Are you prepared to journey to Icewind Dale, the frozen north of Faerûn? Times are strange, and countless rumors swirl around this cold and isolated land, like so many snowflakes in an endless blizzard. The next D&D adventure, announced at D&D Live 2020, is dark fantasy horror story titled Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden. This encounter is the third installment in a multi-part encounter series called “Icewind Mail: Special Delivery,” a non-canon dark comedy that leads into the official adventure. Well, sort of. It’s more like it tosses players in the general direction of the official adventure with some silly props and tells them to go have fun.

This encounter follows up on the optional ending of Loadin’ Up the Icebreaker, the first encounter in this series. In that scene, a silhouetted figure hurled something heavy off the side of the Icebreaker. Now that the players have had time to stew on this mystery, it’s time to bring it back to the forefront as the characters encounter a deadly Ambush at Aurilssbarg. The previous encounters in this series are:

1. Loadin’ Up the Icebreaker
2. Frost and Fear in Fireshear

The Second Delivery

The characters’ primary goal in this adventure is to deliver a package to its proper recipient in the volcano town of Aurilssbarg. They’re members of the Luskar Deliverers, and as such, they are sworn to deliver their packages to most dangerous locales Northern Faerûn has to offer. In this adventure, their primary goal may be transformed into a fight for their lives as a mysterious wererat killer seeks to recover the package.

This week, the characters are delivering a bottle of Shadowdale brandy from the former Kraken Society assassin Rool to his former lover, another assassin, a white dragonborn named Glarth Druma, in an attempt to repair the bond they had years ago. The wererat is a third assassin named Fanger Bosh who sees Rool as her paramour and wants to sabotage his attempt to reunite with Glarth. This deadly love triangle may be a bit silly, but—hey, this is a dark comedy series! Get your laughs in now before the horror is turned up to 11 in Rime of the Frostmaiden.

Aurilssbarg is a town of some 3,000 people on the volcanic island of Ice Peak a few leagues northwest of Fireshear. The town weathers harsh snow and sleet for most months of the year, and its stalwart hunters sell furs, whales, and fish to other nearby settlements. Luskan in particular benefits greatly from its trade relationship with Aurilssbarg, for the latter is little more than a far-flung colony of the captains of Luksan.

This map of the Sword Coast North was created by Mike Schley for Legacy of the Crystal Shard, an adventure for 3.5e, 4th edition, and the D&D Next playtest. You can find high-res versions of this map and others for sale on his website.

Combat Encounter: Ambush at Aurilssbarg

This encounter is suitable for 1st-level characters. If they don’t have access to damage-dealing magic, this encounter may by harder than usual.  

This adventure begins when the Icebreaker draws into Aurilssbarg harbor late at night. The captain (a grizzled and sarcastic half-orc veteran named Turth Silvermane) orders the crew to wait on board until morning. The characters are required to comply with the captain’s commands, but that doesn’t mean they can’t try to sneak out. Each cabin has two cots, so ask your players how their characters divide up where they sleep that night before beginning this encounter—and then choose in secret which cabin the assassin decides to attack.

If the characters comply with Captain Silvermane’s orders, this encounter occurs when an assassin enters their cabin at night. If they try to sneak out, this encounter occurs in the streets of Aurilssbarg. Either way, the encounter area is dimly lit, illuminated only by moonlight.

Ambush. This encounter may begin when Fanger Bosh attacks one of the characters. To determine if Fanger surprises the party, have her make a Dexterity (Stealth) check opposed by the characters’ passive Wisdom (Perception) scores; if a character is asleep, subtract 5 from their passive Wisdom (Perception) score. If her check succeeds, she manages to approach unnoticed and surprises the characters. Characters that are surprised lose their first turn in combat, and Fanger’s first attack against a character that isn’t aware of her has advantage.

