A legendary ghost ship has reappeared, beached in a hidden cove — and unless its ancient curse is broken, the Tempest Wraith bound within will tear open the veil between worlds and drag the coastal realms into eternal shadow.
Welcome to “The Wreck of the Shadow Tide” 5E adventure! Within these pages, you’ll discover everything necessary to embark on this thrilling quest, complete with detailed descriptions of locations, encounters, NPCs and stat blocks, maps, and handouts.
This adventure also features a versatile and scalable system, allowing Game Masters to easily adjust the difficulty and complexity of encounters to suit their players’ preferences and skill levels. Whether you have a party of advanced players or beginners, you can tailor the challenges to ensure an exciting and engaging experience for everyone involved. The scalable system guides modifying creature statistics, making it simple to customize the adventure to fit your party’s level.
In “The Wreck of the Shadow Tide,” a party of 4-6 characters (levels 3-5) is hired by a desperate merchant to investigate the reappearance of the Shadow Tide — a ghost ship once captained by the reckless Elias Blackwater, who made a fateful pact with a malevolent entity known as the Tempest Wraith in exchange for dominion over the seas. The Abyssal Compass he acquired on a distant voyage has been weakening the boundary between the Material and Ethereal Planes ever since, trapping the crew in an endless death loop. Now the ship has resurfaced, and the Wraith threatens to fully manifest. This one-shot is designed to be played over 3-4 hours, blending nautical horror, dark atmosphere, and player-driven choices that shape the final outcome. The adventure is divided into three parts.
Part 1: Discovery of the Shadow Tide
Following a treasure map along a jagged coastline, the players squeeze through a narrow sea passage into a hidden cove dominated by the spectral hulk of the Shadow Tide — its timbers glowing with ghostly algae, its figurehead frozen in silent torment. The beach itself is hostile: the black sand pulls at boots, sinks the unwary, and flashes visions of drowning to those it swallows. A ghostly lookout in the crow’s nest can be avoided by stealth, distracted by illusion, or disrupted by ranged attack — each choice carrying distinct consequences for the crew’s alertness. Boarding the ship requires a skill challenge of three successes before three failures, drawing on Athletics, Acrobatics, Perception, Sleight of Hand, and Arcana. Optional cove exploration rewards the thorough: a hidden cliff cave guarded by Shadow Crabs holds clues about the Abyssal Compass, a vantage point on the cliffs grants tactical advantage, and an underwater approach through supernaturally cold, shark-infested waters offers a hull breach shortcut to the lower decks.
Part 2: Exploring the Cursed Vessel
The ship’s interior is saturated with whispers of betrayal, cold drafts that extinguish torches, and glimpses of shadowy crew members frozen in their final moments. Four areas span the upper decks, each with its own threat and secrets. On the Main Deck, three Phantom Sailors phase through the hull using etherealness to attack from unexpected angles, while the Living Rigging — animated ropes infused with malevolent energy — restrain characters at the start of every round. A spectral cabin boy drifts through the chaos; those who show him kindness earn a guide who can lead the party safely to the Captain’s Quarters and warn of hidden dangers. The Crow’s Nest is the territory of a Spectral Harpy whose Luring Song pulls characters toward the edge. The Forecastle holds the ship’s cursed bell, which summons phantoms when rung. On the Quarterdeck, the ghostly Captain Blackwater paces in a fractured daze — skilled persuasion can draw out his memories of the Abyssal Compass and earn a spectral key, but aggression calls his phantom crew to arms.
The flooded lower decks grow darker and colder with every step. The Crew Quarters hide a stash of 200 gp behind a poison dart trap. The Galley offers spectral food that triggers vivid hallucinations on a failed Constitution save. The First Mate’s Cabin yields a Potion of Water Breathing. At the heart of the lower decks, the Captain’s Quarters contains the Abyssal Compass itself — the source of the ship’s curse — pulsing with the heartbeats of every character in the room. Attuning to it offers the power to cast Plane Shift once per day; destroying it triggers a devastating burst of shadow energy; and both paths will matter in what is to come.
Part 3: The Final Confrontation
Deep in the flooded hold, the boundary between worlds collapses entirely in the Ethereal Vortex — a chamber where the walls breathe, ghostly cargo drifts weightless through the air, and the Abyssal Compass spins wildly above a swirling maelstrom of darkness. The Tempest Wraith rises from it: a colossal fusion of storm and undeath, commanding lightning strikes, shadow tendrils that restrain and whisper doubt, and a Tempest Fury that blasts every creature within 30 feet. The battlefield itself fights back — black water on the floor restrains those who stand in it, planar rifts tear open and hurl creatures across the room, and reality warps at the end of every round.
The players choose how to end it. Direct combat chips away at the Wraith’s form through force. Ritual Banishment demands three consecutive skill checks (Arcana, Religion, Charisma) over three rounds while the Wraith intensifies its assault to disrupt the casters. Negotiation via the Abyssal Compass lets an attuned character contest the Wraith in a clash of will, gaining advantage if the captain’s logs were found. A Sacrifice Play allows a character to leap into the vortex with the Compass and seal the rift permanently — saving the others at the cost of being trapped in the Ethereal Plane.
The outcome shapes the world: complete victory heals the cove and seals the planar rift; partial success leaves the veil dangerously thin and the cove in need of future guarding; a pyrrhic victory lifts the curse but leaves the world forever scarred — and the sacrifice marked on the deck with a glowing sigil that may yet serve as a focus for resurrection magic in a future adventure.
Release Date: 2024
Format: Digital (PDF)
Items Included
- The Wreck of the Shadow Tide 5E (PDF)
- A B&W Printer-Friendly Version (PDF)
- Maps
- Illustrations (Generated with Midjourney)
- Monster Stat Blocks
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