Ideas for a snowy/icy/arctic campaign

[GuJiaXian]

I've long tossed around the idea of a campaign (3.x back in the day, now 4e) set in an arctic-type environment. The Frostburn 3.x supplement really got me thinking, and even playing through the beautiful vistas in the Icewind Dale video games gave me ideas.

The problem is that I have only disparate ideas--nothing cohesive. I could always simply use the FR's Icewind Dale as a setting, but I'd like a little more creative control over the environment without being bogged down by the Realms' history. Not completely resistant to using the Realms, but I'd like to avoid it.

So, are there any good 4e modules (or 3.x modules that can easily be converted) that take place in a snowy/arctic area? I even thought about taking the recent DDI Dungeon magazine adventure path or the KotS series (I have up through the Demon Queen's enclave and haven't run any of them yet) and dumping them somewhere snowy, though I'd really like adventures that incorporate the environment and the hazards unique to such a frigid area.

And yes, I know that the "best" solution is to write my own material, but I can barely find the time to play, much less write campaigns from scratch.

So, any ideas?

 

[Rechan]

Read up on Norse mythology, about how the world is going to end in a giant blizzard, about how the big bad wolf will eat the moon, etc.

Then, start doing that. The goal is to prevent Ragnorak.

Or possibly, the PCs are all dead and in Valhalla, and now, it's time to win this thing.

 

[Stoat]

There was a cold weather adventure in the DDI a few months ago. It included a fairly dandy "survive the blizzard" skill challenge.

 

[Xer0]

There was a cold weather adventure in the DDI a few months ago. It included a fairly dandy "survive the blizzard" skill challenge.

Would it be this one: Winter of the Witch

 

[Neil Bishop]

I'm planning to use some similar ideas for my first attempt at a 4E campaign. I also plan to set it in FR but it will be the pre-Spellplague Realms. In fact, it will be set in 1372 DR, the time of the 3E setting book, and I will ignore every single novel published after that date.

I'm using the Norse Fimbulwinter for inspiration. Fimbulwinter is the "great winter" (literal translation) that precedes Ragnarok. The cause will be the release of what is, in 3E terms, a xixecal (cf Epic Level Handbook) that is the offspring of Auril and Kostchtchie and is otherwise a primordial (and probably just Rorn the Blazing Fury reskinned).

I found a thread once that talked about using the ancestor mounds of the Uthgardt as the focal points of a great ritual that holds an unnatural winter in check and that this is the purpose of the annual gatherings of these tribes. I could never find the thread again, and I didn't save the poster's name, but I'm using this as inspiration. One of the party's goals will be to stop the ancestor mounds from being corrupted. If/when they are corrupted, winter comes earlier and earlier culminating in the release of the imprisoned xixecal.

I also want to give the party the opportunity to release (an aspect of) Bazim-Gorag, the Firebringer, to buy some time but at a terrible cost. I'm not quite sure how this will play out yet but I will use the 3.5E adventure Prison of the Firebringer from Dungeon 101 (IIRC) as inspiration.

3.5E's DMGII also had a magical event called the Killing Frost of Ghulurak that will inspire something in this campaign. Perhaps that will be the name of the xixecal at a bare minimum.

In the end, three pieces of art will largely inspire the campaign:

-Wayne Reynolds' excellent piece picturing the winter witch from the 4E adventure Winter of the Witch from Dungeon 162;
- the picture of the ice-encrusted tower from Menace of the Icy Spire in Dungeon 159; and
- the picture of the xixecal in 3E's Epic Level Handbook.

 

[GuJiaXian]

I hadn't even really thought about using the xixecal as a focus (and thus bringing in the Elemental Chaos and the Primordials), but that's a good idea. I'd actually even thought about a half-fey white dragon (gotta use my garg. white dragon mini sometime), tapping into the ideas from <i>Winter of the Witch</i>. That adventure is higher-level, so perhaps I'll "reskin" some lower-level heroic adventures to ramp things up.

 

[Dausuul]

I am currently running a 4E campaign set in a homebrew Ice Age world. I can send you my campaign notes if you like, although I should warn you they're not nearly as polished as a published adventure; and I don't hand out XP based on monster kills, so I don't know if giving XP using the normal method would keep the party at the correct level for the encounters. Still, it's a quest that takes a group of PCs from 1st to 9th level in an arctic setting.

 

[GuJiaXian]

I am currently running a 4E campaign set in a homebrew Ice Age world. I can send you my campaign notes if you like, although I should warn you they're not nearly as polished as a published adventure; and I don't hand out XP based on monster kills, so I don't know if giving XP using the normal method would keep the party at the correct level for the encounters. Still, it's a quest that takes a group of PCs from 1st to 9th level in an arctic setting.

Please, toss anything you have my way (chris [at] kuglerworld [dot] com). At the very least it should get the creative juices flowing.

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

well

I think you should have a Heat Miser and a Snow Miser.

(from Wikipedia)

[Heat Miser] I'm Mister Green Christmas, I'm Mister Sun. I'm Mister Heat Blister, I'm Mister Hundred and One. They call me Heat Miser, whatever I touch... starts to melt in my clutch...I'm too much!

[Chorus] He's Mister Green Christmas, he's Mister Sun... he's Mister Heat Blister, he's Mister Hundred and One.

[Heat Miser] They call me Heat Miser, whatever I touch... starts to melt in my clutch.

[Chorus] He's too much!

[Heat Miser] Thank you. I never want to know a day that's under sixty degrees! I'd rather have it eighty, ninety, one hundred degrees!

[Heat Miser] (spoken):Oh, some like it hot, but I like it really hot! Hee hee!

[Chorus] He's Mister Green Christmas, he's Mister Sun.

[Heat Miser] Sing it!

[Chorus] He's Mister Heat Blister, he's Mister Hundred and One

[Heat Miser] They call me Heat Miser, whatever I touch... starts to melt in my clutch...I'm too much!

[All] Too Much!

Ken

 

[C_M2008]

I am currently running a 4E campaign set in a homebrew Ice Age world. I can send you my campaign notes if you like, although I should warn you they're not nearly as polished as a published adventure; and I don't hand out XP based on monster kills, so I don't know if giving XP using the normal method would keep the party at the correct level for the encounters. Still, it's a quest that takes a group of PCs from 1st to 9th level in an arctic setting.

Post it?