The Coming of Winter contains three OSR adventures set in the cold reaches of the Dragonback Mountains. The adventures are located near a town called Coppercore, known for its rich copper mines. Primarily inhabited by humans, there is also a dwarf quarter, while numerous beast clans known as the Verloren roam the expansive wilderness.
The adventures are modular and can be used separately or together and easily inserted into any GM’s campaign setting that has a snowy mountain wilderness for D&D 1E/2E games. The adventures have been written, edited (2/3 finished), and currently going through layout mode and finishing art pieces, which may change the approximate page numbers below.
You can join our pre-launch page here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mercilessmerchants/the-coming-of-winter
Ice Needles of the Cryoptera
Eons ago, in a battle of the gods, the Sun God, Ardennor cast down the God of the Cryopteras, Gwerendok, from the heavens, entombing the ice devil inside an amber prison, deep within a mountain. A shrine to Ardennor was built to guard the imprisonment of the devil, but in the harsh and unrelenting wilds of the Dragonback Mountains, the priests and denizens eventually perished, and the shrine became forgotten behind a frozen waterfall for hundreds of years.
A variety of adventure hooks send the party through snowy mountainous terrain to a massive frozen waterfall. The frozen waterfall has been chosen by the cold-dwelling insect race, the cryoptera, as a suitable location for three of their elders to attempt their fifth metamorphic stage. Elders who are successful are elevated to almost demi-god status among their race! While waiting, their pupas have dug deeper tunnels inside the mountain, accidently discovering their entombed god, Gwerendok! The cryoptera hold a fervent hope that their awakened elders will be powerful enough to release their god upon the world where they can pillage all resources and thrive. Enter, the adventurers.…
An expanded adventure from Patreon in 2017, Ice Needles of the Cryoptera includes:
- Original art by ScorpyDesign and Del Teigeler
- 3 maps: (Waterfall Base, Shrine of Ardennor, Upper Waterfall Cave)
- Approx. 35 pages
Winter’s Grasp
Lady Attya, a druidess, bursts through the tavern doors, calling for help and urges heroes to quickly follow bloody tracks into the snow-laden mountains and forests in search of her niece, Tonya. She claims Tonya was abducted by a hairy, monstrous creature! Wintery skies threaten to bury the tracks in snow if not followed immediately….Time is running out!
But it is well known that ravenous worgs and humanoids prowl the lower forests this time of year for food and resources as well as the different clans of the rough Verloren and even monstrous man-eating giants! Tall tales and boasts have grown suddenly quiet as nervous looks spread across the cozy inn. Who will stand and answer the call to take on this daunting task..?
Winter’s Grasp is an adventure through the wilds of the Dragonback Mountains that ends up with a lowish level party facing the likes of a frost giant to save a girl and possibly explore a cave lair that houses an old burial mound of the Verloren Cave Bear Clan. Will the party use their wits and apply trickery? Negotiate? Use stealth? Or bravely (foolishly?) attack a frost giant in its own lair?!
- Eric Hunt provides the art in this adventure as well as the cover for The Coming of Winter.
- 2 maps (Worg Den, Frost Giant Lair)
- Approx. 12 pages
Winter’s Blight
Various adventure hooks lead PCs to a glacier that has eroded the mountain valley, exposing a cave entrance resembling a mountain tiger’s open maw. Most believe the entrance leads to one of the numerous Verloren clan burial mounds in the area. Its discovery is ripe for those brave enough to face its guards and wards for looting, or to protect the burial for the Mountain Tiger Clan. In either case, the locals also believe it’s become a new lair for a bloodthirsty group of ice trolls who have recently terrorized the roads and nearby human settlements. The locals express whatever the adventures find can be theirs….but of course, they don’t speak for the Mountain Tiger Clan.
An expanded adventure from Patreon in 2017 known as the ‘The Ice Troll Cave’, Winter’s Blight includes:
- Art by Del Teigeler
- 3 maps: (Ice Troll Lair, Ice Troll Floating Iceberg dungeon, Smilodon Tomb)
- Approx. 26 pages
The Coming of Winter Package:
- All adventures are organized with bullet points and bolding for ease of scanning while playing at the table.
- Wilderness map of the region
- 6 New Monsters including the cryoptera, banngeists, and the monstrous glyptonia!
