V. writes:

In the current 5E adventure I’m running, I’ve attempted to apply many of the concepts I’ve learned from the Alexandrian… Generally, multiple clues have been available to transition PCs between nodes. Now the players are about to experience a party scenario. One planned event will be a senior member of the faction that players belong to showing up unexpectedly at the feast. That NPC is going to give a specific mission to the players that would push them towards a particular node. Would this be considered overt railroading? Something to absolutely avoid?

I guess my mind is really spinning after having just re-read the node series. I don’t remember you mentioning a node structure without multiple entry points to a specific node.

The key thing to understand is that, generally speaking, a node with only one potential point of entry is fragile. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t exist, it just means that you – as the adventure designer – should be aware that it’s quite possible the PCs won’t go to that node. (Because, following the principle of the Three Clue Rule, they either won’t find the lead, won’t understand the lead, or won’t follow the lead.)

The exception to this is a proactive node. These are the nodes that come looking for the PCs. They don’t need multiple leads pointing to them (although they can) because the PCs don’t need to go to them in order for them to enter play.

Scenario hooks, in particular, are often rendered as a proactive node. And a very common form of this, particularly in published adventures, is the job offer: Somebody wants the PCs to do something and they tell them what that is.

This is, of course, that situation you’re looking at here.

One thing to note here from a structural viewpoint is that, while the job offer may be proactive, the next step (of taking the job and going to do whatever the patron asks) is theoretically fragile (because you only have one lead; i.e., accepting the job offer).

In actual practice, however, this tends not to be case: First, you have an NPC literally saying, “Do this,” which eliminates most of the ways in which a lead can fail (by the PCs missing it or misinterpreting it), leaving the only fragility the possibility that the PCs will just outright refuse to follow the lead (i.e., turn down the job). And this is comparatively less likely because, in most campaigns, scenario hooks are considered something that the players are expected to follow, so as long as the players recognize that this job offer is a scenario hook, it becomes much more likely that they’ll accept it. Also, as in your current scenario, such job offers often come from organizations or patrons that the PCs have an established relationship with, making it more likely they’ll do it for in-character reasons.

Yes, the expectation that the PCs will take a scenario hook when it’s offered by the GM is very light railroading. But the “scenario of the week” format in play is quite common and not particularly objectionable, and even in campaigns where that’s not the case, in practice explicit/obvious scenario hooks are just treated as having more “weight” than other leads.

With that being said, the advanced technique to understand here is that the patron’s job offer — i.e., the thing the patron wants the PCs to do — IS NOT THE SCENARIO.

The scenario is whatever situation (e.g., a collection of nodes) the patron’s job offer is pointing the PCs towards.

For example, the patron says, “I’d like you to steal four hundred cure disease potions from this Imperial caravan.” The PCs might do that. They might also steal the potions and fence them. Or warn the caravan guards and then help them protect the shipment so that it reaches the plague victims in Vilheim safely. Or steal them and redirect them to the poor people in the Cataris district instead of the self-serving 1% in Vilheim. Or take the patron’s intel and use it to steal something else from the caravan. Or sell the intel itself. Or… well, lots of things. When you’re designing scenarios instead of plots, the possibilities become almost limitless.

It also become easier at this point to recognize that the job offer from the patron doesn’t have to be the only scenario hook pointing at that caravan, the cure disease potions, and/or the plague victims in Vilheim and Cataris.

This moves us towards material I cover more fully in Juggling Scenario Hooks in the Sandbox and the Running the Sandbox video, but it obviously removes the theoretical fragility of having the job offer as the only lead pointing the PCs towards the scenario.

(Of course, in the sandbox the players will know that they aren’t expected to follow every scenario hook. So, paradoxically, it may become more likely that they never go on that caravan raid. On the other hand, that’s just fine because, in sandbox, the fallout from them NOT raiding the caravan may be even more interesting than if they had. But I digress.)

Once you have multiple scenario hooks in play, the next design revelation you may have is that these hooks don’t all need to point at the same node! For example, the patron’s job offer is “raid the caravan” (which points them at the caravan, from which they can learn about where the cure disease potions are being sent and why). But the PCs might also have an ally whose mother lives in Cataris and has become sick (leading the PCs to start in Cataris, learn about the plague, and then potentially discover the cure disease caravan as a possible solution). Or they pass on the job, the patron hires someone else to hit the caravan, and now a wealthy uncle who lives in Vilheim wants them to track down the culprits and recover the cure.

If you stop thinking in terms of plot, you’ll discover that a scenario can often engage the PCs from lots of different angles, which will, in turn, give them lots of meaningful choices about how they want to engage with it.

The short version is this: No, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the PCs getting job offers. In fact, it would be weird if they didn’t. Most PCs are hyper-competent and rapidly accumulate a resume of high-profile accomplishments. They’re exactly the sort of people you want solving your problems for you.

