Founded by immigrants from Chult and the Vilhon Reach, Good Mead is nestled between Redwaters and a nearby evergreen forest. The town’s squat dwellings, adorned with carvings of dinosaurs and serpents, are overshadowed by the two-story structure of the mead hall, its eaves carved and painted to resemble wyverns. As honey is the key ingredient in mead, the town literally buzzes with the droning of bees.
Every tavern in Icewind Dale is accustomed to receiving regular mead deliveries, and the town can’t produce or deliver its mead fast enough. All deliveries have halted temporarily, though—because a verbeeg marauder (see appendix C) emerged from the forest three days ago and stole three casks of mead that were being loaded onto a dogsled for transport to Bryn Shander. Kendrick Rielsbarrow, the town speaker and a giant of a man in his own right, stood his ground against the verbeeg and didn’t fare well. After skewering Kendrick with its spear, the verbeeg grabbed the casks and disappeared whence he came. The other residents of Good Mead tried to save Kendrick, to no avail; his body lies in a local shrine. Five members of the militia went after the verbeeg but haven’t returned.
Good Mead in a Nutshell
Friendliness ❄❄Services ❄Comfort ❄❄
Available Quest
“area The Mead Must Flow”.
- Population 100.
- Leader None. Speaker Kendrick Rielsbarrow was killed by a verbeeg, leaving the town leaderless.
Militia
Good Mead can muster up to 20 soldiers (use the tribal warrior stat block) and 2 Veteran.
- Heraldry A dark brown drinking mug made of a cut-off section of horn, with an antler handle added, upright and centered on a white field, representing the town’s mead exports and its cold, snowy climate.
Sacrifice to Auril
Warmth (see “area Sacrifices to Auril").
- Rivals Caer-Dineval, Caer-Konig.
Overland Travel
A path connects Good Mead to the Eastway, crosses the snow-covered road, and continues to Caer-Dineval. Another snowy path leads to Dougan’s Hole. Travel times in the Overland Travel from Good Mead table assume that characters are on foot; mounts and dogsleds can shorten these times by as much as 50 percent.
Overland Travel from Good Mead
| To | Travel Time |
|---|---|
| Bryn Shander | 6 hours |
| Caer-Dineval | 8 hours |
| Dougan’s Hole | 4 hours |
| Easthaven | 4½ miles |
Locations in Good Mead
The following prominent locations are marked on map 1.12.
Mead Hall
Purveyor of Good Mead’s honey wine
Four decades ago, this mead hall put an end to the town’s dependence on knucklehead trout fishing with its famous honey wine, which quickly became popular throughout Ten-Towns.
The mead hall has a large, fire-heated space dedicated to bee husbandry and the nurturing of beehives. The droning bees can be heard throughout the town, though most residents are so accustomed to the buzzing that they pay it no mind.
Electing a New Town Speaker
Good Mead also needs a new leader, and two locals have emerged as contenders to replace Kendrick Rielsbarrow as town speaker. It will take a week or two for the town to plan an election. One candidate is a red-bearded shield dwarf logger named Shandar Froth, and the other is Olivessa Untapoor, a middle-aged woman who descends from the town’s Chultan founders and who makes casks to hold Good Mead’s famous brew.
Shandar is wanted by the authorities in Mirabar for the murder of another dwarf. Zhentarim agents located Shandar a few years back and are blackmailing him into serving as their eyes and ears in town. Once a month, Shandar travels to Targos to brief Naerth Maxildanarr, its speaker, on everything that has transpired of late in Good Mead.
Olivessa doesn’t want to be town speaker, but her friends are pushing her to assume the role for the good of the town. She would be delighted to see someone else step up to challenge Shandar for the speakership.
For more information on Olivessa and Shandar, see the “area New Town Speaker”.
Shrine of the Flaming Sword
Shrine of Tempus (god of war)
This vacant building stands on the lakeshore and has a crow-haunted steeple protruding from its peak. Unlike the mead hall, which is well cared for, the shrine’s painted icons of the god of war wielding a flaming sword are chipped and faded, and its spacious interior stands mostly empty except for a long table on which rests a body covered with a blanket. The body is that of Speaker Kendrick Rielsbarrow, a giant of a man in his forties. He died from three stab wounds to the chest.
