Santa and the Ice Trolls

[Gullander]

Santa and the Ice Trolls

One of the many mysteries of the FT world is “why did Santa visit here?” And why out of all the inhabitants of FT did he end up by the Ice Trolls? And why did these Ice Trolls steal his bag? We wonder, what was in that bag that the Trolls thought it worth stealing? This little tale attempts to shed some light on all these mysterious questions.

Introduction

Once upon a time when FT was young Santa found himself in a bad winter blizzard, and seeking a spot to rest and wait it out, spied a snowfield below. Little did he realize when he landed it was this digital pixel world not the real world! Now, looking back, he can attest what he thought was a snow blizzard was really a misty and distorted barrier between realities. This is a record of his adventures, his escape, and the fact that a copy of sorts was made of him here in FT. He is forever repeating his Ice Troll encounter and the theft of his bag with each new player being the only variable that ever changes.

Here is our cast of characters

IK- The Ice Troll King, always looking for ways to increase his treasures
IM- The Ice Troll Mage and counselor to the King (an associate of Sebastius, which the King is unaware of!)
IJ- The Ice Troll Jester, the Kings comic relief and a big fan of the Big Guy Santa!
Santa- The Big Guy himself!

Now let us begin our tale!

Scene 1- Opens at the Ice Troll Kings’ court

IK- So my mage have you found a way to increase my treasure store?
IJ- store, snore, what a bore!
IM- Be quiet jester! (zap zap with his wand) Yes your majesty but it may be hard for you to believe.
IK- Your ideas have been good before, speak on.
IJ- believe, grieve, something up his sleeve!
IK- Quiet jester, tell me!
IM- (rears back to zap the jester but speaks instead) Oh my King, by reading the ancient books I have discovered a way to make a breach between this realm and that of the mortals!
IK- Oh, so you shall draw treasures from there to here! Excellent!
IM- Better than that my Lord! We shall trap their fabled treasure giver Santa!
IJ- oh no! beard like snow, in your undertow!
IM- Exactly! And my King you know what that means.
IK- Of course, but tell all to me.
IM- We shall possess Santa’s magic bag and all your Majesty will need to do is think of what he desires, put his hand in the bag, and draw it out!
IK- Amazing! And how soon may we expect this boon?
IJ- boon, soon, a royal buffoon!
IM- Silence jester! (zap zap) very soon my Lord if you but command that I do this.
IK- The bag of Santa himself!
IM- Yes, with it he is the giver of gifts to all the children of the entire mortal realm.
IK- Make it so my counselor, you will be greatly rewarded! (IM withdraws to begin)
IJ- cancelled joys, loss of toys, sorrow upon both girls and boys, Oh my King, consider this thing, oh the sting this act may bring!
IK- What do I care for such mortal doings, speak no more of this to me!
IJ- (quietly to himself) oh my King this must not be, Santa if bound must again be free

[Gullander]

Scene 2- Opens in the magic shop of IM

IM begins by contacting Sebastius, you did not think an Ice Troll mage possessed such power did you? He tells all to Sebastius that all is in order and ready to proceed. Upon this news Sebastius speaks the ancient words creating a rift between realms. Santa is now drawn to FT unknowing of the unusual events he will soon have to endure. IM’s own agenda now will begin! The King thinks a magic bag is the goal but IM has other plans for Santa!

Santa seeking a relief from a sudden and intense blizzard like storm, spots a patch of snowfield below, suitable for a landing, where he can wait till the unusual storm passes. After it clears, dissipating as fast as it appeared, Santa realizes he has no recollection of where he is. This land is very unfamiliar and he is sure he has never seen it before. Every attempt to take to flight fails and he is quite stuck here, wherever here is! IM having seen the rift accomplished runs to see the King to begin to set the rest of the plan into action. For now the Ice Troll King must not suspect Sebastius is the real King behind what is occurring.