Go to Ask the Alexandrian #5

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HUGIN JORHUND ATHUKAVORE THUUNLAKALAGA

(Created by Allen Voigt)

When he was young, Hugin wrangled with Jaagrik, Kaga, and Zuri, goliaths who were a little younger than him. (For a goliath, “wrangling” – which might be more accurately translated as something closer to “competing” – is the childhood word of playing.) During this time he was given the honorific of Athukavore, a goliath word which translates as “noisemaker.” But he grew apart from his playmates when he was taken under the wing of Kapanuk, one of the tribe’s Dawncallers.

Recognizing Hugin’s divine spark, Kapanuk sought to train Hugin to become a cleric of Talos, the God of Storms. Talos, however, did not seem to wish to use him as a conduit of power. Hugin hoped that things might change when he passed into adulthood, and so he gave up his “blood ball” (a mock javelin his father had made for him that was, in truth, little more than a pointy walking stick made of bone), and entered the Crawl: Passing through the tunnel, Hugin hallucinated that the wyrm which made up his home came back to life and melted the bones of his friends and family, only by plunging deep into the ice was he able to survive.

Hugin emerged from the Crawl into adulthoos. But nothing had changed. There was still no divine spark. Frustrated, Hugin took a pilgrimage to Luskan. In the City of Sails, a member of the Arcane Brotherhood named Nass Lantomir convinced him to take part in the Wet Parade at the Winter Palace.

The white-spired Winter Palace is Auril’s temple in Luskan. The structure is a roofless array of pillars and arches carved of white stone. The rituals of Auril’s worship often seem cruel to outsiders.

The Wet Parade is a ritual in which supplicants don garments packed with ice. They then journey between six white pillars known as the Kisses of Auril, which are dispersed throughout the city. The worshippers move from pillar to pillar, chanting prayers to the goddess. Upon reaching a pillar, a supplicant must climb it and then “kiss the lady,” touching lips to a rusty iron plate at the top.

These events resemble frantic footraces. In winter, there is the added risk of frostbite and injuries caused by falling from the ice-slicked pillars. The parade runners are cheered on by patrons who come out of nearby taverns to place bets on the stamina of the participants. Those who finish the race are thought to have helped make the winter easier, and they rarely have to pay for food or ale all winter long. (Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, p. 25)

There is some similarity between Luskan’s Wet Parade and the Blesstide “parade” of Waterdeep: On Auril’s Blesstide, an informal festival held on the first day of frost, paraders dressed in white cloaks (but otherwise naked) run from Cliffwatch in the North Ward across the city, through West Gate, and then leap into the icy waters of the Sea of Swords. (City of Splendors, p. 15)

The Six Kisses each represents a different principle of Auril’s faith, while also physically combining two of Auril’s three forms (which are the Cold Crone, the Brittle Maiden (Lady Icekiss), and the Winter’s Womb (the Queen of Frozen Tears)):

• The Kiss of Ice, which is fairly self-explanatory; it is the crucible in which faith and mortal strength are tested (Maiden ascendant, with the Crone)
• The Kiss of Fire’s Quenching, which is not only the literal quenching of fire’s warmth, but also symbolically the destruction of civilization as personified in the hearth (Crone ascendant, with the Womb)
• The Kiss of the Open Door, for Auril holds that no structure should be made fast against the wild cold (Maiden ascendant, with the Womb)
• The Kiss of the North Wind, which is also known as Auril’s Breath or the Breath of Death; it is one and the same with the cold lack which is the air in a dead man’s lungs (Winter’s Womb ascendant, with the Crone)
• The Kiss of Darkness, also known as the Kiss of Isolation, for in the darkness each man stands alone, revealing the lonely truth of all sentience (Crone ascendant, with the Maiden)
• The Kiss of Eternity, for in ice that which would elsewise be lost will be forever preserved (Winter’s Womb ascendant, with the Maiden)

How much of this symbolism Hugin understood is uncertain, but as a goliath completing the challenge was an easy feat when walking among humans. Nevertheless, he still felt no flow of power from the Frostmaiden upon the completion of the ritual.

Later, however, Hugin was drunk at a local tavern. He was approached by a tiefling woman with light blue skin. At times it seemed to him as if she was rimed in ice, although it seemed hard to be certain, and if he looked at her out of the corner of his eye it seemed as if her eyes were black, empty pits. She told him that if he still sought divine recognition and the holy purpose which came with it, then a path had been laid for him. “Look for the man with the eye of ice. He will show you the way.”

Then she was gone.

But later that same evening, a man with an eye of magical ice sat down next to him and offered to buy him a drink. Then he offered him a job: He’d heard that Hugin was from Icewind Dale, “And I have need of… let’s say a bounty hunter.” It seemed that someone had published a scurrilous treatise called The Hellbent Highborn accusing several prominent patriars in Baldur’s Gate and nobles in Waterdeep of being devil worshipers. They had not been able to discover the author’s true identity, but they knew that they had fled to Icewind Dale by way of Luskan. “All we want is for this criminal to be found and for justice to be done. You understand?”

