One of my submissions for Santicorn 2026 was for Cold Waste Encounters. It's here. I'm not happy with it, so here's some additionally brainstorming for this. There are numbers here, but I haven't had a chance to game them out.
Time
Body Heat
Lose Freezing by Gaining Heat
- During combat, characters actually get warmer from the motion.
- Eating a warm cooked meal that fills the belly and carresses the spine as often as once a turn.
- Drinking a pint of a hot beverage as often as once a turn.
- Sitting at a warm fire or a stove for an hour.
- Staying in a winterized shelter.
Gain Freezing by Losing Heat
- Not wearing clothing that protects against the environment each turn.
- Getting significantly wet (a risk in combat if sweating too much). Characters can spend a turn drying off after combat to avoid getting wet.
- Getting wet (e.g. hair, limb, body) gains you an additional freezing level each hour.
- Getting soaked (e.g. your whole body is wet) gains you an additional freezing level each turn
Effects of Freezing
- No noticeable effect.
- Controlled shivering.
- Lips turn purple or blue in humans and other similar creatures. Wisdom check to speak clearly.
- Uncontrolled shivering: -4 to all physical d20 checks, or -1 to d6 checks.
- Confusion: -4 to all mental d20 checks, or -1 to d6 checks.
- Sleepiness: save each turn, or fall asleep.
Cool Scenes
- Climbing a frozen waterfall of an otherwise sheer mountain to escape from pursuing wolves or other predators.
- Sliding down a frozen river to get away from pursuers.
- Skiing/sledding down a snowy hill, chased by pursuers or trying to keep ahead of an avalanche.
- Running/sledding/skating over a lake that is cracking, possibly while also pursued.
- Rushing through the wilderness for a settlement before an enormous ice thunder storm overtakes them.
- Coming upon a lone, stunted tree on the edge of an icy lake in a sheltered valley which grows warm for a few weeks in the summer.
- Rikklistio, a small town built by hot springs which keep the local environment notably warmer than the rest of the wastes. Small primates similar to Japanese macaques live by the hot springs.
- Maanvrei, another small towns built near lava vents, only a handful of miles from active volcanoes. The vented heat of the lava vents warming up the local environment. Some of the people here mine for special minerals not found many other places.
- Traveling with nomads in the waste, their ski-mounted wagons pulled by teams of caribou, with outrider sleds pulled by teams of huskies.
- Having a discussion or negotiation with important NPCs in a steam tent or in the hot baths of a bath house.
- Having a discussion in a cave or igloo with ones huskies inside to help keep you all warm.
- Having a discussion with the Ice Queen in her throne room with its dark goth Frozen aesthetic, with your every breath billowing mist, and her speech sounding like a freezing wind over the cold wastes but not showing a wisp of mist.
- Traveling in a cold waste at night seeing nothing but snow, stars, and the northern (or southern) lights.
- Passing out in the snow due to the cold, only to wake up in a small hut with a fire in a fireplace, or bundled up in the bed of a dog sled.
Cool Monsters
- Blizzard Wolves: These wolves roam the waste, bringing a storm with them which obscures vision with its thick flurries. They stay away from settlements, with their sheltered fires, but avidly pursue other creatures traveling the wastes. They are utterly terrified of fire, having to check morale each time they take fire damage.
- AC 6[13] HD 2 Att 1d6 bite Mv 40’ #App 1d6-4 (min. 1) Sv F2 Mr 9 XP 92
- Special
- Spur Flurries: 4-in-6 chance of automatically getting obscured by flurries that whip around them and anyone they're in melee with.
- Gnarled One: A dryad from a stunted tree which grew on permafrost or krummholz. They are frozen and gnarled like their tree, and yearn for warmth.
- AC 5[14] HD 2 Att 1d3+1 Frozen Claw Mv 40’ #App 1d6-4 (min. 1) Sv C2 Mr 9 XP 120
- Special
- Frozen Claw: In addition to the damage, the target takes a level of freezing.
- Movement:
- Limited Range: Cannot travel more than a half mile from its tree.
- Environmental Oneness: travels on snow and ice as though it were normal terrain instead of difficult terrain.
- Charm as the spell, 4-in-6 chance of exhausting this effect for 24 hours each time it is used.
