Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden is the last adventure released in 2020, and it takes place in the titular Icewind Dale of the Forgotten Realms. It's an adventure that involves the frost and magic-filled land besieged by a magical and terrifying being called the Frostmaiden, and adventurers have to deal with mad wizards and ancient winter gods. I haven't actually read through the book fully and just skimmed through a copy owned by a friend. Again, I'm here for the monsters!
I probably could've done this in conjunction with the Wildemount book? Oh well, you guys get two relatively shorter entries in this series. I suppose next up I'm going to flip a coin on whether I cover 4E or 3.5E's first Monster Manual!
_________________________________________
Chardalyn Dragon
We're going more or less in order of the creatures as they show up in the bestiary. The Chardalyn Dragon is created out of the mysterious ore Chardalyn, which drives people crazy because it's infused with demonic energy. So the Chardalyn Dragon is a draconic construct made out of said cursed metal! A very cool artwork, and I've always had a personal soft spot for dragons with a stouter body with a lower center of mass. Really like the segmented armour plated neck and that face, too, with the beady eyes and the face looking like the faceplate of a knight's helmet. The Chardalyn Dragon is sentient, too, being absolutely filled with the malevolence from the evil metal, and it will corrupt and drive crazy anyone who gets too close to the dragon. Pretty cool -- dragon-shaped robotic constructs aren't exactly original to D&D, but I've always enjoyed them.
Coldlight Walker
This is another cool one. It's a unique form of undead formed when someone dies from extreme cold, and their spirits remain behind as these Coldlight Walkers, created by winter gods to embody winter's wrath. I do like that their corpses shamble about, but have the unique property of growing so brightly with a spectral light so intense that our mortal eyes can't look at them. The visuals here are pretty eerie, a cloaked, shambling zombie with its face glowing brightly, and the tatters of the corpse's clothing also shows that the entire corpse is glowing with this unearthly light. The trope of eerie, dancing lights in the icy parts of the world is something that I think the art team of Icewind Dale really want to hammer home, and they sure succeeded! Pretty cool.
Ice Troll
Frankly when we did the many, many troll variants in Volo's, I'm surprised we didn't get one of these! It's a shaggy, lanky-armed, muscular snowy troll! It's a trope that I feel is very, very common in a lot of children's cartoons and video games (most memorable in my head being World of Warcraft's Troggs and Skyrim's Trolls). Like, 'troll' is one of those mythological creatures that have so many different interpretation over different cultures, that I'm surprised that D&D has been relatively tame in keeping them as large muscular green-skinned brutes. I guess they didn't want an overlap with Yetis? But this guy looks just so much more savage than the Yeti. The Ice Troll's entry here mostly describes about its magical heart, though, which can cause some real weird stuff like giving anyone who consumes it troll regeneration powers, or creating a localized blizzard when it is buried.
Knucklehead Trout
That looks so much more like some sort of sperm whale with fish anatomy, but actual sperm whales come in later in the book. That artwork is way too badass to be just a simple tiny fish! Although, well, a lot of small fishies do kind of look badass if magnified. Icewind Dale adds a lot of stats for regular animals, but I'm happy to see a couple of fictional ones, too, like these weird trout that are just too strong to be reeled in with regular nets. And, from its name and picture, presumably headbutts you if it gets angry.
Living Spells
Oh, hey! 5E's first Living Spells first showed up in one of the Eberron books and looked pretty tame. But these ones are so much more fun! As their name implies, they're just spells that end up turning into animated things that runs around to kill adventurers. And Icewind Dale is such a land that has a lot of errant magical energy! These three are, from left to right, Living Bigby's Hand, Living Blade of Disaster and Living Demiplane. Bigby's Hand is already a spell that's rife in being turned into a floating enemy. It's a giant magical hand! I'm not as familiar with the other two spells, but a floating magical sword is pretty simple but neat as an enemy. Living Demiplane is pretty terrifying when you think about it, there's some eldritch horror shit in the concept of an entire tiny dimensional pocket that's self-aware, able to creep around and wants to pull people into itself.
