
23 chapters covering history, governance, districts, NPCs, encounters, adventure hooks, pirate character creation, and more. By Larry Hunkin.


Three thousand souls call the Cove home — none of them innocent
Weather, NPCs, encounters & contracts
Where the Esharan desert collapses into the sea, the coastline turns vicious — knife-reefs of jagged coral and basalt, black rock shelves polished smooth by centuries of salt wind, and tidal caverns that swallow ships whole. Most sailors mark these waters on their charts as a warning. But for those who know the secret tide-thread routes through the reef, this coast hides something valuable: Scuttle Cove.
From a distance the Cove looks like a wound in the shore — masts like splinters jutting from dark water, tar-black hulls packed shoulder to shoulder in the narrow harbor, and buildings stacked in crooked tiers up the cliff face like barnacles on a hull. But step onto the Main Planks and you enter a functioning city — chaotic, dangerous, and ruthlessly efficient.
The Cove is not a lawless place. That is the lie outsiders tell themselves. Scuttle Cove has laws — just not the kind that forgive. It is a city built on the principle that freedom is a weapon, and like all weapons, it cuts deepest when mishandled.



The founding myths — every pirate knows the story of how the Cove was born

The Cove Code — five laws so hard they feel like gravity
‘Anarchy’ with teeth — five laws so hard they feel like gravity
The central docks are sacred commercial ground. Draw a weapon there and you die.
A deal witnessed, stamped, or recorded in the Harbormaster's Ledger is enforced with brutal efficiency.
The council hall, treaty taverns, and shrines are inviolable. Violence there means death.
Slavers must fly identifying colors. Hidden flesh trade is punished as oath-breaking.
Betray anyone you like — but don't bring existential threat to the Cove itself.
The Unspoken Law:
Don't make the Cove choose between you and the Cove. Because it will never choose you.
Six distinct zones, each with its own character and dangers

Harbor Spine
The central docks and commercial heart of Scuttle Cove. Every transaction, every cargo transfer, every negotiation that keeps the port functioning passes through them. Violence here is punished with immediate death.

Black Bazaar
A maze of stalls, tents, and semi-permanent structures where anything can be bought if you know who to ask. Stolen cargo, forbidden reagents, forged documents, and information all change hands in the organized chaos.

Cliff-Tiers
The residential district carved into the cliff face itself. Connected by switchback stairs, rope bridges, and cargo lifts, where the common Scuttlers eat, sleep, and gossip about the captains who rule their lives.

Shipworks
The Cove's industrial heart — dry docks, timber yards, rope walks, and the secret workshops where Red Durgan Ashfall's alchemists produce compounds illegal in every legitimate port on the coast.

Old Caves & Hidden Docks
The original heart of the Cove — a network of sea caves and tidal tunnels riddling the cliffs below the waterline. Controlled by Old Murkwater, the ancient lizardfolk Tunnel King.

Taverns & Treaty Houses
A winding stretch of taverns, gaming halls, and pleasure houses designated as neutral ground. Where deals are struck, truces are brokered, and everyone pretends to be friends.

Ships of the Line — the pirate fleet assembles in formation

The Council Hall — neutral ground where predators pretend to be politicians
Thirteen of the most powerful pirate guild leaders, fleetmasters, and criminal lords. They are not nobles — they are predators who discovered that cooperation is more profitable than constant warfare.

Council seats are not hereditary, not elected, and not permanent. A seat belongs to whoever commands sufficient resources to claim one.
Chair & tiebreaker — rules by making the alternatives worse
Black Fleet envoy — eyes and voice of Zhul-Mekar the shadow-lord
War Captain — loudest voice for military expansion
The Merchant Wind — argues for legitimate free port
Queen of Wrecks — owns everything the Knife-Reefs break
The Chain Captain — most contested seat on the Council
Voice of the Deep — undersea contacts and alien interests
The Powder King — controls the Cove's explosives trade
The Swiftest Sail — everyone's friend, no one's ally
Storm of the South — solves problems by hitting them
The Velvet Fence — trades in desire and forbidden beauty
The Deserter Admiral — brought military doctrine to chaos
The Tunnel King — controls the Saltwarren itself

A dusk elf captain commands from the helm with steel resolve

An orc raider descends upon the coast with terrifying fury

Seat 2 · Intelligence & Diplomacy
Black Fleet envoy — eyes and voice of Zhul-Mekar the shadow-lord

Seat 3 · Naval Warfare
War Captain — loudest voice for military expansion

Seat 1 · The Pirate King
A cunning goblin with a smile like a broken bottle and eyes that miss nothing. Grib doesn't rule by command — he rules by making the alternatives worse. Every captain understands that removing him would create a power vacuum that would tear the Cove apart.
His power rests on three pillars: coin (he underwrites ship repairs, funds harbor defenses, and maintains a war chest large enough to destabilize any rival), intelligence (he knows every secret worth knowing), and indispensability (the port cannot function without the systems he built).

