Imprisoning Ice
Value: 4
Notions • Cats • Clocks • Wind
Meanings: Entrapment, imprisonment, danger, conflict
The very environment holds you fast when you are trapped in the ice. You cannot move and the cold threatens your life. You can’t persuade the ice, or trick it. You can’t fight it or best it in a contest. The ice is impersonal, unrelenting, and vastly powerful, even though it’s nothing more than frozen water. Unless, of course, it’s more than that. Perhaps there is intelligence there. Perhaps it’s not just frozen water, but a living spirit of cold. Of stillness. Of imprisonment. In such a case, the actions of the ice might be entirely personal. You may have brought your terrible fate down upon your own head.
Divination: Danger lies ahead. This card turn predicts a coming conflict with dire consequences. The person in question might be imprisoned or otherwise entrapped. Traps, of course, come in many forms. Emotional traps. Psychological traps. Legal traps. A relationship can be a trap. To escape, one must either act on the warning given by Imprisoning Ice or succeed in a bitter struggle.
Game Narrative: An important NPC is thrown in prison. A conflict looms, with powerful forces on both sides. Someone builds a new prison. Someone falls into a trap.
Joy: The PC manages to trap an opponent. The PC achieves victory in a dangerous struggle.
Despair: The PC or one of their allies is trapped or held fast. The PC loses a fight. The PC is thrown in prison.
The ice doesn’t need to hurry. You’re not going anywhere.