Rime of the Frostmaiden: Cold-Hearted Killer Part 1

I made an old-school map for the game, inspired by those old classics like Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale itself. If you look closely you'll see it's total crap, so don't look closely. If you want a high-res copy of the image, you can find it here.

 Over the past months, I've been thinking about how I might run Rime of the Frost Maiden. I bought a copy of TT Foundry, and it's pretty good. I'm not all that interested in the functionality of having the rules tied into the code of the platform, or in having it function as a kind of war game, but I like the potential to create an immersive atmosphere and combine images with music and whatnot all on the same screen. The software's ability to overlay weather (like snow), text, and dynamic lighting really make the maps seem alive, which I enjoy.

I'm also a massive fan of The Alexandrian, specifically the articles which go into great detail fixing the Descent into Avernus campaign. I read the official supplement and felt very underwhelmed by it, and I think Justin Alexander has done a great job bringing justice to what could be a great story, but which WotC left somewhat flat and riddled with inconsistencies. Elsewhere on his site, he talks at length about mystery adventures and node-based scenario design, and I thought I'd try my hand at adapting RotFM to just such a structure. By the way, if you have the time and want to delve into these Alexandrian.net links, I would definitely recommend it, they're great.

I also discovered ArtBreeder, and AI tool which allowed me to create NPC portraits and landscape backdrops with relative ease, some of which I've scattered through this article to give you an idea of what it can do. It's a lot of fun.

Lastly, I've been listening to Jeremy Soule's The Northerner Diaries, which fits perfectly.

Artbreeder uses AI to generate images of landscapes

Cold-Hearted Killer

and portraits too- this is Kaltro

Spoilers below. If you don't want to know the plot, read no further! If you're a compulsive self-spoiler like I am, read on.

Much like my reaction to Avernus, I was excited by the premise of RotFM but the initial quest seemed quite low effort. Hlin Trollbane walks up to the players and says 'here's a guy I want you to kill. I don't have any evidence to substantiate my request, but go and find him anyway.' That strikes me as pretty lazy. From the way I read it, this initial quest is supposed to draw players into the world of Ten Towns, encouraging them to visit the settlements in turn while searching for this man. However, it isn't very well structured, and there isn't anything more than 'is Sephek in this town? Roll a die and find out,' which could lead to a very frustrating sequence of walking from town to town without finding anything at all. There are other quests along they way, but if they don't make progress on this initial quest, by the time they find the guy they might not even remember or care why they were asked to find him in the first place.

So, how can we fix this? I would like to turn to The Alexandrian's explanation of node-based scenario design and try to flesh out this lacklustre quest. If you haven't read  the articles, or aren't already familiar with the idea, here it is. It's quite simple: At the start of the adventure, players are presented with a number of clues which point to certain people, places, events, activities, and so on. These form the nodes of the adventure, and each one holds a number of clues which point to other nodes. This structure works well for mystery-type quests where the ending is not known, and some thinking, investigation, and decision-making has to happen along the way. Gathering clues will lead players to investigate further nodes until they can solve the mystery and follow the quest to its conclusion. Nodes are arranged into tiers, which give players a sense of progression through a story. Eventually the tier one node clues stop showing up, new clues appear, and they are led further into the mystery.

(Lastly, I would like to quickly touch upon the idea of how much the players know at the start of the campaign. Yes, Icewind Dale has been plunged into a year-long Winter, but does anyone know why? Instead of just saying 'it was Auril, she did it and we need to stop her,' perhaps it would be more interesting if no one knew why. One night, the skies were filled with bright glowing auroras, rivers of light, and the sun hasn't risen since. People have been catastrophising and tearing their hair out over it, scouring books and digging up old knowledge to try and figure it out, but no one has a sure lead yet. I think that would lend a needed bit of mystery to the adventure. It would mean that the tidbits which the players uncover, even in this first quest, would set them on a path towards discovery and revelation, instead of a glorified manhunt. Or perhaps maidenhunt.)

For example:

Start- The players are in one of the Ten Towns. At this stage, it doesn't matter which one (except perhaps Targos, it would be helpful if they didn't start in Targos). It also doesn't matter when they arrived. Perhaps they just walked through the gates last night after a long trek and are facing the bleary, gloomy morning, or perhaps they have been staying there for some time already. They hear some gossip a body which was found outside in the snow not two days ago, frozen solid and apparently murdered, and the citizens are in no small amount of confusion over the whole matter. They can hear this in the market, in the tavern, perhaps a traveling scrimshander shakes their grizzled head and laments what Ten Towns has come to. The important part is that they learn three things:

A- Nobody knows who he was, but he was last seen alive in the local tavern a three nights ago.

B- The body, still frozen stiff, is being held in the undercroft of the town's church.

C- Hlin Trollbane, who arrived in town yesterday, is offering a 100 gold reward for bringing the killer to justice.

Now, these three clues give players three possible avenues to start investigating. They are concrete, actionable, and fairly conclusive. They could go to the tavern to ask questions about the victim at their last known whereabouts. They could go to the church to investigate the body itself. Or they could find Hlin to talk about that reward. Each subsequent node should give the players at least three clues leading to other nodes, so that as they accrue clues, the adventure builds up in a satisfying way. They feel like they are onto something. The clues found at each node should point both horizontally and vertically, so that the players feel a sense of progress, too.

