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The Blizzard of Axe and Sword from Dark Peaks (@TalesPeaks)
CW: Slavery – Svirfneblin by Duregar (although this entire area can be avoided), Animal Carcasses, Bones, Tusks, Butchery, Manhandled/ Distressed Animals (Mammoth & Yeti), Alcohol (Drunken Frost Giant)
Presented beautifully and ridiculously well thought out, this is a seriously super saga of epic proportions is perfect as its own adventure, as part of Storm King’s Thunder or as an appetiser and/ or accompaniment to the upcoming Icewind Dale action! From the quaint, tranquil village of Lamastop beset by a Frost Giant raiding party, The Blizzard of Axe and Sword blazes a trail through the land of the ice and snow, across beautiful bleak snowy mesas or through the decidedly unabandoned mine that has become a monument to some Duregar’s control and cruelty. Will you spark a Svirfneblin revolution? Will you manage to find a silent path of silver and shadows to Jarl Torrfin the Bleak or take on war mammoths head on and battle Bugbear mercenaries, take the fight to the red snow, battle atop boats and make ill-advised, but inevitable ramming action on sleds? Can you traverse the frozen lake making friends and enemies in the most unlikely of places? Do you have the will to ascend Drangasjoll’s icy arse-end, refusing to let everything the great glacier and the Axe and Sword Clan can throw at to you? And can you bring vengeance to the Stone Throne of the Jarl raider?
Introduction
The introduction begins so warm and welcoming, luring us into this brilliant, biting cold and frostbitten tale in which the “cold of the environment will fight you, creating challenges to be overcome through guile and creativity rather than violence...this adventure is not for the faint-hearted!” Too true and the thought and creativity on display throughout, particularly with the brilliant additional situational rules. These will definitely inspire, delight and will perhaps have players fondly and/ or frustratingly reminiscing about some classic video games.
Great advice on working this adventure into your own game or existing campaigns with a veritable smorgasbord of helpful hooks to peg you party on.
A wealth of information on the particular level of environmental hazards, predominantly drawn from Mathers, The Whitefaire Adventurer’s Guide, as well as background and advice on running Frost Giants. (though everything you need to run the environmental and other elements are included in this adventure. They are just expanded upon in the WAG)
[https://www.dmsguild.com/product/317124/Whitefaire-Adventurers-Guide?affiliate_id=1507682]
Part 1: The Attack upon Lamastop
The small frontier town where the heroes begin this adventure, is brought to vivid life in its description...just in time for Frost Giants to come along and smash it up in a dynamic sequence that really shows the disparity between the towns guards, even with the PCs, and the mighty Frost Giant raiding party. This includes variable rules for conditions, damage control and rebuilding from with the consequences of the giants’ raid.
This quaint, frail town so ruthlessly raised by the Frost Giants is packed with flavour and soul, which serves to set the heroes off on a mission of vengeance, but also to ensure Lamastop’s safety by returning their much-needed supplies to get them through the winter. Freeing the surrounding areas from the oppressive violence of Jarl Torrfin the Bleak’s Axe and Sword Clan...and freeing the Jarl from his hoard are both bonuses.
There is even has a hidden quest surrounding a ghost and a shattered blade, which gave me glorious Elder Scrolls vibes, with a very cool, stylish magic sword!
Part 2: Utnar’s Saddle
The party trek through the historic, snowing mountains to track down the Frost Giants, battling the elements and encountering a variety foes and situations with a great random encounter table. Plus, the chance to see a baby mammoth! Just don’t upset the family!
This travelling section contains a choice whether to go through the abandoned mine for a “more traditional dungeon crawl” (covered in parts 4 and 5 CW: Slavery) or head over the mountain and face the battles in their path. Throughout this area there are a number of richly evocative elements and locations, which incorporate the various corresponding or clashing elemental aspects of magic.
There are many fun, frigid and frightening places to go and people to see, including a frozen crystal forest watched over by a Frost Giant and their pet worgs, a cave that’s home to a wyvern and their eggs, a bridge complete with ice trolls, the abandoned mine, a dangerous mesa complete with a hungry peryton family, a trapped tower filled with bugbear mercenaries and their ogre muscle working for and able to call mammoth-riding giants should the party put a foot wrong or fail to pay well enough, a perilous peryton-pestered path across the frigid, if not rigid ice bridge over a chasm, and a hefty magical hammer which brings the terrible thunder and lightning of Talos on a crit...if it can be wrested from the from the mighty mounted mammoth pachyderm patrols.
