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Description
  I've been working on Paper Mario: Double Darkness for a really long time, sure, but most of its chapters I created sometime after I began doing so. Chapter 5 enjoys the distinction of, in the sense of when I came up with it, being the first. Back in elementary school, when I really didn't understand what constituted a fan game, I had an ice world area that eventually evolved into Whiteout Tundra. The most obvious similarities were the ice elemental partner with a wind ability (Crystal) and the desolate world dungeon with tough platforming (Cryo Cliff). So Chapter 5 has always been special for me.
  Of course, plenty has been changed about it as well. Some of the most recent modifications include the promotion of Brrr Keep from just one castle into a complete town, changing the boss and where the boss battle takes place, and the entire raising-the-dead theme. Where did that idea come from? Well, I'm kind of a necromancy buff. Besides, it really ended up adding to the story.
  Speaking of the story, here's the description for Chapter 5. WARNING: Really, really, absurdly high amounts of reading ahead.

Characters (from left to right):
Duke of Brrr: A venerable Glaci noble sent as a representative of the Mushroom Kingdom. The ruler of Brrr Keep. His extensive military experience has left him extremely austere and protective of everything he cares about, especially Crystal.
Crystal: The Duke of Brrr’s free-spirited daughter and Mario’s sixth partner. She’s next in line to rule over Brrr Keep, but that doesn’t mean she wants to- she much prefers the adventure of exploring the dangerous peaks of Cryo Cliff. She can release an icy, elemental wind that clears fog, spins propellers, and cools down hot things.
Specteira: The ruler of the Nox Empire. After being dumped into the present by the portal in the Shadow Spire, she joins Mario’s quest to recover all of the portal pieces in hopes of making it home and saving her empire from Darkblot. She acts as the game’s tattle, and can cast spells in battle which work more or less like special moves.
Mario: If you don’t know who this guy is already, I recommend you go and play some Paper Mario games before you continue reading this.
Ninjella: A warm and energetic Ninji who leads the Brrr military along with Sickle. While not pelting advancing Cold Bones with an endless hail of shurikens, she can often be found relaxing and satisfying her serious sweet tooth at the Ninji Hot Springs.
Sickle: A fearless Glaci fighter who commands the Brrr military along with Ninjella. He spends most of his time either working on his already formidable spear skills or hanging out with his girlfriend Crystal.
Commander Chill: The general of the Cold Bones’ army. Despite his ambitions to reclaim Whiteout Tundra, he’s actually rather timid in person, the result of years of slavery in the service of the Nox. He and the other Cold Bones combine to form Blizzrex, the boss of Chapter 5.

--CHAPTER 4 / CHAPTER 5 TRANSITION--
    Previously, in Chapter 4, Mario travelled into the Combustion Caves, exposed Shelley’s illegal shadestone trafficking operation, and recovered the fifth Portal Piece from the mighty Shadestone Tree. The party says goodbye to Bombastica and Bomberyl, wishes good luck to Bombarbell’s team for the remainder of the fuseball season, and then goes back to the Mt. Mushroom Observatory.
    After Infinnah T. screams excitedly for a while about how awesome that fuseball game was, they get down to business. She scans the Portal Piece Mario brought back, the Shady Frame, and uses the Celestial Cannon to locate the next one. She finds it in the icy northeast part of the Mushroom Frontier. On the world map, a large plaza appears in the middle of that region, with a fountain at the center and tower-like ice buildings scattered around it. A large castle with roughly the same architecture style as everything else rises behind the town. However, the Portal Piece icon shows up much farther to the right, on a snowy cliff containing nothing but bones.
    According to Infinnah T., the indicated area is Whiteout Tundra. Specteira comments that the unusually cold climate there is actually because of the Nox. The region contains tons of prehistoric bones and fossils, and when the Nox discovered them, they started reanimating the Dry Bones as slaves. In order to preserve them for continuous use, it was necessary to cool down the whole area.
