D&D 5E Running Rime of the Frost Maiden

[Eltab]

After you fight and slay some Yeti Tykes (even if in self-defense vs being eaten), seek out the cleric of a good-aligned deity or Nature deity. Confess your unrighteous deed and express your remorse / repentance. You might get a quest to aid somebody trying to do good*. The DM has an opportunity to re-introduce the old Atonement spell.

* DM can look up the rumor charts to see if your group missed anything, or create something based on events in your own game.

 

[Reynard]

After you fight and slay some Yeti Tykes (even if in self-defense vs being eaten), seek out the cleric of a good-aligned deity or Nature deity. Confess your unrighteous deed and express your remorse / repentance. You might get a quest to aid somebody trying to do good*. The DM has an opportunity to re-introduce the old Atonement spell.

* DM can look up the rumor charts to see if your group missed anything, or create something based on events in your own game.

If you are into that sort of thing, that's not a bad idea. But for my table I think it is better and more fun to just remove the whole "should we kill these children?" conundrum.

 

[Eltab]

If you are into that sort of thing, that's not a bad idea. But for my table I think it is better and more fun to just remove the whole "should we kill these children?" conundrum.

I agree.

A table that thought "set the Horror to 11" and found out the hard way that's not the experience they want after all, should have a way to reset the dial - both in-game and out-of-game.

 

[Reynard]

I agree.

A table that thought "set the Horror to 11" and found out the hard way that's not the experience they want after all, should have a way to reset the dial - both in-game and out-of-game.

That's a good point. We tend to talk a lot about Session 0 and less about Session 11. What I mean is, you don't necessarily know what is going to turn out to be trouble, and we need tools to deal with that trouble.

Of course open and honest communication is the best tool, but that's not always what happens in real life. Some people have trouble speaking up or otherwise trying to communicate discomfort -- especially if it is one they didn't know they possessed. And while everyone at the table is responsible for everyone else's enjoyment, it really falls on the GM to manage these things. And sometimes it is the GM that is uncomfortable and doesn't know how to communicate it.

Role playing is intimate. It is based on the idea of sharing our fantasies with one another. It isn't just another game. We should take care to remember that as we play, especially when questionable content comes into play.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Darker character secrets

I am trying to make secrets darker to have an adventure closer to the horror theme than the usual adventure. I feel secrets goes from interesting to goofy, and but could be modified to fit to better to a grim tone. I am not sure I'll be using them all but here's what I came up with.

Alagondar's scion

OK, so you're the heir to a royal bloodline. Too bad, you won't profit from it within the context of the adventure. Right now, the regent will want you dead instead of putting you on the throne... Those regents, really... It's good, but it is not connected to the adventure. Suggestion is to send an assassin after the player. An assassin is CR8. As the players has no hint on how to identify the assassin, he'll probably be surprised by the attack. Basically, he could be attacked with advantage, all hit being criticals, with damage being therefore 10d6+3. Or the assassin could first strike from a distance, doing 1d8+3+7d6 per round until the group finds from where he strikes and cover the distance. A hand crossbow can strike from 96 meters away. That's not terrifying, that's just unfair, especially if you unleash the assassin too early at the party. Unless you play him dumb, which the GM shouldn't for an enemy with superior intelligence, he'll have ample time to prepare, won't fight to the death but will simply concentrate on his quarry and flee to get his bounty after his deed. No need to spread damage on the whole group.

