Holbeck

A normal town, with some quirks here and there. Established in 1865 by four families fleeing persecution in other towns due to legal violations. Faced with imminent death, the families agreed on a truce and began the hard work of establishing their sanctuary. After many sacrifices, the families achieved their goal, and thus Holbeck became a permanent feature of the land.   Their survival was out of pure grit and luck, as the land that would be Holbeck was like any other really, save for a feature that doomed it to abandonment. Sometimes, for no discernible reason, the temperature would drop dramatically, even at the middle of summer, dropping as low as freezing. This happened often, but with no regular pattern, which was the bane of any sane settlers, reliant as they were on stable weather.   But the families figured out a trick to the anomaly, picked up by chance when one of the kids played around one of the ancient cracks that scarred the base of the nearby mountains. One hid inside a crack, discovering that it went deeper into the mountain, to numerous tunnels and caves narrower than a mouse's head. Curious, the child broke away from the game and went to tell the adults, who dismissed his claims at first, save for the child's uncle, an old bachelor with a passion for precious gems.   With his tools, the uncle studied the cracks, discovering a peculiar mineral unlike anything he'd ever found anywhere else. The mineral was transparent, covering other minerals akin to moss, and so soft that it parted like air at the slightest touch, reforming back once the intrusion was removed. This mineral's weirdest aspect was apparent by sheer luck, as the uncle happened to see a gust of air blowing through the cracks.   As it passed the mineral, the air seemed to stop for a moment before turning into a clear liquid substance, which then fanned out. Anything that touched the liquid immediately froze, shattering into pieces. The uncle was only spared by hiding behind a boulder, which frosted over immediately and began to crack. Though scared, the uncle saw an opportunity to be made with the minerals, and sought to master their properties.   But first, the cracks   His first helper was the very child that found the cracks in the first place. She was persuaded rather easily, with promises of listening to whatever she had on her mind that particular day. The second helper, an older boy from another family, joined by the will of his parents, curious about the comings and goings of a former rival. The trio worked for years, until the child had become a young woman, and the boy had became a man, and the uncle had became frailler still.