Review: Karkolohk (Rime of the Frostmaiden)

When adventures for D&D release, it never takes long for superficial “The Nerd Crew”-like reviews to follow. Rime of the Frostmaiden is no different.

 

A few pay more than lip service to critical thought, such as the in-depth review over on The Alexandrian’s blog, and you should probably go read that.

 

For my own amusement, I’ll also throw in my two cents. Rather than reviewing the full 300+ pages of this module, however, I’ll be looking at the five that deal with Karkolohk, a mini-adventure in chapter 2 of the book.

 

The Nerd Crew thinks Rime of the Frostmaiden is “very cool”

The Bottom Line

Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden: Karkolohk is fine, I guess.

 

Karkolohk has good ideas. And it makes promises. But it also does the minimum to fulfill those promises.

 

There is a metallic egg in Karkolohk. It is not from this world. It is an alien artifact, dropped from the sky, frozen in the ice for years. It cannot be opened by nonmagical means. What extradimensional horrors await in this mysterious container?

 

oh…

Spellix Romwod is a Wangrod

Spellix Romwod a.k.a. Yarb-Gnock is a gnome disguised as a goblin who leads a horde of goblins based out of Karkolohk, a keep in the icy foothills of the Spine of the World. The adventure centers around him as players are sent to deal with the goblins and discover his secret identity. He took pity on the goblins but now he’s in trouble! Hilarity ensues.

 

Except that Spellix, described as chaotic neutral, is a complete psychopath. Here are some of his crimes against humanity:

 

• Dons a goblin-disguise to rescue his mates, then abandons them to be eaten. He “didn’t particularly like them anyway”.
• Raids caravans.
• Regularly hurls perceived traitors from the mountaintop.
• Keeps prisoners in dangling cages until they freeze to death.
• Literally eats people.

 

This stuff annoys me. It doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. “The guy who’s led these goblins in their many atrocities is actually a gnome, let’s help him escape!”

 

 

 

Is the art for goblins becoming more WoW as time goes by?

Things to do in Karkolohk

Here’s what I mean about unfulfilled promises: disregarding the fact that Spellix deserves to die like the goblin warlord he is (pretending to be), the idea of this guy being in over his head is cool. It invites shenanigans.

 

As written, however, one of three things happens:

 

• He gives the players a scroll that says “truce?” and sends them back home. Shortest adventure ever.
• He asks the players to save him and then there is a fight. With goblins who assume he’s being abducted. Who I guess don’t listen when he claims otherwise?
• He’s actually abducted or tells the goblins to stand down, and then there is a fight. With a goblin who secretly knew about his deception all along.

 

These all seem kind of uninspired? Of course, a DM can run the encounter any way they wish, but it’d be nice if the text supported that.

Things to see in Karkolohk

Here’s what I imagine Bryce would say: “this five-page adventure features a goblin fort with 13 rooms. It is light in interactivity, evocativeness, and specificity.”

 

As an example:

 

“K3: Two rickety wooden bridges loom over this area at heights of thirty feet and fifty feet, respectively. The higher bridge is missing a large section of its middle, and what remains of that structure doesn’t look safe.”

 

Two rickety bridges loom is more evocative than two wooden bridges span, but it’s not exactly getting my juices flowing with its wordsmithery. Likewise, when it comes to specificity, the text is quite specific when it comes to the height of these bridges (which could just be on the map) but fails at “show don’t tell”. Why are the bridges rickety, and why doesn’t the structure look safe? Describe the frayed ropes, the uneven and icy beams haphazardly bolted together with gaps large enough to slip through, the partially hammered-in spikes, brittle with frost. That kind of stuff.

 

As for interactivity, there’s no reason to either cross the bridge or force its collapse. Put some treasure up there, or goblins, or maybe in a feat of goblin engineering the bridge doubles as a support beam for a precariously leaning tower, top-heavy because, I dunno, there’s a full-blown ballista up there. Do you cross the dangerous bridge to use the weapon against its owners? Destroy it to topple the leaning tower?

 

“Two iron cages hang from beams that extend southeast off the lower bridge. One of the cages twirls on its heavy iron chain as a flurry of black-feathered ravens tear into the flesh of the desolate creature caged within.”

 

“A flurry of black-feathered ravens tearing into flesh” – good stuff. But then the creature is described as “desolate”. Why is it desolate? The DM-only text elaborates that the cage contains a “dead human”. Not much to go on there either. You can do more – illustrate the goblins’ cruelty by describing what the corpse is (or isn’t) wearing. Is it bound inside its cage? Are its hands frozen to the iron bars as from desperately pleading for mercy? Is it a knight? A trader? A child?

 

“Underneath the bridge is a worg with a rider on its back. The rider, swathed in cold weather clothing, appears to be a rather fat goblin.”

 

This rider is “rather fat” and has “cold weather clothing”. That is abstract. Why not use this word count to instead describe his goat-hide anorak (the animal’s skull servicing as a reinforced hood)?

 

Also: the words “appears to be” should have never made it past the editor’s desk.

 

Finally:

 

“North and west of the higher bridge, resting in the snow, are three large, wooden cages, currently empty.”

