Type: Artifact Orb; Divine Focus of Icengrim
Origin: Taken from a power cathedral on another world
Patron Deity: Icengrim
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Current Bearer: Syclla, Chosen of Icengrim
Known Enemies: Lazareth, his clergy, civilized undead loyal to Lazareth, and enemies of the Triad
Attunement: Requires attunement by a creature able to cast at least one spell, or by a creature personally chosen by a priest, champion, or divine servant of Icengrim.

The Orb of Everwinter is one of the most dangerous known artifacts of Icengrim, Lord of Winter and the Savage Dead. It appears as a sphere of blue-white crystal, though no mortal glassblower, dwarf-smith, or arcanist has ever identified the substance from which it was made. Within the Orb drifts a living blizzard: snow that never settles, lightning that cracks without sound, and distant spires glimpsed through frozen fog.

The Orb was not forged in this world. According to occult accounts, it was torn from a power cathedral on another world and sent by Icengrim to his chosen servant, Syclla. That cathedral was not merely a temple, but a divine engine where worship, sacrifice, weather, and conquest were joined into a single instrument of frozen dominion.

In Scylla’s hands, the Orb has become a terror of the Corsair Seas. Tropical rain turns to sleet. Warm harbors freeze at the mouth. Ships are found locked in blue ice beneath clear skies, their crews preserved in expressions of panic and prayer.

The Orb is roughly the size of a human skull and perfectly spherical. It is cold enough to frost bare skin from several feet away, yet it does not melt snow or gather condensation like ordinary ice.

Its surface appears cracked, but the cracks shift when unobserved. Pale lightning crawls through the fractures. Snowflake patterns bloom and fade across the surface like thoughts passing through a sleeping mind.

When dormant, the Orb gives off a dim blue glow. When awakened, it shines like a winter star. Witnesses describe hearing distant bells, cracking glaciers, and choral voices buried beneath the roar of wind.

The bearer’s breath always fogs while the Orb is near. Water blackens, then pales, then freezes. Blood spilled within its light steams briefly before crystallizing.

The Orb accepts many bearers, but it does not love them equally.

A creature may attune to the Orb if it is able to cast at least one spell, or if it has been ritually marked by a priest, champion, or divine servant of Icengrim. However, the artifact’s greatest powers are reserved for those who believe in Icengrim’s darker truth: that mercy is weakness, winter is judgment, and the dead are best used in service.

The Orb recognizes three states of attunement:

A creature does not need to be evil to first use the Orb, but continued use makes neutrality difficult and goodness painful.

While attuned to the Orb of Everwinter, you gain the following benefits:

• You have Resistance to Cold Damage.
• You ignore difficult terrain caused by ice or snow.
• You can breathe normally in freezing fog, magical snow, and blizzard conditions created by the Orb.
• You know the Ray of Frost cantrip. If you already know it, its range increases by 30 feet.
• You can use the Orb as a spellcasting focus.
• When you cast a spell that deals Cold Damage, you may add your Proficiency Bonus to one damage roll of that spell.
• Water within 5 feet of you slowly frosts over, unless you choose to suppress this effect.

If you are a Professed Servant or True Believer of Icengrim, your Resistance to Cold Damage becomes Immunity to Cold Damage while you are holding the Orb.

The Orb has 12 charges and regains 1d6 + 6 expended charges daily at midnight, or at dusk during winter.

While holding the Orb, you may expend charges to cast the following spells, using your spell save DC and spell attack bonus. If you do not have a spell save DC, use DC 18 and a +10 spell attack modifier.

When you cast Control Water using the Orb, you may cause affected water to partially freeze. Frozen water becomes difficult terrain, may trap ships or creatures, and can support weight at the DM’s discretion.

When you cast Control Weather using the Orb, the weather always shifts toward cold, wind, fog, snow, sleet, hail, or blizzard conditions. The Orb cannot be used to create warmth, calm, or gentle rain.

As an Action, while holding the Orb, you may expend 3 or more charges to freeze a large body of liquid water you can see within 300 feet.

For every 3 charges spent, you may freeze up to a 60-foot cube of water. The ice is thick enough to walk on and lasts for 1 hour, or until destroyed. If used against a ship, the ship must succeed on a DC 18 Strength saving throw or have its speed reduced to 0 until the ice is broken or melted.

Creatures swimming in the affected area must make a DC 18 Strength saving throw. On a failure, a creature is Restrained by ice. On a success, it moves to the nearest unoccupied space outside the frozen area.

