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Frostmaw

The Frostmaw is a rare and formidable predator native to the shadowed depths of the Whistling Wood, a creature as much a product of the forest’s strange planar bleed as of natural evolution. Roughly the size of a large dog or small pony, this two-headed beast is cloaked in shaggy, pale-blue fur that often glistens with frost even in temperate seasons. Its powerful, lupine frame is low-slung and muscular, built for explosive bursts of speed and sudden ambushes. The Frostmaw is known for its eerie silence when stalking prey, broken only by the occasional low growl—or worse, the bone-chilling hum that precedes its signature attack.

Each head of the Frostmaw is fully independent, yet eerily synchronized in behavior, reacting with near-supernatural awareness to threats or movement. The beast is capable of exhaling a cone of frigid mist from each maw, often in tandem, freezing foliage, armor, and flesh in place. The cold it breathes is not entirely natural—it is whispered that the Frostmaw’s breath carries with it a fragment of the planar frost that seeps into the Whistling Wood, a magic older and colder than winter itself. Many believe the creatures are not born, but awakened, slumbering beneath the roots of ancient glades until disturbed.

Encounters with Frostmaws are rare and often fatal. Survivors report feeling watched long before the attack, and claim the creature’s breath sings with a tone too pure and too alien to be anything of this world. Druids and scholars argue over their origin—some claim they are guardians placed by the forest itself, while others believe them to be symptoms of a deeper sickness, a manifestation of the thin veil between realms that defines the Whistling Wood.

Basic Information

Ecology and Habitats

The Frostmaw is found almost exclusively in the Whistling Wood, where the natural world bends subtly under the influence of planar bleed, particularly from the Feywild and Shadowfell. These overlapping energies have helped shape the Frostmaw into a creature not entirely of the material plane. Though clearly terrestrial in form, their behavior and abilities reflect supernatural influences, and they seem deeply attuned to the forest’s strange rhythms and resonances. Frostmaws prefer the coldest, darkest portions of the forest, often establishing lairs among dense, root-choked glades, moss-laden caves, or beneath fallen, hollow trees. These lairs are typically marked by a sudden drop in ambient temperature, patches of unnatural frost, or the absence of birdsong and insect life. They are solitary by nature, fiercely territorial, and have been observed to alter the environment around them subtly over time—spreading patches of rimefrost, stilling wind currents, and even dampening sound within a short radius of their lair.

  Rather than roaming widely, Frostmaws tend to establish a territory—often spanning several square miles—which they patrol frequently. Prey within these regions may include small game, unwary travelers, and in rare cases, even larger beasts weakened by cold or disoriented by the forest’s strange acoustics. Frostmaws exhibit a disturbing tendency to drag prey back to their lair and preserve it beneath layers of magically-induced ice, feeding sporadically as needed. This behavior, coupled with the unnaturally preserved corpses found within their dens, has led some scholars to refer to the species as "the Cold Wardens of the Whistling Wood."
"I’ve stared down frost giants and wyverns, but nothing unnerves me quite like the silence before a Frostmaw strikes—two snarling mouths, one singular intent. It doesn’t hunt for hunger. It hunts for the forest." - Victoria Pendrake 
Scientific Name
Canis duplicis cryomorphus
Geographic Distribution

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