12 Doors of Christmas, year 2: Door #4

Door #4: The Lakehouse... of Tomorrow!

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only Christmas. Christmas and mossy brown grass. Christmas, mossy brown grass, and... a magical arch that suddenly appears in the midst of the long-abandoned lane?!

12 Doors of Christmas, year 2: Door #3

 Door #3: The Lake House Again

KABLOO: Ah, spending the Long Nights in somebody else's abandoned house! Brings back memories of home. We goblins know how to put our families first: raids on competing families!

TODDY: I'm glad you're having fun, because I'm just about ready to forfeit my paycheck and go back to Gobstop unless Nicholas tells us what's up. You wanted the thieves and we delivered; I didn't sign up to babysit your goddamn lake all winter. Let's kill these penguins already. I've got last minute gifts to steal.

12 Doors of Christmas, year 2: Door #2

Door #2: The Lake House (Front Door)

A bright dawn rises over Canterbury Lane and casts its gleaming rays through the tavern windows, sending hung-over elves scrambling for the exit like cockroaches from a flash-bang. The last to stagger from the quaint  tavern are our heroes, squinting in the morning sun and looking thoroughly sauced.

TODDY: (hic) Well, gennlemen, this stake-out's officially a bust. Fifteen hours of of watching this stupid burg like a hawk and the only one who tried to kill anybody or steal anything was me.
KABLOO: Those in-suff-a-ba-rull elven carolers had it coming, the foolish... fools. That third carol was definitely about your mother... Urg, I miss the bar in Gobstop. Without some violence to chase it, all this alcohol just feels depressing. The gift appeared over three hours ago at the house on the lake, and nobody's come snooping yet, so I suggest–
JAMPA: Shhh, little drunken friends! Jampa is trying to smell something over your little rummy breaths! Jampa smells... fish? By the lake?

12 Doors of Christmas, year 2: Door #1

Door #1: Old Man Krudnik's House

 The Long Nights, those beloved winter festivals, have come again for Canterbury, but much has changed since last year's holidays! Last year, all was quiet, all was white, and gleaming icicles reached gracefully from the abandoned eaves... the place was a real shit-hole back then. Now, garish garlands festoon every festoonable surface, and the shrill trill of elfsong dances in the winter wind!

12 Doors of Christmas: Door #12, part II

Door #12: The Tower (part II)

The last of the Long Nights has fallen on Canterbury Lane. Four unlikely heroes who first sought only treasure here now fight a monster from the stars for control of the Lane's potent magic. With labor, luck, and extra-large helpings of deus ex machina, they have gathered the Lane's magical gifts and nearly won the day, only to have them stolen at the last moment by Bingle, who now floats at the brink of mastering the Hyperborean north. Already, one of their number, the thieving and boozy Toddy, has fallen under Bingle's control, and the holiday mood grows grim as the others wonder who will be next.

 

BINGLE: End your resistance, human! And you, goblin, you know my power! My starflight suit is proof against your pitiful spells, and the gifts of Canterbury Lane are now mine to-- wait, what pathetic trick is this? This bag holds only nine gifts! Even with the two I hold, one remains missing. WHERE HAVE YOU HIDDEN IT?!
KLAUS: Ho ho ho! The set isn't complete -- we missed a gift in the post office!
KABLOO: Hee hee, yes! Our incompetence is the one secret weapon you can never take from us!
KLAUS: Speaking of secret weapons, JOLLY BLACK TENTACLES!

12 Doors of Christmas: Door #12, part I

Door #12: The Tower, part 1

KLAUS: Look sharp, everyone. The stakes are higher tonight than even I suspected. I cast some divinations earlier today, and it seems that this "Bingle" is a tyrant from another world who actually intends to conquer here! When I fought him years ago, I assumed that he was just another cold terrain monster starved for level-appropriate opponents. Monsters get rather sparse out in the cold.

JAMPA: Funny hat man is right! Back home, Jampa saw same remorhaz and frost worm fighting dozens of times. Big worm things got so excited whenever they saw each other, Jampa always thought one day they would just make out instead of fighting.

KABLOO: No no no, Bingle's no battle-horny, brain-dead ice monster! He's been a spirit patron of the goblin tribes for centuries;he's the one who taught us about winter magic. Normal druidism is powerful, sure, but you have to wade through a lot of unicorns and dew drops to get to it. Bingle took the animals out of nature magic and replaced them with bitterness... really cracked the goblin market for druid powers. He's practically a local deity.

KLAUS: Well, I'm no slouch myself. I ruled for centuries here too, and with much better results. Say what you will about a toy-based economy, but measured in gross domestic rocking horse output, I think my results speak for themselves. Jampa, do you see anything in that window?

12 Doors of Christmas: Door #11

Day #11: Boiler Room

It is 6:00 pm, theoretically Jampa's turn at watch and time for our two smallest protagonists to rest up for a night's adventuring. However, worrying thumps from the roof have disrupted their rest, and now result in the emergence of a surly snowman and a haggard Hyperborean elf from the lake house's upstairs window...

TODDY: What the HELL is going on out on this roof? Is it a knife-fight? Must be a goddamn EPIC, because I've HAD knife-fights on rooftops, and they weren't as GODDAMN loud as whatever the HELL you two are doing!
KLAUS: Pardon the noise, Toddy. I just finished identifying the treasure from that owl you killed, so I came up here to check on Jampa. He spotted the glow of today's present at the boiler room attached to the tower! I'm afraid we got a little excited.
KABLOO: Wait, what? I heard "treasure" and I stopped caring about everything else you had to say.
KLAUS: Yes, of course, we're all adventurers. First things first. The owl had a magic rifle, a pouch of jingle bells, the body of a little defunct golem, and some kind of horrible woolen garment. Just trifles, really. Speaking of treasure, though, I've got a question for you all. Do you want to keep on these next two days, or would you like to take your cut of the loot and go home?
TODDY: Hold on, I thought this was a quest now. Don't we have to get all the gifts for some kind of bullshit wizard reason?
KLAUS: I officially pronounce you all free from "wizard reasons." The gifts are part of a magical effect that can replace me if I'm gone, but I'm not gone -- not any more -- so they're not plot devices as far as you're concerned, just loot.
TODDY: But what about the... the monsters in the tower?
KABLOO: Oh, you mean the SPACE MONSTERS?
KLAUS: They're snow creatures from the winter stars... dangerous, certainly, but they're my problem. You're welcome to come along, but only if you want the last couple of gifts.