The Icewind Dale Chronicles (STK, LMoP, LoCS, Accursed Tower)

[Yenrak]

This will be a sort of campaign diary. My players do not read the forums so I'm not really worried about giving too much away.

It's going to be a sandboxy blend of The Lost Mines of Phandelver, Legacy of the Crystal Shard, The Accursed Tower (2E IWD module), and Storm Kings Thunder. Probably with the Sunless Citadel and Forge of Fury thrown in there too. I've got Homlett and Orlane transplanted into Ten Towns, too. So Elemental Evil and Dragons Cult (reptile god?) too.

Not sure what will happen. But that's part of the point.

If you have thoughts or suggestions, please chime in.

Here's the prelude I emailed them today.



PRELUDE: DREAMS OF ICE AND DRAGONS


Welcome to the Forgotten Realms.


You live on the western edge of the continent of Faerun. A place of many cultures and races, Faerun is dominated by human lands--kingdoms, city-states, carefully maintained alliances of well-armed rural communities. Interspersed among the lands of the human are old dwarven kingdoms, hidden elven enclaves, pockets` of gnomes, and shires of halflings. It is a faction-riven place, with the schemes of cults, guilds, wizards, secret societies, foreign powers, and competing ideologies contending for control and influence.

And, of course, there are monsters. Goblins bands stomp through the hills, orc tribes pour from mountains, trolls lurk in the fens, the woods are filled with dark things, giants crack earth as they bound across the land, swift shadows on the ground often signal some horror above--even dragons. And it is said that beneath the earth terrors unknown and unimaginable sliver and stalk.


Running along the Sea of Swords from north of the wealthy lands of Amn to the Sea of Moving Ice is the land of your home, the Sword Coast. In many people's minds, this is generally divided into two regions, the Western Heartlands and the Savage Frontier. The cities of Luskan, Neverwinter, Waterdeep, Daggerford, and Baldur's Gate abutt the windswept sea and form a sea-borne trading route threatened always by the threats of piracy on the waves and worse below.


You are not sleeping well. Your dreams are haunted by visions of the far north of the Sword Coast, a place called Icewind Dale. Freezing winds sweep across the tundra. The cold wasteland is stalked by dire wolves, Yeti, and ice goblins. Human tribes of barbarians follow herds of reindeer. Dwarves dig into the earth to find shelter from the biting wind, mining for iron and mithril. Behind walls, men cower and betray.


Fur-hooded figures move through cold shadows with malintent. Boats sink into a black lake. Dark glass pendants drape around necks. A dragon that seems to be made of bone and ice dives from above breathing blue fire. An icy White Witch commands dark arm reaching from the very earth. A black tower hovers above a frozen sea. The frozen dead lurch out of cracks in the earth. An icy wraith king commands an army of the undying.

Why these dreams of Icewind Dale? Is this a god whispering to you your destiny? A premonition? A warning?


What you know of Icewind Dale is not comforting. The Ten Towns clustered around three icy-cold lakes are the principal outposts of what passes for human communities, populated by folks feeling the more civilized lands to the south, some seeking freedom and some seeking wealth--many mad, on the run, foolhardy, or desperate. Even in summer, the roads are little more than tracks and in winter they often vanish entirely beneath the snow. The principal economy of the Ten Towns is based around fishing knucklehead trout, valued for their flesh but even more valuable for their bones, which the skilled craftsmen of the Ten Towns carve into beautiful pieces of scrimshaw that is as worth as much as gems and jewelry in the lands to the south.

You wake up shivering, your skin cold, teeth chattering, eyes bloodshot from cold winds, lips chapped. It's still summer.


The small bowl of water beside your bed appears frozen. You blink. The frost is gone. A trick of the light perhaps. But when you touch the water, it is chilled beyond reason.


Icewind Dale is far off and yet, in your sleep, the frozen land has reached out and grabbed hold of your mind. The cold beckons.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

I will be following this.

 

[pukunui]

Nice. I've just started a Legacy of the Crystal Shard --> Storm King's Thunder campaign myself!

 

[carolpegram]

Hey! Thanks for sharing this

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

Nice. I've just started a Legacy of the Crystal Shard --> Storm King's Thunder campaign myself!

And I'm planning this, so yep, perfect!

 

[Yenrak]

Before our games, I like to email the players with private background information they may have picked up that other players do not necessarily know. I used to do this in person during gaming sessions but these days everyone's time is short. Taking time away from everyone playing to walk through these scenarios with one player can eat up too much time.

Here's the background I sent out to Valindar, the first-level human wizard in the party.


