North of the Spine of the World and west of the towering Reghed Glacier is a frigid expanse few dare to explore, let alone inhabit. This icy land of windswept tundra recently became locked in a perpetual, dark winter without reprieve. Auril the Frostmaiden, the divine embodiment of winter’s fury, has withdrawn to this cold corner of the world to live among mortals. Further, she has cast a terrible spell over Icewind Dale, to the detriment of most of its denizens.
Each night before midnight, Auril takes to the sky on the back of a white roc and weaves her spell, which manifests as a shimmering curtain of light—a beautiful aurora that illuminates the night sky and fades before dawn. This powerful magic prevents the next day’s sun from rising above the horizon, turning midday into twilight and trapping Icewind Dale in winter’s dark embrace, with no sunlight or warmth to melt the snow and ice. Each casting of the spell leaves the Frostmaiden weakened, with just enough divine power left to barricade the mountain pass with blizzards and churn the Sea of Moving Ice with blistering winds. Such measures discourage travelers from approaching or leaving Icewind Dale, further isolating the region. Icewind Dale has thus been trapped in a different reality from the rest of the world, for though the sun never rises over the dale, it continues to rise everywhere else.
The people of Icewind Dale know Auril’s wrath when they feel it, and they have a name for the unending winter she has inflicted on them. They call it the Everlasting Rime. No one understands why the Frostmaiden has imposed her will in this way or why the other gods refuse to challenge her. This prolonged winter, which has gone on for more than two years, threatens to doom not just the flickering lights of civilization known as Ten-Towns but also the indigenous flora and fauna that need sunlight and the change of seasons to survive.
Not all creatures are discouraged by what has transpired north of the Spine of the World. The long nights and sunless days are a blessing to Xardorok Sunblight, a duergar who longs to carve out a domain for himself on the surface and enslave the people of Ten-Towns in the process. Already, he has taken advantage of Auril’s magic and raised a fortress amid the dark shadows of the mountains. From here, his underlings strike out across the tundra in search of chardalyn—a crystalline substance known to exist only in Icewind Dale. Once he gathers enough of it, Xardorok plans to construct a chardalyn dragon and unleash it upon Ten-Towns.
Despite Auril’s blizzards and other deterrents, visitors still come and go. Among the recent arrivals are four wizards of the Arcane Brotherhood, a powerful society of spellcasters based in Luskan. They’ve come chasing rumors of a lost city buried under the Reghed Glacier—a fragment of the long-gone Empire of Netheril, whose wizards wielded magic that terrified the gods. Netherese magic has a way of attracting power-hungry wizards, as members of the Arcane Brotherhood often are. The cities of Netheril floated among the clouds, making them almost impervious to assault for centuries. Then, nearly two thousand years ago, this floating city crashed during the fall of the empire, and no one has found or explored it since. It is, arguably, Icewind Dale’s greatest secret—a necropolis of Netherese wizards and the magic they left behind. What survived the crash is anyone’s guess, but we’re about to find out!
About This Book
Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden is a Dungeons & Dragons adventure optimized for four to six characters. The player characters are the heroes of the story; this book describes the villains and monsters the heroes must overcome and the locations they must explore to bring the adventure to a successful conclusion.
This book presents Icewind Dale as a self-contained campaign setting in which you can base adventures of your own. All pertinent details about the setting are covered here, with room left to add new locations and villains of your own design.
Tendays and Dalereckoning
In the Forgotten Realms setting, a week is ten days long and is referred to as a tenday. There are three tendays per month and twelve months in a year. For more information on the calendar of the Forgotten Realms, see “The Calendar of Harptos” sidebar in the Dungeon Master’s Guide.
Dalereckoning (DR) is the most common year measurement. This adventure is assumed to take place in the winter of 1489 DR or later. The exact date is not important. The happenings in this book occur more than a century after the events chronicled in R.A. Salvatore’s novel The Crystal Shard, which introduced the drow hero Drizzt Do’Urden to the hardy folk of Icewind Dale.
Adventure Summary
A duergar despot forging a dragon out of chardalyn. A lost city of magic entombed in a glacier. A frozen wilderness trapped in Auril’s grip. These three plot elements, woven together, form this adventure.
Duergar Despot
The Reghed nomads who stalk the tundra and the Ten-Towners who keep civilization alive are so concerned with day-to-day survival that they typically pay little heed to the evil forces gathering on the fringes of Icewind Dale. Adventurers are much better equipped to deal with such threats, particularly in the dead of winter.
