I was wondering - and hoping - if there are rules in the AP's "frigid parts" for cold environmental hazards ?
I haven't bought the AP yet, but I'm interested in it.
Yes by that time the party has to invest some thought into how to manage their food.
Using scouts to hunt (which brings in food and doesn't have the scout count for consumption), use and hire cooks to make the food they have last longer and have their spellcasters conjure food all together will make it possible somehow.
While not mentioned in the rules, the scout is assumed to move with the caravan (obviously), so if the caravan actually takes a break for a day or two allowing the scouts to concentrate on setting traps and hunting and not have to worry about falling behind, they should be able to bring in far more food for that day.
So if necessary the caravan just has to stop somewhere and replenish their food supply before moving on.
I just realised something going over the rules for Resting and Create Food and Water again.
According to the Player's Guide one casting of Create Food and Water creates 3 units of provisions. Just 3, not 3/level.
Now 1 unit of provision is enough to feed one human for a day. It's also enough to feed one horse for a day.
Now looking at Create Food and Water it says it creates enough food and water for either three humans or one horse per level. Minimum is 5th level to cast it, so that's either 15 humans or 5 horses, and much more at higher levels.
So how did they come up with 3 static units of provisions in the rules there? It seems way too low. Even if you take the horse as measurement, it should be at least 1/level, for humans even 3/level.
Did they simply forget the per level?
They might have adjusted the rule so that if the party gets Spivey & Koya & the player Cleric casting that spell they would never have to buy food...ever. As written it makes the PC's think about rations and the survival of the caravan more, something I feel gets missed in almost every adventure because most DM's just hand wave the party having enough food to live on while trekking across the country side or through a dungeon for weeks at a time.
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I'm not worried too much about it. The only time I start using those rules is:
1. When the PC's move away from the caravan to deal with a major threat.
2. When the PC's don't take the logical choices to keep the caravan feed and supplied. They have a LOT of magic to lay with and with Ulf guiding them there are maybe 2 points during Hungry Storm where the weather and conditions get so bad I'd start using the rules.
I always find inspiration for this sort of thing by reading a novel related to the situation in some way. For example, prior to running this portion of JR, I plan on reading the sections of Feist's novel "Magician" that deal with the characters on the run through the freezing cold snows of an early winter, with little food.
The descriptions of the numbing cold, the sticking of one's eyelashes due to frozen tears, of the horses dying from a combination of exposure and exhaustion (and the characters surviving on horse-meat), snowblindness, the symptoms of hypothermia...all beautifully written, and very inspiring for this sort of stuff! :)
There's also a website called "Race for the Pole" (http://raceforthepole.co.uk/) which has a lot of information - including transcripts of their journals - of Scott's and Amundsen's expeditions to Antarctica in the early 20th century.
For the occasional single line or two of imagery, there's a Redgum song called "Midnight Sun":
I have seen ancient rivers of silver
Glacial plains fading into blue light
I have stood on frozen thunder
Hunched in storms through an endless nightVoices call from a howling wasteland
"Feel your hunger and hold your tongue
Surrender here your fatal yearning
There's no shelter for those who come to the midnight sun"Winter steals beneath a rainbow curtain
Oceans freeze, the weeks melt into the years
I've scaled heights of beauty and wonder
Known despair and the depths of fearStumbling wide at the limits of the compass
Fur and canvas in the wilderness of pain
You can lose your mind in the panic of snow blindness
Icy winds strike you deaf and numb at the midnight sunNone but cowards seek badges of courage
Only fools seek the trappings of fame
There's no conquest, just an endless striving
There's no glory, just a restless flameNo man's land, white desert, ice mountain
Beyond the pole, let the reckless come
Bathed in light, an infinity of silence
Cleanse the soul, leave the senses stunned
At the midnight sun