Magen
I've never quite much cared about these sort of 'artificial humanoid races' and I honestly wish that there was a term that all fantasy settings use. Like, there are like five different kinds of these artificial magical humanoids (that are often super-soldiers) running around in Magic: The Gathering, aren't there? Anyway, the Magen here are constructs, created by magic, and they look like humanoids with green skin. They bleed mercury, and when they die they explode into fire and smoke. It's honestly just a particularly fancy golem, then? It's pretty cool and the artwork is cool, but I kinda wished that there was more uniqueness to them. We get three variants here. "Demos" Magen are melee warriors, "Galvan" Magen can fly and Force-Lightning people, and "Hypnos" Magen are hypnotists.
Mind Flayers
I was going to put these at the back with a lot of the other 'pre-existing monster variants', but lookit these little buds. LOOKIT THEM. Look at that first chibi Mind Flayer with his too-large collar and his adorable space invader gun. And look at that second Mind Flayer with those huge eyes and two giant squid tentacles that are so large they can support his entire teeny-weeny body. Who's a good buddy? Who's a good buddy? Who deserves all the tasty brains in the world? Yes, it's you, little buds!
The lore for these chibi-flayers is because of the unique 'quasi-magical' physiology of gnomes, which, for me, is unironically the first time gnomes have ever been interesting in D&D book for me. The first one here is a "Gnome Ceremorph", which is just a small, gnome-sized mind flayer and one where the Illithid Tadpole implantation only goes slightly awry. It retains memories of its previous life, including the ability to invent things. Like a god-damn Disneyland ride laser pistol, hell yeah. When it goes 'horribly' awry, the creature becomes a Gnome Squidling, which is described as being deformed, having weak limbs, and needs to use levitation to move around. These guys are noted to be abominations to Mind Flayers, sort of like the Neothelid we saw a couple of times before. Clearly, those Mind Flayers don't know what they are doing. Look at that cute thing that I will adopt and will most definitely sneak into my tent at night and feast on my brain!
Snow Golem
A 'snowman' monster seems to be pretty obvious and I'm honestly surprised not more fantasy games do it more often. I guess they're afraid snowmen aren't 'scary' enough to exude an aura of menace like Yetis or Ice Elementals? Well, clearly the solution is to make the snow look lumpy, the limbs and legs look misshapen, and throw out any semblance of a friendly face and just put a single, crooked, toothy mouth on its face. What the fuck is that face, that's so creepy. I like it. Being made out of snow, Snow Golems are 100% immune to regular physical attacks, something that I honestly do think that more creatures in D&D probably should be -- but I guess that's not particularly fair to the warriors and berserkers in the group.
Tomb Tapper (a.k.a. "Thaluud")
Good lord, you go from 'weird trout' to 'snowman' to 'green magic people' to this Silent Hill motherfucker. Look at this thing! A face that's just a mound of flesh shaped like an executioner's hood, a massive multi-layered set of fangs in the stomach, reverse-jointed legs, and arms and legs that are just way too long... yeah, this is a pretty cool monster. They're created by arcanists and are called "Thaluud", meaning "Faceless". As with most crazy magical creations, they're created out of the harvested souls of victims sacrificed to create them, and these souls leave their memory inside the Tomb Tappers. They also have a lust for magic, and a hatred for any non-human spellcasters, which is because the crazy arcanists who created them made them to be living weapons against the Underdark creatures. So much creepier and cooler than the Magen, I'm sorry.
The bestiary also describes their biology in more detail than I expected, noting that they crush rock and absorb water to gain sustenance, and, in a pinch, will digest iron from the bones and blood of their victims. They communicate to each other by skin vibrations, which is such a weird thing to imagine this gaunt motherfucker doing. And they're sentient enough to be in awe of earth elementals, which they view as 'their source'. Because they have to hunt down Underdark monsters, they can dig underground with their claws, will hunt down any non-human spellcasters, and will kill them. This behaviour to hunt down magical items end up causing them to congregate in tombs in search of magical artifacts. Very very cool. I like these guys!
