Ideas needed for running Dark Duchess with party doing a long rest nearby.
Ok, the party is currently on a quest to find the Captain’s Log of the Dark Duchess for Maud Chiselbone, the lake hag of Easthaven, in exchange for knowledge about Auril. But that’s another story.
They scouted out the ice troll, botched an ambush, and an epic battle ensued. They won, but half the party went down and the other half ended up badly wounded, so the session ended there. Their conclusion was basically: “We definitely need a long rest next time. Who knows, maybe there’s another one of these things.”
They already set up camp with tents about half a mile away and will probably retreat there at the start of the next session.
Now I’m unsure how to handle Arveiaturace’s arrival in the meantime. She shouldn’t realistically be able to spot the camp by pure chance with her bad eyesight.
A few factors:
- Her kobolds are still alive, barricaded in their cabin. They could have seen or heard something.
- There are obvious signs of battle on the Dark Duchess’s deck, the party mage threw two Fireballs at the ice troll. The ship itself was mostly protected by its ice covering, but still it shows...
Any ideas on how to handle this?
My first thought was that an alerted Arveiaturace would search for intruders by spiraling outward from the ship. But if she strafes the camp with her breath weapon, it would probably be a TPK (the party is level 5).
If she’s less aggressive and merely drives the party away, they lose the chance to properly explore the ship. But maybe that’s simply the consequence of trying to rest next to a dragon’s secondary hoard...