TEXT: Lords of Gossamer & Shadow 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   by Matt Banach 
  
   
   
   
   
  Rite Publishing Presents: 
   
  Gossamer Worlds: 
  Poseidon's Rapture 
   
  Explorer (Author): Matt Banach 
  Seeker (Editor): Steven D. Russell 
  Searcher (Cover Artist):  -AP- 
  Trailblazer (Interior Artists):  -AP-, M.K. Amphitaman,  
  Lee Anthony Moten, Michael Richards, Karla Frazetty 
  Pioneer (Trade Dress): James “Devin Knight” Hazelett  
  Lost Boy (Layout and Publisher): Steven D. Russell 
   
  Special Thanks to Jason Durall for his help in developing this.  
   
   
  Based on Lords of Gossamer & Shadow by Jason Durall 
   
   
   
  Gossamer Worlds: Poseidon's Rapture Copyright © 2015 Steven D. Russell All rights reserved. Lords of Gossamer and Shadow Copyright © 2012-2013 Steven D. Russell All 
  rights reserved. Erick Wujcik’s Diceless Role-Playing and associated marks and logos are trademarks of Diceless by Design Publishing, LLC, and are used under license.  
  See http://Rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=1447 for more information on Erick Wujcik’s Diceless Role-Playing. All Illustrations except, banners, and 
  tradedress are  licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/ 
  
   
  Poseidon's Rapture 
   
   
  “Descending even deeper into the 
  tower of boiling brass, I came to a room 
  where the atmosphere was so moist and 
  dense it was suffocating. Grimacing 
  under the pressure, I worked my jaw to 
  pop my ears and shifted shape a little, 
  pulling my wings in and adapting my 
  nose and lungs to something more 
  seaworthy. The Door in this particular 
  circular brass room looked to be carved 
  from ice, though at a touch I realized it to 
  be merely solid water – and yes, there is 
  a difference. After kicking off my shoes 
  and turning the rough coral knob, I gazed 
  out into a murky depth of midnight blue 
  and wondered if the dark shapes 
  swimming beyond might think me foe... 
  or food.” - Yaeger's Travelogue 
   
  Description 
   
  Once upon a time... there was a world 
  of lush valleys carved by mighty rivers and 
  majestic mountain ranges set apart by 
  bright, shining seas. Its natives called 
  their world by many names, but Bel Mare 
  is my favorite quasi-translation from their 
  language; though, I'll refer to this world by 
  the label we on the Stair have given it – 
  “Poseidon's Rapture” – for reasons which 
  will soon become evident. The world 
  turned as worlds do, with good times as 
  well as bad, but throughout it all the 
  people prospered, for the waters, which 
  touched all things, were bountiful and 
  Poseidon, the great father-god of sea and 
  storms, lorded overall and cared for His 
  creation. 
   
  One day, Poseidon vanished. Some say 
  He died. Some say He left this world to 
  pursue a grander fate. Some say He quit, 
  disgusted with the wickedness of mortal 
  men and their lousy stewardship of His 
  creation. Regardless of why, Poseidon was 
  suddenly gone, and Bel Mare was never 
  the same again. 
   
  Then came the Great Flood. 
   
  The waters began to rise. All over the 
  planet, earthquakes shook the ground, 
  sailors 
  and 
  fishermen 
  noticed 
  odd 
  changes in the tides, and beaches which 
  had hardly shifted in hundreds of years 
  were washed away in a single season. 
  Naturalists and scientists reacted with 
  alarm; trying to determine the cause of the 
  rising sea – the polar ice caps were not 
  melting, the continents weren't sinking... 
  the 
  water 
  was 
  simply, 
  inexorably, 
  terrifyingly rising. The various noble 
  houses and industrialized nation-states 
  rallied around their navies and merchant 
  fleets, scrambling to rescue coastal 
  industries 
  from 
  the 
  rising 
  water, 
  launching every ship and submersible 
  they could manage. The Great Flood 
  continued without pause, swallowing 
  shipyards and harbors then inland 
  factories 
  and 
  metropolitan 
  centers. 
  Civilization crumbled – military conflicts 
  erupted as supply chains collapsed, old-
  world 
  governments 
  evaporated, 
  and 
  national 
  borders 
  disintegrated 
  as 
  everyone who was not already on a ship or 
  sub clawed their way to higher ground. 
  1 
   