Hugin left the bar with a pouch of gold coin and immediately made arrangements to work his way back to the Dale as a caravan guard. If hunting down this criminal and seeing her brought to justice was that path to divine recognition, then he would see it done and become what he was meant to be.

DESCRIPTION

Hugin is a dark gray-skinned goliath, standing 6’10”. He’s bald, with lithoderms – coin-sized bone-and-skin growths as hard as pebbles – speckling his skin. Around his joints (at elbows, knees, collar, hips, and so forth) are chalky white calluses, and where the skin meets these protuberances there is a dark grey-blue pattern radiating radiating out.

WYRMDOOM CRAG

W1 -VALLEY. The bones of a dragon lie half-buried in the snow. Ground slopes up from the dragon to the crag’s entrance; stone stairs to the east lead up to the goat-ball court.

Chwingas. Tiny fairies known as chwingas are often seen flitting among the dragon bones. You know that one of them is fascinated by whistling and will come capering out whenever someone is whistling a tune. Another is fascinated by their own reflection.

W2 – GOAT-BALL COURT. Fifteen crude stone pillars stand in this raised area, with bleachers carved into the rocks. (See Goat-Ball.)

W3 – WEAPONSMITH. Your clan’s weaponsmith is Wayani Highhunter. She says she learned her forge-craft from a dwarf of Mithril Hall.

W4 – THE CRAWL. Your clan’s soft-worker, Demelok Nightwalker, dyes cloth and tans leather here. The center of the cavern bulges up, revealing a passage. Through this passage young goliaths must pass in order to become full-fledged adults. They offer up a symbol of their childhood — a doll — and crawl through the tunnel. Members of their family wait for them on the other side, ready to welcome them into adulthood. While passing through the tunnel, visions force them to face their fears. If they cannot complete the journey, then they are not ready for the trials of adulthood.

W5 – MAIN HALL. This cavern has a domed roof and a well. The southern portion of the cave is about ten feet higher and the clan-fire is kept burning here. This is where the clan gathers and socializes.

W6 – PRIVATE CAVES. These private caves are home to the “honored elders” of the clan — Wayani the Weaponsmith, Demelok the Soft-Worker, Chieftain Ogolai Orcsplitter, and Bodysmith (medicine-worker) Aruk Thundercaller.

W7 – FEASTING CAVE. This is both where the food is prepared and the feasting occurs. Members of the clan who do not have a private cave sleep here. Feast-hall wrestling helps establish the pecking order in the clan.

GOLIATH CULTURAL NOTES

Food & Drink: Elk meat, goat’s milk, berries, smoked fish.

Daily Routine: At dawn each day, the chief selects Captains who are tasked with different duties (hunting, fishing, repairing broken furniture, etc.). In addition to the clan Elders, these captains then select members of the tribe round-robin style to assist in their duties. It’s not unusual for multiple teams to be selected for the same task (i.e., multiple hunting groups), in which case informal and formal competitions between them are common.

Names: Goliaths have three names. A birth name (given by their mother and father), an honorific or nickname that can change at the whim of the chieftain (usually reflecting something they did that was particularly useful to the tribe or as a punishment for something foolish or dangerous), and the clan name. (Your clan name is Thuunlakalaga.)

• Example Honorifics: Highclimber, Nighthunter, Bearkiller, Dawncaller, Fearless, Horncarver, Skywatcher, Wordpainter, Latesleeper, Wanderlost, Shytongue, Stumblefoot

Language: Gol-Kaa, which has only thirteen phonetic elements (a, e, g, i, k, l, m, n, o, p, u, th, and v). Relatively recently, the goliaths have picked up the dwarven alphabet and begun using it to transcribe their oral traditions, etc.

Art: Most goliath art is abstract, based on astronomical observations. Their portrait art is highly abstract, with the figure being portrayed more as a constellation of their achievements rather than visual representation of what they physically look like.

Goliath clans often have dawncallers – bards who act as both sentries and lorekeepers for the tribe. Goliaths, whether dawncallers or not, are great tale-tellers and have a rich oral tradition of stories, myths, legends, and songs.

Competition: Goliath culture features a lot of competition. It’s baked into daily tasks and most forms of recreation. They often keep track of their social relationship in the form of tallies or scores (“twice more and I’ll have saved you from wolves twelve times” or “this is the fourth time I’ve given you a healing potion”).

• This includes competing with themselves: Once a goliath has done something (e.g., slay a dragon) they won’t be happy unless they’ve one-upped the accomplishment (e.g., slay two dragons, or an older dragon, or a dragon with a large hoard). Their word for becoming an adult can be literally translated as “champion.” (But, of course, even a champion has to compete to keep their title.) And their word for “chieftain” would be more accurately translated as “champion of champions.”
• Goliaths also prize fair competition. Cheating is anathema and they also feel strongly that everyone should have their turn and an equal opportunity.

Sports: Wrestling, stubborn root (like king of the hill), cliff-bolting (a vertical climbing race), goat-ball.

Honored Elders: Not all of these positions can be found in every clan.

