It is still cold in the middle of the square, a microclimate that bears no relationship to the changing weather outside. It ebbs and flows, sometimes bigger when it is hot outside, sometimes receding to almost nothing in cooler nights, or expanding rapidly on overcast days; there is no rhyme or reason to its changes, it seems.

The market continues at one end of the square, although people are obviously ready to head out at a moment's notice.

Danielle has the look on her face of someone who has struck gold, having been able to translate at least a portion of the language on the fountain "The message is fom a people called the icebearers who want a truce. they say they've sent their ambassador but wamt the answer delivered in person which could be the trick part

Filinia, who has been hanging about resentfully, scowls to take in more information. "Uh, you gonna write it down for them? I mean, they've written shi--- stuff for you." For you, not us. Filinia Does Not Like this localised weather.

Dirk says "I'll go if you want?"

Filinia gives Dirk a surprised, worried, impressed look.

Danielle hms "Well I'd certainly be amenable to a truce,given what we've seen but they need to understand we're not the one who attacked in the first place and its possible said enemy will strike again and how would we know where to go"

Filinia shrugs. "I just wanna fix the damn fountain."

Dirk nods "Cool. maybe we can find our more about what's go I ng on over all?"

Filinia mutters, "Damn fountain."

Dirk sighs , "I think I started this."

Filinia gives Dirk a very confused look then.

Dirk says, "I used a Trump then this happened.""

Filinia says, "Sorry. I ain't used to people like you putting right what they did wrong."

Dirk says "I am a weird one. Most people like me might not care."

Danielle sighs There was some kind of map dorian was working on, yes, Though I'm not sure what help it'll be in the current state of things. We can hope our friend the horse knows its way back" She looks at Dirk "You took the very logica step of trying to use a trump. i wou'ld've done the same. it's not your fault everything is different here. i never did have time travel ability so we just have to move forward so we all don't freeze to death

Filinia nods like that puts the world right. She looks down to the simple trough she has made for the water that keeps freezing and thawing, and frowns at that instead, thoughtfully.

Filinia rolls with advantage 1 at difficulty 15, using notice, manufacturing.
The result is a success.

Dirk says, "I just want my little girl back.""

Filinia says, "S'funny. That should have broken, but it hasn't. I didn't make it for this much ice-freeze, but it's not burst. And the pipes did, but the fountain didn't. I mean, nothing upstream of the valve I put in. It's... weird-funny."

Dirk nods "I have a theory."

Filinia makes an, "Mmmm?" noise like she might be willing to listen and maybe even hear him out.

Dirk says, ""Amber was not always here. Maybe there was a battle and Amber lost?""

Filinia does not interupt. Her eyes give nothing away.

Danielle hms "There could be something different about what didn't freeze. it could be warded somehow. She concentrates trying to confirm this

Danielle rolls with advantage 1 at difficulty 15, using occult, magic sense.
The result is a success.

To Danielle, it seems nothing is out of place except... yes, maybe... There it is. It's not a warding, so it's easy to miss. The winter effect stops at a set distance, but it also stops at about the level of the ground, and at the edges of the things that Filinia has built.

To Dirk, and to a horrified Filinia, something else is obvious. The water that Danielle is looking at, that is partly frozen, is suddenly and oddly smoky. Maybe even foggy. It could be that it is responding to her. It could be the squigles sketched in rime-frost that Finilia has put absent-mindedly on the edge of the fountain - an engineer's working out of logic in her own bad handwriting. It could be to do with Dirk, who finds his pocket going cold. But suddenly there is a mist forming, and a thick one.

Maybe it is just bad luck, or bad timing.

Dirk pulls out the trumps and flip for the cold one. "Fuck."

From the trump, a beam of bright cold light can be seen. And the mist deepens rapidly.

Danielle "That doesn't make sense like it stop when it's about to hit something. the groumd, the fountain...I..what..oh dammit"she says trying to backbedal

Aaand then there is cold white mist. And then the mist is darker... thicker... almost sort of foggy. Around them, like a skin. Time passes; enough time for them to be able to know there was time. No sensation of movement...

Struggles avail naught, and then suddenly, struggles mean something. Danielle and Dirk emerge from fog at about the same time, in a cold, cold place that Dirk knows already, and that he has described well, and that Danielle has seen through a card. It is a bar established in one room in a frozen palace.

Dirk stares at the bar. "wow."

The frozen denizens, clustered around their fire's cold ashes, have had no need of its warmth for a long time. The air is cold enough to freeze their breath, but it only feels severely chilly on them - it does not destroy them.

Dirk says, "Hello?""

Danielle hms "If this is the home of the enemy. Did their magic go awry as well. Freezing oneself is not a good tactic... A deflection spell. First she looks with her eyes and then magic sense

The barman says, "Hello," clearly, ice falling from him as he does. "Welcome to Hell's Hold. Get you a drink, young Dirk?"

Under the ice there is a beard the colour of rimefrost.

Dirk exhales "Yes, please. " He moves closer. "How are things? It's been a qhile."

Danielle rolls with advantage 1 at difficulty 15, using occult, magic sense.
The result is a failure.

Danielle shakes her head in a bemused nod of greeting

"An eternity or two. Us sort are patient." His Thari is old-fashioned and it was never a pure court tongue. "But we can't hold out forever. Who found you, then? How long has it been?"

This place is full of old, sluggish magic, and coldness. Everything - EVERYTHING - is flavoured with ice and chill and death and waiting. Details are impossible for Danielle to make out.

Dirk shows the Trump "I found you in the fog. Where is this?"

The old not-quite-man says, "Hel's Hold. Her palace. After the long war, but I don't know how long."

Danielle nods "You the one who sent the message about truce?"

Dirk nods "I don't know how long it's been. What was the long war can you tell me who won?"

"Oh, the truce?" He looks to Danielle. "No, that was Isengrim, and he turned to snow long before me. Yet we have reached out. We of the Winter remember Amber. Tall towers, and how Oberon made a season there for our comfort. But if that is who arrived, I thought those spirits dead long ago. This damned sea-fog..."

Dirk nods 'Oberon is my grandfather. I never met him."

The ice-man melts enough to stir himself. "I don't have long, unless things start to steady, but youth is worth waking for. I remember him - cold bastard, but Hel liked him. And I did too. Icy heart, hot-blooded. You don't often get that." He reaches for a bottle that unfreezes itself from its place as he touches it, and a couple of shot glasses, and decants something that smells of peaches and rot.

Dirk nods "Did you know any of his kids?"

After knocking back a shot of schnapps, and shedding a couple of tears of joy over it, the old man says to Dirk, "A few, I think. The sailor pair, and the ice-maiden, Julia. The giant-brothers Finndo and the one we don't name."

Dirk nods "I miss my dad Caine. "

"Drink up. Stop whining. You're a prince and a man, and you have work to do." The old man - maybe an ice giant in a human form - pours himself another shot.

Dirk drinks his shot. "What do I need to do?"

The schnapps is good, the burn immediate. It tastes of the despair of summer. "Whatever happened, Ragnarok came, but not properly. The toenail ship sank. So... gather that you can. Rebuild." The barman looks at the frozen people around the remains of the fire, points with his chin in a way that a tall, sarcastic Prince used to. "We can wake them, then. See to the ships. Do what we used to do. You remember we were a waystation?"

Dirk nods "Yes, we are a way station."

"I'm getting tired, boy, being awake this long. Whatever happened, bring back the ships." The old man looks to Danielle, pours her a tot as well. "And give her this when she stops looking at nothing and dead magic. Something to warm her from the inside."

Dirk nods "Yes sir."