Ice Bear

Part polar bear, part cave bear in look, the ice bear is a fierce carnivore of the far southern ice and the most intelligent bear of all. An adult runs about 12 feet long and close to 1,500 pounds. Its thick white coat both insulates it and camouflages it on snow and ice. It has an enormous head, long ears and vivid blue eyes, thick foot pads that grip ice, and a lean, powerful build that makes it a capable swimmer.

Ice bears share simple ideas among themselves through grunts, with no true language, and those used to dealing with other races can follow short spoken phrases.

Short-tempered and aggressive, an ice bear is a frightening foe. Its eyes and ears are excellent and its nose can catch prey 100 yards away, together granting +5 on surprise rolls.

It rears up and lunges, striking with both forepaws and its jaws. A paw roll of 18 or more adds a hug for 2d6. At 0 to -8 hit points it fights on for 1d4 rounds; at -9 or below it dies at once. Cold cannot harm it in any form, including cone of cold and every other cold-based spell.

Ice bears den in iceberg caves, mostly along arctic coasts, though some inhabit small islands hundreds of miles offshore. They rarely wander beyond a few miles of home and spend most waking hours swimming and fishing, favoring the edge of a floe, where fish swimming past can be scooped from the water.

Each winter a female retreats to her cave to bear one or two cubs, which stay until maturity at about seven years. Cubs over six months old are dangerous in their own right: HD 4, THAC0 17, AC 7, damage 1d4/1d4/1d8, with a 1d6 hug.

Their tracking over snow and ice is uncanny. A trail no more than a day old with no fresh snow is followed 100% of the time. The chance falls 10% for each day beyond the first and another 10% per inch of new snow, so a two-day-old trail under an inch of snow gives 80%. The bear rolls once a day; success keeps it on the trail all day, and failure loses the trail for good.

Ice bears sometimes work with other races, including humans and minotaurs, and above all the walrus folk. The bears find prey, the walrus folk kill it and share the meat, and the two stand together against common enemies. The walrus folk have even built sleds for teams of ice bears to pull.

Though often found alongside evil peoples, ice bears are not evil. Ice bears remember for a long time, and they stay friendly to anyone who once helped them, whatever that person's race or alignment. Someone who fed a starving bear, freed one from a trap or tended its wounds may be greeted as a friend years or decades later, and a grateful bear can guide allies through deadly arctic wastes or fight beside them.

Fish and seals make up most of its diet, though anything that blunders across its path is fair game. Its pelt makes warm coats, gloves and mufflers, and some peoples, evil and neutral humans especially, wear its claws as jewelry; a well-made claw necklace may bring as much as ten steel coins.