Dragon+ 2/The Winter King

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

Summary
Sometime before the, the aging dwarven smith Tiernon Denthelm begins hearing a mysterious call. The dwarf travels from his home in the Sunset Mountains to a distant glacier of black ice deep in the Frozenfar. The glacier&mdash;Gloomfrost, is home to a massive ravenous polar worm named the Winter King for its fearsome power and ferocity. The creature has 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 finds himself in the ravaged hatchery of the giant remorhaz and is attacked by the creature. His mind crippled by fear and his eyes destroyed by the harsh glacier light, Tiernon finds himself trapped in the caverns of black ice. Wasting away with hunger, the dwarf realizes that the call that drove him here was the ice speaking to him, asking to be forged and molded. The dwarf creates an ice-shelled cloak, an ingenious "egg" that holds its unbreakable shape and, when turned inside out, becomes a razor-sharp weapon. The smith confronts the Winter King and kills the massive worm with the help of the ice-shelled cloak. Tiernon claims the melted black ice caverns as his forge, safe from a deadly monster

Characters

 * Tiernon Denthelm • Winter King
 * Aengys Soothammer
 * Aengys Soothammer

Creatures

 * bear • dwarf • elk • frost giant • human • polar bear • polar worm
 * dragon • fish • stone giant • wolf
 * dragon • fish • stone giant • wolf

Locations

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

Magic

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

Organizations

 * Clan Hearthstone • Nine Beards
 * Clan Hearthstone • Nine Beards

Religion

 * Chauntea • Moradin

Miscellaneous

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