(The Bitch Queen, Sea Queen, Queen of the Deeps)
Intermediate Power of the Abyss, CE
PORTFOLIO: Oceans, currents, waves, sea winds
ALIASES: None
DOMAIN NAME: 13th level/Blood Tor
SUPERIOR: Talos
ALLIES: Auril, Malar, Talos
FOES: Selûne, Valkur the Mighty, Chauntea, Sune
SYMBOL: A forked blue-green wave, curling in breakers to both left and right, on a background of black
streaked with white
WOR. ALIGN.: Any
Umberlee (Um-ber-LEE) the Bitch Queen rules from her watery lair in a flooded layer of the Abyss. She is worshiped by most out of fear as opposed to adoration, though some few—such as most weresharks, who she created to try to undermine Selûne—find her ethos to their liking. Ship crews toss her gems over the sides of their vessels to calm storm-tossed waters. She has a large number of shrines in coastal cities, and sailors often leave flowers, candles, small candies, or coins on her altars in hopes that Umberlee will spare them on the next voyage. Others who pay tribute to her include merchants sending goods by sea, port cities, and island nations and settlements who would be devastated by her wrath and have not a powerful patron deity to counter her menacing demands.
Umberlee continually contests with Selûne, in whom navigators trust to guide their ships safely home. Of late, she has also felt the heavy presence of her own patron, Talos, who is trying to pick up violent nature in all its forms as his personal portfolio. Though Umberlee flirts with him on occasion, she would gladly end his existence and become the sole deity of destruction herself is she had the power. Unfortunately, her ambitions are limited by her inability to directly affect the land, so she bides her time and plays the coquette. Together, Auril, Malar, Umberlee, and Talos are known as the Gods of Fury.
Umberlee is just plain malicious, mean, and evil. She breaks agreements on a whim when she feels that she has not gotten the best part of a deal and takes great pleasure in both watching her sharks tear shipwreck victims to shreds and watching others die slowly of drowning. SHe is also vain and expects to be flattered. If she has any weakness, it is probably her incessant greed for power and her intoxication with exercising it.
Umberlee spent the Time of Troubles in the Sea of Fallen Stars, wreaking destruction on one pirate isle after another. The sea has remained stormy and troubled since that time, though it has calmed somewhat in the last two to three years after an organized effort to appease her promoted by certain allied merchant costers said to be part of or in league with the Iron Throne.
Umberlee's Avatar (Mage 31, Cleric 23, Fighter 20)
Umberlee's avatar rarely appears. When she does, it is as a female blue-green torso with taloned hands, elbow fins, eyes of pale pearly death, and hair of kelp. In this form, rising above the waves, she aims to impress and usually towers above sailors on the decks of a doomed ship. She wears giant shell jewelry and a cape made from a million mauve jellyfish. Her voice hisses and booms like ocean breakers, and she laughs cruelly as she flings watery death and destruction on those who view her. She can cast spells from any priest sphere except elemental earth, elemental fire, sun, thought, and time. She can cast spells from all wizard schools except elemental earth and elemental fire. She cannot cast any spell with a fiery manifestation. She casts all elemental water sphere and school spells at triple strength in all respects and targeted creatures receive a -3 penalty to their saving throws against such spells.
AC -3; MV 15, Sw 48; HP 208; THAC0 1; #AT 5/2
Dmg 1d6+17 (trident +3, +11 STR, +2 spec. bonus in trident)
MR 75%; SZ H (20 feet)
STR 23, DEX 17, CON 24, INT 20, WIS 19, CHA 19
Spells P: 12/11/11/10/9/7/3, W: 7/7/7/7/7/7/7/7/7
Saves PPDM 2, RSW 3, PP 4, BW 4, Sp 4
Special Att/Def: When she uses a weapon, Umberlee strikes with a trident +3 that in her hands works as a trident of submission and a trident of fish command. She can summon 2d4+4 sharks or 1d4+1 giant sharks to do her bidding every half hour. For the most part, these sharks try to attack or swallow creatures in the water she indicates to them mentally. She can also summon three 8-HD water elementals, two 12-HD water elementals, or one 16-HD water elemental to do her bidding once every 12 hours. These creatures never become uncontrolled. Umberlee can also control the winds over the seas or the actions of the waves as indicated under Other Manifestations, below, while present.
