D&D 5E LMoP - Help with Ideas for Conybery (mild spoilers??)

[phantomK9]

I've been running LMoP for my group with great success and probably within the next couple of sessions they will be heading out to Conybery to deal with the Banshee. Now, in the book it states that Conybery was prior to winter attacked by a barbarian horde and ransaked, but there isn't much else on the town itself.

I have been planning on making a few changes to the town to really get the PCs interested and possibly add a side quest. What I'm envisioning is that the town was sacked and then shortly afterwards some kind of curse or magical effect fell over it to cloak it in eternal winter (very similar to Torlynn in the old Quest for the Silver Sword module for Thunder Rift). The eternal winter of course has kept the townsfolk who where killed by the barbarians relatively fresh so now the Necromancer from Old Owl Well has been sending a group of zombies to collect the dead for him to keep using for whatever he is up to. The image of zombies loading dead bodies into a horse-less cart while snow drifts down when the PCs arrive in town seems like a fun image.

My quandary is this: What is should it be that is causing the eternal winter in Conybery? I'm almost out of ideas.

On the one hand, since I have referenced Quest for the Silver Sword, I could simply just run that with a little bit of conversion. Magic item, magic ritual blah blah blah. Find the bad guy and deal with the issue. A pretty straightforward side quest, get some XP possibly some magic items and call it a day. Not bad, but I'm not entirely thrilled about it especially since one of my players has already experienced that module in a different 5e game I'm running.

Another possibility is that the events in Princes of Apocalypse is causing the eternal winter. The weird weather has spread to Conybery and it is eternal winter there. This is of course a way to introduce the characters to the happenings going on in that adventure, but I'm not sure they would really care or that we will be continuing our journey over to there (since I haven't gotten the book yet). This would also leave the players with a situation that they would have no way of correcting at this time which might leave them unsatisfied. I'm not expressly against this, but I'm also not sure I will be running them through PoA.

So bottom line, has anyone else done something similar?
Any ideas to share to help make Conybery and interesting adventure?
Thanks.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

For me, Conyberry is an abandoned town but is a kind of D&D Brigadoon. It acts as a portal to other planes. Sometimes the mists envelop it and travellers to their surprise see the shadows of buildings where before there were only grassy foundations...a wolf howls...in the distance can be heard a sobbing...the Lord of Castle Ravenloft is expecting you...

So far that's as far as it goes. But I expect it to be a useful portal elsewhere, when needed.

 

[phantomK9]

For me, Conyberry is an abandoned town but is a kind of D&D Brigadoon. It acts as a portal to other planes. Sometimes the mists envelop it and travellers to their surprise see the shadows of buildings where before there were only grassy foundations...a wolf howls...in the distance can be heard a sobbing...the Lord of Castle Ravenloft is expecting you...

So far that's as far as it goes. But I expect it to be a useful portal elsewhere, when needed.

Cool idea, but one of my players is also DM for a game and we just went to Ravenloft in that game.

 

[Shadowdweller00]

One simple possibility, given the themes already stated: The barbarian horde that raided the town had a tribal shaman make a ritual compact with local nature spirits to keep the town locked in winter so as to discourage pursuit and reprisal. Those who explore the surrounding area might still be able to find a camp around an overgrown altar or a couple standing stones where recent disturbance and ritual activity can still be discerned. A simple plot hook would be: Several surviving townsfolk had family members kidnapped by the horde during the raid, and are seeking assistance with their return or rescue. Once the barbarians have been tracked down, the PCs can fight or bargain with them for the return of the captives. The shaman keeps a fetish as symbol of the spiritual compact. If the shaman is killed and/or the fetish destroyed, the spirits see the compact as dissolved and cease causing winter weather in the area.

In the event the latter occurs, the necromancer might try sending his undead minions to the area in larger force in hope of recovering more bodies before they completely rot away and/or are recovered by survivors in the town. Leading to fear and rumors of an undead invasion amongst the townsfolk.

 

[pedro2112]

Phantom,

I can't recall where I read this, but I thought the Barbarians that took over Conybery before Agatha chased them out were werewolves. Perhaps you can somehow include this as part of your scenario.

 

[DM_Jeff]

I can't recall where I read this, but I thought the Barbarians that took over Conybery before Agatha chased them out were werewolves. Perhaps you can somehow include this as part of your scenario.

Because I did too - in the Neverwinter 4E hardcover.

"During the Spellplague, a portion of Abeir imposed itself upon the Village of Conyberry. The terrain-altering effect of this transition forced the inhabitants of the village to come together with people dwelling in the regions of Abeir to which they were joined. However, in the intervening decades, the Gray Wolf Uthgardt tribe has sacked the settlement in retribution for this "invasion" of their lands, slaughtering Conyberry's citizens or forcing them to join the tribe. The village now lies largely vacant, though Gray Wolf tribes use it to store goods and as an occasional shelter."

Page 189 of that book has more detailed info, including a picture. When I ran LMoP the Spellplague had obviously passed. So with a lake formed in the center and the earthmotes crashed around, I used the backstory to give some refugees from Neverwinter good roleplaying hooks as they were rebuilding it when the PCs visited.

 

[Jediking]

Agatha is vain and aloof with a cold personality. Maybe her death had something to do with it, and it's ongoing effects (the winter) are her unfinished business and causing her to remain there. Or the elves who were there before were working on some 'helpful' environmental thing which backfired and caused cold to constantly radiate from somewhere.

 

[jayoungr]

On the one hand, since I have referenced Quest for the Silver Sword, I could simply just run that with a little bit of conversion. Magic item, magic ritual blah blah blah. Find the bad guy and deal with the issue. A pretty straightforward side quest, get some XP possibly some magic items and call it a day. Not bad, but I'm not entirely thrilled about it especially since one of my players has already experienced that module in a different 5e game I'm running.

For those of us who haven't read Quest for the Silver Sword, could you summarize the "blah blah blah"? I'd like to know what ideas you've already ruled out before making suggestions. (My first thought was something very like [mention=6778479]Shadowdweller00's[/mention] proposal, but SD's is more fleshed out.)