Because Dragon of Icespire Peak was originally designed as a starter-set adventure for new Dungeon Masters, Cryovain’s presence is introduced with very little subtlety. The module wants players rolling dice and confronting danger almost immediately, so the threat of the young white dragon is established upfront through increasingly frequent sightings and attacks. As the adventure puts it, “sightings of the dragon are becoming more common, as are its attacks.”
But what if you’re an experienced DM who wants to slowly build tension toward a conflict with Cryovain? I happen to be one such DM. And, since I enjoy pulling characters and stories I love into my own game along the Triboar Trail, I thought it would be fun for the build-up to the Cryovain storyline to parallel the plot of the movie Jaws.
DoIP describes Cryovain as cruel and dim-witted; a brute easily baited. I’d say those traits put the white dragon on a level with a great white shark in terms of being a terrifying eating machine. That the color white is associated with both makes the comparison that much easier.
Was the great white shark in Jaws immediately known to the characters of the story in the film? Nope. The shark was slowly revealed to the community it terrorized through unsettling details that didn’t quite add up at first.
The disappearance of a swimmer and a fisherman.
A dead orca that washed up on the dunes in Amity Island.
Medical evidence on the corpse of the first victim that eventually washes ashore.
It wasn’t until Alex Kintner was attacked in front of an entire beach of sunbathers that the town elders all agreed a shark was preying upon swimmers in local waters. And even then – the local authorities identify, capture, and kill the wrong shark (a tiger shark).
It’s not until a marine biologist and a shark hunter both convince the Amity Island authorities the beach town has a real problem on its hands, and that they (along with the town sheriff) are the ones best suited to handle the problem. For a pile of cash, of course.
Well, what if we gave Dragon of Icespire Peak the same slow burn to Cryovain’s reveal?
We’d need some clues for the characters to puzzle on and piece together.
To do this, I’ve created a table of subtle clues that can be overheard at the Stonehill Inn. Consider adding the results to lore that the characters glean from the Phandalin Tales table wherever it makes sense to do so. Or, substitute in cases where you don’t like the result of the Phandalin Tales table instead!
| d6 | Overheard at the Stonehill Inn |
| 1 | Ander: “You heard about Abner? Haven’t seen him in town for a coupla tendays or so. They just found him dead by the creek where he’d staked his claim. Stiff as a board, frostbitten skin, and a beard full of ice – like he’d drowned in a winter stream. Folk say he must’ve taken sick or passed out drunk and died of exposure, but… it hasn’t been that cold.” |
| 2 | Narth: “I don’t care what the calendar says, there’s something peculiar about the weather. Lost a good patch of crops to frost last week. Frost! During Summertide?! Snort. I’ve lived here long enough to know when the weather is misbehaving.” |
| 3 | Big Al Kalazorn: “Lost three cows this month. No tracks. No blood. No mess. Just…gone. Wolves leave pieces. Goblins leave trails. It’s like they just flew off.” |
| 4 | Linen Graywind: “It’s said a merchant wagon making its way down the Miner’s Trail was found smashed to kindling the day before last. A grocer merchant, I’m told. Looks like we’ll need to do without salt, spices, preserves, and coffee for a bit. (Sigh) All the comforts that make life worth living in these parts. I wonder if it’s goblin raiding again, though I don’t recall them destroying wagons in the past.” |
| 5 | Lanar: “Laugh all you want, but I’m tellin’ you – Swallow Lake was frozen when I saw it a tenday ago. Solid enough to walk on, I tell you. NO, I wasn’t drunk. Well, not yet, anyway. So you shut your pie hole, Thistle. I’m tellin’ you. There’s something queer afoot! That lake don’t usually freeze till Deepwinter.” |
| 6 | Halia Thornton: “They’re saying there’s ice up in the Sword Mountains already. Thick sheets of it. Had a prospector into the Miner’s Exchange yesterday who says he saw trees in the foothills that were split clean apart from the cold. Mark me: winter’s coming early and it’s gonna be cold. ” |
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