# Ideas for a snowy/icy/arctic campaign



## GuJiaXian (Feb 12, 2009)

I've long tossed around the idea of a campaign (3.x back in the day, now 4e) set in an arctic-type environment. The Frostburn 3.x supplement really got me thinking, and even playing through the beautiful vistas in the Icewind Dale video games gave me ideas.

The problem is that I have only disparate ideas--nothing cohesive. I could always simply use the FR's Icewind Dale as a setting, but I'd like a little more creative control over the environment without being bogged down by the Realms' history. Not completely resistant to using the Realms, but I'd like to avoid it.

So, are there any good 4e modules (or 3.x modules that can easily be converted) that take place in a snowy/arctic area? I even thought about taking the recent DDI Dungeon magazine adventure path or the KotS series (I have up through the Demon Queen's enclave and haven't run any of them yet) and dumping them somewhere snowy, though I'd really like adventures that incorporate the environment and the hazards unique to such a frigid area.

And yes, I know that the "best" solution is to write my own material, but I can barely find the time to play, much less write campaigns from scratch.

So, any ideas?


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## Rechan (Feb 12, 2009)

Read up on Norse mythology, about how the world is going to end in a giant blizzard, about how the big bad wolf will eat the moon, etc. 

Then, start doing that. The goal is to prevent Ragnorak. 

Or possibly, the PCs are all dead and in Valhalla, and now, it's time to win this thing.


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## Stoat (Feb 12, 2009)

There was a cold weather adventure in the DDI a few months ago.  It included a fairly dandy "survive the blizzard" skill challenge.


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## Xer0 (Feb 12, 2009)

Stoat said:


> There was a cold weather adventure in the DDI a few months ago.  It included a fairly dandy "survive the blizzard" skill challenge.




Would it be this one: Winter of the Witch


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## Neil Bishop (Feb 12, 2009)

I'm planning to use some similar ideas for my first attempt at a 4E campaign. I also plan to set it in FR but it will be the pre-Spellplague Realms. In fact, it will be set in 1372 DR, the time of the 3E setting book, and I will ignore every single novel published after that date.

I'm using the Norse Fimbulwinter for inspiration. Fimbulwinter is the "great winter" (literal translation) that precedes Ragnarok. The cause will be the release of what is, in 3E terms, a xixecal (cf _Epic Level Handbook_) that is the offspring of Auril and Kostchtchie and is otherwise a primordial (and probably just Rorn the Blazing Fury reskinned).

I found a thread once that talked about using the ancestor mounds of the Uthgardt as the focal points of a great ritual that holds an unnatural winter in check and that this is the purpose of the annual gatherings of these tribes. I could never find the thread again, and I didn't save the poster's name, but I'm using this as inspiration. One of the party's goals will be to stop the ancestor mounds from being corrupted. If/when they are corrupted, winter comes earlier and earlier culminating in the release of the imprisoned xixecal.

I also want to give the party the opportunity to release (an aspect of) Bazim-Gorag, the Firebringer, to buy some time but at a terrible cost. I'm not quite sure how this will play out yet but I will use the 3.5E adventure _Prison of the Firebringer_ from _Dungeon 101_ (IIRC) as inspiration.

3.5E's _DMGII_ also had a magical event called the _Killing Frost of Ghulurak _that will inspire something in this campaign. Perhaps that will be the name of the xixecal at a bare minimum.

In the end, three pieces of art will largely inspire the campaign:

-Wayne Reynolds' excellent piece picturing the winter witch from the 4E adventure _Winter of the Witch_ from _Dungeon 162_;
- the picture of the ice-encrusted tower from _Menace of the Icy Spire_ in _Dungeon 159_; and
- the picture of the xixecal in 3E's _Epic Level Handbook_.


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## GuJiaXian (Feb 12, 2009)

I hadn't even really thought about using the xixecal as a focus (and thus bringing in the Elemental Chaos and the Primordials), but that's a good idea. I'd actually even thought about a half-fey white dragon (gotta use my garg. white dragon mini sometime), tapping into the ideas from <i>Winter of the Witch</i>. That adventure is higher-level, so perhaps I'll "reskin" some lower-level heroic adventures to ramp things up.


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## Dausuul (Feb 12, 2009)

I am currently running a 4E campaign set in a homebrew Ice Age world.  I can send you my campaign notes if you like, although I should warn you they're not nearly as polished as a published adventure; and I don't hand out XP based on monster kills, so I don't know if giving XP using the normal method would keep the party at the correct level for the encounters.  Still, it's a quest that takes a group of PCs from 1st to 9th level in an arctic setting.


