So, first things, apparently their winter god is a lady. I really do think they should talk to the Queen. She’d know what to do. The sleeping guy woke up. He says everyone will be real mad he’s not dead out in the field there. Says he told them it was dumb to kill people, so he got picked next to be killed. Says the winter god lady is crazy. Sounds like it might be the people who like her are. But says they won’t do it again for until the sky gets a new moon. I guess some lady named Shar takes or breaks the full moons, so another lady named Selune has to make a new one every month. This is a strange place. Anyway, the not-sleeping guy says he has somewhere to go and is going to sneak out during the execution this morning.

That was even stranger. They tied this guy in red robes to a stake in town square and lit him on fire. He just stood there and let them do it. Didn’t even move or cry or scream or everything. It made everyone real uncomfortable, him just staring at the people killing him for killing other people. Maybe he wasn’t really there, he’s got magic and everything. I wouldn’t just stand there. No way!

After, some lady with almost-elf ears and armor talks to Eggy. She says her name is Imdra something, and she’s Captain of the Guard around here. Says that wizard killed the last adventure group that was helping the town. Says we look like adventure folk. Doc asks if she knows where to get a cart, but she brushes him off. Wants us to go find some missing fishers. Like the birds? No, I guess she means men fishers. Whatcha gonna give us? She says she can give us some stuff from the dead wizard and a little bit of gold. Doc and Leshy say that it’s enough gold to probly get a cart. She also says we can loot whatever we find along the way. They ask about the wolves that tried to eat us, but she doesn’t know. Need money for a cart, so we agree to go look.

Sammy says we need snow shoes. I’ve got boots, they’re shoes for snow. But he wants us to wear these big wood and reed things to walk on top of the snow. They are Not good for sneaking. Eggy pays for mine and Doc’s. I now owe buying him something later. I don’t like it. I could have bought ours, first ship paid well enough, second ship hadn’t charged us for passage, yet. He also gets a bunch of tents, even though the lake is just north of town.

The not-sleeping man’s house is ransacked. He said we could take things, but it’s mostly been taken already. We find a fancy fishing pole. Eggy also finds some silver hidden under the floor. I guess people here aren’t so smart.

The lake isn’t far above town, so we start walking around it the way the Indy lady said to go. Find a little boat floating in the ice first. Saalym shoots it and Eggy pulls it in. There’s some fisher gear and empty bottles in there. Then some flying bird ladies come to talk. Eggy shoots at them though, and everyone else follows suit. I try to ask them about the men fishers, but Eggy kills one and the other flies away over the cliffs. Ugh! How are we supposed to find people if they just keep shooting? Saalym has a bit of a drink from the dead one.

We go in a cave. I take off my show shoes and Eggy puts them in his bag. Can’t sneak with those things on and they’re his anyway. Eggy says there’s tracks in there. Doc and I scout ahead until we find a frozen waterfall. Looks a bit tricky to get up alone, so we wait for everyone to catch up. Eggy shoots the waterfall. Ugh! His boom is way worse indoors! This makes the water mad and it attacks us. I’d attack us, too! We stop it from killing anyone, though, and there’s a mining pick and a backpack behind the water. I wonder if the water man used to be a miner and just got tired.

We help everyone climb up the waterfall so we can keep going. We find some stairs and they lead into a big room full of blood and bones. Even the bones of a giant man. Nobody finds anything but bones, so we keep going. Doc and I go down some more stairs to an even bigger room. This one has a nice hag lady in the middle. She’s cooking up a nice big stew and invites me and Doc to join her. It tastes way better than the porridge back in town this morning. There’s some dead people behind her. Must be what the stew is made from.

Everybody else gets there, but they get real mad. They say she killed the men fishers and that we shouldn’t be eating the stew. But that’s rude, you don’t turn down hospitality from a hag lady. Eggy, of course, starts shooting. Oh Man! Mom’s gonna be real mad if I kill a hag lady. So, I go look to see if the bodies really are the fishers, and everyone’s yelling at me and Doc. The lady’s gotta wisp, too, and Doc says it’s okay to kill those, there’s too many of the pests anyway. Then the lady tries to make a deal cuz something big is coming. I try to get everyone to take the deal, but they won’t, so she runs away. Eggy chases her, but it’s too late to worry about that because that big giant skeleton breaks through the wall and starts attacking people. He Hurt DOC! We smash him to bits!

After, Eggy drags back the hag lady, all dead. And everyone gets mad at Doc and me again for eating “people stew,” but I’m not people, and Saalym ate those bird people outside. They say that’s different because they were “monsters” and so was the lady. So, now I get mad, because I’ve got an Auntie who is a hag. Then Leshy gets mad and says I can’t have, but I do! She’s my Auntie and he doesn’t even Know Me! Eggy tries to stop the fighting, just asking we don’t tell the townspeople that we ate “people stew.” Fine, not going to lie, lying’s bad, but we don’t have to mention it. Leshy says we can just bring back some of their stuff and not the bodies.

Are we going then? Or we going to keep exploring the ice cave? It’s a really interesting cave.