Tidefall Ballads: Tidesong, Compass Lord & Foglight

Along a sea that never settles, three harbors answer this call. Sailors call it the Wildwater, though no chart agrees on where it ends. At the floor of that sea lies the Tide Pact - a fragment of the Primordial Wheel that sank when the wheel shattered.

Three seals of the Pact are kept by these harbors. The dice are how each seal shows itself. The numbers you roll are not chance; they are a reading, taken at the moment of the throw. At low tide, the reading becomes clear.

These three harbors speak now: the harbor that answers, the harbor that navigates, and the harbor that watches.

The temple below the reef has no windows. It does not need them. The tide comes in through the walls twice a day, and the priests read its arrival the way other people read a letter.

In the temple's telling, tide priests cast their dice from deep-sea coral and salt crystal, and every landing is a prayer the tide offers back to the shore. The seven emblems of Tidesong carry that language: Tide Devours the Title, Two Moons Out of Phase, Wave Asks the Shore, Maelstrom Beneath the Hull, Will Written in Shell, Coral Stops the Throat, and Sea Gaze Never Sleeps.

The seven emblems are carved across a complete seven-dice set, ready to answer when the tide turns.

For clerics who speak for something older than their god, druids who hear the sea in their sleep, and anyone who has ever rolled a saving throw and whispered please.

An old captain spent a lifetime drawing coastlines. On his last voyage he took the final chart, folded it into a hull, and poured it into the dice. He never drew another map. He did not need to. Every turn of the needle now points somewhere the chart has never been.

The seven emblems of Compass Lord are a navigator's confession: Needle Points Nowhere, Broken Rudder Chooses Its Master, Chart Erases the Coast, Title Beneath the Anchor, Course Turns Backward, Star Compass Loses North, and No Light in the Fog.

Seven emblems, one set. Each cut is made to remain readable by touch and candlelight, whether the course is clear or the chart has disappeared.

For rangers who scout ahead, rogues who always know the exit, and the player at your table who quietly decides where the party goes next.

The keeper of the foglight has one job: keep the lamp burning for ships that will never reach the harbor. Most people think that is a waste of oil. The keeper knows better. A ship that never arrives still has someone aboard, and someone should be watching for it.

Foglight carries seven emblems: Eight Rays Find Bone, Fog Loop Moors the Ship, Lamp Flame Eats Its Shadow, The Trail Holds the Lost, Halo Without a Head, Tower Window Watches the Night, and Beacon Points to the Grave.

It is the quietest of the three sets, and the one people reach for when the table goes silent.

For warlocks with a patron they do not discuss, divination wizards who always take the watch, grave clerics, and anyone who plays the character who stays awake so the others can sleep.