Cold Mountain

Slavering and voracious, trollhounds seem to be trolls in smaller canine form, and indeed, are often found as pets among gangs and tribes of trolls. Requiring vast amounts of food to fuel their regenerative metabolisms, packs of wild trollhounds range far and wide through the mountains of the north, their ravenous hunger driving them to hunt and consume any prey they can track down and kill. A typical trollhound stands 4 feet tall at the shoulder, has short but powerful legs, and weighs around 350 pounds. A trollhound’s skin is somewhat scaly, with patches of rough, greenish-black fur. It has oversized jaws with a pronounced underbite, and its eyes are normally a dull, hateful orange. Trollhounds are believed to be the outcome of infusing particularly ferocious worgs with alchemically prepared troll blood. The resulting beast loses the worg’s wicked intelligence but gains the ability to regenerate even the most grievous wounds, except those inf licted by fire or acid. Whatever their origin, trollhounds breed true and are often raised by trolls. Trollhounds are fearless on the hunt and in combat, relying on their ability to regenerate to carry them through. Not even the threat of fire is enough to repel them, as the beasts are too dull to recognize the danger it poses. Nevertheless, fire is one of the most effective tools in combating trollhounds, and canny hunters know to burn every last remnant of a slain trollhound, for as is true of trolls, even the smallest piece of trollhound flesh can eventually regrow back into a full-sized beast. Trollhounds are most often found in the company of trolls, who breed the beasts as hunters, guards, pets, and food. Trollhounds seem to have an affinity for their savage masters, and tamed trollhounds always regard trolls as alpha members of the pack. A trollhound will never attack a troll without cause—although trolls often enjoy violent roughhousing with these creatures nonetheless.

Urhags are unnatural creatures that flop and scuttle through ancient ruins and barren canyon-lands. Originally native to the nightmare Plateau of Leng, they can slip into the waking world via an infected dreamer’s flesh.  Urhags crave the meat of sapient beings and enjoy infesting such hosts, even though urhags are barely capable of cohesive thought. Once an urhag’s victim dies, the urhag wears it like armor for a time while slowly consuming its flesh. Strangely, urhags avoid eating creatures incapable of dreaming, as they find their taste repellent. An urhag is about 4 feet long and weighs roughly 50 pounds.

Ice trolls are somewhat smaller than normal trolls, but they possess greater intelligence and cunning and are just as voraciously hungry. They display the typical hunched posture of trolls, combined with long arms tipped with sharp claws and the distinctive troll underbite. Like normal trolls, ice trolls possess amazing regenerative powers that enable them to recover from almost any wound. Unlike most trolls, ice trolls often use weapons in battle, but in the heat of combat, they often cast aside weapons in favor of their rending claws. An ice troll stands about 10 feet tall and weighs up to 900 pounds. Because of their greater intellects, ice trolls sometimes work as mercenaries, and often serve as soldiers in monstrous armies. They frequently ally with frost giants, and may even be found among northern barbarian tribes, as long as they are well fed and well paid. Ice trolls enjoy the taste of human flesh, and those not working with humans frequently set traps near civilized areas to catch their favorite prey. They will also raid isolated settlements for food, often bringing captured humans back to their icy lairs, where the unfortunate victims are caged and fattened up before finally being devoured by the voracious trolls. In combat, ice trolls are more cautious than normal trolls. They do not normally rush headlong into battle, instead focusing on weaker foes or those bearing fire. They do not hesitate to attack opponents armed with fire, but work together to defeat such enemies before they can bring their dangerous weapons to bear. Ice troll society is more patriarchal than normal troll society, and while males may form gangs to hunt or raid, most ice trolls live in small family groups comprised of a male, a female, and their offspring.

These fabled four-armed giants are native to a low-gravity planet and renowned across several worlds for their ferocity in battle. Most shobhads are born and come of age in fierce tribal clans known collectively as the Shobhad-neh, and disdain the “soft living” practiced by many other humanoid races—they believe the abandonment of nomadic culture is a slippery slope that leads away from individual honor and into marginalization. Whether with flashing swords and lances or mysterious longrifles capable of picking off targets on faraway horizons, the clans of the Shobhad-neh constantly vie for resources in the hard deserts and mountains where they live, their need to survive trumped only by a still greater desire for honor. Though considered barbaric by many, the Shobhad-neh operate under strict codes of conduct that dictate how a warrior may gain status via ritualistic challenges or daring coups in territorial squabbles. Unfortunately for other races, these rules almost always apply exclusively to interactions with other shobhads, and the Shobhad-neh see “lesser” races as little more than sheep to be culled. Typical shobhad warriors stand 12 feet tall and weigh 500 pounds, and their lean bodies are corded with ropes of muscle. Most shobhads prefer to go naked save for loincloths and the leather harnesses that crisscross their chests and secure their weapons in place. When they wear clothing, its either practical such as hide armor and wrappings that protect against biting sandstorms, or ceremonial like the brightly colored skins and feathers chieftains and shamans wear. Though shobhads can be found on occasion working as lone mercenaries in cities, such urban individuals are the exception rather than the rule. Shobhad shamans preach that in human cities, an individual is little more than a faceless cog in a machine, remembered by no one. Yet a shobhad warrior who rides heroically into battle atop her armored reptilian steed is never forgotten—neither by her own kin, nor by the families of those she defeats. Thus, in battle, a shobhad is made truly immortal.

