The Thousand Isles.pdf

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T HE T HOUSAND I SLAS

A G UIDE TO P IRACY AND THE S OUTHERN S EA FOR WFRP

By Alexander J Bateman

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T HE T HOUSAND I SLAS

An unofficial Scurvy Supplement for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay

C HAPTER THE F IRST :

A T RIP A ROUND THE I SLAS

“There are rumours – rumours of beasts, treasures and artefacts of terrible power.

Rumours do me no good. I need answers…”

– Bürgermeister Geltmacher of Marienburg

This chapter looks at some of the islands in the Southern

Sea that divides the Old World from Araby and the land of

the dead. These islands or Islas as they are known

locally are hotbeds of treachery and intrigue, home to

pirates, ne'er-do-wells and competing agents of the rival

Old World Powers.

W HOSE S EA IS IT A NYWAY ?

“For Manann, for King Death and for the Sea

Herself!”

– The famous war cry of Bonnie Berto

Redsheet, legendary pirate of ages past

All places and personages in this chapter are described

as they were before the events in the Black Library novel

‘Fell Cargo’.

As with many places in the Old World and beyond, the

body of water to the south of Estalia is an area of much

cartographic disagreement. Many maps refrain from

even naming it, marking it as nothing more than part of

the Great Ocean, while others call it the Southern Sea

or other still the Middle Sea. Maps looted from Araby

corsairs and slavers mark it as the Sea of Infidels or

even the Sea of Amenehetum on some ancient maps.

Politically too this great body of water is disputed. While

Tobaro claims absolute sovereignty over the Fool’s

Rocks and Estalia’s Southern Littoral is clearly part of

the Estalian Kingdoms, the actual situation is more

complex. Islands on both have been colonised by not

only the men of Estalia and Tilea, but also occasionally

by men of other lands. This leads to a tapestry of

cultures of political allegiances within the area, with

some ports and plantations run by Marienburg trading

companies or outcast nobles from Bretonnia or the

Empire. Some islands, most often grandly titling

themselves as a Freeport, deny allegiance to any

nation, although in practice these are mostly home to

groups of lawless buccaneers.

Whichever flag the colony flies, one thing that unites

them all is the much-hated Averia Tax. Devised by

Magritta, each of the Estalian Kingdoms levies this

charge on all trading transactions within their colonies,

specifically to fund the Estalian navies that must patrol

the waters and fend off pirates. The captains of the

Tilean treasure ships have in particular much hatred of

this tax, claiming that their ships are far superior at

fighting the pirates than anything within the Estalian

fleets. Indeed many ship’s captains choose to ‘thread

the teeth’ as much to avoid Estalian excise ships as

they do to avoid pirates. The rare colonies that are

outside the patrol of the Estalian Guarda Costa fleets

are of course also free of the Averia, but such places

are often lawless and ill suited for obtaining supplies.

–

Along the entire length of Estalia’s Southern Coast runs a

great chain of atolls and islands, mostly being

insignificant and too small to be marked on any general

chart or map. The chain starts as bony reaches of bare

dagger-like atolls that emerge from the Great Ocean as

one sails towards Estalia, broadening into a dense

archipelago of half-mapped isles until one reaches the

Eastern Coast of Estalia, where its shifting border with

Tilea is marked by the emergence of the much larger

islands of the Fool’s Rocks.

E STALIA

’

S OUTHERN L ITTORAL

The clear blue waters of the Southern Sea surround

these islands, and dense forests made up of laurel-

leaved evergreen hardwoods and a rich undergrowth of

ferns, shrubs and other plants typically covers them.

Known locally as the Islas, settlers have established

many towns and villages here, from Estalian Kingdoms

and their colonies to independent fishing villages and the

occasional lawless enclave that provides a safe port for

buccaneers.

Many ships operate here: most merchants wishing to

travel from Magritta, Tilea and Barak Varr to the Great

Ocean follow the Estalian coast. The most prestigious of

these merchants are the so-called Treasure Ships

returning from Lustria, Araby and the Southlands.

Invariably after their long ocean crossings, they make

port in the settlements here to restock their stores and

take shore leave before sailing onto their homes, often

‘threading the teeth’ through the Islas, sailing within them

to avoid pirates that sail upon the open sea.

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S B AR

Stretching for almost half the length of the Southern

Littoral is a long corridor of the Thousand Islas, simply

marked on maps as the Labyrinth. This is a dense maze

of uncharted islands and shallow channels that can takes

days to navigate, if one does not run aground. It is a

popular place to ‘thread the teeth’ and bypass Magritta’s

waters as the dense laurel forests that cover the Islas

obfuscate ships from potential pirates.Stopping here to

collect spring water or vitals is a perilous business,

places like the Greenwater Sound look to be deep

enough to allow any ship passage, but in actuality often

bottom out at one or two fathoms, shallow enough to sink

most ships. Angel’s Bar on the other hand is a true deep-

water cove and an ideal place for Tilean Treasure Ships

to make harbour, if they can find it through the shifting

banks of the Labyrinth.