- Cold Snap: As an action, can trigger a cold snap for an hour within a quarter mile of its tree. Each round outside in weather inappropriate gear or in damaged gear (especially from slashing damage) take 1d6-2 cold damage.
- Immunity: cold; Resistance: piercing, slashing
- Ice Elves: Elves with white or pale blue skin, and white, blue, or lavendar eyes and hair. They
- AC 5[14] HD 2 Att +3/1d8 long bow or long sword Mv 40’ #App 3d6 Sv F2 Mr 8 XP 120
- Special
- Movement:
- Environmental Oneness: travels on snow and ice as though it were normal terrain instead of difficult terrain.
- Hide in Snow: Surprise on a 3+ on 1d6 when ambushing in snowy environments.
- Flurry Arrows: Each ice elf has a flurry arrow, which creates a cloud of flurries in a 10 ft. radius for one turn.
- Freezing Arrows: Each ice elf has 1d10 (6) of these arrows, which increase freezing level by one if they hit by 5 or more. Made of ice, they lose their effect once they come to a stop.
- Immunity: cold;
- Cold Wastes Packaderm: Dire Mammoths that shimmer with electrical and eldritch energy, they tower 22-26 ft. high. They are arcanovores, devouring energy from ley lines, draining a nexus, then migrating to another one in their migratory route. They snack on spell energy they come across as well. The electrical energy comes from the static of the shaggy fur of their legs and ears rubbing against each other. Anyone striking an cold wastes packaderm must save or be struck by a static discharge for 2d6 electrical damage for the first strike, and 1d6 for the three subsequent melee attacks. Magic-users who have survived an encounter with them hide from subsequent ones.
- AC 4[15] HD 16 Att +12/(2x tusk 3d8, 1 trunk grab 2d6, 2x trample 2d8) Mv 50’ #App 1d12 Sv F16 Mr 8 XP 3,300 Special Defense Static Discharge
- Special
- Arcane Consumption: Any spell cast on them or on a creature they hit has a 2-in-6 chance of being absorbed by them and healing a number of hit points equal to twice its spell level, ending the spell.
- Static Discharge: The first melee attacker each combat against a particular ice breaker takes 2d6 lightning damage when they hit. The next two take 1d6 damage each.
- Rimelich: Actually a mummified undead magic user whose body was dehydrated by the cold, but tried to use their magic to keep themselves alive. They wander frozen wastes looking for bodily warmth they will never find, making rime zombies in the process. The land with a mile of one is always frozen, but this range extends out to as much as three miles for rimeliches which have been immobilized. Their bodies are completely desiccated, but still somewhat flexible except for their bones, and their frozen hearts, which shatter when they are destroyed. Rimelich heart shards can be used for dark rituals tied to undeath or cold.
- AC 2[17] HD 5 Att +3/(1d12+Freezing Touch) or Freezing Gaze Mv 20’ #App 1d4 (1d12 in lair) Sv M5 Mr 12 XP 450
- Special
- Undead
- Magic-User
- Sample Spell List:
- 1: detect magic, magic missile, sleep
- 2: detect invisibilty, detect good
- 3: fireball
- Freezing Gaze: Target creature within 90 ft. gets a freezing level unless it saves with a +4 bonus.
- Freezing Touch: As freezing gaze, but targets hit get no bonus to save.
- Rimelich, Greater
One in five Rimeliches is a Greater Rimelich. - AC 2[17] HD 8 Att +5/(2d8+Freezing Touch) or Freezing Gaze Mv 20’ #App as above Sv M8 Mr 12 XP 1,100
- Special
- Undead
- Magic-User
- Sample Spell List:
- 1: detect magic, magic missile, sleep
- 2: detect invisibilty, detect good, levitate
- 3: fireball, lightning bolt
- 4: ice storm
- Freezing Gaze and Freezing Touch: As with Rimelich.
- Snow Trapper: This large creature lies like a mat or large rug, burrowing down under snow. Its body is a rounded square, ranging from 5 ft. on a side for their young to 15 ft. on a side for mature ones. Each side has a 10 ft. tentacle a third of the way along its edge. One corner, its head, has a sensory tentacle with a single large stingray eye and cow-like nose, They try to find areas of high traffic, then lie in wait under snow and ice, until a satisfying meal steps into their midst.
