Drink Talk Roll Extended #27: Are We There Yeti?

Better late that never, I guess. I’m back from my trip to Japan and here to talk about the last episode of Drink Talk Roll.

Session Recap

At the end of the previous episode, the party had finally arrived at the Rotti Islands but instead of the early summer tropical islands they were expecting, the party instead found more of a winter wonderland. Now-Captain of the Leaping Lemure Ren sent the party plus their new “fifth member” Genji out to scout the islands. Despite protestations from some members of the party, Captain Ren pointed out that this was technically part of the agreement that had come to with the late Captain Alex so to the island they went.

After marching through the snow for a mile or two, the party came upon a mountain. At the urging of the rest of the party, Sirocco cast detect magic to try and find the source of the magic causing this unnatural cold. Instead, he finds a few sources of conjuration magic lying under the snow. Wiping it away, he finds a hand sticking out of the snow. It quickly grabs him and holds him down in the snow. Amra swoops in to help and yanks Sirocco out of the snow. As that happens, the creature lurking beneath the snow reveals itself. Looking just like the kobolds that Jedah and Khorr found on the Earth Plane but made out of snow, it’s a Snowbold and it brought some friends along.  

Combat breaks almost immediately as Amra tries to destroy the first Snowbold but it and its friends move in a deal some serious damage to the party. They seem to be resistant to most normal weaponry but with the fire damage from Amra’s crane sword and its empowered form plus a well-placed spirit guardians from Sirocco, the party is able to turn kill them before anything too serious happens…except for the ferocious roar that erupts from somewhere up the mountain almost immediately after killing the last Snowbold.  

Travelling up the mountain towards that sound because that’s what heroes do, the party eventually finds a cave. From inside, a fire goliath calls out to them. He’s hanging from the ceiling but the party is able to get him down with a few well-placed attacks on the ice around his feet. He introduces himself as Rogo, a local from a nearby town who was kidnapped by a giant creature and he’s so happy that the party has apparently slain it. The party has no idea what creature he’s talking about but Rogo also explains his understanding of the situation currently affecting the islands:

A few weeks before meeting the party, a silver-haired man with a giant sword showed up and asked to be taken to the leader of the islands and looking for a group of four men and one woman. The people of Goro’s village pointed him towards the big island where the capital Emberfell sits on the edge of Mt. Lohi. Afterwards, the man departed and the mysterious cold came over the islands.  He’s not entirely certain that man is responsibly but it seems to be everyone’s current theory for the strange weather.

As the party tries to exit the cave with Rogo, the monster Rogo had thought dead suddenly appears from the snowstorm. It’s a yeti and not just an average size one but an abominable yeti. With its increases strength and speed as well as its cold breath, the yeti is able to tear through the party nearly taking out Sirocco but a shot through the heart from Jedah is able to take it down. They loot its cave and Amra tries to take its horns as a trophy but his harvesting skills still need work.

With the yeti taken care of, the part heads down the mountain and parts ways with Rogo as he heads back to his village and they had back to the ship. Khorr gives Rogo a little figure made of a bit of solidified yeti soul to show his people that the monster is dead. Rogo thanks him for that and heads home.  

Back on the ship, Captain Ren tells everyone to set course for Emberfell. After about a day of sailing through the icy waters, they reach the area just off the island and the party is once again sent to scout the island. The party follows the view of Mt. Lohi to the city and finds that everything has mostly ground to a halt due to the weather. Some are trying their best to survive for many, that isn’t enough. Khorr decides to go hunting and is able to find a large enough deer to provide people with food. He takes it to a butcher to have it cut up and rationed off to the people of the city.  

While this is happening, the part is also gathering information on the mysterious man who may be the cause of all these problems and it finally clicks who this person might be: Darius. When he had last seen them, they were still traveling with Talliyah and had just dropped off the Robin sisters so they would have been four men and a woman. As a servant of the Winter Court, he could probably pull something like this off given enough time or power from his patron.

The party enters the palace and finds that even the insides are covered in snow and ice. In the audience chamber, they find a small army of Snowbolds guarding an old woman.  The quickly discern that she is at least partly responsible for the weather and Amra moves to strike her. After realizing that would be a terrible idea, he decides to just teleport in front of her and denounces her.  Afterwards, Darius himself teleports in and that’s where the session ended.

Monsters Manually

This episode was another instance of modifying monster stats on the fly for both of the combats. I had actually created a full stat block for the Snowbolds the last time I ran this campaign but somehow, I lost it between campaigns. I should be able to dig it up and if I do, I’ll have Manuel upload it along with this article. I did however remember basing it on the Swolebold from one of the Kobold Press monster books for 5E so in a pinch, I just grabbed the stat block for that and the original token I used and improvised. Thinking on my feet, I decided that as a magical construct made of snow, Snowbolds were probably resistant to nonmagical sources of damage but in return, they would be weak to fire damage since it would cause snow to melt. I also gave them some other magical, ice-related powers like being able to collapse and reform out of snow and an ice blast based on a young white dragon’s similar ability. Modifying the abominable yeti was much simpler. All I did was give it 3 Legendary Actions for it to use outside of its turn so that it could move around and attack the party instead of just standing there and getting wailed on by the party after it had taken its turn.  

Sometimes, it’s just switching out damage types to fit the theming like a flare hag I designed that used the basics of the bheur hag but swapped all of the ice spells and abilities for equivalent fire ones. My advice for adding an ability from another creature would be to use something from around the same CR level and/or consulting the Dungeon Master’s Guide or equivalent for your preferred system to see what it has to say about the effect adding an ability has on a creature’s difficulty. After gaining enough experience, you’ll be able to do this more easily on the fly.  Honestly, I don’t think I’m there yet but I think I’m still doing a good job.

Well, that’s the end of it for this week. After taking a week off for my trip, we’ll be back next week. Until then, keep on rolling.

-J.D.