Face-off in the Frozen Northlands!

FROZEN NORTHLANDS
You and your friends have fought bravely through the Frozen Northlands and ended the war just in time. Too bad you didn’t have a fair fight against Queen Aisha… but luckily for us (I think?), Nythera has a “plan” to defeat Queen Aisha and her frozen reign of terror. Head to the recently rebuilt Guwio Village and find out which one of Nythera’s plans is best suited for you! 

•Plan A requires unyielding strength with no signs of mercy. But in order to break into Aisha’s Fortress, you will need to harness a power greater than both magic and strength combined… by collecting enough Chaos Gemeralds in order to break through the front door!
•Plan B takes uses the “element” of surprise to sneak through the back gate undetected. However, there is a Cipher on the back gate to Aisha’s Fortress that needs to be decoded in order to enter. You will have to find clues to the 4-rune order, and then a fifth clue to decode the combination to sneak in undetected! 

DRAGON DUO?
Rumor says that Queen Aisha is part dragon. But wait—according to DragonFable lore, Nythera the Purple Mage is ALSO part dragon. If you cannot defeat Aisha by yourself, then Nythera will have no choice but to take Aisha on… but, woah… two huge dragons battling it out in an enclosed icy fortress? Going head-to-head, claw-to-claw, fang-to-fang? This sounds incredibly unsafe. But incredibly epic. Hopefully it will never come to this… 

AVALANCHE OF ITEMS
A new zone with new monsters, new villains, and new NPCs can only mean one thing: new items! By helping out in this chilling map, new swords, axes, pole arms and daggers will be available. A few of the items you can expect to discover include:

•Northlands Fishing Spear
•Harm ‘O Nee
•Frazier Fury
•Wreath of Wrath

And this is only the tip of the iceberg. Many more items are just waiting to be uncovered! 

THE MOGLIN THAT KEEPS ON GIVING
Tinsel, the adorably adorable gift-giving Moglin, wants to start Frostval early (and we can’t blame her, either—Frostval rocks!). She has already wrapped all her presents and wants to give them to you and your friends… but Tinsel has hidden them somewhere secret! No, we won’t tell you where she’s hiding… but we will give you some hints: 

•Tinsel’s first secret hideout is somewhere on Mount Frost
•Find Tinsel’s second secret gift in this week’s new map 

It’s up to you and your friends to search high and low for her secret hideouts since they’re not marked anywhere on the maps. Find Tinsel, get a gift, wear the gift, and open it on the first day of the New Year! Start 2010 off on the right track—with a brand new look! Good luck!

CREATIVE COOKIE CONTEST
A super-sweet contest is underway on the forums! To start Frostval on the right track, Cysero came up with the delicious idea of the “AQW Creative Cookie Contest” (leave it up to him to think of a contest that involves food). This contest is pretty much easy-to-bake: create a cookie--or other yummy treat--AQWorlds style, take a picture of it, submit it on the forums, and have a chance at winning scrumptious prizes. And the best part is: you get to eat your creation afterwards! Who says you can’t have your cake and eat it too? Certainly not us… and certainly not Cysero! 

We hope you enjoy this “wicked cool” release! See you in the Frozen Northlands!