Affiliation: Uninhabited

’

punishments, with penalties of floggings and weeks in the

stocks being the most common. The monastery now

rules the three easternmost settlements of the island,

Montañoza, Azuei and Gonâve. All three of these are

grim towns, where the religious leaders have banned all

public drinking or debauchery, although in spite of this,

Montañoza remains a popular port for pirates that have

taken Letters of Marque from the Monastery.

The Isla is not without its dangers: to the south lie the

Turquía Isles, a chain of small islands that are part of the

kingdom of Colina and are a renowned place of refuge

for corsairs and buccaneers of all stripes. In addition, the

northeastern quarter of the island is home to many

settlements of Orcs who frequently raid the northern

village of Esélbella, despite having little more than food to

steal. Occasionally these Orcs take to the seas, and

raiding groups of Orc freebooters have significantly

disrupted trade in both Enriquillola and Porto Felipe.

Bay: Any ship may make berth in this deepwater bay.

Affiliation: Estalia (Kingdom of Colina)

Bay: Galleons must make a Challenging (-10%) Sail test

to make berth here.

Adventure Hook: Challenged to a race through the

Labyrinth, the characters must navigate their way to

Angel’s Bar before an opposing pirate captain berths his

ship there. However, the Islas of the Labyrinth are not

without their own surprises, and the character’s crew

must also fight off a tribe of savage Forest Goblins that

leap onto the ship from the Laurisilva.

Produced Goods: Raw Sugar, Barley, Goats

Adventure Hook: Monks working for Raimundo IX

Beltrán-Serrat hire the characters to travel to Isla Santa

Clair and assassinate Oleos de Poelle, whom they

believe is a Blood Dragon Vampire who uses the

catacombs of Santa Clair to travel to his prey. However if

the characters make contact with Oleos de Poelle, he will

swear that none only is he not a Vampire, but also that

Raimundo IX Beltrán-Serrat is under the sway of the Bird

God Tzeentch! Can the characters find out who is telling

the truth before they get deeper entwined in a web of lies

that is likely to destroy them?

I SLA C OLINA

The second largest island of Estalia’s Southern Littoral,

Isla Colina is one of the few islands commonly depicted

upon charts and maps of the region. On the south coast

of the island is the port town of Enriquillola, which is

technically the capital of the Kingdom of Colina, which

claims dominion over several surrounding colonised

Islas. In reality, the town is politically insignificant now,

with most of its former colonies effectively independent of

Enriquillola rule. Although the kingdom does enforce the

Averia, it is at a much lower rate than some of its

neighbours, making the port of Enriquillola a regular

place of trade for those willing to risk the less than perfect

protection.

I SLA C ORAZÓN

“I intend to see to that any man who sails under a

Sartosan flag or wears a Sartosan brand gets what he

deserves... a short drop and a sudden stop.”

– Captain Jaymes Geenringsstad, Pirate Hunter

of House de Roele f

The largest Marienburger colony within the Southern

Sea, Fort Wilheimsdok lies at the far end of a deep and

narrow harbour, on the sparsely vegetated island of

Corazón. Both a military installation and a vast market,

one third of all the buildings here are shops, taverns,

wench-houses or hostels. Governor-General Tomask

Bestek-Touwring commands the fortress with Zijde

Handelaar, his right hand man, dealing with much of the

day-to-day management of the fortress. The Governor is

technically answerable to the whole of the Directorate of

Marienburg, but in practice, he is very much a dedicated

servant of Clotilde de Roelef. Although the Trading

On the western half of the island is the monastery of

Beltrán-Travieso, home to the Knights of the Opalescent

Fortress. This breakaway sect of Myrmidian Templars,

founded under the leadership of their then Grandmaster,

Beltrán-Travieso, successfully sued for independence

from the Crown several decades ago when His Imperial

Majesty King Alfonso III Garcés, a notoriously weak

monarch of Colina, sold the western half of his kingdom

for an unrecorded sum. The Knights believe that

Myrmidia’s stricture to Act with Honour and Dignity at all

times is paramount, and sentence transgressors to harsh

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Houses of de Kuypers, van Scheldt, Den Euwe and

Rothemuur all maintain a strong presence on the Islas.

