Part 3 - When Winter Will Not Yield - COMPLETED

Even when the snow thaws in the south, Winter is ever-present in the Isles. Yet even now, it clings to the land unnaturally so. By this time of the year, even the Northern village of Grimmfrost should have seen some respite from the icy grasp of the North. Yet, it seems that the cold still clings to the land, and with it ravenous beasts that prey upon the settlement. In such a small, remote place, superstition runs rampant, and exact information is hard to come by, but it seems that something is stalking the people of Grimmfrost , with over a dozen having gone missing or turned up dead in the past two weeks. The village can't survive much longer like this. Something stalks the ice and snow of Winter's Bite. A creature of Fang and Claw, one that can seemingly freeze its prey solid, and blends in to its environment so well most can't see it coming. Find this threat, eliminate it, before the rest of Grimmfrost meets the same fate as Forewyst...

Relations

Adversaries

Njostgrim, the Hroarfrost Terror

Young Linnorm Taken charge of the Frost Trolls and Winter Wolves? Resurrected by Winter Hags? Or empowered by them?

Nadja, the Blightmist

One of the Ice Hag Coven Sowing discord, as with the other hags and covens, and helping to resurrect and empower the Linnorms and Giants of Old

Backdrops

Locations

Threats

Environment

Weather is more than just set dressing to establish mood—it has mechanical effects you can combine with environmental components to create a more memorable encounter. Weather can impose circumstance penalties on certain checks, from –1 to –4 based on severity.

Temperature

Often, temperature doesn’t impose enough of a mechanical effect to worry about beyond describing the clothing the characters need to wear to be comfortable. Particularly hot and cold weather can make creatures fatigued more quickly during overland travel and can cause damage if harsh enough, as shown in Table 10–13. Appropriate cold-weather gear (such as the winter clothing) can negate the damage from severe cold or reduce the damage from extreme cold to that of particularly severe cold.

Precipitation

Precipitation includes rain as well as colder snow, sleet, and hail. Wet precipitation douses flames, and frozen precipitation can create areas of snow or ice on the ground. Drizzle or light snowfall has little mechanical effect beyond limited visibility. Most forms of precipitation impose circumstance penalties on visual Perception checks. Hail often is sparser but loud, instead penalizing auditory Perception checks. Especially heavy precipitation, such as a downpour of rain or heavy snow, might make creatures concealed if they’re far away. Anything heavier than drizzle or light snowfall reduces the time it takes for characters to become fatigued from overland travel to only 4 hours. Heavy precipitation can be dangerous in cold environments when characters go without protection. Soaked characters treat the temperature as one step colder (mild to severe, severe to extreme; see Temperature below).

Wind

Wind imposes a circumstance penalty on auditory Perception checks depending on its strength. It also interferes with physical ranged attacks such as arrows, imposing a circumstance penalty to attack rolls involving such weapons, and potentially making attacks with them impossible in powerful windstorms. Wind snuffs out handheld flames; lanterns protect their flame from the wind, but particularly powerful winds can extinguish these as well. Wind is difficult or greater difficult terrain when Flying. Moving in wind of sufficient strength requires a Maneuver in Flight action, and fliers are blown away on a critical failure or if they don’t succeed at a minimum of one such check each round. Even on the ground, particularly strong winds might require a creature to succeed at an Athletics check to move, knocking the creature back and prone on a critical failure. On such checks, Small creatures typically take a –1 circumstance penalty, and Tiny creatures typically take a –2 penalty.

Encounters

Wolves in the Night

Wolves are branded?

The Ruined Village

Meet Hrafna, older exiled brother of Jarl Ragnar Ulfsson?

The Frost Troll Raid

Sneak up on Winter wolves + Frost Trolls after kill (villager?) Could make the argument some of these can be mixed up, with a switch/Twist at some point?

The Linnorm and His Lair

Past Events

Research

**The following are points that can be learned during initial Research before starting the adventure.**

Yetis and Winter Wolves have been very common through these areas for as long as anyone can remember
However, for the past three hundred years, there has been no attacks or incursions, or even any sightings
They have been here the whole time, not actually extinct
Turns out, 300 years ago, Grettir the Strong, last known descendant of the King in the North, slew the last known Linnorm, whose lair was in these lands, and as thanks the Yetis made a pact to stay separate from Civilized Lands.
The Eldest among the villagers know this to be true, and the Yetis have always upheld their end of the bargain, even as men, elves, etc made incursions, whether mistaken or malicious