Part 3: Sarenchill Lake
The glittering glacial ice field is current home the Axe and Sword Clan, haunted ruins, Frost Giants wrestling a large Jurassic fishy-lizards and ice mephits, lots and lots of ice mephits! This section comes with all manner of rules for everything from determining the thickness of ice (careful with the pyrotechnics!), control and combat involving animal sleds, even ramming rules! Although, “Ramming with a sled is not a remotely advisable move...However, it has been known” so somebody’s bound to try it.
The haunted ruins are most definitely haunted by poor, sad, chilly ghosties who just want to help, but surprise, sneaky Ice Hag coven and their pet dragon wyrmling, Ronald! A dangerous prospect, but vanquishing the hags is worth it for the look on the Boo Crew’s* little translucent faces and freedom...and the extremely helpful magic items, including a new fantastic, flavourful single charge stones with the best and most ridiculous spells contained within.
*My name for the ghosties, not the creator’s.
There are wonderful images and concepts like discovering a merfolk potential ally, Pelagia, in a derelict wharf’s indoor fishing room with side quest to clear out a frozen shipwreck Sahuagin are using as a base of operations in return for aid in the battle to come. The ship itself, the Bien Dara, plays out like a short horror moment with the smell of dead fish and the partially frozen hanging bodies, before the two-part fight begins (an initial encounter which falls back to or is taken out before the boss encounter). I appreciate this is just a side trek in an already huge and immensely ambitious adventure path, but the little horror flavour was great and I could have done with a bigger boat and a little more chance for tension and terror. But to be honest, at this point I’m just loving all these elements at the banquet and getting greedy.
This chapter draws to a close with another clash with Frost Giants, this time led by one in a positively bling corselet of gold. If the Sahuagin have been taken out Pelagia and her spears await a thinning of the ice to join the fray.
Now the glacial mountains must be traversed!
Part 4: The Ironhunter Mine
CW: Slavery – Svirfneblin by Duregar
Before we go up and onward, we’ve seen the path across the ice, but this chapter takes us back to the end of Part 1, following the “more traditional dungeon crawl” through the Ironhunter Mine in two parts.
My 90° to the left self can’t help buy point out the mine’s history involved the vicious owner being overthrown by a socialist uprising (yay!), which was going lovely until they accidentally dug into the Underdark...after which it was abandoned with false tales of the veins running dry and ghost stories of “grey dwarves” keeping everyone away. So, in turn the Ironhunter Mine became a new Duregar stronghold when they moved in. The Duregar enslavement of the Svirfneblin portrayed in this part doesn’t sit particularly well with my lefty SJW self, which I’ll discuss later. But at the same time, I do love an uprising and revolution, especially one led by such a wonderful young woman as Lenii. My ambivalence for the awesome ability to call in her epic squad of Deep Battle Gnomes, with the serious questions raised over their agency, and the revolution only being a means to the party’s ends of getting through the mine and Duregar.
The Duregar have truly made this their domain, and rules are provided with alarms using rounds of speech to assign alert or unalerted statuses for each room as appropriate, as well as locking doors, patrols, and a special squad of Duregar Stone Guard to arrive in a set amount of in game time. This comprehensive system will really put the heroes up against it and they’ll need to get their Solid Snake or Sam Fischer on as they work their way through this extremely unabandoned mine. They may even face the dreaded Duregar siege machine, the Fire Cart, which can spit flames in a 6’ x 60’ line comparable to a long Fireball! I thoroughly recommend having a playlist of Metal Gear Solid Caution music to play once the alarms are set off!
Part 5: The Grey Dwarf Hold
This hold, originally built by lost Mountain Dwarves, the hole below to the Underdark and the access above ground sits in a vast underground lake, and comes with a whole rich history of the outpost and the defence, incursions and collaborations in its storied history. Currently, it is held by Duregar in cahoots with the Axe and Sword Frost Giant Clan. Owing no allegiance to anyone, Kuo-Toa also roam around the subterranean waterway, in ambush parties adding to the dangers of Duregar, Frost Giants and tower-mounted ballista. Despite these dangers, the water must be travelled, the hold stormed, and the Svirfneblin and the party parting ways, as the former return to their homes in the Underdark and the latter rise to take on the Great Glacier. This should be easy, right?