One recent arrival in the area is Xardorok Sunblight, a duergar warlock formerly of the Underdark. His patron, Deep Duerra, has urged Xardorok to fulfill his destiny and become the first duergar to rule a kingdom on the surface. Icewind Dale is cold, dark, and heartlessly cruel—the perfect realm for Xardorok to claim as despot. Unbeknownst to Xardorok, however, it is not Deep Duerra guiding his actions but the archdevil Asmodeus in the guise of Deep Duerra. In Xardorok, the Lord of the Nine Hells has found an eager and petty tyrant.
To achieve his goal, Xardorok is scouring the land for chardalyn, which he is forging into a dragon that he will send to destroy Ten-Towns. His sons, Durth and Nildar, lead teams of duergar on quests to retrieve more of this dark-colored crystal for their grasping, despotic father.
Netherese Necropolis
The wizards of bygone Netheril wielded magic that could reshape the world. They used such magic to raise their cities into the sky. The city of Ythryn was one such wonder. It crashed long ago but still exists, buried under the Reghed Glacier on the eastern edge of Icewind Dale.
This frozen necropolis holds the remnants of some of the most powerful spellcasters in the history of the Realms, including a Netherese demilich. It also contains a mythallar (described in appendix D), a magic item that can raise an entire city into the air and alter the weather in a fifty-mile radius. The characters can use this device to counteract Auril’s spell and free Icewind Dale from her Everlasting Rime.
Chardalyn
More than a hundred years prior to this adventure, a wizard named Akar Kessel found an artifact suffused with demonic magic called Crenshinibon (better known as the Crystal Shard) and used it to erect a great black tower in Icewind Dale. When this tower was destroyed, the magic used to create it fused with the surrounding ice to form what is now known as chardalyn: a nonmagical, crystalline substance as strong as metal, though considerably easier to work with than steel. In the years since, more deposits of chardalyn have been found across Icewind Dale. Like the Crystal Shard, these deposits tend to be suffused with demonic magic. Prolonged contact with chardalyn that has become suffused with demonic magic can warp a creature’s mind, causing madness that usually fades away once the contact is broken.
Chardalyn is cold to the touch and readily accepts magical enchantment, making it an ideal substance for wands, staffs, and other magic items. A chardalyn object suffused with the magic of the Upper Planes is considered a consecrated object, while a chardalyn object suffused with the magic of the Lower Planes is considered a desecrated object; both can be identified as such using a
detect evil and good spell or similar magic.Long before Akar Kessel left his mark on Icewind Dale, Netherese wizards created their own chardalyn. Many items made from this dark-colored crystal can be found in the ruins of ancient Netherese enclaves.
Four members of the Arcane Brotherhood (a cabal of wizards who act like Wild West gunslingers) have come to Icewind Dale in search of the lost Netherese enclave, hoping to unearth its secrets. Whether the characters choose to aid or oppose these wizards is up to them, but one thing is certain: the Arcane Brotherhood won’t let a band of adventurers stand between them and the magic that waits to be found in the doomed, sepulchral ruin.
Auril’s Everlasting Rime
Auril’s decision to live among mortals is explained in appendix C. What the characters discover in the course of the adventure is that she’s unhappy and craves isolation. Her nightly quest to hold the sun at bay stems from a need to preserve the beauty of things by freezing them. There is no way to reason with a being so bereft of compassion as Auril, but in her weakened state, she can be defeated or forced to reckon with her cruel indifference toward life.
Anyone who hopes to reach the Netherese city buried in the ice must first visit Auril’s island and obtain
Other Quests
Chapters 1 and 2 are structured around quests, some of which touch on the major story arcs of the adventure while others merely show off other cool aspects of the setting.
In chapter 1, the adventurers undertake quests that lead them from one Ten-Towns settlement to another. Each town has a problem, and the adventurers get rewards for helping.
In chapter 2, rumors spur the adventurers to leave the cold comfort of Ten-Towns and explore the fringes of Icewind Dale, where dangers dwell.
Running the Adventure
To run the adventure, you need the fifth edition core rulebooks (Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monster Manual).
Text that appears in a box like this is meant to be read aloud or paraphrased for the players when their characters first arrive at a location or under a specific circumstance, as described in the text.
The Monster Manual contains stat blocks for most of the creatures encountered in this adventure. The rest can be found in appendix C.
When a creature’s name appears in bold type, that’s a visual cue pointing you to its stat block as a way of saying, “Hey, DM, you better get this creature’s stat block ready. You’re going to need it.” If the stat block appears in appendix C of this adventure, the text tells you so; otherwise, you can find the stat block in the Monster Manual.
Spells and equipment mentioned in the adventure are described in the Player’s Handbook. Magic items are described in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, unless the adventure’s text direct you to an item’s description in appendix D.