--------------






You make your home in Waterdeep, the City of Splendors and Crown of the North. To all of Faerun, this great metropolis stands as the pinnacle of what a great city might be, in wealth, influence, and stability.



You recently completed an apprenticeship with an elderly wizard of Waterdeep, Gader Ringsberg Hurth. You learned from him and his second, Iarno Albrek, the ancient words and ways that allow you to manipulate the weave. Albrek was more than a teacher. He was a friend and a mentor. He took you under his wing, teaching you not just eldritch skill but also how to maneuver through the byzantine politics of Waterdeep’s scheming nobility and avaricious merchant class.



A year ago, however, Albrek left for Icewind Dale. His departure was sudden and unexplained. You missed his company and wondered why he did not invite you to come along on whatever adventure he was undertaking in that cold north land. Since he left, your dreams have been haunted by visions of that cold wasteland. Is it true they leave their dead standing, frozen statues during the winter because the ground is too hard to dig into? Why wouldn’t they just build mausoleums like civilized folks?



Now you are beginning to understand. You are sitting at a table at the Yawning Portal tavern across from a retired officer of Waterdeep’s City Guard, the soldiery of the City of Splendors, named Sildar Halwinter. You have met him a few times over the years because he had some association with both Gader Hurth and Iarno Albrek.



He tells you that Albrek went north at the behest of the Lord’s Alliance, a secretive coalition of rulers from cities and towns across the North. It turns out the Albrek has long been an agent of the Alliance and Hallwinter was his handler. Hurth too might have been an agent—Halwinter is vague about that. So you’ve been surrounded by secret agents of the Lord’s Alliance for years without ever having noticed. Stunning.



Albrek is missing. He has missed the last three intelligence reports, failing to send messages southward with merchants. Interviews with merchants reveal that no one has seen him in any of the Ten Towns of Icewind Dale.



Hallwinter is headed to Icewind Dale. He invites you to come along. He promises the Lord’s Alliance will pay you handsomely for your aid. In truth, that’s not necessary. You want to find your friend and are eager for adventure. But you learned enough about the ways of the world from Albrek not to turn down an offer of gold.



The plan is to sail north from Waterdeep to Luskan. There you will attach yourself to trade caravans headed north. The plan is to travel in different caravans. While there is safety in numbers, traveling together would concentrate risk. Traveling separately, if one of your caravans is lost, the other can still carry out the investigation and report back what has happened. You’ll also want to recruit a band of sell-swords in Luskan to help guard the caravans and perhaps aid in whatever you wind up encountering in the hunt for Albrek. But this could be dangerous. Luskan is infamous as a pirate city. You are not sure you can trust men-at-arms from City of Sails.



Fortunately, you have an old friend in Luskan, an Elven priest named Landon. Formerly based in Waterdeep, the cleric travelled north a few years ago in hopes of bringing the light of the elven faith to elves in and around Luskan. The night after your meeting with Hallwinter, you send a letter ahead of you asking him to recruit elven warriors. He wrote back with good news: he had just the crew for you. Four elves by the names of Walker, Jade, Silver, and Goldina, plus a half-elf named Arche.



“They are rogues and miscreants but they have good hearts and are honest despite themselves. Best of all, though, they are not in league with the Ships of Luskan. Quite the opposite. They are constantly running afoul of the Ships. So they may be rogues but they will be our rogues,” Landon wrote.



Hallwinter manages to arrange passage on a ship but time is short. Even if all goes well, you’ll arrive in Luskan with no time to lose. Caravan masters will be convening on the very morning you arrive, picking their crews, and scheduling their staggered departures. Apparently, they too believe that there is safety in division. Too many carts in one caravan makes for too inviting a target for the bandits, barbarians, and goblins who lurk along the way.


You write to Landon to say you’ll meet him and his gang at inn where they have been staying, a dive known as the Cutlass. You’ve never heard of it but from Landon’s description, you hope that if you have to stay in Luskan for any significant period of time you will be able to find a better quality of place to stay.

 

[Yenrak]

Here's background for the cleric character, an elf named Landon.





Luskan. Why did you ever come to Luskan?



A few years ago you were an up-and-coming cleric in Waterdeep, the City of Splendors and the Crown of the North. You were close to the high priest of Corellon, Del Silvermoon one of the most reknowned elves of the city. You assisted in the weekly worship and even ran annual retreat to the High Forest.



Your best friend was Valindar, a human wizard studying under Gader Ringsberg Hurth, an elderly but highly respected member of the magical community. Everyone said he was someone with a big future in Waterdeep. The two of you hobnobbed with the lesser nobility and got invited to the best feasts in the city.