This section contains rules for various boats, their relevant speeds for the brawn of those doing the arm work, as well as the inevitable rules for boaty fighting. Sadly, these rules omit the ‘this is dumb, but players are gonna do it’ clause and rules for boat ramming, though I’m sure the sled rules could be worked out quite easily. Row me closer so I can hit them with my oar! There’s also a random encounters table of various underground fauna to come ruin a rest in this dangerous place, as well as possibly my absolute favourite thing about this amazing adventure, a coven of Grell, residing in Grell’s Dell, led by Olr-nug-ga’ga, who parlay and can become allies! Beaky brain buddies!
Lay siege to the holdfast, take on legions of Duregar and their allies to finally help Lenii and her people get home, and vengeance all that closer...albeit with a little climb coming up...
Part 6: The Climb of Drangasjoll
This is one colossal mass of rocky ice, standing as tall as the mountains and stretching off in all dimensions in impressive and terrifying ways. There are two options here: the long and treacherous trek round the proverbial houses, emulating the Fellowship mooching their way across the Caradhras, or the sketchy scariness of channelling your inner-Wildling and simply scaling the vertical glacial Cliff face.
The way up requires specific equipment (which is a good idea to impress on the players and have provision for in Lamastop), and provides rules for ice climbing from the Whitefaire Adventurer’s Guide, which consists of tethered pair climbing with crampons and ice-axe, for the ultimate Game of Thrones experience. This can become all the more realised as one character slipping badly enough could send them both off a cliff...
The 280’ ascent is undertaken in blinding snow and high winds, and broken down into three separate ledges with varying routes (akin to skiing or snowboarding runs, just downty-up instead of top to bottom) with their own dangers and (very relative) safety. If the climbing to the top of a ridiculously tall glacier wasn’t enough, there are various monsters whose homes the PCs swing by, which leads to one handed fighting with will-o’-wisps, getting jumped by the ubiquitous ice mephit, swarmed by a nest of cockatrices and a young Remorhaz burrowing its way to at them. Imagine ice climbing and then one of those large toothy-spiky-leggy fellows comes bursting out the ice at you?! This is before the added Peril of loose ice, nobbly icicles and yellow snow! All this comes together to create a seriously dynamic sequence of climbs that O’Donnell, Stallone and even Cruise would find this Vertical Limit Cliffhanger a Mission Impossible!
The ‘one simply walks to Drangasjoll’ route is still a tricky, treacherous meandering path up the mountainous glacier. The party will face slippery slopes, giants throwing the evil kind of snowballs, rolling mean boulders, and screaming squalls. They must fight their way through, a pair of teenage Frost Giants impressed the party made it so far who the PCs can actually have an interaction and roleplay with that doesn’t necessarily end in violence ...as long as someone speaks Giant (along with the climbing gear this would be good to give the players a heads up when choosing languages) and they can be bargained with, before finally the facing the Swiss cheese Crevice of the Remorhaz, whose unstable terrain and big drops are as dangerous as the eponymous toothy-spiky-leggy fellows.
Whichever way they traverse through or over the mines, straight up or lugubriously round the Great glacier they come, the heroes finally make it to Part 7: The Lair of Torrfin the Bleak! But before we get into that there is a part of me that never wants anything to go to waste (although, nothing is ever wasted in TTRPGs because it can be used again somewhere else), which really wants to run all of this. You could easily have the mine either before, in between or after the first parts and combine the ascents in any order to really make your players feel every inch of those 280’. On the other hand, each separate area has enough flavour and goings on to stand on their own and can be used in a pinch or to use as a base for building on. Don’t end up using the mine? Well that’s a whole location, factions and storyline for another time!
Part 7: The Lair of Torrfin the Bleak
CW: Animal Carcasses, Bones, Tusks, Meat, Butcher, Slaughter PIT, Offal, Distressed/ Manhandled Animals. (Mammoth & Yeti), Alcohol (Drunken Frost Giant}
Finally, we’ve all made it to all the way to Jarl, and his monolithic, rickety ice-manner-come-giant-igloo of a hall! This raid leader has nothing but contempt for those weaker than he and his cohort. Unfortunately, this bitter warrior-king is as cold, hard and unyielding as the great glacier itself. It is unlikely that he could be sweet talked or intimidated and this brutal battle against the elements, Drangasjoll, those who plundered Lamastop and their minions was always likely to end with red snow.