Using the Maps
This book contains a number of interior maps and a fold-out, double-sided poster map. These elements are further described below.
Interior Maps
Maps that appear in this book are for the DM’s eyes only. As the characters explore locations on a given map, you can redraw portions of the map on graph paper, a wet-erase mat, or other surface to help your players visualize locations that might have unusual shapes or features. Your hand-drawn maps need not be faithful to the originals, and you can alter a map’s features as you see fit. Nor do your maps need to be painstakingly rendered. You can omit details that are not readily visible (such as secret doors and other hidden features) until the characters are able to detect and interact with them.
Slopes and Staircases
On all interior maps, an arrow on a slope or staircase always points in the ascending direction.
Poster Map
The double-sided poster map is meant to be shared with the players. One side of the poster map shows Icewind Dale, including Ten-Towns and other sites and features in the region that are common knowledge. The reverse side has player-friendly maps of the ten settlements that comprise Ten-Towns, with prominent locations called out in each town for the players' benefit.
The Forgotten Realms
The world of the Forgotten Realms is one of high fantasy, populated by elves, dwarves, halflings, humans, and other folk. In the Realms, knights dare to seek out the crypts of the fallen dwarf kings of Delzoun, looking for glory and treasure. Rogues prowl the dark alleyways of teeming cities such as Neverwinter and Baldur’s Gate. Clerics wield mace and spell in the service of their gods, questing against the terrifying powers that threaten the land. Wizards plunder the ruins of the fallen Netherese empire, delving into secrets too dark for the light of day. Bards sing of kings, queens, tyrants, and heroes who died long ago.
On the roads and rivers of the Realms travel minstrels and peddlers, merchants and guards, soldiers and sailors. Steel-hearted adventurers from backcountry farmsteads and sleepy villages follow tales that take them to strange, glorious, faraway places. Good maps and clear trails can carry even an inexperienced youth with dreams of glory far across the world, but these paths are never safe. Fell magic and deadly monsters are among the perils one faces when traveling in the Realms. Even farms and freeholds within a day’s walk of a city can fall prey to monsters, and no place is safe from the sudden wrath of a dragon.
Icewind Dale, featured in this adventure, is located in a region called the Far North, which is dominated by the Spine of the World, a range of skyscraping, snow-covered peaks. These extend toward the Sword Coast, which forms the western edge of the great continent of Faerûn and stretches southward for thousands of miles. Ships and roads lead southbound travelers to a number of bustling ports along the Sword Coast, including the following strongholds of civilization:
- Luskan, the City of Sails, is home to pirates as well as the Hosttower of the Arcane (headquarters of the Arcane Brotherhood, which is described in area appendix C).
- Neverwinter, the City of Skilled Hands, is slowly being rebuilt after it was nearly destroyed by the eruption of Mount Hotenow.
- Waterdeep, the City of Splendors, is a seaside metropolis where people from all walks of life gather behind high walls.
Adventure Flow
The accompanying adventure flowchart visualizes the narrative flow of the adventure, which includes chapters that focus on places of interest (chapters 1 and 2) and chapters that focus on plot (chapters 3 through 7).
Chapter 1 introduces quests that prompt the characters to explore Ten-Towns, with an additional quest waiting for them in each town they visit. These quests take no more than one or two game sessions each to complete.
Chapter 2 describes several interesting locations on the fringes of Icewind Dale, including some future threats to Ten-Towns. The characters are drawn to these locations by rumors or quests. These sites are ancillary to the main story but help bring the harsh land of Icewind Dale to life.
The adventure kicks off in earnest with chapter 3, as the characters try to beard Xardorok Sunblight in his lair. Chapter 3 describes the duergar’s fortress. Unfortunately, the characters arrive too late to stop him from unleashing a dragon made of chardalyn. The characters face a difficult choice: continue storming Xardorok’s stronghold or return to Ten-Towns to fight the dragon.
The battle with Xardorok’s dragon forms the crux of chapter 4. Since the dragon is a mobile threat, the characters might have to face it more than once as it ravages one settlement after another. The Ten-Towners have no hope of defeating the dragon on their own, so here’s a chance for the characters to become true heroes of Icewind Dale. As they battle the dragon, the characters are aided by a necromancer named Vellynne Harpell, who helps steer them toward the discovery of a lost Netherese enclave entombed in the Reghed Glacier.
In chapter 5, Vellynne asks the characters to accompany her to Auril’s island in the Sea of Moving Ice to recover two items: an orb stolen by a rival and a book titled
Chapter 6 describes the Caves of Hunger, a network of ice tunnels and caves within the Reghed Glacier itself. The characters must navigate these treacherous passageways to reach the frozen Netherese city, which is described in chapter 7. The party’s exploration is interrupted by an albino tiefling villain who wants all the city’s magical secrets for herself.