Verbeeg
Oh, a new type of giants? Interesting. These guys are described to be have 'gangly limbs and elongated faces', although the artwork honestly doesn't exaggerate these features too much. They look kind of friendly, in a way! Verbeegs are actually marauders, though, hunting down and robbing people in the wild, and sometimes cannibalizing their victims. They hang out and often lead ogres and hill giants, being the brains of the bunch. Okay, so like an Orog but for giants? Sure. The nice, druidic Verbeegs are called Longstriders, and they basically worship nature gods and defend the natural world. Not the most interesting thing out there, but I appreciate a new race tossed into the mix.
Auril, the Frostmaiden
Our main antagonist and the one whose picture graces the very, very cool (heh) illustration of the book's cover! Auril comes in three forms, like a Zelda boss, although I can safely say that the first form, this hulking, eerie owl-headed humanoid is easily the most striking and memorable version of this goddess of winter. Snow owls are already pretty spooky thanks to the shape of their heads, and plopping one on a humanoid body, giving it curly ram horns, and making her a mysterious goddess of winter? Yeah, that's a badass embodiment of winter's wrath for sure!
Auril's second form is just a lady made up of spiky ice, and her third form is just a floating ice block. Surely that's a lot more 'elemental' and 'primal' than spooky owl lady, and the second form is consistent to previous editions' portrayal of her. Honestly, I'm sure I'll be all excited to fight her regardless whenever my D&D group decides to play through this adventure, but I really don't quite feel like those two feel more impressive than the genuinely spooky owl-goddess. Oh well, not going to really complain about it, Auril's first two forms do look pretty dope.
Unlike Strahd or the demon lords or whatever, the bestiary segment doesn't really list a whole lot regarding Auril, and that's fair. I am supposed to read through the book itself to understand who she is and why she does what she does!
Frost Giant Skeleton & Goliaths
Didn't we just talk about a Frost Giant Zombie recently? Giant undead slowly trudging through the icy wastes of a mountain slope, unaffected by the weather, is certainly a trope that's pretty cool to visualize, so I can't blame 5E for doing it multiple times in a row.
I like the Goliaths, but the 'Spine of the World Goliaths' are basically just Goliaths in very swanky snow-themed outfits. Their Goliath Werebears are very cool, though, with all the tribal accessories and being themed after a Polar Bear. Not too much for me to say here without getting into the specifics of their clan lives and whatnot. Frost-themed Goliaths are very very cool, but there's really not a whole ton for me to talk about.
Kobold & Gnoll Vampires
I never really thought about it, but vampires do make sense as an antagonistic force in ice-themed locales, huh? Especially more 'primal' versions of vampires that are less Count Dracula and more just a monstrous blood-drinking ghoul.
Take note of that absolutely charming Kobold artwork of three Kobolds stacked on top of each other with a huge long-coat, pretending to be a regular humanoid. They are apparently perfectly accepted by the people of Ten-Towns, but (understandably, D&D humanoids are mean) they don't feel secure unless they're impersonating a full-sized humanoid. This is why I always prefer to make PC's out of less-conventional races like kobolds and goblins and kenku instead of boring ol' dwarves and elves.
The book also details Kobold Zombies, Kobold Vampire Spawns and Gnoll Vampires. They're basically just a typical 'A meets B-template' sort of monsters, though, so I really don't have much to say here. The Gnoll Vampire is the source of the kobold vampire-spawns, and apparently it's part of their own bloodlust in life that caused the primary gnoll vampire character in the book to be risen after death. I do like that gnoll vampires as described here have a completely different set of limitations compared to the basic 5E Monster Manual vampire.
Yeti Tyke, Young Griffon, Snowy Owlbear & Mimic
And why I thought Icewind Dale had a much larger amount of monsters to talk about is because, well, its bestiary is actually pretty long! It's just that some of them are just variants of monsters we've seen before. Some amazing art, of course, but beyond praising the absolutely well-done and adorable artwork, there's really not much for me to talk about Yeti Tykes (they look cute but they are actually quite savage) and that adorable snowy-downed Young Griffon.
The Snowy Owlbear is adorable, it's a fusion of a snowy owl and a polar bear. Ergo, an Owlbear that's perfectly adapted to living in the tundra! We only see a part of the Mimic here (I think it's meant to be hiding as a wall or something?) but it's a mutated Mimic that spits acid. Okay!
Miscellaneous Animals
Again, I really, really love the artwork and I can appreciate a lot that they gave all of these animals full stat blocks and stuff, but, again, I don't have a whole ton to talk about them. Have the Awakened White Moose, Fox, Hare, Walrus, Giant Walrus, Mountain Goat, Seal and Sperm Whales. Not a whole ton to say here, I really love how epic that giant sperm whale artwork looks with the sea breaking apart and the aurora in the sky.
Humanoid Enemies
The book also talks a lot about extra humanoid classes and tribes and whatnot that live in the Icewind Dale and... without really reading fully about the book itself, I don't think I'm particularly qualified to talk about them. We've got the Reghed Nomads, who are animal-themed native nomads living in the glacier. Frost Druids (pictured here) is sort of like the Blood Hunters from the Wildemount book, where it's just a unique variation of a class, and these frost druids specifically protect the frosty wilds. They specifically transform into snow-themed animals, and have access to winter-themed weather spells that's pretty neat! The Chardalyn Berserker (also pictured here) run around with weapons made out of chardalyn, the bizarre magic metal in Icewind Dale, and they have basically been transformed into fiends by the corrupted chardalyn. It gives them an excuse to run around shirtless in the icy tundra! Then we have the Arcane Brotherhood, one of the main antagonists. They are a cabal of evil powerful wizards! Again, without going into the specifics of their history and whatnot, it's hard to really talk about them, but I do like that we've got all sorts of threats in this icy tundra.
And that's about it from me for 5E for the time being. I'm going to take a break and start jumping around other D&D editions and talk through the various Monster Manuals I own! Maybe I'll do Pathfinder, or do the original 1E Fiend Folio or something.
Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden
- Aruk Thundercaller Thuunlakaga: Medium humanoid (goliath), any, CR 3
- Auril (First Form): Medium monstrosity, neutral evil, CR 9
- Auril (Second Form): Large elemental, neutral evil, CR 10
- Auril (Third Form): Small elemental, neutral evil, CR 11
- Avarice: Medium humanoid (tiefling), lawful evil, CR 7
- Awakened White Moose: Large beast, neutral evil, CR 3
- Battlehammer Dwarf: Medium humanoid (dwarf), lawful good, CR 1/2
- Bjornhild Solvigsdottir: Medium humanoid (human), neutral evil, CR 5
- Brain in a Jar: Small undead, any, CR 3
- Chardalyn Dragon: Huge construct, chaotic evil, CR 11
- Chimeric Baboon: Small beast, unaligned, CR 0
- Chimeric Cat: Tiny beast, unaligned, CR 0
- Chimeric Fox: Tiny beast, unaligned, CR 0
- Chimeric Hare: Tiny beast, unaligned, CR 0
- Chimeric Rat: Tiny beast, unaligned, CR 0
- Chimeric Weasel: Tiny beast, unaligned, CR 0
- Coldlight Walker: Medium undead, chaotic evil, CR 5
- Cult Fanatic: Medium humanoid (any), lawful evil, CR 2
- Cultist: Medium humanoid (any), lawful evil, CR 1/8
