The group left the Frozen Banana, and Jasper led them to the northern edge of town, where the slope into the adjacent mountain range encroached on the buildings. Jasper hesitated as the game alerted him that he was about to enter a SIM. Only two other player groups were currently inside the module. “In order for you to join me,” the fighter said. “We will need to form an alliance.”
Psycho nodded and approved the request, helping Draya and Snowy do the same. With an alliance, they could share senses and split experience points. It wasn’t as powerful as becoming party members, but it was common when players loaned out NPCs to others. Jasper could not see Psycho or Draya’s character sheets or access their inventories.
“You are aware of the game settings?” Jasper asked Psycho as the two males took the lead up into the mountains, following a trail that wove among trees and rocks to minimize the angle of ascent.
“More than most of my kind,” Psycho replied. “Intimate knowledge of this system was crucial to solving my quest. Without it, I would have never agreed to follow Jace’s plan when he freed me.”
“And how did that happen?” Jasper asked as innocently as he could.
Psycho glared at him. “Not on your life.”
It was worth a shot. “Speaking of my life, your access to this module requires my survival,” Jasper explained. “Only PCs can initiate a module; you will be kicked out if I die. Once a SIM is completed and open to the public, anyone can access it, but not until then.”
“I have no intention of killing you,” Psycho said.
“I would hope not, but the difficulty of this module will be based on our average levels. I am 11, you are 20, and Draya and the wolf are 17. That is an average of 16+, and you are more powerful than the average 20-level character. I’m guessing Draya punches above her weight class too. The module will consider that and likely present us with foes far above my ability. You need to keep me alive.”
Psycho nodded. “You knew this going in. Why agree to this if your risk is so high?”
“I want to get Elsa,” he said. “My daughters will think that is the coolest thing ever. Plus, I’ve started a new character three times already, and this one is only at 11. It wouldn’t take me long to get back here. I stored most of my valuable items back at my guild.”
Psycho stopped walking and turned to look at his ally. “I am here for an ice core. I will leave this module with an ice core. If Elsa has this core inside her, she is mine. You can have any other loot or magical item we come across.”
Jasper nodded. “Understood. A few weeks ago, most people thought that Elsa was the cause of the winter weather here. That is how it is in the children’s movie, but after your boss started ‘breaking’ everything, people started changing their thoughts on how the game worked. It’s long been known that you can create more powerful NPCs when you design a module than a PC made from scratch. That is necessary to add difficulty. But even cranking all of Elsa’s appropriate stats to 20, the highest a human character can be, wouldn’t allow her to create or maintain even a fraction of the mana required to keep an entire countryside in winter. Still, people thought the game cheated and just gave her a massive bonus to ice magic. Because of Jace, people understand that the game always follows the rules, and if something is amazing or suspicious, there still has to be an in-game answer.
“This spell,” Jasper motioned to the snow-covered trees around them, “is some level 50+ magic, and people are now guessing there is a separate mana-producing item that Elsa is linked to.”
Psycho nodded, and they continued up the slope. “So, you’ve experienced this before. What should we expect?”
“In a few minutes, we will be assaulted by half a dozen ice trolls tossing snowballs at us. They are mostly harmless. Your fiery companion should handle them easily. This departs from the movie a bit, as the trolls in there are rock trolls and friendly. Also, we don’t need to kill the trolls, just scare them off, but most people kill them just to be sure.”
“Maybe that is why you can’t solve the module. Do the trolls need to live?”
Jasper shook his head. “Many have thought that way. In the movie, the trolls have vital information for solving the main plot, but people have let the trolls live with no success. Then, we will meet Kristoff and his reindeer, Sven. Once we tell him we are on a mission to end the winter spell, he will offer to help and give us transportation on his sleigh, which shortens the journey considerably. During the sleigh ride, we will be attacked by wolves. I’m sure your arrows and Draya’s fire will make short work of them. Characters much weaker than us have repelled them.”
“Might Gandhi change it up since we have Snowy with us? She will detect any wolves long before they get here.”
Jasper shrugged. “As I said, you three are very high-level. I don’t know what we will face. After the wolves, we meet an animated snowman who is harmless and only there for comic relief. Then we have to face Marshmallow.”
“A confection?” Psycho asked.
“No, a playful name for a tough monster: a 20-foot-tall snow fiend. It shouldn’t be that hard to kill for someone of your skill, but it is probably the toughest obstacle we have to face. After that, the module ends. You walk onto a cliff edge and see Elsa’s ice castle across a gorge. An ice bridge crosses the 300-foot expanse, and standing in the middle is a shaman who tells you Elsa doesn’t want to be disturbed. He summons an avalanche that covers the castle and wipes out the bridge. The temperature drops considerably, and if you hang around for more than a few rounds, you start taking persistent cold damage.”
“And there is no way to avoid this?”
