❄️ Old Man Winter ❄️
The malevolent, elemental personification of a killing winter. He is not merely a force of nature, but a hungry, ancient entity that revels in the suffering and slow death brought by the bitter cold. He appears as a towering, skeletal figure wrapped in tattered, snow-laden furs, his eyes two burning blue-white points of frost, and his breath a visible plume of freezing mist.
Entity Type
Elemental Horror (Ancient/Wight-kin)
Deadly Sin
Gluttony (He is never satisfied, always hungry for the heat, life, and hope of mortals, seeking to consume the entire world in a single, endless winter).
Attributes
| Attribute | Score (Modifier) | Notes |
| Muscle (MUS) | 18 (+3) | Immense, supernatural strength. |
| Brains (BRN) | 10 (0) | Instinctive, not intellectual. |
| Wits (WIT) | 16 (+2) | Ancient cunning, highly reactive. |
| Agility (AGL) | 14 (+1) | Surprisingly swift for his size. |
| Toughness (TOU) | 20 (+4) | Near-indestructible, elemental body. |
| Magnetism (MAG) | 3 (-3) | Utterly repellant, terrifying. |
| Sex-appeal (SEX) | 3 (-3) | Frozen, lifeless, and horrific. |
Vital Statistics
Health (HP): 40 (Supernatural Resilience)
Defense (DEF): 16 (Toughness + Armor/Size)
Speed: 30 ft. (plus Blizzard Form movement)
Fear Factor (TN for Fear Checks): 18
Sanity Loss (Per Encounter): $1d6 / 1d4$ (on failure/success)
Skills
| Skill | Level | Notes |
| Intimidate | +5 | Uses his terrifying presence and cold. |
| Survival (Winter) | +10 | Master of his domain. |
| Melee (Claw/Staff) | +5 | Devastating, bone-chilling strikes. |
| Stealth | +3 | Can move silently through snow/blizzard. |
Special Attacks & Abilities
Touch of Wasting Cold (Melee Attack): +5 to hit, $3d6 + MUS$ Cold Damage. The target is immediately afflicted with Freezing Exposure (see below). On a critical hit, the victim must make a TOU Check (TN 15) or suffer a broken limb/frostbitten appendage.
The Winter's Breath (Area Attack): Old Man Winter can exhale a cone (15 ft.) of supernatural, sub-zero air. All targets in the cone must make an AGL Check (TN 14) or take $2d6$ Cold Damage and be Frozen (immobile for 1 round). Even on a success, the target takes half damage.
Freezing Exposure (Condition): Any creature that takes Cold Damage from Old Man Winter or ends a turn within 5ft of him suffers 1 level of Exposure. Each level imposes a cumulative -1 penalty on all Attribute rolls, Skill checks, and Defense. Levels can only be removed by magical heat or non-magical, extreme heat (a bonfire/fireplace does not suffice). Exposure levels persist until removed.
Blizzard Form (Movement/Defense): As a full-round action, Old Man Winter can transform into a whirlwind of snow and biting wind. In this form, he is immune to non-magical damage and can move up to 60 ft., passing through cracks and under doors like a draft. Any creature he passes through takes $1d6$ Cold Damage and is afflicted with Freezing Exposure. He must return to his physical form to make a physical attack.
Immunity: Cold, Poison, Disease, Non-magical Projectiles (Due to thick, icy hide/elemental form).
Vulnerability: Fire/Heat (Takes an extra $1d6$ damage from any fire or heat source).
Tactics & Weaknesses
Old Man Winter is a creature of endurance and attrition. He rarely charges in, preferring to stalk his prey, using his Blizzard Form to harass and apply Freezing Exposure until the characters' penalties become overwhelming. He will then solidify to deliver devastating physical attacks against the weakest or most exposed party member.
Preferred Domain: Blizzards, deep wilderness, abandoned cabins, or any location where the cold is extreme and help is impossibly far away.
Strategic Weakness: He will avoid open flames and is susceptible to being trapped by magical heat or intense heat sources that can bypass his elemental nature. The loss of a powerful, ancient artifact that contains his 'heart' (a frozen piece of a dying god) would instantly reduce his stats and remove the Blizzard Form ability.
Plot Hooks and Clues for Old Man Winter
Here are some ideas to integrate the Old Man Winter NPC into your Wretched Darkness campaign, focusing on slow-burn horror and existential dread.
Environmental Hazard: The Breathless Void
This hazard represents the deepest, most dangerous effect of Old Man Winter's presence, typically found in the epicenter of his influence (e.g., the location of Plot Hook 1 or 2).