Other Manifestations
Rather than sending her avatar form, the Sea Queen prefers to manifest as wind or waves. Either form of manifestation is often accompanied by Umberlee's cold, cruel laughter or a hissed message. Umberlee's powers are waning, and she can now manifest as wind only four times a day. For 2d4 rounds, the Queen of the Deeps can send a gale blast of wind that smashes into all things in its path for 5d10 points of damage each round.
Umberlee prefers to manifest in a form that remains unlimited: as an unseen underwater presence that can aim and hurl waves. Waves are hurled one per round, rolling out in one of two forms. Either they strike beings within 160 feet for 4d4 points of damage and force them to make a successful saving throw vs. death magic or drown, or they strike one spot, aiming to wrest certain items away from a ship, swimmer, or aquatic creature. The specific, targeted type of wave strike does 2d12 points of damage and forces a being to make a successful Dexterity ability check for all items it wants to retain. Umberlee can even snatch rings off fingers in this way (or remove gauntlets and the snatch the rings from fingers); unattended items are automatically carried off.
Umberlee also acts through the appearance or presence of sea monsters of all sorts, especially sharks of monstrous size that are sent to devour swimmers or shipwrecked sailors, krakens, and all types of aquatic undead including (inland) undead lake monsters.
The Church
CLERGY: Clerics, specialty priests
CLERGY'S ALIGN.: N, CN, LE, NE, CE
TURN UNDEAD: C: No, SP: No.
CMND. UNDEAD: C: Yes, SP: Yes. Specialty priests may command only undead formed from creatures killed at
sea or that are aquatic by nature.
All clerics and specialty priests of Umberlee receive religion (Faerûnian) as a bonus nonweapon proficiency. All clerics of Umberlee receive swimming as a bonus nonweapon proficiency and can breathe water automatically.
Umberlant priests are a varied, disorganized, lot, much given to dueling with hooked, sicklelike knives to settle differences of primacy and rank. (These dueling knives represent Umberlee's reapings of those who sail the seas.) Umberlant priests roam coastal cities, living primarily off the offerings left by fearful sailors. In addition to the traditional lit candles and small candies, Umberlants are increasingly demanding more real coin to be left on the altars. When there are no worshipers present, Umberlant priests then remove the offerings from the stone block altars at Umberlee's shrines and sluice the altars with buckets of sea water containing seaweed to signify that the Sea Queen has come for what is rightfully hers. Umberlants are also paid handsomely to travel on ships from port to port, for their presence (it is thought) guarantees that Umberlee will not destroy a vessel.
There is little in the way of an organized clergy of Umberlee. Those who relish her power and potential become her specialty priests. Specialty priests make up most of Umberlee's clergy, since the advantages of the faith prove to be quite handy when superstitious sailors want to dump a priest overboard at the first sign of a storm. A few clerics have made some progress in status in the faith, and most of them work in the adventuring order of the faith.
Novice priests are known as the Untaken, but once Umberlee has confirmed an individual as a priest, she or he is entitled to take offerings, lead prayers, and bestow blessings in her name. Full Umberlant priests can adopt any of the following titles (regardless of true rank and powers): Flood Tide, Dark Breaker, Puissant Undertow, Wave of Fury, Savage Seawind, and Wavemistress or Wavelord. Specialty clergy are known as waveservants or true servants of the wave and use the same titles as other Umberlants with the addition of the word "Dread" in front of them.
Dogma: The Umberlant faith has no set ethical outlook save that the sea is a savage place and those who travel it had best be willing to pay the price of challenging Umberlee's domain. The doctrine of Umberlee declares that all should know Umberlee and fear her, for the wind and the wave can reach everywhere. Fair offerings bring fair winds to travelers over the waters, but for those who do not pay their respects, the sea is as cold as Umberlee's heart. All who travel the seas are warned that the dead serve Umberlee most faithfully.
Umberlant novices are charged to: "Spread word of the might of holy Umberlee, and let no service be performed in her name without price. Make folk fear the wind and the waves, unless a priest of Umberlee be present to protect them. Finally, slay any who ascribe sea and shore storms to Talos."
Day-to-Day Activities: More folk fear Umberlee than revere her, but she cares not why they worship, only that they do so. She rarely comes to favor individual mortals, but she does do a little extra for those who faithfully make offerings. To gain favorable winds for a voyage or to deliver them alive from storms, sailors sacrifice valuable cargo to her by piping it overboard: playing tunes dedicated to Umberlee on mouthpipes while heaving the cargo over the side. They usually ensure that the cargo contains something alive if their peril is great. If a ship runs around or founders and an Umberlant priest is aboard, the furious sailors usually try en masse to murder the priest before they are themselves drowned. Corpses of Umberlant priests have washed ashore transfixed by as many as 30 cutlasses.
