The terrible Frost King has haunted the winter solstice for many ages. Once a year he flies from his fortress atop the world to wreak havoc and horror upon the vulnerable mortals living below.

In this story, there is no hero who can truly stand against this despicable foe, so our hero must be… YOU!

Read the instructions below to create a character, a hero, and learn what you will need to take them on a quest to defeat the foul Frost King, who waits within his Frozen Fortress.


Content Warning: This story features gratuitous descriptions of violence, gore, perilous situations, and terrifying monsters. It is not intended for young children, or anyone who wishes to have a pleasant adventure. The vast majority of outcomes in this story are the horrific death of your character.


To play, you will need:

• Six-sided dice (you only need one, but having a couple that look a little different would be ideal).
• Pen and Paper (you can also take notes on a computer or phone/tablet)

That’s all!

The first step on your adventure should be to create a character - a hero for you to play as within the story. Take your pen and paper, and:

1. Write down a name for your character.
2. Choose a Class from the ‘Character Classes’ section below
3. Write down the stats (Health, Dexterity, Power, Magic) determined by your class. Make sure to leave room to change these stats as you fight battles and progress through the story.
4. Write down the skills and traits of your character, or just make note of where in this book your character class is described so you can reference it later
5. The story will tell you when you may collect items. Leave room to write down what you collect.

Once you have done this, you have made your character! You are ready to take them on an adventure!


Character Classes:

Rogue	A rogue is not especially strong, but can make up for that with their great agility and reflexes. They are fast and precise, and adapt as their circumstances require.	Health: 9 Dexterity: 3 Power: 1 Magic: 2
	Traits: Fortunate - Can re-roll an attack (twice per battle).
	Skills: Scout - You spot an enemy’s weak point and your next attack roll against them (that hits) does triple damage. However all enemies get to take an extra action against you this round. Evasion - The next three times you would take damage, you instead take none. However all enemies get to take an extra action against you this turn.

Warrior	Warriors are strong and powerful in all things. When confronted with an obstacle, the warrior rarely seeks to move around it, and instead will move straight at it. Be the obstacle a monster, a wall, or an awkward topic of conversation.	Health: 12 Dexterity: 1 Power: 3 Magic: 1
	Traits: Powerful - Can add +1 to an attack roll (once per battle). Powerful Lv. 2 - Can add +2 to an attack roll (once per battle).
	Skills: Primal Yell - Your next three attack rolls are ‘Primal’ (when your warrior rolls a die, values below 4 count as 4). All damage that you *receive* is doubled until your Primal attacks are spent. Reckless Charge - Take 3 damage, and increase your Power stat by 1 for this battle.

Mage	The mage is studied and wise, and can command powerful magic spells. Comfortable in matters of the arcane, but often uneasy in situations requiring force or speed.	Health: 10 Dexterity: 1 Power: 1 Magic: 4
	Traits: Manipulate - Can decide an enemy action (once per battle).
	Skills: Psychic Barrier - Roll a die, if you roll above a 3 then the damage you receive is halved for the rest of this battle. Incantation - You begin an incantation with a magical charge of 1, on each subsequent turn you may either: Roll a die and add its value to your magical charge, or End the incantation and make an attack roll, adding the magical charge of the incantation.

To move through the story is relatively straightforward: like most stories you must start at the beginning - but where you go from there is up to you! Read through the story until you must make a choice, and follow wherever that choice takes you.

As you read, you will see Bold Text which indicates things you should make note of on your character sheet. Such as:

• Picking up an item
• Learning some important information
• Being joined by a non-player character

Bold Text can also indicate times when you must get out your dice and see how a situation resolves, such as:

• Ability Checks
• Battles

Sometimes events in the story will test your character, they will usually appear in the format of:

🎲👋 Make a Dexterity Check now!

This indicates that you must roll a die and add your Dexterity stat. The value you get will be used to determine whether you were successful or not.

You will be asked to make checks of your character’s Dexterity, Power, and Magic, depending on the circumstances in the story.

At points in the story you must battle various opponents.

