The Pirate's Punishment

 The Pirate’s Punishment (level 11, everybody is an Evil alignment)

Your party are members of an expansive piracy guild called the Dragon’s Claw. The Claw has been relatively successful as of late and has enclaves up and down the Sword Coast and the peninsula of Chult. Your ship used to be harassed by privateers and ships from Waterdeep but for over a week you have been utterly uncontacted. Strange…

Player Equipment (including their starting gear)

1 uncommon magic item

1 rare magic item

Plot

Your captain, Zurafar Bloodmouth, has led your crew on a path to an ancient, Elven shipwreck on the way to Evermeet via a treasure map your crew discovered. On the way there a sudden storm manifests above as a flock of seagulls circles the ship. The party has been lured into the dragon’s lair and will suffer for it!

Golgard, the Adult Bronze Dragon, reverts back to his true form after spying on the crew as a seagull and roars a decree for the pirate’s divine punishment! The crew is in total panic and most of the newer members jump overboard in a futile attempt to swim to safety from the middle of the ocean. The players and a few senior members remain and follow Bloodmouth’s commands.

Golgard attempts to destroy the pirates in stages based on his current amount of hitpoints, which are as follows:

Rip and Tear (212 - 160). The dragon first dives into the water and feasts on every overboard brigand! Then he emerges on the port side of the ship. This takes his whole turn so on his next turn he can hang off the side of the craft and make bite and claw attacks without provoking any attacks of opportunity or using his lightning breath. Zurafar will stay higher up by the wheel.

Draconic Breaths (159 - 80). Now badly injured, Golgard uses his Wing Attack to fly into the air and will continue to use it purely to reposition. He uses his lightning breath and the thunderclap lair action as much as possible. Now Bloodmouth commands her pirates to fire at the beast with their 3 cannons on each side of the vessel (Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, range 600/2,400 ft., one target. Hit: 44 (8d10) bludgeoning damage).

Cornered Wyrm (79 - 0). Golgard is mad with pain and spite but too injured to fly for long. “You won’t live long enough to regret your birth!!” he howls furiously when he lands in the middle of the ship. This provokes Captain Bloodmouth’s final command to drop the net. When the upper ropes of the sail are cut (at the end of the dragon’s turn on deck) they fall right on top of the dragon causing it to be completely restrained but not yet prone. Golgard is shocked, but not put off by his prey’s cunning and makes use of his wings, tails, and the rest of his multiattack, along with his repulsion breath to push pirates off the deck. Bloodmouth makes her way to the dragon’s face so it can see her when he dies.

If successful, the party will eventually find out that the treasure map was a dud placed by the dragon to lure the Dragon’s Claw away from land. However, they still have full access to the dragon’s underwater hoard if they have means to breath aquatically. This victory bolsters the confidence and wealth of the smaller crew and allows the party to level up if you want to continue a seafaring campaign.