  
  To make a long story short: the water 
  kept rising... and the world drowned.  
  It has been over three hundred years 
  since the Great Flood began, and 
  civilization as it was before the Flood has 
  been all but wiped from the face of the 
  planet. Only a tiny fraction of dry land 
  remains above the ever-rising sea level, as 
  even mountaintops have become small, 
  shrinking islands. The northern and 
  southern polar ice caps (both of which, in 
  this world, are comprised of floating sea 
  ice) remain intact, offering solid ground to 
  those 
  who 
  can 
  survive 
  the 
  frigid 
  temperatures and eke out subsistence on 
  the frozen plains. The vast majority of 
  people, however, live in the water – 
  aboard wandering ships, inside carefully-
  tended submarines, on floating raft-cities, 
  or even beneath the waves in pressurized 
  undersea enclaves. In the world of 
  Poseidon's Rapture, life is defined – or 
  ended – by one's mastery of the sea. 
  To properly explain the rough echoes 
  of civilization as they presently exist, I 
  should take a moment to tell you how 
  things were before the world drowned. 
  Before the Great Flood, Bel Mare was a 
  human world (though not an Earth, mind 
  you) with a not-so-unusual mix of races 
  and ethnicities populating the various 
  continents and exerting their dominion 
  over land and sea. There were kings and 
  dukes, 
  feudal 
  monarchies, 
  landed 
  bloodlines tracing their power back to the 
  dawn of time, etc. Just before Poseidon 
  vanished, 
  mankind 
  had 
  achieved 
  scientific advancements enabling steam 
  engine technology, industrialization, and  
   
  a boom in trans-oceanic commerce which 
  made the maritime merchant guilds (and 
  the noble houses who controlled them) 
  very wealthy as they expanded their 
  influence through vast shipping empires. 
  People still prayed to Poseidon for fair 
  skies and gentle seas, but more and more 
  men felt it their right to take what they 
  wanted from the sea – or from anyone or 
  anywhere else. It was an age of robber 
  barons 
  and 
  pirate 
  princes, 
  where 
  corruption 
  reigned 
  and 
  cutthroat 
  capitalism had replaced ancient honor. 
  The faithful of Poseidon claim that the 
  pollution of man – both their soot-
  belching factories and their avaricious 
  souls – was what caused the god of the 
  waters to forsake this plane... and who can 
  say they're wrong?  
  2 
  
   
  These days, things are ruthless on (and 
  under) the high seas. Pirate fleets swarm 
  like locusts, nibbling salvage from still-
  shallow waters and gobbling up any 
  independent vessels unlucky enough to be 
  caught 
  unprotected. 
  “Noble” 
  houses 
  holding fiefdom over the polar ice floes or 
  the precious few remaining mountaintop-
  islands 
  rule 
  as 
  warlords, 
  charging 
  exorbitant fees in labor and treasure for 
  the privilege of setting foot on dry land for 
  even a single day. Cloistered undersea 
  inventor-enclaves 
  torpedo 
  anything 
  coming within a mile of their carefully 
  balanced 
  biospheres. 
  Raft-cities 
  of 
  lashed-together flotsam drift with the 
  tides, affording the derelict masses a few 
  more square miles upon which they might 
  slowly starve to death – if the raging 
  storms and massive waves don't claim 
  them first. All over the world, people 
  mourn the loss of their absent father-god 
  Poseidon, arguing about who to blame for 
  the watery doom that still rises a bit more 
  every day. 
   
  Typical Denizens 
   
   
  Humans in their various forms still 
  populate Poseidon's Rapture, adapting to 
  their watery environs as best they can. 
  With so many peoples traumatically 
  displaced from their ancestral homes, 
  widespread cultural identities are mostly 
  a thing of the past; in the flooded world, 
  folks tend to identify with what's right 
  around them – their settlement, ship, or 
  submarine. The exception to this are the 
  so-called noble houses, which have their 
  political roots in the antediluvian era but  
  Technology Adrift 
  The 
  present 
  state 
  of 
  technology 
  in 
  Poseidon's 
  Rapture 
  is 
  a 
  mess 
  – 
  a 
  hodgepodge of extant artifacts from the 
  antediluvian world, revived ancient-yet-
  reliable 
  techniques, 
  and 
  innovations 
  necessitated by life perpetually at sea. 
  Before the Great Flood, the industrialized 
  nations and mercantile powers had gasoline 
  engines and rudimentary electric systems, 
  but since the precipitous collapse of 
  civilization things have regressed – many to 
  the point of cloth-sailed ships and clunky 
  steamboats cobbled together from salvage. 
  Gunpowder is exceedingly rare, with 
  firearms effectively replaced by crossbows, 
  spearguns, and harpoons. A few advanced 
  outposts operate on the power of seaweed-
  derived biodiesel, combined with renewable 
  energy 
  drawn 
  from 
  solar, 
  wave, 
  or 
  hydroelectric sources and then stored in 
  ingenious vapor-tank batteries for later use. 
  Simple electric lights and switches are not 
  uncommon, along with sonar systems and 
  other sensors, but the post-Flood world is 
  entirely analog and devoid of digital 
  computers or any technology requiring 
  microprocessors. The surviving pockets of 
  civilization focus their innovations on 
  maritime subsistence and exploration, 
  pouring all of their resources into ships and 
  submarines 
  while 
  other 
  fields 
  and 
  disciplines decline to practically medieval 
  standards. 
   
