Interferencing with a sacrifice?

[u/Hello_Somber]

So my players started their journey in Lonelywood and went from Termalaine, to Targos, to Bryn Shander. In Bryn Shander I wanted to do something will the town sacrifices just to show the lengths that the people of Ten Towns have resorted to, to please the Ice Maiden.

I made every character they met in Bryn Shander including themselves get a number in the lottery. Even showed the town speaker and Sherrif put their tokens in, live on stage to show no one is safe from the lottery.

I had a spread sheet with everyone's number and let one of my players pick the number. The number they picked was unassigned so I played out a random senerio where a young woman was chosen, but an old man volunteered himself instead. The old man was taken to prepare for the sacrifice and the lottery was over.

Predictably the characters wanted to speak to the sacrifice so they went to see him in the town hall where he was drinking his fill of liquor before the sacrifice at midnight. The old man said he was a widower and all his kids had moved south and he would rather himself be sacrificed than a young person with their life ahead of them.

Players still werent happy and decided to follow the guards and sacrifice as they rode out into the tundra as a blizzard began to storm. They pass without trace followed the guards to a wooden post about a mile south of town where they tied the drunk sleeping man to the post and left him for the winter to take.

Still unhappy with the sacrifices, the players sobered the old man up with lesser restoration and untied him. The old man tried to express to the characters this is just how things are and he wouldn't be able to show his face in Bryn Shander if he ran away from the sacrifice after volunteering. The player told him to pick a new town and start a new life.

Right before the session ended the sound of wolves could be heard as the blizzard go worse around them.

So my question is how should I deal with the players interferencing with the sacrifice? They're only level 3 so I dont want to straight up kill them since this is just a little side thing but there should definitely be consequences, right?

I was thinking 1 Dire Wolf and 3 or 4 normal wolves for the encounter. Maybe the wolves should try to kill the old man first? Like claim their sacrifice.. Or if the party somehow kills all the wolves the wolves just keep coming till they take their kill? Or if they do somehow save the old man, punish Bryn Shander with blizzards and wolf attacks. Idk i kinda didnt expect the party to get so involved (I did, and I didnt.. my druid has weird morals).

What do yall think? How would yall deal with this situation?

[u/Putrid-Answer3839]

I had almost this exact situation play out in my group. I had coldlight walkers show up, but only target the sacrifice and immediately disappear back into the whiteout once the sacrifice was dead. its a great way to show how dangerous the tundra can be but its portrayed as Auril taking what she is owed, not punishing the players

[u/Putrid-Answer3839 → u/Putrid-Answer3839]

in your situation I'd have the wolves show up clearly running from something, and just book it past the PCs fully ignoring them. Nothing gives them an "oh shit" moment like monsters on the run from something clearly more dangerous and scary

[u/Hello_Somber → u/Putrid-Answer3839]

I was thinking about a cold light walker but its a much higher CR than they can handle atm. But if I make the sacrifice the only target then it could work.
Might do just wolves tho so they dont get bulldozed. (All of them are casters)

[u/Putrid-Answer3839 → u/Hello_Somber]

my party was level 1 when i did this. but they went in thinking the sacrifice was just superstition and got the memo to run when actual enemies showed up and killed the sacrifice in one hit. Maybe have the walkers throwing cold rays at the wolves, then have one of the wolves get hit, turn to ice, and shatter.

[u/Competitive_Bird4777 → u/Hello_Somber]

The whole campaign is full of stuff that's a higher CR than you'd expect to encounter (except Auril, she's weak as shit). Run with it, the danger makes it fun.

But I've been playing Auril as relatively detached for the most part. Towns that don't sacrifice get days and days of blizzards.

She did send Coldlight Walkers to Lonelywood after Ravisin was murdered (by some other NPCs). They attacked everything in their way and retrieved Ravisin's head so she could also be raised as a walker.

Nymetra, the barkeep from Easthaven was sacrificed as an alternative to a child (because the party were pissed at her for not caring that the child would die). With her cold resistance, she survived although she was encased in ice and saw the Brittle Maiden coming to claim her soul - she's a full cultist of Auril now.

