Icewind Dale ( game ) Icewind Dale is a computer role - playing game developed by Black Isle Studios , released in June 2000 . The first game in the " Icewind Dale " series , it features tactical , party - based combat based on 2nd edition " Advanced Dungeons & Dragons " . The game ' s story is set in the Icewind Dale region on the northern Sword Coast , several decades prior to the events of the popular Icewind Dale trilogy of novels " Icewind Dale " received two expansion packs : " " and " " , and was followed by the sequel " Icewind Dale II " in 2002 . In 2014 , a remake was released under the title " " , featuring a number of technical improvements . Plot . The game begins in the town of Easthaven within Icewind Dale during Mirtul , 1281 DR ( Year of the Cold Soul ) . While a group of adventurers are resting in a local pub known as the Winter ' s Cradle Tavern , they are invited by the town ' s leader Hrothgar to take part in an expedition to the town of Kuldahar which has word of strange goings - on . During the journey through the Kuldahar Pass , the expedition is ambushed by frost giant s who cause an avalanche which crush the entire expedition force save for the adventurers and block their way back to Easthaven . The party continues onward to Kuldahar , where they meet the Archdruid Arundel . He explains that , due to the evil which has been terrorizing Kuldahar , the magical ring of warmth surrounding the great oak which the town is built around has begun to recede . Arundel sends the party to help discover the source of the evil before the great oak dies , and Kuldahar is destroyed . After an unsuccessful attempt to locate the evil , Arundel asks the party to find an ancient scrying item , known as the Heartstone Gem , so he may discover the source of the evil more quickly . The player ' s party then ventures to a temple where Arundel believes the gem may be kept , only to find that it had been raided quite recently , and that the gem had been stolen . However , Arundel is able to discover the location of the raiders responsible for the theft of the gem - the caverns of Dragon ' s Eye . After making their way through the vast network of tunnels , the party finds and defeats a powerful demonic creature named Yxunomei . Yxunomei claimed to be using the Heartstone Gem for personal reasons , and mentioned a vendetta and age - old war with someone she sarcastically referred to as an " old friend " . When the party returns to Kuldahar , they find it under assault by orog s . After making their way to Arundel ' s hut , the player converses with a shapechanger disguised as Arundel , who reveals that he is the one Yxunomei was waging war against , and that the real Arundel is dying in another section of the hut , before vanishing . With his dying breath , the real Arundel tells the party to take the Heartstone Gem to Larrel at the fortress of the Severed Hand , as he is now the only one capable of using it . Unfortunately for the player ' s party , Larrel is found to be insane upon arriving at the fortress , and he only brokenly mentions something about freeing his cursed people , along with a hint on how to go about it . After completing his task , Larrel regains his sanity and uses the Heartstone Gem to discover the source of the evil , which apparently resides in the dwarven city of Dorn ' s Deep . After carving their way through Upper Dorn ' s Deep , Wyrm ' s Tooth , and Lower Dorn ' s Deep , the party at last reaches Brother Poquelin - the villain of the game . Poquelin explains that he arrived in the material plane due to his superiors exiling him from his home plane - according to Poquelin , calling his vendetta with Yxunomei " out of control " . Poquelin had predicted that Yxunomei would follow him to the material plane , so he had sought a base of operations in order to begin a military force capable of crushing her . While he was doing so , he stumbled upon the ancient artifact Crenshinibon , which he claims had been " calling " to him . Using its power of attracting evil - intentioned creatures , Poquelin began amassing an immense army with which to conquer the lands of " Icewind Dale " . Poquelin claims that everything was going as planned until Hrothgar ' s expedition had set out to investigate Yxunomei ' s activities in the area around Kuldahar . He used his frost giant minions to cause the avalanche to crush the expedition . Apparently , he didn ' t see the player ' s party as a threat until they stole the Heartstone Gem from Yxunomei , to which he responded by killing Arundel - the only person he thought would be capable of using it . Although the party discovered his location by taking it to Larrel , Poquelin wasn ' t bothered , as all the while he was amassing his forces outside of Easthaven . After combating Poquelin , he teleports the party back to Easthaven , which is now in ruins . After freeing the surviving villagers and speaking with a local cleric of Tempus , the party makes its way to Poquelin ' s lair - Easthaven ' s temple , which has been enveloped by a Cryshal - Tirith ( Elvish , meaning " crystal tower " ) , courtesy of Crenshinibon . In the end , it is revealed that Poquelin ' s true intention was to re - open Jerrod ' s stone , a portal to the Abyss created long ago ) , so that he could conquer the North with an army of demons at his command . Although after opening the portal , the local cleric of Tempus hurls himself into it just as its namesake did - sealing it off at the cost of his own life . This buys the party enough time to fight Poquelin , who has reverted to his true form - the devil Belhifet . After defeating Belhifet and banishing him back to the Abyss , the Cryshal - Tirith collapses , and the party barely escapes in time . Easthaven begins to be rebuilt , and the game ends with the party victorious . The ending cutscene , however reveals that the narrator who has ' read ' the story throughout the game is , in fact , Belhifet and that his banishment from the Prime Material Plane is nearly at an end .