Our brave heroes find a fellow adventurer in trouble...
Nerd By Northwest #358 - "Little Red Riding Bard"
(Click on the image to see the full-size version)
So our band of brave adventurers finally venture forth to tackle the classic D&D adventure "The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl"!
Now to recap for those who forgot or weren't here for the backstory, our heroes have a rival adventuring party (led by the paladin Lady Karen of Wokemoor) racing to beat them in defeating the frost giants and seizing their treasure all for themselves. And now our heroes find one of Lady Karen's crew, Dann Zando the Bard, alone and surrounded by deadly winter wolves with the other four members of their party nowhere to be found. Obviously something went sideways for them in the frost giant stronghold. Which given their track record, should surprise no one!
I played through this classic adventure module (along with the other 'Against the Giants' modules) a few times, twice back as a kid in the 80's & early 90's and the last time a little over three years ago. The one thing that was different this most recent run-through was that our Dungeon Master didn't ignore the extreme cold of the surrounding environment and had us purchase and use cold weather gear. So where's the cold weather gear that our heroes should be wearing? One could say that the difference here is they have Pickles the goblin, an artificer and crafter of magic items & potions who was the perfect person to make enchanted Rings of Warmth for the party. Yet, one could also say I really didn't feel in the mood to be drawing cold weather clothing for all the characters through the entire story arc, and found a convenient excuse to avoid doing it. 😏
Now some D&D veterans out there might be asking, "How could she craft SEVEN magic Rings of Warmth in just the one night the party was in Waterdeep"? Well, the short answer is she can't... not without cutting some serious corners using some creative artificer cheats, that is! Unlike the normal kind, these rings are not permanently enchanted, and will lose their magic properties in just a few days. And due to their rushed construction, very possibly malfunction in strange and inconvenient ways when overtaxed or damaged. TANSTAAFL... or spelled out, "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"!
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