Roleplaying Fanger Bosh. Fanger is a hired killer whose heart has been hardened by years of impassionate death. Her one true remaining emotion is selfishness, and hearing that her old flame Rool is courting another has filled her with fury. She attacks in her humanoid form, and rants incoherently about they are taking her beloved away from her amidst her attacks.

Damage Immunities. Fanger is a fearsome opponent because she is immune to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks, unless those attacks are from something made of silver. If the characters try to use an improvised weapon like a lit torch or a gas lamp, that weapon deals 1 point of fire damage on a hit.  

Ending Combat. If Fanger is reduced to half her hit point maximum, she takes the Disengage action and flees. If she is grappled, she uses her action to transform into a giant rat to slip from her grappler’s arms. She transforms into her giant rat form to hide in the shadows of the ship, if the characters give chase.

Optional: Reporting the Attack

If the characters wish, they may report the attack to Captain Silvermane. He takes the threat seriously, and tells them that one of the ship’s crew was killed just after they left Luskan. He kept it secret to avoid causing a panic, but after their report, he’s decided to put the crew on full alert. If the players suspect that their attacker was a wererat, Silvermane curses that they didn’t pick up any silver weapons back in Fireshear. He says he’ll send a crewmember to search the port for silver weapons, and will pass anything he finds along to the characters. In the meantime, he urges them to make their delivery so that they can leave Aurilssbarg as soon as possible.

If the characters return to the Icebreaker after four hours, they find that one of the crew has purchased a silvered shortsword in town for a hefty sum, and that Captain Silvermane is willing to lend it to them on credit from the Luskar Deliverers. “This sword is worth more’n your life is,” he says. “You lose it, you’re working to pay it off.”

Arriving in Aurilssbarg

When the characters enter Aurilssbarg, they may decide to wander the streets in search of their current parcel’s recipient: a dragonborn named Glarth Druma. A character that wants to look at town maps or local directories can make a DC 13 Wisdom (Survival) check, locating Glarth’s house by the Seafishers’ Docks, the gathering place for the folk who fish around the coasts of Ice Peak Island.

Characters that want to be directed there instead can find the leader of town, High Captain Amathria Rolsk, in the town’s longhouse. Amathria is a money-minded woman who sees Aurilssbarg mostly in terms of how its business can send gold flowing into Luskan’s coffers—and into her pocketbook. She believes strongly in maintaining a healthy relationship with the Luskar Deliverers, and directs them to Glarth’s house without delay—though she encourages them to check the shops and spend some time buying supplies and knick-knacks, if they wish.

Characters that stop by the markets of Aurilssbarg can purchase any item in chapter 5 of the Player’s Handbook worth 10 gp or less. They can also buy trinkets for 5 sp each; roll 5 times on the Trinkets table in chapter 5 of the Player’s Handbook to determine what curios are available. Additionally, they can find a silvered shortsword in a display rack at the back of one of the shops, but the owner is selling it for 100 gp, and even hagglers can’t get him to part with it for anything less than 75 gp.

Onward to Glarth’s Abode

As they travel through town towards Glarth’s dwelling, characters with a passive Wisdom (Perception) score of 14 or higher notice a small, lithe figure leaping from rooftop to rooftop on the two-story buildings some 40 feet behind them, following them through town. This figure is Fanger, in hybrid form, trying to find a good location to shoot them with her hand crossbow.

If the characters notice her, she shoots off one shot (with disadvantage because she’s at long range) and then, she slips onto the other side of a roof. On her next turn, she transforms into her giant rat form, and scurries into a house’s cellar to hide. A character must search the area for one minute and then succeed on a DC 19 Wisdom (Perception or Survival) check to find Fanger’s tracks while she’s hidden in this way. She waits to emerge until she’s no longer being hunted.

If none of the characters notice her, she attacks one of the characters with her hand crossbow and slips behind the other side of the roof—then tries to hide as described above, if they give chase.

