Psycho didn’t talk much to Jasper for the next half hour. Partly, he didn’t think he could trust the man, but mostly, he was struggling against the cold and the climb. Draya walked beside him, using her staff as a walking stick. The extra leverage didn’t help nearly as much as the Dragon Strength spell the weapon gave her. With it, she was much stronger than he was. And with her dress dumping 100 points of fire damage into her each round, she didn’t notice the cold. Snowy kept herself a few paces behind her friends, her nose to the wind, trying to prevent another ambush. This was her natural environment, and she relished the cold, thin air.
Psycho kept trying to keep his eyes forward on their host in this module. Jasper trudged along without a care in the world. He knew this climb was coming and could have prepared with a magical stamina ring or potion. Plus, the elf knew that PCs could adjust their settings so they didn’t feel any cold or heat. The ranger thought that was dangerous in an environment like this where it could get so cold you actually took damage, but that hadn’t happened so far.
“What do you think his plans are?” Draya asked.
“I can’t figure that out,” Psycho said. “He needs us to pass this quest. He can’t fight the enemies we will face, and he doesn’t know how to trick the game into letting us meet with this Elsa character.”
“Do you?” Draya asked.
“I’m hoping I’ll figure something out.”
Draya paused. “Do you think he means to kill us?”
Psycho shrugged. “I don’t think he can unless he is hiding some massive magical device. But if we get to the end and he can get what he wants, he certainly won’t risk his life to save us.”
“Two useless NPCs?” Draya quipped.
“Do you know what that means?” Psycho asked.
She shrugged. “Not really. Only I know we will wake up in our beds, and he won’t.”
“He will wake up in his dimension,” Psycho clarified.
“So we have nothing to fear,” Draya said, trying to sound cheerful.
“Other than pain and a horrible death if we fail,” the elf quipped.
“I like the happy ranger,” Draya said, picking up her pace to pull ahead. “This surly one is no fun.”
Draya was quickly out of range in the whipping wind, preventing a retort, but Snowy pulled up along Psycho for moral support.
It was only a few more minutes before they reached a dramatic change in the hike. They crested another rise and saw a massive valley before them. The ice castle was on the other side of the north mountain, still obstructed from view, and now it looked like they would have to descend hundreds of feet into the valley only to have to climb back up the other side.
Jasper had stopped, and soon, Draya and Psycho stood beside him. “We don’t have to cross that, do we?” Psycho asked.
“No,” Jasper advised. He looked to the west, where the sun was setting over a dense pine forest. “If we go that way, we will find Kristoff and his sled. He will give us a ride, and we can go around the valley. The mountains join up a few miles in that direction. It is a much longer trip, but we can cover the ground faster, and you can take a break from walking.”
Psycho nodded but had his eyes on the sun. They would be in shadow in a few minutes, and not long after that, it would be dark. If he thought it was cold now, nighttime on the mountain would be a treat. “Then let’s get moving. This Kristoff isn’t going to turn out to be a lich or demon of some kind, will he?”
Jasper chuckled. “No, he is an ally. Perhaps he will be stronger than he usually is, which is a good thing because we need his help to fight off the wolves.”
Snowy’s head picked up at this, and she sniffed the air.
The group moved quickly to their left into the woods. They heard noises almost immediately, and Psycho and Snowy snuck ahead quietly while the noisier fighter and mage trailed behind. It was dark in the woods already, but the ranger saw a lantern light ahead and soon found a man lugging colossal ice blocks off his sled, a large reindeer standing nearby.
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“No one’s going to buy ice from us in this weather, Sven,” the man said.
“Well, maybe we should sell firewood,” the man said in a comically deep voice.
“Great idea, Sven,” he replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm, “how good do you think this will be at chopping trees?” He held up his ice pick.
Was he talking to his reindeer? Psycho didn’t see any danger and stepped out of the shadows. “Well met, stranger,” he said, announcing his presence as innocently as possible.
Kristoff spun around with his pick raised and didn’t lower it when he saw Snowy emerge from the trees.
“Easy,” Psycho said, opening his empty hands and lowering them by his side. “We don’t mean any harm.”
“We are traveling to the north mountain.” Jasper stepped out of the woods behind the elf, having hurried up when there was no danger. He spoke the appropriate phrases to move the module along. “We believe we can end this persistent winter. Surely that would be of some help to you. Can you offer us passage?”
