It’s winter when you emerge from the ruins of the old asylum and start making your way back to Birchstead, which is odd because it was it was late summer when you went in. As you enter the village the familiar faces seem shocked to see you and when you ask why, they explain that you have been gone for two years and everyone thought you were dead!

This also doesn’t quite add up, because if it’s two years since you were last seen then it should be late summer again. The villagers explain that this is because Birchstead and its environs has been beset by an unending winter for 18 months now. Other villages aren’t affected by this bizarre freak of weather and the effect on the local economy has been devastating.

After visiting your loved ones and breaking the bad news to Immin about his son, you head to the manor to find out more about the strange winter. To your surprise Lord Aldo agrees to see you instantly. He tells you that this very morning he has received a mysterious letter from someone who claims to know how to end this eternal winter; the author asks for some representatives of the village to meet him at an old inn in the mountains some two days’ ride away. Aldo asks you to take up this offer and will provide you with food, winter clothing and horses for the journey. You accept.

By dusk of the first day you are approaching an abandoned farmhouse in which to shelter for the night from the terrible cold when arrows fly out of the trees across the road. Six men rush out to attack you. The fight is close as they are well-armed and armoured but eventually four are killed, one flees and another is captured. He is terrified when you question him and claims to be a soldier from the neighbouring manor of Kanshek. He says that a spy informed Kanshek that you were being sent to stop the magical winter; as Kanshek is benefiting from Birchstead’s decline the lord decided to send an ambush party in disguise to stop you.

You camp for the night and take your captive with you the next day. The going is tougher in the snowy wilderness but by sunset you reach the crossroads where the ruined inn lies. A single candle is lit inside and when you enter you see a large figure in the shadows. He introduces himself as Primus, servant of a mage named Kavon Deralia. He tells you that two years ago she visited another mage in the mountains but never returned; clearly the unnatural winter is a sign of the mountains mourning her loss.

For two years he has searched for his mistress and has now discovered her whereabouts, trapped under the ruins of the other wizard’s tower. He is too large to fit through the crevice but will show you the way; when you rescue her, the winter will surely end.

You doubt the details of his conclusion but agree to help free his mistress and the next day he leads you to the ruined tower, which looks like it has been blown apart. As you approach a gigantic ice-worm bursts from the ground and attempts to grab some of you, but with Primus’s help you wound it and drive it off.

Primus gives you a device for rescuing his mistress and instructs you how to use it, then lowers you into a narrow crevasse and you emerge into a huge icy cavern. You hear creatures grunting down a passage to the south so decide to head north, where the rocky tunnel soon turns into a paved corridor. You enter a room full of bookshelves on which sits a small, winged blue creature grumpily reading books. On seeing you it starts asking if you can make it better – it claims to be a water mephit who’s been turned into an ice mephit, and promises to show you how to free Kavon if you ‘cure’ it. Eventually you decide to ignore it and leave the room full of ruined books, but the mephit continues to follow you.

You cross the corridor into a destroyed laboratory containing some broken cages and a lot of snow. As you begin so search it three frost hounds burst out of the snow and attack. They are very tough and breathe blasts of frost but eventually you defeat them and move on.

You enter a high-vaulted chamber in which a great magical battle appears to have taken place. The remains of a mage lie crushed beneath a large chunk of fallen ceiling but the far wall holds what looks like a frozen waterfall. Inside this is a huge, translucent, vaguely human shape, reaching up to grasp at a blue-robed woman clutching at her throat, also suspended in the ice.

You use the device Primus gave you, holding the orb as close to the frozen woman as possible and saying the word ‘sun’. Brilliant flames burst out of it and in an instant the ice melts, dropping the woman to the ground with a splash. She is very groggy and doesn’t respond clearly to your questions, but before you can grill her further the melted water coalesces into its original form – a large water elemental- and attacks her. She has not recovered enough to be any use in a fight so despite your battered condition you engage the creature to save the mage and eventually the water elemental is defeated.

Kavon is very grateful and when she has recovered she escorts you out of the caves, explaining the story as you go: the tower belonged to Magal the Undying with whom she had a long-running squabble. The two mages met to resolve their dispute but the discussion turned into an argument and then a duel. Powerful spells were unleashed until, dying beneath a piece of fallen ceiling, Magal summoned a water elemental to drown Kavon. To save herself Kavon activated a necklace called the Circle of Ice, but with all the raging magic in the air this had unexpected consequences: Kavon and the elemental were frozen in ice and a magical winter fell upon the surrounding area.