A Battle over Brandy

Once they arrive at Glarth’s home, read or paraphrase the following to set the scene:

The house you stand before is little more than a shack—some ten feet in all dimensions, with a high-raked roof and simple wooden walls. A wreath of pine branches bound in fishing line decorates the door, and it is the only decoration you can see around this humble dwelling. A pale dragonborn face peers out the window at you as you approach.

The dragonborn in the window is the parcel’s intended recipient, Glarth Druma. This dragonborn is a being haunted by the things he’s witnessed and the vile deeds he’s done as an assassin. His eyes dart back and forth constantly, and his appearance is as unkempt as the squalid abode he lives in. Yet, there is nevertheless a certain gaunt handsomeness to him.

When Glarth answers the door, he hastily asks the characters who they are and what they’re doing here. If presented with Rool’s gift, he is momentarily taken aback. “Shadowdale brandy…” he pauses, and is momentarily lost in a long-forgotten memory. “There’s only one person who would send this to me… did he send you…?”

At this moment, Fanger—in giant rat from—scurries through the streets and leaps at one of the characters in the back row of the party. She screeches, “You’ll never take my love! Die!” Combat begins; roll initiative! The characters may be at a disadvantage in this combat; unless they have a silvered weapon or damaging spells, no one can deal significant damage to Fanger. Characters might think of an alternative—if grisly—solution, such as grappling Fanger and drowning her in the freezing ocean, or they might ask for Glarth’s help by using his cold breath.

Glarth’s Help. Glarth is a white dragonborn thug with many terrible memories of death, and tries to avoid conflict whenever possible. If a character makes a successful DC 13 Charisma (Persuasion) check as an action, he agrees to help. He uses his cold breath (granted by his Draconic Ancestry trait) to damage Fanger, and then uses the Help action on future turns to help the characters in whatever they want to do.

Conclusion

Once Fanger is defeated, a member of the Aurilssbarg town militia arrives in a panic, still getting his helmet on his head. He asks what’s going on, and offers to apprehend Fanger if the characters knocked her out of otherwise subdued her instead of killing her.

Glarth apologizes and says he doesn’t have enough money to pay them for the parcel delivery, but he does give them a good luck charm for the journey ahead. This shiny stone is something he picked up from a man he killed in far-off Anauroch many years ago, and he tells the characters it might help them—it might give the poor soul some rest if his charm was used for good, rather than helping a scared old dragonborn living at the edge of the world. This charm is a luckstone.

The characters advance to 2nd level at the end of this adventure. If you’re tracking experience points, it’s recommended that you use milestone leveling instead, so that your characters stay powerful enough to handle the challenges that future adventures have in store.

Are you excited for Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden? Looking forward to more chilly adventures over the sweltering summer? Let us know what you're looking forward to in the comments! 

Get ready for more icy adventures in Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden by preordering the digital version on D&D Beyond, and get free preorder bonuses like the Glacial Digital Dice Set. 

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Did you like this encounter? Check out the encounters in the Encounter of the Week series. You can also pick up the adventures I've written on the DMs Guild, such as The Temple of Shattered Minds, a suspenseful eldritch mystery with a mind flayer villain. My most recent adventures are included in the bestselling Encounters in Theros, a collection of over 70 unique encounters created by the Guild Adepts, which can be used to enhance your campaign in Theros or in your Greek mythology-inspired campaign setting. Also check out the Platinum Bestseller Tactical Maps: Adventure Atlas, a collection of 88 unique encounters created by the Guild Adepts, which can be paired with the beautiful poster battlemaps in Tactical Maps Reincarnated.

James Haeck is the lead writer for D&D Beyond, the co-author of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, and the Critical Role Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, a member of the Guild Adepts, and a freelance writer for Wizards of the Coast, the D&D Adventurers League, and other RPG companies. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his fiancée Hannah and their animal companions Mei and Marzipan. You can find him wasting time on Twitter at @jamesjhaeck.