However, being hunted can be very satisfying to instill fear within the player. I'd improve this secret with several steps:
1. Make the player aware that the track has started. The PCs will find a poster with the face of Lurchgard "the Cat" in the town they visit, with a bounty of 100 gp, all that the Council can afford. He was seen unboarding a small supply ship from Neverwinter. His reputation can be either known to a PC with an adequate check (with advantage for people with eithr noble or seedy background...) to be a sadistic assasin, with a flawless track record, and the tendancy to play with his victims, hence his nickname. With some luck, the PC will mistake him with Sephek Kaltro, but the character with the secret will connect the dots. Will he reveal himself to his party members, whom he knows from very little time? Is that safe? Make it known that the killer will be closer as they make themselves known and identifyable... as the first part of the campaign rely on building a reputation for the group, it might be worrying when they hear town crier saying everywhere that they solved one or more of the small missions... Have a first encounter with Lurchgard botched. He jumps on them out of nowhere, while in town, but after round 1 he decides to flee because a group of guards just wandered by. Make it clear he's concentrating on his quarry (even if he drops his target with damage on round 1, the rest of the party should prevent death before the third failed death save). But being hit with a truckload of d6 at level 2 or 3 should frighten the players. Have another encounter with him be indirect. He could bribe a child to deliver a note to the PC, telling him he knows he survived and he will kill him. Third attack will be indirect as well, maybe through poisons. 5e assassins use a 7d6 poison damage, why not poison the food the players will enjoy? After all, do players regularly cast the puny 1st level Purify food and drinks when having lunch? Well, even if they succed a DC 14 Survival check to notice the odd taste and spit the food (2d6 damage only for them) and warn their friends (3d6 damage for them...) they probably will. Third attempt will be sabotage. When the PCs will travel between two safe areas, they'll cross some pass with snow... who wouldn't like an avalanche? Lurchgard will just be there blowing a horn of avalanche he got blessed just for his purpose. I'll make avalanche deadlier as well because right now the weather in general is just a mild inconvenience for heroes, but that's enough for now. Lurchgard will of course be there to "help the characters as they emerge from the snow (but, to make the fight not-unwinnable, he'll have spend all of his poison on the food last time and will only rely on sneak attacks made toward character who emerge painfully from under the snow... Of course, Lurchgard's dying words will be "my brothers will avenge my death". He's wearing a tattoo of the Brotherhood of Bhaal... (No further assassination attempt will be made at the players during the adventure, but why waste a perfect opportunity to instill paranoia?

Doppelganger

Two freebie at-will power: detect thoughts and taking the appearance of an humanoid. That's pretty useful in an investigation or infiltration scenario... but it's not horrific. Unless the PC is warned that the population of the Dale will kill any doppelganger on sight. A very easy Intelligence (history) check for outsiders, and a common knowledge from local, is the story of the doppelganger who usurped the identify of the speakers in the past and weakened the unity of the ten-towns at a critical moments in history, only to be defeated by a past hero... the old laws putting any doppelganger to death is still prevailing. Inform the PC that the GM is keeping track of "discovery points". When they reach 10, everyone in the Dale will be hostile unless the characters saved a town from destruction by the chardalyn dragon, in which case this town will tolerate the doppelganger's party. Outing is secret to fellow PCs grants 3 notoriety points, using the power grants 1 if they a good at minimizing consequences, up to three (impersonating an authority figure who will then deny having been here or done what they did). Informe the PC of how much points he has accrued. Do not inform him on how much points the tracks has before his identify is outed and everyone turns hostile. At some points along the track, have town criers shouts doppelganger's warning and have people in the town ask them a few questions "to make sure they are not doppelgagners impersonating the new heroes of the dale"... You get cool powers, but you'd better not be caught using them. Of course hostility shouldn't be equal to outright attack (it would make the campaign unplayable if the character suddenly decides to transform in the middle of the town square on market day) but a lot of suspicion and accusation of being in league with the malediction affecting the dale.

Drizzt fan

Well... That's perfectly in line with the horror theme. I'd consider dropping it altogether. Unless one is holding a piece of his signature cloak. It's an object linked to him, so it's a crucial component for a ritual based on sympathic magic to affect Drizzt. He's after all the local hero and he hasn't been acting to do anything to help. Build and reinforce the idea that the cloak is a prized possession of the PC, then make him choose if he will abandon it to be burned in an attempt to make an specialized ritual to bring Drizzt back to the Dale. Except of course Drizzt is still under the influence of the demons summoned to the underdark. How will the character react when he expands his most prized possession only to discover that the hero he believed in is totally uninterested and sends a demonic panther across the portal to punish the one who dared to disturb him from his more pressing matters? The problem is... the PC's fandom will have very few opportunity to arise in play, as it's forced upon him through out-of-camera background, so there will be very little attachement to drizzt in the first place.

