Prepare for the release of Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount by playing your own encounters in the world of Critical Role! This encounter is based on “Snowed In,” an any-level adventure hook presented in Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount, which you can preorder now on the D&D Beyond Marketplace!

Wildemount is a land of dark and epic fantasy, with low-level characters fighting to survive in a world full of common folk who are just as mud-splattered and hungry as they are—and high-level characters contending with the fate of nations and magic that has the power to bring about the end of the world, or the creation of a new one. This series of Encounters of the Week are totally unconnected mini-adventures for low-level characters that you can run as one-shots or string together to create an episodic fantasy series. The encounters will be set in the four major regions of Wildemount: the grim, authoritarian Dwendalian Empire; in Xhorhas, home of their mortal rival the Kryn Dynasty; the neutral and tropical Menagerie Coast; and the frozen and forbidden Greying Wildlands, home to strange mystics and every sort of criminal scum.

Encounter Summary

In this encounter, the adventurers arrive in Icehaven, an isolated village in the northern reaches of the Dwendalian Empire. Icehaven may be cold, but it’s comfortably insulated from the war that rages across Wildemount. However, a terrible storm hits the village on the night of the characters’ arrival. The blizzard is so vicious that it’s a death sentence for anyone to leave the safety of the village. As deadly as the storm may be, however, an even deadlier threat lurks in the nighttime shadows of Icehaven.

No one can be trusted.

The Village of Icehaven

Icehaven is a village of 5,000 souls—most of them human, with a number of dwarves, elves, and a scattering of other peoples—on the northern coast of the Dwendalian Empire. Far from the Xhorhas and the war, the people of Icehaven primarily ply their trades on fishing boats. Those few patriotic folk who dwelt here have already conscripted to join the Righteous Brand and have been shipped off to the military garrisons on the Xhorhasian border.

On the northern horizon is the silhouette of a distant island—the mysterious land of Eiselcross. Every now and then, adventurers will charter a ship to travel to that land, but no one from Icehaven dares set foot there. That land brings only death and madness, but they have no right to dissuade foolhardy souls from throwing their lives away in search of fortune.

Arrival of the Infected One

Just one day before the characters will arrive in Icehaven and this adventure begins, a ship flying the flag of the Dwendalian Empire docked in Icehaven. Such a thing was unusual, but not surprising; it’s an open secret in Icehaven that the Crown has been conducting covert operations in Eiselcross. The leader of the village, Starosta Ernath Noack, greeted the ship’s captain and invited him to his home to inquire about the expedition. The expedition leader, Captain Cormag Varnes, joined him for dinner, but felt ill and decided to stay the night in the starosta’s guest room rather than his room at the village’s inn—where the rest of his crew was merrymaking.

In the night while he slept, the starosta was attacked by a horrible creature. The aging starosta awoke to the crash of his window being smashed and saw only a tall, fur-covered creature with golden eyes, then felt teeth plunge into his shoulder. While he struggled to get free, the starosta accidentally knocked over his oil lamp before collapsing of shock, and the blaze scared his assailant away. He would have nearly died of blood loss if his maid hadn’t torn him from his crimson bedsheets and rushed him to the village cleric. The starosta lives, but he has no idea that he is changing into something else.

The ship from Eiselcross is still docked in Icehaven, and its crew have filled the local inn. They know that their captain saved all of their lives by fending off a yeti attack in Eiselcross as they were making preparations to leave a few days ago. However, they have no idea that the yeti was mutated by the chaotic magic that has permanently scarred icy wasteland. A strange curse befell Cormag Varnes, turning him into a yeti against his will whenever the moon rises. This “were-yeti” attacked the starosta and fled into the snow. He will attack again, once day succumbs to night.

Investigation Encounter: Snowed In

This encounter is suitable for characters of 2nd level. It can be scaled to challenge a party of characters up to 4th level.

When the characters arrive in Icehaven, read or paraphrase the following:

After several long days of travel, you find yourself in civilization once again. A wooden arch with the words “Welcome to Icehaven, the Empire’s Only Port” straddles the entryway to the village. It may be one of the most remote settlements in the empire, but at least there’s an inn. The village is mostly made up of steep-roofed cottages, separated by twisting streets that eventually lead to docks by an icy sea. Near the docks you see a three-story inn. The inn sits in the shadow of a tall, three-masted ship flying the colors of the Dwendalian Empire.

The following areas in Icehaven are important to this encounter, and are described in detail below:

1. The Haven
2. The Harborline
3. Icebreaker Inn and Tavern
4. House of Warmth
5. Starosta’s Manor

The characters enter town in the Haven (area 1), and the main road through town leads them straight to the Harborline (area 2).

1. The Haven

The Haven is the upper part of the village, and most dwellings and shops can be found here. Characters that want to go shopping can find most common items in the general stores here, but a character searching for an item that costs more than 100 gp must succeed on a DC 13 Intelligence (Investigation) check to find a specialty shop that sells such an item.

