Wetzlum must have been the original Black Death. Hill remembered that his younger brother, Urzul, was nicknamed the Greedy Marauder.
Hill really had not expected these two black dragon brothers to come to the Sword Coast after all.
What surprised him even more was that, despite losing the lucrative trade route between Waterdeep and Neverwinter, they had chosen an even more profitable sea route.
The busiest shipping lane in the Moonshadow Isles ran right through where they had settled... the people of Kewell were excellent farmers, while Amn in the central Sword Coast and Calimshan in the south desperately needed grain.
Although Amn could ship vast quantities of agricultural produce from the Mazték Continent, that was an ocean crossing, after all. Any reasonably clever nation would never abandon a grain-exporting country right on its doorstep.
Most of the pirates who had once infested the waters around the Moonshadow Isles had been used by Amn to blockade the coast, keeping other countries from competing for grain... especially by driving up prices.
Those pirates with ships to sail on their raids were nothing like the wretched traveling merchants on land. Even the value of their equipment was on an entirely different level!
So whether the brothers collected tolls or robbed pirates, they were bound to do better than they would robbing Neverwinter's lumber merchants.
As for Bhaal's treasure... although they had lost some generous gifts from that death god, they were healthy, free from the undead influence that would make them savage... and they could even do a little mining themselves, couldn't they?
After all, the Black Death Brothers had not initially attacked other dragons or adventurers passing through their territory. Back when Tasting was stirring up trouble, he would even occasionally hide over in the Sword Mountains.
But after the Spellplague,