Icewind Dale – Rise of the Frost Maiden
5e
Brain in a Jar: Through a n eldritch ritual combining alchemy, necromancy, and grim surgical precision, the brain of a mortal being (willing or unwilling) is encased in a glass jar filled with preserving fluids and the liquefied goop of their body's flesh. The transformation renders the brain immortal and imbues it with psionic power, so that it can spend eternity plotting and executing its desires.
The Unfettered Mind. This lunatic text discusses how one might exist solely as a disembodied brain, preserved for eons in a magical suspension fluid. It includes sketches of brains in jars.
Ythryn's mages could extend their lives indefinitely by preserving their brains inside jars.
Shifting green, purple, and blue light spills into this room through a single window. Bolted-down tables hold an array of equipment: beakers of alchemical fluid, alembics, cut crystal needles, surgical tools, coiled leather tubes, and more. Behind the tables stands an ornate suit of armor. Where the head should be is a swollen human brain floating inside a canister of translucent fluid.
This ritual room is designed to serve a grisly purpose: the transformation of a living creature into a brain in a jar.
Ritual of Brain Transfer. Veneranda can use the equipment in this chamber to transform one humanoid into a brain in a jar. This ritual takes 24 hours and results in the death and liquefaction of the subject's body.
Veneranda, Brain in a Jar: Shifting green, purple, and blue light spills into this room through a single window. Bolted-down tables hold an array of equipment: beakers of alchemical fluid, alembics, cut crystal needles, surgical tools, coiled leather tubes, and more. Behind the tables stands an ornate suit of armor. Where the head should be is a swollen human brain floating inside a canister of translucent fluid.
This ritual room is designed to serve a grisly purpose: the transformation of a living creature into a brain in a jar. Veneranda, a neutral evil Netherese wizard, extracted her own brain to become a brain in a jar that is affixed to the body of a headless helmed horror.
Coldlight Walker: Some humanoids who died from extreme cold but whose spirits languish in the mortal world become coldlight walkers, burning with frigid fury at the meaninglessness of life.
Gods that personify winter create coldlight walkers as embodiments of winter's wrath. These hateful spirits that were denied passage to the afterlife are preserved in their current forms to remind the living how fragile life can be.
The coldlight walker is the undead remnant of a Reghed nomad or the shambling corpse of an unfortunate Ten-Towner who was cast naked into the tundra as a sacrifice to Auril and perished from exposure.
The coldlight walkers are made from the frozen corpses of Ten-Towners who were banished to the tundra as sacrifices to the Frostmaiden.
Any of Avarice's minions still patrolling the city are swiftly captured and dragged before the Frostmaiden. Auril murders each captive in turn and transforms the cultist into a coldlight walker.
Frost Giant Skeleton: Necromancers can transform the inanimate bones of long-dead frost giants into malevolent juggernauts that love to harm the living.
Frost Giant Skeleton Wielding a Rusty Anchor: ?
Gnoll Vampire: When a gnoll's ravenous hunger is so great that it craves flesh and blood even after death, it can rise as a vampire to continue its feeding frenzy.
Tekeli-Li, Gnoll Vampire: Tekeli-li was a fang of Yeenoghu, a powerful gnoll whose pack invaded lcewind Dale more than a century ago. When the gnolls' wanton slaughter of reindeer herds threatened the survival of the Reghed tribes, the tribes banded together against the gnolls and routed them in the autumn of 1333 DR. Tekeli-li and his surviving kin fled across the tundra with the Reghed tribes in pursuit.
The wounded gnolls found an icy cleft on the edge of the Reghed Glacier and hid there for the winter. To keep their leader alive, the other gnolls allowed Tekeli-li to eat them one by one, yet his hunger would not abate. Auril came upon the starving, half-frozen creature and flung Tekeli-li into an icy tomb deep within the glacier. In doing so, the Frostmaiden sought to preserve what the gnoll had become-the embodiment of winter's remorseless consumption.
Icewind Kobold Zombie: The necromancer Vellynne Harpell has Icewind kobold guides in her employ, including a pair that died and were turned into zombies using animate dead spells.
Since arriving in Icewind Dale, Vellynne has secured the services of six Icewind kobolds that act as her valets and guides. Two of them were killed by a Melf's acid arrow spell (cast by Vellynne's rival, Nass Lantomir), but Vellynne animated their corpses, turning them into zombies.
Kobold Vampire Spawn: The creature is a kohold vampire spawn created by Tekeli-li.
Nass Lantomir's Ghost, Spellcasting Ghost: Nass Lantomir was an apprentice of Zelenn the White, one of five archmages who oversee the Arcane Brotherhood. Nass and Zelenn's relationship started off well, but in recent years it has become painfully obvious to Zelenn that Nass has been slow to master the arcane tradition of divination. Zelenn's suggestion that Nass leave the Hosttower of the Arcane and gain experience abroad left Nass feeling unwanted. After much thought, however, Nass came around to the idea. She could put her magic to the test and carve out a name for herself.
As she was preparing to leave the Hosttower, Nass overheard her master talking to another wizard about a covert expedition to Icewind Dale being undertaken to seek out long-lost magic from a bygone empire. Rather than carry out her original plan, Nass followed her fellow wizards to Icewind Dale. She caught up to them in Bryn Shander and made her presence known, claiming she was sent by her master to aid the expedition with her divinations. Egos and frayed nerves caused the group to split up shortly thereafter, with each wizard determined to succeed alone.
