Quote Originally Posted by Xuc Xac View Post
Wow. That's like saying "I have a magic wand that turns things to gold. I use it to turn bank guards to gold so they can't stop me from stealing thousands of dollars from the teller window."
Blackbeard sort of did the same thing. He blockaded an entire town in exchange for medical supplies.

I clearly haven't though it out completely, but now I'm thinking there is something of value inside the crab that the followers of Tiamat and Vecna both want and have blockaded the city in their own way. Rather than risking their lives and deal with it, the arch mages rulers of the city
simply ran away until some group of adventurers deal with it since they always do. Some of the mages have even sent their group of adventurers to investigate which the party might meet. Of course the city requires supplies, so they leave open disguised portals. If those supplies are pirated or bought makes little difference to them. They are of the mind if you can't protect your supplies than you deserve to be robbed from.