   
  Two notable exceptions to this general state 
  of technology exist: the uncommonly 
  brilliant deep-sea submersible known as the 
  Pequod, and the ultra-advanced deific 
  technology of the Cerulean Choir. For both, 
  see below. 
   
  3 
   
  
   
  in modern practice function more like 
  underworld 
  cartels 
  or 
  mafia-style 
  “families”. You see, when the Great Flood 
  began 
  and 
  land-based 
  governments 
  crumbled, the noble houses were the 
  institutions most successful at retaining 
  the loyalty of their members and minions 
  as people rallied to the ties of blood and 
  ancient debt when laws and borders 
  washed away. 
   
   
  House Baza commands the largest 
  and finest overall fleet of sailing vessels on 
  the planet – battleships, frigates, galleys, 
  galleons, steamships, and all manner of 
  hybrid 
  maritime 
  inventions 
  cobbled 
  together from salvage. They have skilled 
  sailors, swashbuckling captains, and a 
  delightful tradition of breeding fishing 
  birds such as pelicans, seagulls, and 
  osprey to hunt for them. Most of the 
  houses's people and assets are perpetually 
  at sea, but they do claim several 
  prosperous Venetian-style floating cities 
  and a small chain of mountaintop-island 
  fortresses in the southern hemisphere. 
  While the Baza aren't powerful enough to 
  claim a monopoly on surface naval power, 
  or even a majority for that matter, the 
  flapping black-and-blue raptor of the 
  Baza flag is a sign sure to give most pirates 
  pause. As such, House Baza demands 
  substantial consideration from other 
  vessels or settlements desperate for 
  protection, which they do provide, though 
  such arrangements are often precursor to 
  the clients being absorbed into the ever-
  expanding Baza fleet. Baron Giancarlo 
  Reki-Baza is the present admiral of the 
  Baza armada, a peerless navigator and 
  swordsman commanding thousands of 
  ships from the deck of his steam-powered 
  battleship, the Roc.  
   
  House 
  Tedesco 
  is 
  the 
  most 
  technologically savvy of the major houses, 
  its industrious ranks filled with scientists 
  and engineers who've managed to keep 
  machinery running through the watery 
  apocalypse as well as innovating new 
  techniques to keep everyone afloat and 
  alive. They're the ones to credit for those 
  ingenious 
  vapor-batteries, 
  and 
  their 
  refinements have made it possible to 
  operate deep sea submersibles on what is 
  still largely steam-based technology. 
  House 
  Tedesco 
  has 
  land-based 
  settlements on the northern polar ice cap, 
  including several icy factory-cities which, 
  despite the bitter cold, churn their forges 
  and move their assembly lines to produce 
  something insanely rare in the present 
  day: newly manufactured machine goods. 
  While the Tedesco keep the best ships and 
  gizmos for themselves, the house engages 
  in shrewd trade with rival houses to make 
  others willing to keep the tenuous peace 
  for the sake of commerce rather than 
  seizing the Tedesco's means of production 
  by force. Still, that carefully-leveraged 
  security can evaporate in an instant, and 
  piracy is a constant threat, so Tedesco 
  captains remain cold and cautious; their 
  ships and submarines are always armed 
  with the latest weaponry: long-distance 
  harpoons, repeating bolt throwers, hull-
  puncturing torpedos, and even depth 
  charges. House Tedesco also maintains 
  the last few enclaves of genuine scientific 
  research and higher learning left on the 
  planet – each one desperately pursuing 
  survival-oriented 
  solutions 
  and 
  4 
   
  
   
  unraveling the riddle of the ever-rising 
  sea. Baron Johan Tedesco is the present 
  patriarch of the house, a callous but 
  brilliant engineer who guides research 
  and development from the safety of 
  Whitehall, one of the house's icy polar 
  fortresses. 
   
