The Frozen Thieves – A Scenario

Having a few Celtic casualty figures left over, I hit upon the idea of painting some as some frozen statues. This in turn got me thinking up a scenario…

The Frozen Thieves

Back in days of yore, the fearsome Ice Dragon made it’s lair on the outskirts of Felstad and brooded over it’s vast hoard of magical treasures.

Many a foolish thief would try to pilfer the Ice Dragon’s trinkets as the beast lay seemingly asleep, but, as they stole back into the city to hide their loot, a shadow would envelop them as the dragon descended upon it’s prey.

Such unfortunates would be blasted by it’s icy breath, turning the cowering thieves into frozen statues. It is said that while the Ice Dragon is long dead, these statues remain to this day and, more importantly, so does the treasure they so hurriedly discarded.

Set Up

The table represents the last hiding place of a group of thieves as they were set upon, centuries ago, by the Ice Dragon. Set up the table as per a standard game of Frostgrave.

Each player should place one treasure token and two figures representing frozen statues, as per standard treasure placement rules. Deploy warbands as normal.

Special Rules

The frozen statues represent thieves that have been frozen by the Ice Dragon. Although frozen solid, spellcasters may be able to thaw them out enough to learn where they have hidden their hurriedly hidden booty.

To do so, the spellcaster must be in base to base contact with the statue and use an action to successfully cast any spell in his/her repertoire by rolling a casting roll of 10 or higher (i.e. a spell that requires a 10 or more to cast, or a spell with a lower casting value that is empowered to 10 or more).

If the spell is cast, the magical energy will partly awaken the frozen form. Consult the table below.

The frozen statues will only reveal one item of treasure, but may have multiple spells cast on them until they are completely thawed out.

Casting roll	Effect
10-17	The frozen statue is thawed out enough to scream the location of some of the hidden treasure. Place a treasure token in a random direction, d20” from the statue. If the treasure has already been revealed, nothing happens.
17-19	The frozen statue is completely thawed out.  In addition to revealing the treasure as above, the figure temporarily joins the spellcaster’s warband. It has the same stats as a thief, but, due to it’s recently frozen state, can only take one action per turn. If the spellcaster has room after the game, the thief can join his/her warband and operate as normal in subsequent games.
20	You manage to completely thaw out the statue, but the thief has been driven insane over the centuries and will make an immediate and furious attack on the spellcaster. Treat it as a barbarian which, due to it’s recently frozen state, can only take one action per turn. If it defeats the spellcaster, it will act as a wandering monster for the rest of the game.

Experience and Treasure

Any treasure revealed by the frozen thieves is treated as normal.

Experience is calculated as normal, but with the following additions:-

• +10 for each thief that is thawed, or partially thawed out a frozen thief by the spellcaster (in addition to the usual experience earned by casting a spell). This only applies once per thief.
• +10 for each thawed thief that joins the spellcaster’s warband and survives the game.
• +10 for each thawed thief that is killed by a spellcaster’s warband (in addition to any experienced earned if killed by the wizard).  

Optional rule

You may introduce the Ice Dragon into this scenario. See Spellcaster magazine issue 2 for rules on using dragons.

For each spell that reveals a treasure, make a note of the number rolled (including modifiers, empowerment etc.).

When that treasure is picked up, roll for wandering monsters as usual. However, if a creature is spawned and if either of the rolls on the monster table matches the noted spell casting roll, place the Ice Dragon on a random corner of the board.

Treat the Ice Dragon as an ‘adult dragon’ with the spit poison trait (this represents it’s icy breath, which has weakened during the intervening centuries).

The Ice Dragon activates in the next creature phase.

As per the dragon rules, spellcasters gains +50 experience if their warband slays the dragon.