A frozen lake in the northwestern reaches of Argysis, nestled in a high cirque near the sealed city of Morphi. Before the conquest, Winter Lake hosted the Argysisean ice-fishing festival: clans would gather each deep winter, drill through the ice, and compete for the largest catch. The winner received a blessing from the king and bragging rights until the next year.
Now the lake serves darker purposes. Rothogomos uses Winter Lake as a disposal site. Those who displease him, whether traitors, failed servants, or anyone who catches his attention on a bad day, are dropped through holes in the ice. The dwarves have a phrase for it: "going to Winter Lake." They say it quietly, like a prayer for the dead.
The lake never fully thaws, even in the brief mountain summer. Local whispers suggest the bodies have accumulated for so long that something has begun to coalesce in the cold water, not undead exactly but a collective presence, a weight of frozen grievance pressing against the ice from below. The dragon finds this amusing. He sometimes flies low over the lake just to feel whatever is down there flinch.