Dissecting the Adventure
You can dissect this adventure and use pieces of it rather than the whole thing. Nothing in this adventure is too sacred to tamper with and repurpose to serve your own needs.
Most of the locations described in this book can be used as stand-alone adventure sites. With a little effort and a few name changes, you can take these adventure locations out of Icewind Dale and transplant them into other campaign worlds, including your own.
Take the duergar fortress in chapter 3, for example. You could set the fortress in the Yatil Mountains of Oerth, the Ironroot Mountains of Khorvaire, the Flotket Alps of Wildemount, or some other mountain range while preserving the plot elements. You can also strip out the story about an evil duergar building a dragon construct and have the duergar doing something else instead. Alternatively, you could jettison everything but the map of the fortress, populating it with new creatures that better suit your campaign. Sometimes a good map is all a DM needs!
Running NPC Party Members
Nonplayer characters (NPCs) are normally controlled by the DM. However, there are times in this adventure when a friendly NPC might join the party for one or more game sessions. If roleplaying that NPC becomes a burden to you, see if one of your players is willing to run the NPC as a secondary character.
If a player agrees to take control of a friendly NPC, provide that player with a copy of the NPC’s stat block, along with any roleplaying notes you deem important, and warn the player that you might retake custody of the NPC at some future point. As the adventure progresses, it might become apparent that the player is unable to manage the NPC effectively, or you might need more influence over the NPC’s actions and behavior. Either scenario justifies you retaking control of the NPC.
Horror in the Far North
Parts of this adventure play out like scenes in a horror movie. As the DM, you need to handle the horror responsibly. Although the events of the adventure should make characters feel stressed and anxious, your players should be relaxed and having fun. Before running the adventure, have a candid out-of-game conversation with your players about hard and soft limits on what topics can be broached in-game. Your players might have phobias and triggers you might not unaware of. Any topic or theme that makes a player feel unsafe should be avoided. If a topic or theme makes one or more players nervous but they give you consent to include it in-game, incorporate it with care. Be ready to move away from such topics and themes quickly, however.
Adventure Flowchart
Chapter 1: Ten-Towns
For 1st to 4th-level characters
Adventure quests prompt our intrepid heroes to visit the many settlements of Ten-Towns and lend a helping hand.
Chapter 2: Icewind Dale
For characters of 4th level and higher
Tall tales lead the characters to adventure locations on the fringes of Icewind Dale.
Chapter 3: Sunblight
For 6th-level characters
A duergar tyrant is building a chardalyn dragon to destroy Ten-Towns. The characters learn of this plot and try to thwart it.
Chapter 4: Destruction’s Light
For characters of 4th level and higher
After Xardorok Sunblight unleashes his dragon, the characters must stop it before it destroys Ten-Towns.
Chapter 5: Auril’s Abode
For 7th-level characters
Characters travel to the frigid island of Solstice in search of a lost orb, a book, and perhaps the Frostmaiden herself.
Chapter 6: Caves of Hunger
For 8th-level characters
Armed with the “Rime of the Frostmaiden,” the characters crack open the Reghed Glacier, unsealing a dungeon of ice.
Chapter 7: Doom of Ythryn
For characters of 9th level or higher
After surviving the Caves of Hunger, the characters enter the necropolis of Ythryn in search of ancient Netherese magic.
Wilderness Survival
The following rules come into play as the characters explore Ten-Towns and embark on adventures to the icy, windy, hellishly cold reaches of Icewind Dale.
Avalanches
See the
Blizzards
See the
Extreme Cold
Rules for extreme cold appear in the Dungeon Master’s Guide but are repeated here for your convenience.
A creature exposed to the cold must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw at the end of each hour or gain one level of
Temperatures
During Auril’s everlasting winter, the average temperature in Icewind Dale is −49 degrees Fahrenheit (−45 degrees Celsius). Wind chill can lower these temperatures by as much as 80 degrees.
Fishing for Knucklehead Trout
To fish for knucklehead trout on the lakes of Icewind Dale, a character needs fishing tackle and a rowboat. The former costs 4 gp (per the Player’s Handbook), while the latter can be bought for 50 gp or rented for 2 gp per day. A character can fish on the ice instead of a boat, in which case a saw or similar tool is needed to cut a fishing hole through the ice.
At the end of each hour spent fishing on the lake, the character must make a DC 15 Wisdom (
Frigid Water
Rules for frigid water appear in the Dungeon Master’s Guide but are repeated here for your convenience.
