The Beast of Bastion Bay is a D&D5e adventure by Emmet Byrne, for a 5th level party.

Disclaimer: We were provided with a free digital copy of this product.

Story

The players find themselves on a ship heading to the port town of Bastion Bay – formerly known as Bastard Bay, a haven for pirates and outlaws that has now slowly transformed into an up-and-coming trading hub. The reason for this transformation is the leader (or Capa) of the town, a woman named Meriosa; previous Capas didn’t really live for that long, a few weeks if that, but somehow Meriosa has managed to keep an iron grip on her position for over 20 years, on top of managing to completely reorganize the town from just a criminal hideout into a legitimate trading port.

Lately, however, her position is starting to look a bit more tenuous. Constant attacks on ships by a monstrous shark have left many ships in ruins, and people are demanding a solution; you can’t have a trading port if ships can’t come in to trade. The players are involved in this situation when the ship they are aboard is also attacked by “the Old Man”, and they’re left scrambling to reach land as the ship sinks. This is the last straw for many, and Mariosa calls for any volunteers to hunt down the shark once and for all – which the players will (hopefully) attend. However, things aren’t really that straightforward; there are rumors that the shark has returned even after being killed, and Mariosa is hiding a few things that might be connected to it – ultimately, the players will have to do some investigating and exploring if they want to reach the truth.

There are several ways for this adventure to end; spoiler alert, but the reason for the attacks is a coven of hags. Mariosa made a deal with them to gain control of the island, but after all this time she’s grown a bit too confident and has broken the deal – which the hags are understanably a little bit upset about. The players can side with either the hags or Mariosa (or, perhaps, neither) – but in the process they’ll fight bullywugs, merrow, and several different other enemies, including of course a giant zombie shark, and they’ll have to explore several locations for clues to figure out how to resolve the whole situation. Something to keep in mind though is that there will be lots of underwater combat, so make sure to read up on the rules beforehand.

Layout, Art & Extras

The layout is the classic double column, with a light background. There’s plenty of extra help – there’s several note boxes with additional information, as well as encounter boxes that give you a quick glance on the enemies and difficulty that you should expect.

There’s also several pieces of art strewn across the pages, and of course excellent, detailed maps for every location. Finally, you have 3 extra appendices; one with the statblocks of the new monsters and npcs, one for the new treasures and magic items you can find, and one with further information on Bastion Bay and its different organisations.

Final Thoughts

Overall, The Beast of Bastion Bay is an excellent adventure; it’s not quite an one shot – I expect it will take you 2 or 3 sessions at least – and it has an engaging story with plenty of combat, exploration, and the opportunity for lots of roleplaying as well, which should satisfy every player.

This post contains affiliate links. By using them, you support the blog without any extra charge being applied to you.