One night while the others slept, Nass stole a professor orb from one of her fellow wizards, Vellynne Harpell. Two of Vellynne's kobold companions witnessed the theft, and Nass killed them with Melf's acid arrow spells before fleeing with the orb.
Nass fled Ten-Towns and headed toward the Sea of Moving Ice, hoping to find a tome called The Codicil of White, a book of magic and lore composed by servants of Auril the Frostmaiden. The Arcane Brotherhood believes that this book tells how to reach a lost city of magic entombed in the ice. Before she could obtain the book, Nass perished. She now exists as a ghost, unable to rest until she finds the book.
Nass Lantomir outsmarted her rivals in the Arcane Brotherhood by partnering with a pirate captain before leaving Luskan for Icewind Dale. After stealing Vellynne Harpell's professor orb, Nass fled to the coast to make her rendezvous with the pirate captain's galleon, the Wicked Eddy. The ship found Auril's island the hard way: by crashing into the ice shelf that runs beneath it. As the vessel took on water, Nass alone swam to shore, only to die of frostbite on a snow-covered bluff overlooking the Wicked Eddy's sunken hulk.
Sephek Kaltro: He was a mariner whose ship sank off the coast of Auril's island a few months ago. He swam to the island but nearly froze to death. As his life was fading, the spirit of a frost druid beholden to Auril possessed him. The winter spirit cannibalized Sephek's spirit and is using him as a living vessel to do the Frostmaiden's work. The spirit can't leave Sephek's body; if Sephek dies, the winter spirit is destroyed along with him.
Undead: ?
Undead Servant: ?
Banshee: This banshee is the spectral remnant of a female elf warrior who was banished for a selfish, evil act.
Crawling Claw: ?
The White Lady, Poltergeist: This musty old inn is named after a local legend known as the White Lady-a ghost rumored to walk on Lac Dinneshere, haunting the spot where her rich husband drowned.
The White Lady of Lac Dinneshere, Ghost: This musty old inn is named after a local legend known as the White Lady-a ghost rumored to walk on Lac Dinneshere, haunting the spot where her rich husband drowned.
Janth Alowar, Ghost: In life, Janth Alowar was a neutral human sage who devoted himself by cataloguing the flora of Icewind Dale. He and his guide were killed and decapitated by a yeti in the foothills of Kelvin's Cairn two years ago, and his restless spirit has lingered.
High Necromancer Cadavix, Ghost: Deep under the rubble, the corpse of High Necromancer Cadavix lies crushed, yet his ghost remains behind to haunt the tower.
Ghostly Musician, Netherese Esoteric Orchestra Troubled Spirit: The Netherese Esoteric Orchestra was midway through its crowning performance when Ythryn fell from the sky. Determined to finish, the musicians played on as the city hurtled to the ground, but Ythryn crashed before they could finish. Deprived of the opportunity to complete their grand finale, the orchestra's troubled spirits haunt the hall.
Ghoul: ?
Iriolarthas, Netherese Demilich: A demilich is what becomes of a lich that neglects to feed souls into its phylactery, and Iriolarthas's phylactery has been empty for nearly two thousand years, buried under the rubble of Ythryn far from the demilich's reach.
The inhabitants of Ythryn had only a few moments to react as the city fell. lriolarthas conjured a doorway to a magical demiplane and stepped through it just in time. As Ythryn settled into its icy grave, all magic in the city became undone for a brief time, as though something was trying to siphon it all away. The demiplane expelled Iriolarthas in that instant, trapping the lich in Ythryn, and became a living demiplane. Iriolarthas searched the ruins of the city for his spellbook and his phylactery, recovering only the former. He also found several magical servants in stasis that had survived the devastation, as well as a handful of apprentices who had used their spells in ingenious ways to escape death.
Some of those inside tried to flee Ythryn, but glacial ice blocked all conventional routes of escape, and attempts to leave by magic were thwarted by a troublesome intercessor: the mysterious spindle in Iriolarthas's citadel was still putting out magical pulses of energy to hinder spellcasting. By the time this disruption stopped some fifty years later, fear and madness had warped the minds of the apprentice mages, transforming them into nothics. Meanwhile, Iriolarthas grew increasingly feeble until, finally, the lich's skeletal body turned to dust.
Iriolarthas, Netherese Lich: ?
Szass Tam, Lich: ?
Demilich: A demilich is what becomes of a lich that neglects to feed souls into its phylactery.
Lich: ?
Sahnar, Moon Elf Mummy: ?
Mummy: The mummy was created by Netherese priests to serve as a lore-keeper in Ythryn.
Shadow: The shadows were born from those who survived Ythryn's crash, only to face starvation. Driven mad by trauma and hunger, the group of survivors resorted to cannibalism. These victims rose as shadows to take vengeance upon the last surviving member of the group, and their hatred extends to other living creatures as well.
Vampire: ?
Krintaas, Wight Bodyguard, Thayan Wight, Undead Bodyguard: ?
Will-o'-Wisp: ?
Drakareth, Wraith: Drakareth was a Netherese mage who survived the fall of Ythryn, murdered his wounded rivals, and stole their spellbooks and magic items. He had hoped to escape with his newfound treasures but perished from exhaustion and cold, rising as a wraith.
Ogre Zombie: ?