Umberlant clergy are charged to spread respect for Umberlee by preaching of the doom she has wrought in the past and the storms to come in all coastal cities and settlements. Along the way, they seek to build up favor enough to be teleported ashore by the goddess if they are ever in danger on the seas and to enrich themselves by accepting offerings, selling the safety of their own presence on shipboard, or by casting certain spells. For a long voyage down the Sword Coast between Waterdeep and Calimport, an Umberlant priest may charge as much as 500 gold pieces to an average merchant vessel or up to three times that to a large, new, well-armed cog or caravel carrying valuable cargo. If a priest on board has to use magic to defend or protect the ship, she or he charges by the spell and may well dicker over price on the spot!
Beyond the healing magics common folk hire priests of most faiths to perform, two spells used by Umberlants are the most popular: stormcloak and speak with the drowned dead. Pirates often hire Umberlant clergy to cast speak with the drowned dead because, by careful phrasing of a question, they can learn directions to a sunken ship or treasure.
Holy Days/Important Ceremonies: Umberlee is to be worshiped daily with offerings, prayer, and self-anointing on the brow, hands, and feet with sea water. In addition, the faith has a few special rituals, most notably the Drowning, First Tide, and Stormcall.
The Drowning is a private ritual, and only clergy members may witness it or take part. In the Drowning, an Untaken becomes a true priest of the goddess. The supplicant lies before an altar and is surrounded by candles lit to the goddess, each placed with an intoned prayer by a different Umberlant priest. The attending clergy then withdraw, and a senior priest casts a spell that causes sea water to flood the room in a huge breaking wave and then flow away. Supplicants who survive are confirmed in the service of Umberlee and warned that if they should ever betray the Queen of the Deeps, drowning is the fate that awaits them. They were spared during the Drowning and so can be taken by the Sea Queen at any time to come. (Clergy whom the Sea Queen feels have failed her go to sleep one night never to awaken, dying during the night of drowning, their lungs mysteriously filled with sea water.)
The public rituals of Umberlee include First Tide and the Stormcall. First Tide is celebrated by a flute-and-drum parade through the streets of a city by the clergy when the ice breaks up in a harbor. In a cold-hearted and brutal ritual, the clergy carry a live large animal down to the shore to be tied to a rock and hurled into the water. If the creature somehow washes or struggles ashore alive, it is freed, tended, and magically healed back to full health. It then becomes a sacred animal with the rank of an Umberlant. (This custom began in ancient times when Umberlee often selected her clergy from among human sacrifices by unbinding them beneath the water.)
Stormcall is a mass prayer in which worshipers call for Umberlee to send a storm to devastate a specific harbor or ship or to turn away an approaching storm or one that has already broken upon the worshipers. Worshipers kneel around pools in which lit candles float on fragments of driftwood that have been carefully collected and dried by Umberlant priests for this purpose. Sacrifices of precious goods are thrown into the pools, but the priests must carefully levitate the candles through the magic of the ceremony as this is done to keep them alight—for a candle doused is a sign of Umberlee's anger.
Major Centers of Worship: For years, the House on the Cliff near Marsember in Cormyr was the richest, largest, and most influential temple of Umberlee, but either because of the work of a rival god or through the displeasure of Umberlee, it was utterly destroyed during the Time of Troubles. No one house of the Sea Queen has risen to unquestioned prominence since, but contenders for this honor include Shipsgrave Tower in Velen, where Wavelord Darjast Surnden rules a loyal complement of ex-pirate, battle-hardened clergy; the Cove of the Queen on Mintarn, a hidden harbor where pirates are led by Umberlants who serve Wavemistress Royal Qalbess Frostyl; Stormhaven House on Orlumbor, governed by High Trident Thaeryld Nornagul; and the Seacaves of the Roaring in Thesburl, a large and prosperous place adorned with gold where priests under the governance of Deep Wavemaster Ultho Maelatar sell small, smooth, stone storm tokens guaranteeing safety on a voyage (for the individual carrying them only) to Calishites who are fearful or cannot swim.