The shrine was built over a century ago, when the town’s rivalry with Dougan’s Hole raged so fiercely that the lake, a frequent battlefield, became known as Redwaters. For a time thereafter, nearly all residents of Good Mead paid homage to Tempus. Today, the shrine’s relevance has dwindled to the point where it’s mainly used just for town gatherings.
The Mead Must Flow
Taverns throughout Ten-Towns depend on deliveries of honey mead to satisfy their customers, and Good Mead needs the coin. Two days ago, a verbeeg (see appendix C) stole three casks of mead as they were being loaded onto a dogsled. When the town speaker tried to prevent the theft, the verbeeg killed him. The townsfolk want revenge, but more important, they want their mead back!
If the characters undertake this quest, they must track the verbeeg to his lair, which he shares with a dopey ogre, some stolen livestock, and a sleepy brown bear. To complicate matters, the verbeeg’s romantic interest—another verbeeg—arrives as the characters are leaving.
How the characters learn of the town’s travails depends on whether the adventure began in Good Mead or not. If Good Mead is the starting town for the adventure, the characters know all the information in the “area Good Mead” section, which you can read to the players. If Good Mead is not the starting town for the adventure, characters become aware of the town’s misfortunes when one or more locals put them up for the night.
Getting the Quest
If the characters offer to retrieve the stolen casks, the locals can’t reward them with much more than free lodging and drink for a tenday. If the characters accept these terms, various townsfolk can point in the direction the verbeeg went after stealing the casks.
As the characters make their way to the edge of the forest, read:
A figure in cold weather clothing lurches out of the woods into plain view, running as fast as he can through the deep snow. Slung over his back are a pair of animal traps, one of which appears to contain a panicked fox.
The figure is Fef Moryn (chaotic good human scout), a trapper. He was out in the woods checking his traps when he came upon a grisly scene: five members of Good Mead’s militia, their skulls and chests stove in. He came straight home to alert the town.
The characters can’t convince Fef to return to the bodies, but they can follow his tracks through the snow easily enough.
The fox (see appendix C) in Fef’s trap is rattled but uninjured. If the characters want to buy it, Fef will sell it to them for no less than 1 gp. Although it’s a wild animal, it remains docile while held. If the characters keep the fox with them, they will find it helpful in the next scene.
Carnage in the Woods
Characters who follow Fef Moryn’s trail eventually come to the grisly scene the trapper spoke of:
Deep in the woods, amid the snow-covered pines, you discover the remains of the five militia members, who look like they were clubbed to death. New-fallen snow has already begun to settle on their corpses.
These five people pursued the verbeeg for a while and then fell prey to the verbeeg’s ogre buddy, who stayed behind in the woods rather than trying to keep up with the verbeeg.
The ogre killed all five humans with its greatclub and then headed for home. Characters can follow its tracks in the snow without a check. A successful DC 12 Wisdom (
The Fox and the Chwinga
The characters have one encounter while they follow the ogre’s trail. A chwinga (see appendix C) pops out of the snow and hurls a wee snowball at the lead character in the party’s marching order. Once it has the party’s attention, it capers atop the snow.
If the characters rescued the fox from Fef Moryn, the animal bolts toward the chwinga if it’s allowed to do so. The chwinga bows before the fox and offers it a frozen berry, which the fox gobbles up. After that, the chwinga and the fox become fast friends. The chwinga mounts the fox, bestows a charm of animal conjuring or one of the new charms described in appendix C (see “New Chwinga Charms”) upon the character it hit with the snowball, and rides off on the fox’s back. (For more information on charms, see “Supernatural Gifts” in the Dungeon Master’s Guide.) The characters can interrupt this scene if they want; the chwinga won’t bestow its supernatural charm, however, if events unfold any differently.
If the characters don’t have the fox or choose not to let it go, the chwinga follows them all the way to the verbeeg lair, if permitted to do so, but won’t venture inside.
