Wilderness Survival & Travel

Compared to the last campaign, there will be a lot more attention paid to the day-to-day, and hour-to-hour actions that keep you alive in this extreme environment.  The following rules come into play as the characters explore Ten-Towns and embark on adventures to the icy, windy, hellishly cold reaches of Icewind Dale. 

Extreme Cold

Temperatures. During Auril’s everlasting winter, the average temperature in Icewind Dale is −49 degrees Fahrenheit. Wind chill can lower these temperatures by as much as 80 degrees.

• A character exposed to the cold must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw at the end of each hour or gain one level of exhaustion.

• Characters succeed this roll automatically if they have resistance to cold damage.

• Characters succeed this roll automatically if they are active and wearing cold weather clothing 1, OR are inside of a winter bedroll 2 AND A) in a tent or B) have a campfire burning (requires hourly or magical maintenance).

1A set of cold weather clothing is 5 pounds of woolen goods or hides, and furs, including a hat or hood, goggles, and fur-lined leather boots and gloves. For an added 3 pounds of layers, you can substitute this as “Padded Armor” resulting in AC11+DEX modifier and disadvantage on Stealth.  As it consists of multiple layers, you can layer down and be comfortable indoors.  (i.e. Common clothes are not required). 

Cold weather clothing must be worn in addition to other armor, the exception being Cold Weather Hide Armor (20 pounds).  

2A winter bedroll is a 10 pound monstrosity consisting of a bedroll plus blanket.

Frigid Water

• A character can be immersed in frigid water for a number of minutes equal to its CON score before suffering any ill effects. 

• Each additional minute spent in frigid water requires the creature to succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or gain one level of exhaustion. 

• Following submersion, the character must take 30 - (CON score) minutes to warm up and change clothing.  A sufficient heat source will reduce this by 10 minutes.  If they do not take this time, or if dry clothing is not available, they will continue to suffer exhaustion per extreme cold rules.

• Only characters with resistance or immunity to cold damage automatically succeed on the saving throw. Even so, magic has its limits. These characters must begin warming up after 1 hour of being submerged.

Exhaustion

Level Effect

1 Disadvantage on ability checks

2 Speed halved

3 Disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws

4 Hit point maximum halved

5 Speed reduced to 0 (Unconscious)

6 Death

A short rest is needed to dispel exhaustion levels 1-3, long rest to dispel levels 4 or 5.

Avalanches

Awareness of avalanche conditions and spotting potential loaded slab can be done as far as a mile away on a successful DC10 nature check.  Loud noises cannot trigger a potential avalanche slab to fall.

An avalanche is 1d4x100 feet wide and 200 feet long (20,000 - 80,000 square feet). In an avalanche encounter, the zone will be centered 1d4x100’ from the lead or rear character. The elevation it starts at will vary due to geography and the DMs whim. Creatures in the path of an avalanche can try to avoid it or escape it if they’re close to its edge and running perpendicular to the avalanche direction. Avalanches cannot be outrun unless by magical means.  

When an avalanche occurs:

All nearby creatures must roll initiative.

• Twice each round, on initiative counts 10 and 0, the avalanche travels 100 feet, increasing 100 feet each round to a maximum speed of 600 feet per round ( ~70 mph) 

  • E.g. Round 1: (100, then 100 feet) 200, Round 2 (200, then 200) 400, continuing for Rounds 3 through 6, for a maximum (though unlikely) distance of 3000 feet.

• The avalanche will come to a stop after 1d6 rounds or if geography would reasonably impede its movement.

• Any character in its space moves along with it and falls prone.

• The character hit must make a DC 15 STR or DEX saving throw for each round they are caught in an avalanche.

  • Failed: 1d6 bludgeoning damage from impact of snow and debris per 1000 feet of movement

  • Successful: half damage

When an avalanche stops:

• A successful Acrobatics or Athletics check of DC 19 means the character managed to stay towards the top of the snow, is only partially buried, and can dig themselves out within 5 minutes.  They still suffer damage described above.

• Failure means they are buried, blinded, restrained and have total cover. 

• The character gains one level of exhaustion for every 5 minutes spent buried in the snow, for the first 30 minutes.  

• Magical means of escape is the likeliest option for self-rescue.

• While concious, a character can try to self-rescue as an action with a successful DC 20 Strength (Athletics) check, once per round, DC increasing by 1 for each round. 