Affiliated Orders: The Umberlant faith does not have many affiliated orders. The only one of note is the adventuring order of the faith, the Sea Queen's Breakers, which pursues treasure-hunting and recovery operations beneath the waves or adventures on land when the promise of gold seems to outweigh the dangers of an Umberlant priest working long away from water.
Priestly Vestments: The ceremonial garb of the priests of Umberlee consists of a skin-tight blue or green body stocking worn with a voluminous cape of blue or green trimmed with white fur (to represent foaming breakers). A tall collar, similarly trimmed, rises from the back of the cape's neck. A popular badge of rank is the magically preserved skeletal hand ofa drowning victim.
Adventuring Garb: All clergy members wear whatever they desire from day to day, so long as something of mottled blue and green is worn (usually as a sash or scarf). Most Umberlant clergy members carry a hooked dueling knife. (These dueling knives cost 3 gp, weigh 2 lbs., are size S, inflict damage type S, are speed 4, and do 1d4+1/1d3+1 points of damage.)
Specialty Priests (Waveservants)
REQUIREMENTS: Constitution 15, Wisdom 13
PRIME REQ.: Constitution, Wisdom
ALIGNMENT: CE
WEAPONS: All bludgeoning (wholly Type B) weapons plus the trident, harpoon, and Umberlant dueling knife
ARMOR: All armor types up to and including leather armor and shield
MAJOR SPHERES: All, chaos, combat, creation, elemental water, healing, necromantic, summoning, weather
MINOR SPHERES: Animal, charm, elemental (all other aspects), guardian, protection, sun
MAGICAL ITEMS: Same as clerics
REQ. PROFS: None
BONUS PROFS: Swimming, modern languages (pick two from: dragon turtle, sea elvish, koalinth, kuo-toan,
locathah, nereid, merman, morkoth, sahuagin, triton)
3rd Level
Speak with the Drowned Dead (Necromancy)
Sphere: Elemental Water, Divination
Range: Special
Components: V, S
Duration: Varies
Casting Time: 6
Area of Effect: Special
Saving Throw: Special
Upon casting speak with the drowned dead, the priest or another designated person within 3 yards of the priest is able to ask two questions of a creature who died by drowning who is called on by name. (Complete names are not necessary, although naming information sufficient to distinguish one individual from another is.) The body of the drowning victim need not be present. The answers are phrased in normal speech, not merely "yes" and "no" replies. Questioned creatures cannot lie, but they can be as misleading and evasive as possible within that constraint.
The awareness and memories of the drowned one end at death. Questioned creatures cannot know what events befell after they drowned and will say so if asked, wasting an answer.
Drowned creatures of different alignment than the caster or of higher level or Hit Dice than the caster's level receive a saving throw vs. spell. A drowned creature that succeeds at this saving throw can refuse to answer questions, ending the spell.
4th Level
Striking Wave (Alteration, Evocation)
Sphere: Elemental Water
Range: 5 yards/level
Components: V, S, M
Duration: Varies
Casting Time: 1 round
Area of Effect: Special
Saving Throw: Special
This spell causes water to rise up into a single directed strike of massive force. A large body of water must be present (in other words, a pond, lake, or the sea) or the spell is wasted. It cannot create water out of nothing, nor can it cause the contents of a tub or small, ornamental pool to do more than rise up in an impressive manner and crash back down again, splashing things nearby.
A striking wave varies from 10 feet to 100 feet wide as the caster directs, moves in the direction its caster directs and can change direction in response to the caster's silent concentration, but it must travel at least 60 feet in a straight line before it can do harm; otherwise, items in its path simply ride up along its swell and are unharmed. The priest must be in contact with the water to cast the spell, although this contact can be as little as a hand or toe dipped into the wetness. The range of the spell applies to how distant the wave can be from the caster, not how far it can travel. If unhindered by impact or obstacle, the striking wave travels several miles before subsiding. If cast in a confined area, such as a harbor, so that it strikes a sea wall or other immobile obstacle within 100 feet of its forming, it rebounds back to where it was formed, doing double damage to creatures and items between.
A striking wave smashes into immobile objects for 10d12 points of damage. Floating objects are allowed a saving throw vs. spell; if alive and swimming or free to move in the water, floating creatures are also allowed a second saving throw vs. spell. Each saving throw that succeeds removes three dice of damage, so swimmers who make both saving throws suffer only 4d12 points of damage. A rebounding wave must be saved for separately both times; one set of saving throws does not govern both strikes.