    Today, Whiteout Tundra is the location of Brrr Keep, home to Ninjis and an ice elemental race called Glaci (an original species), and the only town in the Mushroom Frontier that is directly governed by the greater Mushroom Kingdom. The cold makes it a less popular destination than Supersurf Port or Blastburg, but the residents are known for being friendly and hospitable so they still get many visitors. But all Infinnah T. knows about the location of the Portal Piece is that people aren’t supposed to go there. In fact, Brrr Keep has recently had to defend itself several times against Cold Bones from those cliffs. No one knows why they’ve started showing up only now, but it could become a real problem soon.
    Nevertheless, Mario will have to get there. Infinnah T. informs him that the fastest way to Whiteout Tundra is via Moo Moo Plains, so he heads back to the area in World 1-1 where he encountered the tornado. With Bombarbell on his side, he can now blast through the wreckage and uncover a new path out of the level.

--CHAPTER 5--
    Soon after Mario begins his journey through Whiteout Tundra (World 5-1) on his way to the Portal Piece, he is ambushed by a gang of hostile Ninjis. He manages to deal with some on his own, but it soon becomes apparent that there’s too many of them. Luckily, a second group of Ninjis appears to help them fend off the attackers.
    After the battle, they claim to be a scouting party from Brrr Keep and ask what brings Mario to Whiteout Tundra. He figures it’s as good a time as any to ask for directions. The scouts explain that the Portal Piece is in a place called Cryo Cliff. However, they won’t be able to go there. The place is considered so dangerous that the authorities of Brrr Keep didn’t allow anyone near it for centuries, and by now the way to get there is long forgotten. Besides, as of late the entire east side of Whiteout Tundra has been infested with monsters, so it’s not a given that they’ll even get that far.
    For now, Mario decides to settle for directions to Brrr Keep and figure it out from there. The scouting party wishes him good luck on his adventure (despite their obvious doubt) and heads on its way. The level splits into two different paths a couple areas after this point, and each has its own Star Sphere that leads to a different level. Still, both paths are straightforward and not notably different from each other.
    Frosty Beach (World 5-2) runs along the coast of the Mushroom Frontier, and involves traversing slippery ice, riding moving platforms in the water, and sometimes both at once. And due to how cold the water is, falling in causes extra damage. On the other hand, Slippery Hillside (World 5-3) is farther to the west. As the name suggests, ice is common here as well, and many of the slopes are too slippery to climb, making it necessary to find more creative ways up. Like 1-3 and 1-4, Mario only needs to complete one of the two levels.
    Both paths take Mario and friends to Brrr Keep (World 5-4). This walled town, where the people are as warm as the weather is cold, features a training ground for the town’s many soldiers and a mini-spa called the Ninji Hot Springs where Mario can order a few unique items, along with the expected shop and inn, and is also where Mario can take care of quite a few side quests. Most notable of all is the Duke of Brrr’s home, Brrr Palace.
    After Mario unsuccessfully asks around about Cryo Cliff for a bit, some guards tell him that he’d better make sure the Duke of Brrr approves of such an excursion, and they escort him through the palace gates. The Glaci noble arrives in the courtyard, waits for the fanfare to subside, and asks Mario to explain his business. At first, he seems to believe they’ll never find Cryo Cliff anyway. But Mario insists that someone must have an idea how to get there, and soon the Duke of Brrr starts getting defensive and kicks them out of the courtyard, leaving the party with the impression that he’s hiding something.
    But they’ll have to worry about that later, because something is going on at the town’s front gate. The party assumes that it’s more of the Cold Bones attacks they’ve heard about, but when they get there, they find a spear-wielding Glaci and a violet Ninji girl trying to fight off none other than Bowser Jr.! It seems Bowser’s obnoxious son has returned for a rematch with Mario, and he won’t leave until he gets it.
    The mini-boss battle is a bit harder than in Chapter 3, but Mario wins anyway. The duo that was fighting Bowser Jr. introduces themselves as Ninjella and Sickle, the co-captains of the Brrr military. They appear friendly, so Mario explains what occurred during his encounter with the Duke of Brrr and asks if anyone might really know the way to Cryo Cliff. They immediately guess that it has something to do with the Duke’s daughter, Crystal. In fact, Crystal is the third member of their social circle, but they haven’t seen her much lately. She spends much of her time exploring the east side of Whiteout Tundra, so it’s possible she found Cryo Cliff by accident.