Attempt/

Exhaustion

Level Buried in Avalanche for Effect

1/0 5 min.         …

2/1 10 min. All further attempts are at Disadvantage

3/2 15min. …

4/3 20 min. …

5/4 25 min.      Hit point maximum halved

-/5 30 min. Unconsciousness, HP at 0

-/5 35 min. …

-/5 40 min. …

-/6 45 min. Death

Rescue

• Rescuers need only concern themselves with the termination of the slide zone (same as initial length and width, or 20,000 - 80,000 square feet.)

• One rescuer that is not restrained or incapacitated can spend five minutes to frantically search 10,000 square feet of the slide zone, and if a victim is found, dig them out. (Provided the victim is conscious and yelling for help.) Two rescuers could cover 20,000 square feet or dig out a victim in 2.5 minutes, and so on.  

• The chance of a victim being within any 10,000 square foot area is relative to the total square feet and total number of victims.  E.g. If two victims are buried in a 300’ x 200’ (60,000 square foot) slide zone. The chance of a single rescuer finding a victim in the first 5 minutes is 2-in-6, then increases to 2-in-5 at 10 minutes, and so on. 

Weather

Blizzards

• Visibility in a blizzard is 30’

• Hearing is limited to 100’

• Disadvantage on ranged weapon attack rolls.

• The wind extinguishes open flames, disperses fog, erases tracks, and makes flying by non-magical means nearly impossible. 

• Creatures without goggles or other eye protection have disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight due to blowing snow.

Traveling in Blizzards

• Parties designate one party member as the navigator

• At the end of each hour of travel, the DM makes a DC 15 Wisdom (Survival) check on behalf of the navigator. 

  • Successful: the party stays on course. 

  • Failed by <5: the party wanders off course and make zero progress toward destination

  • Failed by >5: If the party members aren’t tied together or traveling hand-to-shoulder, one randomly determined party member becomes lost in the blizzard and separated from the others. Traveling hand-to-shoulder decreases speed by -5 of the slowest-moving party member.

• To reunite with its missing member, navigator and party member make a DC 15 Wisdom (Survival) group check at the end of each hour.

  • Successful: the missing party member is found, but no progress is made toward reaching the group’s intended destination that hour. 

  • The group check can be repeated after each hour spent searching for the missing party member.

Hailstorms

 A character caught out in the open during a hailstorm may suffer damage from being pelted by the rock-like clumps of ice, but a well-prepared or well-armored character can often avoid any difficulties. A character who is wearing armor can avoid damage entirely by taking the simple precaution of squatting or rolling into a ball and covering their head. (Of course, this makes the character a much easier target to hit in a combat situation.) A character can also protect himself by squatting or rolling into a ball and covering himself with a large shield. Partial or total protection may be afforded by draping a large skin or canvas over a couple of handy tree branches and taking refuge beneath this makeshift tent. Other means of protection may be devised. A character who is not suitably protected has a 50% chance of suffering damage on a round-by-round basis, depending on the type of armor he is wearing and the size of the hailstones: 

Type of Armor Size of Hailstones

Small (up to ½) Medium (up to 1 ½ )    Large (over 1 ½)

No Armor 1d4 1d6 1d8

Light Armor 1d4-1 1d6-1 1d8-1

Medium Armor 1d4-2 1d4 1d6

Rations

Absent magic, each character will have to eat a full, standard two pounds of dried rations per day in order to heal fully during rests.  Alternatively, 3 pounds of fresh food can be used.  

In this environment, the staples of foraging (fruits, nuts, berries) are limited, but there are other options (Moss, spruce tips, sap).  Foraging in Icewind Dale is DC20 Survival (advantage may apply). The benefits of the extreme cold are that you won’t have to worry about spoilage of fresh food or finding a water source.

• Characters can go 2 plus CON modifier days without eating, 1 day without water.

• For each day without food, characters experience one level of exhaustion.  Hunger exhaustion is not dispelled with rest, only food.  

• For each day without food, characters subtract 10% of the hit points regenerated over short and long rests.  

Fishing for Knucklehead Trout

Without knucklehead trout, there would be no Ten-Towns. Except for Bryn Shander, each of the ten towns is built on the shore of one of the three lakes where knuckle- head trout swim, surrounding the mountain of Kelvin’s Cairn. The largest population is in Maer Dualdon, the deepest of the lakes. 