  House Moridei is thick with religious 
  zealots and the yearning masses they've 
  converted to their faith: the church of the 
  empty throne. The devout of Moridei 
  believe their all-father Poseidon left the 
  world because mankind was unworthy, 
  and 
  only 
  through 
  penitence 
  and 
  purification can humanity hope to lure 
  Him back to save the world – or end it 
  once and for all. The form of this 
  penitence varies from humble asceticism 
  to forced drowning depending on which 
  preacher you're dealing with, and I'll note 
  that they're equally eager to “purify” those 
  who don't share their views. House 
  Moridei doesn't have the best ships, or the 
  most resources, but they do have more 
  minions than any other single house – 
  mostly because their conversion practices 
  are virally effective. There's something 
  about being stranded in the middle of the 
  vast, unforgiving ocean which makes the 
  concept of an absent god painfully 
  relevant, and anyone who comes along 
  with a scratch for that itch can surely gain 
  a person's attention. At its most benign, 
  House Moridei is exemplified by fiery 
  preacher-captains towing the “converted” 
  behind a ramshackle dreadnaught and 
  desperate refugees chanting prayers on 
  sprawling raft-cities; but beneath the 
  surface – both figuratively and literally – 
  the faith is stranger. A rogue faction of the  
   
   
  A Saint of the Cerulean Choir 
   
  Cerulean Choir has their invisible hooks 
  into House Moridei, sending visions to 
  steer doctrine and abducting devotees for 
  experiments 
  in 
  cross-species 
  hybridization. 
  These 
  “Children 
  of 
  Poseidon” are folks with gills, fins, 
  tentacles, 
  swimming 
  tails, 
  webbed 
  appendages, and all sorts of other sea 
  creature 
  features. 
  Some 
  of 
  these 
  modifications are flesh-grafts, but others 
  are 
  the 
  result 
  of 
  genetic 
  splicing, 
  producing 
  true-breeding 
  lineages 
  of 
  amphibious or wholly aquatic mer-
  people. While historically there was 
  5 
   
  
   
  dogmatic disagreement within House 
  Moridei about whether or not the 
  Children were heretical abominations, the 
  current teachings accept the Children as 
  blessed brothers and sisters – divinely 
  anointed stewards of the new Creation, 
  destined by Poseidon's will to inherit the 
  world as the waters swallow all. Baron 
  Piter Moridei is the present high pontiff of 
  House Moridei, a dark and dangerously 
  charismatic firebrand who conceals a 
  twisted knot of tentacles beneath his 
  priestly robes. 
   
  Other noble houses also hold a great 
  deal of strength across the inundated 
  planet, though their treacherous intrigues 
  and constant battles for resources keep 
  them at odds with each other and unlikely 
  to unify except in the most dire of 
  circumstances. While there are dozens of 
  houses spread out across the globe, some 
  greater and some lesser, here are a few 
  more worthy of brief note:  
   
  House Faltrain was once a tolerable 
  organization of half-honest traders and 
  salvage specialists, but ever since their 
  mountain-top 
  island 
  finally 
  slipped 
  beneath the rising tide a decade ago, 
  they've become nothing better than a gang 
  of 
  vicious 
  pirates 
  and 
  cannibals. 
  Desperate and duplicitous, the smiling 
  merchants of House Faltrain will come 
  aboard with barrels of salt fish, shake your 
  hand, then seize your ship and butcher 
  your crew for stew. 
   
  House Zoldo is notorious for its highly 
  skilled 
  sharkskin-clad 
  mercenaries, 
  experts in knife-fighting, underwater 
  combat, sabotage, and assassination. 
  Businesslike but mysterious, House Zoldo 
  maintains a small but lethally efficient 
  fleet of attack submarines and keeps the 
  location of its impressive undersea bases 
  a closely guarded secret. 
   
  Threats 
   
  The Cerulean Choir are the abandoned 
  angels of Poseidon – a strange host of 
  powerful aquatic servitors who once did 
  His bidding beneath the seas, tending to 
  the webs of life and operating the massive 
  deific machines which controlled the 
  tempests, tides, and tectonics of all 
  Creation. 
  Rudderless 
  and 
  utterly 
  despondent at the loss of their god and 
  master, these bizarre blue beings now 
  pursue a single purpose: cleansing the 
  world with a flood of holy water to make it 
  worthy of Poseidon's return. They're nuts, 
  supposedly, but who can blame them. The 
  Choir retains control of Poseidon's 
  'creation engines', mountain-sized masses 
  of technology so advanced they may as 
  well be magic, capable of performing 
  miracles and molding gossamer matter. 
  Operating these dark towers planted deep 
  on the ocean floor, the ageless, coldly 
  patient Choir has been steadily toiling to 
  flood 
  the 
  planet, 
  alchemically 
  transmuting bedrock into greater volumes 
  of liquid water, causing the seas to rise. 
  Individual members of the Choir aren't 
  winged beauties with halos, though there 
  are a few ravishing sirens and statuesque 
  mermen – mostly they're uplifted sea 
  creatures with the intellects of super-
  scientists and the fiery will of archangels. 
  6 
   