SHOBHAD LONGRIFLE
A shobhad longrifle is treated as a Large rifle with a range increment of 200 feet, but it functions only on low-gravity worlds.

The goblinoid race of bugbears infests all regions of the world, and these cruel creatures have adapted to the various climes where they make their homes. In the icy wastes, a race of albino bugbears called wikkawaks stalk the windswept glaciers and frozen mountaintops. Well adapted to the cold, wikkawaks are masters of stealth and arctic survival, and they have the ability to quell lanterns, torches, and campfires with a thought. Wikkawaks leave no trail in even the heaviest of snows, though salt sprinkled on snow can supposedly reveal a wikkawak’s tracks. Of course, by the time one has discovered a wikkawak’s trail, it could already be too late. Like most bugbears, wikkawaks normally lead a solitary existence, preying on isolated settlers and hunters like pale arctic serial killers. Their powerful noses can sniff out a humanoid or animal over great distances. The rank smell of fear is a powerful stimulant to wikkawaks, and an individual wikkawak hunter might stalk and terrorize a potential victim for several nights, “steeping” its prey in dread and terror before finally pouncing. Wikkawaks consider humanoid flesh a great delicacy, and one might freeze a dead humanoid in a remote area, only to return to its grisly cache again and again to savor the taste of the victim for weeks on end. Wikkawaks enjoy keeping mementos of their victims, and prefer fingers as trophies. Wikkawaks occasionally congregate in larger groups, either to find mates or to better terrorize a large settlement. Wikkawak pairings seldom last longer than a winter, and young wikkawaks are pushed out into the cold to fend for themselves as soon as they’ve grown their fur. Wikkawaks don’t enjoy the company of other goblinoids, and are just as likely to kill and eat a tribe of snow goblins as they are to rule their lesser kin. A wikkawak is covered in a thick pelt of insulating white fur, and its beady eyes are a dead white color. A typical wikkawak stands just over 7 feet tall and weighs around 450 pounds.

Mysterious and rarely seen (save by victims), the yeti is a towering denizen of the loneliest and tallest mountain peaks. Those who dwell upon the lower reaches of such storied slopes whisper tales of “abominable snowmen” who come down from the heights to raid, taking livestock or even humans as prey and leaving behind only monstrous barefoot tracks in the bloodstained snow. Although yeti stories are accurate in their portrayals of fierce, stealthy, and immensely strong creatures, they are not when it comes to ascribing the yeti’s temperament and source. They dwell in small tribes atop their distant mountains, where they are sheltered from contact with most other races. Those with violent or cruel natures are usually forced out of tribes to live lonely lives as exiles, and without the support of a tribe such yeti are often driven to raiding lowlander settlements, thus perpetuating the myth of the yeti as a demon made flesh. The source of such cruel madness can often be traced to a singular source—proximity to strange, eldritch dimensions. The yetis’ mountain lairs rise high in places where the boundaries between this world and others rasp thin. It is unclear if the yeti are invaders from these dimensions or Material Plane natives influenced by otherworldly realms, but it seems certain that whatever their origins, the yeti are no friends to those who dwell beyond, and may even act as guardians against intrusions from such strange worlds into the Material Plane.

Trolls possess incredibly sharp claws and amazing regenerative powers, allowing them to recover from nearly any wound. They are stooped, fantastically ugly, and astonishingly strong—combined with their claws, their strength allows them to literally tear apart flesh to feed their voracious appetites. Trolls stand about 14 feet tall, but their hunched postures often make them appear shorter. An adult troll weighs around 1,000 pounds. A troll’s appetite and its regenerative powers make it a fearless combatant, ever prepared to charge headlong at the nearest living creature and attack with all of its fury. Only fire seems to cause a troll to hesitate, but even this mortal threat is not enough to stop a troll’s advance. Those who commonly battle with trolls know to locate and burn any pieces after a fight, for even the smallest scrap of flesh can regrow a full-size troll given enough time. Fortunately, only the largest part of a troll regrows in this way. Despite their cruelty in combat, trolls are surprisingly tender and kind to their own young. Female trolls work as a group, spending a great deal of time teaching young trolls to hunt and fend for themselves before sending them off to find their own territories. A male troll tends to live a solitary existence, partnering with a female for only a brief time to mate. All trolls spend most of their time hunting for food, as they must consume vast amounts each day or face starvation. Due to this need, most trolls stake out large territories as their own, and fights between rivals are quite common. While these are usually nonlethal, trolls are aware of each others’ weaknesses and will use such knowledge to kill their own kind if food is scarce.