Kristoff looked wary, but his eyes brightened as Draya also stepped out of the trees. “I think I can offer you a ride, but the wolf will have to walk. No room for all four of you. My name is Kristoff.”
“Understood,” Jasper said. “The wolf can help us look out for . . .” he stopped when Snowy raised her head.
Only Psycho heard the warning, but Draya could read body language and lifted her staff horizontally. Psycho’s eyes were looking all around, but Draya had her focus on the handsome ice salesman, so she picked up the eyes leaping out of the darkness behind the man.
“Christopher, duck!” she cried as she leveled her staff in his direction.
“It’s Kristoff!” he cried but dropped to the snow anyway.
A small wolf came leaping from the woods behind him, and Draya loosed a single fire attack.
Kristoff cried out as the flames sizzled above his head but saw them hit the wolf and blast it back into the woods. “You almost set me on fire!” he cried.
“But I didn’t,” Draya quipped, stepping further into the lantern’s light.
Another smaller wolf leaped at Sven, but Psycho had a Death Shot ready and silenced the snarling animal before it could touch the reindeer.
Kristoff glanced between the two powerful characters and shrugged his shoulders. “We need to go,” he said. “Everyone into the sled. I’ll get Sven tied in.” He moved toward the reindeer but froze as the crunch of branches came from the woods just behind him.
Draya and Psycho were ready with their attacks but unprepared for what they saw. Wolves that walked like men, seven feet tall, emerged from the darkness, drool hissing from their maws and hunger in their red eyes. Draya hit one with fire, knocking it back into a tree, but not dead. Its eyes burned with hatred as it found the mage. Ignoring Kristoff, it bounded toward her.
Psycho’s shot hit and killed the second wolf, but there were three of them, and the third slashed at Kristoff’s back and Grappled him, preventing the archer from taking a second shot. Psycho had the skill to hit the wolf with an arrow even with three-quarter cover, but he couldn’t activate his Death Shot.
Draya screamed as the first wolf closed the distance between them, its fur smoking in the cold air from the recent fire attack. Snowy saved her, diving in from the side and tackling the beast before it reached the woman, giving her the time she needed to end that combat round so she could initiate another attack.
“Werewolves!” Jasper cried, running for the cover of the back of the sled.
The beast holding Kristoff looked at the two powerful characters facing against him and dragged his catch backward, slinking into the woods.
“No!” Draya cried and ran after them. Two more werewolves jumped out of the trees to intercept her. One took an arrow to the head and dropped. Draya jabbed her staff into the gut of the second one and launched it into the air with a blast of fire.
Draya ignored the injured beast for a moment, looking deep into the darkness where Kristoff had gone, not bold enough to venture in after him as she heard the sounds of many more wolves moving through the trees. “Christopher!”
A weak voice came back. “It’s Kristo . . .” but it ended in a bloody gurgle.
Draya’s hand went to her mouth in horror, and she stepped back. To her left, where she had launched her latest attacker, she heard another painful bleating and saw the reindeer fighting against the beast she had injured. Sven tried to kick the wolf in the head, but it slashed the animal’s neck and dragged it back into the woods.
“Get back, Red,” Psycho said calmly. “Don’t stand so close to the trees.”
Draya glanced over her shoulder and saw Psycho standing up in the sled, an arrow poised and ready, his eyes searching the tree line. She glanced at his feet and saw Jasper curled up into a ball, muttering to himself. “This isn’t supposed to happen. This isn’t supposed to happen.”
Movement from their right spun both characters, but it was snowy returning from the woods where she had finished off the first werewolf Draya had hit. “Snowy,” Psycho said, “the sled.” He pointed at the empty bridle to his left. “Red,” he added, turning to look at Draya. “Get on and hold tight.”
The mage leaped into the back of the sled just as Snowy moved into position in the front and bit down on the harness. “Run!” the ranger called.
Snowy took off, knocking Draya to her seat as she scrambled for a hold on the railing. As they fled the scene, half a dozen more werewolves flooded the clearing. Psycho hadn’t lost his balance when the sled took off, and he dropped one of the creatures before they were out of view.
The other five monsters looked at their fallen comrade hesitantly, wondering if pursuit was a wise choice, but their leader, a werewolf over eight feet tall, stepped up behind them. “After them fools! None of them shall get away!” He howled into the darkening sky. The six took off as commanded, and four more joined the chase as the leader ran after the departed sled, his enormous strides eating up the distance.