Elusive Paramour

The Calishite got news of the disaster happening the dales. Out of solidarity, they sent a ship full of provisions. By 1489, the pasha are supposed to be deposed and the human slaves should have overthrown them... Former slaves felt they could spare some of the Calishite wealth by sending some supplies to help other afflicted humans... Except of course the PC don't know how the political situation evolved. Have the population rejoice at the news of a merchantman bound for the Dale from Calimport, even if the report from Luskan (Sending-made) mentionned a ship full of heavily armed soldiers... (it's just to ward off pirates...). At some point, the character should have the opportunity to discover the truth (either by inquiring about Calimshan and exapending significant ressources into it or maybe by being found by a calishite in the ten-town (a rare sight that should make the players worry). The investigative player could have the opportunity to learn about the exact time of his arrival. In the Id Ascendant, the PCs could discover an holographic representation of the icewind dale, a tool used by nautiloid during their hunting raids for brains. They have a "sentient" radar and on this map, the calishite ships can be picked up. The ceremorph could be convinced, if helped with a psi cristal, to destroy the ship from above on their way to the stars. The idea here is to tempt the players to prevent a future problem by blasting the ship on the basis of too little information and assumption, to make them realize later (survivors will arrive in Bryn Shander on a raft) that their suspicion were not grounded and they killed many sailors for nothing and preventing a relief ship from arriving in the Ten Towns... If the situation is tense enough and the players paranoid about everything, they could tend to think "better safe than sorry"...

[rest of it later, as it's awfully late already]

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Escaped prisonner

Ties with the previous. But why remove all element of an horror story by giving knowledge of the Nautiloid and stopping there. The character has no memory of his life but is "from another world". Basically, the horror of the situation is that even if benefits from a greater restoration to recover his memories, he'll just remember... his family and life in another world, which he'll have no way to get back to. Unless he bargains with the cerebromorph for a ticket back home, effectively removing the character from play. It's an opportunity for a tough choice, but sake-of-play will make forsaking his friends and family easier for the player than the character. Either make the character a local, so he'll have the opportunity to be recognized by some, maybe he was trapper near the crash site, the first to arrive and he was taken prisonner a few days before the cerebromorph had to deal with the prison bay malfunction, allowing him and the bulette a way out, so you can have some people recognize him in the setting from his life before. And make several rumors about a person like him being a bad guy so the players will have an incentive to cure the memory problem (which may tend to be ignored as soon as play starts). So the player will want to know what happened because they may get information through the memories, but what if their friend remembers in fact being the Right Hand of Aurile? Or merge this secret with the Slaad one, except it's an illithid tadople.

Littlest Yeti

You're the only one who knows Yeti are sentient beings. They didn't "mistake" your from one of their own, they are not stupid. They saved you out of compassion, because they found your cradle among the rest of an avalanche-stricken caravan you tried to cross the peaks too early, decades ago. They debated what to do with you, now that the "baby human" problem was no more theoretical and decided you could be raised as a nice person despite being a human/elf/dwarf... Everyone outside the character thinks yetis are beasts and hunt them for fur, meat and bones. Make it especially clear that nobody ever thought that the yeti were just defending their territory and attributes their hatred to being creature of Aurile. Of course, the yeti worship her, because they pray for deliverance from the Ten-Town plague encroaching their lands... This way, you can have fight with Yeti tykes with full player knowledge. You can even have the tykes (who will certainly flee when getting a scratch (ouch, that hurts)) try to grapple the character away to help him back from the slavers who obviously captured him...

Midwinter Child

As an aside, you'll die if Aurile dies. This shouldn't be a surprise from the player... Introduce the fact that midwinter children died en masse the last time Aurile was removed from the world, during the Time of troubles, when the character investigate something like the Hall of Memories in Easthaven (an history museum/sage gathering place) or learn because they want to investigate the reason Sephek Kaltro was able to avoid the effect of the cold and if there are other powers he could display. Learning that last century a decent number of people just died instantly, their souls ripped off, and they all had in common this trait should make the players interested into finding other ways around Aurile. Or allow a grand sacrifice of the PC dealing the killing blow as the climax of the campaign.

Old Flame

Of course, have the character declares that the first time the NPC is met, and before his intentions are known... That's an amusing opportunity for roleplay. I'd keep that without change.

