Guidebook to the Great Frozen Beyond

In winter the only place you want to be is inside cosy Port Town, with its hearths, food, ale and good company. The rest of the isle turns into the Great Frozen Beyond as the locals call it. Rolling Grassfields and rocky shores become endless snowfields where only the very hardened can survive.

OOC: to the denizens of this area: you may add your own home and its surroundings.

Shorewich Manor

It would stand to reason perhaps that the baron of Shorewich would spent the wintermonths in Port Town, but you'd be wrong. The baron and his wife, while enjoying the occassional trip to town, prefer the comfort of their manor house, a three story building of some luxury with hearths in every room, as evidenced by the many chimneys.

Its stark white plaster between wooden beams are obscured by green vines, giving it a charming rural appearance. There is a garden with a lake and a maze out beyond, and a small kitchen garden that delivers vegetables and herbs during the warmer months. Now it is just frozen beauty, death at its most charming.

Korell's Cabin

Amongst the farmland that is currently buried under the winter's snow, somewhere towards the eastern edge of the island, is a slight rise dotted with some hardy scrub, hawthorns and brambles, and the occasional resilient tree. Amongst these sits a hard to spot cabin, formerly belonging to the old ranger Korrell, but in his absence apparently occupied by someone else. It is a small cabin - from the outside it is difficult to imagine that it contains more than one or two rooms. Were it not for the windows facing east and west, which have tend red curtains drawn over them at most times, and the small chimney, it might be mistaken for little more than a shed. As it is, with the inhospitable weather, the roof and eastern side of the cabin (facing up the gentle slope) are entirely buried in snow, but the fact that the front door has been cleared of snow, and there is freshly cut wood piled against the western outside wall (albeit not much, as the Great Frozen Beyond is not known for its woodland) suggest that there is someone living here. The snow seems well trod outside the front door, a little muddy even, but the regular snow fall frequently obscures footsteps to and from the cabin.

The nearest proper road through the farmland, and from there northwards to the main gates of Port Town, is some way to the west, though it's certainly possible to cut directly across the snowscape towards the town by heading roughly north west and letting the lights of the town guide you. This is no means quicker, as the snow is deep and difficult to walk through, but does avoid the traveller being seen on the better watched roads. If one were to climb to the top of the rise to the east a traveller would see the coastline is closest to the southeast. On a clear day or night you might be able to hear the sounds of the waves, but there are seldom clear days at this time of year. There are no roads direct to the coast from here, so you are throwing yourself on the mercy of the elements to cross the Great Frozen Beyond to reach the sea.