Striking waves may attack targets on the shore; however, they lose force as they do so. For every 10 feet up the shore the wave travels, 1d12 of damage is lost from the wave.
Ships suffer structural damage from a striking wave as follows: A ship automatically loses 10% of its seaworthiness if at anchor or tied up dockside, but only 5% of it if floating freely; small open boats suffer double this damage. Open boats and barges may well be capsized by a striking wave. The Dungeon Master must adjudicate such situations. The DM must also determine damage done to wharves and other structures; however, such damage is rarely extensive unless the buildings' construction was not intended for marine or shore use.
The material component of this spell is a drop of water blessed by Umberlee or by a senior Umberlant in the name of the goddess.
Oars to Snakes (Alteration) Reversible
Sphere: Plant
Range: 50 yards
Components: V, S, M
Duration: 3 rounds/level
Casting Time: 9
Area of Effect: 1 oar/3 levels
Saving Throw: None
This more powerful variant of the sticks to snakes spell transforms the oars aboard a ship into giant sea snakes. It may be cast in one of two modes: defensive or offensive.
Using the defensive mode, the caster essentially transforms the oars of his or her own vessel into sea serpent defenders. These serpents remain within the oarlocks of the vessel which bore them, but may attack beings outside of the ship who are nearby, such as boarders. Each serpent can attack one boarder once a round with a THAC0 of 11, inflicting 3d6 points of damage for each successful strike. The serpents remain until the spell expires or they are slain; they are 10 HD creatures of AC 5.
This spell may also be cast offensively. In this mode, the oars become serpents of similar Hit Dice and THAC0 to those aboe, but rather than attacking outside the ship, their poisonous heads are aimed within a ship within range (including the caster's ship), attacking the oarsmen and destroying the ship's ability to maneuver. The poisonous bite of these serpents does 1d6 points of damage, but anyone bitten must make a successful saving throw vs. poison against Type C poison. Those who successfully save suffer only 2d4 points of additional damage; those who fail their saving throws suffer an additional 25 points of damage. The poison has an onset time of 1d4+1 minutes. Creatures struck repeatedly must make a saving throw every time they are bitten.
While the spell continues, the ship does not have the use of those oars turned into serpents, and thus its speed may be reduced. The serpents turn back into usable oars when the spell expires, although those which were "killed" are broken and useless.
The reverse of this spell, snakes to oars, changes giant sea snakes to oars for the same duration or negates the oars to snakes spell according to the level of the priest countering the spell (for example, a 12th-level priest casting snakes to oars can turn four sea serpents back into oars).
The material components of this spell are a small piece of wood and the scales from a sea snake.
Stormcloak (Abjuration, Evocation)
Sphere: Elemental Water, Protection
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M
Duration: 1 year
Casting Time: 7
Area of Effect: One living being
Saving Throw: None
Stormcloak sets up a condition that, when the spell is activated at any time for up to a year after being cast by speaking a secret word aloud, the spell recipient cannot die as a result of a storm at sea that she or he is currently experiencing. Once activated, the spell guarantees that by some assortment of coincidental conditions (as far-fetched or commonplace as need be), the spell recipient will not drown, be struck down by flying debris, die of being hurled ashore against rocks, etc. from that particular storm.
Umberlant priests cannot cast this spell on themselves.
The material component of this spell is the holy symbol of the Umberlant casting it (which is not consumed in the casting).
6th Level
Waterspout (Alteration, Evocation)
Sphere: Elemental Water
Range: 10 yards/level
Components: V, S, M
Duration: 1 turn
Casting Time: 1 round
Area of Effect: Special
Saving Throw: Special
This spell causes water to rise up into a whirling, cylindrical column. A large body of water must be present (in other words, a pond, lake, or the sea) or the spell is wasted; the magic cannot create water. A waterspout created by means of this spell is 10 feet across, rises 80 feet above the water, and requires a depth of water at least 20 feet beneath it. If sufficient space is not available for the spout to form, the spell is wasted. If it later encounters insufficient depth after it has formed, it collapses, inflicting 4d6 points of falling damage to all beings within it as the only damage it deals in that round and ending the spell.
A waterspout is a destructive vortex of water which flails and sucks in creatures and objects it contacts and waterborne items within 10 feet of itself (below and on all sides), whirling them up to its top before flinging them free. The caster can direct the waterspout to travel horizontally 10 feet per round. It will claw along the sides of large immobile objects such as castle walls or islands that it is sent against and smash through flimsy barriers. When the spell expires, it sinks slowly down, doing no harm to creatures and items it is carrying around.