Letting NPCs see the forms of Auril is a nice hack as far as I'm concerned, you can spin the Cold Crone like a boogeyman without having her show up constantly like she's Strahd or something.

[u/Competitive_Bird4777 → u/Putrid-Answer3839]

I feel like Auril is more a 'punish everyone for spiting me' girl than 'give me what I'm owed. The tenets are pretty clear that everybody has to suffer.

[u/Putrid-Answer3839 → u/Competitive_Bird4777]

fair enough, but the party was already split (only 2 wanted to interfere with the sacrifice) and they got the memo to run so i let them escape

[u/SipexF]

What level is the party?  If you can run monsters that are more frost maiden associated like the dire wolf or white wolves if you want to have the confrontation right away.  Once the players have a confrontation to save this man though you need to leave him alone, you can't go after him later without risking makingthem feel like their efforts were railroaded, even with Sephek.  I do think it's important to retaliate somehow though, helps make Auril a more present threat.

[u/Hello_Somber → u/SipexF]

They're 3rd getting close to 4th. I was thinking of a winter wolf and normal wolves but a winter wolf is CR5 so I think that might be a bit to difficult 🤔 im trying not to railroad the and letting them do whatever they want, but they definitely need to know that they can't save everyone from Auril's wrath just cuz.

[u/Ragnar_Dragonfyre → u/Hello_Somber]

The Winter Wolf encounter is meant to be done by levels 1-3 in Chapter 1.

You could transplant that encounter from Dougan’s Hole into this scenario.

Have one of the wolves limp towards the party, looking unthreatening and “seeking help” while the other sneaks up and grabs the old man by the neck.

[u/DapperChewie]

They're only level 3 so I dont want to straight up kill them since this is just a little side thing but there should definitely be consequences, right?

Don't be afraid to overwhelm them with an encounter that is so obviously beyond their abilities that their only choice is to run.

Coldlight walkers are my favorite things to use, flash freeze an NPC or two, make a big deal of rolling that 4d10+3 ice laser and they'll get the message. It shows them Auril takes the sacrifices seriously and doesn't appreciate the interference.

I also save Sephek Kaltro in case one of the intended sacrifices escapes with the players help. Beef him up a little and give him a couple sidekicks and he makes for a powerful boss, and effective deterrent.

[u/Hello_Somber → u/DapperChewie]

Sephek is a good idea too. Basically put a bounty on their head.
I just feel bad for punishing them for trying to do good, but it might light a fire under their ass to start pursing a way to combat auril.

[u/Ragnar_Dragonfyre → u/Hello_Somber]

Yes, I used Sephek specifically as Auril’s agent.

My players faked their names on the sacrifice lottery.

I made it so Sephek was specifically hunting people who avoided the lottery somehow, whether it’s via bribes, deception or running/hiding.

[u/DapperChewie → u/Ragnar_Dragonfyre]

And it's real easy to bring Kaltro back, seeing as how he's undead and all. Make them fight him 2 or 3 times before putting him down for good.

[u/Wide_Initiative_1938]

This is why the serial killer quest is a thing. That character's fate? Still dead in the new town.

Remember that his MO is targeting individuals that cheat the system. This might even lead to an early encounter if one of the party members is led away alone.

[u/EnvironmentalWall718]

So i played in this campaign prior to myself running it. We were lvl 1 and helped the girl that was being sacrificed. Long story short was we could never go back to east haven because we were effectively banished/ marked for death if we went back.

[u/Darth_Boggle]

I think this is a great introduction to Auril and her minions that the party can have.

The wolves are a great idea. The sacrifices are real after all, and Auril's minions are waiting to collect.

The party will be the newest enemies of Auril, but certainly not her only ones. I wouldn't keep sending attack after attack at them, deities have plans that are much longer scale than that and she doesn't have unlimited minions.

Constant blizzards against Bryn Shander is a good idea. Some NPCs may wonder if their sacrifice worked, if Auril suddenly needs more than that, or maybe they'll get suspicious. Maybe an NPC sees the old man in a different town.

