Winterheart
ReAq 15, Unlimited uses
R:Touch, D:Inst, T:Part
This smooth, gnarled staff is awakened by the command "cheimochtypos" ("winterbeat"); the same command sends it back to sleep. When the staff is awake, the large aquamarine set in it pulses like a living heart, once every round or so. On each pulse, if the staff touches a body of water, it makes out of water a block of ice roughly 2 paces deep, 7 paces wide, and 20 paces long (the same proportions as the aquamarine heart); the ice block begins where the staff touches the water and its orientation follows that of the heart. The ice block will obviously be smaller if there is insufficient water; and the result may be somewhat less predictable in the presence of currents and whirlpools, since each is a separate Individual and Winterheart can only turn to ice the one it is touching.
Creatures and objects caught in the frozen area get trapped in the ice. The ice is mundane, and above freezing temperature it melts over time; though in most situations a large block of ice will take days to do so. If kept in large quantities in an underground cellar, it may easily last for months or even a whole year; in fact selling ice could reasonably provide a source of income (there are mundanes who already do so in some parts of Europe, like the kingdom of Sicily). Even if obtained from salt water, ice melts into sweet water - so Winterheart can be used as a source of drinkable water at sea. Ice naturally floats and supports weight: a square a pace to the side, two paces deep, can support a large man. As the freezing process is very fast but not instantaneous (approximately a human heartbeat), and the frozen water is still part of the original body of water, someone walking on the ice while dragging Winterheart along can effectively "extend" the ice into a solid bridge potentially miles long.
Base 3 [turn water into ice], +1 Touch, +1 Part, +10 unlimited uses
The aquamarine "heart" provides a +3 S&M bonus to the Aquam enchantment