    Ninjella and Sickle ultimately decide that they’re worried about their best friend and girlfriend (respectively) to the point that they’re okay with a bit of disloyalty. They each meet with Mario in private to teach him their secret way into Brrr Palace. Mario thanks them both, uses the secret entrance to return to the courtyard, and collects a Star Sphere there.
    Brrr Palace (World 5-5) is a bit different from the other levels so far. In the traditional sense, the only enemies are a few Spiky Para-Buzzies in the basement. However, the castle is swarming with guards, and while they won’t attack Mario, they’re more than happy to throw him back out to the beginning of the level. Luckily, Mario can open plenty of shortcuts on his way up. Eventually, he finds himself on a bridge between two of the towers which leads into Crystal’s room. But there’s one more guard between them and her: an ice dragon that flies down from the tower and blocks their path. The dragon only speaks Nox, but according to Specteira, it accuses them of trying to assassinate Crystal- and then attacks.
    Once Mario has given the dragon a good beating, a panicked Crystal appears from the doorway and begs the party to stop hurting Freezetail. Mario quickly explains what happened, Crystal smiles and apologizes for her pet’s paranoia, and she invites the party into her room.
    Not too long ago, on one of her walks on the east side of Whiteout Tundra, Crystal found the ancient dragon inside a half-melted block of ice and decided to adopt him. Actually, between Freezetail and all the Cold Bones, she’s worried that Whiteout Tundra might be warming up. Apart from the thrill of discovery, that’s why she really disobeys her father by going there. When Mario gets around to asking about Cryo Cliff, at first Crystal says she’s not supposed to talk about it, but the opportunity to explore it with Mario soon wins her over. She says she rediscovered the entrance a few days ago, and ever since the Duke of Brrr has confined her to the castle to keep her quiet. But, starting now, she’s done putting up with her father forcing her to act like nobility. With that, she becomes Mario’s sixth partner.
    Unfortunately, they run into the Duke of Brrr on the way out of the castle. To make a long story short, he rails at Crystal for being a disobedient ingrate, and she rails back for not letting her be herself, and ultimately the party gets chased out by the guards. Luckily, Ninjen and Sickle are waiting at the bottom of the castle to cover for their friend, and Mario escapes safely.
    Actually, Mario was able to unlock Whiteout Pass (World 5-6) as soon as he reached 5-4, but only now that he has Crystal with him can he come back, blow away a giant snowdrift in the second area, and progress. In the tranquil yet mostly abandoned east side of Whiteout Tundra, the heavy snowfall makes it difficult to see in many areas, and huge snowballs roll down from the icy hills. After snaking through frozen caves, climbing up icy ridges, and more, they arrive at the cliff face which Crystal indicates as the secret entrance she found. She uses her power to blow off a section of the cliff, uncovering a Nox door! Inside, they find a half-frozen station where they can hop onto a ski lift and ride off.
    The ski lift takes Mario and crew to the final destination for Chapter 5: the icy, fossil-covered, Cold Bones-infested Cryo Cliff (World 5-7). Right at the beginning of the level, they witness a block of ice cracking open and releasing a small gang of Cold Bones. This confirms their suspicion that the ice is melting, meaning they’ll have to hurry and take back the Portal Piece before the Cold Bones can overpower them. For the first part of the level, Mario can break open a Yoshi egg and climb with the help of his speed and flutter-jumping. Later, once he has to travel through a pipe and leave his dinosaur behind, he has to take on crumbling platforms, fragile bone structures, more vision-impairing snow, and endless hordes of Cold Bones. On the way, he also learns a new Triple Jump move. It works about the same as it does in his 2D platformers: with a bit of a running start, if he makes three jumps in a row, the third is extra-high. This ability is crucial for climbing up the platforms in the level.
    Finally, Mario reaches the highest plateau in Cryo Cliff, where they are surprised by tons of Cold Bones gathered around one who appears to be the leader. This leader, who the others address as Commander Chill and was just declaring how their kind would soon reclaim the tundra, notices Mario’s intrusion right away and orders his undead army to attack. But Mario still manages to fight them off. Although Commander Chill is clearly taken aback, he collects himself quickly and, with a bit of hesitation, makes a desperate move and orders his troops to begin their plan immediately. With that, they all run past Mario away from the cliff... with the Portal Piece.