Verbeeg Lair
The lair’s caves and tunnels have rough, 20-foot-high ceilings covered with large icicles. The floors are somewhat uneven but not rough enough to be difficult terrain.
The verbeeg, named Duhg, needs light to see, which is why he keeps a bonfire lit in area area V3 and carries a torch when he visits the darker corners of his lair.
The following locations are keyed to map 1.13.
V1. Three Entrances
The ogre’s tracks lead characters to a frozen stream, then along it to the verbeeg’s lair:
The trail culminates at a rocky hillside with pines growing around its base. Set into the hill are three caves.
The frozen creek emerges from the west cave, which has a low-hanging mouth.
The center cave—an eight-foot-high passage hewn from the rock—is moderately blocked by a tight stand of conifers and two massive fallen logs.
The northeast cave has a big, yawning mouth, and flickers of light emanate from within. The tracks of your quarry head through this entrance.
Characters can enter the verbeeg lair through any of these paths. If they take the time to examine the hillside to the east more thoroughly, they find a fourth cave entrance (area V2).
V2. Main Entrance
Half-submerged in the icy mire are the bones, skull, and tusks of a long-dead mammoth. Beyond these remains is a yawning cave mouth.
This route leads to the firelit cave (area V3) and the refuse pit (area area V4).
V3. Firelit Cave
This cavern is slightly sunken, as all tunnels leading to it slope down gradually.
A bonfire in the middle of this cave keeps it lit and relatively warm. The scent of roasting meat fills the air as a hunk of meat on a spit drips juices into the fire. Goats and sheep are held in a spacious animal pen enclosed by a crude wooden fence. Other features of the cave include a wooden cart with a broken wheel, two old crates, and two barrels.
If the characters make a lot of noise, the ogre comes running from area area V5 and the verbeeg marauder (see appendix C) approaches from area area V9, both arriving at the same time. They try to kill intruders on sight. If more than two intruders are visible, the verbeeg whistles for the cave bear, which arrives 3 rounds later from area area V7.
If it’s close enough to the bonfire, the verbeeg can use his action to try to shove a creature into the flames (see “Shoving a Creature” in the combat chapter of the Player’s Handbook). Any creature that enters the bonfire for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there takes 10 (
Characters in a position to harm the verbeeg’s goats and sheep (see “Animals” below) can use an action to threaten one or more of these animals and, with a successful DC 10 Charisma (
One crate is packed with straw, which the verbeeg feeds to the goats and sheep. The other contains ten large torches, which the verbeeg made out of wood and pitch. The barrels are half-filled with salt and pepper, which the verbeeg uses to season his meat.
Animals
The livestock pen holds seven Goat and six sheep, all in healthy condition. Use the goat stat block for each sheep, with these changes:
- A sheep is a Small beast with 3 (
1d6 ) hit points and a walking speed of 30 feet. - It lacks the Charge feature and any effective attacks, giving it a challenge rating of 0 (0 XP).
The verbeeg acquired his livestock by robbing travelers on the Eastway. He considers these beasts his treasured pets and has given names to all of them. He has trained the ogre and the cave bear not to attack them.
What’s Cooking
The meat roasting on the spit is a piece of what used to be Artin Glanhig, a shield dwarf lumberjack from Bryn Shander who crossed paths with the verbeeg. A small bundle near a log by the fire contains Artin’s battleaxe and his thick leather boots. The verbeeg is fashioning a small knife he can use to carefully unstitch the boots and reuse the leather.
V4. Refuse Pit
This dead-end cavern has a crudely excavated, ten-foot-wide pit in the middle of the floor.
The verbeeg and the ogre dug this refuse pit, which is 20 feet deep and filled to a depth of 5 feet with bones, trash, and filth.
V5. Stolen Mead Casks
If the ogre has been drawn to area area V3 by activity there, omit the opening paragraph of the following boxed text:
A heavy snore comes from a fat, battle-scarred ogre sitting with its back against the west wall, its chin on its chest. A thin stream of drool trails from its mouth onto its bloodstained leather loincloth. On the floor at its feet is a bloody greatclub with tufts of hair and bits of metal stuck in it.
