Encounters in the Savage Arctic is a supplement by Jeff C. Stevens – the icy entry in his Savage Encounters series.

Disclaimer: We were provided with a free digital copy of this product.

As you might expect from the title, this supplement is very much about icy biomes – tundras, snow-covered wastelands, and the icy deserts of the arctic. Jeff even points readers toward a handful of other arctic-themed supplements that could pair nicely with this one, which is great if you’re looking to build a fully immersive winter campaign – and I’ll throw in Ten-Towns Expanded as well.

The book is a robust 50 pages, spread across 10 full encounters, each one written by a different contributor. Like other Savage Encounters entries, these aren’t just throwaway skirmishes – most could easily stretch into a full session of play, usually taking 60 to 90 minutes, but some can take more.

The encounters vary quite a bit in terms of tone, as well as level – though there are scaling instructions for each encounter that give a lot of leeway – a level 5 party could probably run through every single one of them with adjustments, but some can go as low as 1st level or as high as 10th. There’s moments of tense horror, and moments of levity and whimsy – in one occasion at the same encounter. Some of my favorites:

• In Egg Hunt, the players are tasked with recovering some remorhaz eggs from a poacher before they hatch and cause chaos – preferably discreetly, as the scientists who were studying them were doing so in secret, and the town the secret lab is located in probably won’t be very happy to find out what was going on. The Faerûn Research Organization of Scientists and Technicians (yes, FROST) will pay handsomely for the eggs… and your silence.
• In Tomb of the Midnight Sun, the players stumble upon a portal to a distant outer plane of cold and death… and the protections that stop the monsters inhabiting it from traveling through are about to fail.
• In Frozen Menagerie, an unlikely alliance between a goblin gang and a snow chimera leads to a memorable encounter, including the expected shenanigans goblins can get into.

Most encounters include maps (where needed), as well as some artwork and plenty of descriptions and instructions to help the GM. There’s also some new magic items and creatures to further spice things up.

Overall, whether you’re running Rime of the Frostmaiden or just need a few boreal side quests, Encounters in the Savage Arctic delivers with variety and quality – plus, it’s also available for Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds VTT.

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