D&D 5E - The Rise of Tiamat

stage of their journey, they gain a +1 bonus to their next
daytime event roll.
Oyaviggaton Sighted. This event can occur by day
or night. There’s no mistaking the silhouette of this
massive iceberg as matching the description given by
Maccath the Crimson. With a flattened expanse at one
end rising to jagged peaks at the other, the characters’
objective is at hand.
making it impossible to tell how long they’ve been here.
The southerners and the dwarf were some of Maccath
the Crimson’s companions, killed by Arauthator. The Ice
Hunters used the bodies to put up this grisly warning, in
the hope that other intruders might fear the same fate
and turn back. The dead Ice Hunters tried to flee from
the iceberg but were hunted and killed by Arauthator,
who forced their kin to add them to the horrid display.
O y a v i g g a t o n
Arauthator’s iceberg lair rises from the sea to form a
floating island. The portion of the berg above the water
appears roughly triangular, with rounded corners. The
plateau portion of the iceberg rises more than a hundred
feet above the water, and the jagged ice peaks add
another two hundred feet above that.
The Ice Hunter village is a collection of snow shelters
and tents sitting at the center of the island. The village
can’t be seen from the sea because of the berg’s height,
but a large shelf of ice where the Ice Hunters beach their
boats is clearly visible from the water. Approximately 60
feet across, the shelf rises a few feet above sea level and
is littered with enormous, cracked bones—including ribs
that arch taller than a human.
A character proficient in Nature recognizes that
the bones are mostly from whales and huge seals (or
Captain Lerustah can supply that information). Any
character who spends a few minutes examining the
bones discovers tooth marks with a monstrous bite
radius—evidence that a gigantic predator (Arauthator)
ate at least some of these creatures. Examining the
bones reveals smaller human bones in the pile as well,
all of which show the same bite marks.
An ice chasm splits the cliff face above the ice shelf,
rising to the top of the plateau. The chasm is 20 feet
wide near the bottom but narrows to 5 feet wide at the
top. Steps are cut into the ice, making for an easy climb
to the top of the plateau.
Captain Lerustah would like to keep his crew
members aboard Frostskim m r rather than marching
them up to the plateau. He’s not at all comfortable
with the idea of leaving his ship without the strongest
possible complement of guards. If the characters are
unable to communicate with the Ice Hunters (who
speak only their own language, Uluik), one of the crew
members speaks enough Uluik to get by. The translator
w ill accompany the characters onto the iceberg if he’s
paid a bonus of at least 50 gp, but he returns to the ship
as soon as the characters descend into the ice caves.
T h e V i l l a g e
The top of Oyaviggaton is a plateau, but it’s not level.
The ground is uneven, fractured by narrow ice chasms
and divided by rills, snowdrifts, and ice ridges taller
than a human, sculpted by sea spray and wind. The
ridges block the view of the village until characters are
200 feet from the nearest shelter.
The first sight that greets the adventurers when they
emerge onto the plateau is a row of ten corpses frozen
into a wall of ice: three Luskar warriors, a dwarf, and six
Ice Hunters. The bodies have been preserved in the ice,
L a y o u t
The village sits in a sheltered spot near the center of
the iceberg. When the wind blows—which is most of
the time—snow whips off the surrounding drifts and
surrounds the settlement in a swirling shroud of white.
Twenty structures make up the village, divided
between snow-block shelters sim ilar to igloos and
double-walled yurts made from sealskin stretched over
whalebone frames. Sixteen of these structures are
small, one-room family dwellings. One ice-block shelter
is a storeroom used for gear owned in common by the
tribesfolk, including fishing nets and heavy ropes used
for whaling. One yurt near the center of the village is
slightly larger than the others, and is home to the Ice
Hunter chieftain, Barking Seal. A yurt standing apart
from the rest of the shelters is home to the shaman
Bonecarver, as indicated by the many animal totems and
whalebone carvings around the hut. The shaman’s hut
features a lesser-used entrance to the ice caves.
The largest structure in the village is the meeting hall,
heavily decorated with whalebone and the skulls of fish
and mammals. Consisting of one large room, the hall
has a wooden floor made of planks salvaged from ships
caught and crushed in the Sea of Moving Ice. Beneath
the planks in a back corner is an entrance to the ice
caves under the village, which lead to Arauthator’s
grotto. A long coil of rope hangs on the wall near that
corner, and a large iron pulley has been left suspended
from a beam above the hole.
No columns of smoke rise above the village to give
away its location, since the Sea of Moving Ice features
no wood or peat to burn. The only artificial heat comes
from lamps and tiny stoves burning whale oil. The
villagers live on fish, whale meat, and seal meat, eaten
raw or dried on racks scattered around the village.
With a successful DC 10 Intelligence (Survival) check,
a character examining the racks realizes that the
village must produce far more food than the number of
villagers alone would require.
V i l l a g e r s
If the characters approach by the obvious path up
the chasm from the ice ledge, they are noticed by the
village’s 12 sled dogs (treat as wolves). As soon as the
dogs begin barking and growling, the whole village
turns out armed and alert—25 tribal warriors (males
and females; including the chieftain, Barking Seal),
30 commoners (children), 1 druid (Bonecarver, tribal
shaman, female), and 1 gladiator (Orcaheart, village
champion, male).
The chieftain and shaman do all the talking for the
villagers, who speak only their own language, Uluik.
The chieftain also knows a little of a rough Illuskan