While you liked the kindly Hurth, you definitely disliked his other apprentice, Iarno Albrek. He struck you as dangerously ambitious. He appeared to regard others as tools to use for his own ends. Worse yet, he was a bad influence on Valindar, who seemed blind to his fellow apprentice’s faults.



It was a good life. A comfortable life. A life that many in Faerun would have wished to lead.



Yet it struck you as shallow. The pompous nobles were hollow men. You felt a calling to serve Corellon by seeking out wayward elves in difficult circumstances. Elves whose faith was tested by trying times.



So you left Waterdeep. You wandered up and down the Sword Coast before settling in the pirate city of Luskan. Although it is known as The City of Sails, that name is much too glamorous for the dirty old town run by brigands and Vikings. It is a most unelven place—which is why you thought it would be the perfect place to bring the faith of Corellon to wayward elves.



That was two years ago. Your ministry has not quite been the success you had hoped for. Most elves in Luskan seem all too happy with the ways of the Ships and not interested in the teachings of Corellon. They have lost their way and show little interest in the maps that could guide them back to elvish bliss.



Yet while they lack enthusiasm for religion they are constantly in need of aid. You have become something of an advocate for Luskan’s elves, especially the more wretched and criminal elves of the city. You intervene when they run afoul of the Ships, defend them when wrongly accused, and attempt to mediate when conflicts arise. It’s not what you had imagined but it is holy service for Corellon.



And, surprisingly, it recently won you something of a congregation. You were called upon early one morning by Zingales Rye, an impoverished high elf who you had met a few times in the rougher parts of the city. She told you that all of her friends—a gang of elves and one half-elf—had been arrested after running a fixed card game on some particularly wealthy pirates. Bail had been set at a price Zingales could not afford. She asked for your assistance and even promised to pray daily to Corellon.



So you bailed them out of jail on the condition that they attend daily services to Corellon, obtain honest work, and reject their past as thieves, cheats, and con-artists. And that is how you found your first congregation. In addition to ZIngales, there is the sorcerer Goldina, the rogues Walker and Arche, and the warrior Sabrina. Their friend Silver, a halfling cleric, even attends your sermons, telling you that halfing gods are not jealous of elven gods. They find them funny.



While the worship has gone well, the work has not. You’ve struggled to find them honest work in Luskan and they’ve struggled to keep the jobs you’ve found for them. You refuse to give up hope but sometimes you wonder if the gods meant for some people to live dishonest lives. Certainly, honesty seems to come along with poverty for Zinglaes, Goldina, Walker, Arche, Sabrina, and Silver.



A few weeks ago, however, you received a missive from your old friend Valindar. He was coming to Luskan on his way to Icewind Dale. That cold, wild territory had been haunting your dreams for months. Now you recognized it as a sign from the gods. Valindar said he needed guards for a caravan he was leading to the Ten Towns—just the sort of honest work that might suit the Troublesome Six.



So you have gone to the Cutlass, the divey inn where the Troublesome Six have been staying, on the night before Valindar’s arrival. If you can only manage to keep them out of trouble until the morning, you are sure you can convince Valindar to hire the elven crew to protect his caravan.



Corellon works in mysterious ways.

 

[Yenrak]

If you are following this thread and have any thoughts, suggestions, requests, or questions, please let me know!

 

[Yenrak]

Let's Start in a Tavern



Hail and well met, travelers!

This is Faerun, a vast continent on the world of Toril. It is populated by many cultures and races but dominated by human lands, be they kingdoms, city-states, or carefully maintained alliances of rural communities. Interspersed among the lands of humans are old dwarven kingdoms, hidden elven enclaves, the shires of halfings, and glades of gnomes. It is a land of rich history,
wondrous tales of adventure and magic, and mystery.

Running along the Sea of Swords from north of Amn to the Sea of Moving Ice, the Sword Coast is a narrow band of territory dominated by city states that largely use the sea for trade. The names of the cities are well known—Waterdeep, the City of Splendors, Neverwinter, and Baldur’s Gate.

We start our story in Luskan, the City of Sales. Luskan is the northern most of the the free cities of the Sword Coast. Each of you once held a romantic image of Luskan as a magnificent port metropolis where bright sails of majestic merchant galleons greeted the dawn, and dashing swashbucklers met their rivals with a wink and the tip of the hat.

And then you came to Luskan. It’s a dirty old town. Filthy streets, squat buildings, ramshackle docks, creaky old longships, and crass pirates barely disguised as sea traders.

The city’s most prominent building is the Hosttower of the Archane, which stretches above the filth, fog, and stench of Luskan to corrupt the very sky. It branches into spires near its top, like some twisted, lifeless tree or a claw bursting out of the earth to choke the heavens. It is home to the Arcane Brotherhood, a league of wizards whose greed is exceeded only by their hunger for power.