A creature can be immersed in frigid water for a number of minutes equal to its Constitution score before suffering any ill effects. Each additional minute spent in frigid water requires the creature to succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or gain one level of
Illumination
So long as the Everlasting Rime lasts, natural light in Icewind Dale is never brighter than dim. In normal (non-blizzard) conditions, twilight extends from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Icewind Dale is otherwise dark until Auril’s aurora or the full moon appears in the night sky.
Overland Travel
The fastest way to travel across the tundra is by dogsled (see “area Getting Around Ten-Towns"). But dogs are expensive and require food, water, and shelter. Unless they have more equipment than they can carry, adventurers are better off traveling on foot.
The speed that characters can travel across Icewind Dale’s rough, snowy tundra is given in the Overland Travel table. Travel is less time-consuming on the snowy roads and trails that connect the settlements of Ten-Towns, as discussed in chapter 1.
Overland Travel
| Method of Travel | Distance per Hour |
|---|---|
| Dogsled | 1 mile |
| On foot, with snowshoes | 1/2 mile |
| On foot, without snowshoes | 1/4 mile |
Mountain Travel
Navigating the Spine of the World or the slopes of Kelvin’s Cairn is particularly arduous because of the unforgiving mountain terrain. At the end of each hour, the character or NPC leading the expedition must make a DC 15 Wisdom (
The Mountain Travel table shows how fast the characters can move through the mountains on foot or by dogsled. Even in the best of cases, a journey in the mountains takes twice as long as one of the same distance across the tundra.
Mountain Travel
| Method of Travel | Distance per Hour |
|---|---|
| Dogsled | 1/2 mile |
| On foot, with snowshoes | 1/4 mile |
| On foot, without snowshoes | 1/8 mile |
Pronunciation Guide
The Pronunciations table on the facing page shows how to pronounce many of the non-English names that appear in this adventure.
Pronunciations
| Name | Pronunciation | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Aerix Vokototh | AIR-ix VOH-kuh-toth | Chieftain’s son and member of the Reghed Tribe of the Wolf |
| Angajuk | AWN-gah-jook | Awakened sperm whale with a boat strapped to its back |
| Arn Akannathi | ARN ah-kah-NAH-thee | Chief of the Akannathi goliath tribe of Skytower Shelter |
| Arveiaturace | ar-vay-AH-chur-us | Ancient white dragon known as the White Wyrm |
| Auril | oh-REEL | Lesser god that embodies winter’s endurance and cruelty |
| Bjornhild Solvigsdottir | bee-YORN-hild SOAL-vigs-daw-ter | Queen of the Reghed Tribe of the Tiger |
| Caer-Dineval | kair-DIN-eh-vawl | Small fishing town on the shore of Lac Dinneshere |
| Caer-Konig | kair-KOH-nig | Small fishing town on the shore of Lac Dinneshere |
| Chardalyn | CHAR-dah-lin | A dark crystalline substance that can be forged |
| Chwinga | chuh-WING-gah | Tiny, sometimes helpful elemental spirit |
| Chyzka | CHIZ-kah | Gnoll fang of Yeenoghu that lairs in the Cackling Chasm |
| Crannoc Siever | CRAN-ock SEE-ver | Human town speaker of Caer-Dineval |
| Dorbulgruf Shalescar | DOR-bull-gruff SHAYL-scar | Dwarf town speaker of Bremen |
| Dredavex Sinfiz | DRED-ah-vex SIN-fizz | Gnome ceremorph (illithid) aboard the Id Ascendant |
| Drizzt Do’Urden | DRIZT doh-UR-den | Legendary drow hero known throughout Icewind Dale |
| Duergar | DEW-ur-gar or DWAIR-gar | Evil, gray-skinned dwarves that dwell in the Underdark |