Hazard Name: The Breathless Void (TN 16)
This is a localized field of hyper-cold, unnatural air that has been supernaturally drained of all latent warmth and life energy, often appearing as an unsettlingly still patch of air within a blizzard.
Effect
Any creature entering or starting its turn within the Breathless Void must immediately contend with two combined deadly effects:
Life-Sapping Cold: The creature automatically suffers 2 levels of Freezing Exposure (cumulative -2 penalty to all checks and Defense). Standard cold-weather gear is nullified within this area.
Sudden Asphyxiation: The entity drains the heat from the air itself. The creature must make a Toughness (TOU) Check (TN 16) at the start of its turn.
Success: The creature holds its breath or resists the shock; it takes $1d4$ Cold Damage.
Failure: The creature involuntarily gasps; it takes $2d6$ Cold Damage and suffers the Asphyxiated condition (cannot speak, must spend next action struggling for breath, and loses its reaction).
Duration & Intensity
The Breathless Void typically occupies a 10-foot radius and remains until Old Man Winter moves it (as a full-round action, he can reposition it up to 30 ft.) or until he is successfully injured by a source of magical fire/heat.
If Old Man Winter chooses to use his The Winter's Breath attack from within the Breathless Void, the damage dice for that attack are increased by one step (e.g., $2d6$ becomes $2d8$).
Mitigation/Counter
Heat Source: A powerful, sustained source of magical fire (e.g., a high-level fire spell, or a continuous item of immense heat) placed directly into the Void can momentarily break the vacuum. This forces Old Man Winter to use his next turn to re-establish the Void or suffer a mild burn ($1d4$ Fire damage).
Insulation (Extreme): Characters wearing extremely rare, magically insulated gear (like the hides of a Fire Drake or armor enchanted specifically against elemental cold) may gain Advantage on the TOU Check against Asphyxiation, but still suffer the Freezing Exposure.
Minion: Shard Golem (Frost-Wrought Construct)
The Shard Golem is a lesser elemental bound by Old Man Winter to serve as an advance scout and sentinel. It is formed from frozen mist, compacted snow, and razor-sharp slivers of ice, given malevolent, temporary life by the elemental's deep cold.
Entity Type
Elemental Construct (Lesser)
Deadly Sin
Envy (It despises the warmth and mobility of living creatures).
Attributes
| Attribute | Score (Modifier) | Notes |
| Muscle (MUS) | 14 (+1) | Strong enough to shatter bone. |
| Brains (BRN) | 8 (-1) | Simple, instinctual programing. |
| Wits (WIT) | 12 (0) | Adequate reaction time. |
| Agility (AGL) | 15 (+2) | Moves with unsettling, brittle grace. |
| Toughness (TOU) | 16 (+2) | Resilient, held together by magic cold. |
| Magnetism (MAG) | 5 (-2) | Horrific and unnatural. |
| Sex-appeal (SEX) | 5 (-2) | Chillingly unsettling. |
Vital Statistics
Health (HP): 20 (Brittle Structure)
Defense (DEF): 14 (Toughness + Armor/Size)
Speed: 30 ft.
Fear Factor (TN for Fear Checks): 12
Sanity Loss (Per Encounter): $1d4 / 1$ (on failure/success)
Skills
| Skill | Level | Notes |
| Melee (Slam/Shards) | +3 | Uses its icy bulk or sharp limbs. |
| Stealth | +5 | Excellent camouflage in snow and storms. |
| Survival (Winter) | +4 | Part of the environment. |
Special Attacks & Abilities
Shattering Strike (Melee Attack): +3 to hit, $2d6 + MUS$ Piercing/Cold Damage. On a successful hit, the target suffers 1 level of Freezing Exposure (cumulative -1 penalty to all rolls, see Old Man Winter's stats).
Camouflage in the Storm: The Shard Golem has Advantage on all Stealth checks when operating in a snowy or foggy environment. If it is motionless in heavy snow, it is considered Invisible.
Brittle Shrapnel (Reaction): When the Shard Golem is destroyed (reduced to 0 HP) by a physical attack, its icy body explodes in sharp fragments. All creatures within 5 feet must make an AGL Check (TN 12) or take $1d4$ Piercing Damage.
Immunity: Cold, Poison, Disease, Mind-Affecting Effects (as it is an unliving construct).
Vulnerability: Fire/Heat (Takes an extra $1d6$ damage from any fire or heat source). When exposed to continuous, intense heat (e.g., spending a full turn adjacent to a bonfire), it takes $1d4$ damage as its structure melts.
