Memories of Ice

How it opens

Two months after the Darujhistan Fete, the caravan guard Gruntle waits to cross a river where a bridge has been smashed, while two strangers, Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, climb down into the crater where the barrow of a Jaghut Tyrant once stood. Far to the south, in the glass wastes of Morn, the scout Toc the Younger wakes after being lost in a warren and meets the T'lan Imass Tool and Lady Envy. Near Pale, Dujek Onearm's outlawed army gathers coin and supplies as Caladan Brood's host arrives for a parley, with a new enemy in view, a theocracy called the Pannion Domin. And the wizard Quick Ben, following a lost tracker into a strange warren, finds the Crippled God in chains, poisoning the flesh of the Sleeping Goddess Burn.

Who you meet early

• GruntleGruntle is a caravan captain hired to guard a man named Keruli, along with his two companions Stonny Menackis and Harllo. He has worked caravans for more than twenty years and has a low opinion of merchants in general.
• BauchelainBauchelain is a stranger to this continent who travels by carriage with his partner Korbal Broach and an elderly manservant, Emancipor Reese. Having heard the tales of Darujhistan, he means to visit the Jaghut tomb below the ruined barrow.
• Toc the YoungerToc the Younger, a one-eyed scout of Onearm's Host who once worked for the Claw, was thrown into a warren by Hairlock's ambush. He wakes in Morn, far to the south, and wants only to return to the Host.
• EnvyLady Envy has taken up residence in a Jaghut tower in Morn, served by three Seguleh who, by her account, meant to kill her when they first met her. Tool names her a daughter of Draconus, who forged the sword Dragnipur, and she agrees to journey north with Tool and Toc.
• WhiskeyjackWhiskeyjack, once a sergeant, is now second-in-command of Dujek Onearm's renegade army. His leg has healed badly, and he has a parley with Caladan Brood to prepare for outside Pale.
• BlendBlend is a Bridgeburner paired with Corporal Picker on a posting in the hills near Pale, watching the smugglers' trails. She suspects the old trader Munug was not as he seemed.
• TrottsTrotts is a Barghast warrior among the Bridgeburners, keeping lookout over the Divide. He has grown suddenly talkative and calls himself the Tale.
• MalletMallet is the healer of Whiskeyjack's old squad. He finds that Captain Paran has sorceries running through him, and his Denul warren recoils from the captain.