| Dzaan | duh-ZAWN | Red Wizard of Thay and member of the Arcane Brotherhood |
| Grandolpha Muzgardt | gran-DOLL-fah MUZZ-gart | Duergar matron of the Muzgardt clan |
| Grimskalle | grim-SKAW-lah | Frost giant fortress inhabited by Auril the Frostmaiden |
| Grynsk Berylbore | GRINSK BEAR-ill-bor | Grizzled dwarf and boat owner in Bremen |
| Gunvald Halraggson | GOON-vald hawl-ROG-sun | King of the Reghed Tribe of the Bear |
| Hengar Aesnvaard | HEN-gar ACE-en-vard | Human champion of the Reghed Tribe of the Elk |
| Hethyl Arkorran | HETH-ill AR-kor-ann | Venerable dwarf seer and cultist of Levistus |
| Imdra Arlaggath | IM-draw AR-lah-gath | Half-elf captain of the town militia in Easthaven |
| Iriolarthas | ear-ee-oh-LAR-thas | Demilich of Ythryn |
| Isarr Kronenstrom | EYE-sar CROW-nen-strom | Psychotic would-be king of the Reghed Tribe of the Wolf |
| Jarund Elkhardt | yah-ROOND ELK-hart | King of the Reghed Tribe of the Elk |
| Kapanuk Thuunlakalaga | KAH-pah-nook THOON-lock-ah-law-gah | Goliath imprisoned in the duergar fortress of Sunblight |
| Karkolohk | KAR-koh-loak | Goblin fortress |
| Krintaas | KRIN-tass | Dzaan’s wight bodyguard |
| Lac Dinneshere | lack DIN-eh-sheer | The shallowest of three large lakes in Icewind Dale |
| Macreadus | mah-KREE-dus | Human cleric of Lathander living in the Black Cabin |
| Maer Dualdon | mair dew-AWL-dun | One of the three large lakes in Icewind Dale |
| Mjenir | meh-YEN-eer | Human shaman of the Reghed Tribe of the Elk |
| Naerth Maxildanarr | NAIRTH max-ill-DAN-ar | Human town speaker of Targos |
| Nass Lantomir | NASS LAN-tuh-meer | Ghost and former member of the Arcane Brotherhood |
| Netheril | NETH-eh-ril | Bygone human empire ruled by powerful archmages |
| Ogolai Thuunlakalaga | OH-guh-lye THOON-lock-ah-law-gah | Chief of the Akannathi goliath tribe of Wyrmdoom Crag |
| Oyaminartok | oh-yaw-meh-NAR-tock | Legendary goliath polar werebear |
| Reggaryarva | reh-gar-YAR-vah | Deceased frost giant jarl whose spirit haunts Jarlmoot |
| Scrivenscry | SKRIV-in-scry | Arcanaloth in Ythryn |
| Scython | SIGH-thawn | Tiefling owner of the Easthaven ferry |
| Sephek Kaltro | SEH-fek KAWL-troh | Cold-blooded killer and Torrga Icevein’s bodyguard |
| Söpo | SAW-poh | Ice mephit |
| Tekeli-li | teck-ah-LEE-lee | Gnoll vampire that haunts the Caves of Hunger |
| Vaelish Gant | VAY-lish GANT | Human mage serving a life sentence in Revel’s End |
| Vellynne Harpell | vuh-LIN har-PELL | Human mage and member of the Arcane Brotherhood |
| Vorryn Q’uuol | VOR-inn KEW-awl | Gnome ceremorph (illithid) aboard the Id Ascendant |
| Xardorok Sunblight | ZAR-dor-rock SUN-blight | Duergar tyrant who aims to conquer Icewind Dale |
| Yilsebek Dalambra | YIL-suh-beck duh-LAHM-bruh | Drow mage in the Caves of Hunger |
| Yselm Bloodfang | YEE-selm BLUD-fang | Human frost druid guide |
| Ythryn | EETH-rin | Netherese necropolis buried under the Reghed Glacier |
Character Creation
Before starting the adventure, consider spending your first game session helping your players create characters. Were the characters born and raised in Icewind Dale, or do they hail from distant lands? How long have they known each other? What secrets are they hiding? The following sections can help you answer these questions.
Character Backgrounds
The Player’s Handbook contains character backgrounds that are well suited for this adventure. If your players are having trouble fleshing out their characters' backgrounds with details about Icewind Dale, share the suggestions from the Character Hooks Tied to Backgrounds table with them.
