Caevieyeriva

pron. Cay-Vy-Yerriva

A Giant Octopoid; its vast tentacles skim the underside of the tundra seas, its enormous mantle hidden within a huge crown of ice.

Within this iceberg, the Traveller finds hardy Scavengers - the Yerivans - whose offerings are rare & most intriguing!

Use this section as a quick reference during play, or at the start of a Session to refresh your GM senses!

Sights

• Ice and snow.

• Pale and pure white furs of various seals, hares, foxes, and bears.

• Piles of crates and boxes stocked with ageing, rusting supplies.

• Various bones and tusks.

Sounds

• Creaking and cracking of the ice.

• Sloshing of the seawater.

• Chesty coughing of the crew.

• Whispering, farting, and the crunch of snow-shoes.

Smells

• Unwashed, and unclean, bodies.

• Blubber and raw meats.

• Oil-lamps, and their acrid smoke.

• Crisp, clean polar air.

• Salt water and minerals.

• Vague hints of stale, rotting compost.

The frigid waters in which Caevieyeriva roams bring nought but death for all but the most hardy, and the Yerivans (as the residents here are known) are most hardy!

They scavenge sunken wrecks and abandoned vessels stranded in pack ice. Half of anything scavenged is fed to the Creature.

The rest - for there is plenty - is offered for sale or trade with any who cross its seaward passages.

Once each full moon, enormous winged creatures pass swiftly over the cresting ice of Caevieyeriva, dropping supply-bundles wrapped in burlap sacking; sweet alcohol in corked coconut husks, various herbs, green vegetables and fresh fruits.

These feathered friends are gone as quickly as they arrive.

Residents do their utmost to make a sale of any salvaged items, and Travellers can be sure of finding well stocked stores of nautical treasures, trinkets, objects of curiosity; collectible and arcane.

A decent trade may also be had in tusks, teeth, skins, and furs as varied are those creatures and beasts who reside in these harsh, frozen lands.

There are also a number of various sea-weeds and rare corals harvested from the ocean floor, kept dried, powdered and pickled.

Where once were found octopus liver, crop, kidney and gonad, now may be found bunks, barrels, sacks and shelving.

Small abodes, constructed from whale bone and covered in mammoth hide, are affixed to the interior of the Octopoid's mantle.

This hollowed "Cave" of Caevieyeriva is approximately 100ft in length, 50ft in width and height; it is warm, dimly lit, and smells of boiled meat, oil fires, sea-water and tar.

An aspect of the Octopoid's ring-shaped brain was long ago fused with the form of a humanoid; an obscure, long-forgotten pact whose arcane beginnings are lost in superstitions and rituals; echoes and faint hints of a truth whispered around an oil lamp in the frozen night.

This is the Slumbering and the Held (translated to Caevie Yeriva long ago).

What remains of this pair now pulses, sending rich ocean-filtered magic throughout the creature, neurons entwined within each tentacle whip; in unholy concert, clamouring always for another wreck or abandoned ship.

The Residents feed it memories stripped from all manner of mundane articles found in their scavenging - a stitched sleeve speaks of a grandparent's touch; a cob-pipe of sibling love; a snapped and knotted boot-lace a betrothed's absent-heart; this handkerchief speaks of a kiss ... these remembrances, brought for a moment, and made real, into the frosty air, they feed and enrich Caevieyeriva.

A small, secretive inner-circle of Residents guard the creature, keeping its truth well hidden from any visitors.

Fed and content the creature moves easily onwards with no need of wind nor tide, disappearing deep beneath the waves when storm, suspicion or sunken prospect compel it, or setting itself adrift in perfect harmony with its surroundings when in need of sleep.

Yerivans pass their lives in intimate proximity with one another, sharing all things, leaving the Mantle and its protective covering of ice only to strip a shipwreck of supplies, secrets and treasures.

The quieter moments pass with gentle song, story-telling, snoozing and study - all until the next Haul ... and the next ... and the next ...

During a storm, some Yerivans delve into strange rituals and ceremonies, calling to the depths, to the Held and the Slumbering Heart.

On clear, calm days one or two might clamber the exterior's driftwood webbing to sit atop the enormous "Iceberg" to day-dream, to watch the stars or for the first light of a full-moon, and to watch for the tell-tale signs of an approaching wreck.

Others busy themselves sorting and categorising the many trinkets and treasures found in previous scavenging, ready for trade and sale.

