Mittendien
Winter in Mittendien comes fast, early, and hard. The latest of the harvests are spoiled by the ground freezing solid, and the population hunkers in for a long, difficult winter. In the cities, temples grow crowded at night, as they seem to be the only public places that can afford - magically or otherwise - to keep warm.
The Dumeldein Brotherhood of Alchemists sends a few people, and a lab set, to Schwartzburg, in hopes of finding some way of preventing the river from freezing. The solution they find is a rope, magically infused with warmth. With lengths of this rope strung up along the riverbank, the Mittendienish defenders wait anxiously for any move from the frost giants across the river. Thanks to this warmth, on most nights the soldiers are joined by freezing townsfolk, all huddling together in the only place in the city not penetrated by frigid cold.
The lake remains mercifully liquid, but some sentries report seeing giants, in groups of two or three, walking to the lake and freezing the surface before them, making their own bridges for their steps. The most fantastic story - believed by few - is that one group of giants had been starting to move toward the Mittendienish shore. There was a great cracking of thunder and flash of light, and the ice beneath them shattered and crumbled. As the giants fell helpless into the water, the legendary Dragon of Lake Valdorane emerged and devoured them. Most listeners, though, attribute this story to a bit too much ale on the watch. There have, after all, been no sightings of the Dragon in nearly a year.
(Will now proceed to DM boards to post on Rope of Warming)