Ancient Ice Leopard

A vaguely ice elemental variated snow leopard from the mortal plane. This creature's stature is standard for the type of animal it resembles but its mind and capabilities know no steep limits.

Where average ice leopards living upon The Isle of Circles would possess unkempt and nonuniform shards of ice and crystal melded into its fur, the structure of ice on the Ancient's body are pristine. The quality of any crystals that would fall off the beast would be of expert level crafting, more refined than occurrences of crystal in the natural world.

Any attack to the World Tree is a direct attack to it. Any creature attempting to strike the tree will immediately trigger the creature's Feeblemind ability. This creature will valiantly fight to the death to protect the tree and the immense treasure of magical artifacts it is hoarding.

The land controlled by the Ancient Ice Leopard is easy to detect, as there is only one combination of factors suitable for its habitation: the presence of a World Tree upon a sparse tundra. This creature has had countless lifetimes to imbue the land with arcane energy to flourish it into a vast nature preserve. The lair itself is a wide expanse of land, however the effects seen by lair actions only happen around the base of the World Tree: which is a tree akin to Pandora's Home Tree (from James Cameron's Avatar).

Lair Actions

On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the Ancient Ice Leopard takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects; it can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row and is immune to any conditional effect caused by a lair action:

• The tree's ice covered roots vibrate, causing two 5-foot wide icicles to fall to the ground. Any creature under the icicle must make a DEX 17 saving throw. On failed save creatures take (2d8) piercing damage, and half as much on a successful one.
• The ground in a 10-foot radius centered on a point within range twists and sprouts hard spikes and thorns. The area becomes difficult terrain for 2 rounds. When a creature moves into or within the area, it takes 2d4 piercing damage for every 5 feet it travels. The transformation of the ground is camouflaged to look natural. Any creature that can't see the area at the time the spell is cast must make a WIS 19 (Perception) check to recognize the terrain as hazardous before entering it.
• The ground beneath the World Tree shifts causing the soil beneath the tree base to loosen, dragging every creature standing on it down into it; every creature must make a DEX 17 saving throw or be restrained up to their waste in the ground.
  • Any creature currently prone when the effect takes place they automatically fail, and are completely buried. The creature must succeed on a STR 18 ability check to dig their way out. [hazard]Suffocation[/hazard] is observed in the beginning round they are buried and all subsequent rounds they stay under the ground. If a creature is still buried and the effect takes place again, they do not move further into the ground and receive no additional penalties.

Regional Effects

The region containing a legendary Ancient Ice Leopard’s lair is the base of a World Tree on a glacial island, which creates one or more of the following effects:

• The land surrounding the lair for up to 2 miles gain the effects of the Druid Grove spell. The effects as listed start from the center point of the tree in circles, measured by radius distances from the previous area of effect.
  
  • From the center point to a mile in diameter, no fog, undergrowth, or guardians are present. The land is fertile and trees are sparse except for the singular World Tree.
  • From a half-mile out from the center a Wind Wall surrounds the tree at a mile in diameter with a 10 foot depth. It stretches up 150 feet on every side.
  • From a half-mile to one mile out from the center point the land is filled with Fog that influences confusion for every 100 rounds (10 minutes) a creature is within the fog. The spells effect lasts the normal amount of time. 
    • Air Elementals roam this area freely, as well as hostile and dazed adventurers from times past, both of which are immune to the confusion effect.
  • From a mile out for another mile the land is filled with non-magical difficult terrain in the style of a forest covered in jagged ice spires and snow.
• The weather around the lair starting at two miles is a blizzard for an additional 2 miles radially from the center.

If the Ancient Ice Leopard dies, these effects fade over the course of 100 days. The World Tree remains living and the surrounding dead space outward of a half mile is slowly filled in with more regional flora.