    With some help from Infinnah T., they manage to track down the Portal Piece again. The bad news: The Cold Bones are heading straight for Brrr Palace. The party quickly heads back to the castle to find it under attack by the skeleton monsters. On the castle balcony, Ninjen and Sickle are directing the defending soldiers. The co-captains notice Mario trying to get through the Cold Bones, order the soldiers to escort him through, and once he has met them on the balcony, they ask him to help direct the Brrr forces. He then plays through a minigame where he controls multiple squads of Ninji and Glaci soldiers and positions them to destroy all the opposing Cold Bones formations while losing as few as possible.
    Mario’s leadership saves most of Brrr Keep from the invasion. However, when they turn around they find that another division of Cold Bones led by Commander Chill has stormed the castle. They rush back inside and find the Cold Bones leader on the same skybridge where they battled Freezetail. Realizing he’s cornered, he panics and orders his army to initiate their emergency maneuver. At once, tons of skeletons climb their way onto the bridge, where... they fall apart. But before Mario can claim victory, the scattered bones rise again and combine to form a giant dinosaur! The monster knocks all the Brr forces off the bridge, leaving only Mario and friends to defeat it. Which they’re more than prepared to do.
BLIZZREX
Tattle Entry #32
That’s Blizzrex! A whole army’s worth of Cold Bones contributed their bones to create this fearsome dinosaur! I’m not kidding! Do you think they realize how creepy that is? Or is it just normal for them? Maximum HP is 70, Attack is 7, and Defense is 1, plus it’s totally immune to cold damage- though I’d expect it wouldn’t stand up well to fire. It has too many moves to list off here, but some of the more common ones are biting and throwing bones. Sometimes, it’ll even break into its Cold Bone form again and attack you that way. And I wouldn’t be surprised if it took on some other shapes as well. Be ready for anything!
    Having been defeated by Mario, Blizzrex collapses back into Cold Bones, who fall down in turn, including Commander Chill. A group of Brrr guards, led by the Duke of Brrr himself, arrives on the bridge just after the battle. The guards all carry Commander Chill’s bones off separately, reassuring everyone else that he won’t be reassembling himself for a long time. The Duke of Brrr thanks the party for helping defend Brrr Keep. He also apologizes for being overprotective of Crystal, and reluctantly admits that adventuring has its plusses. For their troubles, he stops the guards and asks them to search Commander Chill for the Portal Piece. They find it and hand the artifact to the Duke of Brrr, who then does the same for Mario...
***YOU FOUND A PORTAL PIECE!***

--LUIGI INTERLUDE--
    Since Mario’s off adventuring in the Mushroom Frontier, it falls to Luigi to rescue the princess this time. The ferryman from Silhou Valley drops the green guy off at Sawblade Swamp, a marshy glade that has largely been converted into a lumber mill complex. Luigi’s path through this level brings him both through the natural swamps and the old-fashioned brick mills. Along the way, he must navigate narrow boardwalks, dodge spinning saws, and fight Piranha Plants and Cheep-Cheeps.
    As Luigi arrives at the building at the center of the mill, a giant fin comes out of the water and breaks the bridge behind him in half. Now, Luigi has only one way to go: inside. He finds several Toad and Mouser lumberjacks hiding out in the mill, and they look like they haven’t been out for a while. They explain that a monster of some sort has recently appeared in the swamp and has smashed all the paths out, so they’ve been trapped. Luigi, however, still needs to get to Bowser’s Castle, so he convinces them to help him fight back.
They eventually decide to build a trap for the monster. In order to do this, Luigi has to pick up a few bundles of wood on the island they’re trapped on, but this task isn’t too difficult. The workers at the mill use the wood to construct a decoy bridge to lure the monster. When it arrives, everyone pulls the bridge back up, revealing a supersized Sea Koopa that was trying to climb up. Now that it’s made it to land, however, it seems happy. It explains to the lumberjacks that it unintentionally stranded that it migrated to the swamp to lay eggs and was only trying to get to the surface. To apologize for the trouble, it offers everyone a ride back to the mainland. Once Luigi is there, he says goodbye to the lumberjacks and the Sea Koopa and continues on his way to the castle.

