Navigational Hazard: The Scavver Sargasso

So I'm just getting back into Spelljammer after a hiatus of a couple of
years, and when going through my old files, I came across something that I
had almost finished: the writeup for the Scavver Sargasso.

I had been planning to do a whole series of Navigational Hazards articles,
each of which was going to detail a different encounter area that could be
thrown into a campaign either as a break from the main thrust of the
campaign, or as the new focus of that campaign. In the writeup for the
Scavver Sargasso, I placed it in a sphere called Frontierspace, but that was
just my way of saying that it can be placed in any sphere with some
spelljamming traffic, but which is still a bit of a wild/frontier region.

Anyway, since the first one was almost finished, I've completed it and
decided to send it to the list in the hopes that it can be of use to some of
you. Depending on the reception, and my inspiration (or lack thereof), I
might write up a few more Navigational Hazards articles and send them to the
list. Let me know what you think!

The Scavver Sargasso
This small but deadly sargasso is found in the outer reaches of
Frontierspace and is a hazard to any ships which venture too near. Ships
newly arriving in Frontierspace often come out of the flow fairly close to
the sargasso, depending on what phlogiston river they followed to reach the
sphere. The sargasso is roughly horseshoe-shaped, and is filled with debris.
>From a distance the debris makes the sargasso appear to be a small, green
gaseous cloud, but upon approaching closer, it becomes evident that the
‘cloud’ is in fact a fairly dense debris field. 
Even if the magic-dead environment of the sargasso did not exist, any ship
traveling through the area would still be forced to drop to tactical speeds
due to the many large chunks of flotsam in the area. Traveling at these
speeds, it would take about two weeks to traverse the sargasso. Some brave
captains in the area have been known to plot their courses through the
centre of the Scavver Sargasso’s “horseshoe,” but for reasons noted below,
this has become increasingly dangerous.
The Scavver Sargasso is notable for the fact that the small chunks of debris
within it are uniformly covered with plant life. Because of this, stranded
ships generally have no problem with air and food considerations (although
the edible plant life can hardly be called tasty). In fact, an entire
ecosystem has evolved in this area of space. 
The plants found in the sargasso are generally mundane in nature, although
dangerous plant life likely exists in the area as well. Any dangerous plant
life would tend to be overshadowed in importance by the sargasso’s other
residents. The Scavver Sargasso is primarily populated by gullions,
spaceworms, krajen (generally immature; mature krajen are very rare since
the abundance of other life frequently feeds upon the krajen before they
reach adulthood), zards, and, most importantly, scavvers. All varieties of
scavver may be found in this sargasso, and they can definitely be considered
the dominant life form in the area. 
The scavvers tend to hunt in nearby space as well as within the sargasso
itself, but they usually stay relatively close to the excellent food source
provided by the sargasso. In general, the gullions, spaceworms, immature
krajen, zards, and smaller (ie. gray and brown) scavvers feed primarily on
plants, while the larger scavvers (ie. night and void), and the rare mature
krajen feed on the smaller animals. It should be noted, however, that none
of the animal life that is found in the Scavver Sargasso will pass up an
easy meal of meat if one should present itself.
Most ship captains who have made more than a few trips to Frontierspace are
savvy enough to avoid the area around the sargasso, due not only to the
danger of the sargasso itself, but also due to the high incidence of scavver
attacks near the area. Unfortunately many ships don't know about these
dangers, and pass nearby. A few unscrupulous vessels (whose captains have
confidence in their crew's abilities to fight off scavvers) lurk near the
sargasso, waiting to pounce on ships whose crews have been weakened, or even
wiped out, by scavver attacks. 
The most notorious of these pirates is the Bloody Tusk, a much-patched ogre
mammoth operated by a band of orc reavers. These orcs, under the command of
a massive specimen known only as Bloodbringer, are deserters from a scro
fleet that was active in a nearby sphere in the early stages of the second
unhuman war. The crew of the Bloody Tusk learned much from their scro
masters, and as a result are somewhat more disciplined than most orcs
(although they do not approach the levels of the scro). The Bloody Tusk orcs
have fared well against the local scavvers primarily because their ship is
so enclosed, leaving little exposed deck space where scavvers can attack
crew. In fact, only the weapons stations are exposed, and the crew leaves
these stations unmanned except when conducting a raid. 
It is believed that the Bloody Tusk spends a great deal of time lying low in
the centre of the Scavver Sargasso’s “horseshoe,” where it would be
difficult and dangerous for pirate-hunters to find them. Some even speculate
that the ship sometimes hides within the sargasso itself, although the lack
of magical propulsion within the sargasso makes this unlikely.
Of those ships which have become stranded within the sargasso in recent
years, several have eventually escaped, but most seem to have succumbed to
scavvers and other dangerous life within the sargasso. Very recently it has
been discovered that most of the debris within the sargasso seems to consist
of overgrown and decayed remnants of ancient ships. It is unknown how old
these ships are, who crewed them, or even what their original design was.
Various theories attribute the ships to the thri-kreen, hurwaeti, illithids,
gith, or even an ancient human culture, but it should be noted that these
theories are based on wild speculation rather than on any facts. The age of
the ship fragments is unknown, but seems to be extreme, and estimates make
them anything from two thousand to fifty thousand years old. 
While the age of the ship fragments is a matter of speculation, it is known
that the debris field within the Scavver Sargasso was recorded by the first
scouting mission made to the sphere by the Imperial Elven Navy over eighteen
hundred years ago. At the time of this scouting, two powered flitters were
dispatched to explore the debris field. The flitters first fell afoul of the
anti-magic effects of the sargasso, and then quickly fell prey to the
scavvers in the area. The logbooks of the man-o-war involved seem to
indicate that the elves had no idea that the debris field was made up of
ships and ship fragments.
One brave explorer, upon noting the shear number of ship fragments, has
speculated that they were either stranded there over an extremely long
period of time (implying a spelljamming culture in the sphere which spanned
many centuries), or virtually all must have been in the area when the
sargasso was formed. This explorer (a young dwarf named Grugnor Ogrebane)
favors the latter explanation, and believes that the ships belonged to
opposing fleets engaged in a massive battle. He believes that during this
battle, a magical attack of some sort went awry and caused the magic-dead
area to come into being.
Grugnor Ogrebane explored part of the sargasso using surprisingly reliable
gnomish non-magical propulsion (a large hamster-powered propeller was
affixed to the rear of his hammership, the Golden Venture) over a period of
several harrowing months. During this time his hammership had an encounter
with the Bloody Tusk that left both ships and crews licking their wounds. He
returned from his explorations of the sargasso with a hold full of ancient
artifacts, most of which were crumbling to dust, and with a crew that had
lost over half of its number. 
The dwarven adventurer believes that great wealth can be found buried by
plant life inside the Scavver Sargasso, and plans a second expedition. Very
few people have actually seen what Ogrebane retrieved on his first
expedition, and speculation is rampant as to the nature of the artifacts.
While it is unknown if any of the items were magical in nature (or possibly
psionic – see below for a potential illithid connection), one of the few
facts that is known about the collection is that within hours of Ogrebane’s
arrival in port, it had been purchased in its entirety by a representative
of the arcane. The price paid to Ogrebane is unknown, but for the dwarf to
have sold so quickly without entertaining other offers, it must have been
high indeed. At any rate, Ogrebane and his surviving crew seem to be sworn
to secrecy regarding the artifacts. Speculation about whether any of these
artifacts might have been spelljamming helms runs rampant, but Ogrebane and
his crew are simply not talking.
It is believed that Grugnor Ogrebane is not the only explorer currently
planning a dangerous expedition into the sargasso. Ogrebane himself is
currently recruiting strong fighters for his trip, and there are unconfirmed
rumors that a group of illithids are frantically doing the same. The rumors
don't say why the mind flayers are so interested in the sargasso, but it
seems that everyone has a theory, each more outlandish than the last. The
most popular theory holds that the Scavver Sargasso was the site of a major
battle between illithids and the followers of Gith during the slave
rebellion that led to the existence of the various gith races, and that the
illithids are searching for a weapon that could otherwise be used against
them by their ancient enemies.