• Chieftain
• Weaponsmith
• Soft-Worker (skilled in cloths, leather, etc.)
• Bodysmith (a medicine-worker)
• Skywatcher (religious leader)
• Adjudicator (referees for the games goliaths play, but also act as judges for other disputes)
• Childsmith (responsible for raising and watching over the clan’s children, sometimes referred to as the Tent-Mother or Tent-Father)

Dawncallers: Dawncallers aren’t exactly elders. They are the “ones who walk at night” – acting as sentries or otherwise taking care of tasks that need to be completed at night. It’s an honored position, which exempts them from the daily captain-calls. The dawncallers are often seen as mysterious and enigmatic, but they share morning and evening meals with the rest of the tribe and, particularly at the evening meal, share the oral history of the tribe (which they learn and share with each other during tehri nightly vigils).

GOAT-BALL

See Icewind Dale: Goat-Ball for the full rules and customs of the game.

Go to Arval Terrikson

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YGRA DUNN

(Created by Heather Burmeister)

Ygra (pronounced EE-grah) Dunn was born to human parents someplace in Ten-Towns. Or so she assumes. She has no idea where she was born or who her parents are, but she does know that somewhere in the wilderness north of Ten-Towns, she was… lost? Abandoned? The Frozenfar can be treacherous and it’s not unheard of for travelers with children to lose them in one of the hellish snowstorms that sweep the territory during winter.

Regardless of how she ended up there, one thing she does know is that she’s the luckiest human on this side of the Spine of the World. For reasons still unknown to her, she was spared from icy doom and was taken in by a yeti clan. The yetis raised Ygra as one of their own, and she formed deep bonds with her new family unit, especially the yeti Uziwe. Uziwe taught Ygra all about the landscape and how to move in it, and made her a part of the family unit. It was also common among the yeti to learn how to defend themselves against the weapons the humans used. Ygra learned their fighting style, their customs and their language, and was protected throughout her childhood. Coming of age proved difficult, however, with her differences from the tribe becoming more pronounced, and there were many things Uziwe could not teach her. Ygra set off on her own when she was a teen to find her place again among humans.

It started with following the caravans, getting close to them. Ygra inherited  a natural distrust of people from her yeti mother figure, and also didn’t speak Common. She discovered quickly which humans were apt to part with some meager rations and which ones would chase her away with weapons. She also quickly learned that if a caravan had stopped to camp at night you didn’t always have to beg for the food, you could just take it. Through her training with the yetis, Ygra knew how to use the landscape to her advantage and hide from any guards that were posted. She was very successful, making off with rations that were delicious – salted meats, dried fruits, things she’d never tasted. She also sometimes came away with furs and pelts she would craft into clothing which she desperately needed. The only time she failed was in trying to steal anything from Reddick Lightbrewer, and that failure changed her life forever.

Reddick was a dwarven caravan guard who caught Ygra rifling through his belongings while she thought he was asleep. Naturally, the dwarf attacked, but he was alarmed to discover a gangly, gaunt-looking teen. Regardless, Ygra almost bested him with nothing but her fists and fled into the surrounding area. Reddick, fascinated by this seemingly primitive youth, continued to come into the wilderness where he’d last seen the girl and leave rations, clothing, and warm blankets.  He’d camp nearby, and each time the supplies were gone. Through his kindness, she began to trust him, and eventually accompanied him to the city of Bryn Shander. Reddick lived in a small shack on the outskirts of town, and more or less adopted her as his strange ward. She helped with cooking, cleaning, mending and housework and he’d teach her Common, Dwarvish, and how to read and write. Most importantly, though, he taught her how to fight with weapons. That was her favorite part. Ygra spent countless hours sparring with Reddick, learning the atlatl and quarterstaff.

She got good enough that, when she came of age, Reddick invited her to come along with him on the caravans between Ten-Towns as a guide and guard. Her Common and Dwarvish got even better, and she learned some exciting new words that Reddick deemed “weren’t for ladies,” but she said them anyway.

Ygra was an excellent guide. She’d disappear on the trails ahead only to circle back around behind the caravan like a ghost to confirm that coast was clear. Life was good and went on like this for a number of years until the day when Reddick disappeared. There was a note left one morning, hastily written in Dwarvish, and all it said was, “Watch yourself. Take care of yourself. Back soon”.

The days passed and morphed slowly into weeks, which bled into months, and then, eventually, time just spread out into a new normalcy. Ygra told anyone looking for Reddick as a guide that he’d be returning, but she could help. She still kept the cabin clean, his quarters especially, and settled into a pattern of waiting. Ten years passed like this.

Eventually the upkeep and waiting for a ghost wore on her. She grew tired of keeping up a place that wasn’t hers in the hope that something might change. So, just as she’d done when she’d barely become a teen, she struck out on her own. The fishing captains in Targos were looking for guards to keep their catches safe from thieves on the docks and from sea monsters on the lakes, and the money was good. She left a note for Reddick on the table, locked the front door, and struck out.