But first the party must reach the Jarl’s hold. A random table of some fearsome foes, unique opportunities and the possibility of a crevice opening, as if Drangasjoll wants swallow these. trespassers, before they even step into the jarldom proper. When they do, they are presented with the Bone Yard. Carcasses, bones and ivory litter the floor and have been built into ramshackle fences
Getting into the hall is a predicament all of its own that’s bound to make the party feel small, but treasures and the very supplies Lamastop desperately need to survive the winter lay on the other side of the Giant) over-sized bizarre door... So too is the mighty Jarl, his right hand frosty folx, pet Manticore, and his impressive and bizarre hoard of valuables, mead and masonry (despite the floor being in decidedly poor condition), described so dastardly.
The throne room is full of raucous laughter, the prowling of Tscira, the Manticore, a ‘water feature’, which consists of a perilously cracking chasm to a mighty drop and a miasma of mephit mayhem just waiting to be unleashed of the ice breaks Walken screams in The Dead Zone. This brings us to the climax, Jarl Torrfin the Bleak, his two lieutenants and his pet Manticore ready to go at it for all the marbles. The warlord is no ordinary Frost Giant, weighing in at CR10 with an array of legendary actions and a magical axe, Freezing Bite, as well as his allies, the dangers of the chasm and the maddening must of mercurial mephits, this will be one hell of a showdown! I think it’s important TO mention I genuinely thought Freezing Bite was actually a bite attack the Jarl had...
Victory grants a varied trove of treasures, including an awesome and alarmingly creepy Flail of Remembrance, which comes with the curse of an imp following the bearer, whispering the final thoughts of all who have been slain by this horrifyingly cool item! Most importantly the supplies Lamastop so desperately need to survive the coming wintertide, returning as heroes!
The full statblocks with backstory, traits and gorgeous artwork are supplied for the four unique NPCs, including Jarl Torrfin, as well as statblocks for the unique Ice Troll and Baby Mammoth.
I found the tone and style of the writing to thoroughly enjoyable and engaging with a decent balance between information for the DM to parse in their own way and short, sweet and effective textboxes. The lore and world-building throughout is rich, deep and heady. I was instantly hooked and keen to learn more about this unique setting that is so fantastically I had to keep double checking these locations definitely weren’t on a wiki somewhere. Being written in this way means this fits in absolutely anywhere in any setting with a wee bit of a nip in the air, be it the northern stretches of the Sword Coast where this adventure works spectacularly with either Storm King’s Thunder, the upcoming Icewind Dale campaign or anywhere. Regardless of campaign or world this adventure is a small campaign in its own right and stands proudly towering over many adventures, official or otherwise, for quality and heart.
The Blizzard of Axe and Sword is presented in a completely beautiful and professional manner, from the frankly shockingly gorgeous “Bob Greyvenstein [cover illustrating] the terrible Frost Giant Chieftain, Jarl Torrfin the Bleak, launching an attack upon his enemies in the depth of a blizzard” to the stylish use of various stock art, while maintaining a clear vision and design. This includes stylish and delightfully stylised maps and wonderful NPC illustration with their statblocks at the back. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a beautiful merfolk before!
Something I would like to discuss is the Liver Eaters a mercenary group found in The Tower of Fallen Time in Part 2, who are a gang of traditionally bestial bugbears. So, bestial bugbears are...well a bugbear for me (which in this context is actually offensive, so I apologise with the flimsy excuse of wanting to mirror the phrase). I prefer my sapient ‘races’, monstrous or otherwise, to have a little more dignity and what I’m calling ‘humanoidisation’ than pooping where they guard. This also goes for the inclusion of Duregar having Svirfneblin slaves in the Ironhunter Mine in Part 4. Yes, the evilness of Duregar and the enslavement of Svirfneblin by the ‘more powerful races’ in the Underdark is canon, but there’s no way I’m going to be including it in my games. Thankfully these elements can either be avoided entirely or easily reworked if you are inclined. This is all part of an ongoing conversation about ‘race’, ancestry, whether certain creatures are merely monsters or a people in their own right, and what subjects are appropriate for you and all the potential people you may encounter at the table. I mention these things I am trying to be more mindful of them, especially the elements of the lore and adventures as written that I personally feel are problematic and want to avoid.