Grib Sharptooth — a smile like a broken bottle and eyes that miss nothing

Storm season over the Serpent Sea — the reefs claim their due

A triton pirate of the deep waters — dweller of the Saltwarren

The hidden powers operating beneath the Council's authority
Smugglers' ring controlling the hidden channels and secret caches throughout the reef system.
Fixers' guild dealing in forged documents, false identities, and bureaucratic manipulation.
Assassins who only kill on contract, bound by rituals older than the Cove itself.
Lore-brokers who buy, sell, and hoard secrets — from tide-thread charts to blackmail material.
Tattooist guild and encoded information network. Every tattoo carries hidden meaning.

The Ink Vipers — every tattoo carries hidden meaning

The Black Flask — where information is priceless and the ale is terrible
Where pirates drink, deal, and die — the notable establishments of the Cove
Tavern · Lantern Mile
The Cove's most dangerous watering hole. Fights are common, the ale is terrible, and the information is priceless.
Tavern · Lantern Mile
Where captains and merchants negotiate over wine that costs more than a sailor's yearly wage.
Tavern · Lantern Mile
A candlelit establishment favored by navigators and seers — the only tavern where silence is enforced.
Apothecary · Shattermarket
Poisons, antidotes, and things that are both. The proprietor knows what you need before you do.
Weaponsmith · Shattermarket
Cutlasses, boarding axes, and firearms. Custom work available for those who can afford it.
Salvage Emporium · Shattermarket
Morwen Dray's storefront for wreck salvage. Treasure from a hundred broken ships.
Paper House · Shattermarket
Forged documents, false identities, letters of marque. If it needs a seal, they can fake it.
Kitchen · Gullhook Rise
The best food in the Cove. The cliff kitchen where everyone eats — from swabs to captains.

A sorcerer of the Shadow Guild — power flows through cryptic veins

The Lantern Mile after dark — where deals are struck and dangers lurk

Cove fashion — salt-stained leather, stolen finery, and functional menace

Scuttle Cove operates on three currencies: Sails (copper-alloy coins minted locally), Anchors (silver trade pieces), and Crowns (gold coins from legitimate mints, accepted at fluctuating rates).
The Cove is one of the only places in the Sundered Realm where firearms are manufactured and sold openly. Red Durgan Ashfall's workshops produce flintlock pistols, muskets, and ship-mounted cannons.


A lizardfolk mage in the undercity — master of tidal magic

The Tide Runners move contraband through channels only they can navigate

Drop-in ready scenarios for your Scuttle Cove campaign
A critical navigation chart has vanished from the Harbormaster's vault. Without it, ships can't navigate the Knife-Reefs safely. Someone is trying to blind the Cove.
A sealed contract from the Paper House offers a fortune for a job with no details — just a meeting place and a time. The catch: the contract is written in blood.
Two Council members are headed for open conflict. The Pirate King needs a neutral party to defuse the situation before it becomes a shooting war in the harbor.
The workers in Pitchwake Yards have laid down their tools, and no one will say why. Without repairs, the fleet is grounded.
A caravan arrived through the desert with cargo that nobody ordered and merchants that nobody recognizes. They're paying double the going rate for everything — and asking strange questions.
Slow-burn storylines for extended Scuttle Cove campaigns
A deepening rift between expansion-minded war captains and the Pirate King's cautious governance threatens to split the Council. Players must choose sides — or play them against each other.
Port Aureveil is assembling a fleet to destroy Scuttle Cove once and for all. The Cove must prepare defenses, form unlikely alliances, or find a way to break the fleet before it sails.
Something ancient is stirring in the deep water beneath the Cove. The sea caves of the Saltwarren have begun to flood at impossible tides, and the sounds from below have changed.
The dock workers, the common Scuttlers, the people who keep the port functioning — they're organizing. Someone is arming them. And they want a seat at the table.

In the Cove, every stranger is either an opportunity or a threat — usually both

The Cove shapes its people — and its people shape the Cove
Create characters shaped by the Cove — ten archetypes and crew roles

Ten archetypes forged by the salt, the steel, and the sea

Every hand aboard has a purpose — and every purpose has a price
Download the full sourcebook with all 23 chapters, stat blocks, encounter tables, and GM guidance.
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