Ygra has lived in Targos for the past four years, working for a variety of captains, occasionally freelancing for the Dockworkers’ Guild, and intermittently going back to the old work of guiding and guarding caravans. Lately, Skath, the captain of the local militia since Speaker Naerth was elected a little while back, has been eagerly pursuing her; encouraging her to sign up for the militia, although she’s turned him down several times. She’s known around the city and has a few acquaintances, maybe even friends. She has a humble home on the outskirts of town which stays warm and comfortable, even now that the cold has somehow gotten… colder.

But when the caravans bring her close, she still stops by the shack in Bryn Shander to check for signs of Reddick, and keeps her ear to the ground listening for clues.

DESCRIPTION

Ygra is a small human woman, barely 5′ tall. She has deep, coal colored eyes and dark auburn hair, almost black. Her skin is tanned and weathered from her years spent in the elements, and sometimes she still speaks with a strange cadence, or has an odd turn of phrase in common. Her clothes are largely homemade from different animal furs or skins, but recently she almost exclusively wears her fur tundra gear to protect from the cold. When asked, she says she was raised outside of Bryn Shander, closely guarding her yeti upbringing.

YETI CLANS

Yeti clans in the area around Ten-Towns are divided between the glacial clans (like the one Ygra belonged to) and the mountain prides (who live up in the Spine of the World).

The glacial clans are matriarchal. Or, more accurately, almost entirely feminine. Mothers and daughters create huddles and establish homes (often in glacial caves). Male yetis among the glacial clans are solitary and nomadic, being cast out from the clan homes at a very young age and visiting them only rarely in later years.

The mountain prides are small bands of mixed gender strongly organized around the leadership of whichever yeti has proven themselves strongest. The prides are more fractious and far less stable than the glacial tribes, with yeti frequently shifting between prides and prides frequently splitting apart or subjugating rivals.

The clans and prides are only loosely organized into large societies, lacking both the size and order of the Reghed clans (see below). But they are very distinct from each other, with slightly different dialects of the Yeti tongue and usually proffering violence when they encounter each other.

REGHED TRIBES

The Reghed often hunted and clashed with the yeti, and the glacial clans in particular have a long-running feud with them. Ygra was taught to fear the Reghed, for they were not to be trusted, and she heard many tales of how they had murdered, hunted, or plundered the homes of the yeti. She never saw their murderous violence firsthand, but on more than one occasion a hunting party of yeti would come back bearing the bodies of those slain and she would mourn with them during the traditional burial rites.

The Reghed are the children of the Reghed glacier. They are tall, fair-haired (brown, red, or light brown), and blue-eyed, wearing heavy furs and brightly dyed clothes crafted from animal hides. Their skin is bronzed from the sun and cracked by the wind. They’re a nomadic people, following the herds of reindeer along their annual migration routes and sharing their large, round tents with their sled dogs. They speak Reghedjic.

There are several core values esteemed in Reghed culture:

• The tribe is one spirit, always on the move. When the motion of the spirit comes to an end, the body dies. So it is with the tribe.
• For the tribe to survive, all must work together. And no member of the tribe is left behind by the tribe.
• The land respects only strength. The strong flourish; the weak perish.
• Magic is not to be trusted, for it is used by the weak and evil.

They are organized into a number of tribes, each of made up of a number of smaller clans unified in their devotion to a specific tribal beast totem of Tempos, the god of war. The shamans who commune with the totem spirits have great power within the tribes, but they are led by the chieftains of each clan who collectively choose the most powerful among them to become the tribe’s king or queen. (The interesting bit is defining what “strongest” means and how it will be measured.)

The Tribe of the Bear. The Tribe of the Bear often haunts the shores of the Sea of Moving Ice far to the north of Ten-Towns. The tribe has shrunk precipitously, and today there are only two clans left: One led by Wolvig Barrundson and another by Gunvald Halraggson.

The Tribe of the Elk. The largest and most populous of the tribes. Their king is Jarund Elkhardt, who views the people of Ten-Towns with a mixture of disdain (they are a “tamed people”) and disinterest.

The Tribe of the Tiger. A fractious tribe who avoids the powerful Elk while preying on the weaker Bear and Wolf tribes. They are ruled by Queen Bjornhild Solvigsdottir, who was the wife of the late King Korold and fought alongside him in many battles.

The Tribe of the Wolf. The smallest of the tribes, to survive the Tribe of the Wolf has welcomed many outsiders, including outcasts from Ten-Towns, disenfranchised members of other tribes, and even goblinoids. The Tribe is fractious and its chiefs have been unable to agree on a king for more than a decade. One of its most powerful chiefs is Isarr Kronenstrom, who worships Malar the Beast Lord and is known to hunt Ten-Towners for sport. Isarr has of late declared himself the Wolf King, despite other clan chieftains like Rhun Meirchion and Owain Lilwarch not recognizing his claims.

The Tribe of the Seal. They have actually left Icewind Dale entirely, migrating into the Sea of Moving Ice and settling in ice-fortresses as fishers and whalers. The other tribes no longer recognize them as Reghed.