Let me be clear: I am stating my personal feelings and reaction to parts of the game lore and them being used in the adventure, and in the wider world of D&D and TTRPG. This is NOT a condemnation of this adventure or its creators, and I’m not casting aspersions at anyone. The themes and topics you play at your own table and put in your own games is entirely up to you. However, we do need to be cognizant of the problematic nature of the lore and presentation of ‘race’ at the heart this game, as well as the topics and themes that are, understandably, going to be difficult, triggering or simply take the fun out of what is supposed to be fun. This is a bloody sensational adventure and I would be gutted if a small element of it spoiled that awesomeness for anyone.
It is interesting to have something like this to critique in the otherwise absolute outpouring of love for the quality of this adventure, and will be something I try to more cognizant of and continue to discuss in future reviews.
Something at the heart of this adventure seems to have a true understanding of the hidden wonders, juxtapositions, and bizarre/ incongruous imagery that so many of the best roleplaying video games have. As I previously mentioned the hidden quest in the first chapter had me thinking about the Elder Scrolls games, particularly Fargoth’s Hiding Place from Morrowind at first, though Skyrim’s The Whispering Door might be more of a match. The seemingly strange discovery of the merfolk, Pelagia, and the optional quest of defeating the Sahuagin on the frozen wreck of the Bien Dara in return for the merfolk lending their aid later on has the feel of something from the less recent Final Fantasy games or even Kingdom Hearts with the slightly warped congruence of discovering a merfolk in an indoors fishing hole and tying this to an optional quest with further endgame reward for completion. This goes from the creepy wharf to the somewhat absurd/ adjacent to expectation (some elements, like aquatic folk being underwater. Yet adjacent, in a fishing hole in the house and there being a ‘fish-person’), and then to a deeper horror for just a moment and then once the bad folx are vanquished Pelagia pops up again and the ten merfolk spears are unlocked for the boss battle. While we’re on Final Fantasy, a great deal of the outside exploration in the middle chapters made me recall the Great Glacier from Final Fantasy VII with the obvious glacier and weather, but also the exploration and optional side quests. While in the mine with the Duregar and alarm system I couldn’t help but think about Metal Gear Solid. RPG and TTRPG are so similar, yet so different, (with Tactical Espionage Action being extremely dependant on party’s Rogues, Rangers and/ or those in heavy armour [sorry]) there are elements that are somewhat unique to each other, even if it’s just a vibe. The Blizzard of Axe and Snow brings these feelings into the adventure in a wonderful way, blending them with D&D. I think this is an awesome way to play about with tone and aspects associated with other media in other games.
In the end The Blizzard of Axe and Snow does what many of the best adventures do, which is to marry various attitudes and approaches; something old (the traditional dungeon crawl), the new (a video game mind-set and a fast flow), something borrowed (the overall quality draws heavily and in ways surpasses that of the official hardback campaign design, as well as the thoroughly entertaining and engaging voice of the text, in and out of text boxes), and something blue (Frost Giants, glaciers, tonnes of ice). There is truly something spectacular I’m noticing in a certain product like this and the upcoming Dragon Relics by JVCParry (@JVCParry) that tell a compelling and entertaining story well and provide a high quality, modern version of the ‘classic’ Dungeons & Dragons experience. There’s a place for the emerging, challenging and provocative work taking us down paths unknown, but there also a place for these new classics, and I. Am. Here. For. It!
I can’t wait to see more from Dark Peaks and this team!
Credits
Head Writer: Kieran Mathers (@TalesPeaks)
Development: Gemma Dass, Tom Hallam and Nadhirah Nadz, Owain James (proofreading).
Artists: Art used under the Community Content Agreement, Kieran Mathers, Dean Stockton, Adela Quiles, Dan Comerci, Shutterstock,
Graphic Design and layout: Tetracube (https://tetra-cube.com/dnd/dnd-statblock.html) for stat blocks, The Homebrewery, (https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/) for layout and text.
Playtesters: Gemma Dass, Claudia Emmanual, Kris Gottier, Tom Hallam and Nadhirah Nadz
My affiliate link for The Blizzard of Axe and Sword:
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/320765/THE-BLIZZARD-OF-AXE-AND-SWORD-A-TIER-TWO-ADVENTURE?affiliate_id=1507682
My affiliate link for The Blizzard of Axe and Sword in Whitefaire Bundle [BUNDLE]:
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/320767/The-Blizzard-of-Axe-and-Sword-in-Whitefaire-Bundle-BUNDLE?affiliate_id=1507682
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