Critical Role - Critical Role Presents: A Daggerheart Critmas Story | Live Show

Episode Date: December 26, 2024

Game Master Matthew Mercer leads players Travis Willingham, Laura Bailey, Liam O’Brien, Sam Riegel, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, and Marisha Ray through a special Daggerheart Critmas one-shot with the spectacular Lenore Riegel (aka Momlan) serving as our Master of Ceremonies. Learn more and pre-order both the Daggerheart Core Set AND the Limited Edition (full of exclusive extras!) right now at https://daggerheart.com. Daggerheart is a fantasy tabletop roleplaying game of brave heroics and vibrant worlds that are built together with your gaming group. Create a shared story with your adventuring party, and shape your world through rich, long-term campaign play. Players use two 12-sided dice, one a Hope die and one a Fear die—Hope helps the players while the GM uses Fear to complicate the story! Gorgeous art-filled cards keep player abilities at your fingertips. All that and more awaits in Daggerheart! Beacon members, remember to use code BEACONHEART to get your 10% off both standard and limited edition copies! When the game releases in Spring 2025, find it also at Darrington Press Guild stores (https://darringtonpress.com/darrington-press-guild/) and other friendly local game stores. BEACONWe’re excited to bring you even MORE with a Beacon membership! Start your 7-day free trial today at https://beacon.tv/join and get unparalleled access to the shows you love completely ad-free! You’ll receive NEW Beacon exclusive series, instant access to VODs & podcasts, live event pre-sales, merch discounts, & a private Discord. YOUTUBE MEMBERS / TWITCH SUBSCRIBERSTwitch Subscribers and YouTube Members gain instant access to VODs of our shows, moderated live chats, and custom emojis & badges:https://www.youtube.com/criticalrole/joinhttps://www.twitch.tv/criticalrole   Featuring Music from "Critical Role Presents: Winter’s Crest (A Holiday Album EP)"Pre-order the VINYL ALBUM for "Critical Role Presents: Winter's Crest (A Holiday Album)" now at https://scanlanshorthaltmusic.com/!The Deluxe Edition includes exclusive stickers, a Winter’s Crest postcard, and photos, AND is signed by the cast! 80’s Teenage art by Annalise Jensen || @annalisejensenHoliday Transformation Art by Shaun Ellis || @shmabaSpringvale Springs map by Marco Bernadini || @marcoma4psSet Design by Shaun EllisSet construction by Flannel & HammerWardrobe: Jennifer NewmanAssistant Wardrobe: Manzi DeYoungSpecial thanks: Monica Seagle, Payton Keo Lacebal, Michael Schmidt, Nate Cory Smith, Sam McCoy

Hey there, Critical Role podcast listeners. We have a special new membership service at beacon.tv, where you can get early access to all new podcast episodes, including Critical Role for the first time ever. Beacon members also get things like event pre-sales, merch discounts, access to a private community Discord, and new exclusive series like Critical Role Cooldown, where we riff after the show.

Think of it as our digital Critical Role land. Head on over to beacon.tv to check it out for yourself and start a seven-day free trial. Thank you so, so much for your support, for being a podcast listener, and for being a part of our community. Hey there, critters. We are so excited to share with you our brand new podcast from the world of Exandria, The Re-Slayer's Take.

In this audio adventure, you'll be guided through the wild continent of Isilra, home to some of the most dangerous creatures. Here, the Slayer's Take is the most notorious monster hunting group in the realm. Asylra So come follow along these audio escapades as the second coolest monster hunters this side of Exandria battle a growing undead army of dangerous creatures. The party is led by a duo of game masters, George Primavera and Nick Williams, with the main cast including Jasmine Bular, Caroline Lux, and Jasmine Shion. Listen to new episodes every Monday anywhere you stream podcasts, or become a Beacon member and listen to the podcast two weeks early and uninterrupted by ads. Hi there, this is Taliesin Jaffe, and welcome to the podcast version of The Critical Role Show.

If you would like to watch the stream as it airs, you can tune in on Thursdays at 7 p.m. Pacific at twitch.tv slash critical role or at youtube.com slash critical role. The video on demand versions are immediately available for our Twitch subscribers or on YouTube the following Mondays at 12 p.m. Pacific. Podcast episodes are right here on the Critical Role Podcast Network on Thursdays one week after the initial broadcast. Now that you know all that, let's head into today's adventure. Oh, hello. Hi, hello.

I'm Momlin. What's your name? I'll try to remember all of those. I think you know my kids. The tiny green one. And the yellow metal one. And then there's that wandering bard. He's always been so horny, that boy.

I'll tell you a secret. He got that from me. But at least it made me finally a grandma. Oh, there's a chair. Oh, that's better. Lately, I've had so much time on my hands. Those Thursday nights are so long. So, I decided to take up knitting. I'm making something special for my boy Andreas? Yes! Winter is coming, it's going to be a cold winter. And so I made him something to keep his nether parts warm.

You think this will help? he didn't inherit that from me oh oh oh oh oh oh wait I'm not a knitter I'm a critter and it's Christmas

and look all my gifts are right here in front of me. I love you too. So let's get this party started. Hit it, boys. So let's get this party started! Hit it, boys! I've been your goblin for so long And now I'm here to sing my song And with you here, cause you're so smart Let's dive into Dagger Heart

we'll roll for some hope and fear and sharing the Christmas cheer because critical role is here. Now let's welcome them to the cast. Are you ready? I think the first one coming is Travis Willingham. Next, we have Liam O'Brien. I think I see Taliesin Jaffe. Jeffy.

