This week, the Encounter of the Week series provides you with a full, free adventure that you can play as the days grow short and the weather grows cold! If you don’t have time to play a full Icewind Dale campaign, you can still enjoy the horrors await you in the ice. “Frozen Memories” is an adventure suitable for a party of four 5th-level characters who are willing to investigate an eerie town and puzzle out who the real monsters are.

This adventure takes place in a snowy, northern village named Brumendell. Populated mostly by humans, dwarves, and orcs, this town could be found in any campaign setting. If you’re playing Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, you can insert this town into the snow-covered wastes of Icewind Dale with little difficulty. You could also place this village in the Greying Wildlands in Wildemount, the frigid northern islands of the Lhazaar Principalities in Eberron, or the valleys of the Oraniad Mountains in Theros.

Adventure Summary

A famous adventurer has gone missing. Elemine Hemlock, a monster slayer known for traveling between towns in the northern realms, killing supernatural beasts for coin, disappeared after accepting a job near a snowy, landlocked village called Brumendell. The village exists in the middle of nowhere, but adventurers in the region often use it as a place to rest between expeditions into the frozen wilderness. The village is home to a thriving trade of relics, potions, spell components, and comfortable inns; all services that adventurers find most valuable.

Elemine Hemlock went missing hunting the White Wyvern, a mythical beast said to live on the nearby mountains. Its blood is said to protect the body against the cold if drunk, its hide to reflect magic, and its horns to pierce solid steel. It’s assumed that Hemlock was killed fighting the beast, but the truth is much darker. The White Wyvern may or may not exist—that’s up to the DM—but there is a monster that does exist in Brumendell: an oblex. The people of Brumendell are aware that an entrance to the Underdark exists near their town, but most are unaware that a pair of oblexes—crimson, thought-devouring psychic oozes created through mind flayer experiments—have emerged from the Underdark and made their home under the town.

The oblexes made their lair in the town’s underground waterway, and have begun devouring and replacing the people of Brumendell with copies. These creatures can transform offshoots of their amorphous bodies into near-perfect physical replicas of creatures whose thoughts they’ve devoured, and their psychic abilities give them similarly perfect recollection of their memories and personality. The only telltale traits are a tiny trail of crimson slime that connects the oblex’s replica to their original body, a scent of sulfur, and an aversion to flames.

The oblexes have copied several key figures in town, and are spawning more oblex in an attempt to take over the entire town. Elemine Hemlock’s disappearance is a hitch in their plan. They didn’t know she was a famous adventurer when they killed her, but now her disappearance is causing wannabe heroes from across the land to flock to their little haven. These creatures are trying to keep the townsfolk calm and eliminate any intruders until they can breed new oblex and take over the entire town.

Optional Adventure Hook: Investigate the Disappearances

If your characters need a hook to investigate this far-flung snowy town, you can use this adventure hook. A friend of the characters, another adventurer like themselves, has heard of Elemine Hemlock’s disappearance, and suggests that they go check it out. Elemine’s friends in the town of Gnomeport have raised a bounty of 2,000 gp for Elemine’s retrieval or, if the worst has befallen her, the capture, dead or alive, of Elemine’s killer. The characters’ friend has a contact in Brumendell: a spell component merchant who often hires adventurers to go out into the wilds and find rare reagents.

If the characters ask why their friend doesn’t go in search of Elemine personally, they might say something like, “Hey hey, a lot of folks have died out there, I’m not risking my life to go figure out a missing person case. But I know that you folks will do all sorts of crazy things for gold. This sounds right up your alley!”

Journey to Brumendell

The journey to Brumendell is easy enough. If you want to add some danger while the characters travel through the wilderness, you can roll for an encounter on the Hill Encounters (Level 5–10) table in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything as they travel through the hills between the coast and the snowfields of Brumendell.

When they arrive in the village, they arrive near Armand’s Apothecary and Components (area 1). A wizard named Gilessa Talkys, greets the characters cheerily outside the shop and welcomes them to town. Armand Talkys, the apothecary, is her husband, and Gilessa invites them into the shop for a cup of magically warmed peppermint tea.

Brumendell Locations

The village of Brumendell contains a number of areas of interest in this adventure. The areas below are keyed to map included below. There are many more unkeyed locations on this map, which you can populate with NPCs and amenities in a way that serves your campaign. Buildings downstream of the village well (area 5) have latrines in their cellar that go straight into the river, whereas buildings upstream of the well use chamberpots that they empty into sewer grates in the southeast of town.

