Shade
Monster Junkie
This next one looks like alot of fun. 
Ice Mummy
CLIMATE/TERRAIN: Mountain glacier
FREQUENCY: Rare
ORGANIZATION: Solitary
ACTIVITY CYCLE: Any
DIET: None
INTELLIGENCE: High to genius (11-18)
TREASURE: P (D)
ALIGNMENT: Chaotic evil
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: 6
MOVEMENT: 6
HIT DICE: 7
THAC0: 12
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-12 or by weapon type +1
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Fear, breath weapon, withering touch, spell use
SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Nil
SIZE: M (5’-6’)
MORALE: Champion (15)
XP VALUE: 4,000
Leathery, desiccated brown skin is drawn tight over the bones of an ice mummy. The hair and clothing remain intact but show the effects of centuries of entombment. The clothing and weapons are ancient, perhaps including a flint knife, a copper-bladed ax, a spear with a stone points, or arrows with obsidian heads. The eyes are sunken and opaque, though open and visible, filled with a blank hatred. The ice mummy’s mouth is agape in an eternal scream.
Combat: The ice mummy is intelligent as well as cunning. It creates false trails to lead travelers onto fragile snow bridges over crevasses. The only warning of its attack may be the brief glimpse of a figure traveling through the fog on a glacier. When the figure staggers and falls, travelers may go to its aid, only to stumble into its ambush. The ice mummy seldom fights at a disadvantage. When it has its intended victims isolated, it strikes. If the fear it generates has not sent all of the ice mummy’s prey into a trap, it uses magic or resorts to its breath weapon, a cone of cold that blasts from the hideous, gaping mouth. It then moves away to wait for the cumulative effects of the magical cold and the natural cold to take their toll. If any brave souls are still able to pursue, so much the better.
Although ice mummies are so rare that one can spend a lifetime traveling the high mountains and never encounter one outside of old songs and stories, most of them have the power to work magic as a 9th-level wizard, except that the mummy can employ only spells of 3rd level or lower. Furthermore, ice mummies can never use spells that involve fire as a weapon. Thus, an ice mummy can cast affect normal fires to reduce the campfire lit by a group of travelers, but the monster cannot cast a fireball spell to attack them. Ice mummies are known to use the following unique spells as well as those commonly employed by human wizards: slippery slope, ice shatter, and call blizzard.
If forced into melee combat, an ice mummy uses weapons. Its inhuman strength lends a +1 bonus both to THAC0 and to damage rolls. Missile weapons used by an ice mummy, usually barbed arrows, also enjoy a +1 THAC0 bonus and also cause 2 hp damage for each round they remain embedded in the victim, because of the supernatural cold with which they are imbued. Removing the barbed arrow of an ice mummy without the help of a character with the healing proficiency inflicts an additional 1d6 hp damage. A dispel magic, limited wish, or wish spell negates the chill effect completely.
If encountered without weapons, an ice mummy can strike for 1d12 hp damage with its cold fists, which also cause damage as per a staff of withering. Three times a day, an ice mummy can breath a blast of cold that inflicts 4d6 hp damage to all within its area of effect, a 20’ long cone that is 10’ wide at its base.
The supernatural cold exuded by an ice mummy numbs all warm-blooded creatures that come within 25’ of the creature. Non-magical weapons used against the creature must save vs. crushing blow each time they hit the creature or freeze so cold that they shatter. Additionally, those who remain within 25’ of the ice mummy suffer 1d3 hp damage per round from severe frostbite. Finally, ice mummies cause fear as do normal mummies.
Ecology: Ice mummies are the freeze-dried remains of travelers who lost their way in the icy wastes of the mountains. Bitter and afraid, they died alone, hating those who never came to their rescue. At every opportunity, they seek to punish those who mock their demise by traveling the same dangerous terrain that once ruined them.
New Spells
Slippery Slope
(Conjuration/Alteration)
Level 3
Range: 60 yds.
Components: S, M
Duration: 1 day
Casting Time: 2 rounds
Area of Effect: Up to 500 square feet
Saving Throw: None
This spell creates a slick layer of glare ice over the natural surface of snow, ice, or rock. The glare ice coating makes even rough-looking surfaces very slick. Anyone traversing the affected area must make Dexterity checks at a -4 to move at half normal movement rate. Trying to move faster incurs a -8 penalty, and attempts at running (moving faster than the full normal movement rate) causes an automatic fall. Characters employing a spider climb spell can move normally across this surface. Those standing on a slope upon which this spell is cast hurtle down automatically.
The material component for slippery slope is the mummy’s talisman or tattoo.
