Dark Duchess revised Improved final encounter for the Dark Duchess quest in the Rime of the Frostmaiden adventure Spoiler alert This document contains major spoilers for the Dark Duchess quest in the Rime of the Frostmaiden adventure. Stop reading and ask your Dungeon Master if you are playing that adventure. Summary The Dark Duchess quest in Rime of the Frostmaiden ends with the characters facing Arveiaturace, a blind white dragon they're trying to steal treasure from. Arveiaturace is a tough challenge rating 20, while the characters are around 7th level at best. Although the adventure suggests ways to approach the encounter, the Dungeon Master must exercise extreme caution, considering Arveiaturace's capacity to eliminate the characters in a single turn. This document elaborates on the adventure's suggestions, and it provides a structured approach to orchestrate the confrontation. The aim is to provide players with a sense of agency and involvement while maintaining the gripping narrative tension of confronting a significantly mightier adversary. Table of contents Arveiaturace encounter 1 Goals 1 Arveiaturace arrival 2 Before rolling initiative 2 Trapped in the hold 2 Cat and mouse 2 Out in the open 3 Appendix 4 Arveiaturace 4 Legal disclaimer 4 AI use disclaimer 4 Arveiaturace encounter Goals The primary objective of the characters is to get out of the Dark Duchess with their lives and perhaps secure some of Arveiaturace's treasure. To this end, they first need to exit the ship's hold. Then, they must put space between themselves and Arveiaturace. To accomplish this, they can remove Meltharond's body from Arveiaturace's saddle. This action will shift the dragon's attention towards safeguarding the body rather than pursuing the characters. Arveiaturace's goal is to eliminate the characters. Recognizing her strength advantage, she chooses to ensnare them in the hold and engage in a cat-and-mouse scenario. To this end, she exercises restraint, aware that obliterating the characters will be too quick to enjoy (use the Arveiaturace stat block in the appendix for details). Her “playful” approach ceases if she sustains significant damage or if the characters harm Meltharond's deceased body. In the former situation, Arveiaturace employs her full strength to eliminate the characters. Conversely, in the latter case, she directs her focus away from the characters to safeguard Meltharond's remains. Dark Duchess revised - 1
Arveiaturace arrival The deafening sound of huge wings flapping fills the air. A few seconds later, the wooden frame of the Dark Duchess creaks under an immense weight that lands on the deck. Loud snorts and the clicking sound of claws on wood join the wooden groans as something massive moves above you. A few seconds later, the head of a white dragon pokes through a hole in the upper deck. A large saddle is strapped on the dragon's back with a robed corpse sitting on it. The dragon must be incredibly old. Its scales have lost the pure whiteness of young wyrms. Cataracts cover the dragon's eyes, but they barely hide the malevolent joy as the dragon sniffs the air. This lasts only a second, as the dragon lets out a loud growl, "The smell of thieves caught red-handed. Ready your spells, Meltharond!" Before rolling initiative To help players retain a sense of agency on the situation, let each character ask a single question related to their surroundings, dragon lore, or specific details about Arveiaturace for free before rolling for initiative. If a question requires a skill check to be answered, ensure that the information provided remains actionable even if the check fails. Once each character has asked their free question, instruct them to position themselves within the hold of the Dark Duchess (designated as location D9), and then roll for initiative. Trapped in the hold During her first turn, Arveiaturace uses her Cold breath ability on the upper deck of the Dark Duchess. Instead of dealing damage, the Cold breath creates a thick wall of ice that blocks any escape route outside the ship hold, like for example the stairs and the hole in location D1. Because of the ice wall, characters are trapped within the lower deck of the ship. To escape, they have to either break through the ice or the ship hull. Breaking portions of the hull, or the thick ice wall created by Arveiaturace follows the rules for breaking objects in the Basic rules. For a quick reference, the table below lists the AC and HP values for a 5ft-by-5ft square of hull or ice wall AC HP Ship hull (5ft-by-5ft) 15 23 Ice wall (5ft-by-5ft) 13 23 Cat and mouse Once the characters are confined in the hold, Arveiaturace stalks and attacks them through the hull in a cat-and-mouse fashion. To accomplish this, Arveiaturace must first locate characters through the hull. Utilizing her blindsight, Arveiaturace automatically detects characters that produced significant noise during their turn. Characters can conceal their positions and actions from Arveiaturace by engaging in contested Stealth checks against the dragon's Perception. If successful, they remain hidden, although Arveiaturace can utilize her Detect legendary action to reevaluate their location. Using the Silence spell will give disadvantage to Arveiaturace's Perception rolls, as she still has smell and vibrations to guide her. Dark Duchess revised - 2
