Following the North Seeker’s hundred-year-old trail is hard enough, but the challenge has only begun. Once a party ascertains the ship’s exact location, uncovering it will be a task. Years of exposure to the blizzards of Frostfell have left the ship buried in snow and ice, visible as little more than a slight mound in a never-ending field of white. Only the tops of the masts can now be seen where they poke through the snow (Spot DC 15). Once the ship has been found, it will have to be at least partially dug out in order to be fully explored.
The main deck of the North Seeker breaches the icy surface of the sea at a slight angle. Getting to the deck, however, will require a great deal of digging, since it is currently buried under several feet of snow. Even cleared, it requires a DC 20 Search check to find the hatch to belowdecks and a DC 26 Strength check to force it open.
The interior of the ship is filled with the cold aura of death, and the frozen corpses of the crew are the first sight to greet any who enter. Many of the corpses have wounds, and none show any signs of starvation. A character with the Investigate feat can attempt a DC 25 Search check to determine that the crew members were not set upon by outside forces, but killed each other. Most of the corpses are human, but a single gnome body can be found (the heir of Sivis that was sent along on the voyage).
A single corpse sits in the ship’s pantry. Unlike the other bodies, this one appears to have starved to death, but not before eating the entire expedition’s food supply. A DC 10 Search check will reveal an impressive gold ring on the figure’s left hand, set with a tiny chip of Khyber dragonshard.
The ring is possessed by a fiend—specifically, a glabrezu (see page 100 of the EBERRON Campaign Setting for details on fiendish possession). An ancestor of the ship’s first mate bound the fiend to the ring as a means of trapping it, and the ring had been passed down for safekeeping through generations. When the first mate learned he was sailing for Frostfell, he took the ring from its hiding place and planned to bury it, trapping the fiend in the snows of the northern wasteland.
Unfortunately, he hadn’t planned on the ship getting caught in the ice. As the first few days wore on, the ring began whispering to him, eventually wearing down his will and possessing him. The fiend took control and began to kill the crew until one of them slit the throat of the first mate in retaliation. The killer noticed the valuable-looking ring and pocketed it—and was soon possessed as well, murdering several more of his fellows before being brought down. The fiend went through four hosts this way until only one crew member remained—the one on whose body the ring is found. With food plentiful, the fiend was able to keep this last host alive through weeks of torment, until he, too, died and the glabrezu was forced back into the ring.
As long as it remains trapped, the fiend can only possess the ring or someone wearing it. It cannot travel to the Ethereal Plane or return to its own long-lost body. The fiend wants to leave Frostfell, and so is likely to simply ride back to civilization with any character who takes the ring. After that, it will try to once again begin its business of corrupting souls and striking infernal bargains, all with an eye toward gaining enough power to return triumphant to its home plane of Shavarath.