On the other end of the Isla d’Azure from Porto Sarbá is

the fishing village of Culo Trento, where the island’s

native Estalians make a living diving for shellfish from the

sea floor. The men of Porto Sarbá are openly disparaging

of the villagers, claiming that they spend so long

underwater that they must have bred with the fish.

The fort is vitally important to Marienburg’s trade

interests, as direct travel between Marienburg and Lustria

is too long and dangerous a trip to sanely attempt. The

ideal half-way port to restock supplies and wait out

squalls is the City of Lothern in Ulthuan, a privilege the

High Elves only grant to the Merchant Ships of the

Trading House Rothemuur. Other Trading Houses

wishing to pursue Lustrian trade opportunities instead

travel to Fort Wilheimsdok, and then undertake the much

shorter crossing to Lustria from there.

Affiliation: Marienburg/Independent

Bay: Galleons must make a Challenging (-10%) Sail test

to make berth here.

Produced Goods: Shellfish

Adventure Hook: While to an outsider it looks like

Koenraad de Graeff has little to do with House de Roelef,

nothing could be further from the truth. For it is de Graeff

who brokers the deals between House de Roelef and the

Pirate Captains, hiring them as unofficial privateers

against all who rival House de Roelef’s stranglehold on

Marienburg trade. Agents of the Laughing Prince of

Luccini decide to hire the characters as spies who will

travel to Porto Sarbá and collect enough evidence

against de Graeff to unite the Tilean City States into

sending out a fleet to besiege and destroy the Isla.

Many Estalians are hardly happy about having a huge

Marienburger fortress on Estalia’s doorstep. As a result

the de Argüello Family who sold the Isla Corazón live as

outcasts in the Empire city of Altdorf, one of the few

places where they feel safe from patriotic Estalian

assassins. For unpatriotic Estalians however, the villages

of Assiento and Porto Ojeda on the Isla Corazón are

havens for smugglers wishing to avoid the Averia Tax,

which Marienburg does not levy. Most pirates steer clear

of the Isla, for the Governor-General owns a pair of 44-

gun galleons tasked with sinking every pirate ship a-sail

in the Southern Sea, apart from those issued Marienburg

Letters of Marque and Reprisal.

Affiliation: Marienburg

I SLA DE LOS M UERTOS

“There are hungers as strong as the wind and tides.”

– Traditional Pirate Shanty

A rocky and barren island that some say resembles a

grinning skull, the Isla de los Muertos was for many years

home to Fort Maloro, once used by Estalian pirates as a

safe harbour from which to raid merchant ships travelling

through the Southern Sea. This situation ended over fifty

years ago, when the Marienburg House de Roelef, sick of

the constant loss of profit from the pirate raiding, levelled

the fort to the ground with cannon fire.

Bay: Galleons must hire a local Pilot to make berth here

by local law.

Produced Goods: Perishable Foodstuffs, Tuna, Rye,

Iguanas (eaten as meat)

Adventure Hook: Fort Wilheimsdok is a centre for

smuggling activity and is the location of the largest black

market in the Southern Littoral, where merchants deal in

everything, from deadly poisons to parrots. Sent by an

Estalian merchant, the characters must recover an

ancient sword he believes has become available,

avoiding excisemen, assassins and being press-ganged.

Even then, once they have the sword, what will they do

when they see it bears as inscription dedicating it to

Khorne, the Blood God?

I SLA D ’A ZURE

Named for its blue waters, this spit of land is located at

the easternmost end of the Southern Littoral, where it

butts up against the Fool’s Rocks. On it stands the port

town of Porto Sarbá, an old Marienburger colony whose

population makes its way by means of fishing and

occasional trade. Governor Koenraad de Graeff is said to

nominally hold allegiance to the great trading house of de

Roelef, although he seems to be somewhat lax in paying

any taxes or indeed upholding any laws. This has made

the Isla d’Azure a haven for pirates looking for safe

harbour near the Cap d’Orient.

Marienburg now claims the Isla as their own, and have

built Fort Zoutmens, a small Defence Tower with a single

cannon that is garrisoned from nearby Fort Wilheimsdok

to watch over the Isla. The only other inhabitants of the

boulder-strewn Isla are a few scattered native Estalian

villages and farmsteads whose residents fish and herd

goats to make a living.

Affiliation: Marienburg

Bay: Galleons must make a Challenging (-10%) Sail test

to make berth here.

Produced Goods: Goats, Shellfish

Adventure Hook: Razing the pirate fort seems to have

done little good, for the whole of the Isla de los Muertos

lingers under a terrible curse. Each full moon a spectral

galleon full of ghostly pirates sallies forth from the ruins of

Fort Maloro, seemingly unaffected by any cannon fire.