Once Arveiaturace knows the characters’ locations, she attacks them by smashing through the hull and the ice while she remains outside the ship. Arveiaturace’s attacks pass through the hull and the ice wall, but the target characters gain the benefit of three-quarters cover. Additionally, Arveiaturace's attacks cause 11 damage to the portion of the hull and ice that she breaches in order to reach her target Out in the open If the characters manage to leave the Dark Duchess' hold, they still need to escape from Arveiaturace. To do so, they must stay hidden from her for three consecutive turns as they make their getaway. Characters remain hidden if they succeed in a contested Stealth check against Arveiaturace's Perception during their respective turns. Arveiaturace can utilize her Detect legendary action to reroll her Perception check, and she will attack characters she becomes aware of. If characters scatter in different directions, she will pursue only one of them. Alternatively, characters can create enough time for their escape by dislodging Meltharond's body from Arveiaturace's saddle. When this occurs, Arveiaturace becomes frenzied, launching random attacks in the vicinity of Meltharond. During this frenzy, she disregards characters fleeing unless they further threaten Meltharond's body. Characters can unseat Meltharond's body either by successfully making a DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check or by dealing 20 damage to it. Treat Meltharond's corpse as an object with an Armor Class of 15 and a Damage Threshold of 10. Let’s not forget about the kobolds Area D12 of the Dark Duchess map is inhabited by four Icewind Kobolds that worship Arveiaturace. They're smart enough not to mess with Arveiaturace's fun, but they can still pester the players. For example, they might help the dragon find the characters by calling her, or they could annoy everyone by chanting prayers to Arveiaturace nonstop. On the flip side, they might be scared enough of Arveiaturace's anger to help the characters in exchange for a “long-term emergency party hire”. Meltharond and Arveiaturace Characters must be aware of the connection between Arveiaturace and Meltharond's body in order to use it for their escape. One way to make this clear is to have Arveiaturace obsessively communicate with Meltharond's corpse while pursuing the characters. Alternatively, characters can learn about Arveiaturace's attachment to Meltharond by making a DC 12 Intelligence (History) check. If they suspect that Meltharond is simply a deceased body rather than an undead one, they can verify this with a DC 12 Intelligence (Medicine) check. Dark Duchess revised - 3
Appendix Arveiaturace Gargantuan dragon, chaotic evil Armor Class 17 (natural armor) Hit points 133 (14d10+56) Speed 40 ft., burrow 20 ft., fly 80 ft., swim 40ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 18 (+4) 10 (+0) 18 (+4) 6 (-2) 11 (+0) 12 (+1) Saving Throws DEX +3, CON +7, WIS +3, CHA +4 Skills Perception +6, Stealth +3 Damage Immunities Cold Senses Blindsight 30 ft. Passive Perception 16 Languages Common, Draconic Ice Walk. Arveiaturace can move across and climb icy surfaces without needing to make an ability check. Additionally, difficult terrain composed of ice or snow doesn't cost her extra movement. Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If Arveiaturace fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead. “ENOUGH!”. When Arveiaturace suffers 133 damages over the course of the encounter, she is not defeated. Instead, she reverts to the Ancient white dragon stat block. All damages inflicted to her so far carries over to the new stat block. Actions Multiattack. Arveiatureace makes three attacks: one with its bite and two with her claws. Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d10 + 4) piercing damage plus 4 (1d8) cold damage. Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage. Cold Breath (Recharge 5–6). Arveiaturace exhales an icy blast in a 30-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, taking 45 (10d8) cold damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Legendary actions Arveiaturace can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. The dragon regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn. Detect. The dragon makes a Wisdom (Perception) check. Tail Attack. The dragon makes a tail attack. Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d8 + 6) bludgeoning damage. Legal disclaimer DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, Wizards of the Coast, Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, Eberron, the dragon ampersand, Ravnica and all other Wizards of the Coast product names, and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast in the USA and other countries. This work contains material that is copyright Wizards of the Coast and/or other authors. Such material is used with permission under the Community Content Agreement for Dungeon Masters Guild. All other original material in this work is copyright 2023 by Davide Chiuchiù and published under the Community Content Agreement for Dungeon Masters Guild. AI use disclaimer This document has been edited with the help of chatGPT language AI model for text generation. All the pictures have been created with Midjourney AI model for images generation. Dark Duchess revised - 4