Suspended from the ceiling of this chamber by a series of ropes and pulleys are six baskets. Clustered near the south wall are three wooden casks carved with Good Mead’s heraldic symbol: a drinking mug made of a cut-off section of horn, with an antler handle added, upright and centered.
The ogre can never remember its name, so the verbeeg calls it “Friend.” It has fully recovered from its fight with the town militia. Any character who succeeds on a DC 8 Dexterity (
If awakened, the ogre grabs its greatclub and attacks, shouting, “ME FRIEND!”
The verbeeg rigged the system that supports the baskets to keep the ogre from tripping over them and to discourage the cave bear from rooting through them. Lowering a basket by using its mechanism requires an action. The baskets contain sheep shears, milk pails, bristle brushes, and several bags of grain and oats stolen from caravans on the Eastway. One of the baskets, determined randomly, contains the verbeeg’s treasure (see “Treasure” below).
Casks of Honey Mead
One of the three casks is empty, the verbeeg and ogre having shared its contents; each of the other two holds 20 gallons of honey mead. Each full cask weighs 200 pounds.
Treasure
The verbeeg’s treasure basket holds 72 sp, 344 cp, a translucent pink
V6. Frozen Stream
To the north along the frozen stream, the tunnel splits, with one way continuing north and the other veering east. The stream follows the dark northward tunnel. Light from a distant fire is visible in the eastern tunnel.
Characters who follow the frozen stream to the north arrive at area V7. Those who venture eastward come to area area V9.
V7. Cave Bear’s Lair
The frozen stream ends at a seven-foot-deep frozen pool at the back of a dark cave. Trapped beneath the pool’s ice is a stone statue of a smiling young man, naked except for a well-placed oak leaf, with his face turned toward the sky.
If the cave bear has not been summoned elsewhere by the verbeeg, it sleeps in the western niche of this chamber until it detects intruders. It has brown fur and
The bear’s niche contains the gnawed skull and bones of a shield dwarf named Artin Glanhig (see area area V3).
Statue of Silvanus
The statue in the frozen pool, crafted using
The statue blesses the pool, such that any creature that drinks from it gains the benefit of a
V8. Burial Niches
This eight-foot-high, five-foot-wide passage has a dozen burial niches carved into its walls.
An ancient human tribe carved a tomb out of the hillside to house the bones of their chieftain, whose remains are housed in area area V10. Each burial niche in this tunnel is 2 feet wide, 2 feet tall, and 5 feet deep. The bones of warriors were placed here to guard the way to the chieftain’s tomb. Animals have savaged the bones, leaving nothing but a couple of skulls and carved stone knives behind.
V9. Duhg Is Here
A natural tunnel bisects a ring-shaped excavation in this area, which was once an additional burial chamber. Niches cut in the north end of the outer ring hold nothing of interest.
Duhg the verbeeg marauder (see appendix C) is here if he hasn’t been encountered somewhere else. Duhg is sitting cross-legged in the tunnel, a lit torch on the floor nearby. The verbeeg is sharpening a stone knife he found in the old tomb. Duhg plans to use this knife to unstitch the dwarven boots in area area V3. Leaning against a wall, within easy reach, is Duhg’s spear.
V10. Ancient Tomb
Carved steps on the south side climb five feet to this ten-foot-high, fifteen-foot-square room, which has narrow, natural exits in the east and west walls. In the middle of the room is a rectangular stone block seven feet long, four feet wide, and three feet tall. Pictographs on the walls of the chamber tell a tale of one tribe’s journey through mighty mountains and across a perilous tundra.
A tribal chieftain was laid to rest here in ancient times. The pictographs illustrate how the chieftain led her tribe to settle in Icewind Dale, how they fought off terrible monsters to claim their land, and how they found peace in their new home. Characters who study the artwork can pick out an image of the chieftain wielding a wand and casting a destructive spell.
It takes a combined Strength of 50 to move the block. Revealed beneath it is a shallow niche in the floor that holds the bones of a female human, her tribal garb reduced to dust and tatters.
