Captain Scathe and the Tormented Fleet are the scourge of the Dreaming Seas. Their exploits are infamous; the mere sighting of the Nightmare Eye is cause enough for most captains to dump their cargo and make full speed in the opposite direction. Of course, not many can outrun the nightmare pirates, who bend the very winds to their commands.

The nightmares of mariners are not limited to shambling, seaweed corpses or vicious, bloodthirsty pirates. The most powerful sailors on the deck of the Nightmare Eye are the basic maladies and curses that plague seafarers, but brought to horrid, sentient life: Oxeye, the living squall; Vang the Snake, rope on which you lose your grip at an inopportune time; Scow the Hullbreaker; Draugr, the beast below who drags air-breathers to their final doom.

For Captain Scathe cares not one whit for treasure. He seeks to terrify the sailors of the seas, to make them abandon their gods, renounce their allegiances, and pray to him for salvation before he sinks their ship and sends them to become one with the Plane of Water.

The trade city of Thet spends a considerable amount of its profit safeguarding its fleets from the ravages of Scathe and his band of nightmares. Not in bribes, but in sacrifices. Whole fleets are sent to die so that others may live. Sailors are lost to suffering, torture, and the devilish predilections of these nightmares, merely so others can profit off the portals between the seas. Where does the real evil lie?

Scathe is said to recount this query when he shows any new nightmarish recruit his collection of heads.