Cold Hearted Killers | Rime of the Frostmaiden Starting Quest DM Guide

[@brucemartin1420]

This encounter was perfect to set the tone of the campaign. I set my lvl one party against sephek and i one shot the barbarian druid and paladin a couple different times each. They got him to zero hitpoints without fire and sephek got back up and teleported away to mess with them more. Unfortunately they used fire to kill him the next round and rolled just enough to put him down for good. I gave a little cut scene of his body slushing away into snow and a bright light shooting out from his head and one of the party members was able to tell he was an elemental. I truly scared my party and they arent murdering everything they come across now its kinda weird but at least theyre buying into the horror element

[@SteelySam]

that's hilarious

[@steveetches6013]

Good suggestion about leaving it for a later level, was debating how or if to include it in my upcoming campaign. Thanks again! Fitz

[@ThisAintAStupidName]

The way I've been running this differs in a few key ways from the book: -It's not common knowledge that Auril is causing the winter. Most people don't know what's what. Frost druids are acting like low-key missionaries, enticing people to sacrifice to Auril to gain her protection from the winter. -Sephek Kaltro murders people who steal sacrifices of food. He gets his directives from Auril on the wind, and is also connected to Ravisin in Lonelywood. They want to push people into Aurils arms. -The players used the hunt for Sephek to go through towns, and do sidequests while hunting for him. This let them level to 3 before facing him.

[@rebeccarichins9472]

Thanks for doing this... I am dyslexic book made no sense... it helps to hear what is happening along with reading the book.

[@SteelySam]

I'm glad they are helping

[@DJmonkey4444]

Yeah im using the cold hearted killer quest as the capstone for chapter 1. They got the quest in the begining. Had them get caught up in other quest while looking for torgga. And once they hit level 3 and next town they go to has torrga in it. I made the quest more of a mystery and made helin think its torrga not sephek. They are about to resolve this quest next session so ill see how it turns out.

[@aunderiskerensky2304]

about the same for me as well. i read it and went.. .nope.

[@Critical_Failures]

🔥🔥🔥 waited for this one! It’s a quest that needed about of small changes and accommodations for sure

[@chrishoj5277]

So my plan was (with 4 PCs Druid, Barbarian, Sorcerer, & Ranger) introduce quest/campaign in Bryn Shander, as they were asking around I also introduced Foaming Mugs; they then went to check out Targos, quickly prompted mountain climb; then eluded that the killings seemed to file the order of Easthaven, Bryn, Targos so they set off to Easthaven,cleared toil and trouble and after a long rest and a level up to level 3 had Torg rolling in to town the next morning. Hilarity ensued

[@benneidl9336]

Everybody who discusses this quest says “It’s too much for a first level party so you’ll have to make some changes.” But Saphek isn’t intended to be a first level encounter and the DM shouldn’t let him be. The idea of this quest is that the PCs are supposed to spend the first two levels of play on Saphek’s trail, level-ing up in the meantime on a couple of the side quests in Ten Towns. You’re not supposed to let the PCs catch up with Saphek and the merchant party until they’re about third level, which is what Saphek is balanced for. The whole point of this quest really is to give the PCs a reason to travel to and explore a couple of the towns and level-up while doing so. It’s easy to keep Saphek off stage until 3d level.

[@mentalrebllion1270]

My group is taking this quest up for 3rd level. We actually picked it up around 2nd level, and turned down taking it at 1st, though hints of it were dropped. We actually did the Lonelywood quest for first level. Second level we took up the mine quest. Both we completed in very good time, I think. But we have set up so we encounter the killer during the start of our 3rd level. We got the information just before dealing with the mine and completed the mine quest in about 2 in game hours. We had our looney tunes moment there but did very well against the grell regardless

[@Tharrel]

I put this quest in front of my 2nd level party. They won, but decided to take him alive. With his regeneration and being able to misty step, he run away easily. The party chased him, had another fight, which they lost, and are now basically super focused on getting him again (asking almost any npc they meet if they've seen him). Now I need to think of a way to make him a good recurring villain :D

[@therandomninja5]

My players are currently on this quest. I held it off until 2nd level. I felt that the party should do the town quest 1st and afterwards Hlin approaches them. They started in Termalaine and completed the mine with only 1 PC dying. Everyone got to level 2 except the 1. They rolled a new pc. The party headed to Targos 1st and got the mountain climb quest started as well. They asked around and as luck would have it Torgs was due to arrive this evening. When we last left off The party ranger (the lvl1 new pc) is tailing Sephyk.

[@alcahuetasanonymous]

What I’m trying to do is make the characters actually have to investigate themselves- Hlin only knows about the victims being killed with ice daggers and nothing else. The characters have to investigate the victims’ families, witnesses, etc in each of the towns, finding clues to point towards Torgga’s. Each victim (save the dead half-elf in the caravan) had been selected to be sacrificed and was actively trying to find an escape. The trapper sold all of his caught game to a ‘mean looking dwarven woman’ in order to pay for passage out of Icewind Dale, the mariner was stalked dead drunk out of the tavern in Targos where other patrons saw Torgga’s symbol on some of the mercenaries, the glassblower reported to her partner that she was being stalked by a man who seemed to disappear into the winter air, etc. This way, the PCs can go around and do other things for a while, gain levels, as long as they can solve it by the next new moon.

[@davidwoek3041]

Yeah! My plan will be similar. I think this quest could be more of an over-aching quest that requires the players to help people by doing the quest in order to help them understand how, what and where! Let them get to level 3 before combat unless they choose so.

[@heathhelm4210]

Great video! Love the info.

[@Horned-Swashbuckler]

I gave the quest immediately, but I felt it was boring to hand it out like 'go and kill this dude'. I have rp heavy group anyway. I gave it as 'hey look at these killings please, I think it's a serial killer' -and they are now realizing it is SOMEONE who is killing people who cheat in the lotteries. They are just about to tie it to Torg's, I have hinted it a lot. They are a bit stuck in 'but HOW would the killer know' - but I think they are accepting the wall of mystery in it and trying to continue to tie other strings together. It's been a great way to take the party to all 3 major towns, and get them moving and getting more quests. :) I tied visit in Bremen in it too. I put the sister of one the Targos victim there and they got to do the Lake monster quest.

[@heathhelm4210]

Great video!

[@codypeppers4147]

Whew good show mate

[@scorchbound]

Suuuper helpful!

[@atwoodthehunter2620]

Would you say level two is a good time to throw this quest at my party? Cause they started in East Haven and I changed up like the opening to something I came up with then I had them do the quest with the sea hag and looking for the four fishermens.

[@TunnelingVision]

Hi Sam, how messy do you think it would get if i made Sephek a vampire? then tied the frostmaiden darkness to helping them out?

[@DrAndrewJBlack]

Excellent

[@mavindalightscribe9658]

I was going to change this to be easier for 1st level characters but then my Barbarian and Rogue both critted for a total of 48 damage.

[@DJCooL4]

My dm upscaled this quest and we never completed it. We were level 5 and we all got out with less than 10 hp

[@metallicoctopus2037]

really wanted to punish my characters when they completely rushed Sephek... then he missed.. every single attack and they just ground him down. Plus I had a fire-based spellcaster - sometimes being a mean DM is hard

[@ghostgaming7431]

For me this encounter wasn't great. I now that he can never die unless his regeneration is stoped. So the party's wizard used chill touch and even after buffing his health on the fly he still felt weak against a party of 4 people. I hope they change the action economy in future instalments, because this needs to stop. Like 1 dude against 4 is imposible. I don't think that sephek is overpowerd just because of action economy.