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Voices of the Deep: A Little Mermaid–Inspired D&D Adventure

Whether you are a fan of the original or the live action remake this story has entertained many for decades. This is another story with magic and tragedy easily fitting into a D&D Story. Last week we ventured into the haunted castle and explored Beauty and the Beast. Check out the post here.

A song gone silent. A stolen voice. And the rise of an ancient sea witch.

Beneath the surface of calm waters, something stirs. Fishermen dream of singing shadows. Merfolk go missing without a trace. And across the coastal kingdoms, the oceans no longer whisper—they scream.

This is Voices of the Deep, a Dungeons & Dragons adventure inspired by The Little Mermaid, reimagined as a high-stakes mystery and mythic sea-fantasy. Here, the “sea witch” isn’t just misunderstood—she’s a primordial entity of forgotten song, and the merfolk are her last connection to the music of creation.

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🌊 The Premise

Once, the oceans pulsed with song. The Sirens of Aeluna—merfolk who shaped magic with their voices—kept harmony in the deep. But now, their melodies are silenced.

Someone—or something—is stealing their voices.

A young mermaid noble, Aurellin, gives up her own voice in desperation, seeking power to stop the silence spreading across her kingdom. In doing so, she inadvertently awakens a deep-sea being long believed lost to the abyss: Thal’Zhera, the Whisper Below.

Now, Thal’Zhera grows stronger with every voice claimed. The waters churn. Storms answer her will. And only Aurellin—and the adventurers who find her—can stop the siren apocalypse.

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🧭 Adventure Style

Tier: Best for levels 7–11
Genre: Undersea mystery, mythic horror, magical corruption
Core Themes: Sacrifice, forbidden power, corrupted beauty
Inspiration Tags: The Little Mermaid, Call of Cthulhu, ancient ocean gods, underwater palaces

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🌐 Act I: The Vanishing Song

The party arrives in the coastal city of Selmare, where the sea elven and human kingdoms share a strained alliance. Something’s wrong:

• Sea elf traders can’t sing their spell-hymns

• Coastal bards are being struck mute overnight

• An underwater temple emits strange music audible only at dusk

The adventurers are hired to investigate Aurellin’s disappearance, leading them to an underwater ruin protected by kelp spirits and lurking deep sirens—twisted merfolk with translucent skin and jagged coral growths.

Inside, they find a magical seashell pendant, still humming with her voice—but warped by abyssal energy.

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🧜‍♀️ Act II: The Depths Below

Following clues, the party descends into the trench of Mourninglight, an ancient rift sealed centuries ago. Here lie the broken temples of the Old Songs, and at its heart, the crypt of Thal’Zhera, bound by melody.

Aurellin is found within—a mute figure clad in bioluminescent scales, surrounded by silent sirens. She is both victim and willing vessel.

Key Encounters:

• Navigating the Sunken Labyrinth of Ealrieth, where echoes attack the mind

• Fighting songless krakens—beasts once bound by merfolk magic, now feral

• Discovering the Voice Vault, where hundreds of stolen voices are kept as glowing pearls

To stop Thal’Zhera, the party must either:

• Destroy the Voice Vault (dooming many singers to silence forever)

• Convince Aurellin to take her voice back—knowing it may kill her

• Offer a replacement voice, perhaps one of their own, as a sacrifice

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💀 Act III: The Song That Ends the Sea

Thal’Zhera awakens fully—a being of water and echo, built of drowned song and bitter silence. She rises from the trench in the form of a colossal, eel-like siren deity, warping the sea and sky.

The final battle may take place:

• Inside a flooding singing cathedral, whose bells distort spells

• On a reef lit by a blood-red eclipse

• Within the dreaming mind of Thal’Zhera herself—a psychic combat through memory and music

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🎶 Magic & Loot Ideas

• Pearl of Lost Harmony – Grants Counterspell and Silence once/day. Can store a voice.

• Girdle of the Tidemother – Swim speed, water breathing, and resistance to psychic damage while submerged

• Conch of the Chorus – Once per long rest, allows all party members to act simultaneously for one round (theme: harmony!)

• Voicebound Ring – When attuned, user can speak any language but loses the ability to lie

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🎭 Roleplaying Aurellin

She is earnest, brave, and now profoundly conflicted. Without her voice, she communicates via bioluminescent sign language and magic. If the players return her voice, she can aid them in the final battle—though the cost may be her life, or her soul.

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🧩 Optional Subplots

• A bard PC’s own voice is targeted—they begin dreaming of a song that isn’t theirs

• An ancient triton historian believes Thal’Zhera was once a goddess of lullabies, twisted by the silence of mortality

• A pact-wielding warlock PC may hear Thal’Zhera’s whispers, tempting them with forgotten spells in exchange for a song

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🌊 Final Thoughts: The Sea Is Never Silent

Voices of the Deep asks players to confront a villain who doesn’t want to destroy the world—but to remake it in her image of harmony. In doing so, she breaks every song but her own.

Will your players preserve the music of the sea—or let silence drown the tide forever?

One voice can change the world. What will yours say? Next week we try not to trip over the issues as we explore the tower of Tangled.

Thanks for reading. Until Next Time, Stay Nerdy!!