Any ancient ships or ship fragments investigated by the PCs will have no
intact sails or rigging, and very little surviving evidence of how the ship
may once have been rigged. Every external surface on the ship will be
overgrown with mosses, ferns, vines, and small shrub-like plants. If the
ship or ship fragment has an intact below-decks area, it will be filled with
fungi, and will almost certainly serve as a lair for scavvers. Walking
around on an ancient ship is extremely dangerous, as any stairs or ladders
are likely to give way, handrails will snap off if gripped firmly, and even
the decks may break beneath the weight of heavy boarders. It is extremely
unlikely that boarders will find the remains of any ancient crew, since
scavenging animals would have made short work of the bodies long ago. Any
artifacts found on one of these ships or fragments will be overgrown, and
thus difficult to locate and identify.
Random encounters near the sargasso should use the table below. It should be
noted that this table makes an ancient ship a very rare encounter, but this
is intended to represent how rare it would be to discover an intact ancient
ship. Within the sargasso, a ship should be constantly surrounded by
overgrown fragments of ancient ships, ranging in size from a few feet across
to fifty or sixty feet long. What, if anything, is discovered on these
fragments is entirely up to the DM. Checks for encounters should occur every
hour for ships merely passing nearby, whilst a ship actually within the
Scavver Sargasso, or probing around its edges, should check for random
encounters every 10 minutes.
d100 roll	Encounter
01-60	 	scavvers (use sub-table)
01-65		gray scavvers (3d10)
66-80		brown scavvers (2d10)
81-95		night scavvers (1d10)
96-00		void scavver (1)
61-70		spaceworms (4d12)
71-80		immature krajen (10d10)
81-90		gullions (10d10)
91-95		zards (10d10)
96-98	spelljamming vessel (use sub-table – any ship found within the
sargasso will be stranded unless it has non-magical propulsion – all
explorer ships will have non-magical propulsion, while pirates have a 50%
chance of having non-magical propulsion, and civilians have a 25% chance)

Sub-Table
	01-05		pirate wasp ship (human or lizardman crew)
	06-10		pirate squid ship (human crew)
	11-15		pirate hammership (human crew)
	16-20		pirate tradesman (human crew)
	21-25		pirate eel ship (human or goblinkin crew)
	26-30		pirate porcupine ship (goblinkin crew)
	31-45		trading ship (DM’s choice of ship type)
	46-50	illithid nautiloid (illithid and slave crew – explorers)
	51-55	human explorers (DM’s choice of ship type)
	56-65		the Bloody Tusk (mammoth with orc crew – see above)
	66-70	the Golden Venture (hammership with mixed demihuman crew –
see above)
	71-95	modern derelict vessel (roll again on this table for type of
ship, re-rolling results of 56+, a derelict will have no surviving crew)
	96-00	ancient derelict vessel (this ship will be badly overgrown
with plants – the DM should decide the nature of the ship and who it was
built by before placing it, or should make the ship completely alien so that
its true nature cannot be ascertained)

99	mature krajen (1)
00	special (DM’s choice – possibly a zodar, or other mysterious and/or
powerful creature)


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