Houses are packed tightly together here, as if huddling for warmth. Every 1000 feet or so, the houses spread out into a market square. Each one of these squares has a small temple at its center, with each temple being dedicated to one of the gods approved by the Dwendalian Crown: Erathis the Law Bearer, Bahamut the Platinum Dragon, the Raven Queen, Pelor the Dawn Father, Moradin the All-Hammer, or Ioun the Knowing Mentor. The temple to Pelor is called the House of Warmth (area 4), and it is where the starosta is currently being cared for.

2. The Harborline

The Harborline is Icehaven’s wharf district, the only such district in the entire empire. Many small fishing vessels are moored here, but only one ship of note is found here: the White Horizon, a three-masted vessel with an iron-enforced prow. Dozens of street food vendors, tiny hostels, and brothels can be found along the docks, which tend to be home to Icehaven’s less wealthy inhabitants.

The White Horizon. A middle-aged lawful neutral male human veteran named Larth Bowcroft guards the gangplank and bars all from entry without permission from Captain Cormag Varnes. If asked about his whereabouts, Larth says he and the rest of the crew should be drinking and merrymaking at the White Horizon Inn—and mutters that he wishes he could be there, too.

3. Icebreaker Inn and Tavern

The Icebreaker isn’t the only inn in town, but it is the best one—namely because it’s the only one with comfortable beds and warm blankets. The bottom floor of the inn is a raucous taproom filled with sailors from the White Horizon and an equal number of locals. A character that tries to read the room can make a DC 13 Wisdom (Insight) check. On a success, they realize that it’s mostly the sailors that are partying—in fact, the locals seem shaken by something.

Investigating. Talking to townsfolk causes one of the people they speak with to reveal that something terrible happened the other night: the village starosta was attacked in his manor, which almost burned to the ground that very night. He’s currently being tended to by a cleric of Pelor the Dawn Father at the House of Warmth (area 4) in the Haven district of town.

Speaking with sailors about their ship and their mission causes them to simply shake their heads and say that their mission was highly classified Crown business. If they don’t want the Cerberus Assembly to track ‘em down, they’d be wise to stop snooping. Asking a sailor about their captain’s whereabouts causes them to pause and note that they haven’t seen the captain since he met with the starosta early last night, and that he must have retired to his room early. After all, he was feeling sickly after docking, which was strange for a man of his hardy bearing.

Booking a Room. The Icebreaker’s innkeeper is a broad-shouldered, lawful neutral female tiefling berserker named Grit Lasvelt. She asks characters who come to the bar if they’re planning on staying long, and says there are about five rooms still open for the night. She notes that the characters are lucky! The Icebreaker’s often booked solid when a big ship makes port, but there are a few rooms available for 1 gp per night. She shakes her head and says, “It’s your lucky day, but don’t forget: that’s only ‘cuz a few of those sailors weren’t quite so lucky.”

If the characters ask after Captain Cormag Varnes, the innkeeper notes that he never picked up his room key after docking, and that she hasn’t seen him since the White Horizon made landfall.

4. House of Warmth

This stone temple is the largest of the shrines in the village, and has one main atrium and five smaller rooms branching off of it—four of which are treatment rooms for patients, and one of which is the private residence of the priestess.

Cleric of the Dawn Father. The local cleric is a lawful good female dwarf priest with light brown skin, curly black hair and striking golden eyes. Her name is Loreley Springtide, and she has managed to stabilize the starosta in the 18 hours since he was attacked. She fusses and worries and tries her best to keep the characters from overwhelming the fragile starosta.  

Starosta of Icehaven. Starosta Ernath Noack, an elderly lawful neutral male human noble is a nervous wreck. He stammers and repeats himself and can’t seem to hold a thought for longer than 30 seconds. If the characters speak with him long enough, he eventually reveals the following pieces of information:

• He was attacked in the middle of the night by a giant, furred creature. He only saw white fur and golden eyes.
• The creature broke in through his second-story window and sunk its massive fangs into his shoulder.
• He knocked over his burning oil lamp and the fire scared the beast away. He was saved and brought to the village cleric by his housekeeper. (This housekeeper isn’t important to this adventure, but he is a neutral good male half-elf commoner named Elmore. He is pacing nervously in the main atrium of the temple.)

Worst of all, Ernath Noack has no idea that he was cursed by Cormag’s yeti lycanthropy and will transform into a mindless yeti after the moon rises in the sky.

Once the characters are ready to leave the temple the blizzard begins (proceed to “Snowed In,” below). Loreley urges the characters to find a place to stay the night, and suggests the Icebreaker Inn (area 3) if they haven’t found a room for the night yet.

5. Starosta’s Manor

The starosta’s manor all but burned to the ground after he knocked over his oil lamp. Only a rickety skeleton and a snow-covered stone foundation remains. Exploring the ruined manor is a dangerous prospect, since the unstable skeleton could collapse—partially or wholly—at any time. Nevertheless, characters in search of answers about the starosta’s attacker might want to investigate out the ruin.

Before the Storm. Characters that search the ruin before the snowstorm starts (see “Snowed In,” below) may still see the tracks of the yeti that attacked the starosta. A character must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom (Survival) check to find the partially-buried prints, and then on a DC 16 Intelligence (Nature) check to identify the large, four-toed, gorilla-like prints as yeti tracks. However, once the snowstorm begins, the tracks are immediately wiped away.