Orc Stone

A free 3 uses magic item. Not very interesting. Unless the third time, the spirit summoned is the soul of the orc chief the character saved, bound to the stone after using it three times himself. That's how the stone acquires souls to recreate, by feeding on them and preventing them to go the the realms of Kelemvor. The only chance to lift the curse will be for the character to gift the stone to someone else who will use it three times before the character dies. Another PC, maybe, or an NPC they could trap to do exactly that... Will they protect them at the expanse of a poor schmuck? Will they make an elaborate setup against an evil NPC?

Owlbear Whisperer


Pirate Cannibal

Reghed Heir

Reincarnation

Ring Hunter

Runaway Author

Slaad Host

Firstly, it's too easy to remove the tadpole. Any effect that cure disease is Lesser restoration (available at level 3), purchasable in the first town the character starts in. Worse, if there is a Paladin in the party, it can use 5 HP of his LoH pool to remove any disease. Your secret is best outed in the first seconds of the game "well met, knight of Lathander, I do suffer from a curse, would you like to heal me?" Discard your secret card.

This is obviously not the best way to run this secret. First, the character doesn't know about the problem. Make him suffer from sudden violent pain attacks (enough to give him disadvantage on the check or incur a level of exhaustion) whenever he rolls a one. Openly track the number of time this event occurs (it doesn't matter, but it will make the players think there is a ceiling). Have the nights be time where the players wake up in the morning with blood in his mouth (ideally, they should tie that to lycanthropy... especially if the DM mentions the phases of Selûne in his description of the perpetual IWD night. And introduces lycanthropes into the story. The players should first investigate about this strange affliction, then try to find a way to cure the PC. Will they let a gnome try his experimental tumor-remover on the character? So far it was a resouding success, despite none of the patient surviving the therapy. Will they bargain with the knights of Levistus? Will they make a deal with the cerebromorph who knows a lot about inserting tadpoles? I good and horrific solution would be to let the character know that there is no solution to his curse. However, since death is frightening in real life but a minor inconvenience in the realm, the spell Revivify (3rd level) can be used to bring the character back once his chest has burst open to release the slaad. The best way to deal with the curse would be for the slaad to emerge in a controlled environment, with a priest able to cast the spell nearby and a team to deal with the slaad (either a blue CR7 or a green CR8 if the character is a spellcaster). Of course, how to hasten the growth of the tadpole (nurturing your innner slaad...) is knowledge the characters should hunt for/bargain for.

Spy

An excellent link to provide some information on why the higher power players in the forgotten realms don't intervene. The "divinely inspired" is already explained, but there are arcane powers and plain physical hero who could feel an interest into helping. Interestingly the Harpers sent someone to generally monitor the safety of the IWD, not to specifically enquire into the situation. Obviously something is off as very few helpers inquired into what is obviously a world-changing event (the sun no longer rises for two years in some place). Uncovering another part of Aurile scheme to isolate the Dale should start by investigating why the Harpers didn't notice the messages they got from Beldora.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Slaad Host (continued)

The module proposes that the slaad burth forst during the test of isolation. "Hey, Jim, nice you could make to the game... let's start where we left last week, you were in the test of isolation... suddenly a slaad explodes from Hurlaxes' chest. Roll initiative. BTW Jim, no replacement character will be able to be introduced while the character finish exploring Aurile's lair, which could be a memorable event in the adventure. That's... sad.

Owlbear Whisperer

Tough one. So you have a knack with Owlbears. I don't know why it would even be a secret. Do "dog persons" in real life hide that fact? OK, it's not exactly a wild animal, but I can't fathom why one wouldn't want to mention it. It's a kewl power! I can see a "fun side" where the players is tempted to confess the group (composed of a cannibalist pirate, a doppleganger and a secret cultist of aurile) "I have a dark secret to tell you... I have a knack with taming owlbears".

