Ranger's Guide to Survival in the Rime

In-World Document

The following is the text of the guide as a player-facing prop:

Fire-Starting and Maintenance

Surviving in the frozen wastelands of Icewind Dale is a daily battle. Your first priority when making camp is to get a fire going and keep it alive through the night.

Preparation: Gather tinder and kindling whenever possible. Dry bark, resinous twigs from evergreen trees, pinecones, or strips of cloth work as tinder. Keep some inside your coat during the day — body heat will dry it.

Ignition: Use a tinderbox or flint and steel. Shield the nascent flame with your hands or body until it catches. In howling wind, even magical flame can gutter out. Consider digging a small pit in snow or building a ring of stones as a windbreak.

Strong winds can snuff out open flames almost immediately. Create a windbreak before you strike a spark.

Fuel: Start with gathered kindling, then add larger sticks or animal dung (burns surprisingly well on the tundra). In extreme cold, wood burns faster and less efficiently. Collect enough fuel for the entire night before darkness falls. If resources are low, bank the fire by covering it in ashes.

Magical Aids

• Leomund's Tiny Hut — windproof dome for the night.
• Prestidigitation — warm up boots, blankets, rocks.
• Create Bonfire — instant fire; Control Flames keeps it going.
• Heat Metal — cast on iron object, wrap in thick cloth, radiates heat for hours.
• Fire Elemental / Steam Mephit — portable heater (careful with the flames).

Food and Water

Hunting, fishing, and melting snow are the three sources of sustenance. The Survival skill governs all of them.

Ice Fishing

Ice fishing requires drilling a hole (Strength check DC 12 in normal conditions, DC 15 for thick ice). Common fish include knucklehead trout — the primary trade good of the Ten Towns. Knucklehead ivory can be carved.

Snow Blindness

Prolonged exposure to bright, snow-reflected light causes snow blindness (Constitution save DC 13, failure = blindness for 1d4 hours). Eyeguards — leather strips with narrow slits — provide advantage on the save.

Navigation

The tundra offers few landmarks. Whiteout conditions impose disadvantage on Survival checks to navigate. A DC 15 Survival check is required each day to maintain course in poor conditions.

Kelvin's Cairn is visible on clear days from most of the Ten Towns and serves as the primary landmark. Navigation near the mountain is easier — DC 10 in good conditions.

Cold Weather Rules (Mechanical Reference)

A creature not wearing appropriate cold weather clothing must make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw at the end of each hour of exposure to extreme cold (below 0°F / -18°C). On a failure, the creature gains one level of exhaustion.

Relevant gear: Cold weather clothing (advantage on the save), heavy furs (immunity for most creatures in standard cold).

GM Notes

Selene's Backstory Connection

This guide represents Selene's lived knowledge of the Rime — her survival training, her time in Icewind Dale before the campaign. The guide being a physical item means:

• It can be read by other party members
• It may contain personal notes or marginalia revealing character history
• It could be lost, stolen, or damaged — with story implications for Selene
• It ties Selene to Icewind Dale before the party arrived there

Open Questions

• Who wrote the original guide — Selene herself, or a mentor?
• Are there annotations or personal notes in the margins?
• Does anyone else recognize the guide or the handwriting?