"Let me take you to the cliff path." With a cursory hand gesture, the Brucolac beckoned him on—casting a brief, cryptic nod to the advisor, who quickly hurried off to some other duty. The Brucolac set off at a brisk clip, snow crunching under his boots.

"There's only really one way to get carts between the main settlement and the port, or the port-in-progress. And that's frosted over. It's slowing down construction, and it's also making it difficult to get proper provisions down to the workers there. Some of them have brought their families down to the seaside level and settled there. They need food, blankets, dry firewood, and it's damn difficult to get any of that to them when the road is almost too slippery to walk down, nevermind bring any load-bearing animal or cart. If you can make the path safe, follow it down to the port construction and see what can be defrosted there."