Pirate Cannibal

This is the only reference to subsistence cannibalism in the module. And it's sad. If your group has is strongly biased against anthropophagy themes, iit could lead to intra-party conflict and should be avoided in the game. On the other hand, if your group is OK with that, so much more can be done with it, but in that case it wouldn't make the pirate secret a strong secret. I'd remove the cannibalism aspect. Pirates were hanged, historically, that's a good reason for one not to arrive in the Ten-Town saying "Hello, I am a pirate and if your food shipments are late, it's because me and my crew often plunder them!" Making it a basic "I'm a pirate" secret is good enough. You will be hunted if discovered. Better give a "bonus side" (information on the Dark Duchess) and a penalty side on top of the difficulty to explain the source of this knowledge to the rest of the party. Maybe rewrite the story to say that you're the legitimate owner of the Dark Duchess and its legitimately plundered riches (that could even be a STARTING QUEST, just emphasizing that the player would need a strong party to recover the treasure...) but you really don't know where it is exactly, only the general areas. Complications could arise as... the crew traveled north and disbanded... taking a few prisoners with them for food in case things went awry... they drew lots on whom to eat each day, and
when they crossed a road and found a way to get to civilization, they still had a a survivor. They offered him a chance to live, calling him "Lucky" and sent him on the other way from the road. Lucky survived to get back the Ten Town as well and could recognize the character. It wouldn't need to be a real threat, but the prospect of meeting Lucky again should frighten the character. Pirates being democratic, they voted on whether to eat prisonners, and so the player isn't forced to accept a character eating people. He could even try to reach for Lucky and apologize, on the risk of being discovered himself. A cool complication could be at Revel's End if the character investigate there, they could be noticed by an inmate, a former pirate who was sent there until his trial because the Ten Towns had other, more pressing matters to deal with. He could threaten the characters to reveal who their friend is really, and want them to organize his escape in exchange for his silence. For an added moral difficulty, said pirate could be the one who voted AGAINST eating people and was in the minority, along with the PC if his player chooses that. Will the PC let Prisonner 299 risk revealing their dark secret? Will they risk standing against the most powerful force in the Dale to free him?

[Revel's End has many problem, ranging from the fact that it's obviously in regular (monthly at least?) contact with all sort of political powerhouse ranging from Mithril hall to Waterdeep to Silverymoon... and failed to report somehow about the sun not rising, to the fact it's the holding a garrison of 75 veterans, which is a combined firepower superior to the rest of the Ten-Town combined together... but I have ideas for grim-ify them and the tall tells, as well].

Reghed Heir

You were sacrificed to Aurile and survived. Mommy won't be pleased to learn that. Two ways to deal with that:

a) Aurile wanted a sacrifice and the goliath druidess defied her. The character should reasonably be hunted by Aurile's fury ever since. I'd make the character especially sensitive to cold damage, especially likely to be attacked by the beasts and so on... until he discovers the truth about the circumstances around his abandonmnet and try to Atone, as in the former edition spell. It would make interesting for the player to try to appease Aurile WHILE fighting her (like when the Greek were fighting Apollo around Troy, including physically, but atoned for them behaviour insulting Apollo's priest Chrises). A druid of Sylvanus could be the information provider on the origin of the curse and let the player have the choice... live with it or... maybe kill a "draft evarder" in Bryn Shander? Make it a very bad guy to help ease the consciousness of the player... but it's cold-blooded murder anyway.

b) Aurile accepted the sacrifice and sent Oyaminatok to save his protégé, that she adopted as a mystical child after being abandonned by his blood mother. The character is consecrated to Aurile ever since. I'd make the character enjoy the same benefit as a Midwinter child and make him able to CONVINCE the goddess to leave by making a plea for the inhabitants of the Dale at the end of the heroic journey to her lair. The same Sylvanus druid could recognize Auril's heir among the character's group. Only him could implore Auril to move norther to preserve the beauty of the world (by freezing it more) elsewhere. She could however still ask for something, and she would certainly hate the idea of the Ythryn mythallar being reactivated as it could be used to stop winter altogether at some place. She could task her mystical son to destroy it, enticing the characters to continue the adventure after her encounter with Auril (which, knowing players would probably result in an hostile confrontation and the removal of the curse...)

Reincarnation


It should be linked more to the story to be meaningful. Let's look at the causes of death: avalanche, murdered by goblins, murdered by yetis, murdered by white dragon, murdered by a trout, sacrificed to Aurile in Targos, murdered by a doppelganger, murdered by a moose.