Ice Shatter
(Alteration)
Level 3
Range: 10 yds./level
Components: S, M
Duration: Instant
Casting Time: 4 rounds
Area of Effect: 3 square feet/level
Saving Throw: None
By means of this spell, the caster can cause glacier ice to crack and break. The solid ice may split along a single crack or splinter into hundreds of dagger-sharp fragments, at the caster’s option. In hard-packed snow, like that which forms bridges across crevasses, the area of effect is tripled. The spell can also be used to start avalanches in areas where there are unstable masses of snow on slopes above the glacier.
If the spell is used to shatter the ice rather than crack it, it can make a trail or path impassable. It can also provide the caster with icy spikes perfect for lining the bottom of a pitfall.
The material component for ice shatter is the mummy’s talisman or tattoo.
Call Blizzard
(Conjuration/Alteration)
Level 3
Range: 0
Components: S, M
Duration: Special
Casting Time: 1 turn
Area of Effect: Special
Saving Throw: None
This spell can be cast only on a glacier or a similarly vast expanse of ice, such as a huge iceberg. Call blizzard allows the caster to use the unique micro-climate of the glacier to attack its enemies. Even in summer, it is possible to have wintery conditions on mountain glaciers and similar terrain. This spell generates high winds that drive frozen precipitation in a blinding storm that makes travel virtually impossible. Windchill effects make the temperatures seem even lower than they already are, and the powerful gusts make walking difficult.
After the spell is cast, the blizzard arrives in 1d6 hours. The spell can be interrupted only during the actual casting period, not between the casting and the blizzards arrival. Signs of the ensuing change in the weather are visible any time after the first hour. Once summoned, the blizzard cannot be dispelled by anything less than a control weather or wish spell. The blizzard affects the entire area of the glacier.
In warmer seasons, the blizzard is composed of sleet lasting 1d4+1 hours, soaking the clothing of travelers and coating the glacier in a sheath of slippery, wet ice. The soaking effect of the sleet ruins the insulative effect of the victim’s clothing, bringing on hypothermia if a fire and dry clothing are not found within two hours. Hypothermia causes a loss of coordination represented by a loss of 1d4+1 points of Dexterity and requires a successful Constitution check each turn until warmth and shelter are found for the victim to remain conscious. Once unconscious, a victim dies within a number of hours equal to half the victim’s Constitution (rounded up).
In fall and spring, there is a 50% chance of sleet and a 50% chance of a true snow blizzard, either of which lasts 1d6+6 hours. In winter, the spell always causes a snow blizzard that lasts for 2d10+4 hours. Vision is reduced to 10’, and victims must make a successful Intelligence check each round to stay on course when traveling. Movement is reduced to one-third normal, and after four hours, each character in the blizzard must make a successful Constitution check to avoid hypothermia, as described above.
Exhaustion caused by walking through the powerful blizzard winds sets in after four hours of travel. Afterward, characters must make a successful Constitution check each with a cumulative -1 penalty per hour. Thus, on the fifth hour of travel, the check is at -2, on the sixth -4, and so on. Once exhausted, characters cannot erect a shelter or build a fire.
The high wind-chill factor during a blizzard adds another peril: frostbite. This freezes exposed skin and extremities, so noses and ears are especially vulnerable as well as fingers and toes. Frostbite may occur after one hour of trying to move about in the blizzard. Roll 1d4 to determine whether a character suffers frostbite. A roll of “1” indicates that superficial frostbite has occurred. If the victim is not informed by a companion that his skin is beginning to turn pale, there is a 50% chance that he notices the frostbite himself. If not treated, superficial frostbite becomes serious in one hour. If not treated for a second hour, serious frostbite turns to extreme frostbite.
Superficial frostbite heals in 1d4 weeks. It is painful and causes unpleasant hardening and breaking of the affected skin, but it causes no damage. A cure light wounds spell eases the ‘discomfort and heals the visible damage.
Serious frostbite takes 1d4 weeks to heal naturally, and it is more painful and unpleasant-looking than superficial frostbite. Victims suffer a temporary loss of 1d2+1 points of Charisma until the condition is healed naturally or by a cure serious wounds or more powerful healing spell.
Extreme frostbite has the above effects and has penetrated far enough to cause the loss of the affected portion of the body. At the DM’s discretion, the victim may lose one or more toes and or fingers, one or both ears, or even his nose. Frost-bitten fingers cannot, of course, perform fine tasks such as untying knots or making spell gestures. Only a regeneration or more powerful healing spell can cure extreme frostbite.
The material component for call blizzard is the mummy’s talisman or tattoo.
Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #238 (1997).
Ice Mummy
CLIMATE/TERRAIN: Mountain glacier
FREQUENCY: Rare
ORGANIZATION: Solitary
ACTIVITY CYCLE: Any
DIET: None
INTELLIGENCE: High to genius (11-18)
TREASURE: P (D)
ALIGNMENT: Chaotic evil
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: 6
MOVEMENT: 6
HIT DICE: 7
THAC0: 12
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-12 or by weapon type +1
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Fear, breath weapon, withering touch, spell use
SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Nil
SIZE: M (5’-6’)
MORALE: Champion (15)
XP VALUE: 4,000
Leathery, desiccated brown skin is drawn tight over the bones of an ice mummy. The hair and clothing remain intact but show the effects of centuries of entombment. The clothing and weapons are ancient, perhaps including a flint knife, a copper-bladed ax, a spear with a stone points, or arrows with obsidian heads. The eyes are sunken and opaque, though open and visible, filled with a blank hatred. The ice mummy’s mouth is agape in an eternal scream.
Combat: The ice mummy is intelligent as well as cunning. It creates false trails to lead travelers onto fragile snow bridges over crevasses. The only warning of its attack may be the brief glimpse of a figure traveling through the fog on a glacier. When the figure staggers and falls, travelers may go to its aid, only to stumble into its ambush. The ice mummy seldom fights at a disadvantage. When it has its intended victims isolated, it strikes. If the fear it generates has not sent all of the ice mummy’s prey into a trap, it uses magic or resorts to its breath weapon, a cone of cold that blasts from the hideous, gaping mouth. It then moves away to wait for the cumulative effects of the magical cold and the natural cold to take their toll. If any brave souls are still able to pursue, so much the better.
Although ice mummies are so rare that one can spend a lifetime traveling the high mountains and never encounter one outside of old songs and stories, most of them have the power to work magic as a 9th-level wizard, except that the mummy can employ only spells of 3rd level or lower. Furthermore, ice mummies can never use spells that involve fire as a weapon. Thus, an ice mummy can cast affect normal fires to reduce the campfire lit by a group of travelers, but the monster cannot cast a fireball spell to attack them. Ice mummies are known to use the following unique spells as well as those commonly employed by human wizards: slippery slope, ice shatter, and call blizzard.
If forced into melee combat, an ice mummy uses weapons. Its inhuman strength lends a +1 bonus both to THAC0 and to damage rolls. Missile weapons used by an ice mummy, usually barbed arrows, also enjoy a +1 THAC0 bonus and also cause 2 hp damage for each round they remain embedded in the victim, because of the supernatural cold with which they are imbued. Removing the barbed arrow of an ice mummy without the help of a character with the healing proficiency inflicts an additional 1d6 hp damage. A dispel magic, limited wish, or wish spell negates the chill effect completely.
If encountered without weapons, an ice mummy can strike for 1d12 hp damage with its cold fists, which also cause damage as per a staff of withering. Three times a day, an ice mummy can breath a blast of cold that inflicts 4d6 hp damage to all within its area of effect, a 20’ long cone that is 10’ wide at its base.
The supernatural cold exuded by an ice mummy numbs all warm-blooded creatures that come within 25’ of the creature. Non-magical weapons used against the creature must save vs. crushing blow each time they hit the creature or freeze so cold that they shatter. Additionally, those who remain within 25’ of the ice mummy suffer 1d3 hp damage per round from severe frostbite. Finally, ice mummies cause fear as do normal mummies.
Ecology: Ice mummies are the freeze-dried remains of travelers who lost their way in the icy wastes of the mountains. Bitter and afraid, they died alone, hating those who never came to their rescue. At every opportunity, they seek to punish those who mock their demise by traveling the same dangerous terrain that once ruined them.
New Spells
Slippery Slope
(Conjuration/Alteration)
Level 3
Range: 60 yds.
Components: S, M
Duration: 1 day
Casting Time: 2 rounds
Area of Effect: Up to 500 square feet
Saving Throw: None
This spell creates a slick layer of glare ice over the natural surface of snow, ice, or rock. The glare ice coating makes even rough-looking surfaces very slick. Anyone traversing the affected area must make Dexterity checks at a -4 to move at half normal movement rate. Trying to move faster incurs a -8 penalty, and attempts at running (moving faster than the full normal movement rate) causes an automatic fall. Characters employing a spider climb spell can move normally across this surface. Those standing on a slope upon which this spell is cast hurtle down automatically.
The material component for slippery slope is the mummy’s talisman or tattoo.
