Blackwater Strait

Many a ship has met its end within Blackwater Strait, a labyrinth of islands and ruins between Azuro Keys and Golden Port. Due to the prevailing winds near Teramundr's Triangle, the strait's twisting channels can take weeks off a profitable journey. Yet, its capricious currents can smash a vessel in the blink of an unwary captain's eye.

Then there are the wreckers who light false beacons or riddle the causeways with chain-snares and mines. Or the Hoikers: giant, acid-spitting scallops that scuttle out of the crumbling Dhani ruins to shoot down seabirds and aeronauts.

Even if a savvy crew makes it through without paying a toll in limb or life, the sirens' song may yet entice them into a fatal embrace.

Blackwater Strait can be a shortcut to making a quick pouch of gold. The exotic goods of Golden Port, such as sea spider silk and ancient Dhani relics, pluck purse strings and delight collectors whichever direction the compass points. But is the booty worth the bite?

Sirens of Lost Lagoon

To hear them is to have your ears bleed with longing. To see them is a turgid dream come true. The sirens have drifted far from their merfolk origins. Though the Lost Lagoon offers a peaceful place to sleep and sunbathe, the Blackwater is a harsh climate unsuited to gentle aquaculture.

In the straits, the sirens must seduce their next meal from the shore or entice it from a passing ship. Whilst they can survive on fish and crustaceans, even seaweed if they have to, they prefer their food sun-reared and warm-blooded.

Yet the sirens are not without their sensibilities. Song and waterdancing are their pleasures, their saving graces. The ladies of Lost Lagoon will put on their show for any sailor who navigates Blackwater Strait, and all these fishtailed fancies ask for is a handsome gift to acknowledge their beautiful performance.

If they don't like what's been offered? Then they'll have their pound of flesh.

Griefers Reef

Any helmsman worth his salt knows to read the waters carefully when sailing through Griefers Reef. For if they don't, their ship will wind up caught and strangled by Sailorbane Coral. A predatory species, Sailorbane Coral grows from the rocky banks of channels, remaining submerged to conceal its presence. Over time, opposing escarpments of coral meet in the middle of a causeway to form a sub-nautical arch.

Such is the innate cunning of Sailorbane; it swells to the average depth of a ship's hull. Boats with a shallow draft can pass safely over top, but any craft of a deep seafaring design will be ripped open from bow to stern.

That's when Sailorbane Coral shows its truly nefarious nature. Sailors who fall into the water are caught by the coral's hunting tendrils and dragged under. The reef then feeds off its drowned catch, using the nutrients to extend further into a causeway, or to launch a pod of self-propelled coral that finds and colonizes another channel.

Griefers Reef is the oldest and largest known example of Sailorbane Coral. Its colony spans one of the widest channels in Blackwater Strait and it has claimed dozens of unwary ships in its long lifetime.