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!
![Image](https://i.ibb.co/3714mnb/Start2023.jpg)