Scene Notes – C01.S03.10
| Cycle 01 | Shield 03 | Scene 10 | Notes |
What happens in this scene?
Dawndra and party reach Frostfalls Pass (The Snow Stalkers)
There are four sections of The Snow Stalkers… The Icy River, The Trap, The Valley, and The Laboratory.
Frostfalls Pass used to be traveled by Giants primarily… Almsvar is tucked into the South side of the Alp. Others travel this pass for various reasons… exploration, mining, hunting… but it is not a popular destination compared to others… probably due to the rumors that the Frost Giants have returned to Almsvar.
What was Almsvar? A Frost Giant keep – a castle carved out of stone and ice.
Among the tallest of true giants, frost giants could tower higher than 21 feet and weighed about 8,000 pounds. The doors and ceilings within Almsvar are massive then.
What happened to Almsvar?
Lycanthropy… Could it be that this is where the Arktikos were born? Was it that a human frost druid was infected by a frost giant werebear and in trying to reverse the disease, transformed into something else? Cured of lycantropy, but no longer human either. Perhaps the mother or grandmother of Shavisala? Or further back? How does propagation work? Where are the men? Where are the other Arktikos? Perhaps driven North or East over the glaciers… but Shavisala returned to Almsvar – somehow learning the truth of their origins.
The Frost Giant Werebears turned on each other for food… destroying their numbers… mostly…
But all of that can wait because Dawndra and party will not find Shavisala in Almsvar… but they need to find someone… Someone who can tell Dawndra that her mother received a bards song telling of a white furred giant female living among the firbolg in Norland and traveled there the next day. This bard met Shaggy just a couple of years ago – before the village was destroyed. The bard befriended Shaggy and joined him on his walks, with the ulterior motive of getting stories of the firbolgs for his songs. The story of Aurora the White Giantess was soon being sung around the Moonshae Isles and eventually reached Waterdeep. (no telling how the bard came up with the name Aurora… you know how poets be…). The song embellished the stories told by Shaggy, making the White Giantess both alluring and dangerous. But it was the mystery of her story which made it catch on. Found floating from a shipwreck, just an infant. Raised by firbolgs but without any real kin, she grew up to fight back the marauding Lallargh of Norland. The truth is less exciting… Dawndra did have conflicts with the crone chieftain Lallargh but had nothing to do with her tremendous downfall.
I need to fill that story out too… but there is time.
So the river crossing… since this once was a giants road, there is no bridge but there are 2 large stepping stones. Rather than floating chunks of ice (which may still be) the challenge is to cross via the giants stepping stones. There is evidence that others have tried building small bridges between the stones but they have been washed away. There is a 10-12 foot distance between each stone – and each stone is slick with ice.
I think they must have to cross the river multiple times… the trail switchbacks up the mountain, crossing the river at least twice. The lower crossing is less dangerous because it flows into a deep pool which has underground outlets so the surface is only a wide and shallow flow of water with layers upon layers of ice under it. The second crossing, 60 feet up, is far more dangerous because of the amount of water and the speed of the river. Getting swept away here means falling into the deep pool on the lower crossing, and possibly being sucked underground by the torrent.
Shavisala is not a Frost Druid after all… she is an Ice Artificer. She can attune to ice and even create weapons of ice and can even transfer enchantments from most magical artifacts into the ice weapons. Dawndra will someday too… just finding and meeting her mom for the first time, that first touch awakens some magic within Dawndra to be able to attune to ice. Meld it. Advantage while standing on/in it.
Nim Bragos tells story of Shavisala returning to Icewind Dale later.
There is a Frost Giant residing with Shavisala at Almsvar. Neekica? Heeki? Helmikra? Yes
Helmikra is a female Skald. She came back to Almsvar to write her Epic Saga – Almsvar in Blood – after hearing stories of how the keep fell into chaos after lycanthropy swept through the population.
The Red Drakes:
Garlvan Skelto – A male Red Dragonborn Fighter (Leader)
Thavila Skelto – A female Red Dragonborn Sorcerer (Mate of Garlan)
Brallga Thornhold – A female Dwarf Cleric
Lorvus Hookint – A male Human Rogue (dead)
Owlbear Cave
The module has the body of Thalia booby-trapped. When I got to this point, I realized that detecting the trap and disarming it are two different things. Without a rogue or someone with Theives Tools – disarming the trap was not an option… the only option to move forward is to trigger exploding fire vial. Doing so would kill the barely alive Thalia so I had to ask myself a question… do I want the NPC Thalia alive? Yes I do. So then… what about this trap? Maybe it is not on her body, maybe moving her body will trigger a bang-bomb tucked under the offal. Maybe the point of the trap is not to kill but to warn? That would not need a body. Bottom line… I think… if the body is booby-trapped, Thavlia is already dead.
So maybe I rewrite the scene… maybe thavlia is not a booby trap but escaped? No… She was not captured when Garlan and Bruga were… She has been searching for them. When she entered this cave, she set off a trap and it nearly killed her. But why was she not there when Lovus was killed and the others captured? Hunting makes little sense, Garlan probably would have been doing that. Maybe privy-time? But how far away would she have been… maybe she fought? Karina used a toxic potion to knock out all four Red Drakes but she kept her consciousness and fought but was overwhelmed. She chose to run rather than die. The mutant (or another?) chased after her for hours. She returned the next day to find Lovus dead and the others missing. She found this case and triggered the trap while investigating.
What kind of sorcerer is Thavlia? Auroborn sounds cool
Level 3 Sorcerer
Traps Ref
https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/5e_Traps
https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/120170/searching-for-traps