D&D: Rime Of The Frostmaiden Spoilers Reveal New Monsters, Friend And Foe
Talking sperm whale submarines, wintry goddesses…. Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden is packed with incredible new creatures, and that’s just the start.
We are all excited for Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, the upcoming new adventure featuring a cold winter’s horror. This adventure is poised to take players to Icewind Dale and its ten towns under a seemingly unending winter. In the latest issue of Dragon+, several new details have been revealed, so if you’re interested in seeing some of the monsters in the new adventure, read on. But consider yourself warned, spoilers ahead.
Okay so first things first, let’s get to the new monsters featured in this event, many of which have been illustrated by artist April Prime, who helped bring to life creatures like the snowy owlbear:
Look at this majestic owlbear. April Prime, if you’re not aware, is the co-creator of Dungeons & Doggies so it’s little wonder that there’s so much charm and majesty to this. I love the personality that shines through each of these pieces, even in the concept art. Check out the snowy owlbear concept art:
You can really get a sense of who this creature is. That snowy owlcub with gray downy fur/feathers is the absolute cutest, and doubtless we’d all die to protect it. Character work like this helps sell the adventure so well. It’s not just another dungeon crawl, it feels like a world/adventure/place all its own.You can get a lot of mileage out of bears. For instance, here’s Oyaminartok, a goliath werebear who is a fierce fisherwoman
But there’s so much flavor in every piece. Take the Knucklehead Trout, for instance:
As Prime says:
“Knucklehead trout are huge and the hucho taimen I was basing them off is a monster fish that lives in Mongolia. I wasn’t simply drawing the fish but also thinking about how the people in Ten-Towns would use it. I created images of the fish sliced up to show how they would eat it and also realized that people display fish as trophies all the time.
AdvertisementI jokingly doodled a version of this massive fish on a plaque and gave it the name ‘Ol’ Bitey’. I was imagining it mounted on the wall of a tavern belonging to a halfling who was missing an arm following the epic battle with this fish.”
And here’s Ol’ Bitey. And yes, Ol’ Bitey is magically animated and will occasionally thrash and burst into song whenever people get near enough to it. Prime even wrote a song that the fish sings, and it is in the book. Never thought Bigmouth Billy Bass would get the D&D treatment, but I gotta say, I’m here for it.
It’s not all fish and bears though, Prime also did the art for Tekeli-Li, a monstrous looking gnoll that turns out to be a vampire:
I did the art for Tekeli-li as well. His name comes from the H.P. Lovecraft story At the Mountains of Madness. He’s a gnoll vampire, and right away I pitched that he should be a striped hyena instead of the spotted hyena most gnolls are based on. A striped hyena is a lot thinner and they have these wicked mohawks going all the way down their backs. Being lanky and creepy works so much better for his character because he’s a vampire.
It’s tricky to show Tekeli-li as a vampire because gnolls already have fangs. I borrowed an idea from Magic the Gathering: Ixalan where the vampire conquistadores have pointed helmets to represent their fangs. I gave Tekeli-li two whalebone earrings that look like tusks to suggest the same thing.
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Finally there’s the biggest (and perhaps best) new monster in the book.
One of the biggest attractions of the new book is Prime’s favorite creation, pictured above. That’s Angajuk, a sperm whale that can talk. As you can see, a lodge is strapped to his head which characters can sit in as Angajuk ferries them across the sea. Prime took the concept and ran with it, giving it a magical air bubble that allows the whale to dive beneath the ocean submarine style.
You can even see the Fallen Star wrecked in the background.These monsters already have me excited to play around in the world, and this is only just a taste of things to come.
What do you think of the new monsters? Let us know in the comments!
