Rime of the Frostmaiden: Auril’s Cult

***This post contains light spoilers – if you are playing Rime of the Frostmaiden beware!***

As I was prepping for the next two sessions of my every-other-Friday Rime game, it dawned on me that there is a curious omission from the adventure. Well, it is mentioned in an offhanded way, but not focused on in any substantial way… what is it? The Cult of Auril. It’s almost completely missing from the book. I endeavored to remedy that, and that is what this post is about.

To begin, let me make the case that we DO need to know more about the cult of Auril in Icewind Dale.

1. Auril is widely believed to be responsible for the current weather pattern in the area. Why would the cult not grow?
2. Auril is a recognized Lesser Deity in the Forgotten Realms and there are churches throughout the setting. Every church has a set of extremist members, why would Auril be different?
3. All of the Ten-Towns are offering sacrifices of various types to honor Auril. This indicates that, even if it’s through fear, people can be convinced to extremes of worship.
4. The Rime has been happening for TWO YEARS; long enough for people to be looking for answers. Some desperate people will join the cult to gain power and help their families endure the winter.
5. There are several other cults active in the area. Given that the Frostmaiden is the reason for the season, a cult that supports her should be swelling with members.

So, now that we have good reasons for a cult devoted to Auril becoming active and flourishing during the Rime… why doesn’t it feature more prevalently in the book? The short answer is “I have no idea.“

There were even cultists of Auril featured in the most recent adventure located in Icewind Dale, Legacy of the Crystal Shard. Rime of the Frostmaiden mentions only a few followers of Auril:

• Sephek Kaltro
• Bjornhild Solvigsdottir
• Ravisin the frost druid
• Nymetra Myskyn
• Yselm Bloodfang the frost druid
• Chardalyn Berserkers

That’s it! Those are the only people mentioned to directly follow or support Auril, and only three of them are in Ten-Towns. This is such a lost opportunity, especially since there are several other groups who could have conflict with cultists of Auril. Who am I talking about? The Zhentarim, the Knights of the Black Sword, the Arcane Brotherhood, the duergar band who worship Asmodeus/Dark Duerra, a Harper contact in Bryn Shander… heck, there’s even a Red Wizard spy for Szass Tam (the barkeep in Lonelywood). This is a lot of lost opportunity for social encounters and rising tensions between towns and cults.

So, how do we get more Cult of Auril in our Rime of the Frostmaiden game? Here are some ideas and suggestions:

1. Think of the cult as a loose organization that covers all ten towns. Some people will pray to Auril for relief from the Rime, but not be cultists, while others will be extremists in the cult – it should be hard to tell them apart. The only obvious followers of Auril might be the church leaders and they are considered respected religious leaders, not cultists.
2. Place a temple or shrine to Auril in at least 5 of the Ten-Towns.
3. Selectively change some of the relationships between major players in Ten-Towns. An easy way to do this is to change any Zhent operative into a cultist of Auril instead.
4. Add small discoveries that lead the PCs to determine there is a cult presence in the region. You can have the symbol of Auril graffitied on some town gates, and have a few town guards have a symbol of Auril scratched into the haft of their spears.
5. Have the PCs hear directly that some people are supporting Auril and it is benefitting them. For example, the PCs overhear some fishermen in a tavern talk about how they never had such great catches until they started praying to Auril every morning. The fishermen now have the symbol of Auril carved into the back of their hands. Also, simply add rumors heard around town that support Auril.

So there are 5 quick suggestions for you to add more Auril Cult to your game. I thought a lot about this over the weekend and wrote up a 23 page organizational document for the cult. It’s called The Creed of Auril and contains information on the Church of Auril and descriptions of cult beliefs, behaviors, membership, and rationale. It also has 16 new spells, 2 new magic items, 6 new NPC/creature statblocks, and over 12 detailed ways to add cultists and cult activity to the area. The product is $4.99 on the DMs Guild and you can purchase it by clicking here: The Creed of Auril

Alright, that’s all I have for you today! Session 2 of my Rime campaign is coming up and I have a lot of work to do. I’ll post again and show you the changes I made to the travel tables, changes to how dogsled teams work, and more info on how I am using Vellyne Harpell. If you want to watch session 1, it can be found here: Endless Night RotF session 1 You can also support me and my co-creators by purchasing Scientific Secrets of Icewind Dale – new and challenging creatures and lore for your arctic D&D game: Scientific Secrets of Icewind Dale on the DMsGuild.

Until next time, I wish you good gaming!

 ~DMSamuel