Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom - Monsterama, part 2

Years before theBlacksand tribewere reduced to a race of grunting, inarticulate savages, they used the Ice Drillers to strip-mine natural resources from the Valley of Solitude. After the Blacksanders were cursed to forever lose at Scrabble, however, they abandoned their thundering machines to the elements.

Above: Eons spent in the cold has given these evil locomotives magical ice powers. Approach with caution

Instead of becoming rusted, moss-covered metaphors for the inevitable triumph of nature over technology, the Ice Drillers absorbed some of the spirit fragments left floating around the Dark Dimension. And like all machines that accidentally gain souls, they became self-aware monsters.

Being made out of metal, the Ice Drillers won't take much damage from physical attacks, and their ability to shoot out icicles gives them an edge beyond the scary drills and buzzsaws that already stick out from them in every direction. Because they're so old, though, they don't really have much in the way of hit points - which will come as small comfort if you run across two or three of these behemoths blocking your path.

Mikel Reparaz
After graduating from college in 2000 with a BA in journalism, I worked for five years as a copy editor, page designer and videogame-review columnist at a couple of mid-sized newspapers you've never heard of. My column eventually got me a freelancing gig with GMR magazine, which folded a few months later. I was hired on full-time by GamesRadar in late 2005, and have since been paid actual money to write silly articles about lovable blobs.