They can go for months between meals. Hrothgar the Mad Bandit once captured one and fed traitors to it.
Usually, some of each size are found together. The smaller ones wait until on of the largest ones attack. - Small: AC 5[14]* HD 3 Att +4(+6 with surprise) 1d6 engulf and 2x 1d4 Pummel Mv 20’ on or under snow or loose soil #App 1d6 Sv F3 Mr 6 XP 120
- Medium: AC 6[13]* HD 4 Att +5(+7 with surprise) 1d8 engulf and 2x 1d6 Pummel Mv 15’ on or under snow or loose soil #App 1d4 Sv F4 Mr 6 XP 240
- Large: AC 7[12]* HD 5 Att +6(+8 with surprise) 1d10 engulf and 2x 1d8 Pummel Mv 10’ on or under snow or loose soil #App 1d3 Sv F5 Mr 6 XP 360
- Special
- Engulf: From concealment under snow, it tries to wrap itself around prey creatures to constrict or suffocate it. If it succeeds by less than 8, its prey can still breath. Each round, it works to close all surfaces, rolling again until it does succeed by 8 or more.
Engulfed creatures cannot use weapons larger than small to get out, they are too constricted. Similarly, casters will not be able to use gestures to cast spells.
It only uses its tentacles on creatures outside of it.
The largest size creature it can engulf is based on its own size: - Small: Up to man size.
- Medium: Up to pony sized.
- Large: Up to horse or caribou sized.
- Spray water: When fleeing, as it undulates away it sprays water backwards, giving it an extra 10 ft. of movement. Creatures within 10 ft. of it and in the 90 degree arc opposite its direction of travel must save or take 1d6 damage and their clothing is soaked.
- Stillette: A creature similar to a Bulette, but smaller, leaner, and more gracile, varying in size between that of a deer and a moose, but with a shorter neck and limbs. It can't dig through the frozen ground, but can dig through snow and thin layers of ice. They frequently hunt in packs, with 2-4 chasers driving prey into an ambush or a trap like tree wells filled with dry snow, or into avalanches.
- AC 3[16]* HD 5 Att 2x +5/1d8 Claws Mv 40’, dig snow, loose soil 15' #App 1d6 (min. 3) Sv F5 Mr 9 XP 360
- Special
- Vulnerable Spot: Readied attacks against them or attacks by one of a pair of opposed flankers are against AC 7[12], if the attacker has a shot at their exposed vulnerable rear.
- Tunnel Network: Digs ice tunnel networks over an area to move within and lunge out of.
- Grab: If both attacks succeed by 5 or more, the stillette grabs the target, and pulls them into a tunnel, if it's next to one.
Cool NPCs
- Venla Paavilainen, Chieftan of the Frosthoof Tribe of the Caribou People F9. She directs their migrations, and is near her warriors when the tribe is in conflict with another group. Her age is apparent on her face, but not in her movements. In her youth, she was the lead scout of the Frosthoof tribe, and has fought blizzard wolves and stillette packs. She once even managed to ride an cold wastes packaderm.
- Silja Snowblind, Storm Speaker of the Frosthoof Tribe of the Caribou People MU 7: His eyes are completely blind, and he can't see some things, but he can always see the players, and he can always see storms before they are visible over the horizon. He lost his vision in his youth, when he was bit by blizzard wolves while fending them off, the only survivor of a group of scouts. He was found badly injured and hypothermic by Venla's father, the tribe's previous Storm Speaker.
- Sample Spell List:
- 1: read magic, protection from evil, sleep
- 2: detect invisibilty, protection from cold, restore warmth (negate cold conditions from one target touched)
- 3: clairvoyance, fireball
- 4: wall of fire
- Ilundelial Scurldianara, the Ice Witch MU10: Leader of the Ice Elves that live in their home that the humans refer to as Iceterm, a tower of ice at the north pole which is in perpetual darkness. She is called the Ice Witch because rumors suggest she was an enchantress of enormous power who intentionally became a rimelich, but somehow went beyond that, becoming an elf with a body of ice and the coldest blue eyes ever seen. She sees all other creatures as tools or food. Few non-elven humanoids have seen her and lived to tell the tale, and the few elven ones that have will not speak of her.
