Rime of the Frostmaiden: Targos – Mountain Climb
The Targos quest Mountain Climb in the 5e campaign Rime of the Frostmaiden is the most flavorful of all the adventures in Chapter 1. The players will have sympathy chills for their characters as they struggle to climb Kelvin’s Cairn in hopes of rescuing a lost party of thrill seekers and their guide. It has a mix of combat and exploration which will give the characters plenty of challenges to conquer.
The party won’t have much of a chance of getting embroiled in the local politics, but there is plenty of potential in the future. The speaker, Naerth Maxildanarr, is originally from Luskan and is a member of the Zhentarim along with the city’s captain of the militia. Naerth can play a part in both of the quests for Easthaven and Termalaine.
The Mountain Climb quest starts when the party finds a dog named Boy. This quest will take the party to Caer-Konig or across the frozen wasteland and will take several days to complete. The climb up Kelvin’s Cairn has challenges that require more than initiative rolls.
This quest has been my favorite so far and is easy to get the players involved in. I would’ve started the players here, but I believed that the yeti encounter and the challenges going up Kelvin’s Cairn would have been too deadly. This adventure leans heavily on combat and exploring, so I would not send 1st-level characters traipsing up Kelvin’s Cairn.
The adventure has a ticking clock element as the characters will want to get to Kelvin’s Cairn as quickly as possible. Some of the other adventures that might get triggered in the other towns might not have the draw if the characters are racing to the rescue. I would use the travel back to Targos with the survivors as the chance to open up more of the adventures. Garret and Perilou will be happy to wait while the characters take care of the issues while they make their way back to Targos.
Connections to other quests:
The town is connected to Bremen, Bryn Shander, and Termalaine via road
Caer-Konig if the characters travel there to find Frozenfar Expeditions to find where Garrett started out from
Bryn Shander and Caer Dineval will need to be traveled through to get to Caer-Konig
Good Mead if the characters have completed this quest then they can get help from the local dwarves
The speaker of Targos, Naerth Maxildanarr, has connections to both Easthaven and Termalaine
How it Ran
It was easy to get the characters involved with saving Garret when Boy came running down the street. Having two druids does change the encounters with animals since they can talk to them without issues. This short-circuited the need to go to Frozenfar Expeditions, which I was hoping to get the party to go through Caer-Konig and Caer-Dineval.
Money has been an issue throughout the campaign so far. It is refreshing to have characters struggling to pay for the basics let alone splurging on magic items left and right. They did help themselves by skinning one of the yetis which they sold later for a good amount of gold.
The climb up Kelvin’s Cairn is a great flavorful introduction to the dangers of Icewind Dale. The avalanche is a really good skills challenge (only one character did not make it across). The combats were spread out and the monsters were always outnumbered by the party. The party had already completed the Easthaven quest (Toil and Trouble), so they had the gray bag of tricks which tilted most combat encounters in their favor. The druids in the party were adding to their known beasts and were becoming quite dangerous as the party climbed the mountain.
The party did not blink an eye to attack the yeti mother and tyke. They had seen enough carnage wrought by the family that killing them was not considered a problem. Also, having one of Garret’s party being toyed with by yeti made the choice even easier.
I will break each of these quests down into three categories, which are Combat, Role Playing, and Exploring. My ratings are not about how good it is, but how much is in the quest. Each is rated on a scale from 1 to 10:
Combat: 5 – Plenty of monsters but they are spread out and are on the wrong side of the action economy (even if your party does not have the bag of tricks from Toil and Trouble).
Role Playing: 3 – There is some chance to role-play, but it is not a focus of this quest.
Exploring: 8 – The climb up Kelvin’s Cairn is all about exploring and will give characters built to explore a real chance to shine.
