Tales from Beyond the Spider Moon

 Most of the crew leapt to their feet, chains rattling. Alina seemed to pull her sword from the space between the bars, and Turok dropped into a low, unarmed fighting stance. Only Dox remained calm, barely moving from her seat against the wall. Delamagne cursed, and Covey pressed himself into a corner.     The tortle looked around at them all, then relaxed, standing from his attack posture, though his staff continued to glow. “This doesn’t seem to be my ship,” he said. “And, you folks all seem to be in chains.”     “Your powers of deduction are astounding,” Alina said. She allowed her blade to drop when the tortle relaxed, but held it at the ready.     “Well, we’re in the hold of a ship, and you are quite a motley bunch. I suppose it would be ridiculous to ask you whether your incarceration was legal, or at least, just?”     Dox laughed. Turok stepped as far as his leg irons would allow. “We’re the crew and passengers of the Reizoko no Tsuma,...

 When the assassin came to, she was lying on her side in the corner of a small cell in the dank hold of the ship, she was in chains, and the survivors of the Reizoko no Tsuma were huddled against the far wall, watching her warily.     Turok was tending to Alina, helping her to sit up. It had been the commanding voice of his magic that woke the assassin, and she sat up at the same time. Everyone turned to watch her, a mixture of curiosity, anger, and fear in their expressions.     It was Delamagne, one of the able seamen who was nursing a broken arm and a black eye who spoke up first, “what are you doing down here, shark?”     The assassin chuckled, “yeah. You’re probably as confused as the sharks are.” She shifted in her seat and propped her meaty arms up on her knees. This was distasteful; but not unheard of. When the faceless men revealed themselves, it generally only added to the mystery and the legend; but she would have to survive for the story to...

 Part One - Pirates Chapter One: The Lady and the Dragon The Dragonborn’s name was Turok. Like all of his kind, he was tall and stout, larger than human or orc, though he resembled nothing more than a wyrmling dragon made to walk upright and wear clothes. Turok was a noble dragon, and a priest, and so he might have been a little more stout than his kin. The clothes he wore this morning were the loose shirt and breeches of a sailor, though over these he also wore the tabard of his faith. Dark purple with silver trim, it bore the holy symbol of his deity, Kuyutha; Exarch of Bahamut. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up to the elbow, and the metallic brass scales that covered him shined in the morning sunlight when he stepped out of his cabin and onto the deck of the Reizoko no Tsuma .      The salt wind of the WorldSea filled his nostrils and stung his eyes. He squinted against the morning sun, but there wasn’t much to see beyond the deck anyway. Nothing but horizon...

  We know Cerulean Crowe  hates them. We know they're probably all pirates or - at least - she thinks they are. But they don't appear in most D&D worlds, and they're not in any official supplement (yet - man, I'd love to put one on D&D Beyond, but I don't want to jump through the hoops to get it to work right). But I'm on a tangent. Sorry about that. The Shark Men haven't shown up in the story yet, but they've been mentioned - and they play a large role in Crowe's backstory, so I know they'll be coming up again, and you might not know who they are. The Praedaren were created by Anthony Vallozzi , and I first came across them back when this Spelljammer campaign was just going to be Pirates of the Dark Water, but D&D. I was looking for interesting things to populate my Aquatic campaign with, when I came across this post: [Race] Player Race: Praedaren (The GMBinder Link) It was great. Like that top comment said, it's Street Sharks; ...