Ice toad

Ice toads were a unique species of giant toad that could only be found in cold climates.

Description
The body of an ice toad on average grew to a length of,  was comparable in size to a horse, and weighed around  or more. Their skin was a of a ghostly white hue, while their warts were a pale blue. Their mouths were filled with many small, sharp teeth. Their webbed front feet were quite dexterous, capable of wielding tools or other items. Sometimes they had pouches slung around their necks in which items were carried.

Personality
These creatures were far more intelligent than other species of giant toad, having a mental capacity above that displayed by most wild animals. This intellect was comparable to that of a winter wolf. However, ice toads were not intelligent enough to strategize or make use of tactics.

Ice toads were drawn towards sources of heat and fire drove them into a sort of frenzy, with large blazes attracting dozens of enraged specimens. They actively collected various types of jewelry and gems, in particular diamonds.

Biology
Being amphibians, ice toads were capable of breathing both air and water. They could also leap up to into the air and across gaps that were  wide, even from being completely stationary.

Ice toads were impervious to harm from intense cold temperatures or cold-based spells, though they were quite vulnerable to fire and spells based around it. However, felt it was futile to fight them with fire due to the aforementioned frenzying effect.

Abilities
At will, an ice toad could emit an aura of intensely cold temperatures radiated from their bodies that harmed anyone within a  who could not withstand such low temperatures. This cold that radiated from their bodies was so intense that it could kill.

Combat
These creatures typically fought others with a vicious bite, their mouths filled with rows of sharp teeth, and would attempt to swallow prey whole. They also would use their extensive tongues to grab hold of other creatures and drag them closer.

History
Some time in the 1480s DR, the white dragon Arauthator began attracting a large number of ice toads to his lair of Oyaviggaton in the Sea of Moving Ice. There they worked to maintain the dragon's iceberg and his treasure, acting as overseers of the dragon's kobold and ice troll servants. The ice hunters who also were subservient to Arauthator would provide the ice toads with fish, sea birds, and seals to feed upon.

While working under Arauthator, the ice toads on Oyaviggaton amassed exhaustive information regarding the Sea of Moving Ice, weather north of the Spine of the World, and the culture of the ice hunters. They inscribed this information upon homemade parchment or stone slabs, using either sharpened antlers or their own feet.

Society
Though they could be found solitarily or in pairs, ice toads often traveled in colonies of three to four members or more.

Diet
Ice toads were a carnivorous species. They were willing to attack and devour almost anything. In High Ice they generally fed upon small mammals, such as arctic foxes and icejacks, as well as on occasion members of wandering caribou herds.

Homelands
These creatures were only known to be found in regions with arctic to subarctic climates, either above or below ground. Above ground they were typically found in marshes.

On Faerun they were known to inhabit the High Ice region of Anauroch, in and along the River Pelauvir, the arctic plains of the Hordelands, and in the Great Glacier, especially in the mountainous region of Novularond.

Beyond those largely arctic regions, ice toads could be encountered rarely in the marshes of Cormyr.

Beyond Toril, ice toads could be found in arctic forests and subarctic marshes of the planet Oerth. Outside of the Prime Material plane, they inhabited the Para-Elemental Plane of Ice.

Languages
These creatures possessed their own unique, bizarre form of language. This consisted primarily of croaking. Their language was relatively obscure, though a few arctic druids were proficient in speaking it.

The ice toads that lived in Oyaviggaton knew how to speak some degree of Draconic and Uluik, though their pronunciation was poor and they spoke with thick accents.

Relationships
In the High Ice region of Anauroch, ice toads were often preyed upon by winter wolves. In the Great Glacier, arctic dwarves were known to hunt both creatures.

In that same region, some Nakulutiun villages outlawed the hunting or killing of ice toads. Such villages kept an ice toad in a pit in the village's center, who villagers were instructed to keep happy and well-fed. They also were required to bow before the pit as they passed it by.

Ice toads were one of the many creatures associated with cold that served as minions of the evil archomental Cryonax.

Notable Ice Toads

 * Marfulb, the leader of the ice toads that lived and worked on Oyaviggaton for the white dragon Arauthator.

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * The Rise of Tiamat