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Put a live polar bear in one!

Let’s be Clear Here: I Suck

When it comes to adventure writing, I’m an enthusiastic amateur. I’m pretty bad at it. And even if I wasn’t pretty bad, I’d be pretty bad at coming up with good stuff on the fly.

 

If you were to give me just the map for Karkolohk and tell me to improvise its contents, what I’d come up with is pretty much what you get from this module.

 

As an example, take a minute to imagine a goblin watchtower. It’s your home game and your players have walked off of the map and into a space you marked as “here be goblins”. Think about how you’d describe a generic goblin watchtower. Then read on:

 

“Each watchtower stands 20 feet tall and has a rickety wooden ladder leading to the top, where a thick column of smoke issues from a brazier that is kept lit at all times.

 

Four goblins dressed in cold weather clothing stand guard atop each tower. The rampart battlements grant them half cover against attacks from outside the fort. They are supposed to be looking outward for signs of trouble, but the goblins prefer to stand around the brazier for warmth. One goblin has a horn that it can blow to sound an alarm, putting the entire fortress on alert.

 

Since visitors aren’t welcome at Karkolohk, the goblins shoot arrows at any they see. A character who wants to sneak past a watchtower or climb its ladder undetected must succeed on a DC 9 Dexterity (Stealth) check. If multiple party members are attempting the same task, have them make a group check instead.”

 

Did these 152 words add anything to what you already had in mind? There are goblins on the towers. They can sound an alarm. And they shoot at people.

 

Gimme something! Tell me about these goblins to help me roleplay them when the party inevitably sneaks up on them. Give them a weird weapon to put a twist on the combat!

 

Ok, one last one:

 

“On a wide, snow-covered shelf, six conical tents fashioned from animal skins and bark draped over wood frames are arranged in a circle around a burning brazier.

 

Each hut is home to a goblin healer in cold weather clothing. Each one owns a healer’s kit. In addition, each healer has a pet mountain goat (see appendix C), from which it draws milk and which it can use as a mount. Each goat is usually tied to a post inside the healer’s hut.

 

The goblin healer in the easternmost hut is named Manafek. She also tells fortunes by studying patterns of raven’s blood spilled on the snow. She is wise enough to have seen through Chief Yarb-Gnock’s disguise and is contemplating whether to blackmail the rock gnome or expose him. She’s leaning toward the former, since she’s not sure the goblins will pick her as their new leader if Yarb-Gnock dies.”

 

This is better. Mountain goats are fun. And there’s a little bit of faction-play with the healer who’s on to the boss. But you still have to make up what a goblin healer does or looks like. Or what their tents are like from the inside. Or how they relate to the other goblins (politically and socially). Or even if they do anything interesting when it comes to a fight.

 

What I’m saying is, the adventure gives you easy generics, but not hard specifics.

 

And speaking of political and social relationships:

A Precariously Balanced Powderkeg and the Heroes are the Sparks

A good social adventure presents a stable but highly volatile situation. The status quo hangs on a thread with forces pushing and pulling at it from every direction. Examples are factions that are just balanced or plans that need just a little external push to come to fruition. NPCs that would love to X, if only it weren’t for Y, for which the players present a perfect solution.

 

The scenario here hints to that, with the “every day the goblins are getting closer to revealing Spellix’ secret” or the light faction-play with Manafek the healer, or the metallic egg in Spellix’ workshop, but none of those really go anywhere or need an external spark to set them off.

 

To wit:

• Spellix can just leave whenever he wants – he’s the chief!
• Manafek doesn’t need the players to blackmail (or expose) Spellix (having the players there is probably the worst time to do so).
• The metallic egg is the one thing that does require player intervention, but when opened is “just another enemy” that can be dispatched without changing the status quo.

 

What you’d need here is for Spellix to be under duress and have something prevent him from leaving, with the players being the only ones that can save him. Manafek should be in a similar position where she is prevented from acting upon the secret – thus requiring the players.

 

It would also help if Spellix wasn’t a complete psychopath and had goals that aligned with the players. Maybe he could still be trying to save his mates instead of having eaten them, or he’s been trying to temper the goblins’ bloodlust or using them for some greater good.

 

Which brings us back to the Eldritch Egg. I don’t have any ideas for the egg but it should at least:

 

• Have a significant risk/reward tradeoff.
• That is knowable to the players

 

For instance, a strong healing/empowering force that affects the players and Spellix but also all of the evil goblins in the camp. Or an eldritch horror that can be set loose as a distraction but will also turn the entire base into a horrific otherworldly nexus of dread.

 

And to reiterate, these are probably bad ideas, but that’s my whole point – that’s why I buy a book in the first place, to do better than “it’s a gibbering mouther”.

Final Thoughts

Rime of the Frostmaiden is fine. It has cool ideas, like metallic eggs from outer-space, but often they turn out to be just another enemy and that’s it.

 

Would Karkolohk be much worse if it were a full-page illustration with the caption “what if the goblin king… was actually a gnome in disguise”? Those five pages could be used to detail a separate mini-adventure about the Thing in the Ice.

 

They’ve got the art already