# The Frozen Pilgrims > From the Curse of Strahd game wiki (it covers the whole game, spoilers included): https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-frozen-pilgrims.html. Unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy, not approved or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast. > [!infobox] > ![quest the frozen pilgrims](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/img/shots/quest-the-frozen-pilgrims.webp) > **Type:** Side quest > **Region:** [The Tsolenka Pass](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/regions/the-tsolenka-pass.md) · level 9 > **Given by:** [Sergeant Dorin Valcu](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/sergeant-dorin-valcu.md) > **Starts at:** [The Tsolenka Guard Tower](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/the-tsolenka-guard-tower.md) > **Rewards:** [Staff of Frost](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/magic-items.md#staff-of-frost), 400 gp or 500 gp, depending on how it goes ## Summary Nine pilgrims from Vallaki went up the Tsolenka Pass forty years ago to ask the Amber Temple never to be cold again. Their lamp came back down. They didn't. ## Walkthrough ### Getting the quest Ask [Sergeant Dorin Valcu](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/sergeant-dorin-valcu.md) in [The Tsolenka Guard Tower](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/the-tsolenka-guard-tower.md) "Heard anything interesting?" (or "Anything to report, sergeant?" once the watch has let you pass). He reads you a forty-one-year-old log entry: nine pilgrims from Vallaki, led by a woman with a lamp, went round his gate by the goat path to ask the amber never to be cold again. Their lamp came back down and they didn't, and it's in the ice by the landing. The quest starts at Rumored. You don't need him, though. Looking at the shapes in the ice of the gorge wall at the landing on [The Tsolenka Pass](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/the-tsolenka-pass.md) starts the quest by itself. ### Step by step 1. **Look at the ice.** It's on the gorge wall at the landing, before the bridge. Nine pilgrims kneel in a row inside it, frozen mid-prayer, and the woman at the front holds a lit lamp. Her eyes move. The quest moves to Found. ![sq frozen pilgrims](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/img/cutscenes/sq-frozen-pilgrims.webp) 2. **Understand it.** Arcana DC 16 (one try) tells you the amber answered their prayer exactly: they became the cold. The woman with the lamp is the knot it's all tied to, and if you free her, all that cold has to go somewhere. 3. **Speak to her.** "Can you hear us?" is the step that opens the endings. [Mother Ecaterina](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/mother-ecaterina.md) tells you a winter took all their children. She warns you that if you wake her, the others wake too, and they'll want to be warm. She'd take either ending: to stop, all of them, or to see the valley in spring once from the bottom. 4. **Choose.** - **Let them go.** Religion DC 14 to say the last rites for all nine, or a cleric's rites of the dead with no roll. A failed Religion check only means the lamp burns on; you can try again. The shapes fade out of the ice, the lamp drops into the snow, and under the ledge you find nine purses of offerings: 400 gp. The quest ends at Rested (Liriel +3, Godrick +2, Thistle +1). - **Break her out.** Mother Ecaterina falls into your arms, and the other eight come out of the wall fused into one kneeling giant of ice. That's a fight: - [The Penitent](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/the-penitent.md) with eight Pilgrim's Shadows ([Ghast](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/ghast.md)) at level 11 (10,800 XP), five at level 10, four at level 9, and the Penitent at 170 hit points with three below that. - The Penitent hits twice with 10-foot reach. Its Winter's Embrace freezes everyone within 20 feet in place (Constitution DC 16, 4d8 cold and Restrained). It's immune to cold and poison and resists necrotic. - The ghasts' claws can paralyze (Constitution DC 10), and their stench can poison anyone who starts a turn next to them (Constitution DC 10). - Clear the ghasts quickly, and don't bunch up around the giant. 5. **After the fight, look at the ice again.** The quest doesn't finish on its own. Only meltwater and nine heaps of grey cloth are left, and Mother Ecaterina, wrapped in a cloak by the shrine, is going down to see the valley in spring. Under the ledge you find 500 gp, and she gives you the lamp-pole she carried up the pass, white with frost that never melts: a [Staff of Frost](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/magic-items.md#staff-of-frost). The quest ends at Done (Liriel +2, Godrick +2, Thistle +2, Wren +1, Ratatouille +1). ### Choices and endings - **Rested** (success): 400 gp, no fight, and the nine are at peace. - **Done** (success): 500 gp and the Staff of Frost, after a hard fight. Mother Ecaterina lives. - Either way, if the sergeant is still at his post, his next report logs that the lamp on the landing has gone out, the first change on his road in forty years. ### If you're stuck - **No way to free or bless them?