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In the ancient days before the planet Abbith was fixed in space and its lands still shifted, while the snake men of Yig studied the stars from crystal towers, the oceans were ruled from a cyclopean city known as R’lyeh. Here dwelt beings that crawled down from the nuclear chaos of space. Their mother was Hydra, and their father was Dagon and the spawn of these oceanic forms were the Deep Ones who swam in the primal seas of Abbith and multiplied. From black reefs, and salty shores they lifted their croaking throats in praise to the terror of the cosmos and their hideous prayers were answered. For beyond the gates great Cthulhu heard their hymns and slithered through time and space to take the seat his worshipers had prepared in the city of R’lyeh. Mother Hydra and Father Dagon lay at his feet and spawned so that for millennia the Deep Ones thrived in dark green depths.
The cataclysm that the Snake Men of Yig brought down from their towers changed the planet and caused R’yleh to shift into stygian depths only loosely connected to the warm oceans of Abbith. The Yiggian were gone and the hairless ape called man extended his dominion over the primal continents. Great Cthulhu fell into a dream, and this dream tormented the Deep Ones. It compelled them to mix their species with the blood of man in order to wake their slumbering god. The Deep Ones left R’yleh and built spawning pits and hidden grottoes near the newly formed shores of Abbith. When the tide and stars were right they arose from the depths and sought out human women with which to strengthen their blood. Sea wrought gold they carried and the primitive chieftains of man were easily swayed to sell their women for strange treasures from the deep. The children of these unions were hybrids, called by some the Sea Bloods.
Born as seemingly normal human babies, the hybrids are raised in man’s villages by their mothers. Before long the deep begins to call them, and they hear the dream of the god that sleeps in R’yleh. Eventually they change, and by middle age take again to the sea in order to bring the vitality of their blood back to the sunken seat of their sires. Today some coastal communities tolerate or even celebrate the impregnating of their women by Deep Ones. Most of mankind does not willingly hold congress with the Deep Ones however, and the breeding is usually a sudden attack from the depths.
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Current Events
In the city of Sanctuary, the Sea Bloods have thrived. Those that are cast out of human settlements know they can seek safe haven across the ocean in the land of Shulim. They find their passage aided by their fathers, and in the city itself a High Priest of Dagon called a Goswami meditates in a temple to the Sea Father and holds power and influence enough to protect the Sea Blood community.
Recently, The Goswami after long years of preparation set forth on a path to rule the city. Sanctuary suffered an attack by savage blue men of the wilds, led by a powerful chieftain who commanded a spawn of Shub-Niggurath to assault the Temple of Dagon directly. The Pasha Assur Salidani and his Thugee warriors, most powerful faction in the city, were decimated defending the temple. Only through the action of group of mercenary adventurers called The Company, of which a Sea Blood named Jabba was a member, were the temple and the city saved.
Seizing an opportunity in the power vacuum, the Goswami had his acolyte Jabba poison Mistress Jaingaiva a human wizard who stood in opposition to their dominion. This left only The Company as a significant threat to the rule of the Deep Ones, an organization that the Goswami had already infiltrated with Jabba. When the stars were correct, Jabba was ordered to lead a swarm of Deep Ones from the depths while the Goswami and his fellow Sea Blood Priest attacked the center of power in the city, the Pasha’s Palace. The Goswami was slain in a battle with the Pasha’s wizard, an exile Adian Gharban named wa-Sharquan, but the wizard too was struck down. Jabba and the Deep Ones over-powered the remainder of the Pasha’s forces and slew the Pasha himself. With the city on the brink of takeover by servants of Dagon, leaders of the human community came to The Company to beg for salvation. The Company ignored their pleas and decided to flee in a spacecraft they had recently salvaged leaving the humans of Sanctuary to their fate. With the old priest slain in battle against the Pasha’s wizard, Jabba became the new Goswami and consolidated his control over the city.
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| Goswami Jabba is not amused. |
Sanctuary under the Deep Ones
Goswami Jabba immediately sacrificed the prisoners taken in the battle to Father Dagon and Mother Hydra. The Sea Gods responded to his prayer of blood by raising a giant barnacle fortress to be his seat. Deep Ones flocked to Sanctuary from all the oceans of the world, swelling the ranks of Jabba’s salty host. Once it was clear that the city would fall, human citizens with the means begged the local pirates for passage but their request were unheeded. Jabba wisely bribed both the Black Fingers Thieves Guild and the Pirate Captains with sea gold, and sent the Deep Ones to aid the pirates in their raids, winning the loyalty of the freebooters.
The Deep Ones defiled the Temple of Erroneous, and Jabba ate the Bishop of Error. The compound of the Company was besieged but has thus far held due to the prowess of female warriors called The Cats, and a powerful psychic blue woman who hold it alongside those members that did not fly into space. The Vat Guild office on the edge of town became an impregnable bunker and activated its automated defenses. After considerable loss the Goswami called off the assault. The human citizens of Sanctuary are now the subjects of the sea spawn, their women are used for breeding and the men are sent to the altar of Dagon. The Goswami is building a kingdom of salt, a pit of Deep Ones and Sea Bloods whose wet throats again croak prayers to Great Cthulhu. They are preparing a magnificent ritual, amassing sacrifices and waiting for the moment when the stars align that they may wake the god that slumbers in deep R’lyeh.
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