  
   
  Just because one might be an seven-foot-
  tall bipedal mantis shrimp or a hyper-
  intelligent hive-minded jellyfish colony, 
  don't underestimate them – they have 
  mastery of personal abilities and deific 
  technology far beyond the rest of this 
  gossamer 
  world, 
  and 
  if 
  they 
  feel 
  threatened they will not hesitate to ensure 
  that you're blown up, driven insane, or 
  crushed to death at the bottom of the 
  abyss. Disinclined to bother with slovenly 
  human speech, the Cerulean Choir 
  communicate 
  either 
  biochemically, 
  through subtle color changes, or in their 
  own highly complex, information-rich 
  sonar-language which sounds like a mix 
  dolphin clicks, whale song, and an eerie, 
  otherworldly theremin. In the hundreds 
  of years since the rapture and the 
  beginning of the Great Flood, the 
  Cerulean Choir has remained unified... 
  but has slowly begun to expand its 
  activities as individual members dabble 
  with what might've once been heresy: 
  drastic genetic modification of sea life, 
  humanoid 
  species-splicing, 
  and 
  the 
  occasional vengeful surface attack via 
  malicious weather control. I doubt that 
  there's any reasoning with them, unless 
  you can bring back Poseidon – and good 
  luck with that.  
   
  Leviathans are gigantic uplifted sea 
  monsters who serve as living weapons and 
  guard dogs for the Cerulean Choir. These 
  gargantuan beasts are of ancient breed, 
  genetically modified over millennia to 
  enhance not only their titanic physical 
  abilities 
  but 
  also 
  granting 
  them 
  intelligence and cunning far beyond what 
  their massive forms might suggest. Many  
  Blue Angels 
   
  The Cerulean Choir is comprised of a 
  variety of strange species and unique 
  individuals with differing abilities, some 
  greater, some lesser, but the most 
  powerful 'archangels' of the Choir may 
  have the following qualities: 
  • 
  Double Vitality [2 Points] 
  • 
  Paragon Stamina [2 Points] 
  • 
  Combat Training [1 Point] 
  • 
  Double Damage [2 Points] 
  • 
  Resistant to Normal Weapons [1 
  Point] 
  • 
  Psychic Barrier [4 Points] 
  • 
  Danger Sensitivity [2 Points] 
  • 
  Mold Gossamer Reality [4 Points] 
  – via creation engines and other 
  ultra-advanced deific machinery 
  of absent Poseidon 
  • 
  Self Healing [1 Point] 
  • 
  True Name is Warded [2 Points] 
   
   
  leviathans are what you might consider 
  classic sea monsters: giant fish, enormous 
  whales, terrifying kraken, sinewy sea 
  serpents, ravenous killer sharks, cranky 
  dragons turtles, a luminescent jellyfish 
  the size of a city, etc. Some leviathans, 
  however, are far stranger: horned albino 
  mega-salamanders, hydra-headed EMP-
  generating electric eels, oily ooze-clouds 
  of sentient liquid shadow, and gigantic 
  gibbering anglerfish that emit seizure-
  inducing death-pulses from that little 
  glowing dangly thing – as if the ocean 
  wasn't dangerous enough. Leviathans are 
  the nightmare-creatures of this world, 
  known to attack settlements, sink ships,  
  7 
   
  
   
   
   
  and swallow whole nosy submarines 
  which dive too deep. Most of the time the 
  leviathans dutifully do the bidding of their 
  mysterious blue masters, but during the 
  last 
  century 
  several 
  of 
  the 
  eldest 
  leviathans 
  have 
  been 
  patiently 
  considering rebellion as they've begun to 
  doubt the leadership of the wayward 
  former servitors of Poseidon, questioning 
  the ecological wisdom of flooding the 
  entire planet. With a strong push and the 
  right persuasion these legendary beasts 
  might be able to overcome the obedience 
  hard-wired into their DNA, but even if 
  shaken from their marching orders 
  they're unlikely to be sympathetic to the 
  plight of puny land-lubbers... and might 
  just eat you anyway. I'll note that the 
  eldest of the leviathans is a super-colossal 
  kraken called Medusa – a truly epic 
  monster whose hundreds of alchemical 
  tentacles can stretch for miles, rending 
  ships to ribbons and transmuting prey 
  into stone, dooming victims to sink 
  forever into the abyss. 
   
   
  Water itself, deep and open and 
  voluminous and vast, can be a dire threat 
  all on its own in the wrong circumstances, 
  and you'd do well not to forget it. First off, 
  there's drowning as a possibility, and 
  while most Gossamer Lords and Ladies 
  have enough endurance to hold their 
  breath for quite a while, if you're trapped 
  somewhere – for example, a crushed and 
  sinking submarine – even a long time 
  8 
   
  
   
  might not be long enough. Likewise, 
  whereas swimming a long distance might 
  seem more of an inconvenience than a 
  deadly threat to some of us, when the 
  nearest dry land is 500 or more miles 
  away on a world such as this... even a 
  demigod should take pause and consider 
  the prospect of one's strength flagging at 
  mile 300. Most of all, I would remind any 
  traveler of the dangers of the deep, deep 
  sea. Extreme pressure can be a terribly 
  lethal thing, and at the very bottom of the 
  ocean a body can be subjected to over 
  1000 times the standard atmospheric 
  pressure – over 8 tons per square inch. 
  That's enough to crush even the vaunted 
  physical forms of most Gossamer Lords 
  and Ladies, so don't for a second brush 
  this threat off as 'it's only water'. Plus the 
  cold. Plus the currents. So, if you're diving 
  deep in a submarine, keep it seaworthy – 
  the alternatives are either a brutally 
  painful struggle back to the surface or a 
  potentially fatal descent into the dark and 
  dismal abyss. 
   
  Notable Locations 
   
  Razor Falls, located in the warm and 
  windy southern seas, is the mountaintop-
  turned-archipelago-fortress 
  of 
  House 
  Baza, carved by both man and nature from 
  the craggy spires of what was once this 
  world's tallest mountain range. In terms 
  of topography and engineering, Razor 
  Falls is a daring, improbable place. This is 
  some of the last dry rock on the planet, but 
  the rising sea is knocking at the door; 
  when the highest waves crash against the 
  used-to-be peaks, water cascades in  
  Terrors of the Deep 
  Each leviathan has its own unique 
  abilities, but most of the big monsters 
  have the following base qualities: 
  • Immense Vitality [4 Points] 
  • Engine Speed [4 Points] 
  • Tireless Stamina [4 Points] 
  • Combat Reflexes [2 Points] 
  • Double Damage [2 Points] 
  • Resistant to Firearms [2 Points] 
  • Able to Speak and Reason [2 Points] 
  • Psychic Resistance [1 Point] 
  • Psychic Sensitivity [1 Point] 
  • Self Healing [1 Point] 
   
   
  torrents down the slowly eroding cliff 
  sides, powering the Bazas' clever turbines 
  before getting drained out of the lower 
  basin by a massive pumping system. In 
  defiance of the rising tide, the Baza also 
  keep 
  building 
  the 
  place 
  upwards, 
  salvaging rock and building materials 
  from 
  the 
  submerged 
  mountainside 
  beneath them in order to erect towering 
  spires and buttress the precarious levee-
  ring which surrounds each dry patch of 
  the settlement. It is a place of precarious 
  towers, swinging catwalks, and long falls 
  into the crashing white water. Even if the 
  effort only buys them a few more years 
  above sea level, it's impressive. Razor 
  Falls is surrounded on the water by a 
  sprawling maze of piers and shipyards 
  which host part of the vast Baza fleet, so it 
  is a key crossroads on this world – a place 
  to hop from ship to ship, a place to make 
  contacts with savvy sailors and cutthroat 
  captains, and a place to have a few drinks 
  and get into a few sword fights. Razor x 
  9 
   
  
   
  Falls is a rough place, so unless you're a 
  well-respected captain or under the 
  direction 
  protection 
  of 
  one, 
  you'll 
  probably have to bloody a few noses 
  before the scoundrels leave you alone. A 
  Door into Poseidon's Rapture opens up 
  beneath Razor Falls out of a run-down 
  sailor's tavern cut from the mountainside; 
  the patrons are all eels and barnacles, 
  however, because nowadays the tavern is 
  a hundred feet below sea level. 
   
  New Atlantis is an undersea city 
  populated by the eclectic hybrid mer-
  people 
  known 
  as 
  the 
  Children 
  of 
  Poseidon. This great city was once the 
  capital of one of Bel Mare's most 
  influential equatorial nations – an ancient 
  metropolis filled with stately buildings, 
  glorious amphitheaters, and gigantic 
  statues – but that was before the Great 
  Flood submerged it all. To picture it, 
  imagine a Florence or a Rome writ large, 
  then sink it to the bottom of the ocean and 
  let it crumble for about a hundred years. 
  Nowadays the skyline is overgrown with 
  sprawling coral reefs and shining thickets 
  of luminescent kelp. The inhabitants New 
  Atlantis have become masters of their 
  environment, living in harmony with the 
  ocean flora, taming sea creatures to do 
  their bidding, and raising the first 
  generation of true-born aquatics – young 
  mer-people who have no memory of or 
  attachments to the all-but-swallowed 
  surface world. The ruling elder of New 
  Atlantis is Equonus Moridei, a stringy-
  bearded old curmudgeon whose long 
  knobby body is kinda like some sort of sea 
  horse centaur; he was once a two-legged 
  man before he became the subject of  
   
   
  Razor Falls 
   
  cross-species grafting experiments, so he 
  does recall the ways of men... though not 
  fondly. New Atlantis is humble and 
  doesn't have much in the way of 
  technology or weaponry, but they are not 
  without protection, as a pair of twin 
  Leviathans (immense spider crabs whose 
  leg-spans are measured in city blocks) 
  guard the place at the behest of the 
  Cerulean Choir, who don't want their 
  aquatic municipal experiment disturbed. 
   
  The Pequod is a truly peerless 
  submarine – a technological marvel 
  capable of diving to the deepest trenches 
  of the ocean and circumnavigating the 
  globe at any depth. Outfitted with long-
  range sonar, computerized navigational 
  databases, and a squeaky-clean compact 
  fusion engine, the Pequod is, by leaps and 
  10 
   
  
   
  bounds, the most advanced undersea 
  vessel on this gossamer world. The 
  explanation for this outlier is simple: 
  somebody cheated. About fifty years ago, 
  after an unfortunate maritime mishap, a 
  Gossamer Lord or Lady (who shall, for my 
  purposes 
  herein, 
  remain 
  tastefully 
  unnamed) became frustrated with the 
  relatively 
  primitive 
  submersible 
  technology locally available and decided 
  to smuggle in more advanced technology 
  from 
  elsewhere 
  on 
  the 
  Stair. 
  The 
  piecemeal project took years, and s/he 
  wasn't able to bring in anything that 
  wouldn't fit through a Door, but the 
  eventual product of this illicit engineering 
  project was the Pequod. The native 
  workers who helped assemble the boat – 
  mostly eccentric geniuses recruited from 
  House Tedesco – became its first crew, 
  joining the adventures of their mysterious 
  patron and dedicating their lives to 
  unraveling the submerged mysteries of 
  Poseidon's Rapture. The current captain 
  of the Pequod is Julianna Balfour, the last 
  surviving member of the boat's original 
  crew; well into her sixties and in secretly 
  failing health, silver-haired Julianna is a 
  steely but good-hearted woman who has 
  never lost her sense of adventure or her 
  love of the sea. If you're lucky enough to 
  obtain passage on the Pequod it can take 
  you anywhere and to any depth, but 
  Julianna and/or her patron will likely 
  require you contribute some off-world 
  supplies to refit the boat, since even the 
  finest submarine on the planet is 
  springing a few leaks these days. And, if 
  you can bring fine Captain Balfour a 
  potted cherry tomato plant compliments  
   
  The Pequod 
  The Pequod is presumed to be an Artifact 
  owned by a Gossamer Lord or Lady, the 
  identity of whom is up to you; that 
  individual can be an iconic NPC, a new 
  and unknown character, the PCs' mentor, 
  or even one of the PCs if they spend the 
  Points necessary to claim it. 
   
  The Pequod [15 Points] 
  • 
  Engine Speed [4 Points] 
  • 
  Tireless Stamina [4 Points] 
  • 
  Double Damage [2 Points] – torpedos, 
  harpoons, and depth charges. 
  • 
  Resistant to Firearms [2 Points] 
  • 
  Able to Speak [1 Point] – Ishmael, the 
  Pequod's 
  basic 
  voice-responsive 
  artificial 
  intelligence 
  command 
  system. 
  • 
  True Name Is Known [1 Point] 
  • 
  Contains an Icon [1 Point] – an icon of 
  the owner hanging on the bridge. 
   
  Ownership of the Pequod should also, 
  ideally, coincide with a good relationship 
  with its captain, in which case Captain 
  Julianna 
  Balfour 
  can 
  be 
  a 
  useful 
  Gossamer World Ally [1 Point]. 
   
   
  of “her favorite first mate”, I'll owe you 
  one. 
   
