Finder’s Archives – Cave of the Frost Dragon

February 18, 2022 Kim Frandsen Finder's Archive 1

Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Finder’s Archives.

In this column, we take some of the lands from Magic: The Gathering and turn them into something you can use for your fantasy games.

The stats given in each entry assumes that you’re using Pathfinder or 5e for your games, but they can easily be converted over into any fantasy system. This week we head somewhere cold. Somewhere REALLY cold.

Cave of the Frost Dragon

The Cave of the Frost Dragon is home to a long-dormant white dragon. The dragon in question has been long forgotten, but it is THE oldest white dragon in existence, one that once served as an avatar for the Dragon Queen herself – the dreaded Hoarfrost. It has lain dormant for millennia but is simply waiting for the call to rise up once again, and cover the lands in ice. Its lair has literally grown up around it, a monumental mountain of solid ice, that covers Hoarfrost’s entire body and which holds him in place. Only the area directly in front of his nostrils and mouth are free of ice, allowing him to breathe, even though this is at such a low pace that most people would fail to notice it.

Lay of the Land

The mountain of ice that sits atop Hoarfrost, is called the Glacial Palace, though mankind has forgotten that it was once a place for primitive humans to worship Hoarfrost. And the cave that leads in is called the Cave of the Frost Dragon — contemporary scholars believe that this is because of the decorations on the walls of the cave and tunnels that lead on from it (suspected to head deep into the underground, a place where no one returns from. In reality, it’s simply because Hoarfrost eats them in his sleep, somehow sensing the presence of anyone or anything that could potentially present a danger or meal). This is where they used to worship the Great Dragon before the Dragon Queen created her current guise of the Five-Headed Dragon. Hoarfrost eventually settled into a deep slumber, content to wait for the day where she called upon his services again. She holds him in great regard as well, as, unlike his modern beastly descendants and cousins, is extremely intelligent.

Dangers

Hoarfrost, if he were ever to wake would present a danger to the whole world. He is easily one of the most powerful dragons ever, far more powerful than even the strongest ancient gold dragon, and easily able to outfight even a cadre of archmages. Not only that, but he is intelligent enough to rival most geniuses, unlike his white dragon kin. He still views humans as barbaric, however, as he has not seen the progress they have made in all the time he has been asleep, and would likely dismiss them as a threat, to focus on elves and dwarves — creatures he knows and remembers. Should Hoarfrost ever awaken, and become the mate of the Dragon Queen once more, it would only be a matter of time before he covered the entire world in ice, in homage to her.

And that concludes this week. Dare you poke the sleeping dragon?

The following two tabs change content below.
My Facebook profile

Kim Frandsen

40 years old, and a gamer since I was 13. These days I freelance as a writer for various companies (currently Fat Goblin Games, Flaming Crab Games, Outland Entertainment, Paizo, Raging Swan Games, Rusted Iron Games, and Zenith Games), I've dipped my hands into all sorts of games, but my current "go-to" games are Pathfinder 2, Dungeon Crawl Classics and SLA Industries. Unfortunately, while wargaming used to be a big hobby, with wife, dog and daughter came less time.
My Facebook profile

Latest posts by Kim Frandsen (see all)

Comments are closed.