D&D 5E WotC Confirms Horror-themed Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden

During WotC's Comic Relief charity-supporting livestream this evening, presenters Anna Prosser and Mica Burton confirmed that the September D&D adventure is, indeed, Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden. The adventure has a regular and limited edition cover. The presenters say this is the first time anybody has heard the title(?), and that this was the first time they'd seen the cover...

During WotC's Comic Relief charity-supporting livestream this evening, presenters Anna Prosser and Mica Burton confirmed that the September D&D adventure is, indeed, Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden.

The adventure has a regular and limited edition cover.

The presenters say this is the first time anybody has heard the title(?), and that this was the first time they'd seen the cover.

Chris Perkins says its a horror adventure, with these of isolation and secrecy. Levels 1-12.

SOME SECRETS ARE WORTH DYING FOR
Feel the cold touch of death in this adventure for the world’s greatest roleplaying game.

In Icewind Dale, adventure is a dish best served cold.

Beneath the unyielding night sky, you stand before a towering glacier and recite an ancient rhyme, causing a crack to form in the great wall of ice. Beyond this yawning fissure, the Caves of Hunger await. And past this icy dungeon is a secret so old and terrifying that few dare speak of it. The mad wizards of the Arcane Brotherhood long to possess that which the god of winter’s wrath has so coldly preserved—as do you! What fantastic secrets and treasures are entombed in the sunless heart of the glacier, and what will their discovery mean for the denizens of Icewind Dale? Can you save Ten-Towns from the Frostmaiden’s everlasting night?

Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden is a tale of dark terror that revisits the forlorn, flickering candlelights of civilization known as Ten-Towns and sheds light on the many bone-chilling locations that surround these frontier settlements.


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The deity antagonist, Auril, is a god who Perkins says is a lot like Hella from the Thor: Ragnarok movie. In this book, the Frostmaiden has multiple stat blocks depending on the form she takes. The book has over 50 stat blocks.

The book has lots of quests, each of which is a mini adventure. Or play through them all as an epic horror story emerges. A campaign, or slice it up.

The environment itself is a villain -- blizzards, avalanches, survival, limited food, fishing for Knucklehead Trout.

There's a number of sports and games for the characters to play. A "Goliath sport" for example.

320 pages, poster map, for levels 1-12.

For the 10 minutes or so before the stream launched, the "Coming Soon' page featured the cover art (which was leaked by D&D Beyond last week).

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Urriak Uruk

Gaming is fun, and fun is for everyone
So... are there any other product announcements during this stream, or is it going to only be this book this year?
 


Parmandur

Book-Friend
So... are there any other product announcements during this stream, or is it going to only be this book this year?

Well, they announced the cookbook Hero's Feast, which is awesome and something I didn't realize how much I needed.

In previous years, the Summer Adventure got announced at the beginning of festivities, and the Fall book gets announced or even just teased at the end of the weekend. If they reveal or hint at the Q4 book (the one with Race/Folk/People variants), I would expect it at the end of Sunday.
 

So... are there any other product announcements during this stream, or is it going to only be this book this year?

The recent diversity press release said "Later this year, we will release a product (not yet announced) that offers a way for a player to customize their character’s origin, including the option to change the ability score increases that come from being an elf, a dwarf, or one of D&D's many other playable folk. This option emphasizes that each person in the game is an individual with capabilities all their own." That sounds like material that wouldn't be in an adventure book like RotF (RotFM? I'm sure we'll have a standardized abbreviation here soon), but more in a book with player options like Xanathar's.

Moreover, the last couple of years for these events, they announced the September release at the start, and then teased the November release (such as DottM and Eberron) at the end. So it wouldn't be surprising at all for them to repeat the pattern.
 

Parmandur

Book-Friend
The recent diversity press release said "Later this year, we will release a product (not yet announced) that offers a way for a player to customize their character’s origin, including the option to change the ability score increases that come from being an elf, a dwarf, or one of D&D's many other playable folk. This option emphasizes that each person in the game is an individual with capabilities all their own." That sounds like material that wouldn't be in an adventure book like RotF (RotFM? I'm sure we'll have a standardized abbreviation here soon), but more in a book with player options like Xanathar's.

Moreover, the last couple of years for these events, they announced the September release at the start, and then teased the November release (such as DottM and Eberron) at the end. So it wouldn't be surprising at all for them to repeat the pattern.

Yeah, this seems about right.

Given the late timeframe for this event, maybe they'll go into more detail than they did with Eberron, but time will tell.
 

I'm going to speculate that the reason there are so many stat blocks in the adventure is that it's going to follow Saltmarsh, Dragon Heist, and Descent to Avernus in having a large "info on adventuring in this area/ecology" section - i.e. a section on how to run cold-based adventures, and the bestiary will in part be there to populate such campaigns with cold-loving creatures.

Also, for those who didn't follow the announcements, Chris Perkins said there would be several stat blocks for Auril herself in various forms (including her owl form seen on the cover), and stated that lesser gods often take on such forms and can interact with mortals far more often than greater gods, which follows up with his statements on Bane, Bhaal, and Myrkul in Descent to Avernus. He also back then said we'd eventually see stats for them as well, which hopefully will be sooner than later!

Also also - both covers are so nice! I'm torn between which one to get, but I'll probably get that Hydro74 special cover like I have in the past. He really doesn't miss with his designs!
 

Eis

Explorer
This in actually in response to everyone making this comment. Crawford or Perkins said 50 stat blocks, not 50 new monsters. There will be multiple forms of the Frostmaiden, so that will account for several of the stat blocks right there.
yeah I wonder how many stat blocks are like the kobold one shown in the Beadle and Grimm pic...just reprinted monster manual blocks
 

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