Surviving /fighting cold

A special thanks to my friends that helped me in building this

first work, especially to Giancarlo Borracci, alias Vodacce and
his blog

weather
http://cronachedelgattosulfuoco.altervista.org/blog/

Many thanks for the illustrations to:

Brave adventurers cannot succumb to ice and wind just
because they don't wear the right clothes or use right
equipment! A small list of utilities for ice or cold
campaigns.
This PDF contains some short rules created to give
some importance to the effects of cold weather during
an extended campaing in such environement, as long as
an equipment list and advices for players and DM
alike.
Alvaro Cabrera for some icons (from
https://thenounproject.com )
David Revoy for the cover (rielaborated a bit for fitting the cover
page http://www.davidrevoy.com )
Tazio Bettin ( https://spacefriend-t.deviantart.com/ )
Valentn Moser for Skullcave drawing
(https://valentinmoser.deviantart.com/ )
Amphitaman for Waldgeist drawing
(https://amphitaman.deviantart.com/)

Tileset pages...................... 2
Summary............................ 4
The crawling death............ 5
A strange corpse................ 6
There's something up here! 8
A questioning homunculus 9
The walking weeds........... 11
Stone guardians................ 12
Handouts.......................... 15
License agreement........... 16

Credits:

Fast Encounters: Natural cave denizes!

Surviving cold and wet Finally, every night the PC's need some shelter: a cold climate
tent, yurta or a shelter built with survival skills, plus a heavy
sleeping bag and some form of fire.
climate. Failing at any one of these elements, will make any PC not
regain recovery dices for the day, while if you miss two or three
of those things, makes you loose also one or two recovery dice
Weather can be more dangerous than any monster found in the from your current pool, so if a PC not have enough food and
wild, cold and wet can reduce any adventurer into a clay lump with misses shelter for the night, he won't recover any dice and will
fatigue, disease, and maybe kill easily even the hardened warrior, if also loose one of those he still have; if he didn't have proper
they do not pose attention to the environement and their equipment. clothing too, he will also loose another recovery dice; recoveries
are lost usually when the PC wakes up, while dice lost for cold
Cold weather is not just a bit of pain, cold can freeze you still, if are regained as normal, and if the PC's have proper equipment,
you're lucky you may loose just some fingers or a foot or hand, normal rules for recovery dices applies.
ears, or nose, just because you was not protected enough or if you
sweat and perspiration freezes inside your clothes, and if you fall If at any moment the PC does not have any recovery die in the
into a lake or river, you can freeze yourself like a fish at the market pool but have to loose one, he will takes 1d6 cold damage
in a matter of minutes, no more than five; a naked human can resist instead, for every recovery he should loose. These hit points are
not much into the snow, maybe an hour or two, and without proper not recovered normally, until the player won't recover ALL the
dressing is hard to stay alive for the night. recovery dice he have, thou magical healing in form of spells or
potions do work.
While playing the game, anyway, is better to not put too much
emphasys into the cold climate, but instead just put some Any PC with even a single point of damage described above,
descriptions here and there, and eventually take into account the have some form of freezing damage: cold freeze bodily
moments in wich the PC's can find in danger because of the extremities first, as the blood flows inside the body to keep it
climate, like if they have to go over a frozen river, or when making warm, so ears, nose and all the fingers are the first parts to suffer
camp for the night. In these situations the players may find that cold damage.
is an enemy as anyone else, and surviving in harsh places is hard or Until all the damage took by someone is healed up, he cannot
even impossible without proper preparation. apply his proficiency bonus in any activity, and in fact the
proficiency bonus drops to zero.
As a DM, you should anyway remember the players that they may
have to move into an area in wich the climate is cold, and they have PC's that have some form of cold resistance do not suffer from
to buy the right things to survive. any form of damage or recovery die loss as described above.

Ruling the cold into the game

Extreme situations, extreme dangers
In this paragraph i'll show a few simple rules to make alive the
harsh elements that may put in danger the PC's. If the cold weather is a long term danger, and can resisted to
some extents, there are situations in wich ones is jus fighing for
I didn't wanted a rule that needed a lot of bookeeping or weird stats death: falling into a frozen body of water, beign swept by an
and bonuses to check for, and beign cold climate something that avalanche or surprised by a thunderstorm, or worse by a blizzard,
affects mostly the tireness of those affected by, and ultimately even cannot be overcomed by just a bit of training, but endurance,
damage him. preparedness and a lot of luck are needed.

Every PC's that want to survive for more than a few days into the
cold should bring with himself at least something to eat, heavy
Falling into water and cold rain.
clothing, and should have a form of shelter for the night.
Moving over a frozen surface is already hard and dangerous, but
falling inside a frozen or snow-covered river or lake is another
Normal rations are not enough for a humanoid in cold climate, the
matter entirely: everyone falling in such cold water is drained
need for calories makes anyone eat at least double than normal, or
from bodily heat at a surprising rate, so for any round he's inside
should buy rations from the list below. Heavy clothing should cover
the water, he may take 1d6 cold damage that follows the same
the head, body, legs and feet at least: fur or wool clothing is good,
rules as the chapter before, if he fails a Constitution saving throw
leather armor is not, while wearing layers of normal clothing is not
against DC 15, so those damage do not heal normally and the
enough.
proficiency bonus will drop to zero if any damage is taken.

