Cryovain Needs A Treasure Hoard

The most absurd omission in Dragon of Icespire Peak is that Cryovain has no treasure hoard.

You’ve got a dungeon. You’ve got a dragon. There needs to be a payoff of some kind. To do otherwise would be like hitting the jackpot of a lottery, only to be rewarded with a nicely written congratulatory note rather than, you know, bank notes.

Dragons and treasure are inseparable parts of D&D’s DNA. And fortunately, Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons gives us everything we need to fix that oversight in Dragon of Icespire Peak.

Cryovain is a young white dragon. According to Fizban’s, Cryovain’s treasure hoard would yield the following:

  • 4,200 (12d6 x 100) cp
  • 14,000 (4d6 x 1,000) sp
  • 4,200 (12d6 x 100) gp
  • 210 (6d6 x 10) pp
  • 4 (1d8) mundane items
  • 21 (6d6) gems
  • 5 (2d4) art objects
  • 4 (1d8) magic items

According to Fizban’s, white dragons favor treasure that matches their icy aesthetic. Cryovain isn’t interested in gaudy piles of mixed coinage. He prefers the cold glimmer of platinum and silver. Diamonds. Moonstones. Quartz.

To prevent the tacky yellow glimmer of gold or copper from marring the glacial beauty of its visible hoard, a white dragon buries that other coinage in pits beneath rock or snow, like a cat with a turd in its litterbox – which is kinda funny when considering that white dragons are the most brutish of the chromatic dragons, sporting a room temperature IQ.

But letting the wrong color marr the feng shui in their lair? No. Just…no.

This fun excentricity creates an opportunity to reward players for choices they make at character creation by confining this bit of knowledge about hidden treasure to those proficient in Arcana. A successful DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana) check recalls this bit of lore about white dragons and the buried turds among their hoards.

The same check would be sufficient to understand where a white dragon keeps its hoard in the first place: buried beneath ice on the floor of its lair – something characters may not spot if the rooftop of Icespire Hold is covered in a dusting of snow (which is likely).

Cryovain’s lair atop Icespire Hold is covered entirely with slippery ice, which is difficult terrain. Characters who fail a DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check while trying to traverse the roof fall prone, giving the Dungeon Master an opportunity to turn a wayward dice roll into a fun discovery for the character when, after faceplanting on the icy rooftop, they discover the glitter of silver and platinum and gemstones a foot beneath the ice they are laying upon.


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