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## GuJiaXian (Feb 12, 2009)

Dausuul said:


> I am currently running a 4E campaign set in a homebrew Ice Age world.  I can send you my campaign notes if you like, although I should warn you they're not nearly as polished as a published adventure; and I don't hand out XP based on monster kills, so I don't know if giving XP using the normal method would keep the party at the correct level for the encounters.  Still, it's a quest that takes a group of PCs from 1st to 9th level in an arctic setting.




Please, toss anything you have my way (chris [at] kuglerworld [dot] com). At the very least it should get the creative juices flowing.


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## Haffrung Helleyes (Feb 12, 2009)

*well*

I think you should have a Heat Miser and a Snow Miser.

(from Wikipedia)

[Heat Miser] I'm Mister Green Christmas, I'm Mister Sun. I'm Mister Heat Blister, I'm Mister Hundred and One. They call me Heat Miser, whatever I touch... starts to melt in my clutch...I'm too much!

[Chorus] He's Mister Green Christmas, he's Mister Sun... he's Mister Heat Blister, he's Mister Hundred and One.

[Heat Miser] They call me Heat Miser, whatever I touch... starts to melt in my clutch.

[Chorus] He's too much!

[Heat Miser] Thank you. I never want to know a day that's under sixty degrees! I'd rather have it eighty, ninety, one hundred degrees!

[Heat Miser] (spoken):Oh, some like it hot, but I like it really hot! Hee hee!

[Chorus] He's Mister Green Christmas, he's Mister Sun.

[Heat Miser] Sing it!

[Chorus] He's Mister Heat Blister, he's Mister Hundred and One

[Heat Miser] They call me Heat Miser, whatever I touch... starts to melt in my clutch...I'm too much!

[All] Too Much!

Ken


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## C_M2008 (Feb 12, 2009)

Dausuul said:


> I am currently running a 4E campaign set in a homebrew Ice Age world. I can send you my campaign notes if you like, although I should warn you they're not nearly as polished as a published adventure; and I don't hand out XP based on monster kills, so I don't know if giving XP using the normal method would keep the party at the correct level for the encounters. Still, it's a quest that takes a group of PCs from 1st to 9th level in an arctic setting.




Post it?


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## lin_fusan (Feb 12, 2009)

Arg! I was planning a similar campaign (with a Planescape Ysgard feel) about a Norse winter lasting three generations. I was going to reskin it for 4th ed, such as having Rituals be based after the futhark/rune alphabet. 

But I can't find my notes!

I'm afraid my notes were on a 'back of an envelope', and those envelopes were lost in my latests move...


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## GuJiaXian (Feb 12, 2009)

lin_fusan said:


> Arg! I was planning a similar campaign (with a Planescape Ysgard feel) about a Norse winter lasting three generations. I was going to reskin it for 4th ed, such as having Rituals be based after the futhark/rune alphabet.
> 
> But I can't find my notes!
> 
> I'm afraid my notes were on a 'back of an envelope', and those envelopes were lost in my latests move...




Wow, that sucks. Remember any of the salient details?


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## Charger28Alpha (Feb 12, 2009)

Re-Skinning printed adventures is a great time saver.  For converting ones set in a warm or temperate climate to a cold climate Google Image Search is your friend.  For towns type in "Turf House".  For any other area the PCs will go just type in "Winter" before the terrain (Forest, River, Hills, etc).  The images should help you visualize changes from a more temperate adventure setting.

Locations that have to deal with extreme cold, can also be used for horror type scenarios.  In lands with extreme cold settlements will end up being isolated in the deepest part of winter.  In addition just the cold is a killer, so heading out into it presents its own danger.  Add in monsters unaffected by the cold and you can come up with situations and encounters that cause players to break out in goose bumps.


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## JackSmithIV (Feb 12, 2009)

Well, there are plenty of good motifs for designing ice-related adventuers. Forgotten Realms has a ton of them.

To give a taste of what I'm doing right now, I'm running a Forgotten Realms 4E campaign that takes place in the Northwest. The party is composed of a high ranking member in the Cormyrian military and his retinue. At one point, they were in the Greypeak Mountains. I gave this area plenty of creative energy, considering I intend to bring them back on multiple occasions. This allows me to inject that isolated, arctic feel into my campaign on occassion.

I had a mountain-top way-station run by a group of barbarians decendant from Uthgardts. It's a docking point for airships from the Five Companies, and an incredibly small settlement (3 or so buildings) where the characters feel warm and welcome while they stay. Under their mountain, however, is the ruins of the dwarf city Sirrak'Var, which was torn appart and ravaged by the Spell Plague. The Order of the Blue fire keeps a huge base of operations there, studying the plagued ruins.