The Tribe of the Caribou. Also known as the Lost Tribe, during the Spellplague the last surviving members of the Tribe of the Caribou were seen climbing atop the Reghed Glacier… and were never seen again. Some assume they died out. Other tales claim that they passed far to the north. Or the south. Or were led by the caribou totem spirits into a green paradise that lies hidden within the glacier.

Although the Tribe of the Elk has slowly learned to live in peace with the people of Ten-Towns, the other tribes are a constant threat to them. However, they spend just as much time feuding and fighting with each other. However, the tribes collectively hate orcs, white dragons, and frost giants, and will readily set aside their differences to ally against such threats.

BRYN SHANDER

Bryn Shander is the Tenth Town of Ten-Towns. Originally it was a lone cabin on the trail to Mael Dualdon where caravanners, weary from their trip over the pass, would rest by a warm fire before continuing to their intended destination – usually Targos, the most accessible settlement in those days. Fishers from the towns often came to the hilltop cabin to meet the caravans as they arrived, eager for news from the outside world. But when scrimshanders from Termalaine began bringing their wares to the cabin to entice the richest goods from the caravans before they reached the other towns, they ignited a trade war.

As other towns sent their own traders to the cabin, new buildings and infrastructure were constructed. Finally, after a feud broke out between four of the traders that ended in bloodshed, all of the towns of Icewind Dale agreed to send speakers to the new outpost to regular business being carried out there.

Market Square: Has a number of major businesses surrounding the central market, notably including the Town Hall, Rendaril’s Emporium (where the original cabin stood and now the largest trade house in the city), Blackiron Blades (the cheapest blades in Ten-Towns!), and the Hooked Knucklehead (a cheap inn where caravan crews often stay).

The Northlook: The inn and tavern most frequented by mercenaries and adventurers, and thus the most crowded and dangerous place in town. At the same time, its taproom is the best spot in all of Ten-Towns to get leads on profitable ventures, along with the latest news and rumors. The proprietor is a retired sellsword named Scramsax.

Geldenstag’s Rest: One of the oldest establishments in town, far enough from the center of things for people to be able to keep a low profile.

TARGOS

Targos is located on the southern shore of Maer Dualdon. Nestled within a series of high cliff walls that shelter its port from the savage winter winds of the Dale, the city has also built a wall which extends out into the harbor and protects their fleet from the battering storm waves that afflict the fleets of other towns. The protection of the wall also enables Targos’ shipbuilding industry to work year-round.

The current Speaker of Targos is Naerth Maxildnarr who was recently elected only a few months ago, displacing former Speaker Glandro Holfast (who remains the head of the Dockworkers’ Guild).

The Luskan Arms: The oldest public house in Ten-Towns, established back when Bryn Shander was still just “the camp on the hill” and Luskan was still a thriving free port. Many of the traders who came to Targos back then hailed from Luskan, so the Luskan Arms was built to look like an inn that might be found in the City of Sails. In recent years, the place has fallen into disrepair and is infested with rats.

Three Flags Sailing: A tavern frequented mostly by the local fishermen. Run by Ethel Yarbroul, a gray-haired widow better known as “Ma” by the regulars.

Triglio: A general store selling everything except fishing and sailing supplies (which are sold through specialty stores closer to the docks). It takes its name from one of the chanteys that the fishers of Targos sing while hard at work:

Trig-lee-oh, lads, an’ ‘oist upon the line!
Trig-lee-oh, lads, an’ bring yon fishers in!

Graendal’s Fine Dwarven Craft: A smithy run by Graendal Granitefist, one of the original dwarves who fled Mithral Hall with Clan Battlehammer and resettled in Icewind Dale.

Go to Hugin Jorhund Athukavore Thuunlakalaga

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WRENN PILWICKEN

(Created by Erik Malm)

In 1451 DR, Mount Hotenow in the Crags cataclysmically erupted, ripping apart the city of Neverwinter and opening the Chasm which left the city exposed to the plaguechanged depths of the Underdark.

To the south, in a gnome enclave deep within the Neverwinter Woods, this was the very moment at which Wrenn Pilwicken was born.

The Hotenow eruption also affected the Neverwinter Woods. The thin skein of reality between the Feywild and the mortal plane was ripped apart, leaving, in addition to many portals, remnants and extrusions of the fey realms scattered throughout the forest. This notably included the ruins of Sharandar, the treetop capital of the elven empire of Iliyanbruen which once ruled much of the North. Iliyanbruen was formed in -1100 DR when the even larger elven empire of Illefarn dissolved. It stood for more than a millennium before collapsing in 177 DR. As their empire fell, the elves of Iliyanbruen sought to preserve the beauties of Sharandar within the echoes of the Feywild; like some precious jewel preserved within amber. The eruption left in its wake a multitude of echoes of an echo that had lived in a ream.