Treasure
Clutched in the chieftain’s left hand is a
Affairs of the Heart
As the characters exit the verbeeg lair, read:
A verbeeg strides through the snow, approaching the mouth of the cave. Her misshapen face bears a too-wide smile. She clutches a spear in one hand while using her other arm to cradle a wicker basket filled with bits of shiny metal. “Duhg?” she shouts in Common. “You home?”
Gahg, a verbeeg marauder (see appendix C), has arrived for a romantic encounter with Duhg. Gahg has brought along some fragments of metal that she hopes will impress Duhg, who had been planning to give Gahg a cask of honey mead.
If the characters try to stop Gahg from entering Duhg’s lair, Gahg becomes alarmed, then enraged. She drops the wicker basket and attacks the characters, afraid that something terrible has happened to Duhg.
If the characters run away, Gahg checks on Duhg to make sure he is unharmed, allowing the party a head start back to Good Mead. If the characters run back into the verbeeg lair and try to hide, Gahg searches for them after locating Duhg.
If only one verbeeg survives contact with the characters, it won’t rest until it has revenge for the death of its potential mate. A verbeeg is smart enough not to act rashly against the party, but it might vent its fury by launching more hit-and-run attacks on Good Mead.
Gahg’s Basket of Bits
The metal fragments gathered by Gahg are pieces of a futuristic weapon that was jettisoned from the cargo hold of an illithid nautiloid before the spaceship crashed (see “area Id Ascendant"). Gahg witnessed the crash, which looked like a comet streaking across the sky, then found the weapon’s wreckage and took some of it. A character who examines the fragments and succeeds on a DC 20 Intelligence (
Treasure
The metal bits are worth a total of 75 gp to a tinkerer or blacksmith.
Concluding the Quest
Once the characters find the two remaining casks of honey mead, they’ll need to figure out a way to haul them back to Good Mead. After they solve that problem, they have a safe trip back to town. The townsfolk are happy to see the stolen mead returned but express concern if the characters left one or both of the verbeeg alive. After all, what’s to stop them from terrorizing the town again?
New Town Speaker
As the characters are recuperating from their adventure or planning their next excursion, a local cask maker named Olivessa Untapoor (neutral good human commoner) approaches the party leader, if there is one. If no character has assumed that role, Olivessa approaches the character with highest Charisma score:
A middle-aged woman approaches you and removes her thick wool scarf so that she can speak clearly. “My name is Olivessa, and I make the casks for the mead. Some friends of mine don’t want Shandar Froth to become our next town speaker. They say he’s untrustworthy. I don’t know him that well, but I’ve been urged to run against him. I have no interest in the speakership, but you seem to be a good leader, and this town could use one. What do you say?”
Olivessa is ready and willing to throw her support behind any character who runs in the election for the speakership, and since she’s a leading candidate herself, her support carries weight. Her opponent, Shandar Froth (neutral shield dwarf commoner), doesn’t like this turn of events. After accusing the characters of having no stake in Good Mead’s future, he leaves town for a day to get help (see “Zhentarim Intervention” below).
A character who spends at least 1 hour making inquiries throughout town can learn the following information about the two leading candidates for the speakership:
- Olivessa has deep roots in Good Mead. Her family has lived in the town since its founding. She’s quite reserved and doesn’t have any family of her own. She lives alone in the house closest to the Shrine of the Flaming Sword.
- Shandar has lived in Good Mead for a few years and is popular among the town’s loggers. He can be a bully and a blowhard, but there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for his friends. He lives with five other loggers in a small house on the west side of town.
Zhentarim Intervention
Shandar is under the thumb of Naerth Maxildanarr, the speaker of Targos. Faced with the possibility of losing the election, Shandar makes the 8-hour hike to Targos to warn Naerth and then promptly returns home. A day later, eight human Thug storm the mead hall in cold weather clothing. Before the characters can intervene, Shandar and his fellow loggers confront the thugs and kick them out of town with their tails between their legs. The whole incident is orchestrated to make Shandar into a local hero. Characters who capture and interrogate one or more of the thugs learn that Naerth Maxildanarr hired them.
If the characters fail to expose the deception, Shandar is elected town speaker, giving the Zhentarim a political foothold in Good Mead.