** You have to ask "Can you hear us?" first. - **The quest is still at Found after the fight.** Look at the ice once more. - **The Penitent fight grows with your level:** it brings more ghasts at levels 10 and 11, so waiting doesn't make it easier. ## Rewards - [Staff of Frost](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/magic-items.md#staff-of-frost) - 400 gp or 500 gp, depending on how it goes **What your companions think** - **Liriel Dawnsong:** +3 you gave the frozen pilgrims their rest; +2 you broke Mother Ecaterina out of the ice and stood against the Penitent - **Godrick Pendlebrook:** +2 you gave the frozen pilgrims their rest; +2 you broke Mother Ecaterina out of the ice and stood against the Penitent - **Thistle:** +1 you gave the frozen pilgrims their rest; +2 you broke Mother Ecaterina out of the ice and stood against the Penitent - **Wren Featherfoot:** +1 you broke Mother Ecaterina out of the ice and stood against the Penitent - **Ratatouille:** +1 you broke Mother Ecaterina out of the ice and stood against the Penitent ## Fights - *The Penitent stands up out of the gorge wall, nine pilgrims fused in grey ice, and turns all its heads toward…*, in [The Tsolenka Pass](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/the-tsolenka-pass.md): [The Penitent](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/the-penitent.md), [Ghast](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/ghast.md). Scales with your level. > [!example]- By party level (the first line your party fits is the fight you get) > - **[The Tsolenka Pass](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/the-tsolenka-pass.md)**, when level ≥ 11: [The Penitent](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/the-penitent.md), 8 × A Pilgrim's Shadow ([Ghast](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/ghast.md)) (10800 XP) > - **[The Tsolenka Pass](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/the-tsolenka-pass.md)**, when level ≥ 10: [The Penitent](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/the-penitent.md), 5 × A Pilgrim's Shadow ([Ghast](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/ghast.md)) (9450 XP) > - **[The Tsolenka Pass](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/the-tsolenka-pass.md)**, when level ≥ 9: [The Penitent](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/the-penitent.md), 4 × A Pilgrim's Shadow ([Ghast](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/ghast.md)) (9000 XP) > - **[The Tsolenka Pass](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/the-tsolenka-pass.md)**: [The Penitent](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/the-penitent.md), 3 × A Pilgrim's Shadow ([Ghast](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/ghast.md)) (8550 XP) ## Journal > [!quote]- Every journal entry and hint > **Rumored**: Sergeant Valcu of the Tsolenka watch logged nine pilgrims going round his gate by the goat path, forty-one years ago, to ask the amber never to be cold again. Their lamp is on the landing, in the ice, and some nights it's lit. > *Hint:* Look at the ice of the gorge wall by the landing on the Tsolenka Pass. > > **Found**: Nine pilgrims kneel in the ice of the gorge wall above the landing, frozen mid-prayer. The woman at the front, Mother Ecaterina, holds a lit lamp, and her eyes move. The amber gave them what they asked: never to be cold again, by becoming the cold. > *Hint:* At the ice on the Tsolenka Pass, break Mother Ecaterina out or give all nine the last rites (Religion). > > **Rested** (the end: success): We said the last rites for the nine pilgrims in the ice, and they went, the way breath goes off a window. The lamp is on the ledge. > > **Done** (the end: success): We broke Mother Ecaterina out of the ice. The other eight woke as the Penitent, and it's meltwater now. She's going down to see the valley in spring, slowly. She gave us the lamp-pole she carried up the pass, with all the cold in it. > [!abstract]- Every skill check in its conversations > - Arcana DC 16: (Work out what's holding them.) > - Religion DC 14: (Say the last rites for all nine, and let them go.) ## Related - **People:** [Sergeant Dorin Valcu](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/sergeant-dorin-valcu.md), [Mother Ecaterina](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/mother-ecaterina.md) - **Places:** [The Tsolenka Guard Tower](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/the-tsolenka-guard-tower.md), [The Tsolenka Pass](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/the-tsolenka-pass.md) - **More in The Tsolenka Pass:** [The Last Egg](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-last-egg.md), [The Tsolenka Gate](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-tsolenka-gate.md) > [!example]- Cutscenes > **The Frozen Pilgrims**: Nine pilgrims kneel in the ice of the gorge wall, and the lamp is lit. > ![sq frozen pilgrims](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/img/cutscenes/sq-frozen-pilgrims.webp)