IK- Yes my mage, what have you to report?
IM- My Lord, Santa has arrived and is now trapped here just outside our Ice Cave in the snowfield!
IK- Excellent! I will make the proclamation that my Ice Troll subjects may seek to gain his bag for their King and will be rewarded for it nicely.
IM- Yes my King, you are wise to not mention it is a magic bag. There may be those among your subjects who might take it for themselves.
IK- Yes, it is our secret! Oh, I can hardly wait!
IJ- a snag, a snag, tongues would wag about a magic bag!
IK- Yes jester exactly, make sure you are not the one!
IM- Let me zap him good my King, the insolent fool!
IJ- the fool, the fool, Sebastius’ tool!
IK- How dare you mention that name in my presence! (IM zaps the jester) Let the proclamation go out, I must have my bag!
IM- Yes your Majesty, soon your wealth shall abound! (He leaves with an evil smirk on his face)
IJ- abound, abound, shall soon be found! (the King smiles broadly) (quietly the jester adds) truth’s sound alas tis drowned!

[Gullander]

Scene 3- Once again in IM’s magic shop

IM’s true intentions are now revealed as he prepares his secret weapon, a player of the realm known as SantaSlay also allied with Sebastius. The plan is to do away with Santa in this realm so he ceases to be in his own mortal realm! Since Santa is not of the FT realm there will be no regeneration at 0.0, and his pets (reindeer) would be scattered. It is the height of deviousness!

Meanwhile hope yet remains. The Ice Troll Jester has contacted another jester of the realm who once was in the employ of one King Fear. Here is how the conversation went.

IJ- Hello my friend, I am in a desperate state!
Jester- We must stick together, what would our Kings do without us?
IJ- Indeed, we protect their interests.
Jester- What are you facing?
IJ- Our Kings’ counselor mage has managed to bring Santa from the mortal realm to ours! I fear he intends it to be permanent, deadly permanent!
Jester- pain, pain, I feel the strain, drain, drain, upon the brain…..Sorry, it helps me to think
IJ- yelp, yelp, I call for help!
Jester- the mage, the mage, a spell of age, a page, a page, can stop the rage
IJ- What page?
Jester- Only a powerful reverse spell can undo what has been done. Ascanius is your hope, go see him!
IJ- Thank you my friend!

The Ice Troll Jester visits Ascanius and finds out indeed a reversal is possible, but since Santa is a magical being himself he must speak it. Somehow the jester must make it to Santa before evil befalls him! It is even more dangerous than that. Ascanius warns that such a powerful spell that brought Santa after a certain time becomes permanent and the reversal becomes ineffective. No pressure!

[Gullander]

Scene 4- The Battle of the Snowfield

Upon returning from his conference with his fellow jester our would be hero sees Santa surrounded by Ice Trolls! Like children fighting over the last piece of candy Santa is knocked down and one glad Ice Troll emerges with Santa’s bag and runs off in glee shouting “reward, reward!” With the deed done Santa and the jester are left behind. The happy Ice Troll triumph soon turned into tragedy as his fellows turned upon him wrenching the bag out of his slippery hands. Alas this tumult went on for quite a while then continuing below in their Ice Cave constantly changing hands until no Ice Troll really knew anymore who had the bag! In the chaos the Ice Troll King waited and waited and no one seemed to remember to give it to him!

IJ- Are you hurt Santa?
Santa- I’m fine thank you. I guess the bag is all they wanted from me.
IJ- Oh Santa, your magic bag! Whatever will you do?
Santa- Don’t worry about that, but who are you and why didn’t you join the Ice Troll hoard in accosting me?
IJ- I am the Ice Troll King’s jester and I heard of their plans and decided I must stop them.
Santa- Such bravery in the face of knavery!
IJ- Ha ha, perhaps you have a bit of jester in you!
Santa- Indeed we all do, but you are in danger I fear.

Just as those words came out of Santa’s mouth an evil player groomed by the Ice Troll Mage himself to kill Santa appears, an evil pun from an evil source, the player named SantaSlay!!

SantaSlay- You have come to the end of your journeys oh rotund one, your goodness shall end this day!

