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Mounting the throat of the world above high Hrothgar, you pass a development line as clear as the timber line far below you. Nothing anyone made is here, in the mist which always wreathes the summit like the your breath on the cold clear air. Ice-mist settles in your bones, a grip like Death freezing that painful, long breath, small crystals shattering against each other—the sound of an Ayleid well. Solid ground always beneath your feet as you climb, but there are shapes in the mist which never approach, and are never there when you arrive. More of them move faster nearer the summit, whirl half-recognizable around you, some hideous from the Wild Hunt of legend, some so beautiful you stop very briefly to stare in wonder. Ever swirling, faster as you near the top, with no wind at all they erase your footsteps behind you. A sound, an exhalation, all words and none, so soft there are no syllables or inflection, but clearly intention and meaning, if you could but hear it clearly. Standing, finally, at the apex, the eye of the ephemeral translucent storm, all sounds cease, including your own. There is no sound here but blood, rushing to keep your ears from freezing, rings in high oscillating tones crowding out any others. So utterly still, and your life’s blood sings so loud in the unnatural quiet, nothing else you do is audible. Ringing constant and loud now, only what you brought yourself, your body’s need to stay alive. Your life, here: you are life, here, where life became here, now, and present. The ringing recedes slowly, stillness settles to an icy death so very cold through your scant protection. It looks like the shadows are looking at you, waiting to hear your breath form words in this place, but you can’t be sure.
[From a thread I posted to Skyrim for Oblivion.]
Each room has a coldness. Each piece of clothing and armor has a warmth. If the total warmth of your clothing is less than the coldness of the room, every three turns (D&D WSG) you take as many points of damage as the lessor of (1) the difference and (2) one-tenth your current hit points, but at least 1 in any event. You can layer clothing and armor, but only one piece of armor in each area.
