Monster Monday: Glacioth, the Ice Mammoth

Every year since the wall of ice collapsed, the mammoths had come south through Eagle Pass at first snow.  Kennetwe had been the first to notice this, and so Kennetwe had been given the honor of leading the hunt ever since.  No longer did the Arokatcha eke out a living eating boiled roots and trading black squirrel pelts to the neighboring tribes.  Thanks to Kennetwe (and the melting ice), they grew fat on slabs of mammoth meat, grew strong defending the pass from their jealous neighbors, and grew rich trading ivory and hides to the River Cities.  

It was on one such trade expedition last summer, in the walled city or Urtalik, that Kennetwe had found the magic spear.  Crouching behind the grassy hummock and waiting for the other hunters to catch up to him, he admired the fine prize that he had traded five great tusks for.  The haft was made of a pale wood that looked almost like bone.  The spear head was broad and never needed sharpening.  Silver lightning bolts ran down either side of the head, framing a seated human figure that the Urtalikan had claimed was a god named Banatu.  At the time, Kennetwe had laughed - the gods do not take the shape of man! - but now he was convinced.  The spear crackled with power whenever he hefted it.  When he cast it, it flew straight and true, and badly scorched whatever it hit.  He was eager to try it on a mammoth.

Kennetwe readied the spear as the other hunters arrived.  He motioned them to follow, then leapt over the hummock down into the dry stream bed which ran with fast melt-water in the spring.  They advanced silently up the natural path, using the high banks as cover.  Mammoths spooked easily at the sight of man, and spooked mammoths would do no one any good.  The scent of mammoth was strong when they neared the killing field.  Stronger than ever.  This might be Kennetwe's most successful hunt yet.  He peered over the stream bank and his stomach sank.  The field was full of mammoths, all right.  Dead mammoths.  

He clambered out of the stream bed, the other hunters following.  A whole herd of female mammoths and their yearlings lay dead between the stream and the cliffs.  Did Tartakan hunters dare penetrate so deeply into Arokatcha territory?  Impossible.  Besides, there were no spears broken off in the mammoths.  No meat had been cut from their bodies, no tusks removed.  Kennetwe examined the closest mammoth.  It has been gored through its flank multiple times.  Its meat was cold and frosty.  A younger mammoth lay nearby, trampled to death by something very heavy.  

A trumpeting call ripped through the air, and the ground rumbled ominously.  Kennetwe looked up from the carnage.  A huge mammoth like none he had ever seen charged down the slope at them.  Its shaggy fur was white, and its skin was tinted blue like a frozen lake.  Its mighty tusks were made not of ivory but of ice, still dripping with blood and gore from the mammoths it had killed.  Four young hunters rushed in from the side and cast their throwing spears.  The brazen move would take down an aurochs but would be foolhardy in a mammoth hunt and was suicide against this beast.  The creature rounded on the boys and let loose a blast from its trunk.  A spray of ice crystals ripped into the first-year hunters, freezing them dead in their tracks.

Spears and arrows rained down on the beast from more cautious hunters taking cover behind dead mammoths.  Few found purchase in the monster's thick hide.  The white mammoth charged a pair of archers and skewered one on its icy tusk.  The archer's aborted scream hung in the air like a cloud.  This devil of a mammoth would not just end the hunt, it could end the whole Arokatcha tribe.  Kennetwe stepped up onto the corpse of a mammoth and belted out a war cry.  The white mammoth turned to him, snorted, and started to charge.  

He hefted the spear in his hand.  "Banatu, strike down this monster!"  The hairs on his arms stood on end as the spear trembled with power.  The white mammoth bore down on him, shaking the earth with every step.  Kennetwe took aim between the beast's eyes and let the spear fly.  

Today's Monster Monday is the glacioth, a snow-white mammoth with icicles for tusks that blasts cones of frost out of its trunk.  It's like a cross between a mammoth and a yeti, basically.

Whether you are running an ice age campaign (as I one day hope to do) or your party is venturing through the frigid northlands, a glacioth makes for a challenging foe.  It not only brings the power of a mammoth to bear, but also magical ice attacks.  Glacioths also make suitable mounts for yetis and frost giants or weapons of war for northern kingdoms.

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2016 Jonah Bomgaars.

Glacioth        CR 14

XP 38,400

N Huge magical beast (cold)

Init +4; Senses low-light vision, darkvision 60 ft., scent; Perception +19

DEFENSE

AC 28, touch 8, flat-footed 28 (+20 natural, -2 size)

hp 189 (14d10+112)

Fort +16, Ref +9, Will +8

DR 5/magic and piercing; Immune cold

Vulnerability fire

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft.

Melee gore +24 (2d8+12 plus 2d10 cold), slam +24 (2d6+12 plus 2d10 cold)

Space 15 ft.; Reach 10 ft.

Special Attacks breath weapon (60 ft. cone, 10d10 cold damage, Reflex DC 24, useable every 1d4 rounds), trample (2d6+18 plus 2d10 cold, DC 29)

STATISTICS

Str 35, Dex 10, Con 24, Int 4, Wis 14, Cha 8

Base Atk +14; CMB +27 (+29 bull rush); CMD 37 (39 vs. bull rush, 41 vs. trip)

Feats Awesome Blow, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Initiative, Improved Iron Will, Iron Will, Power Attack, Toughness

Skills Perception +19

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Cold (Su)

A Glacioth’s body generates intense cold, dealing 2d10 points of cold damage to any creature that contacts it with a natural attack or unarmed strike, or whenever it hits a foe with its own natural attacks.

ECOLOGY

Environment cold forests and plains

Organization solitary or herd (2-16 adult females plus 1d6 young glacioths)

Treasure none

A glacioth resembles a mammoth, but its thick hide is tinged icy blue, its shaggy fur is white as driven snow, and its tusks are extrusions of dense magical ice.  When threatened, it fires a burst of freezing air from its muscular trunk.  Male glacioths are territorial and ill-tempered loners.  Females band together in a herd with their young, and while they are less aggressive than rampaging bull glacioths, they will defend their herd to the death.  

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On the subject of mammoths, I need to share this with you.  It's a scientific reconstruction of a woolly mammoth based on a mostly intact mammoth skeleton with skin and flesh still attached recovered from Siberia in 1806.

via Wikimedia

Yep, that looks about right.

-your proboscidean d20 despot