Nature Spirits

Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden Starting Quest

This is the second of two quests designed to kick off the adventure. It prompts the characters to explore the various locales in Ten-Towns, where they can pick up other quests.
At the start of this quest, the characters are approached by a young spellcaster named Dannika Graysteel. A new resident of Ten-Towns, she’s trying to find a way to alter the climate in Icewind Dale. She hires them to locate and capture a chwinga, several of which she believes are located in and around Ten-Towns. Although she provides the characters with a magical means to locate chwingas, it’s up to them to figure out a way to capture one or convince it to help Dannika with her experiments.

Getting the Quest

A bundled-up figure walks briskly up to you. “Well met! You lot seem like you’re looking for work. Or trouble. You wouldn’t be standing around in this cold otherwise.”

The speaker is Dannika Graysteel (lawful neutral half-elf acolyte), a scholar who thinks that wee elemental spirits known as chwingas might be the key to improving Icewind Dale’s climate. Since chwingas are known to inhabit Ten-Towns and have some ability to alter their natural surroundings, Dannika thinks she can learn a lot by studying one up close. For the characters’ services, Dannika is offering the group 25 gp as well as a Lantern of Tracking (Elementals) that can help locate chwingas. She says she’ll be at the local tavern each evening, so the characters should have no trouble finding her once the job is completed. If the characters accept her quest, Dannika gives them her lantern and explains how it works. She then tells them she’s been looking all over town and hasn’t found any chwingas. She suggests the characters might have better luck in one of the other settlements. She could continue the search herself, but she’s nervous about venturing out into the extreme cold and has other research-related chores to attend to.

Elusive Elementals

There are no chwingas in the adventurers’ starting town, but each time they visit another town in Icewind Dale, there’s a cumulative 25 percent chance of chwingas being present. Searching a town for chwingas doesn’t take long if the characters use the Lantern of Tracking, since the towns are small and compact.
If the characters ask the residents of a town about chwinga sightings, people seem dismissive of the notion of elementals living among them. The occasional fisher reeking of dwarven ale might recall seeing “a tiny figure riding a fox through town” but can’t remember where or when the sighting occurred.

Thieves in the Wind

When the characters find a town that has chwingas living in or near it, the flame in the Lantern of Tracking (Elementals) turns green as they approach the edge of town, whereupon they spot a bundled-up figure—a human commoner named Elva—stomping out of a snow-covered cottage. Upon seeing the adventurers, she starts yelling at the wind and warning the characters to watch out for the curses it brings. According to Elva, trickster spirits have been opening her windows, sending horrible chills through her home, and knocking over her cups and plates. Some of her cutlery has even gone missing.
Characters who inspect the windows of Elva’s cottage can make a DC 10 Intelligence (Investigation) check. On a success, they find wee tracks leading away from a snowy windowsill of the cottage toward a nearby thicket. A character who succeeds on a DC 14 Wisdom (Survival) check can discern three individual sets of tiny footprints. Some of the footprints have a thin furrow in the snow alongside them, as if something was being dragged behind the creatures.

Playing House

By following the tracks, a character with a passive Wisdom (Perception) score of 13 or higher can pick up the sound of movement from behind the conifers, where three chwingas are playing atop the snow in a clearing. A dinner plate with branches and pinecones arrayed on it is placed between them, and one chwinga is sitting at the edge of the plate while the two others are moving a fork and a knife as if to cut and eat the “food.” When the characters enter the clearing, the chwingas look up at them with interest. The one not holding a piece of cutlery starts moving its hands, mimicking eating while looking up at the characters and making welcoming gestures.
If a character indulges in the game of pretend that is being played out, such as by sitting down and joining the dinner, the chwingas become excited and start inspecting the character in detail. After this, the chwinga that wasn’t holding any cutlery begins following the character, remaining with that individual for up to a tenday, leaving the other chwingas behind. When the chwinga finally parts company with the character, assuming it has been well treated, it bestows a supernatural charm upon the character (see “Supernatural Gifts” in the Dungeon Master’s Guide for more information).
The chwingas remain docile unless a character acts aggressively toward them, whereupon they try to hide in nearby rocks, plants, or snowdrifts. They won’t come out until they no longer feel threatened by the humanoids in their presence. Clever players might devise creative ways to lure the chwingas out of hiding, perhaps by doing something odd to gain their attention (such as engaging in a snowball fight or dancing in the snow). As the DM, you determine the success of such efforts.

Concluding the Quest

If the characters return with a live chwinga, Dannika pays their promised reward of 25 gp, and they get to keep the Lantern of Tracking. If the characters brought a chwinga back without having to restrain or harm it, Dannika provides them with an additional 25 gp for their outstanding service.