The first step of any battle is to write down the names and health stats of the enemies you face. You may wish to write a copy of your own character’s statistics too, as they can vary a bit during battle and this can save making constant changes to your character sheet.

In some battles, you should also make note of how many rounds the battle will last.


Battles are split up into ‘Rounds’, a round consists of:

1. Player Party Turns:
   Characters in your party take turns. Often this will just be one turn for your one character, but if you are playing with other people who have made characters, or if you have non-player characters in your party - all of these characters may take a turn now. The order of these turns is up to you, so long as each character takes only one turn per round.
2. Enemy Party Turns:
   Opponents then take their turns. The order of enemy turns should be the same order they are listed as.

After your party and the enemy party has taken all their turns, a new round begins. Rounds continue until the battle ends.

Battles end under the following conditions:

• You Win:
  There are no enemies remaining.
• You are Defeated:
  Your character’s Health stat is zero or less.
• You Survive:
  The battle has continued for a certain number of rounds, specified by the story. Make sure to count rounds for these battles!

Player character actions:
On their turn, a character or enemy may make one action.

Dexterity Attack	Choose an attack type (Dexterity, Power, or Magic). The damage you deal is determined by: (Dice Roll + Your Stat) - (Dice Roll + Opponent Stat) The opponent stat must be the same type as yours (so a dexterity attack must be performed against an opponent’s dexterity). If damage is less than 1, your attack missed or has been parried.
Power Attack
Magic Attack
Use an item	If you have an item in your inventory that can be used in battle, you may use it on your turn.
Use a skill	If your character has any skills that can be used in battle, these can also be used on your turn.

Non-player character actions:
Actions for non-player characters (including enemies) are determined by their character sheets: These show a table of actions, and a dice roll determines which action is performed.

Targetting:
Players can decide who is targeted whenever Player Party members perform actions, you can attack whichever enemy you want.

But deciding which member of the Player Party is targeted by an enemy attack is not so straightforward (unless there is only one party member - in which case they are always the target).

There are three ways you can determine who is effected by enemy attacks and debuffs, and which one you use is entirely up to you:

• Randomly:
  Roll a dice, or use some other method to determine who is hit.
• Formation:
  At the start of a battle, choose your party formation - from front to back. The character at the front is always the target, but characters can move to another point in formation on their turn.
• Player Choice:
  Just choose which character is hit by the enemy yourself.

Rounding:
When working with numbers that aren’t integers (whole numbers), always round to the nearest odd number. For example; both 0.5 and 1.5 count as 1, both 2.5 and 3.5 count as 3.

You won’t often need to round when playing, but when you do (such as when taking half damage), this is the rule.

Along your adenture, you may find some items that you can collect and use:

Ration	Restores 4HP outside of battle
Dart	2 damage to target of your choice
Toxic Grenade	Deals 3 damage on the turn it is thrown, then 2 damge the following turn, then 1 damage the turn after that
Sturdy Needle	It's a long, thin needle
Health Potion	Restores 4HP in or out of battle
Hunk of half-eaten flesh	... It's disgusting!

Some sage advice for new adventurers:

• Pay attention - You will learn many things on your adventure, there is no telling what information might save your life later on, so note anything that seems important.
• Fight smart - study your opponents and choose what type of attack is most likely to deal damage. Don’t try to use magic attacks on an enemy with strong magical defence.
• Stay organised - Your character sheet essentially is you during this adventure, try to keep it tidy so you can clearly see what items and knowledge you have, and be prepared to add, remove, and change things on it as you go.
• Be brave! - It is OK to be afraid sometimes, but an adventurer always acts with courage when it counts!

Nobody can stop you from going back and undoing a choice you have made, or pretending your dice are rolling better than they really are, or giving yourself a lot of potions… and if you want to do that, that is fine!

The rules and story have been made with the intention of providing a fun experience for players, but if you enjoy playing a different way then please do! This is a game of many choices, and how you play is also up to you.

There is no wrong way to play!

This book would not have been possible without the generous support of my wonderful patrons: