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Tideworn Grotto
🕑 Added 2025-09-10 14:54:36 +0000 UTCAn old smuggler’s haven expanded into the coastal rock by Deep One adherents, the tideworn grotto now lies half-submerged and forgotten. The smugglers are long drowned or transformed, but the grotto still pulses with the lingering touches of Father Dagon and Mother Hydra. The tides within do not obey the moon; they obey memory, ritual, and the drowned gods.
The map shows the grotto at low tide – most of the grotto is underwater at high tide except for the top of the coral stairs and a few small areas around the edges of the caves.
The entrance from above descends through a slick, spiralling stairwell encrusted with dead coral and barnacle-pocked stone. Weathered and worn humanoid statues line the descent – so worn that little can be discerned except that their mouths are all wide open, as if gasping warnings. The top statue ends up ankle-deep in the briny water at the highest tide, and the statues serve as an indicator or warning as the tide comes in and out.
In the easternmost cave, a stone altar and five standing stones emerge from the depths at low tide. The stones are carved with serpentine motifs and representations of Dagon and Hydra. Just to the north of the shrine is the bound keeper – a water elemental tied down by chains of rusted iron and coral. It was once the guardian of the grotto, but now it seethes with betrayal. It offers knowledge and treasures from the sea in exchange for freedom, but its revenge will flood more than just the grotto.
The largest cavern houses a roaring whirlpool, its spiral visible even in total darkness. It siphons not only water, but light and magic. Torches dim, spells fizzle, and illusions unravel near its edge. The whirlpool is anchored by a submerged stone ring inscribed with runes that pulse faintly when arcane energy is nearby. Smugglers once used this chamber to dispose of cursed cargo, but some say the whirlpool remembers what it devours.
The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 9,600 x 9,600 pixels (32 x 32 squares). To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to either 70 pixels (for 5′ squares) or 140 pixels (for the recommended 10′ squares) – so resizing it to either 2,240 x 2,240 or 4,480 x 4,480, respectively.
https://dysonlogos.blog/2025/09/10/tideworn-grotto/
Comments
Jason Katzner
I thought that said tideworM lol. This is super neat, think I'll work it into my next Pathfinder session!