Just a few years ago, the Arcane Brotherhood returned to the city. Their tower, which had toppled ages ago, seemingly sprang to life again, as if the ancient artifice had been brought forth from the depths of time. The Brotherhood cleansed the city of undead that were plaguing its ruins and fought off a dragon that attacked. They became heroes to the populace. And since they foreswore politics, the Captains saw them as no threat. There are a few Luskan folk, however, who worry about this powerful clique of allied wizards who have taken up residence among them.

Anyone who spends time in Luskan knows that it is controlled the Ships. The Ships are sometimes described by people who known little about Luskan as nothing more than bands of pirates. But they are much more. They are the thread and fabric, the warp and woof, of Luskan. The term Ships is a phrase of art. These are not single vessels but vast organizations owing allegiance to their fellow Shipmates and to their Captains, who are elected for life. Twenty years ago, the Captains rose up and overthrew the gangs that had run wild in the city, reclaiming their roles guiding the ship of state. They are the law, they are the sources of prosperity, and they are what makes Luskan what it is.


On this particular morning in spring, you make your way down the stairs of a seedy inn called the Cutlass. Seven of you—Sabrina, Walker, Arche, Jade, Zuckey, Goldina, and Silver—have been sharing a squalid room on the second floor. It only has one bed but money is running short and each night you draw high cards to see who will get the bed. Walker and Arche, for some reason, always win.

Your fortunes, however, may be about to take a turn for the better. Merchants are hiring guards for caravans to run up to Icewind Dale. In a city of pirates, sailors, and sea men, there is something of a shortage of folk willing to sell their sword to guard wagons of trade goods and migrants on the roads. Especially when those roads lead to Icewind Dale, where they say the wind goes right through you and the dead are left as icy statues on the plains because the frozen ground is so hard no graves can be dug.

Your friend Landon—who isn’t bad for a priest, to be honest--has secured for you an interview with one of the merchants who is running a caravan north. A wizard from Waterdeep named Valindar. He has agreed to buy you breakfast at the Cutlass. You are grateful for the free meal but you cannot help but wish it were coming from a better kitchen than what the Cutlass offers.

Landon is sitting with two other men in a booth in the far corner of the inn’s common room. Both are older than you thought they would be. One looks stronger, more rugged than you expected from a tradesman. The other, weirdly, looks softer, thinner, and more bookish than you thought a tradesman would look.

 

[Yenrak]

Session 1: The Luksan Troublemakers Journey to the Tomb of the Knights of the Blue Wyrm



Cast of Player Characters:

Arche Braverest: Half-elf Rogue.
Walker: Elven Rogue.
Sabrina: Elven Fighter.
Landon: Elven Cleric
Valindar: Human Wizard.
Ranbbain: Human Fighter.


The Story.

Arche, Walker, and Sabrina have been part of a band of trouble-makers who made their way to Luskan after wearing out their welcome in Mirabar. Their companions are Silver, Golinda, Zulkey, and Jade. They were all characters rolled up for one-off adventures that I've decided to include as NPC's in this campaign. All elves except Silver, who is a halfling cleric of Brandobaris, the god of halfing rogues.

They make their living as hustlers in card games. But after an attempt to cheat some of the wealthier locals out of their coin, the gang found themselves under arrest. An influential elven cleric named Landon bailed them out on the condition that they give up their roguery, find honest work, and pray daily to Corellon.

Landon's old friend Valindar has come to Luskan from Waterdeep. With him is Sildar Hallwinter. They are heading up to Icewind Dale to find out what happened to Iarno Albrek. The plan is to join a caravan headed north by hiring on as guards.

After a brief conversation in the Cutlass, they all go to the Royal Arms. Three caravan masters are hosting a breakfast there to recruit guards for upcoming journeys. The caravan masters are Artemus Bellwether, Roger Peddywinkle (both from 2E adventure The Accursed Tower), and Gundren Rockseeker (from Lost Mine of Phandelver). After some negotiations, the masters agree to hire everyone but the NPCs will be traveling in different caravans. The PCs all sign up with Peddywinkle's company.

After a few days, which the PCs use to acquire winter clothes and other supplies for the journey, Peddywinkle's caravan sets off. They meet the last PC, Ranbain, who has also signed up as a guard. The other two are already underway. It is expected to be a 20 days journey to Bryn Shander.

On the first night, Sabrina spots something large moving at the edge of the treeline. She wakes up the rest of the party and they spend a good deal of time debating what to do. Finally, Ranbain gets tired of the discussion, takes up a torch and runs for the treeline. Fortunately for him, it was just a few deer grazing. They quickly dart off.

