Young paladins are an impressionable lot,
and Ren Grakkan was no exception. When his
lady asked him to undertake the quest for the Greatest Gift,
he rushed out like a thunderbolt to do her bidding. Little
did he realize that it would take him to the frozen ends of
the earth where he would battle ice creatures.

Her heart's desire was to possess the
most potent of all artifacts, the white
cloak of enchanting. Ren didn't know
where it was or what guarded it, but
when his lady spoke, he acted. He vowed
that it would be in her soft hands before
the next rising of the full moon.

Through the expenditure of over half
his wealth and with the use of a sage, Ren
discovered the location of his cloak. Years
before, the cloak had been stolen during a
blizzard from its rightful owner, a powerful
barbarian lord from the snowy northlands.
The barbarian and all of his
retainers were killed during the attack by
things called "ice creatures."

The cloak resides in the mountain den
of the humanoids, guarded by thos ewho
stole it. Naturally, the knowledge of these
terrible adversaries didn't daunt Ren in
the slightest.

Ren paid a hippogriff and its rider a
large sum to transport him to the site at
the base of the mountain of ice. Three-quarters
of the way there, they double-crossed him
and left him with only the
items on his back, leading him to realize
the nature of neutrals.

Out of necessity, he captured and
tamed a wooly mammoth. The only
things that kept him alive in the frigid
wastelands were his flame tongue sword
and the body heat of the creature he rode.
He was determined that nothing would
keep him from his quest.

The mountain of ice and the cave at its
base were easy to find. Unfortunately for
Ren, the ice creatures were equally easy
to find.

Ren Grakkan
RACE/SEX: Human male
ARMOR CLASS: 0
HIT POINTS: 49
FIGHTER: 4th-level paladin
MOVE: 12"
NO. OF ATTACKS: Nil
DAMAGE: 2-8/2-16
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Nil
SPECIAL DEFENSES +2 on save, immune to diseases
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard
SIZE: M (5' 9")
ALIGNMENT: Lawful good
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
S: 18 (76%)
I: 9
W: 13
D: 18
C: 18
CH: 17

Bonuses: +2 to hit / +4 damage, +1,500
wt. allowance, 1-4 to open doors, 30%
bend bards/lift gates,. +2 missiles/attack
adj., -4 def. adjustment

Magic items: bracers of defense (AC 4),
flame tongue +1/+3 versus cold

Unadjusted THACO = 18

The Scene

At the foot of a mile-high mountain of ice
is a huge cave. The glaring sun bounces
off of sheets of ice everywhere. At the
entrance to this cave stands a nine-foot-tall
ice humanoid. The creature holds a
shard-spear of ice in its hands and is
clearly ready to defend the cave entrance.
At its cone-shaped feet lie the bones of
several other adventurers. You move
forward a half step, and the ice lumbers
toward you, waving its weapon threateningly.
 

DM information

The cave

An ice guards the entrance, but it is slow
and can be maneuvered around. The
cave has a slide at the entrance that glides
down for 100 feet. Ren must make four
checks of his Dexterity to see if he manages
to keep from slipping. If he rolls
more than his Dexterity, he falls and is
affected by the ice spears at the bottom
of the slide.

The DM rolls 1d6 spears hitting Ren
for 1d4 points of damage per spear.

At this point the character may see
tunnels to his left and right. The tunnel to
the right is filled with two lumbering ices
who are moving toward the intruder. The
tunnel to the left curves out of sight a few
paces from the eentrance, but a bright
glow from its depths reflects around the corner.

The area from which the two ice creatures
emerge contains seven ice statues of
fighters in various posts of battle. The
bright glow in the other section is cast by
the cloak; it lies on three half-formed ices.
If the cloak is grasped , the ice underneath
it will create a fall of ice which will do 4d8
points of damage. If the cloak is carefully
lifted and the creatures underneath are
somehow dealt with before the cloak is
fully off to them, the ice fall will occur.

The ices move and attack so slowly that
it is possible to move past them and trust
to luck that they won't hit.

Ices
FREQUENCY: Very rare
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: 3
MOVE: 6"
HIT DICE: 8, 12, or 16
% IN Lair: Nil
TREASURE TYPE: Nil
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1
DAMAGE/ATTACKS: 3-36
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Cold
SPECIAL DEFENSES: +1 or better weapon to hit
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard
INTELLIGENCE: Low
ALIGNMENT: Neutral
SIZE: L
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
    Attack/Defense Modes: Nil/nil
Level/X.P. VALUES: VII/2850 +15 hp

Ice creatures can mainly be found on the
Para-elemental Plane of Cold. They are
slow-moving creatures of low intelligence.
Ice creatures invariably create icy slides to
guard their dens, and place their treasures
in small alcoves guarded by falling ice
traps.

Ice para-elementals have a funny cultural
quirk of making sculptures of the
enemies they've vanquished. These
statues are almost always perfect reproductions
of the foes they've faced. An
ice's physical ability and prowess can be
easily determined by the number of sculptures
it has in its den.

Ices require powerful magic items to
reproduce their kind; they seek out these
items in a one hundred-mile radius
around their dens. The mere presence of
fully charged wands or miscellaneous
magic items will slowly attract other of
their kind to the source of magic.

Fire-based attacks do double damage to
ice creatures. Those coming within ten
feet of a creature take 1-4 points of damage
per round due to the intense cold that
surrounds its being.

White cloak of charming

This unusually white cloak will increase
the magical effectiveness of several types
of spells. It will modify the saving throws
by -2 on all illusionist spells. It modifies
by -3 all hold, charm, suggestion, and
confusion spells of the magic-user. These
spells are further modified by a factor of
-1 when worn by a female

Final notes

If Ren succeeds in bringing this item back
to his lady love, her face will fill with the
joy of this gift. But in years to come the, the
winters in their land will become unusually
harsh. It is quite possible that someday
during the worst of blizzards,
something big, mean, and ugly may come
knocking at her door.

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