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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 5087000" data-attributes="member: 63">[sblock]The river is freezing because Pilus, the same mage who created the hurricane over Seaquen, and who will show up in person in adventure 5, is using powerful magic to influence the weather. He's doing this to feign support of the Ragesians ("I'll keep the Dasseni buried under snow until your armies are in position.")Making the weather cold isn't particularly hard, though, because . . . I'm not sure I ever spelled this out in the 3.5 versions, but when the Torch of the Burning Sky was stolen and damaged, it created a rift to the elemental plane of fire in Sindaire, so heat is leaking through there instead of being spread evenly.[/sblock]But outrunning ice is cool, so there's no reason you have to start with the place frozen.Now I don't have the 4e version in front of me to compare notes, so I can't easily recommend how to handle some of the encounters they added in. However, I think "pirates" is the wrong term for thieves on a river. Pirate implies people who can sail out of range of pursuit, and that's just possible on a linear body of water. But you could easily have brigands who set up a long net in narrower parts of the river in order to catch barges, which they then row out to, rob, and then abscond onto land.Alternately, the bodies and government beat-down encounters could be the result of a similar 'dragnet.' The PCs are sailing through increasingly icy water (and in this case literally '[spoiler]a wizard did it[/spoiler],' so you can get away with some suspension of disbelief; maybe even point out to the PCs that the snow is tinged with a hint of magic), when they spot a body snagged against a tree branch near the edge of the bank. It bears royal colors, and it's surrounded by ice, though not wholly frozen in yet.Later they take a bend in the river and see a barge trying to flee downstream, which has gotten tangled in a massive sub-surface net. When they come upon the trapped barge, the Talon ride in, revealing concealed longboats that were hidden under tarps and brush. The PCs can decide whether to help, but either way they're going to have a hard time navigating further upriver due to the nets. The only passage would require cutting the nets, and that requires pissing off heavily armed men.</blockquote>

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