u/BluesDriveBakemono

^(My party have reached Dweomercore, and the sorcerer has entered as a student. They only met a couple of the other students, killing Cephalossk when he tried to eat their brains, when they stumbled into the training hall and were all taken out by the Archmage statues. What are the most interesting situations for them to wake up in?)

Edit for clarity - When the statues in the room take a player out, they leave them at 0hp and stable, so the party is still alive.

I've been running this campaign for few sessions now, and my players are slowly working their way through Ten Towns, recently arriving in Bremen. I've been adding extra quests/encounters to the towns they pass, to make them feel a little less one-and-done, and wanted to share the new quest I used for Bremen in last night's session.

Unwelcome Guests
Founded by dwarf prospectors, the sleepy town of Bremen sits on the west bank of Maer Dualdon, at the mouth of the Shaengarne River. Bremen's harbor has frozen, requiring local fishers to haul their boats across the ice to put them in the lake. The trail that connects Bremen to Targos was poorly maintained in the best of times, and now has been completely erased by the snowfall.

Being cut off from the outside world now seems like the least of Bremen’s problems, however. Two months ago, a gang of pirates rolled into town, frostbitten and starving after having walked all the way from their icebound ship, the Dark Duchess, stranded on the edge of the Sea of Moving Ice. Taking pity on their disheveled forms, the kindly proprietor of the town’s only inn, Cora Mulphoon, took them in and fed them, caring for their wounds as best she could.

Unfortunately, the townsfolk found their new guests disinclined to leave once they had recovered their strength. The crew of the Dark Duchess outnumbered the town’s ragtag militia, and the one time they were confronted, the pirates quickly demonstrated their battle prowess, easily killing the guard captain, a Dwarf named Wallace Cragfoot, and several of his strongest fighters.

The town’s speaker, Dorbulgruf Shalescar, is almost 300 years old, and is far too senile to even notice the town’s predicament, so the pirates, under their captain Rudolph Bluemoon, have now taken over the small town. If all that wasn’t bad enough, feeding these extra mouths has become even more difficult, as several fishing boats have been attacked out on the lake by an unidentified creature capable of taking huge chunks out of the side of their vessels.

Captain Rudolph Bluemoon

A member of the Ship Suljack, a powerful faction out of Luskan that engages in piracy along the Trackless Sea and the Sea of Moving Ice. His ship, the Dark Duchess, became trapped by sea ice over three months ago while returning to Luskan, hold full of plundered booty. The crew, low on food, faced a difficult decision - attempt to make the dangerous journey overland to the nearest inhabited settlement, leaving the majority of their treasure behind, or remain there and starve.

The captain decided to split the difference, taking half of his crew with him overland and leaving his first mate, Benjamin Waller, and the others to ration their remaining food and guard the ship. The journey to Bremen took over a week, with blizzards forcing the party to stop and seek shelter constantly. Frostbitten and starving, Rudolph ordered the weakest crewmates to be killed and butchered to keep the others alive.

They eventually reached the town of Bremen, and were taken in by the folk there, who helped nurse them out of their sorry state. Finding themselves warm and fed for the first time in months, Captain Bluemoon has thus far delayed their return to the Duchess, reluctant to face the journey again. His men have become increasingly restless, taking out their frustrations on the townsfolk and fishermen.

The Pirates

The pirates have made the Town Hall their base, and frequently visit the inn and other establishments to carouse and harass the townsfolk. The party may encounter a small group of pirates wandering the streets, in Buried Treasures or, in any of the town's other establishments, harassing the owners and other customers.

The pirates show clear signs of frostbite, and are rude and quick to violence. It's clear that they are lashing out due to boredom and inactivity. If confronted by a challenge they can't overcome, the surviving pirates will flee back to the Town Hall to warn their Captain, who holds court there.

Captain Bluemoon is boastful and gregarious, but when questioned about why he has not returned to claim the booty on the Dark Duchess, he grows surly. A successful insight check can reveal that he is fearful of making the terrible journey back across the tundra to his ship. The Captain has a map of the coast of the Sea of Moving Ice that shows the location of the Dark Duchess, as well as a +1 scimitar.

I used the Pirate Captain, Pirate Bosun, Pirate First Mate, and Pirate Deck Mage statblocks from Ghosts of Saltmarsh to represent Captain Bluemoon and his crew.

My party, after dispatching the pirates, now plan on travelling to the Duchess to claim his treasure. I will likely run that encounter as written in the book, only switching out the Captain for his first mate.

As the title says, my party and I will be facing an Ancient Blue Dragon in its lair next session. I'm not sure if we'll be receiving any NPC help but based on previous encounters in this campaign I'm not counting on it.

We just hit level 10, and are a Draconic Sorcerer(me), a Battle Master Fighter, an Assassin Rogue, and an Ancestral Guardian Barbarian. We have a small selection of magical items, but nothing that will likely be particularly impactful against this creature.

Since we just levelled up, I have the chance to grab a new spell of level 5 or lower. As the only party member who does anything besides just hitting, as well as the player with the most game knowledge, I feel like I have a responsibility to take something that can potentially turn the tide of battle, but am really struggling to find anything that won't just be shut down by Legendary Resistances.

Does anyone have any bright ideas, or should I just prepare to be TPK'd?

Edit - Imagine, for the sake of discussion, that leaving is not an option.