- 7 New Spells, most with a snow/ice theme.
- 15+ New Magic Items
Our Kickstarter launches Nov. 13th, 2023. Thanks for your consideration and support, hope to see you there!!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mercilessmerchants/the-coming-of-winter
The Merciless Merchants 
Sounds very good. I’ll be interested to see how you handle the environmental aspects. And I like a scenario which supports a variety of approaches.
Merciless Merchants materials are high quality, but don’t always seem to get the Kickstarter numbers they deserve. You may have to dip your toe into the world of podcasts. Perhaps the guys who are running a series with EOTB, Melan, Prince and Zherbus?
Heya Shuffling Wombat, well we did just begin to live stream our adventures. That should either help or hinder our numbers. It’s a little rough, but it’s coming along. We’re on our 4th session Nov 22. Check it out if you have a chance.
Cheers
Jonbar
As I write, you are nearly there on the Kickstarter, so well done. Naturally I have backed (and picked up Slyth Hive).
3 hours is quite a listening investment, so you might need to lure people in with a shorter piece, say half an hour or so of your current group discussing what sort of modules they like and why. And make sure you advertise Merciless Merchant products. Red Prophet Rises is the “Conan (1982 film with Arnie) inspired adventure that TSR never wrote”; the Zontani Sea adventures cover the neglected area of island hopping voyages; Kellerin;s Rumble fills the gap of exciting city based adventure, and is akin to dealing with a Bond villain’s lair; Peril in Olden Wood is a delightful take on (dark) fairy tale.
Right you Mr. Wombat, a 3-4 hour time commitment to watch other people play is uh, asking a bit much. Eventually we’ll be actually running our released module, the Coming of Winter being primed for that. But yes we’ll be doing some advertisement for our other material and some shout outs to other proprietors. We just need to get our numbers up. As for pod casting that’s certainly something to work toward., So much to do so little time. Seems all my time now is trying to stay a session or two ahead of my players, and helping with the COW release…
Thank you for your support and words or wisdom!
Saw your post in the “hidden” section of TenFootPole, and I will attempt to be more helpful.
(i) The sort of topic that might make for a good podcast is what type of adventures you (both of you) like and why. It strikes me that Merciless Merchants is a bit like TSR UK, in that you take underutilised areas in the game (e.g. for TSR UK waterborne, underwater, non-combat, artifacts, sages, airborne) and write interesting adventures for them. No Artpunk I could
make for good back and forth: there is excellent variety, from Trent’s Gygaxian contribution, to sword and sorcery, to good 2E (which does exist), to homages to C1 and S4, to the Hungarian school of Melan, etc. And whenever you have guests on a podcast, it is natural to ask them if they have any forthcoming works.
(ii) Friends dropping the odd post at Tenfootpole shouldn’t be a problem. Readers of that blog do buy new modules.
(iii) Shadowdark was lightning in a bottle. Someone who is (i) extremely nice;
(ii) had a sizable 5E following and had written good material for it; (iii) had an excellent marketing consultant and is splendid at communicating, wrote a OSR/5E hybrid that would be fairly easy to pick up for defecting 5E players. And last January, the OGL fiasco provided an army of willing recruits.
Hey Shuffling Wombat!
–I haven’t been invited to a Podcast (and don’t have a desire to start one)–but the names you mentioned are cool dudes in my book (although I haven’t met Zherbus yet). I disagree slightly on the TSR UK comment. I remember reading those adventures as a teenager and something was ‘missing.’ for me (just my opinion) I should re-read them, but you are right in some aspects. Anyone can write a goblin dungeon adventure–how can it be different? What are some different aspects that make it different? I know that’s what I strive for. IMO a published adventure should have ‘something’ that goes the extra mile or that is not as simple as just a goblin cave. People should get their money’s worth on something new or unexpected–this is one reason why we add in new magic items…monsters..and/or spells.
Shadowdark—do you NOT think that I am extremely nice??! hmmm? 🙂
I think Prince could introduce you. I get the feeling Podcasters are on the lookout for interesting guests.
Of course you are extremely nice. But Kelsey managed to launch a successful charm offensive amongst the grognards, simply by being herself. Check out Tenkar’s Tavern on YouTube, for example.