A snow ape is a bit more threatening than a standard ape. They are described as “white-haired, carnivorous gorillas that stalk the high mountains and live in caves.” While their attacks are the same as the standard ape, their thrown rock causes more damage (2d6). They have thick fur, making them immune to the cold.
Online drawings of snow apes, such as this one, look like yetis. There is no separate yeti in the Shadowdark Core Rules, so I would assume that is the goal. The seeds below consider the yeti as both a solitary creature and as a creature that might be in a pack. A couple of other creatures are sprinkled in one of the adventure seeds. Those could be taken out or changed as appropriate for a given adventure.
Encounter Seed: On a successful wisdom or perception roll, characters see movement ahead during snowy weather. They would not be able to place what it is, just that something is moving. A snow ape is headed in their direction, likely seeing them before they see it.
Encounter Seed: While walking in melting snow, characters come across tracks of one or more large creatures (snow apes). It is hard to tell what the creatures are or exactly how big they are due to the snowmelt, but they seem to be large. The tracks head to the side of a mountain and disappear. The characters might have an eerie sensation that they are being watched.
Encounter Seed: Two snow apes hide atop a cliff in a snowy pass. As travelers walk through the pass, the snow apes will push snow atop them before climbing down to attack. [Shadowdark Mechanics: The snow requires a DC 18 dexterity check to avoid, or else the character is covered. A DC 12 strength check is required to escape the snow. It will take the snow apes 1 round to get down from the cliff to attack.]
Adventure Seed: As an illustration that dungeons (or caverns) are not just static places that can be cleaned out with no further threat, characters will face a new challenge attempting to escape a cave system. While they would face some threat on the way into the cave, a family of snow apes would enter the cave while the pary is exploring. When the party assumes they have “cleared” the cave, they will be met by one last set of hungry predators on the way out.
Adventure Seed: Someone needs a package delivered to the monastery on the top of the nearby mountain before the snow gets even worse. While the couriers would have been warned that the trail can be precarious in the snow, there was probably no warning about a territorial badger and the pack of wolves along the trail. Even less expected would be the bloody scene outside of the monastery involving two monks and three snow apes.
Ridiculous Adventure Seed: An angry snow ape keeps attacking traders headed through the Rimstone Pass. The ape approaches and makes grunting noises before eventually attacking and running away. It has not killed anyone just yet, but traders are scared to go through the area. The snow ape is not bloodthirsty. A local druid realizes that the ape is not bloodthirsty. It just has an infection and needs a tooth retraction.
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