Fast Encounters: Natural cave denizes!


Supposing the PC will survive this ordeal and gets out of the water,
he will still be wet, and will take 1d6 cold damage every hour, until
he is dried up and heated by a hot source, like a campfire for
example.
Cold rain is another danger like this one, and anyone standing
under 0° celsius while raining will take 1d6 cold damage for every
hour the condition remains, still following the cold damage as
previous entries, if he fails a Constitution check at DC 15.
Surviving a blizzard.
Walking in snow-covered terrain may be dangerous, as snow
covers any hazard like holes, rocks, trees and crevices, and
there's no way except magical means to be safe in doing that, but
a survival check at DC 20 may help to find a large crevice or a
large area danger; high snow (over 2 feet height) makes hard to
move and the terrain is considered difficult.
Ice sheets are very hard to navigate: moving over them is both
difficult terrain and may require a Dexterity check at DC 15 to
stay on feet, if there's no way to keep balance or cling to
something around, but anyone can move at full speed if moving
on all four, even if anyone moving like this is considered prone.

A blizzard is entirely another thing, and can cause damages nearly Generally speaking, any sheet of ice of at least 3 inches can
similar to those of a white dragon breath. A blizzard is a snow sustain the weight of any humanoid in a 5x5 feet area, while 6
storm with poor visibility and high wind speed (over 30 knots), that inches can sustain a large creature and not break.
last long (over four hours) and with a perceived temperature of
under -25° celsius. A blizzard can drop the temperature even under Ice may be terribly sharp, and a broken ice shard can cut like a
-60°, this will freeze any exposed part nearly instantly. razor. Ice dropping from any height do 3d6 cold and slashing
damage for every 10 feet he falls, a saving throw against
To survive a blizzard, is imperative to find any form of shelter and Dexterity against DC 12 may halves the damage.
wait to the wind drops, or else magical equipment is needed.
If a PC is caught inside a blizzard, he will suffer the same effect as Metal armors and weapons in cold temperatures may be
per falling into water, plus inside the storm the visibility drops to dangerous, as the live skin adhere to such cold surfaces and may
and under 400 meters (making easily to fall inside crevices and cause serious damage. Coating metal surfaces with animal fat or
holes and surely loose orientation), and moving inside the storm is clothing is enough to prevent such damage.
treated like difficult terrain.
Sunburns/snowblindness
Surviving an avalanche.
Beign submerged by snow, for an avalanche of by dropping inside
it, is very dangerous. If caught by an avalance, the worst thing is
that it's impossible to guess our direction, so trying to dig out by
themselves may ends up in going to the wrong direction. While
submerged by snow, heat from the body starts to be absorbed pretty
fast: every ten minutes inside the snow inflicts 1d6 cold damage
with same rules as before.

Avalanches then have another very bad effect: air reservoir is

limited to some minutes: 3d10+10 minutes of air is a good guess
for any such situation, while if a character starts to dig out or
compact the snow around him, he can get enough air to stay alive
for few hours, probably 1d3 hours more.

Other hazards and useful info

It may prove hard to light a fire into a snow-covered area, it's
advisable to take firewood with the standard equipment, and use it
to supplement wood gathered in the wild. If any PC tries to light a
fire in bad weather, a Survival check against DC 15 is advisable, if
it's raining a lot or there's strong wind, the DC raises to 20.

Fast Encounters: Natural cave denizes!

 Cold weather equipment

Weapons

Weapon Cost Damage Weight Properties

Belaying pin 5 cp 1d3 bludgeoning 1 lb. Light
Gaff/hook 5 sp 1d4 bludgeoning 2 lb. Special
Goad 1 sp 2d4 bludgeoning/ piercing 5 lb. Two-handed
Harpoon 5 sp 1d6 piercing 4 lb. Thrown (30/60), versatile (1d8)
Ice pick 3 gp 1d6 piercing 2 lb. Finesse
Luqu 3 sp 1d8 piercing 3 lb. Reach, Thrown (20/40)
Snow blade (iuak) 2 gp 1d6 slashing 3 lb. Versatile (d18)
Ulu 1 gp 1d4 slashing 1 lb. Finesse
Simple ranged weapons
Atl-atl 5 sp 1d10 piercing 3 lb. Thrown (60/120), two-handed
Bola 2 sp 1d4 bludgeoning 3 lb. Thrown (30/60), special

Descrizione armi lorem ipsum Item Cost Weight

Adventuring gear

Item Cost Weight

Backpack, large 5 gp 8 lb.
Firewood 5 cp 10 lb.
Matchsticks (10x) 5 cp -
Pot of fat 1 sp 1 lb.
Rations, cold climate (1 day) 2 gp 1 lb.
Sleeping bag 5 gp 10 lb.
Snow goggles 3 sp -
Arrows (20)
- stone 5 sp 2 lb.
- bone 5 sp 1 lb.
- bone, barbed 1 gp 1 lb.
5 sp 1 lb.
- blunt
Blowgun needles (50)
- bone, barbed 1 gp 1 lb.
Clothing
Gaiters 5 cp 1 lb.
Garnache 8 sp 2 lb.
Cloak (wool or fur) 1 gp 2 lb.
Fur boots 5 sp 1 lb.

Fast Encounters: Natural cave denizes!


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