Degenerate cousins of white dragons, frost dragons are ferocious predators. They are larger than other drakes, reaching heights of up to 16 feet and weighing upward of 2,500 pounds. Their wide, clawed feet enable them to easily burrow through snow, though not through dirt or clay. Young frost drakes form adolescent hunting packs divided along gender lines, but older frost drakes are usually encountered in mated pairs. Frost drakes mate for life, leaving their packs when they find a suitable mate. Mated pairs make a nest together, and the female lays a clutch of two to five eggs. Both parents care for their offspring when they hatch, and families usually form small packs until the young reach maturity at 5 years of age. At this point, the parents abandon their offspring, usually laying a new clutch of eggs in a new nest elsewhere, and leaving the fledgling drakes to find their own adolescent packs to join.

A frost giant’s hair can be light blue or dirty yellow, and its eyes usually match its hair color. Frost giants dress in skins and pelts, along with any jewelry they own. Frost giant warriors also don chain shirts and metal helmets decorated with horns or feathers. An adult male stands about 15 feet tall and weighs approximately 2,800 pounds. Females are slightly shorter and lighter, but otherwise identical to males. Frost giants can live to be 250 years old. Frost giants are among the most feared giants, as their wanton destruction, battle lust, and fearless demeanor push them to ever-increasing displays of brutality. Frost giants usually start combat at a distance, throwing rocks until they run out of ammunition or the opponent closes, then wading in with their enormous greataxes. A favorite tactic is to lay an ambush by hiding buried in the snow at the top of an icy or snowy slope, where opponents will have difficulty reaching them, and then starting an avalanche before leaping into battle. Frost giants can hide well in snowy environments and are masters of stealth in their domain. Frost giants survive on hunting and raiding alone, as they live in desolate, frigid environments. Frost giant groups are split almost evenly between those that live in makeshift settlements or abandoned castles and those that roam the frozen north as nomads in search of spoils and provisions. Frost giant leaders call themselves jarls and demand absolute obedience from their followers. At any time a jarl may be challenged by combat for leadership of the tribe. These challenges typically result in the death of one of the combatants. A single jarl can often count a dozen or more smaller frost giant tribes as part of his extended tribe. In such a situation, the leaders of the lesser tribes are known simply as chieftains or warlords. Frost giants love to take captives, and use them for food as well as slaves and commodities. Every group of frost giants typically has 1–2 humanoid slaves shackled to a slave handler— usually the meanest and cruelest non-jarl in the group. They are also quite fond of monstrous pets— white dragons and winter wolves are popular choices, but remorhazes, yetis, and even linnorms can be found dwelling in a frost giant lair.

Although most consider it to be the weakest and most feral of the chromatic dragons, the white dragon makes up for its lack of cunning with sheer ferocity. White dragons dwell on remote, frozen mountaintops and in arctic lowlands, making their home in glittering caves full of ice and snow. They prefer their meals completely frozen.

Sleipnirs are a legendary breed of magical, eightlegged horses. Most sleipnirs have jet-black coats and long, flowing manes and tails, though occasionally a sleipnir foal is born with a white or shimmering silver coat. Such rare sleipnirs sometimes display additional abilities beyond those of their darker kin. A typical sleipnir stands 6 to 7 feet tall at the shoulder, measures about 12 feet long, and weighs upward of 1,600 pounds. Believed to be descended from the mystical steeds of gods, sleipnirs have spread throughout the Material Plane. While sleipnirs cannot actually fly, they are able to walk on air as easily as on land, and spend much of their time galloping across the skies of their homes. Although sleipnirs lack the ability to travel between planes themselves, riders have brought them as mounts far beyond the Material Plane, and populations of sleipnirs can be found on several of the more hospitable Outer Planes as well. Sleipnirs are highly prized as steeds, but as intelligent magical beasts, they cannot be trained using the Handle Animal skill, and those trying to do so find them intractable and even violent. Although they cannot speak, sleipnirs understand Auran, and one seeking a sleipnir as a mount must convince the creature to serve using Diplomacy, Intimidate, or other means. Sleipnirs are generally indifferent to most creatures, meaning they can be found serving as steeds to creatures of all alignments, from good to evil. Riding a sleipnir requires no equipment other than a normal saddle, and they are well trained in combat from birth. A rider does not need to make a Ride check to control a sleipnir in battle, but must make a Ride check to attack in the same round that the sleipnir attacks. A sleipnir can carry 519 pounds as a light load, 1,038 pounds as a medium load, and 1,560 pounds as a heavy load.