- The Hound F8: A hunter of incredible skill and determination, believed to be human but equipped with the tools and weapons of the Ice Elves. Humanoids of the north have stories of him going back generations. Some believe he is a myth. Others believe that The Hound is actually a series of human hunters, all outfitted the same way, and somehow enchanted to be a tool of the Ice Queen.
- Turtsi Pravittinen, Mayor of Rikklistio T2: Tursti is not only the mayor, but owns and runs the biggest bath house in Rikklistio. He's jovial, and knows rumors. His bar serves spirits, but only to people who are done with the baths for the day. He connects those generous to him with those who can pay generously for difficult work. He's greedy, but cares for his community.
Cool Items
- The Hound's Icicle: The Hound has an icicle dangling from its middle on a single silvery strand of hair. After a few seconds, it always points towards a particular location. That location is the coldest thing within five hundred miles.
- The Hound's Helm: The Hound's helm is a bleached dire wolf's skull, with its muzzle forming a visor. It has the following properties:
- The wearer is immune to snow blindness.
- The wearer can track other creatures by scent, with a 4-in-6 chance, decreasing by 1-in-6 for each full day since the creature passed by. This does not work over water.
- Any critical hit against the wearer's head hits the helm and is negated.
- The Hound's Arrows: The Hound's bow is an exceptionally well crafted item, but 1d20 (11) of the arrows have heads made from shards of pale blue ice. On a natural 20 to hit, or on a hit that succeeds by at least 10, they increase the target's freezing level by 1d3.
- Storm Speaker's Staff: Each Storm Speaker crafts one of these staves as the final test of their apprenticeship. The forms differ, but most are made from bones of the type of creature sacred to that Storm Speaker's tribe. Magic users may do the following while holding one (parenthetical values are for Storm Speakers wielding the one they crafted themselves):
- The wielder is aware of any storms within twenty miles (fifty miles).
- The wielder may quell storm effects within three (five) miles, halving (quartering) their effects.
- Wild creatures struck by a Storm Staff must check morale on a hit that does maximum damage (any damage).
- Ice Breaker Fur Cape: Woven from the shaggy fur of an ice breaker, these capes reduce the effectiveness of a spell on the wearer by half while worn, but also cause spells or magical items evoking external effects by the wearer to have a 3-in-6 chance of failing. These are most often worn by scouts and hunters, especially when rimeliches are known to be in the area, since it does not affect enchantments on magical weapons or armor. These items are not in themselves magical.
- Antler Helm: Some of the warriors of the Caribou people--those with less capability in bushcraft--wear stiff leather caps with antlers coming out of them. After being worn for an hour, the wearer can concentrate for a minute to know where the nearest group of at least five caribou is, out to five miles. Once per hour, the wearer can also gain +4 to hit if they move three-quarters of their maximum move distance in a straight line and then attack someone.
Environmental Conditions
- Gusty Winds:
Duration: 1d4 hours, usually morning or evening.
While Traveling or Exploring: Searches take twice as long, encounter distance with other creatures is reduced by half.
During Combat: In any given round, each character has a 1-in-6 chance of being in a cloud of flurries, essentially blinded and obscured to everyone. - Steady Ice Rain:
Pick the direction the wind is blowing from.
Duration: 1d6 hours, at any time.
While Traveling or Exploring: Halve distance of detection in the direction the wind is blowing from. In protective gear, gain 1d3 freezing levels at the end of each watch from windchill (4 hours), or 1d3 freezing levels each turn if not protected from the elements.
During Combat: Characters moving into the wind have tiny ice particles flying into their faces, and are disadvantaged for all actions. - Cold Snap:
Everything is extremely cold. Locals take shelter, building it rapidly of they can.
Duration: 2d20 hours, at any time.
While Traveling or Exploring: Gain freezing levels at double the rate. Magic users who go to 0 Consitution inadvertently become rimeliches.
During Combat: Each round outside in weather inappropriate gear or in damaged gear (especially from slashing damage) save or gain a freezing level. - Clear Skies: The local atmosphere is cloudless.
Duration: 2d20 hours, at any time.
While Traveling or Exploring: During the day, characters looking around must save each hour or go snowblind (see below). At night, the air gets much colder, so that anyone not sheltered is at disadvantage to resist cold, but they are also at advantage for navigating by the stars. Those resting on shelter must consume an extra ration that day.
