The World of Secfenia

Although the Yuletide bombardment of the King with snowballs has finished, it's still winter in Fenia - cold, icy, and snowy. This of course means that our lake is frozen over, giving an opportunity for skaters to have lots of fun, although they need to take care to avoid any threacherously thin ice.

That's all well and good, but what's this news we hear? A pair of delivery boys had decided recently to take a short-cut over the icy lake to save time, and realised too late that they hadn't waited for the lake to freeze over solidly enough. They slid desperately, and somewhat uncontrollably, all over the surface of the ice, in their attempts to avoid falling through into the water and freezing to death. We're relieved to learn that they were successful, and both reached the safety of shore unscathed. However, their wild movements over the lake in their attempts to survive meant that many of the things they were carrying fell out of their baskets. Then it got colder swiftly, resulting in these things being left frozen in place in the lake ice and in the snow drifts on the ice and around the edges of the lake.

There are a number of food items, all kept nice and fresh by the ice; and there are also some purses containing freznics - amounts of 50F, 100F, and even one containing 1,000F. They're all sitting there waiting to be collected before the ice melts and they fall to the bottom of the lake, never to be found again.

If you choose to try your luck and find a treasure, you now have the chance to explore one part of the lake each day. Each day, starting from now, you can search one spot.

To do this, choose a spot on the grid below, and let me know by telling me (posting) the co-ordinates (eg F-8). It’s up to you exactly how you search the area, whether you skate out and dig into a drift of snow on the icy lake, or scrape into the ice itself (taking care not to dig through the ice and fall into the lake, of course), or rootle around at the edges of the lake - basically wherever you think something might have fallen or been flung. If you are successful, you’ll discover a prize. If not, you get nothing that day, and have to wait until the following day. Remember to check first whether anybody has already searched your chosen spot, especially as the game progresses, otherwise you’ll have wasted a day because only the first person to search a place will find any treasure hidden there!

Choose your spot here and ideally RP your search. That shadow in the ice could be a frozen fish or a purse of money - or maybe it's just a big rock because that’s life, but you can have a bit of fun along the way! The following day (at around this time or possibly a bit earlier) I shall reveal your find, including an updated map showing the spots dug up and where treasure has been found, and I’ll list the winners and their prizes. Then you can choose another spot to search for the next day...and so on until all the items have been found, or we all get fed up and go home to get warm.

Good luck, and have fun!

I-8 to tell you this but I'm gonna go first.

“What fun!” Nikola thought with a grin as she read the announcement. Hurrying to her home, which just happened to be along the banks of the lake, she put on some warm trousers and a woolen dress whose hem was short enough to not get entangled in her skates. Meantime, Iris had found her ice skates and handed them to Nikola before she took off. Ben, her groundskeeper/game hunter/stableman/all-round helper for all things related to the outdoors, went with her at Iris’ insistence, “just in case her ladyship falls”. Nikola rolled her eyes dramatically but was glad for the company.

When they got to the shoreline, they exchanged their boots for skates and carefully made their way onto the ice. At first, they just skated around, enjoying being out on the ice, but keeping an eye out for any possible prizes to be found.

Finally she spotted an odd shaped shadow in the ice and called to Ben who came over and took out his ice pick to begin chiseling through the ice to the object it had encased.

M6, please!

Petunia smiled happily as the first two searchers appeared, and started to look around.

"Thank you for joining in, Balerion and Nikola. Sadly, neither of you has found anything today - perhaps next time!"

Today's searched spots:
Balerion: I8
Nikola: M6

Balerion flies over to Nikki at L6 and gives her a shout. "How is it that we're the only ones out?"

Shouting and activity at the lake right next to his camp for the past days has been distracting and slowing down his work and studies, as well as causing accidents while doing experiments when the earth suddenly had started shaking as if something huge had crashed into the earth right next door. In an explosion of smoke from chemicals and elixirs flying all around a tent in the camp, breaking against the ground and mixing together, Argenth comes rushing out of his tent covered in said chemicals and elixirs, coughing from nearly choking on the sudden lack of clean air.”Merek!... What happened?...! Is the world ending already?!”
The self-proclaimed guardian throws Argenth a towel before pointing out over the lake at the creatures moving around, as well as a particularly huge one at that. Having the situation explained, Argenth complains and turns towards the lake to find the ones responsible for the disturbance (Moving over A6). Merek stayed behind for the time being, amused by the chaos.

There were still two searchers again today, though only one was a returner. And the other arrived after she got startled by some sort of explosion from one side of the lake. He looked a bit cross, and she began to worry; but then again, he did seem to be looking around, so perhaps he would find something.

While she waited, she was remembering that she'd sent out messengers about the hunt, so she was hopeful that more would come out soon to look for the hidden treasures that were to be found.

After a while, she shook her head and called out, "No luck today, I'm afraid. All you can find there is ice and snow, and perhaps the odd rock or two. Best to get warm and try again tomorrow."

Today's searched spots:
Balerion: L6
Argenth: A6

J7 methinks

Originally on his way to complain to Balerion, he hears someone yelling about no luck. Is this some kind of game? "Hey, someone is trying to work here!" He moves around trying to understand where the voice came from. (Reaches C8)

Nikola waved at Balerion as he shouted from above her. "Don't know why we are the only ones out, but it means more for us, right?" she grinned cheekily. She wandered around, too busy exploring to land in a spot until the following day when she finally decided to try her luck at H6.