The adventure looks like this so far

(A)- The Tavern

At the tavern, the players can learn that:

If the players talk to the barkeep, they learn that Hlin Trollbane (C), a retired bounty hunter, came by the inn asking questions about the 'murder.' She's been traveling around Ten Towns and got here yesterday. News travels quickly in Ten-Towns, and she came as fast as she could muster a sled. She took a room upstairs and gave the barkeep a job letter. The letter is offering 100 gold for anyone who can help solve the murders (yes, murders- that's plural).

The patrons can tell the players that the man was found frozen stiff outside a couple of days ago. Must have been out in the cold all night. They rushed The Body (B) to the church.

From talking further to the patrons, they can also learn that the man was in the tavern the night before he was found dead. He was acting very jovial and smug, boasting about how he outwitted the town of Targos (D) and escaped with his life.

Bonus Clues:

Perhaps with further questioning and a check or two, the players can learn even more clues. If they look deeply, they can learn a bit more about the man's situation, and that he spoke to several different people that night. The man was seen arriving in town with Torg's Merchant Caravan (E), a trading outfit led by a dwarf named Torrga Icevein, known as a shrewd and unscrupulous profiteer. People talk in Ten-Towns, and everyone knows a sliver or two of everyone else's business.

The man was also seen talking to a group of four strange-looking people. Out-of-towners who looked to be travelers of some sort. A man, an old woman, and a Halfling. They had a bodyguard with them too, who loomed silently by the table all evening. These are the members of the Aecane Brotherhood who have come to the Dale, and we will see that Dzaan's storyline diverges a little from the written version.

(B)- The Body

Brother Oswald

At the church, players learn that they're keeping the body in the undercroft until family can come to get him. That might take a long time, because currently no one there knows who he is. He's certainly not from around here, and that's all they can tell.

The clergy don't take kindly to gawpers, and unless the players have some kind of official mandate from the town's Speaker or perhaps the Reeve (if there is one), the will have to content themselves with talking to the cleric who stands watch over the undercroft for clues rather than seeing the body itself. The cleric in question, Brother Oswald (he isn't in the book, I just made him up) mumbles something about wanting to prevent hysteria spreading through the town. He also grumbles about Hlin Trollbane (C), who came by earlier being similarly nosy. He will reluctantly answer some of their questions, but chides them that if they simply want to gossip, they can go to The Tavern (A).

Brother Oswald can tell the players that Dannika Greysteel (F), a local scholar, busybody, and notorious tale-spinner, helped examine the body when it came in to the church. As a scholar, people often go to her with problems of a magical origin. She took some notes and went away to write a report on the matter, which she intends to submit to the town Speaker. She has a house of the edge of town where she does her work- namely, looking closely at the climate and weather of Icewind Dale.

Bonus Clues:

With some further prodding, perhaps a persuasion check or some kind of promise, an assurance of good intent and a vow not to spread gossip, Brother Oswald might let the players see the body itself. If they do get to see the body, they can see that the man is indeed frozen solid, even now. He was ostensibly killed by a stab-wound to the heart, which lies open, frosted and grisly. Brother Oswald tells them that the weapon was a Dagger of Pure Ice, which was embedded in the man's chest. Dannika (F) took it away with her to study. The man's eyes are a shade of blue like ice, cold and bright.

(C)- Hlin Trollbane

Hlin

Hlin Trollbane is a retired bounty hunter who came to Ten-Towns because the area is her family's home.
After traveling across Faerun, she wanted to return to her roots. Hlin Trollbane talks straightly to the pplayers and lays out her offer to them. She has decided to take matters into her own hands in light of the reluctance or indifference of the Speakers of Ten-Towns to do anything about these crimes. She wants to employ them to solve what she thinks are a series of connected murders across the district.

She will tell the players that she thinks this murder is connected to two other which have happened in other towns over the past month or so. Her cousin, Alrik Trollbane (G) was found murdered in Bryn Shander last month, and a Halfling in Easthaven (H) was found a few weeks later. Hlin has been unable to gather hard evidence, but hearsay surrounding the murders concerns them being found frozen solid with an icy dagger plunged into their hearts.

She tells players it might be a good idea to look for leads in The Tavern (A)- that was where the victim was last seen. She also explains that she attempted to go and have a look at The Body (B) at the church, but the head cleric wouldn't let her in. She explains that the local Reeve in charge of the militia (if there is one in this town) will sometimes deputise people to carry out the law in Ten-Towns. The cleric would probably let them in if they had an official sanction.

After all that, we see that our quest structure looks a bit like this:

The players now have loads of options to choose from, and the clues draw them deeper and deeper into the world of Ten-Towns. The quest introduces new characters and they actually have a reason for speaking to them, rather than just being approached in the street. It feels a little more organic, and thanks to the structure, a little more player-led.

I think the best way to go from here is to reduce the amount of nodes in the next tier down. I would be inclined to have the clues point more and more in the same direction so that, wherever the players end up going, they are drawn to a similar conclusion. The evidence points to the answer.

So, for example, Targos (D), Alrik Trollbane (G), and Easthaven (H) would all give information about human sacrifice in Ten-Towns. They might also all point towards Torrga's Caravan (E) because it would have been in each town when the murders were committed.

I'm going to throw this post up for now, and I'll add another on the tier two clues soon, and how that feeds into tier three as the campaign progresses, as well as how the quest might get resolved.

Bye for now,

O