So you died, and reincarnated. You are free to chose your life prior to your death, and the subsequent reincarnation occurred to recently for your new form to have an impact. So basically, this secret is of no impact on your background: you (maybe) changed race at some point, but you could have been raised from the dead (an not uncommon occurrence in the Realms). Why would it be a secret? "I have a dark secret to tell you, my friends, and I hope you'll not see me in a bad light after this but... I had my tonsils out".

I wouldn't keep "murdered by a doppelganger" if there is a player with the doppelganger secret and I'd want to avoid intra-party conflict. It's too easy to devolve into a "you killed me, prepare to die". If the players are on board, it could be interesting to have one of them having an interest into keeping the presence of doppelgagner unknown and the danger to have an hostile doppelganger at large. It would be necessary to have a doppelganger subplot with a specific goal to be foiled. The Zhents could have sent him to help, including removing the Harper's spy who could be transmitting informations (and potentially target the potential Harper's spy among the group, to make it more personal).

Coming back from the dead after being sacrificed to Aurile would be fun, it could be treated like the Reghed Heir case. It would also introduce a nuance into the human sacrifice conundrum. If sacrificed people are taken into Aurile's care and actually better off being dead, it's debatable whether it is moral to prevent sacrifices. And the character could have been sent back to be the herald of this piece of news. Of course, non-believers will abound. Whether the PC is right about the sacrifice is of course left to the DM...

Ring Hunter

Proposed use in the game: the character finds it in the ending banquet. As it's a secret he probably didn't mention it during the same, so 90% of the players will just end the campaign with a strange event where a party member chokes on a ring a decide to keep it as it was "a long lost family heirloom". I'd remove it altogether.

Runaway Author

Another variation of the "you're tracked by a powerful enemy". To make it distinctive from the two other ones, I'd emphasize the fact that their hunter is supernatural. The outraged nobles of Baldur's Gate have asked the infernal powers to hunt the author... I'd keep the idea from the module that the knights of Caer-Dinaval could help, because I like the idea of offering a pact with devils. I'd make the devils increasingly harassing : (a) the character could be warned of his impending doom by way of the 3 devils appearing in a mist forming out of a book (or a shelf of books) to tell him to prepare for his death, will say he'll be punished for his work as a writer. (b) Next time the character is in front of a book or in a library, they'll reappear and quote that "literature is the reflection of life" (Lewis Carol) animate a copy of the character out of the mist and fight him (use the character stats). (c) Next time, they'll quote that"literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it" (C.S. Lewis)... and make the reflection of the character formed by the mist and attack... with twice the HP and a fire-breath attack. (d) the devils will reapper, animate a copy of the character... and quote that "Literature is strewn with the wreckage of those who have minded beyond reason the opinion of others" (Virginia Woolf)... the copy flee, running to the town square to commit random murders of townspeople (especially fun if you established the doppelganger lore). At this point, the character will want to avoid seeing their reflection. Be sure to mention bookshelves in reflection, often and needlessly, in the hope that the poor writer will end up being a major book burner or avoid at all cost entering a room with books. At some point, the characters will be tempted to take the offer of the knights of Levistus who can then offer to lift the curse in exchange of a service. Or live miserably forever as writer, unable to approach books out of fear of being struck by the devils.


Having all character having meaningful secrets would make all of them grouping up together as heroes of the Dale unlikely... On the other hand, having an "interesting secret" and several "mundane secrets" may be less fun for those who didn't "get" the interesting one. But here are my ideas on how to darken the secrets. Do not hesitate to share ideas, on this theme or on how to darken the rest of the module!

 

[Eltab]

Ring Hunter
This ring is a really old heirloom of forgotten provenance - you can press it into some one doorway in Ythrin and the door opens. (Of course you have to find the ring before you reach the place.) One of the surviving inhabitants recognizes the ring and thinks you must be the Rescue Party they have been waiting for. Or maybe the Boss recognizes his old friend's - or rival's - insignia; he wants to know how you came to have the ring and what happened to (what you did to) the original owner.

 

[jasper]

The person murdered by the white moose. Murdered the White moose last week.

 

[Eltab]

The person murdered by the white moose. Murdered the White moose last week.

My name is Inego Montoya. You killed my former self. Prepare to die.