Frosty Top Hat (Patreon)

Wondrous item, uncommon

A light dusting of snow covers the brim of this bent and beaten top hat. While wearing it, you can tolerate temperatures as low as −50 degrees Fahrenheit without any additional protection.

As an action, you can speak the hat's command word and throw it into an unoccupied space that you can see within 10 feet of you. When you do, a snowman magically appears from below the hat. Its body is made from three stacked spheres of snow, two arms made of forked branches, and pieces of coal in place of its eyes and mouth. The snowman uses the ice mephit's statistics with the following changes:

• The snowman understands Common but can't speak.
• The snowman is a Medium creature, instead of Small, and can't fly. It moves by rolling its bottom-most snow sphere like a wheel.
• While the snowman remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from an ordinary snowman.

The snowman obeys your verbal commands (no action required by you) and takes its turn immediately after yours. If you don't issue any commands, it defends itself from hostile creatures, but otherwise takes no actions. The snowman remains for 1 hour, until it dies, or until you use an action to speak its command word again, at which point it crumbles to powdery snow. Once this property of the hat has been used, it can't be used again until the next dawn.

"Tiroth, what's this about? It's still dark out."

Reh blinked sleep from her eyes and saw the tiefling in a worn hat and ragged coattails. It'd be comical, if his proud smile didn't make it utterly endearing as he reached out to her.

"Just come with me, dear."

Reh took his hand, and with a click of his heels the two vanished, reappearing in a snowbound glade with a mountaintop view stretching miles to the east. As the half orc gasped, Tiroth led her to a candlelit table in the otherwise untouched wilds, set with covered dishes.

"Demonheart, when did you—"

"A few months back, we were tracking reports of a white dragon. While I was inexpert in finding our quarry, I did stumble on this place. And the hat…" he said, grabbing it and rolling it down his arm, "attribute it to a gift in making friends. Your service, please."

And standing next to Tiroth was a man of snow. With a bow, the figure pulled out Tiroth's seat and began to serve the fine meal.

"Dear, you didn't need to go to all this work."

"When it's for us, nothing is work."

Their meal passed in harmonious silence, enjoying the warmth of their company and heedless of the servant's wordless service or the lightening sky. Soon enough the table was cleared, and Tiroth looked to Reh with a roguish smile.

"A bit of light music, if you would."

As the snowman drew a violin from beneath the table and began to play, Tiroth reached out and pulled her into a slow, gentle dance.

And as the sun rose, the two stared into one another's eyes, the icy figure's accompaniment fading into their beautiful new day.