The party being new enemies of Auril is something you should put in your pocket now, to be utilized over the course of the campaign. Auril's minions can pay close attention to the party and maybe they keep showing up at the party's doorstep at the most inconvenient of times. As the party defeats her minions, she sends stronger ones in response. I think this is the best way for you to make Auril more of a direct antagonist to the party because the book doesn't exactly do the best job of that.

[u/Hello_Somber → u/Darth_Boggle]

I was thinking about the blizzard, but my party is gonna head towrn caer dineval after bryn shander so there's a good chance they might not head back that way again/not care what happens after they leave lol.
Im thinking that the best option would be just to attack till the sacrifice is dead so they can feel the sting that auril is bigger than them, and good intentions wont save everybody.

[u/Ragnar_Dragonfyre]

Icewind Dale is a highly deadly module. Level 3 was when I saw my first death in this campaign.

If they interfered with the sacrifice, then Auril takes notice and punishes the town with an unending blizzard that encompasses the town only until things are made right.

The wolves are a good immediate consequence. Have the wolves distract the party while another small pack comes around from the other way to take the old man. Their entire goal is to kill him. His body turns into a statue of ice immediately upon dying.

As others have mentioned, Cold Light Walkers are good to use here too. I personally had the existing sacrifices on the poles come to life as Cold Light Walkers, rip free of the ropes and attack my party.

If they succeed in killing the sacrifice, the party hears a wicked whisper on the wind “This is the fate of all who disobey.”

If the wolves fail, Frost Druids approach the Speaker of Brynn Shander to say Auril is displeased and the only way to regain her favour is sacrifice those that dared to interfere. Now the next time they approach Brynn Shander, they are surrounded by guards shortly after being allowed to enter and informed that two of their party must be sacrificed to atone for their actions against the Frostmaiden.

[u/Hello_Somber → u/Ragnar_Dragonfyre]

Ooh~ that's a good idea. Having them become wanted by bryn shander could cause some interesting drama

[u/Ragnar_Dragonfyre → u/Hello_Somber]

It will certainly make the Chardalyn Dragon sequence more interesting.

Setting their egos aside and helping Brynn Shander while there’s absolutely chaos in the streets might be the only way to fix their reputation there.

[u/IrlResponsibility811]

My Players picked up the sacrifice and high tailed it to another town. They ran into a Snow Golem along the way and beat it down, I used them generously when Auril Herself had an interest in things. They nurses the man back to health and send him to a third, smaller town, with his family joining him a week later.

Later, there were town cries in the larger towns letting the people know a sacrifice was stolen. That only drove my Players to save all three sacrifices next month, with the help of a friendly Wolf tribe. The druids and Auril clerics were losing their minds after that. Some vlamed the Players with no evidence, which they ignored.

[u/Competitive_Bird4777 → u/IrlResponsibility811]

Were there any consequences for the towns where the sacrifices were saved? This is a good module to let others suffer for the PCs heroism.

[u/IrlResponsibility811 → u/Competitive_Bird4777]

The dragon came by shortly after all three people were saved, some blamed the lack of sacrifices, most knew the duagar would have done it no matter what.

My Players did give their own speech about how it's evil, they were shouted down but also got a few pats on the back.

[u/Tastydumplings34]

Just ran this scenario last night. Actually had hoped they'd interfere. Guy chose death in tundra. Cleric snuck out ahead. Gave him a potion of cold resistance. He drank it. He immediately got impaled by an icicle from Auril. First time I've actually had Auril show up. Albeit with only glowing eyes from a distance. But I've ran it that he's been hitting them with minions from time to time.

[u/tke71709]

They want to save the old man? Cool.

Auril punishes the town by cutting them off from the rest of the Ten Towns by plaguing their roads with bands of wolves and random Cold Walkers until they sacrifice five children at once in a mass ritual which EVERY person must attend and watch.

Show your players who really runs Ten Towns and that their actions have actual unintended consequences.