Jasper held up his hand. “There will be time to discuss strategies around the shaman when we get there; for now, look out for snowballs.”
They had climbed many hundreds of feet above the level of the town, and as they slowed and cautiously moved forward, Draya caught up from behind, slightly out of breath. Snowy kept up just fine, only holding back to protect their rear flank. They crested a hill and saw a round plateau 60 feet in diameter.
Psycho took the first snowball to the face.
The ranger was furious he had not been given a chance to avoid the strike, but to Dodge, you need to see the attack coming. Large, egg-shaped rocks filled the snow-covered clearing before them, but he saw no movement or heard anything. Another ball came from his blind spot and splattered on his cheek.
Neither attack had done enough physical damage to exceed his Damage Reduction, and the 2 points of cold damage each ball did had no hope of overcoming his elemental resistance. But it was still annoying. Behind him, Draya giggled and then took a snowball to the face.
“Hey,” she cried and released a small fireball into the center of the clearing. Flames spread through the rocks, and an unmistakable chatter of high-pitched voices cried out and scampered out of the way.
Now Psycho could see them; three-foot-tall trolls with pale white skin and short claws moved quickly through the snowbanks and into the cover of trees.
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“Don’t kill them,” Psycho said as he drew his bow and tracked several small trolls leaping from behind rocks and out of view.
“I won’t,” Draya said. “That was an illusion.”
Psycho turned to look at the mage. “Impressive,” he said. “I swore I felt heat from that.”
“I’ve been practicing,” she replied. “A girl’s got to have more than one skill.”
Now that they were discovered, the trolls didn’t feel the need to keep quiet or hold back. A dozen snowballs came at the group from multiple directions. These were not Sneak Attacks, and Psycho could bob and weave out of the way, maneuvering forward into the center of the clearing. Draya was struck and took a few points of damage. As a dragonkin, she was especially vulnerable to water and cold but wasn’t concerned. These enemies would be equally susceptible to fire, and she felt she could produce more damage than they could. Snowy caught a few projectiles in her mouth and howled her approval at this new game.
“Can we just walk past them?” Psycho asked, standing in the middle of the clearing and turning to look in all directions. Snowbanks and thick pines skirted the plateau, giving the pesky trolls perfect cover. “If all they have are these tiny snowballs, I don’t want to waste too much time on them.”
Before Jasper could answer, a snowball the size of a watermelon hit the ranger in the back, and he fell hard against the rocks around his feet. Before he could recover, five more mammoth projectiles hit him, burying the elf in a pile of snow. A dozen more of the smaller balls flew in then, not adding much mass to the entombing snowbank but spreading out on impact and sealing the mound with a shimmering layer of ice.
Draya leaped past Jasper, who stood with his jaw slack. “That isn’t supposed to happen,” he said, but Draya didn’t bother with a retort. She held her dragon staff tightly and loosed a fireball into the far end of the clearing were most of the giant snowballs had come. Screams of pain and fear rang through the air as flames licked hungrily at nearly a third of the perimeter. Unfortunately, the other two-thirds erupted in another snowball attack. Two large ones took her from her feet, but knowing what was coming, she rolled to her back and released a jet of flame toward the center of the attacks, so the attempt to bury her fizzled into a cloud of steam.
Snowy leaped into action now, bounding into the trees and catching the smaller trolls unaware. The larger ones stepped out into the clearing, immediately seeing that their snow attacks would be useless against the woman. Draya dropped a fireball at her feet, but the trolls were ready, and the snow on the ground rose to their call, creating a three-foot tall wall for the fire to explode against, sparing their white, icy flesh from the vicious attack. The six-foot-tall monsters kept a distance of 30 feet from the woman, waiting for her to make the first move.
The dropped fireball also took the ice layer off Psycho’s burial mound, and the snow shifted as the elf could finally rise. Draya held her next attack in check. She knew she could take out two or three of them, but there were eight. She could only cast once per round, and the remaining trolls would have two free actions to close the gap and slash at her with their claws. She could parry well with her staff, but not if she used it for a spell. Plus, the radius of her fireball was preprogrammed into her weapon, and the expanding ring would hurt Psycho and Snowy. She glanced at Jasper and saw the human with his shield perpetually raised and hiding behind a tree. A stray fireball might kill him.
Soon, Psycho stood at her back, which gave her a little more comfort. He had his sword out, knowing that he could only take out one troll with his bow and would then be defenseless against the rest. Cries of the smaller trolls in the trees reminded the larger ones that Snowy was still out there, and soon, a 400-pound wolf would come crashing into their backs. The trolls attacked first.
Draya initiated her Dragon Scales, increasing her Damage Reduction and Armor skill by 17. While she parried with her staff, she was virtually unhittable, and any strike that did come in would have a hard time doing any damage. She swung the weapon around her body, fending off the claws of the beasts and delivering devastating strikes against their heads and torsos.