Ten-Towns fishing boats are generally simple affairs. The smallest are one-masted skiffs, which are rowed as often as oared—not least because the harsh winds of the dale can capsize such small craft. The large and wily knucklehead trout can’t easily be caught in nets, and reeling such a strong fish in on a line is a significant undertaking—one more reason why cooperation is essential to survival in Icewind Dale. The sight of a knucklehead jumping and thrashing on the end of a fisher’s line can be entertaining, but it also represents real danger. Incautious fishers who fall overboard can die before the rest of the crew can get them out of the frigid water. 

Small thermal vents at the bottom of these lakes keep them from freezing completely, even in the coldest winters. When thick ice covers the lakes, most fishermen would stay to the shelters of their homes and hearths, but the most dedicated or desperate cut holes in the ice and dangle their lines down in hopes of tempting hungry trout. Now with the everlasting frost, fishermen have no choice but brave the cold.  

• To fish for knucklehead trout (50-70 pounds) on the lakes of Icewind Dale, a character can rent a boat or fish on the ice, in which case a saw or similar tool is needed to cut a fishing hole.

• At the end of each hour spent fishing on the lake, the character must make a DC 15 Survival check. 

  • A failed check indicates no fish is caught during that hour. 

  • If the check succeeds, the character hooks a knucklehead trout and must make an Athletics check contested by the fish’s Strength (+2) check to pull it out of the water.  

  • The trout (STR 14) has advantage on its check. 

  • If the character fails the check, the trout escapes. A character who fails the check by 5 or more must succeed on a DC 10 DEX saving throw or be pulled into the frigid water.  A failed DEX saving throw means the character was able to let go of the pole before being pulled in and is now without a pole.  

Illumination

So long as the Everlasting Rime lasts, natural light in Icewind Dale is never brighter than dim. In normal (non-blizzard) conditions, twilight extends from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Icewind Dale is otherwise dark until Auril’s aurora or the full moon appears in the night

Overland Travel

The speed that characters can travel across Icewind Dale’s rough, snowy tundra is given in the Overland Travel table. Travel is less time-consuming on the snowy roads and trails that connect the settlements of Ten-Towns.  

1 Mountain travel by dogsled is slow. It’s full of stopping, unpacking and repacking the sled, clearing the path, lifting dogs over obstacles and untangling ganglines.  More dogs do not increase mountain travel distance rate.

2  8 hours of travel by dogsled requires a four-hour rest in the middle, making a full day of travel 12 hours.

Dogsleds

Handling 3-7 dogs requires animal handling proficiency. Handling 8 or more dogs (16 max) requires animal handling expertise. Maximum speed occurs with 10 or more dogs at 1/7/8.

A simple, empty sled (room for one rider and 10 cubic feet of gear) and mushing tackle weigh 100 pounds and sells for average price of 50 gp.  Dale sleds are simple and relatively lightweight.  Sled dogs can pull 300 pound on their own at a strained pace for a short distance.  However, while ganglined, at full speed for longer durations, they are limited to 100 pounds.  

Carrying capacity 

2 dogs =  100 pounds (2 dogs X 100 pounds each, minus weight of sled and tackle)

3 dogs =  300

4 dogs =  400…etc.

Dale sled dogs (average current price is 60 gp) appear to have more wolf in them than domestic dog, but they're (usually) quite safe to handlers and passersby.  They have have been bred over the centuries for the rare combination of size, strength, and endurance.  On average, males weigh 150 pounds and females, 125. Dale sled dogs can mush for four hours, pulling 150 pounds, before requiring four hours rest with food and liquid water.  Dogs will experience exhaustion at one level per hour, starting at hour 5.  Starting at hour 5, 1 dog per hour will no longer be able to run and will need to ride on the sled or be abandoned.  Clearing exhaustion status requires rest equal to running time.  

1 dog requires 4 pounds per day of a mixture of raw meat and lard. This can generally be purchased in the Ten Towns for 1sp/pound in 20 or 50 pound sacks. High-fat game meat can be substituted.  It is a well-known fact that sled dogs will not eat Yeti meat.   

Dale Sled Dog stats:

AC:12, HP: 8 (2d6+1), Move 70 (special)

STR: 10(+0), DEX 14(+2), CON 15(+2), INT(-4), CHA 6(-2) 

Axebeaks

Axebeaks are stubborn and nasty and never have the wild completely trained out of them. A mature axebeak stands 9 feet tall and weighs as much as 500 pounds. Dale-bred axe beak’s plumage is usually white.  Axebeaks have lifespans of up to 50 years.

Handling axebeaks requires regular animal handling proficiency checks (DC10). 

Behavior rating (BR) of an axebeak is listed as 1-4 (general cost 100-140 gp respectively, plus 40 pound exotic saddle for 75gp ) Behavior rating (BR) can be assessed with animal handling DC12. The rating refers to the frequency of these checks (e.g. BR1=once an hour, BR4=once every 4 hours).

On BR check failure, roll 1d4.   

1= Nips at rider, half bite damage (+2 to hit, 1d4+1 dmg) 

2= Bucks rider, STR vs rider DEX, or fall off and land prone.  Axebeak will run away and require (40 - animal handling roll) minutes to find and coax back. 

3= Sits down and refuses to move any further.  Requires (25 - animal handling roll) minutes to get moving again.  

4= Looks at its rider with a heart-breaking glare of disapproval. 

An additional DC10 animal handling check is required any time two axe beaks cross paths. If this fails, as social creatures, axe beaks will stop what they’re doing and greet one another (series of loud, snorting sniffs and rubbing necks together). Traveling with two or more axe beaks within 100 feet of each other is inadvisable. 

Axe Beaks and can carry 420 pounds. They will not carry over this limit, even for short distances. It is not in their nature to drag anything and they will refuse to move if hooked to weight by a pulling harness of any nature, no matter how well-trained. Mature axe beaks require 8 pounds of raw meat (any) per day. Given four hours, they will scavenge for themselves, finding burrowing marmots and other delectable creatures. As scavengers, they are fine eating decayed meat and offal.  

Horses

Horses are less popular than Axe Beaks in the Dale for one reason: Food. Horses require 30 pounds of roughage per day. During the short summers (when they existed) horses could graze on short grasses, but during winters, options for pasture are nonexistent. Riders must pack or otherwise have access to 30 pounds of hay and other roughage per day of travel, taking up 1 cubic foot of space.  Since it can no longer be grown in the Dale, and with trade cut-off, hay is becoming more and more expensive as the supply dwindles.  The current price is 1gp/30lbs.

Riding horses are available throughout the Dale.  Pack and draft horses are more difficult to come by.  Draft horses may be available in logging camps, but as they’re incredibly valuable for pulling log sledges, they won’t be parted with easily.

Using multiple horses pulling a sleigh does increase the load limit, but not speed. Sleighs require Vehicles: Land proficiency. Troikas, the fastest way to travel the Eastway (Bryn Shander to Easthaven in half an hour!) requires three specially-trained horses and Vehicles: Land Proficiency expertise and packed roads.    

Both axe beaks and sled dogs become erratic during combat and do not have any mounted combat advantages.  

Standard Transportation Prices

Prices listed below are base prices in the Ten Towns and will not match PHB.

Icewind Dale Transportation Base Prices:

Dogsled and Ganglines:                50 gp

Sled dog:                                        60 gp

Sled dog food:                               1 sp/pound, 20 or 50-pound bags

Axebeak BR 1                                100 gp

Axebeak BR 2                               110 gp

Axebeak BR 3                               120 gp

Axebeak BR 4 (rare)                      130 gp

Axebeak Exotic Saddle                 75 gp

Riding Horse                                    90 gp

Draft Horse                                      80 gp

Pack Saddle                                      7 gp

Saddle Bags                                       5 gp

Troika*                                              75 gp

Cargo Sledge**                                125 gp

Stabling 1gp/day

Dog Yard Kenneling 1sp/day/dog

*Requires Vehicles:Land proficiency.  Weighs 200 pounds.  Includes bench for 2 and 2x4’ cargo area OR additional bench for 2.

**Requires Vehicles:Land proficiency.  Weighs 500 pounds, Includes bench for 2 and 5x8’ cargo space

Mountain Travel

Navigating the Spine of the World or the slopes of Kelvin’s Cairn is particularly arduous because of the unforgiving mountain terrain. At the end of each hour, the character or NPC leading the expedition must make a DC 15 Wisdom (Survival) check. On a successful check, the hour’s journey was not hindered by weather or terrain. On a failed check, the party comes to an impasse and must backtrack, which costs an extra hour of travel.