A Professed Servant or True Believer may spend 6 charges to increase the range to 1 mile if the water is part of a sea, lake, harbor, or major river.

When you deal Cold Damage to a creature using a spell cast through the Orb, you may force that creature to make a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failure, its Speed is reduced by 10 feet until the end of its next turn.

If the creature is already slowed by this feature and fails again, it is also Restrained by ice until the end of its next turn.

If a creature is reduced to 0 Hit Points by Cold Damage from the Orb, you may choose for it to freeze solid rather than fall normally. A frozen creature is stable but Unconscious, unless killed outright. Breaking the ice without care may kill the creature.

A True Believer may instead choose to kill the creature and preserve its corpse in perfect ice.

As a Bonus Action, you may expend 2 charges to surround yourself with a storm of snow and razor ice for 1 minute.

For the duration:

• You gain Half Cover.
• Creatures of your choice that start their turn within 10 feet of you take Cold Damage equal to your Proficiency Bonus.
• Nonmagical flames within 10 feet of you are extinguished.
• Ranged weapon attacks against you are made with Disadvantage if the attacker is more than 30 feet away.

If you are not a Professed Servant or True Believer, you must make a DC 15 Charisma saving throw when this feature ends. On a failure, you gain 1 level of Exhaustion as the Orb drains warmth from your soul.

Once per Long Rest, you may use an Action to release a devastating pulse of divine winter.

Each creature of your choice within 60 feet must make a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC. A creature takes 8d8 Cold Damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. On a failed save, a creature is also knocked Prone, and its Speed becomes 0 until the end of its next turn.

All mundane flames in the area are extinguished. Exposed liquid water freezes. The ground becomes ice-coated difficult terrain for 10 minutes.

If you are a True Believer, the damage increases to 10d8, and creatures that fail the save are also Restrained by ice until the end of their next turn.

If you are not a True Believer, using Everwinter Pulse triggers Judgment of the Orb.

When a Humanoid dies within 30 feet of the Orb from Cold Damage, the bearer may use a Reaction to mark the corpse with Icengrim’s claim. The corpse rises at the start of the bearer’s next turn as a Skeleton, Zombie, or other appropriate lesser undead chosen by the DM. It remains animated for 1 hour, then collapses.

A Professed Servant may command up to three undead created this way at once.

A True Believer may command up to six undead created this way at once, and the undead gain Resistance to Cold Damage.

A non-believer who uses this feature immediately triggers Judgment of the Orb.

The Orb tempts the unworthy with easy power, but it punishes hesitation, mercy, and false devotion.

Judgment of the Orb is triggered when:

• A non-believer uses Everwinter Pulse.
• A non-believer uses Winter’s Claim.
• A bearer uses the Orb to spare a sworn enemy of Icengrim when killing them would be easy.
• A bearer uses the Orb to protect a temple, relic, or priest of Lazareth.
• A bearer goes seven days attuned to the Orb without advancing Icengrim’s goals.
• A bearer tries to unattune from the Orb without performing a rite of release.

When Judgment is triggered, the bearer must make a DC 18 Charisma saving throw.

On a success, the bearer suffers one consequence from the table below.

On a failure, the bearer suffers two consequences. A creature that fails by 5 or more also gains one level of Exhaustion.

A True Believer does not suffer Judgment for cruelty, conquest, or the creation of undead in Icengrim’s name. They may still suffer Judgment if they betray Icengrim, aid Lazareth, or attempt to destroy the Orb.

Each time a non-evil bearer uses one of the Orb’s major powers, the DM may call for a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. The save is made with Disadvantage if the power killed a helpless creature, froze a settlement’s water supply, created undead, or was used in anger.

On a failure, the bearer gains one Winter Mark.

Winter Marks can be removed only by major atonement, powerful divine intervention, or a quest opposed to Icengrim’s will.

The Orb of Everwinter is mighty, but not without limits.

The Orb of Everwinter cannot be destroyed by ordinary force. Hammers shatter against it. Dragon fire gutters before touching its surface. Dispel magic causes only a brief dimming of its inner storm.

Possible means of destroying or purifying the Orb may include:

• Bathing it in holy fire from a sanctified forge of the Church of the Flame.
• Forcing Scylla to willingly renounce Icengrim while attuned to it.
• Using a relic of Lazareth to bind the Orb’s winter in eternal undeath, rendering it inert.
• Shattering it in a place where winter has never touched the world.
• Melting it in the combined flames of a dragon, a saint, and a mortal hearth freely offered.
• Burying it beneath consecrated summer earth for a full year and a day while protected from all moonlight, seawater, and bloodshed.