Description
  I've been working on Paper Mario: Double Darkness for a really long time, sure, but most of its chapters I created sometime after I began doing so. Chapter 5 enjoys the distinction of, in the sense of when I came up with it, being the first. Back in elementary school, when I really didn't understand what constituted a fan game, I had an ice world area that eventually evolved into Whiteout Tundra. The most obvious similarities were the ice elemental partner with a wind ability (Crystal) and the desolate world dungeon with tough platforming (Cryo Cliff). So Chapter 5 has always been special for me.
  Of course, plenty has been changed about it as well. Some of the most recent modifications include the promotion of Brrr Keep from just one castle into a complete town, changing the boss and where the boss battle takes place, and the entire raising-the-dead theme. Where did that idea come from? Well, I'm kind of a necromancy buff. Besides, it really ended up adding to the story.
  Speaking of the story, here's the description for Chapter 5. WARNING: Really, really, absurdly high amounts of reading ahead.

Characters (from left to right):
Duke of Brrr: A venerable Glaci noble sent as a representative of the Mushroom Kingdom. The ruler of Brrr Keep. His extensive military experience has left him extremely austere and protective of everything he cares about, especially Crystal.
Crystal: The Duke of Brrr’s free-spirited daughter and Mario’s sixth partner. She’s next in line to rule over Brrr Keep, but that doesn’t mean she wants to- she much prefers the adventure of exploring the dangerous peaks of Cryo Cliff. She can release an icy, elemental wind that clears fog, spins propellers, and cools down hot things.
Specteira: The ruler of the Nox Empire. After being dumped into the present by the portal in the Shadow Spire, she joins Mario’s quest to recover all of the portal pieces in hopes of making it home and saving her empire from Darkblot. She acts as the game’s tattle, and can cast spells in battle which work more or less like special moves.
Mario: If you don’t know who this guy is already, I recommend you go and play some Paper Mario games before you continue reading this.
Ninjella: A warm and energetic Ninji who leads the Brrr military along with Sickle. While not pelting advancing Cold Bones with an endless hail of shurikens, she can often be found relaxing and satisfying her serious sweet tooth at the Ninji Hot Springs.
Sickle: A fearless Glaci fighter who commands the Brrr military along with Ninjella. He spends most of his time either working on his already formidable spear skills or hanging out with his girlfriend Crystal.
Commander Chill: The general of the Cold Bones’ army. Despite his ambitions to reclaim Whiteout Tundra, he’s actually rather timid in person, the result of years of slavery in the service of the Nox. He and the other Cold Bones combine to form Blizzrex, the boss of Chapter 5.

--CHAPTER 4 / CHAPTER 5 TRANSITION--
    Previously, in Chapter 4, Mario travelled into the Combustion Caves, exposed Shelley’s illegal shadestone trafficking operation, and recovered the fifth Portal Piece from the mighty Shadestone Tree. The party says goodbye to Bombastica and Bomberyl, wishes good luck to Bombarbell’s team for the remainder of the fuseball season, and then goes back to the Mt. Mushroom Observatory.
    After Infinnah T. screams excitedly for a while about how awesome that fuseball game was, they get down to business. She scans the Portal Piece Mario brought back, the Shady Frame, and uses the Celestial Cannon to locate the next one. She finds it in the icy northeast part of the Mushroom Frontier. On the world map, a large plaza appears in the middle of that region, with a fountain at the center and tower-like ice buildings scattered around it. A large castle with roughly the same architecture style as everything else rises behind the town. However, the Portal Piece icon shows up much farther to the right, on a snowy cliff containing nothing but bones.
    According to Infinnah T., the indicated area is Whiteout Tundra. Specteira comments that the unusually cold climate there is actually because of the Nox. The region contains tons of prehistoric bones and fossils, and when the Nox discovered them, they started reanimating the Dry Bones as slaves. In order to preserve them for continuous use, it was necessary to cool down the whole area.