Ice Shatter
(Alteration)
Level 3
Range: 10 yds./level
Components: S, M
Duration: Instant
Casting Time: 4 rounds
Area of Effect: 3 square feet/level
Saving Throw: None
By means of this spell, the caster can cause glacier ice to crack and break. The solid ice may split along a single crack or splinter into hundreds of dagger-sharp fragments, at the caster’s option. In hard-packed snow, like that which forms bridges across crevasses, the area of effect is tripled. The spell can also be used to start avalanches in areas where there are unstable masses of snow on slopes above the glacier.
If the spell is used to shatter the ice rather than crack it, it can make a trail or path impassable. It can also provide the caster with icy spikes perfect for lining the bottom of a pitfall.
The material component for ice shatter is the mummy’s talisman or tattoo.
Call Blizzard
(Conjuration/Alteration)
Level 3
Range: 0
Components: S, M
Duration: Special
Casting Time: 1 turn
Area of Effect: Special
Saving Throw: None
This spell can be cast only on a glacier or a similarly vast expanse of ice, such as a huge iceberg. Call blizzard allows the caster to use the unique micro-climate of the glacier to attack its enemies. Even in summer, it is possible to have wintery conditions on mountain glaciers and similar terrain. This spell generates high winds that drive frozen precipitation in a blinding storm that makes travel virtually impossible. Windchill effects make the temperatures seem even lower than they already are, and the powerful gusts make walking difficult.
After the spell is cast, the blizzard arrives in 1d6 hours. The spell can be interrupted only during the actual casting period, not between the casting and the blizzards arrival. Signs of the ensuing change in the weather are visible any time after the first hour. Once summoned, the blizzard cannot be dispelled by anything less than a control weather or wish spell. The blizzard affects the entire area of the glacier.
In warmer seasons, the blizzard is composed of sleet lasting 1d4+1 hours, soaking the clothing of travelers and coating the glacier in a sheath of slippery, wet ice. The soaking effect of the sleet ruins the insulative effect of the victim’s clothing, bringing on hypothermia if a fire and dry clothing are not found within two hours. Hypothermia causes a loss of coordination represented by a loss of 1d4+1 points of Dexterity and requires a successful Constitution check each turn until warmth and shelter are found for the victim to remain conscious. Once unconscious, a victim dies within a number of hours equal to half the victim’s Constitution (rounded up).
In fall and spring, there is a 50% chance of sleet and a 50% chance of a true snow blizzard, either of which lasts 1d6+6 hours. In winter, the spell always causes a snow blizzard that lasts for 2d10+4 hours. Vision is reduced to 10’, and victims must make a successful Intelligence check each round to stay on course when traveling. Movement is reduced to one-third normal, and after four hours, each character in the blizzard must make a successful Constitution check to avoid hypothermia, as described above.
Exhaustion caused by walking through the powerful blizzard winds sets in after four hours of travel. Afterward, characters must make a successful Constitution check each with a cumulative -1 penalty per hour. Thus, on the fifth hour of travel, the check is at -2, on the sixth -4, and so on. Once exhausted, characters cannot erect a shelter or build a fire.
The high wind-chill factor during a blizzard adds another peril: frostbite. This freezes exposed skin and extremities, so noses and ears are especially vulnerable as well as fingers and toes. Frostbite may occur after one hour of trying to move about in the blizzard. Roll 1d4 to determine whether a character suffers frostbite. A roll of “1” indicates that superficial frostbite has occurred. If the victim is not informed by a companion that his skin is beginning to turn pale, there is a 50% chance that he notices the frostbite himself. If not treated, superficial frostbite becomes serious in one hour. If not treated for a second hour, serious frostbite turns to extreme frostbite.
Superficial frostbite heals in 1d4 weeks. It is painful and causes unpleasant hardening and breaking of the affected skin, but it causes no damage. A cure light wounds spell eases the ‘discomfort and heals the visible damage.
Serious frostbite takes 1d4 weeks to heal naturally, and it is more painful and unpleasant-looking than superficial frostbite. Victims suffer a temporary loss of 1d2+1 points of Charisma until the condition is healed naturally or by a cure serious wounds or more powerful healing spell.
Extreme frostbite has the above effects and has penetrated far enough to cause the loss of the affected portion of the body. At the DM’s discretion, the victim may lose one or more toes and or fingers, one or both ears, or even his nose. Frost-bitten fingers cannot, of course, perform fine tasks such as untying knots or making spell gestures. Only a regeneration or more powerful healing spell can cure extreme frostbite.
The material component for call blizzard is the mummy’s talisman or tattoo.
Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #238 (1997).