The next night the head teamster tells them all the legend of the Blue Knights. A century ago, the road between Luskan and the Dale was plagued by a blue dragon. An order of knights dedicated themselves to chasing off the dragon. Surprisingly, they appear to have succeeded. The knights have long since vanished but recently locals have claimed to have seen blue cloaked knights moving through the forest. The teamster dismisses these as "ghost stories" and fables.

The next two days pass without incident. But shortly before the dawn of the fourth day, at the end of Walker's watch, one of the migrants traveling with the caravan is found near-death, his neck pierced by an arrow. Worse: his young son has been kidnapped. Gustav, the migrant, cannot speak because of his injuries so he cannot tell the party what happened.

Walker finds tracks leading off into the woods and the party pursues. They recognize the tracks as goblin tracks. But there is something else. A wagon, or a sled, that moved with the goblins. A mile or so into the woods, the forest becomes much less dense and the trees much younger. It is as if there were a clearing here once that has since been overgrown.

Near the center of the one-time clearing, a pair of goblins stands in front of the doors of what appears to be an old tomb. Walker and Arche, the rogues, try to sneak up on the goblins. But halfway to them, they spot a huge, ten foot tall blue cloaked figure moving toward them at rapid speed. It has an abnormal gait, seeming to slide or float rather than stride.

(At this point, the player running the wizard had to take care of something for work so I made his character mysteriously disappear. Perhaps lost in the woods? Wasn't Gandalf always kind of wandering off when he was needed?)

Landon the cleric charges the blue knight, throwing his hammer when he gets in range. It strikes the creature, who appears to be a very tall man, in its helmeted head--and the head falls off. An arrow fires out from inside the cloak, striking Landon.

The goblins spot the rogues and launch a volley of arrows, striking Arche. Arche fires back, killing a goblin with a single arrow to the head. She uses her movement to close in on the second goblin.

Walker changes direction and runs at the blue knight. He looses a fire bolt (cantrip) on the knight, lighting its cloak on fire. Out from under the cloak come two goblins, screaming and brandishing swords. Landon, Walker, Sabrina, and Ranbain all engage with the goblins, taking them down without too much trouble.

Arche, now in melee with the goblin in front of the door, gets stabbed in the same shoulder where she took an arrow. When the goblin tries to run down the stairs, however, she takes an attack of opportunity and kills the thing.

The blue knight turns out to be a mechanical contraption. A sort of bicycle topped with a scaffolding, draped with a cloak. The goblins use it to scare off anyone getting too close to their hideout.

The tomb entrance appears to be all that is left of a larger building that has long since collapsed. Beyond the doors, which are decorated in bas relief showing knights fighting a dragon, is a staircase leading down.

(Note: some of you may recognize what follows from the Delian Tomb adventure Matt Colville described in one of his early videos.)

The party goes down the stairs, battles the four goblins in the Offering Room, avoids the trap in the hallway, then confronts a bugbear and six goblins. Both Arche and Walker, the rogues, fall to the goblins. Landon tries to use Guiding Bolt on the bugbear but rolls a 1 to hit. So there are still four goblins and a bugbear and two players down. Total party kill became a real--and unanticipated--possibility. I really didn't want everyone to die on our first adventure. I seriously considered having the wizard show up in the nick-of-time to avoid TPK.

Fortunately, the two fighters rolled well and took down the bugbear and three of the remaining goblins. The last attempted to flee but was taken out by Landon throwing his light hammer. The young boy kidnapped by the goblins is discovered chained in a corner. The goblins were preparing to sacrifice him to "The Witch of the North," the boy reports.

They found the secret door. Couldn't figure out the riddle mystery but after some healing from the cleric and a short rest, the rogues got the door opened. Inside the tomb, they were attacked by three skeletons. It was a tough fight as everyone was still wounded and the cleric out of spells but the party prevailed. Inside the tombs, the party finds both a magic wand and a magic sword whose name--per the inscription on the blade--is Frostbite.

Back in the Offering Room, the party now takes the time to study the intricate bas relief carvings. They seem to tell the history of the Knights, who formed to fight a blue dragon but only really succeeded when they allied themselves with a figure who appears to be some kind of Ice Queen. So the Knights were somehow in league with the same creature that these goblins were preparing to sacrifice the boy to.

A joyous reunion back at the caravan camp and then it is time to resume the journey north. I think we played for about three and a half hours. Everyone appeared to have a good time and was particularly excited when I told them that when we play next they will no longer be novice adventurers. Welcome to Second Level!