Black Icicle
Black Icicle is a Derelict the cold has been kind to.
Rules Reference
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Aesthetic | ruin |
| Anchor System | HIEMAL-VELLUM |
| Fold Bleed | high |
| Population | 0 |
| Role | satellite |
| Zone | Rim |
Notes
Controlling Faction: Independent
Dangers: The wreck is embedded in the glacier and shifting; decks that were safe yesterday are crevasses today., The cold has kept the ship's horrors in stasis, not dead; thaw them and they wake coherent and very hungry., Anyone who dies inside the wreck stays inside; the cold does not let go.
Hooks: Recover a cryo-pod manifest from the wreck's forward hold before the council dispatches a salvage team and removes the option., A merchant cartel wants confirmation that the wreck's Fold-bleed signature matches the one they lost a cargo ship to three winters ago., Map which deck sections of the wreck are still safe to walk; the cold preserves, but the cold does not forgive.
Lore: Black Icicle is a derelict the cold has been kind to. The Ark-era transport limped into the Hiemal system with a half-broken navigation cradle and a hold full of pre-Fold cargo, and never made orbit; the cold took the ship whole and held it in stasis, including the horrors that the ship's own broken fold had drawn into the lower decks. Black Icicle is therefore the cause of Hiemal Vellum's high local Fold signature in the Frost Maw district: the wreck is a frozen battery of Fold-touched material, the cold has kept it dormant, and any thaw event (mine heat, accident, off-world salvage torch) is a release event. The colony council has formally declared the wreck off-limits, which is the same as saying the council knows exactly what is inside and has decided that ignorance is cheaper than recovery. The Ark-era cargo itself is priceless and unreachable; the Fold residue is contained, theoretically, by the same cold that entombed it. Theoretically.
Notable: An Ark-era bulk transport embedded vertically in the Hiemal Vellum glacier, prow-down, with the bridge and engineering decks visible above the snowline and the cargo holds entombed in clear ice. A single frozen body is visible through the bridge port.