> [!infobox|wikipedia] > # Frostwardens > [![[Frostwardens_small.webp|cover hsmall]]](Frostwardens.webp) > ###### Faction Information > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Type | Faction | > Category | Guides' Brotherhood | > Allegiance | Independent | > Leader | Council of Pathfinders | > Base | [[Point Blackrock]] | > ###### Status > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Status | Active | > [!quote] Dallas the Merchant > "When the sea stills and the Frostway rises, it's the Frostwardens who hear the ice speak. Cross without one, and you'll find yourself swallowed by the deep — or worse." The Frostwardens are a brotherhood of expert ice-guides operating out of [[Point Blackrock]], whose sole work is navigating caravans safely across the frozen sea known as the [[Frostway]]. They hold an informal monopoly on safe passage across one of the most treacherous stretches of terrain in [[Elandis]] — a position earned not through charter or politics, but through centuries of inherited mastery of the ice. ## Purpose & Goals The Frostwardens exist to guide caravans across the [[Frostway]], and they pursue that purpose with a pride bordering on devotion. Commerce along the northern route depends on them entirely; no caravan — merchant, military, or otherwise — crosses safely without a crew to read the ice. The Frostwardens charge well for their expertise, and they know their worth. But money is secondary to the craft: Frostwardens take on crossings because the [[Frostway]] demands to be walked, and they are the only ones who truly know how. ## Structure & Leadership Not an army but a brotherhood. The Frostwardens are organised into seven semi-independent crews of five to ten members each, with no single person leading the order. Governance falls to a council of active Pathfinders — the leaders of each crew — who convene at [[Point Blackrock#The Frosthearth|the Frosthearth]] when matters affect the brotherhood as a whole. Each crew operates around three core roles: the Pathfinder, the crew's most experienced member and the one who bears final responsibility for finding the route; the Scout, who ranges ahead of the caravan, constantly reading the terrain for threats; and the Ice Listener, trained to detect the sounds and vibrations of the shifting ice — fissures, structural weakness, imminent collapse — using tools such as iron rods, small hammers, or carved bone staves pressed to the surface. ## Traditions & Code Every Frostwarden swears the same oath upon joining: "The Frostway claims no soul under my care." Breaking that vow is the deepest shame the order recognises. There is no formal punishment — only the weight of the words, and the knowledge of every crew member watching. Upon earning full Frostwarden status, a scout receives a Frostmark: a tattoo or scarification specific to the crew they have joined, worn as a permanent mark of passage and belonging. Every initiate must complete the Trial of Silence — one night alone on the [[Frostway]] without fire, speaking no words, relying only on instinct and the sounds of the ice. Those who survive it are considered ready. Those who do not rarely try again. ### The Mourning Bell When a Warden dies on the [[Frostway]], the surviving members of their crew hang a small iron bell on the rocks nearest where they fell. Wind threading through the rocks sets the bells singing during storms — the Mourning Bell, at once a warning to those who follow and a memorial to those who did not return. ## Crews There are currently seven active crews. An eighth, the Falcon Crew, once operated under the same banner but no longer exists. | Crew | Pathfinder | Scout | Ice Listener | Notes | | ---------- | ----------------------- | --------------- | ------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Wolf Crew | Veyra Thorne | Kellan Reeve | Mira "Whisper" Sal | Decimated — the crew was killed by Remorhazes on the [[Frostway\|Frostway]]; Kellan Reeve is the sole survivor | | Fox Crew | [[Lysa\|Lysa Mornvale]] | [[Dane Verric]] | [[Sela Ren]] | | | Bear Crew | Orrek Stoneshield | Tamsin Holt | Bryn Cutter | | | Hawk Crew | Elyen Windstrider | Calla Vens | Joran Pell | Absent — crossed to [[Val Noren]] ahead of the occupation | | Stag Crew | Koren Vorr | Torran Wrynn | Maera Kett | | | Raven Crew | Selvyn Drae | Cass Tallow | Olric Fenn | | | Lynx Crew | Veyl Shardstep | Aren Dass | Sethra Vale | | ## History The Frostwardens trace their origins to a small band of disillusioned [[Lighthaven#The Duskwardens|Duskwardens]] — rangers and scouts who had spent their careers guarding the boundaries of [[Lighthaven]] and the [[Darkwood]]. Believing their skills were wasted in the mist-wrapped forests of the south, they migrated north to [[Point Blackrock]] centuries ago, drawn by tales of a wilder and less-governed frontier. They arrived as the [[Frostway]] was beginning to be crossed with any regularity, and became some of the first consistent guides of the newly-forming route. The knowledge they built — of ice behaviour, of the crossing's rhythms, of its seasonal dangers and hidden hazards — they kept close and passed down through generations. Over time, their descendants shed the Duskwarden identity entirely and became something new: the Frostwardens, shaped by the frozen sea rather than the shadowed wood. Their hall, [[Point Blackrock#The Frosthearth|the Frosthearth]], has stood at the centre of [[Point Blackrock]] since those early years — a simple, sturdy building that has served every generation of the brotherhood as meeting place, shelter, and neutral ground. ## [[The Bloody Nails|Campaign: The Bloody Nails]] #### [[Session 33 - A Camp Alight]] When the party arrived in [[Point Blackrock]], they found the [[Valtorran Empire|Crimson Empire]] had occupied the town and imprisoned all of the Frostwardens — specifically the Fox Crew — to press them into service as guides for the Imperial advance on [[Val Noren]]. The party freed them: while [[Dondar]] set fire to the Imperial camp as a distraction, [[Ryo]], [[Kai]], and the others pulled the Fox Crew from captivity. [[Lysa]], [[Dane Verric]], and [[Sela Ren]] immediately took charge of the civilian refugees and led a stampede north onto the ice. When the Fox Crew asked who had saved them, [[Vaeleran]] answered with a grim smile: "The Bloody Nails." #### [[Session 34 - Mourning Bells]] With the refugee caravan underway, the Fox Crew guided the party deeper into the Frostway. On discovering an unnatural gouge cut through the ice, [[Lysa]] led [[Dane Verric]], [[Sela Ren]], and the party into a humid, moss-lined cavern at its end — where they found a large egg and a warping dimensional rift — before ordering an immediate retreat. Days later, the forward scout team stumbled on the frozen massacre site of the Wolf Crew: every member dead and shattered in the ice. Dane rang a bell in their memory; the tolling triggered a tremor in the ground below. Before the loss could be fully reckoned with, three Remorhazes erupted from the ravine walls. Lysa killed the smallest with her crossbow; when Kai was swallowed alive by the enormous alpha, Dane, Vaeleran, Dondar, and the Fox Crew dug him free from the carcass. #### [[Session 35 - The Frostway]] The party recovered the boots of Mira Sal from inside a slain Remorhaz — [[Sela Ren]] identified them as belonging to the Wolf Crew's Ice Listener, confirming more deaths. Pressing on, they found the crew's sole survivor, Kellan Reeve, barely alive at a sheltered waypoint called the Hollow Isle. Kellan revealed that the monsters had been roused not by chance but by the vibrations of thousands of marching Imperial soldiers. [[Dane Verric]] volunteered to remain behind to care for Kellan; Lysa and Sela guided the party the rest of the way to the outskirts of [[Val Noren]].