Character Hooks Tied to Backgrounds
| Background | Character Hook |
|---|---|
| Acolyte | Auril the Frostmaiden, the god of winter’s fury, has cast an evil spell over Icewind Dale. You can bring hope and faith to the people of Ten-Towns or, even better, free them from winter’s cold embrace in the name of your god. |
| Charlatan | Your cons and deceptions nearly got the better of you. You needed to disappear for a while, and Icewind Dale was the perfect place to do so. Nothing could prepare you for the cold and the dark desolation, but at least there’s money to be made. |
| Criminal | You are wanted for crimes in the cities of Luskan and Mirabar, but no one will think to look for you in Ten-Towns, the cold heart of Icewind Dale. Thankfully, nobody in Ten-Towns cares who you are—or what you’ve done. |
| Entertainer | You came to Icewind Dale three years ago seeking inspiration for a new song or poem, drawn by tales of the land’s harsh beauty and the legendary exploits of Drizzt Do’Urden. Since then, Auril the Frostmaiden has cast an evil spell over the dale, preventing you from returning home. |
| Folk Hero | Your name is synonymous with heroism throughout Ten-Towns. Did you save a fisher who fell into the ice, scare away a yeti armed with only a fishing pole and a basket, or beat a drunk goliath at arm wrestling? |
| Guild Artisan | You came to Icewind Dale to start a business. Your shop was doing well until Auril the Frostmaiden cast her evil spell to banish the sun. Now, businesses throughout Ten-Towns are suffering, yours included. To avoid hardship, you might need to supplement your income. |
| Hermit | You’ve never felt at ease in civilized society, and there’s no place farther from the trappings of civilization than Icewind Dale. This is a land without pretense, and the people of Ten-Towns pay you little mind. To them, you’re just another silly old fool. |
| Noble | Your wealthy grandfather or grandmother sent you to Icewind Dale to learn a hard lesson. Perhaps the cruel indifference of this frozen land will prepare you for the cruel indifference of Waterdeep’s politics. |
| Outlander | You’re a child of the icy wilderness, born and raised in one of the Reghed tribes. Imagine, after following herds of migrating reindeer your whole life, getting a taste of what life in Ten-Towns has to offer. |
| Sage | You came to Icewind Dale in search of ruins and artifacts left behind by the giants who ruled the ancient empire of Ostoria. To find even one Ostorian relic would fulfill a lifelong dream and make your rivals back home green with envy. |
| Sailor | You’ve sailed ships up and down the Sword Coast, but a shipwreck made you reevaluate your life choices. Two years ago, you headed north, bought a house and a fishing boat in Ten-Towns, and became a fisher. You were told that the summers here are beautiful, but you have yet to see one. |
| Soldier | You are a soldier of Ten-Towns, trained to fight orcs and other threats lurking in the Spine of the World mountains. Auril the Frostmaiden has cast an evil spell over Icewind Dale, and you struggle to see how your soldier’s training can save this land from so terrible a doom. Still, you are not about to give up on the people of Ten-Towns. |
| Urchin | Because you grew up in Ten-Towns, your familiarity with the residents makes you useful to Harper spies and Zhentarim bounty hunters who are looking for criminals and other ne’er-do-wells hiding in your midst. Ratting out these newcomers keeps coin in your pockets. |
Goliath Player Characters
All the character races presented in the Player’s Handbook are well suited for this adventure, as are goliaths—tall, strong folk who live in the mountains. area Appendix C includes a description of goliaths and their traits, if you want to allow them in your game.
Starting Equipment
All characters begin the adventure with a free set of cold weather clothing in addition to the starting equipment they receive from their class and background choices. See “area Winter Survival Gear”, for more information about cold weather clothing.
Trinkets
Appendix A provides a table of trinkets appropriate for characters who start their adventuring careers in Icewind Dale. A player whose character has a trinket can roll on this table instead of the Trinkets table in the Player’s Handbook.
Character Secrets
Appendix B contains secrets that you can photocopy, cut out, and share with players in your home game. While the players are creating their characters, decide whether you want each party member to have a secret or not. The secrets are designed to foment mistrust among party members, creating an atmosphere of suspicion and paranoia that is appropriate for the setting.
Determine each character’s secret by having that character’s player draw a random card from the deck. If a player doesn’t like the secret they’ve drawn, or if the secret is a bad fit for the character, let the player discard the first draw and pick another card. Each character gets one secret to start with. Some of the secrets are benign, others not so much.
If you’re running the adventure for a group that loves the idea of characters who have secrets, you can allow each player to draw twice instead of once, creating a party with a disturbing number of skeletons in their closets. If you want to make it possible for more than one character to have the same secret, replace each card in the deck before the next player draws.
Some players will guard their characters' secrets for the entire campaign, never sharing them. Other players will wait for the perfect occasion to reveal their characters' secrets. Don’t be surprised if a player decides to reveal their character’s secret right away.
Using Secrets
The following suggestions are offered to help you make the most out of the secrets in appendix B.
Alagondar Scion
At some point, Lord Dagult Neverember might send a lone assassin—a nameless, middle-aged woman with a shaved head and a hook for a right hand—to kill the character who has this secret.
Doppelganger
This character can imitate specific NPCs and even other player characters. If this character’s secret becomes widely known, the people of Ten-Towns will almost certainly try to kill or drive away the character out of fear.
Drizzt Fan
This harmless secret comes with no strings attached and is a nod to R.A. Salvatore’s Drizzt novels, which were among the first works to bring Icewind Dale to life.
