The Wine-Dark Sea - Campaign Setup

Setting

When: ~1250 BCE, late Bronze Age at its height, collapse still decades away but omens darkening

Where: Bet-Marim, a small Canaanite fishing village south of Ashkelon, Egyptian-influenced territory

Players: First-time traders from the village, about to make their initial run to Ashkelon

The Hook

Session 1-2: The First Run

First trip to Ashkelon to meet a contact (friend of a retired local seaman), learn the ropes, establish the relationship

Session 2-3: The Shipwreck

Return home to find the village elders have salvaged an Egyptian shipwreck—bulk trade goods plus canopic jars from someone important

Session 3-4: The Dangerous Cargo

Village suggests the players' new Ashkelon contact might know how to move the goods

Players return to Ashkelon, now complicit in something dangerous

GM Notes

Threads to Plant in Ashkelon (First Visit)

Background characters the players notice but don't engage—faces that become relevant when they need shady buyers later

Keep these NPCs visible but distant during the first session. They should feel like part of the scenery of Ashkelon's docks and markets, so when the players need to find someone who can move stolen Egyptian goods, they'll remember seeing these figures.

Key Themes

• From innocence to complicity: Players start as legitimate traders, end session 3-4 entangled in dangerous business
• Village bonds vs. personal risk: The elders are asking them to take this risk—what do they owe home?
• Egyptian authority: The canopic jars suggest tomb goods or funerary items from someone of rank—potentially blasphemous and definitely illegal