Maws Attacks

Maws Attack! is a standalone encounter designed for five 13th to 15th level adventurers. A coastal town, Sojanse, has inadvertently mutated a shark into a giant, many-headed monster called Maws. The PCs are tasked with descending the nearby cliffs and killing the shark, which fights as a solo monster.

There are shark attacks, and there are shark attacks. The coastal town or Sojanse has a problem with the latter. Built on a lifeless chain of craggy cliffs and held together by rope bridges, Sojanse relies heavily on the fishing trade for its economy and sustenance—a dependency that often proves troublesome. The ocean life is fickle, and weather, predators, and other unforeseeable events leave the inhabitants of Sojanse hungry.

Fortunately, those that live on the edge of the world are nothing if not flexible, and employed a passing alchemist to create a permanent solution to their predicament—a simple concoction of nutrients and plant life that would lure in a bountiful catch each and every day. The mixture worked perfectly, bringing in more fish than the nets could hold; the waters below the cliffs were teeming with fish of every species. Even better, as the fish ate the nutrients, they began to grow in size; Sojanse began to export record-breaking fish on a regular basis, displaying the monstrous catches in every city market able to trade. Each week the fish were larger and more plentiful, and the town thrived.

However, as large as they might become, prey is still prey, and larger prey eventually lures in larger predators. The waters of Sojanse had become overwhelmed with sharks looking to feed on the over-sized fish. At first, the sharks were dispatched without much trouble, though it was noted that some began to grow larger as they fed on the giant fish—it became priority to kill sharks as soon as possible, before they could grow larger and more dangerous to not only the fish, but anyone looking to enter the now dangerous waters.

To this end, the fisherman have been successful, with one exception. Though it bears many scars as proof of trying, one shark has consistently eluded death, growing to an enormous size and mutating into an abomination. The shark has grown several additional heads, and though it retains some semblance of its cartilaginous form in the body and tail, it resembles a deformed hydra at first glance. Appropriately called Maws for its many sets of jaws, the monster claims the life of any foolish enough to venture near the cove, and mentioning its name in Sojanse brings a chill to every spine and invites a warning from every mouth—don’t go in the water.