With a glance at Variety, the last holdout, Vellynne gives that practiced smile again and reaches inside her coat. She pulls out a small figurine and sets it on the table. The tremor in her arm is quite noticeable as she does this. The figurine appears to be a person, made of plain gray stone, about five inches tall, naked, with spindly arms and legs and an oversized oval head that lacks any discernible facial features, as if it were wearing a large mask. On closer inspection, the hands and feet look more like flower petals.

Vellynne explains, "This is a chwinga. They can be found anywhere, but more commonly in underdeveloped lands and wilds. This one's dead," she says, picking it up and then tossing it back on the table with a clatter, to emphasize its stony lifelessness. "Normally they're quite lively, mischievous little elementals that are attuned to the local weather and climate. If I had more of these to study, alive, then I'm sure I could find out more about the problem with the weather here. Maybe even find a way to fix the problem!"

"But finding the little imps has proven time-consuming. I have other matters that demand my time. If you could do this thing for me, I would be grateful. The Arcane Brotherhood would be grateful. And I'll pay you well, of course."

Karl leans over the creature's corpse, trying to conceal his curiosity.  Regardless of anything he might notice about it, his response is a neutral comment.

"Strange little thing."

He hesitates to say anything further.  He was starting to see red flags - not the least of which was Matthias' apparent use of the third person in regular conversation.

"Do you have any leads on where, specifically, we can find more?  How many do you need?"

Nazcan inspects it closely "Not a fan of troublemakers, but I agree to help."

Vellynne responds,

”As for leads, I am pretty sure there are none in the vicinity of this town. I recommend traveling to some of the other Ten-Towns to look for more. And take this with you.”

She reaches under her chair and pulls up a lantern, setting it on the table, along with 3 jars of oil.

”This is a Lantern of Tracking. It’s able to detect nearby elementals. It can burn for about 6 hours on one pint of oil, and the flame will turn bright green once you’ve gotten within about 300 feet of an elemental.”

“As for how many, I would say the more the merrier, but catching even one or two would be remarkably helpful.”

Variety nods, intrigued by the elemental, "What do you plan on doing with them?"

“Harmless magical experiments that tease out their connection with the environment, looking for clues to this region’s abnormal weather. This one perished, I think, from being in captivity for too long. I shan’t make that mistake again.”

Karl can't help but snatch up the lantern almost as soon as it is set down, pocketing the extra oil as well.  Few things excited the fire genasi, but this at least made him smile. . . warmly.  He wondered how precise the magical detection was.  Would it only track chwingas?  Would it pick up other elementals as well?  Would his own ancestry cause it to flicker green?  I'm gonna need more oil.

Still holding the lantern up to his eye, inspecting it, he tunes back in.

"Well, I think I'm ready.  Wouldn't want to waste anymore of your time.  The rest of us can talk specifics on the road.  Will we find you here?"

Variety thinks for a moment more, wondering how long she kept that one before it perished, before nodding, "Very well, I'll go along."

Auraani nods her agreement and moves to leave with everyone else, "I'm with everyone else on this, the sooner we can get it done the better. Where should we start first?"

Vellynne says,

”Excellent. And don’t worry about tracking me down. I hope you won’t mind if I keep an eye on you through Cloud, here?” 

The snowy owl half-spreads and flaps its wings for a moment at the mention of its name.

“I can come to you, once you’ve secured the chwingas. And now, unless I’m much mistaken, it’s time to go and see a reminder of why we are working together, a reminder of just how much we can improve the Ten-Towns.”

Vellynne rises from the table, and you see other patrons getting up and preparing to go back outside, just one last time in this frigid night before they can finally go to their beds and huddle under their blankets for a little warmth.

Variety sighs, standing up and going to follow everyone out, not looking foreword to this.

    Outside, the townsfolk are once again gathering, but not in the same place as before. Now they all move to the east, where they exit the town gate and gather in large clusters in the barren snow fields beyond the town wall. You see that Avery Goodwin, the unlucky lottery winner, is here, flanked by guards and looking dejected. Everyone is quiet, waiting, looking up at the inky black sky.