    Today, Whiteout Tundra is the location of Brrr Keep, home to Ninjis and an ice elemental race called Glaci (an original species), and the only town in the Mushroom Frontier that is directly governed by the greater Mushroom Kingdom. The cold makes it a less popular destination than Supersurf Port or Blastburg, but the residents are known for being friendly and hospitable so they still get many visitors. But all Infinnah T. knows about the location of the Portal Piece is that people aren’t supposed to go there. In fact, Brrr Keep has recently had to defend itself several times against Cold Bones from those cliffs. No one knows why they’ve started showing up only now, but it could become a real problem soon.
    Nevertheless, Mario will have to get there. Infinnah T. informs him that the fastest way to Whiteout Tundra is via Moo Moo Plains, so he heads back to the area in World 1-1 where he encountered the tornado. With Bombarbell on his side, he can now blast through the wreckage and uncover a new path out of the level.

--CHAPTER 5--
    Soon after Mario begins his journey through Whiteout Tundra (World 5-1) on his way to the Portal Piece, he is ambushed by a gang of hostile Ninjis. He manages to deal with some on his own, but it soon becomes apparent that there’s too many of them. Luckily, a second group of Ninjis appears to help them fend off the attackers.
    After the battle, they claim to be a scouting party from Brrr Keep and ask what brings Mario to Whiteout Tundra. He figures it’s as good a time as any to ask for directions. The scouts explain that the Portal Piece is in a place called Cryo Cliff. However, they won’t be able to go there. The place is considered so dangerous that the authorities of Brrr Keep didn’t allow anyone near it for centuries, and by now the way to get there is long forgotten. Besides, as of late the entire east side of Whiteout Tundra has been infested with monsters, so it’s not a given that they’ll even get that far.
    For now, Mario decides to settle for directions to Brrr Keep and figure it out from there. The scouting party wishes him good luck on his adventure (despite their obvious doubt) and heads on its way. The level splits into two different paths a couple areas after this point, and each has its own Star Sphere that leads to a different level. Still, both paths are straightforward and not notably different from each other.
    Frosty Beach (World 5-2) runs along the coast of the Mushroom Frontier, and involves traversing slippery ice, riding moving platforms in the water, and sometimes both at once. And due to how cold the water is, falling in causes extra damage. On the other hand, Slippery Hillside (World 5-3) is farther to the west. As the name suggests, ice is common here as well, and many of the slopes are too slippery to climb, making it necessary to find more creative ways up. Like 1-3 and 1-4, Mario only needs to complete one of the two levels.
    Both paths take Mario and friends to Brrr Keep (World 5-4). This walled town, where the people are as warm as the weather is cold, features a training ground for the town’s many soldiers and a mini-spa called the Ninji Hot Springs where Mario can order a few unique items, along with the expected shop and inn, and is also where Mario can take care of quite a few side quests. Most notable of all is the Duke of Brrr’s home, Brrr Palace.
    After Mario unsuccessfully asks around about Cryo Cliff for a bit, some guards tell him that he’d better make sure the Duke of Brrr approves of such an excursion, and they escort him through the palace gates. The Glaci noble arrives in the courtyard, waits for the fanfare to subside, and asks Mario to explain his business. At first, he seems to believe they’ll never find Cryo Cliff anyway. But Mario insists that someone must have an idea how to get there, and soon the Duke of Brrr starts getting defensive and kicks them out of the courtyard, leaving the party with the impression that he’s hiding something.
    But they’ll have to worry about that later, because something is going on at the town’s front gate. The party assumes that it’s more of the Cold Bones attacks they’ve heard about, but when they get there, they find a spear-wielding Glaci and a violet Ninji girl trying to fight off none other than Bowser Jr.! It seems Bowser’s obnoxious son has returned for a rematch with Mario, and he won’t leave until he gets it.
    The mini-boss battle is a bit harder than in Chapter 3, but Mario wins anyway. The duo that was fighting Bowser Jr. introduces themselves as Ninjella and Sickle, the co-captains of the Brrr military. They appear friendly, so Mario explains what occurred during his encounter with the Duke of Brrr and asks if anyone might really know the way to Cryo Cliff. They immediately guess that it has something to do with the Duke’s daughter, Crystal. In fact, Crystal is the third member of their social circle, but they haven’t seen her much lately. She spends much of her time exploring the east side of Whiteout Tundra, so it’s possible she found Cryo Cliff by accident.
