The Crystal Shard characters

Appears from the start

A dark elf living in Icewind Dale, on the slopes of the lone mountain called Kelvin's Cairn above the ten frontier towns. He left his people's underground city and their goddess years ago and has made a life on the surface as a ranger, fighting with two scimitars and accompanied by a magical panther. Most of the region still recoils from him on sight; he keeps to his cave, ranges the tundra, and is content to be useful without being welcome.

First appears in chapter 2

A great black panther summoned by an onyx figurine Drizzt carries, able to stay for a limited time before she must return to her own world and rest. She scouts, fights and hunts alongside him.

First appears in chapter 2

King of a dwarven clan that mines the valley beneath Kelvin's Cairn in Icewind Dale, and a master smith. Blunt, hot-tempered, generous in ways he refuses to admit to, he trades with the ten towns and defends them without much liking them. He was driven out of his clan's ancestral home as a boy and does not talk about it.

First appears in chapter 2

A halfling and the spokesman of Lonelywood, the smallest and least ambitious of the ten towns, where he fishes as little as he can manage and naps as much as possible. He came north from the southern cities in a hurry some years ago, carrying a ruby pendant he did not come by honestly; the gem is enchanted, and anyone who looks into it for long finds themselves agreeing with him.

First appears in chapter 3

A young human woman orphaned in a raid and raised by Bruenor among the dwarves as his daughter. Sharp, direct and unafraid of the tundra or of the people on it, she is one of the few in Icewind Dale who never treated the dark elf as a threat.

First appears in chapter 5

A young man of the barbarian tribes that follow the reindeer herds across the tundra, tall and immensely strong even by their standards. He is raised on the tribes' contempt for the settled townsfolk and their certainty that a warrior's death is the only death worth having.

Appears from the start

An untalented apprentice wizard in the city of Luskan, kept on by his masters for their own convenience and despised by all of them, including himself. He is willing to do almost anything to be thought of as a wizard rather than a servant, and his ambition is entirely out of proportion to his ability.

Appears from the start

A wizard of the Hosttower of the Arcane in Luskan, patient, secretive and interested in power for its own sake. He manages his apprentices as assets and keeps close track of anything unusual happening in the north.

First appears in chapter 3

King of one of the barbarian tribes of the tundra, a huge one-eyed warrior with a reputation built on cruelty as much as on strength. He argues the scattered tribes into a single host and intends to take the towns' wealth by force.

First appears in chapter 4

Spokesman of Bryn Shander, the largest of the ten towns and the one on the hill everyone else falls back to. He is the closest thing the region has to a statesman and spends most of his energy keeping nine other spokesmen from feuding.

First appears in chapter 4

Spokesman of Targos, the second town of the region and its most aggressive. Proud, quarrelsome and jealous of Bryn Shander's position, he resists any arrangement that does not put Targos at the front of it.

First appears in chapter 4

Spokesman of Termalaine, a town on the exposed shore of the lake nearest the dwarven valley. He is one of the few town leaders who deals fairly with the dwarves and takes the warnings about the tundra seriously.

First appears in chapter 13

A frost giant commanding a lair of giants and goblin-kin in the hills, organizing raids on the trade routes with more discipline than such a band usually manages. His grin, which never leaves his face, is the reason for his name.

First appears in chapter 14

A balor, a demon of enormous size and power, drawn to Icewind Dale by an artifact it recognizes. It serves the artifact's holder while the arrangement suits it, and treats every mortal in the arrangement as temporary.