Chapter 11: In the Hall of the Mountain King

“Melvin, did you find it yet?”

“Not…yet…” Melvin is flying about the cave, checking out every nook and cranny.

“Well, hurry up! I can’t hold these things off forever!” You’ve been sliding ice blocks, lining up gems, and squishing Sno-bees for what feels like an hour.

“Hey! Here it is!” Melvin hovers over what looks like a gray rag. You run over and snatch it up. Two Sno-bees are following you, and you push your last ice block in their direction. “Come on, Melvin, let’s get out of here!”

You make a beeline, no pun intended, for the exit, with a couple more Sno-bees hot on your tail. You emerge into the moonlight, glad to see that the Sno-bees seem to have no interest in leaving the cave.

Between the heat ray, and all that running, you are perspiring, and the penguin costume has seen better days. You peel it off and leave it in the snow. By the twin lights of Melvin and the moon, you examine the map. It shows the river heading past a tall icy peak, and a note reads “Gray bats will show the way.”

Melvin is excited. “This is it, alright! Come on, let’s head down to the river!”

You follow him back down to the river where you built so many igloos, and clamber onto an ice block. “I hoped we’d never have to do this again,” you whisper. “I just hope none of those crabs or birds are around… not to mention that bear.” As the block glides down the river, you don’t seem to see any of that threatening wildlife. It is cold on the ice block, and you start to take out the heat gun. “Watch it!” says Melvin. “Melt our ice block, and we’ll be swimming the rest of the way there!”

“Oh… yeah… sorry.” You put the heat gun back in your backpack. It is quiet as you look up at the pixelated stars and the blocky moon. “Melvin?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think, if we can get the crown back to the Queen, she can show me how to get home?”

Melvin is quiet. “I’m… not sure. Something very strange has happened, and I don’t understand it. We’ve been travelling all over the place, and… you are the only Player I’ve seen. On top of that, no one even knows the about the Queen, which is crazy. Getting you home might not be so simple.”

You sigh. “Yeah, I figured you’d say something like that.” You keep looking at the stars. “Somehow, though… I don’t mind so much. This has all been crazy, but, well, it’s the most fun I’ve had in a long time.”

Melvin laughs. “Glad to hear it, Player… since you don’t seem to have much choice!”

You laugh too. Suddenly, you stop laughing, pointing straight up. “Melvin, look! A gray bat!” And there it is, a gray bat, flapping its wings, and heading toward a narrow icy peak. You jump off the ice block onto the shore and start scrambling up the hillside. You realize it won’t be an easy climb, but you still have all your mountain gear and your ice axe.

“Too bad we’re out of flags,” jokes Melvin.

“Quit joking around! Fly up there and see where that bat went!” You keep climbing as Melvin does reconnaissance higher on the peak.

Minutes later, Melvin returns. “Okay, I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is that there is an opening in the mountain. The bad news is that it’s about three inches wide in the stone face of the mountain. Big enough for a bat to crawl through, but you’ll never get in there.”

“Well, there’s got to be some way in!”

“I dunno,” says Melvin. “Most of the face of the mountain is covered in ice. I guess you could melt it with the ray, but…”

“But what?”

“Well, melt too much, and there’ll be an avalanche, and I don’t care how many flags we brought, you’ll be buried alive.”

“Hm. I hadn’t thought of that.”

“Wait a sec!” says Melvin, glowing brighter, “Maybe there is a cave entry big enough to enter… but just covered with ice!”

“Okay, sure, but how can we find it without making the whole mountain collapse?”

“Ha! You just leave that to me! Watch for my glow – if you see it, zap it with the heat ray – got it?” Melvin zips back up the mountain, and you see his glow disappear into the tiny hole that the bat entered. You wait a couple minutes, starting to worry that he might not come back out. Just then, you see it – above you and to the left, about fifteen feet up, a pale glow under the ice. You anchor your ice axe and climb up until you are right on top of the glow, which is dancing back and forth. You pull out your heat ray and take aim. It hums and buzzes, and the ice melts away, revealing an opening, and… Melvin.

“YAHOO!” he shouts. It echoes, and the echo seems to cause a slight rumble. You scramble into the cave, imagining an avalanche, but then the rumbling subsides. “Sorry about that,” Melvin whispers. “I got excited.”

“Yeah, well, keep your excitement to yourself. While you were exploring bat holes, I was exploring this map. There’s some terrible stuff in here.”

“Just gimme the gist. Cartography is not my specialty.”

You pull out your flashlight and point it at the map. “First we have to find a bunch of diamonds. Then, we have to find some kind of ‘flame spirit,’ whatever that means. Apparently, we capture it, avoid the spiders and the bats, and offer the flame spirit to a ‘skull spirit’ that will give us access to some kind of temple that should have the crown in it.”

“Then what?”

“Then, apparently, we have to get out really fast.”

“Or…?”

“Or the crown will disappear.”

“No crummy skull spirit will take the crown from my Queen! Come on, let’s go!” Melvin’s voice echoes through what sounds like miles of caverns. As you follow Melvin into the heart of the mountain, you could swear you hear… music.

Place the Mountain King cartridge into your Atari 2600. Use Game Select 1. Play until you escape with the crown. Post a link to a video in the comments section of yourself completing the challenge.