A seperate ruin, Krystrid'Var, lies a few peaks away. While more safe and accessable, it's inhabited by a moody, feral ancient white dragon. At one point, this dragon's temper caused blizzards that held the player's at the waystation for days, until the players went to parley with the dragon, who then sent them on the quest to recover eggs, stolen by the Cult of the Dragon.

Just giving you a piece of what I was doing. I was able to, with very little heavy lifting, incorporate three popular Faerunian power groups into a small mountain range. Snowy areas are really great, atmospherically. Combined with some really somber music (I use the soundtrack from "The Fountain" for the Greypeaks), you can really get a bunch of great sessions out. Good luck!


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## haakon1 (Feb 12, 2009)

In print Dungeon, there were several adventures that took place in or around Greyhawk's cold Blackmoor region.

I don't recall the issues or titles offhand, but I remember:
- One was a cover adventure.  It was about recovered a demonic cloak that a demon had given the Witch-Queen, Iggwilv.  The title had something to do with all that.  What was most cool about the adventure, to me, was the encounter table for things like a blood-drinking undead mist that can roll in.  
- Another was by Wolfgang Bauer.  It was about raiders on a coastal village, who retreated into the lands of Black Ice.  The title was something like "Raiders of the Black Ice".
- Another was a followup by Wolfgang Bauer, about an outpost of the City of the Gods (near the lands of Black Ice), full of clockworks.


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## fissionessence (Feb 12, 2009)

Stoat said:


> There was a cold weather adventure in the DDI a few months ago.  It included a fairly dandy "survive the blizzard" skill challenge.




I think this is a reference to Menace of the Icy Spire, which is for 2nd-level 4E characters. I just finished running this one two nights ago, and I really like it. Also, I played it in LFR a few weeks ago and it was fun there too 

It may not totally fit in the campaign you described, though, because SPOILERS: it is an unnatural magical winter, and once the players finish the adventure, they have relieved the region of the cold. You may have to reskin some fluff to make it fit an all-wintery campaign.

Also, I attached a trilogy of short adventures someone wrote and uploaded onto a filesharing website. I couldn't find the adventures anywhere else, so instead of linking I'm just attaching them here for anyone interested. The creator's username is chrisking1976. They're set in Icewind Dale, but I don't remember that being integral to the plot. Also, they're not really polished, but hey, they could work for someone. They're paragon-tier adventures.

~


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## Rechan (Feb 12, 2009)

If your setting is ice-covered and all that, then you need some area like a valley in the center of a ring of mountains that's _a jungle_, or some sort of subtropical forest. 

It's almost necessary.


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## Stoat (Feb 12, 2009)

I was thinking about _Icy Spire_.  I remember thinking when I read it that the skill challenge could be pretty easily adapted to a wide variety of different hostile climates/environments.

I once planned a campaign/adventure arc in which an ancient High Elf/Eladrin, his life maintained only through regular doses of medicinal herbs, hires the PC's to escort him deep into the arctic wilds.  The setting would have featured frost-choked pine forests, ragged, icy mountains and a glacial fields.  Monster would include bugbears, trolls, hill giants, frost giants and white dragons.  The action would climax in an abandoned Eladrin citadel with a strong _Mountains of Madness_ feel.

But instead, the players voted for a campaign I call "One of you has inherited a castle in the jungle!"


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## Fallen Seraph (Feb 12, 2009)

I'm working on a 4e setting that is set in a perpetual winter or fall (fall would have been when normally there be summer).

The basic premise behind why it is like this is essentially:

[sblock]For a time the Spirit World and our World were connecting but only in that the creatures of the world had their spirits residing their and their bodies here (besides for Humans we were unique in having our spirits with us in this world) as well as some powerful spirits that resided in both.

Then the scientist, craftsmen, scholars and arcanist spirits that now resided in the Spirit World crafted a means to bind the two worlds together allowing communication, trade, exchanges of knowledge, etc. This generally bumped up the World's level of technology to Industrial-Era.

However, in time the Spirit Courts grew suspicious of the growing knowledge the World had gained and severed the connection. Not only did our technology and society seize to a halt. But many spirits either died, were severed, mutated, etc. The largest impact of which was on the spirits of nature, seasons and the world they became disrupted and left in their wake a endless winter.

Hundreds of years has passed since then.