When a wreck is spotted, all calm and quiet disintegrates, replaced with a frantic chaos - ice spikes over boots, grappling hooks and rope at the ready, empty sacking tucked and tied and ready to be filled.

Orders called, stations taken.

This is when the Cave thrives, for it is this activity for which all who reside here live for.

This list is by no means exhaustive, and is intended simply to stir the pot of your own imagination.

Use what follows as starting-pints, or ignore them entirely in favour of your own Adventure Hooks!

Roll 1d8 or choose from the Table below :

1 - A Party member has ties to a ship abandoned in these waters; a lost friend or family member? A precious heirloom? A title to claim?

2 - The Octopoid Creature at the heart of Caevieyeriva has begun to acquire a taste for flesh, and is no longer satisfied with merely consuming memories via trinkets and personal belongings.

3 - A much larger Creature is pursuing Caeviyeriva, and the Yerivans are eager to procure the particular services of your Party to aid in its defence.

4 - The 'Yerivans can offer passage through safe and dangerous waters; they may also be able to secure passage aboard their full-moon feathered friends!

5 - Caevieyeriva is dying, and its residents are desperately trying to get it to its final resting place; an isolated island that has been overrun with abhorrent beasts. They know they stand little chance alone against such foes.

6 - The Held - a Humanoid at the heart of Caevieyeriva is calling out to one of the Party. With promises? Or is it pleading?

7 - The Residents here are prisoners of Caevieyeriva, each one of them taken by force from various ships; swiped by a moonlit tentacle as they took the night watch aboard their own vessels.

8 - The ice of Caevieyeriva is rich with arcane healing properties much desired by the people of a barren desert city, who will reward the Party richly for bringing them a substantial haul of the magical water.

Roll 1d20 for a Caevieyeriva Trinket, or choose from the Table below :

1 - A dark blue woollen hat that smells strongly of tar-smoke and fish-piss.

2 - A small box of matches that ignite in any conditions, illuminating even the most impregnable darkness.

3 - A pouch of dried seal livers; said to be poisonous if eaten in large proportions.

4 - A Walrus tusk sharp enough to cut through armour.

5 - A small boatswain's whistle fashioned from the tip of a Reindeer horn.

6 - A small portrait of a sailor's loved-one. As each day passes it seems almost as though their expression is changing.

7 - A mammoth's heart encased in an iron-cage. It is said to beat whenever it is close to its own kind.

8 - A lock of merfolk's hair, knotted and kept in a pearlescent box.

9 - A small glass jar full of stone-hard dried peas. Hidden at the very centre of them is a resplendent pearl that gifts strange dreams and nightmares.

10 - A sail-needle stained with dried blood.

11 - A jug of spiced rum in which floats a severed finger. A rather fine ruby ring decorates the knuckle.

12 - A scrap of a ship's flag, recognisable as from the fleet of the Royal family.

13 - A large tooth, said to belong to a sea-horse.

14 - A shaving bowl fashioned from a small turtle shell.

15 - A sabre blade masterfully decorated with octopus tentacles.

16 - A rather battered old fiddle that enchants its player, allowing them to play only a single sea-shanty upon it.

17 - A scrap of a bounty poster from a famous Port city. The picture is of a remarkable likeness to someone aboard this strange vessel.

18 - A cannon-ball that seems to weigh almost nothing at all, yet within which sloshes some measure of liquid.

19 - A single candle that stinks most awfully when burned; a noxious scent that summons recently departed spirits whose lives were lost at sea.

20 - A rather luxurious, and heavy, silk overcoat. Unbeknownst to all, there are several hundred gold pieces sewn into its lining.

Roll 1d8 for chilled watery encounters, or choose from the Table below :

1 - Strange songs emanating from the depths below.

2 - A shoal of inebriated Merfolk, drunk on squid-ink clambers aboard.

3 - Something enormous falls from the sky, and is plunged into the frigid waters with a catastrophic splash.

4 - An icy mist descends, above and below water, stalling all progress until it lifts.

5 - A lone individual barely alive upon a thin sheet of ice floats nearby.

6 - A shoal of delicious mackerel that the Octopoid simply cannot resist.

7 - A Polar Bear and its cubs desperately swimming in seas too far from any known land.

8 - A vast, unexplored area of ocean littered with floating debris and detritus from a recently destroyed vessel; a vessel unlike anything ever seen. (see Rusthollow’s Trinket Roll-Table for treasures most rare & arcane!)