Pink and Gold and the ancient and old

Snowy Path       Ahead, on standing still on the road is a silvery black fox, snow dusting its paws and cool grey eyes staring directly at the party. Its shadow in the moonlight falls in the opposite direction than it should. A DC 15 nature test reveals that the fox has its thin summer coat, not the thicker winter one.   Once that party approaches, the fox speaks, though its mouth doesn't seem to move. "Hark. You will find no shelter nor welcome in Hollowfrost this eve. Follow the road swiftly and seek the path by the broken birch, and the hearth of my Grandmother."   Immediately after, the fox will begin to begin to trot away, keeping 40ft ahead of the characters.   The fox, if they ask is caller Mawr (M-ow-ar). He is taciturn, giving only vague answers to the parties questions, and always telling them to ask his Grandmother.   Shortly the party will reach Hollow Frost. From a distance the town looks abandoned, no lights in the windows nor in the streets, and the gates standing open. Inside, every building in the small town seems entirely filled with ice. and nothing moves inside. No wind is blowing, no snow falls. It's just bitterly cold, and bitterly still. Across the town square, there is a path of stone slabs, just below a birch tree with a great split down its centre. There are bootprints in the snow, on each of the stone paths.   A DC 10 survival check reveals they were made by someone quite old carrying something very heavy. The footprints belong to Grandmother Hadigan. A few twigs of a dark wood are scattered through the footprints, having come off the timber she was carrying.   Grandmother's House   The path winds a fair way through the barren woods and hard snow, the slabs sometimes covered or cracked, but a trail of footprints and paw prints leads the way.     Grandmother Hadigan introduces herself too the party, and bids them take a seat near her fire. Mawr will curl beneath an unoccupied chair. The hearth fire is small, and only a handful of dark wooden logs lie beside it.   It's a harsh winter around here dearies. It's not always this bad, but I can only remember a handful as bad as this. You've picked a hard time to travel I'm afraid, and until this midwinter passes I doubt you'll get very far. Deep beneath the hills, an old friend is stirring, not quite awake. I'm sorry to send you back out into the cold again so quickly. But there is a favour I must ask of you."   She pauses, and slowly lifts on of her logs onto the fire. Anyone who helps her will struggle as well, the small log feels like it weighs as much as an anvil.   "Travel too the lake just over the hill, and help him rest again. I'm afraid there's little more that I'm allowed to tell you, but it will become clearer when you get there."   Hadigan will stand and gather a few things from the corners of her room.   "There are five gifts I have for you all, that will help you through the winters cold. Shield of rowan, rod of holly, switch of mistle, bell of brass, cone of... pine." She chuckles. "You'll need all of them."   The rod is quarterstaff and shield is a shield, but they are not magical. The bell and the staff can be used as a casting focus, treating it as a holy symbol or a druidic focus.   The rowan a finely made disc shaped shield made out of a single piece of timber. It's been finished in beeswax. The holly staff is a fresh branch of holly about 3 ft. long, having had all leaves and twigs neatly cut off except for a right at one end where a redberry and a handful of bright green leaves is. The switch of misltetoe is about 2 ft, long and looks as though it has been cut only hours though no sap is leaking from the end. The brass bell is fist sized, and is attached to a broad ring of copper wire. Its unadorned with decoration, except for leaf patterns on its clapper. The pine cone is definitely a pine cone.   The Snowflake Lake It's not far to the lake, nestling in a bowl of hills. On its frozen surface, there are slowly twisting walls of ice, in snowflake patterns that are slightly dizzying to look at, and an area of open ground in the centre. At the edge of the lake, there are many small entrances. As the party approaches one, 6 ice memphits will break off the wall and attack. Above the entrance, where the memphits sprang from, a line of words will appear:     The switch will pull left and right to guide the party through the fractal maze. If they don't wish to do this there are other solutions.   The walls of ice are thing and are easily melted or smashed, but it will take a very long time to get through it that way. Navigating them simply as a maze is near impossible, but the switch of mistletoe can will guide them through, pointing in the correct direction each time.   A character can take an hour and succeed on a DC 25 intelligence check to predict and memorise a way through, if they so wish. If they have an ability that allows them to flawlessly remember things, such as the Keen Mind feat, they have advantage on the test.     At the centre of the lake there is a hexagonal raised block of ice, with a mouth carved into it. Over the mouth is the following riddle       The answer is the moon over the sea.   With that spoken aloud, the jaws will open, then melt and reveal a narrow spiral staircase that leads down onto a small room with a muddy floor. The room has walls made of solid ice, much larger and thicker than those of the maze, and one entrance narrow passageway leading away from it.     Evergreen Fall   The passageway is bordered by an open arch on both ends, and is quite large, about 50 feet long. The ground inside is clearly lake bed, it's still damp and there are drying strands of weed trapped in it. As the party reaches the end, with a loud slam, a sheet of ice will open slam down at both ends of the tunnel and the ceiling will begin to lower. A line will appear over each end.   The Robin's Castle holds the Sky   The roof will lower to the floor in 5 minutes. To prevent themselves from being crushed, the party will need to plant the seeds from the pine cone, which will grow at a rapid pace, and push the ceiling back with a swish of needles and a crunch of ice. Once this has happened, the doors at either end will unseal.     Oaken Lake (White Tomb)   The open entrance way leads to the lake bed itself. Just an open, now dry lake bed, with dull light and strange shadows filtering down from the shifting walls still on the surface above. In the distance, the party can see a slight rise, where occasional silent forks of lightning fall. As they begin to walk across the lakebed, with the empty sunk boats, and a few skeletons of fish and deer, they'll feel a rumble.   A player with a passive perception of greater than 15 notices a blurry shape on the surface of the lake following the parties progress.   