During Combat: Encounter distances are doubled, except for ambushes. - Blessings of the Sky:
Duration: 1d8+4 hours.
During the Day:
The Sun shines more, raising everyone's spirits.
All: Everyone has all attribute penalties reduced by one.
At Night:
The moon or the stars look strange.
While Traveling or Exploring: Roll a d6: On a 1-2, only half the expected distance is traveled; on a 3-5, 150% of the expected distance is traveled; on a 6, 400% of the expected distance is traveled. A character at a dolmen with the right ritual could open a gate to another world, and creatures from other worlds can more easily enter ours.
During Combat: If a character's dexterity + initiative are evenly divisible by 5, they can move in a blur to triple their normal move distance, or turn invisible for a round if they move less than 10 ft. - Strange Skies:
Duration: 1d8+4 hours.
During the Day:
All: The Sun is cold and dim. All attribute bonuses are reduced by one, people feel despondent. Sometimes, people can be seen in the distance, but they disappear when getting close.
At Night:
In the middle of a long night, it's possible to have a conversation with someone dead whom you once knew.
All: An aurora shimmers in the sky and seems to reach down and touch the earth around you. Spells and curses are suppressed, but not dispelled. Spells and items evoking external effects have a 3-in-6 chance of failing.
Landmarks
Noteworthy locations
- The Lonely Hill: A hill on a cold plain, with visibility from its peak out to about fifteen miles on every direction. Battles have been fought here many times in the past, and persistent or lucky searches might reveal something ancient but useful.
Those that spend an hour searching have a 1-in-6 chance of finding an item, or 2-in-6 chance of finding a broken item (d6): 1. long sword; 2. axe; 3. spear; 4. leather/hide armor; 5. chain mail; 6. short bow and 1d6-1 arrows. Any item found has a 1-in-20 chance of being magical. - Hot springs Valley: A sheltered valley with a hot spring at its head. A place of safety, especially in a cold snap. Don't drink the water that wells up here, though, it's poisonous.
Luxuriating for four hours in the hot spring pools restores 1d6 hit points and heals 1d3 attribute damage to a random attribute. - The Lava Lake: Everything within three miles is thawed and warm. Plants grow nearby. Unfortunately, sometimes the lake moves as the Earth shakes.
Cold conditions are cleared after 24 hours resting here. - The Frozen Spire: A column of blue ice three miles tall. It has stairs carved in a spiral around it, and runes carved alongside the stairs. Some magic-users claim they know someone who learned a spell or two from those runes.
Those studying the runes along the stairs must make an intelligence check:
Success: Learn a spell of level 1d6.
Failure (1d6): 1. Forget all languages, check wisdom each week to recover; 2. Take 1d6 Intelligence damage; 3. Take 1d6 Charisma damage; 4. Your eyes get covered with a white film, and you go blind for 2d6 days; 5. 1 random limb goes numb for a month; 6. You pass out for 1d8 hours, and forget who you are and any spells you have prepared, recovering your memories after 2d20 days. - The Glaciated City: A strange city covered in a rough dome of ice. Is there an entrance down into it? What kind of treasures does it hold?
Spend 4 hours: 1-in-6 chance to find an entrance to the city below. - The Sleeping Giant: Is that just a name for that range of hills, or is that truly done sort of slumbering titan?
Never get attacked while camping here.
Dangers
Getting Wet
Anyone soaked in cold weather gains 1 additional freezing level each turn. Wet environmental protective gear does not work. Local waterproof protective gear such as those made by the caribou people has a 5-in-6 chance of keeping you dry, while knock off waterproof protective gear made by outsiders has 3-in-6 chance. Naive outsiders don't think about the importance of waterproof gear, and just wear warm clothing without any waterproofing.
Snow Blindness
Extreme light sensitivity that effectively leaves you blind for 1d6 days. This can be mitigated with appropriate eye protection (UV blocking sunglasses or Inuit snow goggles).
Avalanches
Slopes build up snow during snowfalls. Warm spells cause snow to melt, then refreeze. This changes the balance of mass. Sometimes, it ends up resting on an edge so delicate that a single loud sound triggers a change. When that change happens, everything starts rumbling down to a more stable point.
