Soulfrost

Ordinary frost begins at the surface. It gathers along windows, whitens exposed stone, and retreats when met with sufficient warmth.

Soulfrost appears to begin somewhere deeper.

In its raw state, it resembles dark stone threaded with blue-black currents. Those currents do not remain still. They fold inward beneath the surface as though the cold were circulating through the material—or waiting for somewhere else to go.

Direct contact is exceptionally dangerous.

When a mercenary touched a fragment inside the Rusty Pick, Soulfrost engulfed his arm before he could release it. The ice swallowed leather, iron, cloth, and flesh together, locking the limb in place.

Black veins moved beneath its blue surface. When the frozen arm later shattered, nothing recognizably living remained inside it.

Whether this transformation should be understood as freezing, corruption, or replacement is unknown.

Soulfrost can also be wielded.

Kellan Marek recognized the substance through altered sight, seeing within the fragment the same movement that appears beneath his own skin. When called deliberately through the runes traced upon his palm, however, the cold behaves differently. It gathers first as pale mist, hardening only where protection is needed. When struck, it answers the attacker with sudden and devastating force.

The distinction is significant. Raw Soulfrost spreads without restraint. Kellan’s Soulfrost obeys intent.

This does not explain how such control is possible.

Reports from the Blackspire expedition suggest that prolonged proximity to a fragment may disturb more than the body. Elian described changes in dreams and shadows. He also claimed the fragment sometimes spoke. Whether these effects originate within the material, from something imprisoned beyond the broken seal, or from the fears of those carrying it cannot yet be determined.

Two known fragments were once set into the seal beneath Blackspire Keep. One was deliberately removed. The second broke free when the prison door partially opened. Their resemblance to pieces of a larger ring has led some to call them portions of a key, though no evidence yet proves that joining them would open anything.

For now, the most reliable knowledge concerning Soulfrost is also the simplest:

Do not touch it.

Frost belongs to winter.

Soulfrost belongs to whatever waits beneath it.

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Archivist’s Note: This record contains knowledge revealed through Chapter One.