Chapter 2: Icewind Dale - Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden

Chapter 2: Icewind Dale. Katabatic winds sweep down from the Reghed Glacier, ceaselessly battering anything that dares to grow or breathe in Icewind Dale. Without fail, these winds find their way through every chink and crack, every opening in the warmest furs, every tent flap, every roof and board of the strongest homes, draining away any hint of warmth. The sun, held down below the horizon by the Frostmaiden's magic, offers no respite from winter's fury. The days are twilit, the nights dark. As Auril casts her nightly spell, a curtain of light weaves across the starry sky to keep the dawn at bay-an aurora that portends an everlasting winter. Storms bring driving hail and sleet that leaves everything coated in a sheath of ice. Snow piles in deep drifts and blocks all trails leading south to warmer lands. The ice cliffs of the Reghed Glacier rise in the east like prison walls, while the snow-capped peaks of the Spine of the World loom to the south. North and west, the Sea of Moving Ice churns icebergs and floes in a deadly tumult, like winter grinding its teeth in anticipation of its next freezing assault. Trapped in winter's cold embrace, nomadic humans follow herds of reindeer through their migrations, while others dare the treacherous waters of the Sea of Moving Ice in search of fish, seals, walruses, and whales to sustain them. Dwarves dig into the earth to seek shelter and mine for iron. Meanwhile, folk descended from foolhardy and treasure-mad immigrants eke out meager lives in Ten-Towns, which can barely hold back the wind, let alone marauding orcs, giants, and fierce tundra yeti. Despite the unnatural cold and other dangers, people still brave the journey to reach this harsh winterscape, searching for opportunity and adventure. The goblin fortress of Karkolohk perches atop a rocky spur in the foothills of the Spine of the World Running This Chapter This chapter takes the adventure beyond Ten-Towns into the far reaches of Icewind Dale, to places the advent...