents of Trade Town, though knowledge of the two base languagesOuoic is not uncommon. It has also spread to many of the ports of the Summer Sea, though it is rarely anyone's native tongue outside of the Isle.
• Onesh: The native language of the humans, kuo toa and bullywugs of the Isle of Storms, though all three groups speak somewhat different dialects. Some scholars theorize it was the native language of the inhabitants of Old Port, and then spread to the other sapient species of the Isle. Most humans native to the Isle now speak Trade Tongue instead as their first language, but some on outlying farms still grow up learning Onesh.
• Torricade: A language of the southern cities, common among sailors and and traders from the area.
• Duilsetic: The second most common language of the south, after Torricade, it is spoken more inland from the ports, among the temperate planes and grasslands.
• Old Imperial: The language of the Empire of the Seas, covering the archipelagos far to the west of the Isle. No longer the native language of anyone, it still sees use as a scholarly and liturgical language.
• Ismoni: Related to Old Imperial, was spoken by many of the immigrant human workers who came to toil the sugarcane plantations during the height of Trade Town's prosperity.
• Fuelese: Originated in the city of Fuel to the north, across the sea. Now also common among the dwarves, gnomes and giants of the mountainous northern lands.
• Irathi: The primary language of the southern Misty Forest, spoken by the fey, elves, and other woodland dwellers there.
• Abanese: An older language of the Misty Forest, now mostly only spoken by Druids as a liturgical language. Also called Druidic.
• Xookekti: A language spoken in the first of the Nine Hells. Often studied by wizards who seek to summon infernal support.
• Telleric: A pidgin language that developed along the southern inland trade routes, and spread by wagon caravans and mercenary bands. Derisively refereed to as Thieves' Cant.
• Deep Sea Speech: A language originally spoken by the merfolk of the southern Summer Sea, it has spread to some traders and pirates who ply the waters. Also know as Bluwati among the merfolk.
• Aeoses: A language of the Inner Planes, spoken in different dialects in the City of Brass and other elemental locales.
• Dichikian: The language spoken on Tasla, an island several hundred miles to the northeast, including by the aarakocra and tabaxi of the lowland jungles.
• Abutian: The primary language spoken in the northern cities known as the Trio, mostly by the human, tiefling and goblin populations there.
• Exeo: A language spoken by the Githyanki, Githzerai and other travelers of the Astral Plane.
• Quoic: A cousin of Aeoses, spoken by the Djinn and their subjects of the Elemental Plane of Air.