Oblex Simulacra. Locations with oblex (such as areas 1 and 2) smell faintly of sulfur and have no open flames like lamps or lit fireplaces. As such, people in these areas wear heavy furs. If asked about the lack of fires, people here note that some buildings burned down lately and they don’t want to risk another burned building. If characters are ever suspicious of a simulacrum’s claims, they can make a DC 15 Wisdom (Insight) check.

On a success, they learn that the simulacrum is being overly polite and avoidant. If the check succeeds by 5 or more, they also learn that the simulacrum seems to be subtly goading the characters to get out of town.

Click here for an unkeyed map that you can show to your players and fill in with locations as they learn about them. 

1. Armand’s Apothecary and Components

One of the main attractions for adventurers visiting Brumendell is the apothecary and component shop. Run by an alchemist named Armand Talkys and his wizardly wife Gilessa, this shop sells a variety of useful potions and spell components. Gilessa is paranoid and twitchy, but is kind to adventurers, and recommends that adventurers visit Ruby’s Nest (area 2) for monster-hunting contracts. Her erratic behavior stems from a deep-seated trauma related to Armand (see “Oblex Simulacrum,” below).

The entire building smells strongly of sulfur, which Armand and Gilessa both laugh and ascribe to powdered sulfur they create for spell components.

Rumors and Contracts. Characters that ask Armand or Gilessa for rumors about monsters or about Elemine Hemlock are directed towards Ruby. Gilessa sadly says that she was last seen here at the shop, buying potions before hunting the White Wyvern.

Potions and Components. Characters can buy the following items here:

Oblex Simulacrum. Armand Talkys, Gilessa’s late husband, was once a good-naturedly sarcastic apothecary of some renown. Tragically, his sharp mind made him the oblexes’ perfect first victim. Gilessa logically knows that her husband is nothing more than a monster’s masquerade, but she can’t bring herself to fathom her loss, so she works in tandem with the monster to misdirect adventurers into the wastes with rumors of the “White Wyvern” that led Elemine Hemlock to her death.

Oblex Lair. One of the oblexes, an adult oblex that calls itself Manifold, lives in the apothecary’s cellar, and stretches its tendrils through a mouse hole behind the counter. The cellar is a simple 20-foot-by-30-foot room with a simple latrine that connects to the underground river (area 7). The oblex lives next to this latrine. If the characters try to force their way into the cellar, Manifold tries to prevent them with its simulacrum of Armand while it flees into the river. It intentionally severs the tether between its body and the simulacrum once in the river.

If attacked, Manifold can produce three different simulacra: Armand, Elemine Hemlock, and a drow warrior that it devoured in the Underdark.

2. Ruby’s Nest

Ruby’s Nest is the best inn in town. The owner, a middle-aged female halfling named Ruby, is an oblex simulacrum controlled by the second adult oblex that lairs in the inn’s wine cellar. Ruby keeps a jolly persona and is brimming with false rumors to mislead adventurers away from Brumendell—and hopefully to their deaths in the frozen wastes outside town. The bar on the ground floor has 2d8 other patrons at all times of day. Four of them are simulacra who never leave the taproom, whereas the other patrons of this bar use bandit statistics.

Everyone is dressed in warm furs here. The bar has a fireplace that is never lit, at Ruby’s request. During the day, the bar is lit only by its windows. In the evening, non-simulacrum patrons light a candle on their table, but the simulacra simply sit in darkness.

Rates. A room at the inn is 1 gp per night, and the room comes with a hot breakfast and dinner. There are a dozen open rooms on the second floor.

Rumors and Contracts. Characters that ask Ruby for rumors about monsters or about Elemine Hemlock are told that Hemlock asked her and the tavern regulars about the White Wyvern, and she was told to investigate its supposed lair atop Monument Peak, some three days’ hike from town. Ruby has more monster-hunting rumors to give, though they are really just an excuse to get the adventurers out of town. See “Exploration Encounter: Monster Hunting” below for more information on running a monster hunt. These rumors include:

• Monument Peak (False). The supposed lair of the mythical White Wyvern. This mountain is a sacred site and has an offering-laden shrine to a god of fire atop it. No wyvern lair can be found. It is a six-day round trip from Brumendell on foot.
• Mistmouth Ice Cave (True). A mated pair of yetis live in this ice cave, and often attack caravans on the road to Brumendell. It is a one-day round trip from Brumendell on foot.
• Hot Spring Valley (Partially true). A great treasure was supposedly stashed in the caves near the bubbling, sulfuric pools in Hot Spring Valley. In truth, two young remorhaz have made these pools their lair.