During the Storm. If the characters investigate the ruin during the storm, the yeti is hiding in the ruins and attacks. See Combat Encounter: Showdown in the Ruins.

Snowed In

This event begins as soon as the characters leave the House of Warmth (area 4) or as soon as they take a long rest in Icehaven, whichever comes first. Read or paraphrase the following:

The wind howls, and fist-sized sleet begins to pound the roof of the buildings. Flurries of snow roll through the village in curtains. People shout and hurry indoors. You hear at least once voice shout, “Blizzard! Blizzard’s on us!”

A storm has rolled in from Eiselcross, bringing sleet and snow strong enough to bludgeon a person to death. At the end of every 10 minutes a creature spends outside, that creature must make a successful DC 18 Constitution saving throw or take 7 (2d6) cold damage.

This storm lasts for the next 72 hours. People in Icehaven are used to waiting out blizzards, but all of the villagers are on edge thanks to the rumors buzzing around town about the starosta. Things go from bad to worse once the moon rises that night, as Starosta Ernath Noack (in area 4) and Captain Cormag Varnes (who is huddling in a small cave about a half mile out of town) transform into yetis and begin to rampage.

Both yetis converge on the ruins of the starosta’s mansion, with Ernath arriving first and Cormag arriving about 10 minutes later. If they aren’t interrupted, they battle like wild beasts until one is wounded (reduced to half its maximum hit points), and then surrenders and flees bag to its “lair.” This lair is the House of Warmth (area 4) for Ernath and the cave outside of town for Cormag. This occurs every night that the characters don’t intervene, until Ernath is killed by Cormag on the third night.

If the characters try to stop the yetis themselves, proceed to Combat Encounter: Showdown in the Ruins.

Loreley’s Terrible Tale. In the morning after the snowstorm began, the cleric Loreley Springtide rushes to wherever the characters spent the night and breathlessly tells them what happened during the night. She went to sleep in her private quarters in the temple, and heard one of the temple walls knocked down in the middle of the night. She investigated and found that the starosta was gone! She went back to her room and locked the doors, fearing that whatever came after the starosta would come after her next. However, the next morning, she found the starosta safe and sound (yet still a nervous wreck) back in his bed! The wall was still in ruins.

She asks the characters for help figuring out what happened—even if they would watch the starosta’s room from the window of an inn in the Havens district the next night. If the characters learn that there’s a “were-yeti” involved in town, Loreley resolves to pray to the Dawn Father and prepare remove curse the very next day.  

Combat Encounter: Showdown in the Ruins

When the characters arrive in the ruins of the starosta’s mansion during the blizzard, they find the starosta, transformed into a yeti, prowling the skeletal foundations of his former manor, roaring in mournful confusion. The yeti can make one bite attack (with the same statistics as its claw attacks) instead of a claw attack when it takes the Multiattack action. A character hit by this bite must make a successful DC 13 Constitution saving throw or contract yeti lycanthropy and transform into a wrathful yeti under the DM’s control whenever the moon rises.

The starosta-yeti attacks on sight, and fights until reduced to half his maximum hit points, and then flees and hides. The characters may try to soothe the monstrous starosta, but he refuses to be cornered, and flees back to his room the House of Warmth (and then back to the manor, if pursued again) unless knocked out.

After the starosta has been defeated, the yeti Cormag arrives and fights the characters to the death. If he’s knocked out instead of killed outright, he can be saved by casting remove curse upon him.

Scaling the Encounter. If the party is made up of at least four 4th-level characters, Cormag the yeti arrives with three dire wolf allies.  

Conclusion

If the characters manage to defeat the starosta him without killing him and allowing Loreley Springtide to cast remove curse upon him, his lycanthropy is cured and he is saved. In this case, he bows deeply and pledges his eternal thanks to the “Heroes of Icehaven,” and offers to pay for any travel they wish to take to or from Icehaven at any point in the future. He also grants them a pair of boots of the winterlands that he admits he hasn’t ever used in the years since he was assigned to this village.

If the characters fail to save the starosta, they receive no reward. Nevertheless, Loreley thanks them and says that she’ll remember that they risked their lives to save this town.

In either case, the storm continues for a total of 72 hours, after which it abates and regular life in Icehaven can continue, with most of the villagers none the wiser. Rumors will absolutely start to circulate soon, however—and whether they’re good or ill is entirely up to if the characters saved the starosta or not.

No matter how this story shakes out, you can continue your daring adventures through the land with Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount, coming to D&D Beyond on March 17th, 2020, with preorders available now. You can also keep up with the adventures across Wildemount in Critical Role, every Thursday at 7:00 pm PST on www.twitch.tv/CriticalRole.

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Did you like this encounter? Check out the other 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 Platinum Bestseller Encounters in Avernus, a collection of over 60 unique encounters created by the Guild Adepts, which can be used to enhance your campaign in Avernus or elsewhere in the Nine Hells. 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.