Ice Vellumental Mountain

"Look at those mountains! What kind of animal are they supposed to be? Squirrels? Dogs? Twin deer? Oh, wait! I see it now. They're bears! It's hard to recognize animals when you've only seen them in origami. It's pretty chilly over there... OOH! What if these mountains have POLAR bears?! I hope we get to see one!"

- Olivia

Ice Vellumental Mountain is a location in Paper Mario: The Origami King. It is an icy cave home to the Ice Vellumental, who is fought at the end. It is connected to Diamond Island. Notably, Mario is required to clear Ice Vellumental Mountain before he can enter the Trial of Wisdom or Trial of Courage due to Olivia needing the Ice Vellumental's ability. There are no Toads to be found or rescued here.

History
When Mario and Olivia first enter Diamond Island, they are tasked with completing three provided trials, earning orbs allowing them to enter the Sea Tower. They are able to enter the Trial of Power before or after clearing Ice Vellumental Mountain due to it simply requiring the Earth Vellumental. However, both the Trial of Wisdom and Trial of Courage require the Ice Vellumental to access (in addition to the Water Vellumental regarding the Trial of Courage), so Mario has to clear the mountain before he can complete these trials. If the player uses the wrong Vellumental at a Magic Circle a few times, Olivia notes the mountain in the background, hinting it needs to be explored next. When they approach the path leading to the base of the mountain, Olivia notices the bear statues, wondering what they are. She realizes they are bears, not familiar with what they look like outside of origami. She then becomes excited at the idea of getting to see a polar bear.

As Mario and Olivia start to explore the mountain, Olivia notes the cold temperature, realizing the Ice Vellumental is nearby. After crossing the first two rooms, the entrance area and a puzzle room with a sliding piece of ice, Mario is stopped by a Sledge Bro who shakes the ground, dropping a large icicle onto the bridge, blocking their path. Olivia asks him to stop - he responds by shaking more and causing smaller icicles to drop. Mario must head up the stairs and fight him. After he is defeated, a Magic Circle appears, allowing Mario to use the 1,000-Fold Arms to break a large icicle on the ceiling, creating an extra platform down below. However, there proves to be another challenge immediately after - the door ahead is trapped and the Magic Circle needed to break it open is incomplete. Mario must head off to the left, find the ice slab, bring it over and use the 1,000-Fold Arms to open the teeth, allowing them to enter the next room.

After scaling a tower and making it past one more ice slab puzzle, Mario reaches a room with the bridge to the boss area. When they enter, the Ice Vellumental appears in a chunk of ice. Like the other Vellumentals, it has been turned into origami and corrupted, so Mario and Olivia have no choice but to defeat it. Once the Ice Vellumental is defeated, it unleashes a Bibliofold allowing Olivia to turn into the Ice Vellumental. She uses this new power to freeze over the moat, creating a slide shortcut back to the entrance.

Layout
The starting area has a small, icy bridge leading over a pool of water. When Mario tries to leave this room, he is ambushed by two Sidesteppers and an Ice Bro. The next room has a floor made entirely of ice, with a few small spike pits and Sidesteppers scurrying about. In the southwest corner of the next area is a slab of ice. Mario must hop on and hammer one of the walls to propel himself in a direction. Both of the doorways are off ledges, so Mario cannot simply jump up to them. Rather, he must lead the slab over to a doorway and jump to barely reach the ledge. Here, he must use the slab to cover up the spikes blocking off the doorway on the left. This doorway leads to the room where Sledge Bro is fought. When he shakes the ground, a few icicles fall, including a large one to the left. Here, Mario can find a chest containing a MAX UP Heart worth five additional HP.

When Mario makes it to the head monument in this area, he must head left to find a similar slab puzzle. The slab here has half of the Magic Circle symbol on it, and must be brought down to the other half to activate. However, this area has rocks Mario must hammer to break open. Breaking only certain rocks creates a simple path to the monument. Mario can enter the room nearby to reset the rocks. If Mario resets the rocks a few times, he finds certain rocks have changed color, indicating which ones need to be broken. Notably, certain rocks also contain enemies such as Ice Bros and items such as Ice Flowers.

Once the Magic Circle down below is activated, Mario must use the 1,000-Fold Arms to slam the monument's nose, causing the teeth to slide open, revealing the path to the next room along with a Shiny Ice Flower. The following room features an ice precipice Mario must climb. Snow Spikes along the way throw down snowballs which must be avoided. Additionally, he is forced to battle both the Snow Spike guarding the chest in the middle and the Snow Spike on the pillar. Mario can also hammer said pillar to destroy it, beginning the battle immediately.

The next room features one last sliding slab puzzle - similar setup applies. Certain rocks must be broken, and entering a nearby room resets the puzzle. There are also Spike Tops nearby Mario can defeat instantly by ramming into them while on the slab. Taking the slab down a slope leads to another room the slab can be steered in. Mario needs to take the slab up to the north end and enter the doorway. Here, there is a pretty steep slope with an ice slab at the top. Riding this slab takes Mario all the way into the other structure, where the Ice Vellumental is fought. Once the water surrounding the battlefield has been frozen, Mario can head right to find a long, coin - filled slope leading all the way to the entrance.