The Dark Duchess
The Dark Duchess is hundreds of yards from shore, trapped in thick ice.
The Sea of Moving Ice stretches out before you, a featureless, frozen desert. Ahead, the smooth white surface is interrupted by a towering ship, its exterior covered in frost.
As you get closer...You hear loud thumping and creaking coming from inside the hold, followed by the guttural snarls of some creature. The ship is not as abandoned as it appeared!
The wooden boards on the main deck are cracked from frost. A large hole in the deck exposes a part of the hold to the sky. The planks around the hole are marred with deep grooves, as if heavy claws had dug into them.
The party chips through the ice to get into the Captain's cabin. The aft castle is taken up by one spacious cabin. Frost covers every surface and furnishing.
A human corpse is slumped against the port-side wall, its left arm draped across part of a heavy chest that's tucked in an alcove under a staircase. The skeleton wears a jacket and a wide-brimmed hat that hides most of its skull. Under its right arm is a captain's journal. The floor is strewn with empty wine bottles.
In the captain's inside jacket pocket, the characters find a key with its head fashioned in the form of a rat's skull. This key unlocks the captain's chest;
The chest is frozen shut. Before the key can be used to unlock it, the characters must scrape off the ice and frost, which takes about 10 minutes.
Inside the chest is a wooden partition that divides the interior into two halves. One side is empty except for a dozen wine-stained corks. (This is where the captain kept his bottles of wine.) The other side contains 150 gp, 520 sp, a small gold bracelet (25 gp), a large gold bracelet (250 gp), and a gray bag of tricks.
Bluemoon's journal chronicles the exploits of the Dark Duchess but says little about the man in charge. The party recalls that Captain Bluemoon was a cruel, cunning individual who ruled his ship through fear instead of respect. He had many enemies and few friends.
The captain's final journal entry reads:
"That damned white dragon is back, circling above me like a vulture. I reckon she could carry this ship back to Luskan were she of a mind to. To die from starvation, bitter cold, or a dragon? Choices, choices."
As the party descends into the hold, where a frustrated Ice Troll stands at the bottom of the stairs. It's trying to get to the kobolds that are hiding behind the door. The party takes a beating fighting the ice troll, but are successful.
The door to the cabin has been weakened by the ice troll's claws and sits loosely in its frame. The kobolds have slid a heavy wooden bar across the inside of the door to keep it shut for now. The characters must break down the door to enter the cabin, since the kobolds have no intention of letting them in. Dain breaks down the door. The floor of this cabin is icy. Lying on their sides are two empty, open barrels. Hides and furs have been pushed into these barrels to create makeshift sleeping quarters. Two similar but upright barrels appear untouched.
Four Icewind kobolds hide behind the barrels and hurl their javelins at the first creature to enter the room. After they throw their javelins, the kobolds are weaponless. They worship Arveiaturace and do the dragon's bidding. They don't know when she'll return next, but she always does.
The upright barrels hold frozen, fresh water. The kobolds turned the empty barrels into sleeping hovels.
As Dain confronts the kobolds...one starts to cackle, and a moment later,
Over the howling wind you hear the flapping of titanic wings followed by the cracking of ice under the weight of something immense. A loud snort accompanies the sounds of claws scraping against ice-glazed timbers. The voice of what could only be a truly immense dragon fills the bowels of the ship. "I smell warm flesh and hear the panic of beating hearts. Ready your spells, Meltharond! We have uninvited guests."
The following combat was tense to say the least. At somepoint Breena tied a rope to herself and jumped off the side of the boat to try to swing around? It didn't go well. After the temperature of the basement we were playing in reached stressful temperatures, the party came up with a plan. With the clever use of fog cloud, Atala was able to get the majority of the party off the ship. In a stroke of brilliance, Thatcher used his swarm to push the corpse of Meltharond off the dragon's back.
The dragon starts keening. She stops fighting instantly, picks up the corpse gently, and flies away.
Not wanting to risk anything else, the party leaves as quickly as possible.
Completion Date
January 8th 2022
January 8th 2022
Plot type
Side Quest...of the deadly sort
Parent Plot
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