A battle ensues! One might be surprised how lively and quick Santa was as he sidestepped many attempted blows! The Ice Jester knew however this could not go on forever and a deadly critical hit would come. Now a jester has a number of ‘scepters” he uses in his duties, one may have bells upon it, another the visage of a person whom he can argue with as a puppet to amuse his Kingship, but one is actually a weapon. And we thought his only weapon was his keen wit! He had wisely brought this “scepter” with him and pressing a button upon it a blade of exceeding sharpness appeared! So our Ice Jester so often brave with his words now descends upon SantaSlay catching him off guard, because everyone expects a jester to hide when any danger to his person is around. This part was lacking in SantaSlay’s training he did not consider the power of a jester’s heart! The Ice Jester’s blows hit true and quite surprised SantaSlay slumped over and disappeared to be reinvented at 0.0.

IJ- Santa, are you wounded?
Santa- I am hurt a bit my friend, but thank you he is gone and I will soon mend.
IJ- Good, but he will return!
Santa- What?
IJ- Yes, he will regenerate elsewhere in the realm, but you dear heart are not of this realm!
Santa- Ah, I see, but at present I am stuck here.
IJ- Nay oh bearded one, I have acquired the magic spell so you can undo the one that trapped you and return to your own realm.
Santa- You are incredible Jester! Alas no jest you are the best, a jester got a tester and he was bester!
IJ- Ha ha, thank you Santa! Now take this and read it quickly before you get stuck here forever. If it isn’t used soon the reverse spell will become powerless. Please Santa read it now!
Santa- I shall, and don’t worry about the bag. (He whispers a secret in the Ice Jester’s ear) My friend I shall not ever forget your kindness to me. Farewell!

Well things at court were as before, the Ice King still knew nothing of the villainy of his mage counselor but only held him in a kind of contempt that the promised magic bag had never appeared. He assumed with Santa’s almost as rapid departure as he had come somehow Santa had gotten his bag back. However with flowery words of flattery the clever mage was weaseling himself back into the King’s favor by directing him towards some other wild schemes to increase his wealth. As long as such deception was at court the Ice Jester’s path was clear, his King needed him, someone has to protect the King’s interests! Suffer fools gladly they jest (just) might be your greatest asset!

Now the rest of the story.

Santa used the reverse spell just in the nick of time sending him back thankfully to our mortal realm, but before he did he had his own trick up his own fur trimmed sleeve assuring that the bag never made it to the Ice Troll King! Santa being a magical being himself set up a forever quest to appear in the game. The bag is forever stolen but is always taken back by players and returned to Santa! How you ask? Well magic is complicated to explain but easy to experience but I will try to tell. Because the spell that trapped Santa was nearly at the point of being impossible to reverse it had a side effect when reversed it left a residue of Santa behind. A pixel NPC of Santa now remains indefinitely in the pixel realm! He is fully free to give gifts in our mortal realm but this reminder of his visit to FT will ever remain.

And what you may ask did Santa whisper in the Jester’s ear? That actually Santa’s bag is just a bag, the magic is in Santa himself! He further divulged to the Jester and now also to us at this Christmas season this other secret of his magic and that is being a giver! That being a giver is more important than any gift or the packaging it comes in, the best gift is always the giving of ourselves! That is indeed a forever quest we can joyfully do year after year!

Merry Christmas to all!

If you enjoyed this story you may also enjoy these previous year’s Christmas stories
An FT Christmas Carol
It’s a Wonderful FT Life
The Gobbler (if you’d like a Thanksgiving story)
An FT Tale: King Fear (if you enjoyed a Jester in this you will like him here too!)

[Leone]

Brilliant....as ever! The jester speaks in riddles, but is the wisest of us all.

Thank you mate. I enjoyed that.

Next mystery: why do ice trolls drop solar amulets? There's not much sun in those caves:)

[justj99]

Great storyline! That was fun to read! Thanks!

[LostKnight]

As ever Gull a great read.

I so enjoy your stories... Thanks again.
Look forward to the next one.

[Syor]

You are very good.
I like it very much.
Good reading, very smooth.

[Gullander]

Hmm..why do Ice Trolls drop Solar Amulets? Half the population live in a cave and the other share a corner with the Blue Vlads... intriguing...why are they separate? Are they rival clans...or disgraced..or what? This must be added to the thread Unanswered Questions.

Thanks for the kind comments everyone!

[merisajan]

That was interesting
I went to this quest to increase the level and I was very happy. Both the level increased and I got the level 20 magic hat to sell to get richbut why kis bag soo ugly and small