Tundra Encounters

[steeldragons]

Just reiterating the notes to make the weather and the terrain adversaries all their own...encounters across the arctic region should be relatively rare, but the danger/threat/lethality of simple exposure is omnipresent.

For encounters:
Snow swept areas/arctic foothills/etc...
1.Remorhaz is an absolute must in my book.
2. Frost giant(s). Maybe a lone hunter riding a mammoth. Maybe a whole band going off to war with some local dwarves (or coming back from one... with slaves in tow?). Maybe find yourselves in the heart of a large community.
3. Winter Wolves and/or Hoar Foxes
4. Yeti(s)
5. White Dragon(s)...maybe fully grown and thoroughly annoyed at the vastly superior crystal dragon it knows to be far to the north.
6. White Pudding.

For actual "tundra" terrain.
1. Herd animals -elk, caribou, reindeer, musk ox/yak, if you use pre-historic creatures then sure, throw in the wooly rhinos, mammoths, mastadons, dire elk (I forget the name for those extinct huuuuge antlered elk)
2. Predators- wolves (normal, dire, winter, a pack of all three?), foxes (normal, dire, or hoar), giant/dire snow owls, LYNX! (a personal favorite normal or giant)...how 'bout gryphons whose front half are white-speckled falcons instead of eagles?
3. "Barbarian" hunters: 3d6 human barbarian hunters (or 'berserkers" if you like) from some local tribe.
4. "Snow Gnomes": a community of gnomes (give them an Inuit flavor if you like) who ride giant snowshoe hares and live/work with the hares and large community of some lemming/marmot/can't think of the name of the tundra version right now. But those large-numbering burrowing prairie dog type things. Them.
5. I'm just thinking in a region that has large herds of edible treats, the biiig scale predatory monsters would most likely move in during the seasons of high population. So things like the Bulette (LOVE the "snow bulette" idea in the post above), again the Remorhaz, maybe some daring ankhegs (who only come into the perimeter regions of the tundra during the summer months when the ground is softer), a "tundra" umber hulk?
6. Ice Trolls (and/or Frost Giants), again, coming out of the hills to take advantage of the abundant spring/summer hunting.

Keep in for tundra/arctic animals (and fantastic creatures for that matter, if you like), if you are doing this in "spring/summer" months fur and feathers will be in their (primarily) brownish summer coat versus late summer/fall when everyone's coats start to go mostly or totally white.

I am also reminded of a japanese legend about a spirit "snow woman" who preyed on travelers in the winter/snowy places. Basically, led them back to her house, gave them a fire and warm beds and then killed them in their sleep. You could make this an actual "evil spirit" or perhaps a vampire or go less undead and make her an 'arctic fox'woman complete with magic charm ability and such...but I can't recall her actual name...or if there was ever a D&D equivalent creature...

ANYwho, have fun and happy tundra-combats
--Steel Dragons

 

[steeldragons]

One more completely ORIGINAL idea...

How about a tribe of elk-riding elfkimos in an age old war with ice trolls who are trying to get through the ice troll mountain kingdom to reach their ancestral home...

Wait...ok, maybe not a comPLETEly original idea.

How's this? There's this witch...a "white witch", let's say...she's blanketed the land in an endless winter...anyone who resists her rule gets turned to stone and...hang on...this sounds familiar too for some reason. hmmmm.



Well, have fun with it whatever you decide.
--SD

 

[TarionzCousin]

dwarves + dire vodka.

fifm.

 

[I'm A Banana]

So, given the preponderance of "big, shaggy mammals," how would you differentiate between them? What makes the big difference between Dire Elk, Woolly Mammoths, Grizzly Mastodons, and all the other big largely inoccuous herbivores who are likely to stampede? And between dire bears, polar bears, dire wolverines, dire wolves, and winter wolves, what makes a different kind of "predator" encounter? How would you distinguish between various "arctic race" encounters?

Any more detail on some fey ideas? I figure an area of untouched, pristine wilderness is probably an ideal place for a fey spirit, especially in the middle of a lightless arctic winter.

I'm getting some cool ideas, but they need a bit more flesh on 'em...

Thanks so far, great stuff, keep it coming!

 

[Gilladian]

Any fey encounter I would probably model on the idea of the rusalka or the will-o-wisp - a creature that lures prey into dangerous situations to devour their life-force.

Or they could simply be small helper/hinderers much like brownies or pixies; they have no interest in the human purpose for being there; they help or hinder based on their own amusement.

Quasi-elemental fey who are part of the ice and cold could be really fantastic - they again have no understanding of the human need for warmth and shelter, but might be led to being helpful if their own needs are understood.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

I could see fey connected to slumbering creatures, possibly as protectors or as an extension of their dreams. There might be little feral fey-- toothy and fierce-- running around accumulating food for their charge, maybe in snares or pits. These little buggers would trap prey, but keep it alive through winter so their guardian... dire bear, maybe?... can have a nice breakfast when he wakes up.

Aurorae fey might be really spacey. Maybe they're enamored of strange colors and express themselves in weird slow, undulant dance like the wintery lights that give life to them. An encounter with them would likely be trippy rather than combative.

A conclave of will'o'wisps might be a power center of the tundra, perhaps rivaling even the crystal dragon. Perhaps they, too, read the stars... or maybe they use other means of divination: crystalmancy, casting of bones (but only adventurer's bones will do!), auroramancy, reading snowflakes like tea leaves, or the like.

Sleepy bracken faeries might go scurrying when a horse steps into a moss-filled depression on the frozen moor. Warmth faeries might slink through the night stealing the heat from sleeping adventurers' toes. Ice fey might delight in pouring out and freezing PCs' waterskins-- or the innards of their mounts!

As for the animals, you might just split them into four broad groups and run/anticipate just one or two encounters for each type. First are the lone hunters, a very rare but dangerous breed-- likely something weird, such as an aberrant sabre-toothed cat/displacer-beast hybrid, a behir, a grumpy cave bear with indigestion (or night terrors!), and those sort of things.

The next group is the pack predators: wolves and the like. They could easily becombined with a herd animal encounter, as well as being a menace in their own right. You could include especially primitive or ferocious humanoid hunters in this group, I suppose.

Next are the 'normal' herd animals (in tundra areas, this is probably going to be reindeer or something similar). These will be fairly common; on the rare occasions they're a threat, it'll likely be because they stampede or something. Maybe tie a stampede to an attack by pack predators, just to complicate things.

Finally will be the BIG herd animals: the mastadons and the like. Like their lessers, they might stampede when attacked by pack predators or hunters. However, an interesting encounter might happen on occasion with just one or two of them: an abandonee, a sick baby and protective mother, or the like. A cliche prehistoric encounter might be a mammoth caught in a bog or tar pit: trapped and scared and therefore dangerous.

And of course, in fantasy land you can layer on oddball D&Disms to make more peculiar encounters. A mastodon zombie might have been struggling to get out of its tar pit for a thousand years; heck, it might be happy just to be out of it rather than interested in a fight, if the pCs should decide to help rather than kill it. A stampede of incorporeal glowing reindeer pursued by nebulous ghostly hunters could be a fun wtf moment, as arrows go zipping through the PCs and animals tumble to their deaths around them.

 

[Aberzanzorax]

you could use lovecraft's "colour out of space".


More generally, I've read that fey like the "in-between times" like dawn and twilight/dusk.

I bet they have one hell of a party the first time the sun rises after 6 months, or the first time it sets.


I don't know if you want to go dichotomy here, but there's also the opportunity to capitalize on the darkness/light component, both with fey and undead. Unseelie fey for darkness, seelie for light. Vampires that can party/feast all night long...but all night is 6 months. Etc.


Oh, and someone mentioned an awesome idea with a fire elemental frozen in the ice...I think that could be extended to other options for enforced dormancy or imprisonment. From frozen eggs that thaw and hatch to a sub-arctic Tarrasque dormancy that only ends on rare occasions that it warms sufficiently (let's hope your world has no global warming) to a lich whose phylactery ended up here somehow and he's reformed, but frozen solid in the ice... tons of options.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Malright, thought I'd show off what I have, thanks to your help.

The encounters include a Dire Elk Stampede, an encounter with a Yuki-Onna and her faerie servants, and a creepy abandoned cabin with a Wendigo lurking outside.

The party's going to be level 2 when I take 'em through, and this is 4e.

These are just the fights, of course. While traveling through the region, they're going to have to make some sort of Exploration check to make progress to the Crystal Dragon's abode (they're going to get their fortune told!), and if they fail, they loose a healing surge that cannot be restored as long as they are exposed, and need to try again the next day.

The environment is constantly dim, though not the pitch blackness of dead night. Stars, a moon, and the frequent aurorae keep dim light over the outdoor encounter regions. The ones that aren't in a blizzard, anyway.

Lemme know what you think! This is just the "first wave" of polar encounters, of course. Polar bears, penguins, glowing glaciers, and probably a Remorhaz await them as they near the shore, and the lair of the Crystal Dragon.

The Crystal Dragon itself will have to be overcome, but I'm going to use a skill/combat hybrid (like I did for the dire elk stampede) to govern it. They're going to have to lure it into dark places so they can attack it without the blinding, searing radiance it exudes.