Agents of House de Roelef hire the characters to

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investigate the Fort and destroy the source of the

Undead, be it the unburied dead, a hostile Vampire or an

ancient Slann curse placed on looted Lustrian Gold.

with their powerful neighbour has not gone unnoticed and

the port is now defended by majestic twin fortresses,

which stand on either side of the city’s harbour. Each one

is bristling with cannon and host huge chains that, when

raised, block any ship from entering the island’s bay.

I SLA S ANTA B ERNADETTE

Known to be the last place of any real size as the

Southern Littoral makes its way into the Great Ocean

proper, the tiny plantation island of Santa Bernadette is a

popular place for buccaneers. The dense covering of

trees makes hiding here easy and the island’s only bay is

a shallow affair of gritty sand: Crews wishing to trade

here must weigh anchor outside of the bay and make

their way to land by jolly boat or launch.

Santa Clair is home to an important temple and

monastery of Morr and even took its name from the first

High Priestess, many generations ago. An extensive

network of catacombs winds its way under the city and is

said to be so extensive that it even links up to the silver

mines. Most noble and merchant houses have private

access to these catacombs via their family mausoleums,

and scurrilous rumours claim that the catacombs are a

frequent method of conducting secret assignations.

The houses here are primitive dwellings made of mud

brick and plastered timber, covered with whitewash.

Some of these dwellings double as simple grog-shops or

guesthouses, but there are no inns or shops as such

here. The strangest building here is the Mission of

Sigmar, a circular temple internally supported by a

mizzenmast that once washed up here as driftwood.

Dog-eared tapestries depicting the life of Sigmar

decorate the inside of the Temple and the solitary Priest

is always in attendance to try to convince passing pirates

to embrace Sigmar and give up their life of crime.

Affiliation: Independent

The city has an ever-growing population of Diestro,

drawn here by the presence of the retired Estalian Blade

Master Oleos de Poelle, who makes his home upon this

Isla. He is known to train the very best of the best of

duellists, and each Diestro here hones their technique in

countless petty skirmishes in the hopes of impressing this

famous old master.

Affiliation: Estalia (Kingdom of Santa Clair)

Bay: Any ship may make berth in this deepwater bay.

Produced Goods: Estalian Tobacco, Silver Ingots,

Copper Ingots, Raw Sugar, Wine

Adventure Hook: Don Arturo Gonzales is the Captain

of the Descubierta, a small trading ship used to transport

fine Estalian wines and sherry from Santa Clair to Tilea,

Bretonnia and Araby. First Mate Shend Bungo runs this

small trading vessel, which is crewed by the finest of

Magrittan seamen. As with most merchants that are at

sea for months at a time, Don Gonzales takes his wife

and young son on all his voyages, and therefore is

anxious to hire dependable marines to guard his family

against pirates as they travel through the Thousand Islas.

Bay: Galleons may not make berth in this shallow bay.

Produced Goods: Raw Sugar

Adventure Hook: While the characters are sampling

the delights of the island’s grog, a stray Mermaid (See

WFRP Companion) has become beached upon the

island, damaging her tail. The Priest of Sigmar wants to

kill her as a Chaos Mutant while the islanders know to do

so will anger the Sea Herself who will send forth the

Triton to destroy the island. Can the characters placate

both sides without angering either of the conflicting

Gods?

I SLA S ANTA C LAIR

Ruled over by his Most Serene Majesty King Hernán de

Ulúa XIX, the tiny island kingdom of Santa Clair sits just

off the mouth of the Bay of Quietude, the very heart of

Estalia’s Sea Power. A sparsely populated land, many a

nobleman’s hacienda dots the landscape, standing at the

heart of plantations producing grapes, tobacco or sugar.

I SLA V EGA

The largest of the Islas of the Southern Littoral and one

of the few commonly depicted upon maps of the area, the

Estalian Kingdom of Vega dominates the trade of the

southwestern coast. A vast bar of coral reef, jagged rocks

and small islets defends the southern coast of the Isla,

while the northern coast boasts a chain of six Defence

Towers. In addition to this, the settlements of Porto Vega

and Porto Sayid both boast impressive fortifications,

principally to fend off attacks by Bretonnian and

Marienburg buccaneers. Mercenaries and marines spend

much time carousing in the bars of the island’s two main

ports, and the Kingdom grants Letters of Marque to a

vast number of Estalian privateers tasked with sinking

foreign pirate vessels, especially the green-sailed Xebecs

of Araby.

The thriving City-Port itself is the Isla’s main settlement,

originally founded upon the wealth of the island’s copper

and silver mines, although this has declined in recent

years. Now Santa Clair has remade itself as an important

trading town, where merchant traders can bypass the

unfair system of restrictive regulations and patronage that

dominates the City of Magritta. The enmity this creates

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