Heh. Worst thing about my two years in France was the lack of a proper winter! To be on topic, I'm sure many Heortlings languishing in Prax or Esrolia feel the same way.
>
> I think Mikko suggested skis were the fastest humans could get
> without more sophisticated mechanical contrivances. I suspect
skates
> are even faster without being much more complicated. Finding
enough
> clear ice to skate on would limit it's usefulness as a means of
> transportation though.
You may well be right. But remember that Heortling skates are teh shin bones of an ox, which will be a fair bit different than any skates any of us are apt to have used. For what it is worth, I remember actually seeing a reference to an original document about skating on the Thames ~12c. It describes men strapping the shin bone on, but using a staff shod with a metal spike at each end to push themselves along at a high speed (and I think trying to knock each other over, joust style. Boys will be boys). Whether this is because the shin bones don't have a sharp enough edge to support a diaganol stride, or whether given the rare freezed in southern england the skaters just weren't skilled enough to use it, I don't know.
Also think of the tale "The Silver Skates" It sounds like the dutch used a lot of wood skates, which were presumably better than bone ones, but clearly metal ones were much faster.
So bone skates are probably too noticeable steps slower than metal ones. Of course, someone in Heortling is bound to have metal skates-- most likely a player hero at that :)
As for flat surfaces, given that Sartar is hilly and and well watered, I'm sure there is no shortage of ponds and streams. The question is, is the stream (not Stream!) frozen hard enough to let you skate on it safely?
Of course, what I really want to give a hero with wind magic sometime is an ice boat. What you can do in Sartar with an ice boat, a reliably trailing wind, and some imagination should be almost too much fun to bear :)
--Bryan
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