Codicil of White
My players find themselves at the moment in front of the door for the 3rd trial of Auril down in the dungeon in Grimskalle. Auril is not at the moment in the fortress, but the group found some frost druids in front of an altar in the middle of the dungeon, chanting some kind of song to worship the Frostmaiden. They have also made an enemy out of Vellynne, who is on her way to Grimskalle, trying to find the Codicil before them. Due to shenanigans and my group not having the best of luck, they will probably end up passing the last test with some levels of exhaustion and not at their fullest. I am wondering what will happen whenever they find the Codicil and take it.
The book does not really go much into this, but how does Auril react to it being taken? If she's at the island, I'd guess she appears as a bunch of snow coalescing in the middle of the dungeon level and confronts the players (and, in our case, the frost druids too). My group would probably try to fight her, but there's a 99% chance of it resulting in a TPK, which would be a bummer given that we're doing a little trip this weekend for these next couple of sessions.
This is where I would have two questions: 1. how would the PCs escape the fortress? I mean, I have never done a chase with any kind of urgency, but it seems rather easy for the Frostmaiden at her lair, given that she can basically appear wherever she wants. Also, she has a giant bird at her disposal. My group convinced Gant to wait on a boat for them in exchange for a diamond, so her's still there at the harbour. How could PCs avoid getting trapped or how have you people run chases or this kind of encounters before?
Second question has to do more with the mechanics of the control weather spell. I believe my PCs believe that they can end the Rime only with whatever is written in the Codicil. They haven't paid much attention to the fact that there's a city with millennia-old magic underneath a glacier –magic that would be needed to end such a spell– and I am afraid I don't know how to make this clear for the players without telling them outright that they need to go down there to end the spell. They do have Professor Skant in their possession, so I think that would be my go-to, but I sill don't have clear how or when would be the right moment to do so.
Would love to know how this part of the adventure went on your campaigns and would appreciate any kind of ideas!