Tactics & Role
Shard Golems are used to ambush isolated prey. They prefer to strike and retreat, relying on their Stealth and the slow drain of Freezing Exposure to soften targets for Old Man Winter. They often hide on high ledges or behind snowdrifts, only moving when the PCs are distracted or separated. They are expendable and fight until destroyed.
Artifact: The Sunstone of Ifrit's Tear
This artifact is a relic of ancient desert cultures, imbued with the imprisoned essence of a minor fire elemental, making it the perfect counter to the relentless cold of Old Man Winter.
Description
The Sunstone appears as a perfectly smooth, fist-sized sphere of volcanic glass. When inert, it is cool and black, radiating only a faint residual warmth. When activated, it glows with the intense, orange-red light of a desert sun, becoming searing hot to the touch (though only the wielder can handle it safely).
Power: Desert's Heart (Passive)
Ward Against Cold: Any creature carrying the Sunstone is immune to all non-magical cold effects (blizzards, low temperatures, hypothermia).
Exposure Protection: The wielder automatically negates 2 levels of Freezing Exposure per round while holding the Sunstone. Furthermore, all allies within a 10-foot radius gain Advantage on checks made to resist the Freezing Exposure condition.
Power: The Blazing Rebuke (Active)
Activation: Requires a full-round action and a Wits Check (TN 14) to focus the immense heat. On a failure, the power does not activate, and the wielder takes $1d4$ Fire damage from a momentary feedback burst.
Effect: The Sunstone unleashes a wave of purifying heat in a 20-foot radius centered on the wielder.
All Shard Golems in the area take $4d6$ Fire Damage, ignoring their Toughness save for half damage (the heat bypasses their resilience).
Old Man Winter immediately suffers $2d8$ Fire Damage and must make a TOU Check (TN 15). On a failure, he loses his Blizzard Form ability for $1d4$ rounds as his elemental structure struggles to contain the heat.
The Breathless Void environmental hazard is instantly banished for $1d6$ rounds in the area where the Blazing Rebuke was used.
Drawbacks & Limitations
Overheat: After using The Blazing Rebuke, the Sunstone loses its light and power for the next 24 hours as it must recharge. It retains only its passive Ward Against Cold for the rest of the day.
Vulnerability: If the Sunstone is immersed in magical ice or the blood of Old Man Winter, it is immediately chilled and rendered inert for $3d6$ days. The wielder suffers 1 level of Freezing Exposure as the internal heat is instantly extinguished.
The Elementalist's Eye: Old Man Winter can sense the Sunstone's heat from a distance of up to 500 feet, allowing him to track the PCs' general location even through thick blizzards.
Location: Outpost I-47, The Geothermal Scar
The Sunstone is not found in a grand temple, but in the heart of a spectacular failure of human engineering, a testament to hubris against nature.
The Location: Outpost I-47
Setting: Deep within the frozen tundra, marked by an unnaturally active cluster of hot springs and steaming fumaroles—the "Geothermal Scar."
History: Outpost I-47 was a state-of-the-art research facility built decades ago by a secretive organization. Its goal was to weaponize or control the powerful geothermal vents here, believing they could "tame" the northern cold. When Old Man Winter finally encountered the place, he saw a concentrated source of heat to consume. The outpost was quickly overwhelmed, and the entity forced the surviving personnel into a horrific, frozen retreat.
Key Areas and Challenges
1. The Outer Perimeter (The Graveyard)
Hazard: The snow is ankle-deep, but the temperature is rapidly dropping below survivable levels due to Old Man Winter's lingering presence. PCs suffer Freezing Exposure (1 level/hour) until they enter the outpost.
Clue: The entrance is a pressurized airlock door, completely sheathed in a layer of crystalline ice. Beside it are the frozen remains of the exterior security team. They didn't die from external cold, but from their own bodies freezing; the expression on their faces is one of internal agony.
2. The Access Tunnels (The Echoes)
Challenge: The lower levels are flooded with frozen water and blocked by massive, brittle ice columns. The sound of any heavy movement (like kicking through a column) echoes unnaturally, alerting any nearby Shard Golems who use the tunnels to patrol.
Clue: Old data logs on defunct terminals detail the rapid temperature drop: "External temp dropped 60 degrees in under an hour. Reactor core struggling to maintain baseline. We hear the wind... but the airlock pressure is stable. It's coming inside." This confirms the chilling nature of the entity's attack.
3. The Central Boiler Room (The Crucible)
The Final Gauntlet: This large, multi-level room houses the defunct geothermal reactor. The massive pipes are cracked and covered in ice, but the residual geothermal heat makes this the safest location in the complex.
The temperature here is merely "dangerously cold," not supernatural, meaning Freezing Exposure levels do not increase in this room.
