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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EDIT: Oh, and I asked Deborah Ann Woll if she contributed to Frostmaiden, since I remembered she had been working on something for WotC, and she said no, her module was part of an unannounced project but she couldn't say more.

Here is Perkins' Tweet of the book Credits. I will not comment on who is or is not listed:

 

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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.

And watching the D&D Beyond video, Chris Perkins confirms this - the bestiary is so large in part due to the MM not having a lot of cold monsters and them adding them in here.
 

Tales and Chronicles

Jewel of the North, formerly know as vincegetorix
From the interactive map:
Angajuk
Swimming in the frigid waters of the Sea of Moving Ice is Angajuk, an awakened sperm whale with a ship strapped on its back. Although most sperm whales live to be seventy years old, Angajuk has plied these waters for two hundred years. Throughout its life, the whale has faced its share of trouble, including near-fatal encounters with Auril’s roc, which left scars along the whale’s dorsal fins. Local explorers agree that a negotiation with Angajuk is the safest way to explore the Sea of Moving Ice.

- If this is not the coolest thing you ever heard in your life, I dont know what to say! Hope they give us ship stats for Ship-Strapped-to-a-Whale's-Back in the book!
 



Eltab

Lord of the Hidden Layer
Coming soon (maybe):
Beastmaster Rangers with Moose, Reindeer, Polar Bear, Seal, Husky, Narwhal, Caribou, Sperm Whale, Arctic Tern, Wooly Mammoth, and Swarm of Mosquitoes animal companions. They travel by every conveyance available - including dogsled, ice skimmer, skis, and snowshoes.

Also coming soon:
An avalanche of White Dragonborn and Silver Dragonborn adventurers heading to Ten Towns. Because "Cold doesn't bother me."

I hope there is a scene that can be modified into "Mounties working the Yukon Gold Rush", as a way to get familiar with Supply rules.
 




Fenris-77

Small God of the Dozens
Supporter
I'm looking forward to seeing what the new secrets mechanic actually looks like. I get that it's secrets on cards, but I'm guessing that there's some kind of element of manchurian candidate or something. It was described as paranoia inducing or some such. Sounds cool to me. Also, lots of neat rules for cold environments is alwasy useful. Who doesn't need rules for getting caught in an Avalanche. And new rules for Goliaths!!
 

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