Elusive Paramour
This secret is another nod to the Drizzt novels, setting up a situation like the one faced by Regis the halfling. At a time of your choosing, you can have the disgruntled pasha’s assassin, an invisible stalker, show up to menace the character.
Escaped Prisoner
The character with this secret knows the location of the crashed nautiloid in area chapter 2 and can lead the party to it. The trauma of being held captive by the illithids prevents the character from remembering events prior to the crash. A
Littlest Yeti
If the party happens upon one or more yetis in the course of the adventure, this secret might reveal itself. You can also rule that yeti tykes (see appendix C) are friendly toward this character by default.
Midwinter Child
This is one of the more useful secrets, since the character possessing it is immune to the effects of extreme cold. Also, the player might decide that their character is sympathetic toward Auril because of the gift she has bestowed. If the party succeeds in killing Auril, the benefits of this secret are lost.
Old Flame
This secret comes to light when the player chooses the character’s secret lover. Since the onus falls on the player to choose this NPC, the lover can change each time you run this adventure with a different group of characters. This secret can also be used to turn an NPC foe into a potential ally, at your discretion.
Orc Stone
The spirit summoned by the stone belongs to a fierce orc war chief named Vokarr the Eyebiter, who was killed by dwarves. This spirit looks like a living, breathing orc. It speaks Common and Orc.
Owlbear Whisperer
If the character uses this secret to change an owlbear’s attitude to friendly, the owlbear can become the character’s companion and protector, and you can run the owlbear as an NPC.
Pirate Cannibal
The character with this secret knows the location of the Dark Duchess in area chapter 2 and can lead the party to it. The character would also know the ship’s layout.
Reghed Heir
More information about Queen Bjornhild Solvigsdottir and the Tiger Tribe can be found in area appendix C. Bjornhild would hardly recognize her discarded offspring, but any character who presents themselves as such will be attacked at once. Bjornhild has no love for her would-be heir, seeing that character only as a rival and a sacrifice to Auril.
Reincarnation
Allow the player to flesh out the details of the character’s life prior to being reincarnated, and try to imagine how that back story might tie into some part of the adventure. Some of the races listed in the
Forgotten Realms Races
| Race | Realms Version |
|---|---|
| Dwarf, hill | Dwarf, gold |
| Dwarf, mountain | Dwarf, shield |
| Elf, high | Elf, moon or sun |
| Elf, wood | Elf, wild or wood |
| Halfling, stout | Halfling, strongheart |
How I Died
| d20 | How I Died |
|---|---|
| 1–3 | I was killed in an avalanche. |
| 4–5 | I was murdered by goblins in the mountains after they ambushed my caravan. |
| 6–8 | I got mauled to death by a yeti. |
| 9–10 | A white dragon attacked my caravan, and I was slain by its freezing breath weapon. |
| 11–13 | I was pulled into a freezing lake by a knucklehead trout and drowned before I could be rescued. |
| 14–16 | A lottery was recently held in Targos to see who would be sacrificed to the Frostmaiden. I was the unlucky one. I died of exposure after being stripped down and cast into a snowstorm. |
| 17–18 | I was killed in Ten-Towns by a lookalike—a doppelganger, I presume. |
| 19–20 | I was killed by a white moose outside Ten-Towns. |
Ring Hunter
You might decide that the lost ring sought by this character is lodged inside Ol' Bitey (see “area Ol' Bitey"). Otherwise, the character can try to fish it out of Maer Dualdon (see area Fishing for Knucklehead Trout). Each time a party member cuts open a trout pulled from this lake, there’s a 1 percent chance that the fish has the signet ring lodged inside it.
Runaway Author
Worshipers of Asmodeus send three Bearded Devil (whose fiendish features are cloaked by cold weather clothing) to kill the character who has this secret. If the characters visit Caer-Dineval, the Knights of the Black Sword (see “area Knights of the Black Sword"), as followers of Levistus rather than Asmodeus, might warn the characters that an attack on one of them is imminent and even offer sanctuary in Caer-Dineval’s keep.
Slaad Host
The exact timing of the slaad tadpole’s birth is deliberately left vague, although there are a few places in the adventure where the text suggests that the emergence might occur then and there. See the slaadi entry in the Monster Manual for more information about red slaad eggs and slaad tadpoles. Any magic that can cure a disease can end this threat, provided the cure is administered before the slaad tadpole bursts from the character’s chest.
Spy
Harpers assigned to Icewind Dale can’t rely on much support from the organization, so they are expected to look after themselves. Beldora, the character’s Harper contact in Bryn Shander, is a chaotic good human spy who can help steer the adventure by sharing rumors and providing helpful advice.