- Demos Magen: Medium construct, unaligned, CR 2
- Dzaan: Medium humanoid (human), lawful evil, CR 4
- Dzaan's Simulacrum: Medium construct, lawful evil, CR 1
- Fox: Tiny beast, unaligned, CR 0
- Frost Druid: Medium humanoid (human), any, CR 5
- Frost Giant Skeleton: Huge undead, lawful evil, CR 6
- Galvan Magen: Medium construct, unaligned, CR 3
- Giant Walrus: Huge beast, unaligned, CR 4
- Gnoll Vampire: Medium undead (shapechanger), chaotic evil, CR 8
- Gnome Ceremorph: Small aberration, any, CR 5
- Gnome Squidling: Small aberration, unaligned, CR 1/2
- Goliath Warrior: Medium humanoid (goliath), any, CR 3
- Goliath Werebear: Medium humanoid (goliathm, shapechanger), neutral good, CR 8
- Grandolpha Muzgardt: Medium humanoid (dwarf), lawful evil, CR 2
- Gunvald Halraggson: Medium humanoid (human), neutral, CR 5
- Hare: Tiny beast, unaligned, CR 0
- Headless Iron Golem: Large construct, unaligned, CR 10
- Hengar Aesnvaard: Medium humanoid (human), neutral good, CR 5
- Hypnos Magen: Medium construct, unaligned, CR 1
- Ice Troll: Large giant, chaotic evil, CR 8
- Icewind Kobold: Small humanoid (kobold), any, CR 1/8
- Icewind Kobold Zombie: Small undead, neutral evil, CR 1/8
- Isarr Kronenstorm: Medium humanoid (human), chaotic evil, CR 8
- Jarund Elkhardt: Medium humanoid (human), neutral, CR 5
- Kadroth: Medium humanoid (tiefling), lawful evil, CR 2
- Kingsport: Medium beast, unaligned, CR 0
- Knucklehead Trout: Small beast, unaligned, CR 0
- Kobold Vampire Spawn: Small undead, neutral evil, CR 3
- Living Bigby's Hand: Large construct, unaligned, CR 4
- Living Blade of Disaster: Small construct, chaotic evil, CR 8
- Living Demiplane: Medium construct, unaligned, CR 0
- Lonelywood Banshee: Medium undead, chaotic evil, CR 4
- Mjenir: Medium humanoid (human), neutral, CR 2
- Mountain Goat: Medium beast, unaligned, CR 1/8
- Nass Lantomir's Ghost: Medium undead, neutral evil, CR 6
- Piercer (Ice Variant): Medium monstrosity, unaligned, CR 1/2
- Prisoner 237: Medium humanoid (human), lawful evil, CR 1
- Reghed Chieftain: Medium humanoid (any), any, CR 5
- Reghed Great Warrior: Medium humanoid (any), any, CR 5
- Reghed Shaman: Medium humanoid (any), any, CR 2
- Reghed Warrior: Medium humanoid (any), any, CR 1/8
- Seal: Medium beast, unaligned, CR 0
- Sephek Kaltro: Medium undead, neutral evil, CR 3
- Snow Golem: Medium construct, unaligned, CR 3
- Snowy Owlbear: Large monstrosity, unaligned, CR 3
- Spellix Romwood: Small humanoid (gnome), chaotic neutral, CR 1/2
- Sperm Whale: Gargantuan beast, unaligned, CR 8
- Spitting Mimic: Large monstrosity (shapechanger), neutral, CR 5
- Telepathic Pentacle: Huge monstrosity, unaligned, CR 8
- Tomb Tapper: Huge construct, lawful neutral, CR 10
- Tribal Warrior Spore Servants: Medium plant, unaligned, CR 1/8
- Vellynne Harpell: Medium humanoid (human), neutral, CR 4
- Verbeeg Longstrider: Large giant, neutral, CR 5
- Verbeeg Marauder: Large giant, neutral evil, CR 4
- Walrus: Large beast, unaligned, CR 1/4
- Xardorok Sunblight: Medium humanoid (dwarf), lawful evil, CR 5
- Yeti Tyke: Small monstrosity, chaotic evil, CR 1/8
- Young Griffon (Medium): Medium monstrosity, unaligned, CR 1
- Young Griffon (Small): Small monstrosity, unaligned, CR 1/4
- Young Griffon (Tiny): Tiny monstrosity, unaligned, CR 0
No comments:
Post a Comment