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Wilderness South of the Frostwall - Travel on the roads is relatively safe, at a typical pace of about 25 miles a day. Small bands of travelers, and mounted parties of a "knight", two "scouts", and six "guards" will be encountered daily patrolling the roads. At night, bandits and wolves are the primary menaces. If the parties get off the roads for two long, the grasslands become a more menacing place. Wolves, ogres, and orcish raiders will harass the party almost daily. At night, goblin warbands (2d10+10 goblins on foot, and 1d4+4 on worgs) will assail the camp. Travel on the road is safer.
1) Jarldom of Chernin - Site of the previous adventure, this is the last region with regular contact with the outside world. The journey onward follows the front of the Frostwall Range. It was here that the PC's were separated by a storm, but they will reunite at one of many flooded river fords. If the previous adventure was concluded satisfactorily, then Jarl Chernin will provide the PC's with a letter of introduction that will allow them to rest and replenish as honored guests at the next Jarldom. The trip is about 220 miles long along the roadway. This is roughly nine days of travel. Due to a sudden blizzard, the party was split up. Half took shelter in the Barrow of King Jotunr, without knowing it. The mound grave complex is located in the forests to the south of the roadway, about three days from Ostrbruk. The PC's will be able to reunite at a small settlement at a river ford. There, they will learn that the Hattelmatta Pass is blocked, as the Duke has sent forces from the south to force compliance by a rebellious Jarl. To make matters worse, the conflict has attracted opportunists who prey on the various locals - a wyvern and a troll have both been spotted in the last month, and a band of orcs is camped in the woods nearby, raiding as they are able. The orcs are supported by a pair of ogres, based on the witnesses. The little settlement is quite nervous about the whole thing.
2) - Hattelmatta, Gateway to the Northlands, Hall of Jarl Ostbrukr - This is the northernmost settlement in Frostwall that is still part of the Keller mainstream culture. Hattelmatta is alleged to be the site of a mythical event in the distant past, a battle to control the pass. This jarldom is split between a Keller landed nobility, and a Noladen majority of farmers and trappers. There is ample resentment towards the Keller, and the locals here will not be friendly. The Jarl will be glad for visitors from civilization, and may ask them for help in putting down a budding rebellion by capturing the Noladen ringleaders, as he is beset from many direction. This is the last place that the PC's will be able to purchase supplies till they reach the Dwarven settlement. Currently, the reigning Jarl is in a state of rebellion against the Duke of Frostwall, part of a larger irregular conflict between the Duke and his northern Jarls. Jarl Chernin was one of these as is Jarl Ostbrukr.
A ducal "army" is currently encamped on a hillside nearby, carrying out a sort of "not-siege", intended to prevent the jarls from cooperating. It consists of Sir Juhannis, a "banner knight" serving the Duke of Frostwall, his 3rd lvl wizard companion, two other knights, fifteen medium foot, and thirty archers. This blockade will attempt to prevent travelers from getting to Hattellmatta by roadway, and mounted patrols travel the countryside looking for people trying to evade the blockade. Periodically, warriors from Jarl Ostbrukr will ride out and battle with the blockade. If the PC's wish to continue through, they must either convince Sir Meterius that they will not interfere, or they must battle their way through. Either way, their progress has been marked and they will be escorted by the Jarl's men. If they fight their way through, Ostbrukr will know of it and assist them cheerfully. If they parley, he will require a service before passing through their land or selling them provisions. If they are insulting, he will bid them begone, and not warn them about the troll.
The service is that his lands are bedevilled by a troll called Ghorr-Dun, a loathsome giant of a beast that has taken lodgings in an old stone bridge... ironically the very path they wish to travel. The troll has learned to cake itself with mud if a fight, giving itself "resistance" to fire attacks for the first round of combat, after which the mud will have sloughed off or been burned off. The troll (1800XP) is a big one, maximum hit points, +1 to hit, and smart. It shows some Ogre ancestry, perhaps, and has accumulated a small amount of treasure already, which it keeps in a dug-out covered with a rock. This treasure includes a bag of eleven 100gp garnets and pearls, 400gp in gold and silver, and a "Mammoth Stone", which can be used to control and influence Mammoths, as "Animal Friendship" but only with Mammoths. When the stone is snapped in half, a Mammoth will appear, fight until slain or victorious, and then fade away. It is an ancient Noladen magic item, which was stolen from an old shaman and wound up here.
Once past Hattelmatta, the PC's are finally in the Northlands. The roadway remains a better option, though for the most part it is simply a slightly elevated and poorly maintained causeway through mountain passes, and across wide marshes of glacial runoff. Stone, moss, and lichen are everywhere. It will take a full week of travel, during which there will be little in the way of human contact. Each day of travel, roll for an encounter on the table below. Once each encounter has been defeated, it will not be encountered again.
1-10) Nothing Dangerous - Travelers, game animals, or even nothing at all.