Items struck by a waterspout must make item saving throws vs. crushing blow once per round or be shattered and destroyed. Structures and larger items may well suffer structural damage as determined by the DM.
Creatures struck by a waterspout are sucked into it the first round. They are then helplessly whirled about for 6d8 points of damage per round for two rounds; they must also make a successful saving throw vs. death magic each round or drown unless able to breathe in water by natural or magical means or hold their breath (a successful Strength and Constitution ability check each round or a successful swimming proficiency check each round). Finally, they are flung free at the end of the next round, taking only 3d8 points of damage during this round. (They need not make saving throws vs. death magic this round.) Being flung free typically hurls a creature 100 feet or more horizontally (in the midst of a mist of water) and bestows 6d4 points of falling damage on creatures if they land in water or a swamp or as much as 12d4 points of damage if they are hurled into trees, buildings, rocks, or other solid objects. Items still miraculously attached to a flung creature's body must make a successful saving throw vs. crushing blow when their wearer lands or be destroyed; magical items receive a +2 bonus to this saving throw. Only on the round of being flung free is a creature able to use magical means, such as an item or quick spell, to escape the effects of the waterspout.
The material component of this spell is a drop of water blessed by Umberlee or by a senior Umberlant in the name of the goddess.
7th Level
Maelstrom (Alteration, Evocation)
Sphere: Elemental Water
Range: 10 yards/level
Components: V, S, M
Duration: 1 turn
Casting Time: 1 round
Area of Effect: Special
Saving THrow: Special
This spell causes a large body of water (a pond having a 60-foot-deep area that is itself 120 feet across or larger, a lake, or the sea) to sink and whirl into a sucking, drowning cone. The maelstrom created by this spell is a destructive, descending vortex of water that sucks in creatures and objects, whirls them around and down, and thrusts them out of its bottom deep underwater. Waterborne items and creatures within 50 feet of the maelstrom's edge are drawn into it at a rate of 10 feet per round until they enter the cone—whereupon they are whirled around and around, descending for four rounds before being expelled at the bottom on the fifth. The maelstrom is 60 feet deep and 120 feet in diamater.
Creatures able to swim and boats being rowed or under sail can fight against the pull of the maelstrom, making Strength ability checks each round that if successful slow their progress into the ocean to 5 feet. Vessels receive a Strength check based on a Strength score equal to that of their strongest rower plus 1.
Once drawn into the maelstrom and descending, creatures take 2d6 points of buffeting damage per round but travel in a fairly stable path. No spells requiring a material component can be cast, and only items already in hand can be used. On each round, descending creatures must make a successful saving throw vs. death magic or drown unless able to breathe water by natural or magical means or hold their breath (a successful Strength and Constitution ability check at a -1 penalty each round or a successful Swimming proficiency check at a -1 penalty each round).
On the fifth round (that of expulsion), the damage is doubled to 4d6 points, and the saving throw vs. death magic is made at a -2 penalty (-2 to holding one's breath). From the 60-foot depth at the center of the cone, the creature is expelled 40 feet downward and to one side. If a rocky bottom or any solid object is struck during this forcible journey, an additional 2d4 points of damage is taken. Thereafter, the being is free of the maelstrom's effects but is 100 feet below the surface of the water and will drown unless means of breathing in water are available or an immediate ascent is made. An ascending creature must succeed at three swimming checks or three sets of Strength and Constitution checks. If any of these rolls fail, 1d4 points of damage are taken per failed roll.
Items drawn into a maelstrom are buffeted and then expelled just as creatures are and must make successful item saving throws vs. acid for each of the four rounds of descent plus the round of expulsion or be destroyed. If they strike bottom when they are expelled, an additional item saving throw vs. crushing blow is forced upon the item. If it is failed, the item is destroyed. Buoyant items that survive all this slowly ascend to the surface. All others settle to the bottom wherever the maelstrom hurls them.
When the spell expires, the maelstrom slows and becomes more shallow. Its central waters rise to the surface and carry all items and creatures up with them in an ascending, undamaging spiral. From the moment the spell expires, no damage is dealt by a maelstrom; things not yet expelled from its bottom are borne back to the surface in the described manner.
The material component of this spell is a drop of water blessed by Umberlee or by a senior Umberlant in the name of the goddess.