D&D 5E - The Rise of Tiamat

Before the characters head down into the cavern,
Maccath tells them they have no easy way back up
to these chambers. Old White Death doesn’t want
anyone—intruders or guests—to be able to easily
leave his lair.
12. Ic e T r o l l s
The ice trolls that Arauthator has gathered to his service
use this hall as their residence, and no other creatures
are permitted here. An ice troll has bluish, translucent
skin and immunity to cold damage; it otherwise has the
statistics of an ordinary troll.
A minimum of 2 ice trolls are here when characters
first enter, but 3 or more can be placed in this area
at your discretion (and depending on whether the
adventurers meet conditions that might lead to fighting;
see below).
This cavernous chamber is filled with drifting mist that
shrouds a field o f ice pillars rising from floor to ceiling.
The muffled silence beyond is broken only by the sound of
running water.
Ice pillars and pressure ridges form razor-sharp crags
that loom out of the roiling fog. Streams of crackling
water, magically flowing even at subzero temperatures,
course thickly through the hollows beneath winddriven,
icy snow.
From the entrance, only swirling fog can be seen
and only the wind can be heard. If Maccath or any ice
toad is with the party, they advise the characters in the
strongest possible terms to stay out of this chamber.
Those who venture here aree silently surrounded
and ambushed by the ice trolls. The trolls hungrily
pursue the adventurers if they flee, but they heed
the ice toads and refrain from attacking if the toads
command them to.
The trolls speak Giant and understand a little bit
of the Draconic tongue. They are w illing to trade or
bargain with characters who prove too difficult to
kill. Only the verifiable offer of food and treasure can
convince the trolls to turn against Arauthator.
13. Ic e T o a d W o r k p l a c e
Giant ice toads serve Arauthator as overseers at
Oyaviggaton. They manage the labor of the kobolds,
direct the Ice Hunter villagers to provide the lair with
food and other supplies, and have the patience required
to deal with the ornery ice trolls.
A bizarre sight greets you in this rough-walled chamber.
About a dozen giant toads with thick, mottled white hides
are at work here, scribing strange writing into the ice o f
A total of 11 ice toads (see appendix A) work in this
chamber, scribing records and tallies into the ice
using sharpened antlers or their own claws. They also
maintain rough maps of the Sea of Moving Ice based
on reports from the Ice Hunter villagers. At regular
intervals, their temporary records are transferred to
more permanent form.
See “Random Encounters” (above) for guidelines
on how the giant ice toads respond to intruders. The
characters’ best chance to avoid a fight in this area—
and to keep the toads from alerting the ice trolls—is to
win the ice toads to their cause by treating with their
leader, Marfulb.
The average ice toad is smart, but their leader
Marfulb is exceptional (Intelligence 13). Her knack for
organization and governance had no outlet until her
path crossed Arauthator’s on the Sea of Moving' Ice, and
she has served as the seneschal of Oyaviggaton for the
four decades since. Not even Arauthator understands
the workings of Oyaviggaton as well as Marfulb, who
knows the contents and value of every pack, chest,
and heap of coins in the iceberg down to the last
copper piece.
M a r f u l b ’s L o r e
In addition to data about Arauthator—his treasures,
mating habits, and epic battles with frost giants and
other monsters—the information amassed by the ice
toads includes exhaustive details on the ever-changing
Sea of Moving Ice, the weather north of the Spine of
the World, and the culture of the elusive Ice Hunters.
Marfulb feels great satisfaction in her life’s work, but
she knows too little about society south of the Spine of
the World to sense its full importance.
Characters equipped with a bag o f holding could take
all the parchments and stone slabs with them when
they leave Oyaviggaton. The Arcane Brotherhood would
regard the lore as one of the most amazing works of
natural philosophy in existence (once it is painstakingly
translated from the ice toads’ unique language), and they
would clamor to meet and praise Marfulb. Without a bag
o f holding, the collection is too large to move.
14. Ice T o a d L a ir
This freezing, miserable chamber makes a perfect home
for the ice toads, but is presently empty. None of the
toads’ belongings here has value as loot, but they make
a strange and curious collection. Such objects include
walrus-tooth wart scrapers, spears fashioned from
narwhal horn, oddly shaped furniture sculpted into the
icy floor instead of rising above it, writing implements
carved from baleen and shaped for a webbed hand, and
art objects that combine carved whalebone, driftwood,
and mundane items such as silverware and glass
stoppers salvaged from shipwrecks.
the walls, or onto weathered parchment and stone tablets.
A few toads transfer parchments and tablets into and out
of floor-to-ceiling cubbyholes cut into the ice along the
entire southern wall.