However, the heat draws the Shard Golems. Expect 2-3 Golems actively patrolling this area, constantly regenerating from the steam/ice mixture, or frozen in wait.
4. The Core Chamber (Where the Sunstone Rests)
The Find: The reactor core is a pit of melted, slagged metal and shattered electronics. The original scientists made a desperate final stand here, trying to overload the core. They failed, but in their final moments, they used a ritual (discovered via an ancient artifact recovered from a desert dig) to bind the Sunstone—the ancient essence of Ifrit's Tear—into the molten heart of the reactor.
The Sunstone: The Sunstone of Ifrit's Tear is found lodged in the center of the fused metal, glowing with a soft, steady orange light—the only source of warmth in the chamber. It takes a successful Muscle Check (TN 13) to pry the relic from the solidified, fused core, but the immense heat prevents it from being covered in ice.
Retrieving the stone provides the PCs with a fighting chance, but the sudden burst of heat it emits upon activation will surely draw the personal attention of Old Man Winter, who will sense the intrusion into his domain.
Plot Hooks
These are scenarios that draw the Player Characters (PCs) into his domain or bring him to theirs.
The Frozen Harvest:
Hook: A remote, usually self-sufficient settlement (e.g., a mining camp, a forest monastery, or a small farm collective) has inexplicably gone completely silent mid-winter. The last frantic, garbled radio transmission or written message speaks only of an "unnatural cold" that refuses to retreat and "the silence of the white."
Goal: The PCs are hired to investigate and retrieve a specific asset (person, ledger, relic). They discover the inhabitants didn't die quickly—they froze slowly from the inside out, often found huddled around extinguished fires.
The Twist: Old Man Winter has essentially "claimed" the area, and every day the PCs spend there, the supernatural cold worsens, making their survival gear increasingly useless against his Freezing Exposure.
The Heart of the Glacier:
Hook: An eccentric academic or experienced wilderness guide approaches the PCs, obsessed with a fragment of ancient, pre-human folklore. The folklore claims that the permanent winter in a specific mountain range is held in place by a powerful, pulsating blue-white object buried deep in a glacier—the "frozen heart of the first frost."
Goal: The PCs must traverse the deadly landscape to find this relic, which is rumored to be the source of Old Man Winter's elemental power. However, as they chip away at the ice, they awaken the entity, who now actively hunts them, desperate to reclaim his core.
The Endless Hunt:
Hook: A lone, half-crazed survivor stumbles into the PCs' current location, whispering about a "Skeletal Hunter" and a feeling of being constantly followed by the wind. This survivor has fled across three territories, but the unnatural cold still follows them, sickening the land they pass through.
Goal: The PCs realize they must protect the survivor, as Old Man Winter is using them as bait to draw out others and spread his cold domain. The PCs must figure out how to lay a trap for an entity that is the weather, or find a way to sever the connection before the entire region becomes his new hunting ground.
Clues and Evidence
These are things the PCs can find in Old Man Winter's wake to raise the tension and provide crucial tactical hints.
| Clue Type | Description | Tactical Implication |
| Physical Evidence | The Sintered Victim: A perfectly preserved corpse found standing upright, often mid-task (e.g., holding an axe, or mid-sentence). They are not merely frozen; their bones are encased in a thin layer of crystalline ice, and their eyes are wide with frostbite. | Hints at the slow, terrifying power of his cold (Freezing Exposure). The deaths were prolonged. |
| Environmental | Unnatural Ice Formations: Jagged, blue-tinged ice crystals appear only on specific surfaces—doorways, beds, or around the throat of an animal kill. These crystals do not melt, even when placed near a strong heat source. | Indicates the supernatural, elemental nature of the entity. Heat must be magical or extreme to counter it (Vulnerability). |
| Witness Testimony | The Ghost of Warmth: Survivors recount fleeting visions of the color red or gold—a momentary warm flash that vanishes, only to be replaced by deeper cold. A common refrain is, "He came to take the light." | Suggests his Deadly Sin (Gluttony)—he feeds on heat and life. Fire/light is anathema to him. |
| Magical/Esoteric | The Chill Mark: When a PC takes Cold Damage from Old Man Winter, a small, dark frostbite pattern (often resembling an archaic rune) forms on their skin. A successful occult check identifies it as an ancient ward of elemental hunger. | Directly relates to the Freezing Exposure mechanic and signals that mundane survival checks are insufficient. |
| Strategic Hint | Shattered Earth: In the snow, PCs find large, deep fissures in the ground where the earth has been violently broken by the cold, radiating from a central point. There are almost no footprints. | Reveals the use of Blizzard Form—he doesn't walk; he travels as the wind, leaving only structural damage. |
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