12 Doors of Christmas, year 2: Door #9

 Door #9: The Post Office (Side Entrance)

The afternoon of the ninth Long Night finds three of our four heroes at the side entrance of the post office, where the day's Long Nights gift appeared. Gleefully, Jampa shakes the magic gift and listens intently.

JAMPA: Hmm. Light, round... and does Jampa detect a hint of bells? Jampa's money is on tambourines.

KABLOO: Jampa's money is 25 years in the future in a ceramic penguin bank. That's why I took away Jampa's gambling privileges, remember?

JAMPA: But Jampa has no pockets!

KABLOO: Precisely. Go out into the world pantsless, like a savage, and you pay the price.

TODDY: All right, phase two: Everybody over to the window! And put down that damn present! The paranoid bastards probably have their wizard vision on, and they might see it glowing through the wall.

At Toddy's signal, the three adventurers round the corner and stealthily peer through the rear window.

TODDY: (whispering) Now, nobody move or say a word! They just walked in, and from the amount of beard-stroking going on in there, I think we're about to hear some wizard talk.

 And they do!

NICHOLAS: –so I have the third component, and with all these gifts, the first component shouldn't be a problem. If it is, I have a little trick up by sleeve. But it's the second that's troubling me.

KLAUS: If you have the third, why didn't you bind the golem in the future?

NICHOLAS: That's not how it works. One needs the components for all three golems to perform the binding, even if one is only binding a single golem. You know how it is with the laws of magic. You always have to collect one or two MacGuffins you don't need, just to complete the set. That's how they get you.

KLAUS: Of course. And with snow magically blocked in the future....
NICHOLAS: I needed to move the fight to another time frame. Exactly. Meeting you here was fortuitous, though, because I still need to arrange the miracle. I'll have to cast angelic convocation, and I'll need as much help as I can get. Come along, I've got the ritual in the other room. I'll explain the whole plan.

KABLOO: Curses, they're walking away! Well, at least we've got some clues....
JAMPA: But angels! Jampa always wanted to meet angels! Jampa has to know!

Showing even less prudence than his rock-bottom baseline, Jampa cracks the door and creeps into the room on his hands & knees, quietly stalking the wizards.

KLAUS: Do you ever regret it? Have you considered simply... well, giving up, and letting the spirits free? You– we did this, after all. The elves shouldn't suffer for it, nor should your friends.
NICHOLAS: Ah, but you don't remember Canterbury Lane in all its glory. You haven't seen those adorable little faces beaming at the beginning of a 20-hour workday. But, yes, if I must, I'll sacrifice my life.

Jampa gasps, and the wizards stop abruptly at the sound! Remembering his little elf friend's stealth techniques, Jampa quickly dives into the nearest cover and lets it envelop him completely, as though he had never been there at all!

NICHOLAS: I'm not even angry, right now, so much as disappointed with the limitations of wizard vision.
KLAUS: Yes, now that I'm paying attention, I can clearly smell him. Time to put another entry in my Hubris Journal.
NICHOLAS: Write small.