With armor-crushing jaws, flesh that radiates cold, and a terrible keening cry capable of holding creatures fascinated, frost worms are apex predators of the frozen tundra and glaciers. In the frost worms’ far-reaching hunting grounds, they fear only the remorhaz, for the heat generated by an enraged remorhaz causes intense pain to a frost worm. This extreme aversion to heat, as well as its freezing touch and devastating breath weapon, stems from an unusual facet of frost worm physiology—veins that run with magically cold blood. This creature’s ichor is clear, but infused with such sub-freezing temperatures that the monster’s flesh can freeze water in the skin of creatures that touch it. When a frost worm dies, this magical energy dissipates, and both blood and muscle immediately freeze solid and then explode into a catastrophic barrage of icy shrapnel. As a result, even those predators that might legitimately prey upon the burrowing monstrosities tend to leave frost worms well enough alone. An adult frost worm measures 35 feet long and weighs 8,000 pounds.

The ice yai is a sinister creature that combines the brutality of a frost giant with the grace and style of a skilled martial artist. Although its magical powers are formidable, it prefers to fight in melee using its slam attacks, leading its minions in merciless combat. It uses its mobility to cast combat spells or launch shards of ice from its third eye. An ice yai is a natural leader among frost giants, tempering their savagery with its own wisdom. A tribe led by an ice yai may still raid settlements of neighboring humanoids, but the tribe soon learns the value of establishing regular tributes and willing sacrifices—the ice yai teach that methods that rely upon the threat of violence are often even more effective than actual violence. Despite this strangely enlightened philosophy, an ice yai never passes up an opportunity to reinforce its capacity for slaughter, and will often demand that its subjects take part in show battles, both for the entertainment of the tribe and to nurture the ice yai’s insatiable ego and sense of dominion over its subjects.

Cunning hunters, stormghosts prowl lonely arctic tors, so named by their victims for their ability to conjure malignant weather and attack unseen. Stormghosts search constantly for food, tracking animals and intelligent creatures alike, and their appearances vary depending on the season, allowing them to blend into any environment. While stormghosts are thankfully rare, their regeneration mitigates the effects of aging, allowing them to live for more than 2,000 years. A typical stormghost stands 8 feet tall in its regular posture, but can extend its legs to reach up to 14 feet, with its muscled flesh and hardened chitin armor making it weigh roughly 1,500 pounds.

Tundra blights dwell in the frozen reaches of the world, bringing their freezing domains to borderland settlements Tundra blights are 7 feet across and weight 450 pounds.

The ice linnorm dwells amid glacial crevasses and atop wind-blasted mountain peaks—tales speak of climbers unwittingly clambering over the flanks of a particularly immense ice linnorm coiled around a mountain, only to find death at its furious fangs and claws at the summit of their goal. During the fiercest winters, ice linnorms are said to slither down to the lowlands to eat entire villages. An ice linnorm is 90 feet long and weighs 18,000 pounds.

Magically crafted and crossbred from taiga and fire giant slaves by ancient wizards, rune giants are anathema to their own kind. Given power to command and magically control other giants, the rune giants themselves served their even more powerful masters, and in so doing granted ancient empires armies of giants to command. In the eons since these ancient empires collapsed, rune giants have persisted as a race of their own, little more than bogeymen, horrors whispered of late at night by superstitious giants. Rune giants’ charcoal flesh is decorated by dozens of runes—manifestations of their eldritch powers. Rune giants are 40 feet tall and weigh 25,000 pounds.

Ancient beyond imagining, the norns are a race of powerful women who hold in their hands the physical manifestation of fate and destiny in the form of golden thread. They watch over all life, intervening with reluctance when called upon or with a vengeance when the strands of fate are twisted and abused by lesser beings. Worshiped as gods by some, the norns do little to discourage this veneration. A norn stands 14 feet tall and weighs 800 pounds.

Tor linnorms epitomize the raw and untempered power of their kin. They dwell in the tallest volcanic mountains, either in naturally formed caverns or in the craters themselves, and rain destruction down upon nearby mountain villages whenever the urge strikes them. Tor linnorms are brutes, but as far as linnorms go are relatively intelligent. With this intelligence comes an overwhelming vanity—unlike other linnorms, tor linnorms enjoy being adored and worshiped by lesser creatures, and have been known to delay eating prisoners who seem to be particularly cowed by their presence, simply basking in their victims’ fear. A tor linnorm is 50 feet long and weighs 15,000 pounds.