Psycho was also a blur of motion, Dodging and attacking between the remaining four foes. His defense wasn’t as good, and he felt strike after strike land against him, but he had almost twice as many hit points to work with than Draya, and his sword did more damage. He dropped two trolls within the first two rounds, and Draya dropped another. While the fallen enemies registered no Hit Points, in game terms, they were only Stunned and would need fire to seal their deaths. Until then, they had the potential to stand back up with 25% HP regenerated. Draya needed a full round to cast a spell but didn’t have one to spare.
On the northern side of the clearing, Snowy poked her head out of the trees, blood on her lips from the smaller trolls, looking for more action. Before she could jump into the clearing to help her friends, the chief troll stepped into view from the opposite side. Draya caught sight of it and swore. The eight-foot-tall monster summoned mana around him in a flurry of snow and ice, casting a lance at the mage. The massive icicle pierced her chest and Stunned her for a critical round, knocking her to the ground.
The other trolls knew this fire mage could end them all and took advantage of the situation. Without her staff to parry for her, the trolls could now just overcome her Armor Class. With her Dragon Scales still active, the physical damage she took was minimal, but magical ice from their claws ripped into her, doing over 100 points of damage in one round. A troll that had been attacking Psycho broke off to pursue Draya, allowing the elf to focus on one enemy, and he dropped him to the ground with a critical hit.
As the ranger turned to help his friend, he heard a cry of panic from behind. He spun to see Jasper madly fending off the massive troll leader with his sword and shield. Psycho looked between him and Draya, knowing which he wanted to save but also knowing that if the human died, they would be kicked out. If Draya died, she would wake up in her bed in a few minutes, unable to rejoin them in this quest but alive.
Psycho split the difference and pulled his elemental bow without leaving Draya’s side. He took a full round and sent a flaming arrow into the head of the troll leader. The beast died on the spot, collapsing into a pile of burning goo. Beside him, Draya screamed in anguish as she woke from the Stunning ice lance. She didn’t bother getting up as she released a fireball at her feet. The scream warned the nimble elf, and he hopped, skipped, and jumped out of the way.
Since they were party members, he wouldn’t get a saving throw against the damage, but he still got a chance to Dodge the attack. Snowy had been about to jump into the fray but held off as the flames licked along the edges of the clearing. Draya rose to see only two trolls left standing, both badly hurt. Before the round ended, allowing her another magic attack, an arrow cleaved the head of one of the creatures while Snowy pounced on the other one, ripping its throat out.
Her last fireball had killed all the Stunned trolls that had been moments from standing up, but several of the smaller creatures had woken up after initially falling to Snowy’s attacks. Snowballs flew halfheartedly at the mage’s feet, and Draya responded with dragon fire. After two more rounds, the clearing was quiet. Draya collapsed to one knee, holding on to her staff for support, her health dangerously low. Snowy approached to heal her, but the woman waved the wolf off. “Save it for combat healing. I can manage on my own.” She reached into a pocket Gromphy had fashioned in her dress and pulled out one of the goblin’s healing potions. It took a Flat-Footed round to drink one, so it was dangerous to do in combat, but twelve seconds and two potions later, she was back to full health.
Psycho needed one potion to heal himself. The game only allowed a character to carry five healing potions at a time, so they did need to be somewhat careful. If Gromphy had come with them, they would have near infinite healing potential as he could always craft more, but he only ventured near combat when Jace ordered him to.
Jasper had taken minor damage in the fight and stumbled into the clearing, stunned by the carnage around him. The clearing was filled with more water than snow from the fire, and the surrounding trees were burnt black. Only the snow from further up the pines melting onto the flames prevented the pine needles from going up like fireworks.
“That was amazing. I’ve never seen anything like that. No mage has that much fire mana. And to see an archer shoot like that was incredible. One shot kills all day long.”
Psycho wasn’t in the mood to celebrate. “You said the trolls were harmless. A fun little snowball fight.”
Jasper wouldn’t back down. “I also said the difficulty would be ramped up since you were with me. I wasn’t wrong that there would be trolls, or they would throw snow. We just have to be more prepared for the next encounter.”
“We?” Draya challenged. She was usually timid, but she had come close to death. “What did you do?”
Jasper smiled despite the angry woman. “I survived. If I didn’t, none of this matters.” He scanned the ground again to see if the monsters had dropped anything valuable, but all he saw were piles of flaming goo half submerged in ankle-deep water. “No time to linger,” he said, moving to the far side of the clearing where the trail continued up the mountain. “We need to hurry.”
“I don’t trust him,” Draya told Psycho once she felt Jasper was far enough ahead of them.
“I don’t trust anyone,” the elf replied. He stored his weapon and started after their guide. Draya and Snowy followed.