When you reach the surface you find Primus lying dead, his hands locked around the dead throat of the ice worm you encountered earlier.

Kavon asks that you not reveal her existence to anyone as she wishes to remain anonymous. She cannot reward you at present but promises that if you meet her at the ruined inn in a week’s time she will give you some gifts in gratitude.

You return to Birchstead where Lord Aldo and the whole village are now in your debt …

The last goblet is in the Lake of Sorrows, a calm misty lake with a small island in the middle. A rowboat is pulled up on the shore so the party gets in; Badwood would rather stay on dry land.

As you row out, the fish in the lake begin to seethe around the boat and it starts to rock violently. Rular thrusts a sun-rod into the water to scare the fish away but they are not fish, they are seven-headed serpents. Abdjib and Coran struggle to row the boat back to shore without losing anyone overboard. When they finally make it Coran unleashes his frustration and batters one of the serpents to death with his staff.

Quarion thinks to ask Badwood whether he knows how to get to the island. He reveals that you have to sing to the snakes; melancholy songs work best. Armed with this knowledge the party rows back across the lake, singing songs that truly bring a tear to the eye.

The last goblet rests on a stone table on the island and with this in their possession the party head back to the hill where they first arrived. The spirits are waiting for them and direct them to the circle of stone pillars where the ‘ritual’ has to be performed.

The four goblets are placed on the four pillars and they slowly start to fill with wine. As each party member drinks a draught they take on a red glow similar to the red shield that surrounds the castle; when all are ready they set off to confront the Coven.

The castle’s gate stands open and as the group sneak in they spot a Coven member crossing the courtyard. She is quickly killed but not before letting out a scream that alerts the test of the castle.

The party runs up the steps to the main hall where they are confronted by the Coven and their skeletal servants, plus a strange creation – a large red egg-shaped device with four mechanical legs and four halberd-like arms.

During the ensuing fight out becomes clear that the once-powerful Coven sorcerors have largely lost their magic, a fact which seems to come as a great shock to them. They move to protect the automaton – which they refer to as “the weapon” – but when it becomes clear that they are losing the battle the Grand Wizard activates the thing. It moves slowly but its four arms are extremely dangerous.

Rular’s spells and any light blows do not affect the machine but at the first strong hit it starts to go wrong: there is a loud ‘bang’ and one of its arms is out of action. Soon all the Coven are dead and only the malfunctioning automaton remains, now going round in circles venting steam and emitting a loud whining noise; a final blow and it starts to disintegrate in a series of small explosions.

The party notice that with the destruction of the machine something strange is happening – the very fabric of the spirit world seems to be streaming away towards the hill where they first arrived. They run back to find that a portal similar to that through which they entered this world has appeared and beside it the spirits waiting for them, eager to be freed from this rapidly-vanishing realm. As each person steps through one spirit accompanies them.

They emerge back in the old asylum, in the real world again at last. The ‘spirits’ now have material bodies, albeit vague and partially-formed ones. They seem ecstatic to be real at last and cackle with unbridled glee before vanishing like mist …

Asked to find the local ranger Immin and his son Hast you head out to the old asylum, where 80 years ago a coven of evil mages was overthrown by the local lord. After fighting your way through insane pale elves and freeing their still-sane children you pass through a strange glowing portal and step out into an eerie other-world.

You are immediately attacked by flocks of unpleasant little creatures. Disembodied voices tell you how to deal with these before leading you to the Coven’s castle, which is protected by an impenetrable red shield. The Coven taunt you for a while before the voices return and tell you about a ritual you can perform to break the shield – collect four goblets from four inhabitants of this world.

You obtain three goblets from three strange fairy-tale stereotypes: Old Usine the witch in the Forest of Questions who asks you lots of riddles, Cynan Moel the boastful giant who bombards you with rocks while one of you robs his hall and Mayer Ythel the Great Cat in the Hills of Cowardice, who turns out to be frightening but easy to kill.

Along the way you find Hast’s remains and meet a poor broken wretch called Badwood, who seems to be from the real world.

Only the goblet from the Lake of Sorrows remains …