Wrenn grew up in this history-haunted wood. Although he could speak to animals, like his brethren, and felt a connection to the forest, he found himself drawn to the wider wonders of nature. In his youngling teens, Wrenn began venturing beyond the borders of Neverwinter Woods. His journeys took him west to the coast, south into the foothills of the Sword Mountains, and even dared one journey into the upper reaches of the ancient dwarven city of Gauntlgrym, located in the Crags northeast of Mount Hotenow.

Journeying even farther into the Sword Mountains, Wrenn met a dwarven druid named Dolodrus Rubybane. Rubybane taught him the importance of preserving the balance among the elements and began to train him in the ways of the druids, introducing him to the worship of Silvanus, one of the Gods of Harmony (along with Chauntea, goddess of agriculture, and Lathander the Morninglord, god of the dawn) who stood opposed to the Gods of Fury (Talos the Destroyer, Auril the Frostmaiden, Malar the Beastlord, and Umberlee the Bitch Queen).

Wrenn visited the druid often, but upon one of his trips he discovered that Rubybane was simply… gone. Everything suggested he had simply moved on during the winter.

Returning to Neverwinter Woods, Wrenn became interested in finding ways of restoring balance between the feywild cysts and the natural world. One of his most memorable encounters during this time was with an archmage named Orapius, who presented himself as being a wizard of Sembia seeking the lost heritage of Netheril. (Netheril was an empire even older than Iliyanbruen, marked by an upper class who lived in floating cities. Netheril infamously fell when a disruption of the Weave caused arcane magic to temporarily fail, causing their cities to fall from the sky.) Orapius was eventually revealed to be a fey lord merely impersonating a Netherese mage.

Recently, Wrenn heard that Auril the Frostmaiden was disrupting the natural order in Icewind Dale, cursing it with an eternal winter. He felt compelled to journey north to see if he could help return balance to the blighted land. Working his way north and seeking both information and passage in Luskan, he was captured by slavers who intended to sell him to the whaling fleets of the Sea of Moving Ice. (Possibly as bait.)

While sailing north, the slavers’ ship was surprised by a blizzaught – a powerful snow elemental taking the form of a sentient blizzard. In the deadly confusion (and suffering a moment of panic himself), Wrenn was able to wildshape for the first and, so far, only time into an arctic fox, hiding deep within the ship as the storm tore it apart. Despite their desperate prayers (and even sacrifices) to Auril, one by one the crew succumbed to the elements as the ship became trapped in the moving ice sheets. Wrenn was able to survive, much to his horror, only by eating the remains of his captors.

As the ship slowly drifted through the sea of moving ice, locked between the ice flows, one day he heard a sound like thunder as the hull itself cracked, crushed between the icebergs. Wrenn could see the coast in the distance and, not knowing what else to do, fled without hope across the shifting ice, praying he could find a path to stable land.

After two days of fleeing across the ice flow, soaking wet and nearly frozen to death, Wrenn finally collapsed on the solid shore of Icewind Dale. His last memory was of an approaching axe beak. On the edge of consciousness, Wrenn wasn’t sure if he understood the axe beak to be saying,” What are you doing here?” because he could speak with animals or if the axe beak was… actually speaking in Common?

Although he knew that his life would probably end at the beak of this territorial creature, he just barely managed to whisper, “Help me… Please…” as the darkness and the cold consumed him.

DESCRIPTION

Wrenn is a fierce 2’8” tall, lithe even for a gnome. He has a sandy blond mop of medium length hair that’s always a little unkempt, as if he just got caught in the wind or something. He keeps his beard neater, in a dwarven style with an elaborate braid. Unlike many gnomes, he wears fairly subdued clothes, with colors selected to blend into his surroundings. But he does wear jewelry — a necklace, several bracelets, a selection of earrings — composed of brightly colored stones, many of which he has tales to tell of, for he found them on his “rambles” (as he refers to his adventures).

Go to Ygra Dunn

Go to Icewind Dale Index

I’m launching an Icewind Dale campaign for my local group and, if all goes well, I’m hoping to give a ring-side sea to how the campaign is developing.

The first thing a campaign needs, of course, is the player characters. There are five PCs in the group:

• Mara Brightwood, a half-elf bard
• Wrenn Pilwicken, a gnome druid
• Ygra Dunn, a human monk
• Hugin Jorhund Athukavore Thuunlakalaga, a goliath sorcerer
• Avral Terikson, an awakened axebeak warlock

For a deeper insight into how I collaborate with my players in creating their characters, check out Running the Campaign: Designing Character Backgrounds and Dragon Heist: Creating the Characters. This series will be more narrowly focused on just introducing the characters.

MARA BRIGHTWOOD

(Created by Kristina Fjellman)

ALIAS: Mara Blackoak

Mara Brightwood, now 31 years old, was born in Neverwinter in 1461 DR, ten years after the eruption of Mount Hotenow which devastated the city and formed the Chasm in its southeast district. Her parents were the proprietors of the Frozen Bear tavern in the Blacklake District, which thankfully was spared the worst of the Ruining’s destruction. Many of the city’s nobles lived in the district, and that enclave of power helped ensure its safety even as the rest of the city struggled with the strange ash zombies and plaguechanged horrors which clawed their way out of the depths.