    And then it happens. People start pointing towards the horizon, and soon everyone can see a light, rising high into the sky, appearing as a cold blue star, flying slowly across the sky, and in its wake is a great, green, glowing, undulating aurora of northern lights. The cold blue star seems to be pulling the aurora over the sky like a blanket, but unlike a blanket, there will be no warmth from it tonight.

    People around you whisper to each other, “It’s Auril!” “The Frostmaiden...” “She’s casting her spell.” One crusty old sailor nearby grumbles, “No sun yesterday, no sun today, and no sun again tomorrow.”

    Speaker Naerth points at Avery and says loudly, “It is time. Go, Avery, and meet the Frostmaiden. Beg her to have mercy on us all.”

    The guards strip Avery of his winter clothes, till all that remains is a light robe with a six-pointed blue snowflake painted on the back, and no shoes. He stumbles out into the night, away from the town. He is soon swallowed in blackness.

Nazcan sees this happen with a look of despair "Bless his soul, he is in a worse place now." He then gives the fee for a room and goes to bed

Ssej nods his approval and follows along, not welcome to visit this sight once more, but at least it aint him and maybe, just maybe he won't have to deal with this again.

Matthias watches as the second part of the horrible endless winter lottery ritual unfolds. He can't help but marvel at the patterns of light sweeping across the sky. He must admit that he has no idea how sending this poor soul to his death in the snow was supposed to accomplish a thing. This Frost Maiden person certainly didn't seem to be showing any mercy following past sacrifices. So wrong, to take someone's life for a twisted ritual. Then again, sometimes surviving such a ritual came with its own cost...He reached a gloved hand under his coat, felt the bump of the arcane crystal under his shirt, sensed a burning anger, or perhaps jealousy in it, and shook his head. 

He looks to the others. "I assume we should leave this place soon after 'daybreak,' if this place really can be said to have such a thing, eh?" 

"Yes, let's meet at the gates at dawn," Karl assents. He eyes the path Avery left on his march to oblivion. The man would almost certainly be dead by then, even if this malicious ice goddess didn't take him. He felt a little sorry for the poor sod but there wasn't much that could be done.

On the other hand, these people and their rituals were stupid. He had to learn the truth of it.

"Friends, I'm going to stay out for a bit. We were blessed by the Frostmaiden tonight, and I should like to bask in her presence a little longer."

Pulling his cloak closer around him, he waits to watch the crowd disperse.  The dragonborn had already vanished.  Ugly bloke has more sense than I do.

Ssej makes his way back to his hut looks about the place and his meager possessions gathers them up and packs them away for the morning. "Tomorrow sshould prove intessting at leasst. If anything I won't have to fissh for awhile."

Auraani stands in horrified silence, unsure of what to do. She didn't want to cause tension between the town and herself or her newfound teammates, but she was tempted to run out and find the man... Avery and try to help him in some way. Looking over at Karl, she lowers her voice to a whisper and gets closer, "Should we try to help that poor man? Humans are so unpredictable and ruthless... I'm at a loss for what to do..."

Karl glances around nervously as Auraani apparently read his mind.  As two strangers in town he knew they were likely to attract attention - but something had to be done.  Even if Avery was already dead, part of him just wanted that knowledge - that closure.

He catches Auraani's eye and gives a slow, subtle nod before turning his gaze to the sky.  The locals wouldn't want outsiders chasing after their pariah.  Hopefully the cold and grim atmosphere would send banish any witnesses.

Quote from Ursus_the_Grim >>

The locals wouldn't want outsiders chasing after their pariah.  

 Exactly. You notice the guards eying you. You realize you may not be the first outsiders with bleeding hearts who want to interfere with the lottery. The other townsfolk area heading back in to town. Soon you're going to look pretty suspicious if you don't head in. How do you want to proceed?