In a sunken grove where the fog never lifts lies the Tomb of White Waters, a perfect circle of fetid seawater glimmering faintly amid the roots of dead cypress trees. The pool is silent and strangely still, it is filled with albino starfish, eyeless eels, and translucent anemones.

The Legend

Generations ago, a band of Keoish explorers ventured into the Drowned Forest seeking an ancient crypt of unknown design, guided by an old map. They dug and found the entrance to an ancient crypt, but the hole flooded with strange cloudy seawater water. Their camp was later found abandoned, the pit now flooded and lifeless.

The Transformation

The water is cold but not foul. The water filled pit descends approximately 50 feet at the bottom is a a stone archway that opens into the tomb below.

The water itself carries a strange curse: all living things immersed within begin to lose their color. Skin, hair, eyes, and even clothing fade toward white over the course of hours.

After twenty-four hours of exposure, the change becomes permanent. The effect causes no pain, but leaves its victims ghostly and pale, drained of all pigment. They become albinos.

The Tomb Below

The stone archway leads up into an aired filled chamber. Carvings on the walls depict faceless figures kneeling before a featureless idol, surrounded by waves rendered in white stone. Salt crystals gleam faintly in the walls, and an endless trickle of water seeps from cracks in the ceiling, keeping the air damp and chill.

No one knows who was buried here.

(See: Ghosts of Saltmarsh, Chapter 1 — “Drowned Forest Oddities #5”)