Dragon+ 2/The Winter King

The Winter King is a short story by Chris Avellone, originally written while working on Icewind Dale video game. The story was published in Dragon+ 2.

Summary
Sometime before the, an aging dwarven smith Tiernon started hearing a mysterious call. The dwarf traveled from his home in the Sunset Mountains to a distant glacier of black ice deep in the Frozenfar. The glacier – Gloomfrost, was home to a massive ravenous polar worm named the Winter King for its fearsome power and ferocity. The creature melted a labyrinth of ice caverns through the Gloomfrost. Its hunger led the creature to consume every living thing in the glacier, including its own young and mate.

Tiernon found himself in the ravage hatchery of the giant remorhaz and was attached by the creature. Mind crippled by fear and eyes destroyed by the harsh glacier light, Tiernon found himself trapped in the cavers of black ice. Wasting away with hunger, the dwarf realized that the call that drove him here was the ice speaking to him, king to be forged and melded. The dwarf created an ice-shelled cloak, an ingenious "egg" that held its unbreakable shape and, when turned inside out, became a razor-sharp weapon. The smith confronted the Winter King and killed the massive worm with the help of the ice-shelled cloak. Tiernon claimed the meted black ice cavers as his forge, safe from a deadly monster.

Characters

 * Tiernon &bull; Winter King
 * Aengys Soothammer
 * Aengys Soothammer

Creatures

 * bear &bull; dwarf &bull; elk &bull; frost giant &bull; human &bull; polar bear &bull; polar worm
 * dragon &bull; fish &bull; stone giant &bull; wolf
 * dragon &bull; fish &bull; stone giant &bull; wolf

Locations

 * Gloomfrost &bull; Icewind Dale &bull; Northwest Faerûn &bull; Spine of the World
 * Keep of Aengys Soothammer &bull; Ored's Wood &bull; Sunset Mountains
 * Keep of Aengys Soothammer &bull; Ored's Wood &bull; Sunset Mountains

Magic

 * Items
 * dwarven thrower &bull; giant-kin belt &bull; ice-shelled cloak
 * Many-Toothed Maul &bull; Singing Blade of Aihonen
 * Spells
 * spiritual hammer
 * Other
 * black ice
 * black ice

Organizations

 * Clan Hearthstone &bull; Nine Beards
 * Clan Hearthstone &bull; Nine Beards

Religion

 * Chauntea &bull; Moradin

Miscellaneous

 * Armor
 * cloak &bull; scale mail &bull; shield
 * Weapons
 * axe &bull; great club &bull; hammer &bull; pick &bull; spear
 * Clothing
 * belt &bull; boots &bull; leggings
 * Other
 * anvil &bull; caltrop
 * copper &bull; diamond
 * copper &bull; diamond