Oblex Simulacra. The oblex that lairs beneath Ruby’s Nest controls five simulacra: Ruby, and four other patrons. These patrons have all the memories they had in life, but their goals are completely aligned with the oblex in trying to guide adventurers away from town as fast as possible. These patrons are:

• Ralth Londo, a scruffy human trapper.
• Alanda Heldraith, a single orc mother whose children have all left town.
• Yennie Faltreat, a dwarf bard with an immaculately groomed beard.
• Hemmal Gronder, a half-orc fisherman with very long hair.

Oblex Lair. The second oblex that infiltrated Brumendell, an adult oblex that calls itself Granfalloon, lives in the wine cellar of the inn, which is only accessible from a trapdoor behind the bar counter. Ruby forbids anyone from entering the cellar, preferring to gather wine and other supplies herself. It controls Ruby and a four other patrons by stretching its tendrils out of a hole drilled in the cellar trapdoor.

The cellar is a simple 40-foot-by-20-foot room with rows and rows of wine casks and a simple latrine that connects to the underground river (area 7). The oblex lives next to this latrine. If the characters try to force their way into the cellar, Granfalloon tries to prevent them from doing so by having Ruby raise a ruckus, and then encouraging as many of with its simulacrum of Armand while it flees into the river. It intentionally severs the tether between its body and the simulacrum once in the river.

3. Rilke’s Curios

An elf named Ilia Rilke runs a curio shop in Brumendell. She prefers to take life easy, since she has centuries to search for relics of ancient civilizations in these snowfields. Nevertheless, she’s wildly enthusiastic about any legitimate-looking art objects and treasures that adventurers bring back to sell her, and she pays full price.

Later this week, she plans on sending a cart filled with artifacts that haven’t sold in town to sell to merchants and collectors in a port city about two days’ ride from Brumendell. She asks to hire the characters to protect the cart from bandits and a young white dragon named Snowterror that prowls the region, and offers to pay them each 500 gp.

Characters that spend an hour searching the shop can make a DC 20 Intelligence (Investigation) check. On a success, they find a magic item that they can purchase from Ilia for 1,000 gp. Roll once on Magic Item Table F in the Dungeon Master’s Guide.

4. Marketplace

The center of village has a marketplace with a number of stalls where adventurers can buy supplies. Items from chapter 5 of the Player’s Handbook worth 30 gp or less can be found here. Merchants come to market at sunrise every day and go home at sundown. Every night at midnight, a group of 1d10 oblex spawn crawl out of the well and slip into people’s homes to feed on their thoughts and memories.

5. Town Well

At the heart of the village marketplace is a well that draws cold, clean water from a river that runs 30 feet underneath Brumendell. A character that rides the rope down the well reaches the underground river (area 7). 

6. Sewer Grates

There are a number of open holes in Brumendell that drain waste into the river that runs through town (area 7). All of these grates are downstream of the well, to avoid contaminating the village’s water supply. These holes are just large enough for a Medium humanoid to drop down. There are no ladders, and the drop is about 30 feet into the frigid river below.

7. Underground River

This area is unkeyed on the map. It runs from northwest to southeast beneath the entirety of Brumendell, about 30 feet below the surface of the ground. This river originates twenty miles out of down where it tumbles down a mountainside, and flows across the snowfields until it runs into a cave system that passes beneath Brumendell, and then drains into the Underdark several miles out of town. This winding cave is 30 feet wide with a sloping floor. The river is about 10 feet wide and fills the middle of the cave. The river is icy cold, and a creature that ends its turn in the water takes 1 cold damage.  

A mass of 50 oblex spawn line the walls and ceiling of this cavern. While the characters are exploring the underground river, they encounter a group of 2d10 oblex spawn that ambush them from their gooey perch on the ceiling every 10 minutes of travel. The adult oblexes living in areas 1 and 2 each spawn 1d6 more oblex each week, which they deposit into the river.  

Learning the Truth

The characters are free to investigate, explore, and do what they want to try and find clues to the monster’s whereabouts. If they get close to the truth, the oblex in town try to destroy them (see “Final Encounter: Frozen Memories”). In the meantime, you can use any of the encounters below to provide additional clues, increase the danger of their investigation, or nudge them into action if they don’t know what to do next.