    Ninjella and Sickle ultimately decide that they’re worried about their best friend and girlfriend (respectively) to the point that they’re okay with a bit of disloyalty. They each meet with Mario in private to teach him their secret way into Brrr Palace. Mario thanks them both, uses the secret entrance to return to the courtyard, and collects a Star Sphere there.
    Brrr Palace (World 5-5) is a bit different from the other levels so far. In the traditional sense, the only enemies are a few Spiky Para-Buzzies in the basement. However, the castle is swarming with guards, and while they won’t attack Mario, they’re more than happy to throw him back out to the beginning of the level. Luckily, Mario can open plenty of shortcuts on his way up. Eventually, he finds himself on a bridge between two of the towers which leads into Crystal’s room. But there’s one more guard between them and her: an ice dragon that flies down from the tower and blocks their path. The dragon only speaks Nox, but according to Specteira, it accuses them of trying to assassinate Crystal- and then attacks.
    Once Mario has given the dragon a good beating, a panicked Crystal appears from the doorway and begs the party to stop hurting Freezetail. Mario quickly explains what happened, Crystal smiles and apologizes for her pet’s paranoia, and she invites the party into her room.
    Not too long ago, on one of her walks on the east side of Whiteout Tundra, Crystal found the ancient dragon inside a half-melted block of ice and decided to adopt him. Actually, between Freezetail and all the Cold Bones, she’s worried that Whiteout Tundra might be warming up. Apart from the thrill of discovery, that’s why she really disobeys her father by going there. When Mario gets around to asking about Cryo Cliff, at first Crystal says she’s not supposed to talk about it, but the opportunity to explore it with Mario soon wins her over. She says she rediscovered the entrance a few days ago, and ever since the Duke of Brrr has confined her to the castle to keep her quiet. But, starting now, she’s done putting up with her father forcing her to act like nobility. With that, she becomes Mario’s sixth partner.
    Unfortunately, they run into the Duke of Brrr on the way out of the castle. To make a long story short, he rails at Crystal for being a disobedient ingrate, and she rails back for not letting her be herself, and ultimately the party gets chased out by the guards. Luckily, Ninjen and Sickle are waiting at the bottom of the castle to cover for their friend, and Mario escapes safely.
    Actually, Mario was able to unlock Whiteout Pass (World 5-6) as soon as he reached 5-4, but only now that he has Crystal with him can he come back, blow away a giant snowdrift in the second area, and progress. In the tranquil yet mostly abandoned east side of Whiteout Tundra, the heavy snowfall makes it difficult to see in many areas, and huge snowballs roll down from the icy hills. After snaking through frozen caves, climbing up icy ridges, and more, they arrive at the cliff face which Crystal indicates as the secret entrance she found. She uses her power to blow off a section of the cliff, uncovering a Nox door! Inside, they find a half-frozen station where they can hop onto a ski lift and ride off.
    The ski lift takes Mario and crew to the final destination for Chapter 5: the icy, fossil-covered, Cold Bones-infested Cryo Cliff (World 5-7). Right at the beginning of the level, they witness a block of ice cracking open and releasing a small gang of Cold Bones. This confirms their suspicion that the ice is melting, meaning they’ll have to hurry and take back the Portal Piece before the Cold Bones can overpower them. For the first part of the level, Mario can break open a Yoshi egg and climb with the help of his speed and flutter-jumping. Later, once he has to travel through a pipe and leave his dinosaur behind, he has to take on crumbling platforms, fragile bone structures, more vision-impairing snow, and endless hordes of Cold Bones. On the way, he also learns a new Triple Jump move. It works about the same as it does in his 2D platformers: with a bit of a running start, if he makes three jumps in a row, the third is extra-high. This ability is crucial for climbing up the platforms in the level.
    Finally, Mario reaches the highest plateau in Cryo Cliff, where they are surprised by tons of Cold Bones gathered around one who appears to be the leader. This leader, who the others address as Commander Chill and was just declaring how their kind would soon reclaim the tundra, notices Mario’s intrusion right away and orders his undead army to attack. But Mario still manages to fight them off. Although Commander Chill is clearly taken aback, he collects himself quickly and, with a bit of hesitation, makes a desperate move and orders his troops to begin their plan immediately. With that, they all run past Mario away from the cliff... with the Portal Piece.
