I unexpectedly ended up running some episodes from Rime of the Frostmaiden while up at my cabin for a long weekend with another family who we've "bubbled" with. We had a two-day stretch of mixed rain and snow up in northern Minnesota where we decided that some off-the-cuff RPG time was the perfect way to spend the time by the fire. I had zero time to prep but had brought the book to finish reading and had a folder of character sheets and plenty of dice. That's enough for some gaming!
Full disclosure: I ran this using the
Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game ruleset (GURPS under the hood) because that's the system we all knew best. Normally I would spend a bit of time prepping ahead of time to make sure that encounters were balanced and thinking through how various D&D elements should work in DFRPG. With this one, though, I just opened the book and winged it completely, swapping GURPS skills in for various checks. My sense was that this would have played similarly in 5e, though some minor details would have differed.
The party of five included a human cleric, human knight (≈ST fighter), elf druid, catfolk swashbuckler (≈DX fighter), and faerie dragon wizard.
The backstory was that the group had convinced some whalers to head further north than they usually did, dropping the PCs off on the coast of Icewind Dale. We left open why they were heading north (could have been they were running from something or just in search of adventure). On the ship, they heard rumors about the unnaturally long winter and soon got to see the darkness and Auril's aurora for themselves.
I narrated the journey to Bremen because I wanted to get into the meat of the scenario. They spotted some threats that they were able to avoid and the biggest challenge was managing the cold. Fortunately, they had good winter clothing and some useful spells. They arrived in Bremen tired and cold, eager to upgrade their winter provisions with snowshoes, a tent, and fur bedrolls. The town was suitably depressing, and the group got lodgings with Cora Mulphoon and gathered some additional background information from her.
They rested for a night and then headed out in the morning to explore the town more fully. Fun roleplaying encounter with Grynsk Berylbore and Tali. The party agreed to go fishing and look for the monster of the lake. Because the faerie dragon is light and can fly, they opted for a single boat and convinced Berylbore to let them use the undamaged vessel. They dodged two of three ice floes and caught three of four knucklehead trout before they first encountered the beast. It tried to capsize their boat, but they made their group check. They immediately attacked the creature, but everyone missed, so it dove back into the deeps.
They continued fishing for a few more hours and then, on their way back to Bremen, they encountered it again. This time it splashed water into the boat. The druid was ready and used her speak with animals ability (a power that she purchased) to say hello. To everyone's surprise, it responded in the common tongue. A lengthy conversation ensued, with a number of very favorable reaction checks. They ended up learning about the frost druid.
[At this point, I accidentally departed from the adventure text. It seemed to me to make sense that Ravisin would meet with the plesiosaurus regularly to gather intelligence, reaffirm its mission to frighten the humans, and engage in a faux ritual of "continued awakening." I thought this was somewhere in the text, but upon rereading it later, I saw that I made it up.]
The party was very curious about all of this and managed to convince the beast that they were also servants of Auril and were hoping to join Ravisin in her quest to bring wintery misery to the region. After a critical success on their persuasion check, the beast agreed to meet them in two days' time to take them to the next rendezvous.
The party returned to shore, sold the fish to the dwarf, and gave Tali a notebook filled with druidic details. There were some more roleplaying encounters in town and the party managed to purchase some additional winter gear. Two days later, they met with the dwarf again but were only able to use the damaged boat. They smashed into some ice and got tail-slapped by a knucklehead trout, but then they met the plesiosaurus and followed it across the late. I placed the rendezvous north of Lonelywood along the forested coast, in a rocky cove.
Ravisin, being no fool, stays on the bluff above, keeping an eye out on the approach. When she saw the boat, she immediately cast fog cloud to obscure the area. As an invisible voice in the fog, she admonished the plesiosaurus for betraying the Frostmaiden's trust. The beast pled the party's case, at which point Ravisin asked the PCs to speak for themselves. They played up the fact that they were servants of the Auril, summoned from far away lands. Ravisin found this interesting but didn't trust them. She demanded a test of their loyalty. She told them to row north to Lonelywood and befriend the speaker. They should accept lodging in the attic. They would receive further instructions in the evening. The party agreed and proceeded north.
There was some fun roleplaying with fisherfolk along the docks in Lonelywood and the party quickly became aware of the threat of the white moose. They proceeded to the speaker's house and were charmed by Nimsy Huddle's warmth. They spent the day sharing stories with her, helping around the house, and playing with the kids. (They were pretty psyched to have an elf, catfolk, and faerie dragon in their house!) The party ingratiated themselves so well that Nimsy invited them to have dinner with the family. It was a meager meal, of course, but cheerful. Until, at last, Nimsy brought up the moose and asked if the party could help. They immediately agreed.
Shortly after heading up to the attic for bed, they heard a scratching on the window. Opening it, a squirrel came in and delivered a message: "The Frostmaiden demands that you burn this house down tonight with all who dwell within. In twelve hours, enter the forest to be rewarded."
The group spent quite some time debating this instruction. They wanted to fake join the cult so that they could track down Auril and put an end to things, but they couldn't bring themselves to murder a family of adorable halflings. Ultimately, the swashbuckler (their best sneaky type) stayed at the inn to start a fire in the basement and then rescue the family. They weren't sure if this would work, but it might. Meanwhile, the rest of the party decided to forego sleeping and hunt for the moose immediately, in hopes that it might be connected with the druid. The swashbuckler would wait eight hours before starting the fire.
After about three hours (and one wrong moose), the party spotted the fox and hare. The druid convinced the fox to take them to the lair of the white moose. Another two hours later and they came upon the hidden tomb. They charged right in, encountering the moose inside. After a furious battle, they vanquished the beast and began exploring. [Note that I think it is kinda silly that Ravisin waits in her dead-end room for the party to come for her. The magical door does provide some protection, but without an escape route, she is cornered. If I run this again, I'll either have her come out to join the moose battle (hopefully with surprise) or add a secret passage or something to make it more interesting.]
The party found the two doors but couldn't immediately figure out how to open them. The faerie dragon cast detect magic which revealed the enchantment on the mirror. After some thought, they went back outside and investigated the moondial. Eventually, they figured out what needed to happen and tried various techniques to shine the moonbeam on the right spot. They eventually settled on a mirror (that the cleric carried) to deflect the beam to the right spot.
The faerie dragon attuned herself to the mirror and attempted to see Ravisin. They recognized the style of architecture of the tomb immediately and decided that she must be hidden behind one of the other two doors.
We ended here, sadly, but hope to wrap things up in another week or two.
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Overall, we had a ton of fun. As you can see, we started with the adventure as written and then quickly went in new directions. (That's the fun of it!) The module provided plenty of material to support this, and the setting was evocative. I'm looking forward to jumping back in soon. (I'm glad I get time to prep for the battle with the druid.)