A dozen or more shapes will begin very slowly swimming through the mud towards them, getting closer and closer. In the mud, there is an ancient lump of stone, encrusted with algae that reads.   Let finger bands be heard by many, but beware. To oft seen and of heard frightens some but draws worse from its lair.   The shapes in the mud are zombies, with a burrowing speed of 10ft. Once they reach the party they will emerge and attack.   Everytime the bell is rung, it acts as "turn undead." If the party rings the bell more than five times while in this area, a Earth Elemental emerges and attacks.   Walking across the muddy lake bed, they come to a slight rise. At the bottom of the hill there is a low fence of iron spikes (neither the zombies nor the earth elemental will pursue them beyond this fence). Lightning is crackling down from the frozen surface of the lake, striking the same spot over and over every few seconds. It seems to be emitting from a blurry, dark shape sitting on the surface, the same shape that has been travelling above the party over the lake. With a Wisdom (Perception) check of 15, a player can spot that it is a small shape, standing on four paws.   There is a figure standing at the top of the hill, an armoured one. He has a kite shield with three acorns and a leafless tree on it, and has a crown of brown leaves around the top of his armoured head. The knights face appears to be carved from stone, but he speaks nonetheless.   Thornleaf, and brother king, let storm take thy and I. Touch to godthrow and to my heart and the spring light fly.   Use the stats for a knight from the monster manual to represent the Oak Knight, except for the following changes: He has resistance to all damage except for lightning and from attacks with weapons made of holly. He is fey instead of humanoid. He is immune to fear, charm and having his mind read.   The green night dies instantly if forced into the lightning bolt, or touched with the holly branch after it has touched the lightning.   In Winter's Tomb   As the knight falls, he is consumed and turns to ash, leaving the smell of sawdust and sap in the air. His armour and weapons turn to tree bark and crumbles. A trench forms in the muddy hill, sheer sides and a slope leading downwards to a white stone door. Four faces on the door in a diamond patten, with mouths slightly open create a huge bursst of wind that whips up mud and sludge in side the trench, stripping it away to reveal a path of stone slabs. Only someone wielding the rowan shield can approach the door, as the incredible winds send everyone else backwards into the mud. A player without the rowan shield must pass a DC 20 Strength Saving throw each turn that they are in the trench to avoid being blown back and taking 1 bludgeoning damage.   Above the door is carved the following       Pressing the faces in the order: Top, right, left and bottom will cause the door to open, revealing another spiral staircase, this one of grey stone and spiralling counter clockwise. From the bottom of the stairway, a dull blue light is flickering.   Carved into the walls on the way down is the following passage     As they reach the base of the stair, read aloud the following passage.     Before them stands Winter Entombed.   At Initiative 10 each turn (losing initiative ties), the blue-fire pulses and restores 10 hit points to Winter Entombed. If they put the pine-cone in instead, this ceases, and he instantly takes 20 points of fire.   The switch of mistle can detect Winter-Entombed when he is hidden in mist or invisible.   A player taking the action to ring the bell prevents him from taking legendary actions until the start of that players turn.   The rowan wood shield gives advantage on all saves against its spells and its inevitable strike.   Attacking the shield of ice directly with the holly staff causes it to shatter, reducing his AC and preventing him from using his frozen bulwark reaction and his shield slam attack.   The fight ends when winter entombed is slain, his body dissolving into powdery snow and funnelling back into the sarcophagus. The brazier above will begin to burn brighter and hotter and the fires will funnel out, engulfing the party in smoke and flame.     Note: This is a really tough fight, especially if the party doesn't figure out the uses of their objects quickly. If they look like they're struggling, add Mawr in at initiative 1 (losing initiative ties).   Ending When the burning fades away, the partying is standing just outside Granny's hut as dawn is rising. Mawr trots up from the path too the lake, his fur standing on end and looking tired. Anyone who touches him gets a nasty static shock. To one side of the entrance stands the Knight from the lake, his wreath of leaves now glossy green and the tree on his shield now filled with leaves and blossoms. He bows too the party as they approach.   Inside, a child is sitting up in the bundle of gold and pink blankets, sipping from a mug of soup. Granny smiles as the party as they enter, and throws a bone from her cauldron to Mawr.         The party receives the following magic items   Cold Iron Hammer:   Weapon (Polehammer), very rare (requires attunement). This +2 polehammer has 5 charges. You can expend a charge as your strike an enemy to deal an additional 2d6+2 force damage, and force them to make a DC 15 constitution saving throw. On a failure, they are stunned until the end of their next turn. The hammer regains all charges at dawn. If the hammer is reduced to 0 charges, roll a d20. On the roll of a 1, this weapon permanently loses all charges, but remains a magic weapon. On a roll of 20, this item loses all charges but permanently deals an additional 1d4 cold damage on a hit.   Storm Touched Staff: Weapon (Quarterstaff), rare (requires attunement)[/i:] This +1 Magic Quarterstaff acts as a wand of lightning)   Wayfarer Shield: Shield, rare (requires attunement). While attuned to this plus one shield, you can cast misty step three times, and dimension door once. This item regains all uses at midnight.   Starbell: wondrous item, uncommon. This gleaming silver bell rings with a note that's painful too creatures not of this world. As an action, you can ring this bell, causing all aberations, fiends and undead to have disadvantage on attack roles and ability checks until the start of your next turn. Once this ability is used 3 times it cannot be used again until dawn.   Lucky Pine Cone: Reflavoured Bag of Beans   Replace any of the items with any other magic item with a rarity of rare of less, particularly if none are useful to the players. If running for more than 5 players, add additional magic items too ensure every player gets at least one.  

The town of Hollowfrost shows no signs of being a frozen wasteland, and is bustling with life as the markets begin to open. It's a new day, midwinter has past, and the next steps of your adventure will be into slush and spring.