In the Year of Splendors Burning (1469 DR), when Mara was eight, things changed considerably. Lord Neverember of Waterdeep declared himself a descendant of Neverwinter’s dead noble family and the rightful “Lord Protector” of the city. Neverember marched into the city with Mintarn mercenaries and began spending profligately to rebuild the city’s infrastructure. Although many muttered that much of this cash was going to Waterdhavian workers and craftsmen who were being shipped up the High Road, Neverember’s presence was probably good for Neverwinter.

But not everyone agreed, and when Neverember signed a treaty with the Many-Arrows orcs which essentially surrendered the River District to them, it led to popular unrest, fomented by a number of factions, including disgruntled Neverwintan nobility. The Blacklake District was torn apart by fractious conflict and riots. The streets were filled with violence which prevented efforts to rebuild, while the Nashers robbed from the poor to finance their rebellion. As a result, most of Blacklake fell into ruinous poverty. These were hard years.

In 1479 DR, Mara was now eighteen and the civil violence was heating up considerably. These events would eventually conclude with the Siege of Neverwinter, in which a force of Thayans unsuccessfully attempted to take advantage of the chaos within the city to invade, but Mara would be long gone before then: During the Spring of Smoke, numerous buildings were burned in the riots. Among these was the Frozen Bear, a conflagration in which Mara’s parents were both killed.

It would later by revealed that a group of Asmodean cultists known as the Ashmadai, or the Messengers of the Raging Fiend, had infiltrated both Neverember’s New Neverwinter organization and many of the rebel groups, as well. They had played both sides of the conflict, escalating tensions for their own gain. It was tiefling agents of the Ashmadai who Mara saw light the fires at the Frozen Bear, and she never forgot not only who was responsible, but the corruption made possible by the ambitions of powerful men.

THE DAUGHTERS OF THE SWORD

In the wake of the destruction of the Frozen Bear and Mara’s entire life, she fled Neverwinter as a member of the Daughters of the Sword, a traveling troupe of musicians and entertainers who toured the northern part of the Sword Coast. The Daughters were an all-female group and were often considered a novelty act because of this, despite being quite talented, and they would usually perform at the Frozen Bear when they could come to

Mara had been enamored with the Daughter’s performances, and had been taken under the wing of Sanela Mushina who had first taught Mara how to play the harp. Mara had actually joined their performances on several occasions at the Frozen Bear, and it seemed perfectly natural to leave Neverwinter with them now.

Mara toured with the Daughters of the Sword for more than a decade, mostly in the northern reaches of the Sword Coast — making long passes up and down the High and Long Roads to Neverwinter, Luskan, Mirabar, Longsaddle; occasionally south of Waterdeep to Daggerford. Leveraging some of her old connections from the Blacklake District, Mara was particularly adept at making connections with noble patrons. In addition to their public gigs, the Daughters were asked to many private venues and high society events.

Mara also picked up all manner of gossip and secrets from these high-born connections, and she would actually write songs including this scandalous information… which only increased the demand for the Daughter’s performances!

At one of these soirees, Liara Portyr, niece of Grand Duke Dillard Portyr of Baldur’s Gate, heard the Daughters perform and invited them to come south to the mouth of the Chionthar River at a price they couldn’t refuse.

While in Baldur’s Gate, however, Mara uncovered a terrible secret: Several prominent patriar families of the city — including members of the Vanthampurs, one of the Council of Four grand dukes that ruled the city — were devil worshipers. Furthermore, these devil worshipers had connections to the Cassalanter noble family in Waterdeep, suggesting an axis of corrupt nobility conspiring along the length of the Sword Coast.

With flashbacks to the horrors she had experienced in Neverwinter, Mara composed “The Hellbent Highborn” to reveal what she had discovered.

This, ultimately, proved to be a mistake. An assassination attempt drove the Daughters of the Sword out of Baldur’s Gate and back up the Trade Way to Waterdeep. It seemed they had escaped the scandal and the danger, but The Hellbent Highborn pursued them: The lyrics to her song, now attached to a collection of lurid tales regarding Asmodean cultists, were published as a pamphlet of the same name by a scurrilous broadsheet publisher named Shan Chien in Waterdeep.

The Daughters of the Sword fled further north, but danger pursued them. Or, more specifically, Mara. All the ire of the cultists seemed to be aimed squarely at her. Hiding in a small inn in the tiny hamlet of Longsaddle, Mara tearfully parted from the friends who had become her family and headed north.

She hoped to disappear into the anonymity of the Luskan underworld. And, when that failed, she decided to head even farther north into the Frozenfar. Now traveling under the alias of Mara Blackoak, she seeks refuge in Icewind Dale.

DESCRIPTION

Mara is a half-elf bard. She thinks of herself as somewhat average looking, with dark brown hair and an average height and build. But she has striking blue eyes, like looking into the depths of a frozen lake. She often has her pale blue lyre of wave cypress close at hand.

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