    With some help from Infinnah T., they manage to track down the Portal Piece again. The bad news: The Cold Bones are heading straight for Brrr Palace. The party quickly heads back to the castle to find it under attack by the skeleton monsters. On the castle balcony, Ninjen and Sickle are directing the defending soldiers. The co-captains notice Mario trying to get through the Cold Bones, order the soldiers to escort him through, and once he has met them on the balcony, they ask him to help direct the Brrr forces. He then plays through a minigame where he controls multiple squads of Ninji and Glaci soldiers and positions them to destroy all the opposing Cold Bones formations while losing as few as possible.
    Mario’s leadership saves most of Brrr Keep from the invasion. However, when they turn around they find that another division of Cold Bones led by Commander Chill has stormed the castle. They rush back inside and find the Cold Bones leader on the same skybridge where they battled Freezetail. Realizing he’s cornered, he panics and orders his army to initiate their emergency maneuver. At once, tons of skeletons climb their way onto the bridge, where... they fall apart. But before Mario can claim victory, the scattered bones rise again and combine to form a giant dinosaur! The monster knocks all the Brr forces off the bridge, leaving only Mario and friends to defeat it. Which they’re more than prepared to do.
BLIZZREX
Tattle Entry #32
That’s Blizzrex! A whole army’s worth of Cold Bones contributed their bones to create this fearsome dinosaur! I’m not kidding! Do you think they realize how creepy that is? Or is it just normal for them? Maximum HP is 70, Attack is 7, and Defense is 1, plus it’s totally immune to cold damage- though I’d expect it wouldn’t stand up well to fire. It has too many moves to list off here, but some of the more common ones are biting and throwing bones. Sometimes, it’ll even break into its Cold Bone form again and attack you that way. And I wouldn’t be surprised if it took on some other shapes as well. Be ready for anything!
    Having been defeated by Mario, Blizzrex collapses back into Cold Bones, who fall down in turn, including Commander Chill. A group of Brrr guards, led by the Duke of Brrr himself, arrives on the bridge just after the battle. The guards all carry Commander Chill’s bones off separately, reassuring everyone else that he won’t be reassembling himself for a long time. The Duke of Brrr thanks the party for helping defend Brrr Keep. He also apologizes for being overprotective of Crystal, and reluctantly admits that adventuring has its plusses. For their troubles, he stops the guards and asks them to search Commander Chill for the Portal Piece. They find it and hand the artifact to the Duke of Brrr, who then does the same for Mario...
***YOU FOUND A PORTAL PIECE!***

--LUIGI INTERLUDE--
    Since Mario’s off adventuring in the Mushroom Frontier, it falls to Luigi to rescue the princess this time. The ferryman from Silhou Valley drops the green guy off at Sawblade Swamp, a marshy glade that has largely been converted into a lumber mill complex. Luigi’s path through this level brings him both through the natural swamps and the old-fashioned brick mills. Along the way, he must navigate narrow boardwalks, dodge spinning saws, and fight Piranha Plants and Cheep-Cheeps.
    As Luigi arrives at the building at the center of the mill, a giant fin comes out of the water and breaks the bridge behind him in half. Now, Luigi has only one way to go: inside. He finds several Toad and Mouser lumberjacks hiding out in the mill, and they look like they haven’t been out for a while. They explain that a monster of some sort has recently appeared in the swamp and has smashed all the paths out, so they’ve been trapped. Luigi, however, still needs to get to Bowser’s Castle, so he convinces them to help him fight back.
They eventually decide to build a trap for the monster. In order to do this, Luigi has to pick up a few bundles of wood on the island they’re trapped on, but this task isn’t too difficult. The workers at the mill use the wood to construct a decoy bridge to lure the monster. When it arrives, everyone pulls the bridge back up, revealing a supersized Sea Koopa that was trying to climb up. Now that it’s made it to land, however, it seems happy. It explains to the lumberjacks that it unintentionally stranded that it migrated to the swamp to lay eggs and was only trying to get to the surface. To apologize for the trouble, it offers everyone a ride back to the mainland. Once Luigi is there, he says goodbye to the lumberjacks and the Sea Koopa and continues on his way to the castle.