11-13) Dangerous Animals - A polar bear, a pack of dire wolves, mostly mundane animals.
14-15) Day, Hill Giant/Night, Will-o-Wisps (2700XP) - Grox is a smarter than average giant, who has sorted out that he can charge a toll and get food with less work than fighting. he is joined by two ogres. Each party that passes is charged a toll of one meal; a horse, an ox, a person, Grox does not care. At night, this encounter will be with six Will-o-wisps, which will attempt to lure the PC's out onto the marshes.
16-19) Orcish Raiders (2100XP) - A tough orc band leader (orog stats), twelve orcs and an ogre along for fun ambush the party at a stand of woods, a mountain pass, or some other area with cover. they will throw javelins from cover, then close in.
20) Wyvern (2300XP) - A wyvern will circle in the sky above, or spot the PC's from a mountain perch. Either way, it will attempt to gain surprise and do a high speed pass.
PC'S PUNCHED THROUGH THE BLOCKADE WITHOUT ATTACKING THE SOUTHERNERS, DURING AN ATTACK BY HATTELMATA HORSE RAIDERS. THEY THEN FEASTED AS GUESTS OF THE JARL. AFTER DEPARTING, THEY BATTLED GHORR-DUN THE GIANT TROLL, WHO THEY AMBUSHED IN HIS SLEEP. THEY SET HIM ON FIRE AND STOLE HIS TREASURE, AND NOW HE HUNTS THEM. TWO DAYS OUT FROM PARKKILA, DURING A MODERATE SNOW, A WYVERN ATTACKED THE PARTY. SIR ARDEN'S WARHORSE WAS SLAIN BY THE POISON STING, BUT THE PARTY WAS ABLE TO DISPATCH THE BEAST OTHERWISE UNHARMED.
3) Parkkila, Dwarven Freehold - The PC's will encounter a patrol of four Dwarven warriors mounted on Dire Boars. Treat as "Thugs", AC-15 armor, and carrying lances and guns. They will be suspicious of the PC's initially, but if Dimzad is with them, the patrol will escort them to Parkkila. The surface settlement is a Noladen village, centered around hunting and raising goats. Village leadership is limited to a headman, as all of the villagers pay homage to the Dwarves who live under the mountain. They trade food in exchange for permission to live in the safety of a Dwarven freehold. Villagers also supply labor, in the form of a corvee slave labor system. This is the end of the line as far as cleared roads go, and anything further is strictly wilderness travel. However, the PC's will need to speak to the locals in order to get a guide, or at least get proper information on where they are going. Up a causeway and bridge to the side of the mountain is the entrance to the Dwarven freehold of Paran Kuhl, home to about a thousand dwarves under King Tuddik Greyforge. These dwarves are insular and somewhat behind the times, having little reason to trade with outsiders. They regard the humans in the valley below as part useful, part nuisance, like farm animals. The villagers will be interested in selling provisions to the humans, but they will be wary and deferential to Dimzad.
There is a hunter, Tarfen Farwalker (Scout 3) who has been to the glacier and lived. He saw a crevasse that appeared to have trees in it, but he was chased away by "snow apes" who lived on the mountain. For the price of a magic weapon, he is willing to take them to it and show them the path across the glacier. His wife will demand that he also take payment in gold coin. The journey is a hundred miles (four or five days) across the tundra, then upriver to a nameless glacier, then 150 miles up the river (several more days travel), then across a fifty mile glacier. It is a grueling trip to say the least.
There is also a gnomish artificer in Paran Kuhl, Molfin Boltgrind, who has a hot air balloon. If the PC's help him acquire what he needs, he will agree to transport them to the site. He has sending stones that can be used to call him for retrieval. His infernal engine, which powers his balloons, was lost when it crashed in the mountains to the south... the very same orcs that ambushed the PC's and their King Gnalurg, now have it. He uses it to maintain a luxurious temperature in his cave, and will not part with it easily. The PC's will have to be tough, clever, or both to attain their goal.
4) On the Tundra - In the north, everything is bigger and more dangerous. The game includes elks and mammoths, but just about everything is a "dire" version of whatever lives to the south. Large solitary predators claim most of the turf, including white dragons, trolls, and frost giants. Predators include "Winter Wolves", "Snow Cats" (sabertooths with winter breath), et cetera. There are no human settlements, no villages, nothing. If the PC's are really lucky, they may discover what appears to be a Noladen settlement, but it will actually be a Werebear camp. Rocky outcroppings are sought-after prizes, and most are inhabited by something, whether large predators or the odd humanoids.... ogres, giants, or even a few hardy orc tribes. If the PC's are really lucky, they will eventually make it to the slopes of Mt. Ridnitsokha, and from there finding the glacier will be simple. Actual ice fields are home to remorhaz, winter wolves, and worse. Even the environment will be hazardous; extreme cold, shifting ice, crevasses, all conspire to kill. Once they arrive, that is when things get weird.
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