D&D AAR: Rime of the Frost Maiden session 1 log

Im going to use this website to log the contents of my various D&D campaigns, I play just about every other weekend on Roll20 with my oldest brother and some different people around the world. Tonights session is the beginning of a new campaign. Our DM is running the official Rime of the FrostMaiden module. It's set in Icewind Dale, in what is essentially a large alpine valley where a powerful being known as the Frost Maiden obscures the sun rise and prevents the end of winter.

My character is a Gnome Wizard, named Whitey. This is the token that I am currently using for him. His character background is that he is on the run and in hiding from powerful families of the city of neverwinter. He published an essay alleging rightfully that many powerful families in the city are secretly devil worshippers.

The other party members consist of:

A Druid named Gurudas, played by my brother. His character is a new age crystal vibrational healer and has been very funny. Everyone treats him like a homeless scam artist and his background is that he was run out of the city of Neverwinter alongside my wizard, being tarred and feathered for accidentally poisoning a noblewomen.

A Commoner named Enis the Daft. He has been really funny acting as literally a dumb peasant as if he were in Monty Pythons holy Grail.

A Goliath Barbarian named Gina who is supposedly a tribal princess, my Gnome has already rode around on her shoulders to avoid the cold while travelling.

A Ranger who is married to the Goliath Barbarian. His name is Robin Winter.

That is the current party. We will be playing with permanent death so anyone that dies will most likely be making a new character.

At the beginning of the session, the party are all for various reasons exiled to this valley the module is set in. They all receive mysterious notes compelling them to meet someone at a certain tavern. They are met with a bearded Dwarven women who tells them a tale of a series of murders, the victims of which were found stabbed with ice daggers, and implies they are related to an individual who lives in a small town named bremen just across the river from Targos where the party starts. After a lengthy and stupid argument over paying bar tabs and vibrational healing the group departs town. They camp out one night in the wilderness and arrive at the town of Bremen before noon. On arriving to town the party immediately starts on a pub crawl to gather information. The Guru sells his gem tonics and accepts donations from the locals. The Goliath seeks out a healer for a mysterious ailment. Every party member makes an investigation check and my Wizard scores the highest, we find out that the individual we are seeking out is a travelling merchant who arrives to the village three days ago.

The Druid sets off on his own to meet up with the suspected murderer. He claims to be a travelling healer. The man is extremely suspicious of the travelling gem tonic/snake oil salesman. He does not learn much from the man but he casts speak with animals and goes and talks with his sled dogs. The dog tells him that his master smells of blood in the mornings after disappearing every night to drink. The druid finds this incriminating and asks the dogs to stop barking for the night. He returns to the party and blabs at them about gem elixers for an hour, only when the party asks him about seeing him speak with the dogs does he share that he learned of the man disappearing every night from his home.

The party agrees to do a stake out, the peasant and the druid go on a pub crawl and runs up a huge bar tab in my characters name. The evening approaches and we see the suspicious individual enter the tavern we are waiting in. The druid alerts us to his presence and then goes and accosts the man some more. After the night comes the man leaves and walks into the woods, the party follows after making varied stealth rolls and using the druid and peasant as loud drunken decoys.

The party intercepts the man in the forest, he reveals that his name is Sephak Kaltro and he claims that he is just seeking solitude. The rest of the party is nearby and hiding, the two drunks accost the man, the Druid claims the man is a murderer and he is very offended. He claims that a murderer would have no right to kill those they slay, and condemns the drunks to death.

This is the beginning of a fight now. The two drunks innefectually yell at the man and the peasant falls over and fires his crossbow hitting Sephak in the chest, the peasant exclaims drunkenly that he shot 6 men with 1 shot. The Ranger fires his bow, also hitting the man. We actually pull of a successful ambush seemingly. On the Druids turn he falls over in a drunken stupor. On Sephaks turn he summons two ice daggers and rushes over to stab the drunks that have enraged him. The Barbarian princess rushes forward and hits the man with her greataxe and wounds the man heavily. My wizard then misses casting a fire bolt. The peasant then gets up and begins dragging his drunken comrade away from the fight. More arrows from the Ranger, more nothing from Gurudas, and then the enemy combatant uses misty step to instantly travel to the two drunks and he stabs the peasant through the throat, nearly killing him instantly. My wizard actually hits with his fire bolt but it does very little damage. The peasant makes a save to try not to die. The Ranger fires and misses, got to love level 1 adventuring. Gurudas is prone on the ground and tries to stabilize the Peasant, all of his healing is done via ground up gems mixed up in brandy. Sephak strikes the Barbarian with his ice weapon but the barbarian stands and delivers a mighty strike and almost slays Sephak. My gnome closes distance and casts burning hands but our enemy is still standing, he then takes another arrow from the Ranger and continues to stand, becoming angrier and angrier. The Guru shoves a crystal down the throat of the peasant in an attempt to heal him and brings him back to life. The barbarian takes another vicious attack but doesnt fall. She finally strikes the man followed by my gnome bathing him in fire one more time killing him, ending the combat finally.

We search his corpse and fine 5 silver pieces, as well as noticing that the man has shed almost no blood yet appears to be dead. We further investigate the corpse applying our characters various knowledge of religion, arcana, and investigation. We decide that the man was likely an undead, after a lengthy argument we decide to take the corpse into town and to tell the towns people that we have been attacked by the man who we suspect to be both the murderer and the undead. We are accosted by a dwarf who is immediately suspect of the party, he demands we don't alarm the town but we ultimately convince him that the man was indeed a murderer and an undead.

We arrange lodgings in the town for the night and then head back to Targos the next day. We meet back up with the original dwarven woman who hired us and take our pay of 20 GP each. The party disperses through the village and carouses. The Guru hears of a gem mine that has been closed down and taken over by kobolds, and spends the rest of the session convincing everyone to go and clear the mine in order for him to loot all of the gems.

That is where we called it a night.
To play again in a few weeks.