"Boarding Party" was an fun side-quest for my group that happened a few months after running another Cavern Crawl "Treacherous Tides" with them. Now at level 11 after the party faced off against everything from jungle beasts to a horde of undead in a crypt, and survived a near TPK where pirate ghosts nearly did them in, I needed a quick pre-written encounter while I figured out next steps for the campaign.

This time, the party was on their way back to their coastal headquarters when pirates attacked (again lol)! The leader was a naval dreadlord - a tiefling necromancer with a crew of monster pirates. The party's mission: turn back the invaders and beat the dreadlord.

The battles were intense and fun. First, the group fought five tough pirates on deck. Then we had a crazy fight with an oni and three sea hags trying to steal our ship! They had to sneak across to the pirate ship, surprising some mages fixing the ship with magic. Then, they took on six pirate captains before facing the big boss on the quarterdeck.

Beating the naval dreadlord was tough but super rewarding. After cruising through the first set of encounters with a series of great rolls (even after I buffed the encounters a bit), their luck turned on the final encounter. After unlucky initiative rolls, the entire was frightened after they all failed their saves on a unique Dreadlord ability. Then their front-liner was banished, the wizards was consistently counter-spelled, and unlucky positioning almost did them in with the Dreadlord's AOE voidbolt. In the end, they saved the ship and got an apparatus of the crab from Captain Thistlehop as a thank you.