Game Masters, telegraph this, it's the ultimate "Rocks fall, everyone dies!"
Locals are aware of the dangers, and take steps to mitigate it: long lines with balls of inflated whale swim bladders or something similar, in an attempt to mark where to look for them, carrying smaller air bladders on them to last longer if buried, carrying shovels, and dispersing widely to minimize the chances of everyone getting trapped. The best course is to go around, especially larger hills, and especially after fresh snowfalls.
Stillettes are fond of setting up small avalanches when prey travel between small hills. The snow isolates prey, which they can feed on with little risk.
The anatomy of an avalanche defining an avalanche bed (the surface that is falling) is outlined by the crownline at the top, the staunchwall at the bottom, the flanks on each side, and the track that it will slide down.
As a general rule for avalanches:
- Determine the base amount of snow runout and debris coming down on them:
- Mountain: 6d10 feet.
- Tall Hill: 4d10 feet.
- Short hill: 2d10 feet.
- If you're at the top of the avalanche, you're only covered by have the amount of snow, and take the remainder of
- Those near the flanks can escape: roll a save, with a -4 for each level of encumbrance they have. For Shadowdark, give them a -1 for each two items they have in their inventory. Characters can take an action to drop their backpacks, and can drop carried items for free.
- If the save is successful,
Ice Concealed Hazards
Ice sometimes covers ravines and bodies of liquid water. Falling into a ravine is dangerous not just because of the falling damage, but also because of the snow that might follow, and bury the fallen person just enough that they can't breathe. As a general rule for ravines:
- Characters have a 2-in-6 chance of falling unconscious.
- Body position:
Add the character's dexterity bonus to the d6 rolls if they are conscious: - Conscious characters, d6: 1: inverted (on their head); 2: prone (on their side); 3+ (head up)
- Unconscious character, d6: 1: inverted (on their head); 2-5: prone (on their side); 6 (head up)
- The ravine fills with 2d6 feet of snow. If that leaves their head exposed, they can still breath. If not....
- Suffocation:
- A character who has been trained to consider the possibility and is still conscious can try to use their clothing to make an air pocket to gain 3d6 minutes of air. Untrained characters get 1d6 minutes.
- After a character runs out of air, they have 5 minutes before they start taking permanent brain damage.
- For each minute after they have run out of air, they lose 1d4-1 Intelligence. Once they are at 0 Intelligence, they are brain dead.
- Once a character is brain dead, each additional minute without air they lose 1d4-1 Constitution. At 0 Constitution, they are dead.
- When they are exposed to air, unconscious characters have a 4-in-6 chance to start breathing normally. If they are not breathing, someone with healer training has a 2-in-6 chance each minute to restart their breathing.
- Falling Injuries: A fallen character has a chance of a persistent injury:
- Roll 1d6 for each limb: On a 1 it is broken, on a 2-3 it is sprained.
- Roll 1d6 for the head: On a 1 the character is concussed, taking 1d6 intelligence damage; on a 2, they are blinded for 2d6 days; on a 3, one eye is blinded for 2d6 days.
- Roll 1d6 for the body: On a 1 the character has critical internal organ damage, has -2 to all actions, and will die in 2d20 days; on a 2-3 they have minor internal organ damage, and has -2 on all actions until they heal naturally in 4d20 days.
Natural Hazards
- Dry Powder Snow: Generally visible when winds are brisk due to its lightness, it causes flurries which obscure vision. It provides little support, so that in depressions and ravines, creatures can fall into it and suffocate, much like quicksand.
- Ice-Covered Gaps: Walking over crevices or water covered with thin ice. Risk falling, getting wet, or getting buried in snow.
- Avalanche! The ground suddenly becomes unstable as snow and soil come crashing down from the heights. Whether you're at the top or at the base, you're in danger of getting buried. See Dangers, below.
- Strap or Ski Breaks: In the wastes, it's important to have backups. If the wrong strap or ski breaks, your travel speed will be reduced to walking.
References
- Kivallirmiut - Caribou Inuit who live west of Hudson's Bay.
- Cable-backed bow - A technique for improving the quality of bows based on the materials available to Inuit peoples.
- Hypothermia - Symptoms and treatment.

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