   
   
  The Wound is a colossal undersea 
  trench which gouges the sea floor of this 
  planet from nearly pole to pole. Ragged 
  and twisting and staggeringly deep, the 
  Wound is not the result of any natural 
  formation or tectonic activity, but rather 
  11 
   
  
   
  the persistent environmental manip-
  ulation of the Cerulean Choir. The 
  creation engines of absent Poseidon – 
  those 
  monolithic 
  towers 
  of 
  ultra-
  advanced deific technology – dot The 
  Wound, shifting their positions via 
  gigantic crab-legs every few years as they 
  bore into the sea floor, voraciously 
  transmuting solid bedrock into greater 
  volumes of liquid water through some 
  arcane alchemical process. Leviathans 
  prowl the dark depths of the trench, 
  relishing the relative peace and quiet 
  provided by the supremely inhospitable 
  environment. Medusa, kraken queen of 
  the Leviathans, lurks in the deepest 
  recesses of The Wound near the south 
  pole, within reach of the largest creation 
  engine of all. Rumor has it that down 
  there, in the blackest deepest abyss, the 
  Cerulean Choir's mad diggings have 
  unearthed some miraculous, even by their 
  standards – the tip of a golden ziggurat 
  the size of a mountain, carved with 
  thousands of eerily familiar rectangular 
  shapes.  
   
   
  Final Thoughts  
   
   
  I'll be honest – I'm more bird than 
  fish, 
  so 
  I 
  don't 
  particularly 
  enjoy 
  swimming. Or drowning. Or being eaten 
  by giant tentacle-things. However, this is 
  a world of deep blue wonders, and the 
  advent of the Great Flood really gives you 
  a chance to appreciate those things you 
  might've just sailed over otherwise. Plug 
  your nose, put on your fins, and dive in.  
   
   
  ~ Yaeger Zane
   
   
   
  Poseidon's Rapture Domain Table 
  Technology 
  Level: 
  Other (mostly Steam with limited Electric; hidden pockets of ultra-
  advanced deific post-Fusion technology) 
  Magic 
  Level: 
  Magic is Rare 
  Security: 
  None 
  Type: 
  Personal Domain [1 Point] (current owner: the Cerulean Choir) 
  Control: 
  Control of Contents [1 Point] 
  Influence 
  on 
  the 
  Powers: 
  Eidolon – Average Umbra – Average Wrighting – Average 
   
   
  12 
   
  
   
  How to Use Poseidon's Rapture 
  • Poseidon's Rapture is a world of the wild sea in all its beauty, terror, and glory. Take 
  the time to really highlight the wonders of the ocean while in this realm – voyages on 
  sailing ships are adventures in and of themselves regardless of the destination, 
  journeys to the briny deep reveal curiosities as alien as on any distant planet, and even 
  demigods should dread the fury of a storm at sea.  
  • The disappearance of the god Poseidon may not be unexplained. The PCs hear a rumor 
  that Poseidon left his world via the Grand Stair in order to participate in the War of 
  Deicide on the gossamer world Sahr Astudan (see Gossamer Worlds: Ossuary 
  Empire). He died in the war, just like all those other gods, and his bones have become 
  artifacts of power in that world. If the characters were ever to bring the bones of 
  Poseidon back to this world, they would be relics of unimaginable power and could 
  break the will of the Cerulean Choir... and reshape this reality.  
  • The PCs' mentor, or some other influential NPC, is the mysterious owner of the 
  brilliant submarine Pequod. The owner needs the PCs to cross the Grand Stair to bring 
  a cargo of essential equipment to refit the boat, but something's gone wrong with the 
  icon which usually might permit easy communication with the Pequod, so the PCs 
  must enter the world and go fishing for danger the old-fashioned way. 
  • The golden ziggurat recently discovered in the deep undersea abyss of the Wound is 
  an ancient Dwimmerlaik artifact of unimaginable power and utility to anyone who 
  might want to unlock its thousands of Doors to access the Grand Stair. Word of the 
  ziggurat's discovery is beginning to spread across the multiverse, and a race has begun 
  which leads first to the Leviathan-infested bottom of the sea, and perhaps from there 
  to everywhere else. Making matters worse, one of the Doors engraved on the face of 
  the golden ziggurat is over two hundred meters tall. 
  • Attack them with giant sea monsters. Do it. You know you want to.  
   
   
  13 
   
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Amber/Lords Of Gossamer And Shadow/Gossamer Worlds/Poseidon's Rapture.pdf