Exploration Encounter: Monster Hunting

Brumendell is a beloved haunt of adventurers seeking to slay monsters for coin and raid their lairs for loot. Ruby (see area 2) used to be a prime source of valuable information while she was alive. Now, the “Ruby” that runs Ruby’s Nest simply wants nosy adventurers to get out of town—and hopefully get slaughtered by the monsters living in the icy wastes.

While the characters are out of town, roll 1d20 for each day they travel. On a roll of 13–16, they have an encounter during the day. On a roll of 17–19, they have an encounter at night. On a roll of 20, they have an encounter that surprises them while they camp. You can roll randomly or choose an encounter from the Arctic Encounters (Levels 5–10) table in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything.

Then, when the characters reach the area that Ruby pointed them to, you can create a combat encounter using the creatures (if any) described in the rumor. If no creatures are described, no encounter occurs. You can determine what treasure is in the area by rolling on the Individual Treasure: Challenge 5–10 table in the Dungeon Master’s Guide.

Combat Encounter: Tendrils in the Dark

At night, while the characters are sleeping in Ruby’s Nest, the adult oblex Granfalloon ambushes one of the characters in their room with four simulacra of the bar’s patrons. These patrons are extensions of the oblex’s body, and try to drain their memories until they fall unconscious, and then kill them.

If the oblex is reduced to half its maximum hit points during this battle, the oblex intentionally severs the connection between its body and the simulacra, causing them to disappear into a puddle of crimson ooze.

Exploration Encounter: Dripping down the Drain

While exploring town, the characters see a patch of green ooze streaked with veins of red along one of the sewage grates. This ooze was left by oblex spawn creeping into town the night before. Following this ooze into the underground river leads them into an ambush of oblex spawn as described in area 7.

Combat Encounter: Roving Bandits

While hanging around the market or sewers at night, a group of 1d4 bandits attack the characters. These bandits are all simulacra of the adult oblex Manifold. If the characters call for help from the townsfolk, Manifold severs its tendrils, causing the bandits to disappear into a puddle of crimson ooze.

Social Encounter: Dousing Flames

This encounter occurs when someone lights a fire in either Armand’s Apothecary (area 1) or in Ruby’s Nest (area 2). You could run this encounter if the characters light a fire, or you could instigate this encounter yourself by having an NPC unknowingly light a fire while the characters are nearby. As soon as the fire is lit, one of the oblex simulacra in that area frantically rushes to put the fire out, and then apologizes hastily, explaining that a building burnt down recently, and everyone’s a bit on edge about fire in Brumendell. If the characters push the issue, the simulacrum becomes increasingly hostile until they try to force the characters out of the building, and then attacks them if they refuse to leave.

Final Encounter: Frozen Memories

If several days pass in Brumendell without the characters learning who is behind the attacks, the oblexes Manifold and Granfalloon emerge from their lairs in the middle of the night and travel to Monument Peak, the distant mountain where the White Wyvern supposedly made its lair. The next morning, Gilessa Talkys, the alchemist’s wife, comes to the characters and says that a half-dozen people in town have suddenly disappeared, including their husband, and that he saw the White Wyvern flying towards Monument Peak.

The two oblex travel night and day to reach Monument Peak ahead of the characters, and prepare an ambush. They create as many simulacra as they can, and make their final stand there. They are willing to reason with the characters, using the voices of people they’ve become friendly with, such as Armand and Ruby, to try and convince them to leave them alone and let them continue devouring memories and replacing people in peace. If they’re unsuccessful, they attack without mercy.

Conclusion

The village of Brumendell isn’t completely safe, even after the oblexes Manifold and Granfalloon are defeated. Only destroying the oblex spawn in the underground river (area 7) is enough to prevent the town from being faced with a renewed psychic threat. If the characters return to Armand’s Apothecary, Gilessa will be forced with the stark reality that her husband has, for the past several weeks, been merely a puppet of the psychic monster that destroyed him.

Some villagers are thankful for the characters’ help, but are unsure how to thank them properly. A large number of the villagers may even be hostile toward the characters, as they don’t fully understand the extent of the danger they are in. The hostile villagers far outnumber the grateful ones, and are eager to drive the characters out of town. If they met Ilia at her curio shop (area 3), she may hastily pull together a shipment of relics to send to town and urge the characters to take a job protecting the caravan, just to get them out of town before anyone comes to harm.

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! 

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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.