There is other deeper reasons and plot-lines but that is what the common people believe.[/sblock]

Some of the unique winter-oriented elements I have include:


A city carved into and bolted onto the side of a glacier, because of its constant movement however daily work must be done to shore up the connections between the glaciar and the city.
Most cities are built against ice, stone, metal, natural barriers against the path of most blizzards. They also formed in man-made or natural holes or ditches in the landscape for protection from wind and snow and because of the warmer temperature.
Everyone knows basic survival techniques like building ice shelters.
Fashion is entirely based around usage specifically in the cold. There is little time or need for fashionable wear and is actually looked down upon as wasteful.
Food is generally meat and various kinds of fungus found in caverns underground.
A sea of black ice. The whole sea has frozen over and because very little snow deposits itself over this sea it has remained as black as coal. Though the ice is many meters thick various creatures are known for shattering their way through to get at prey above.


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## Dausuul (Feb 12, 2009)

C_M2008 said:


> Post it?




It's... big. I put a _lot_ of prep into this campaign, much more than I have in the past. Also, at least two of my players are regular visitors to this forum, although I'm sure I could trust them not to read it. I'll e-mail it to anyone interested.


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## Hawke (Feb 12, 2009)

Fun thing about some cultures in the nepal region of the world...

First, there are often very long treks during times of the year to get resources far away and bring it back (salt being the example I'm considering). So a male will go on a long journey and return home with a bunch of salt as part of the general economy. Seems to me that journies of this type would be common/cool in a campaign world as groups are constantly trekking in the cold for various resources, etc... and often times have strongholds that are defensible because frankly a seige doesn't work when it's freezing out there. 

There's very little fertile land that can be used for basic farming. When land (big resource) is passed down from father to son, it creates a little bit of an issue. What if you have two sons? You can't very well split the land otherwise there will be none left, so you share it. That makes for some interesting thoughts about what resources are most important. It also creates a very rare cultural situation where polyandry (one female to multiple males) is a common marriage thing. It works because two males who are brothers can both attract a female with a small-to-moderate size of land since it isn't split. She gets the benefit of decent land and protection of two males. In addition, if one male goes on a long trip, she gets the protection of the second male. The brothers then are also more likely to go into this arrangement because even investing children not-fathered-by-them are still nephews so it isn't a total waste... they also are more likely to trust their brother with the wife rather than a strange or nobody while they are gone. Just a thought for some interesting plot points that wouldn't happen almost anywhere else. 

I suggest overall looking at day-to-day cultures in regions of heavy snowfall can really shape your world. Figure out how the differences can make for a different gaming experience other than reflavoring all the attacks of enmies to cold... 

This thread should be neat!


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## Vayden (Feb 13, 2009)

Eh . . . I'm not sure I could resist reading it. I'm bad with spoilers. Please don't post (one of D's players).


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## Neil Bishop (Feb 16, 2009)

*Fimbulwinter*

Brothers will fight and kill each other,​ sisters' children will defile kinship.​ It is harsh in the world,whoredom rife​ —an axe age, a sword age —shields are riven—a wind age, a wolf age—​ before the world goes headlong.​ No man will have mercy on another.​​This is, IIRC, a translation of a passage from the Edda (sp?) describing Fimbulwinter, the great winter that precedes Ragnarok. It is further desribed as lasting the equivalent of three years.

Before I run my Fimbuwinter campaign I plan to adjust the above bit of text to make it more FR-specific and also to include it as some sort of document that the party can find.
​​​


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## vagabundo (Feb 16, 2009)

I always wanted to do a campaign where the Mind flayers has succeed in blocking out the sun and the world is plunged into a nuclear winter - climate change - situation. However the spell did not fully work, due the interruption by some adventurers and the sun still shines weakly.

There are only small pockets of civilsation left. One of them is based in around an active volcano - chasm, where the air temperature is tolerable. Living day to day is tough, exploring or going out into the waste lands is very tough. 

There are a number of small cities - kingdoms - that line this large chasm and they are all under assault from monsters from the wastelands.

The vibe was Dark Sun/Mad Maxy, where surviving was tough and the adventurers would be sent on important missions to secure resources, help tackle raiders and there would be internal competition from the different kingdoms and factions.


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## Neil Bishop (Feb 16, 2009)

If I had the creative mojo I would love to run a campaign set in the arctic equivalent of Dark Sun with warm city states ruled by sorcerer-kings that are the only places of warmth in an eternal winter (perhaps the sorcerer-kings are actually fire giant/fire titan liches... hmmm) but the price of warmth is slavery. Perhaps that slavery is simply working at the massive city forges producing weapons for the clash between the sorcerer-kings and the frost giants/frost titans that created the eternal winter.

I would also try and incorporate some Norse mythology, possibly using the same deities to simplify the creative work required to create a pantheon. Maybe the winter is leading up to some sort of Ragnarok-like event and the Epic Tier is about preventing this.

On further reflection, I want the winter-ised version of Dark Sun, Midnight and Norse myth combined. Hmmm....


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