She's in the house. Ashley Johnson. It's Laura Bailey! It's Laura Bailey! Marisha Ray is here! Oh, Ashley Johnson. I blew it. I blew it. No, I didn't. Okay, good.

And the center of our universe... It's Matthew Mercer! Everyone's here. Everyone's here. We're ready to get started. I'm gonna... Pretty... I'm fairly certain we're missing... What? We're missing one. What? We're missing one?

Missing one, yeah. Sorry. What do you think? I'd forget my own son? I was just saving the best for last. Please welcome the best boy in the whole world, Sam Riegel! Come on, give your mama a hug. I love you too. Come on.

And now, we're ready to start the show. Are you ready? Let's do it. Bye. Bye-bye. Bye, Mom Lynn. She's got it. Yeah. Hello, everyone, and welcome to tonight's

Welcome to tonight's special Critmas Critical Role One-Shot Where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Daggerheart We play Daggerheart Thank Whoa! We play Dagger, Dagger, Dagger! Thank you all so much for joining us. This is so much fun.

It's, as you probably heard when my mic was on backstage, it's going to be pretty weird. We have some wonderful suggestions from our VIP crew that have radically made it weirder. I'm excited to try and incorporate some of that. And of course, tonight we are showcasing the rules for Daggerheart, the very final rules that are coming out in the near future.

Yesterday, we got to reveal the final covers for both the standard and the limited editions of the game. Super excited about that. I cannot express how excited we are for this game to finally become a reality after years of hard work. There it is. There it is.

Look at that beautiful thing. Gorgeous game. So pretty. I love it. But yeah, so if you have the inkling to try it out yourself, you can-order now at daggerheart.com. Sam. No, actually, Marcia, you've got an announcement.

Yeah, I'm taking it over for Sam. You guys, this week we also released Critical Role Presents, colon, Winter's Crest, which is a full... I know. Give it up for Winter's Crest. It is a full 11-track holiday album

that you can stream or purchase digitally right now on any major platform. You can hear it. That's Taliesin's lovely voice. Isn't that great? I'm as shocked as anyone. It's so good. Plus, you can pre-order vinyl editions of the album, including

a deluxe edition signed by all of us with exclusive extras like vinyl sticker packs, a postcard, and a pack of festive Polaroid-style photos. And you can pre-order now. It's so fun. We wore ugly sweaters. It's great. Pre-order now at the new home for Critical Role Music.

ScanlonShorthaltMusic.com Wow! Every time you go to that website, I get 10 cents. It is absurd this album exists. And it's so good! It's quitmas. It was a lot of fun. Well, that concludes our announcements.

Thankfully, we can actually get to the game. La la la! La la la! La la la! Enough! Sorry. Simmy, Simmy, Sam. I will destroy you before the game starts.

But no, as it is, Daggerheart, we have won against the game with two hope. Make sure you mark that on your sheet if you haven't already. I, as the GM, am going to be starting the campaign with one fear per player, so I get to start with a nice seven fear at my disposal. Is that how that works? I don't like it. That's how it works, so that'll my disposal. Is that how that works? I don't like it. That's how it works.

So that'll be fine. What could possibly go wrong? I don't like it. But I think with that, Treb, out of the way, let's go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of Critical Role. Thank you. All right. The holidays have come. A time of reflection on the year past and hope for the year to come forward.

A time that gathers friends and family, a reminder of the communities we cherish. And during the latter half of the 1980s, within the sleepy Midwest town of Springvale Springs, the holidays have also meant chaotic shopping, slushy road conditions, and small-town drama. But this night, the eve before Christmas itself, a gentle snowfall blankets the river-wound little town as the afternoon sun glows gently behind the darkened clouds. This afternoon before the eve of Christmas carries a unique tension.

Alongside the joyful excitement and anticipation as neighbors play pleasantries while silently judging each other's decorations. Businesses prepare to close for the evening while parents dash around for last minute presents. And then the hush begins to fall. Across the water tower, the playground, the arcade, the mall. Christmas Eve is nearly here. But it is here, in this suburban cul-de-sac, within a modestly decorated home, this very, very nice abode that belongs to Mayor Cameron Blake

and his newly wedded bride, Iris Ginsberg Blake. A central abode which is a beacon of hope for Springvale Springs. And it is here that they've invited a small gathering of friends to this. As soft, incandescent

light-colored strings reflect across the snow, the first group begins to arrive to the door. But here within the house itself, gentle music plays. The rooms of antique furniture that is rarely ever used or sat upon all arranged perfectly to present

an air of affluence and importance. After all, it is the mayor. We have Bethany walking in to check in on her father. Laura, if you wouldn't mind describing Bethany for me. Oh. Thank you. I think everybody knows about Bethany. She's homecoming queen, prom queen, straight-A student,

president of the student council. She really, most popular, obviously most popular girl. Perfectly placed hair, perfectly manicured nails. Everything is presented perfectly. Just as her father wants. And describe her father for me in his current. Cam Blake.

He is 6'2 two salt and pepper hair a million dollar smile that he doesn't tell anyone he paid for um and this holiday he is wearing a christmas sweater he always has a new one for every holiday party a tie underneath it and his slacks with his perfectly polished shoes. As you walk in, you see him brushing what looks like some sort of a brief mess across the front of it. Oh, my goodness. Bethany, Bethany, would you be a doll and get the hydrogen peroxide? It seems I've messed myself. Of course, father. Thank you, dear. Could you please get your mother for me as well? I'd like to see her in the den. My mother's not here, Dad.

Bethany, please, please, could you just, for one night, be civil, be respectful, be the wonderful daughter you are, and do not embarrass me. I'll get Iris. As he brushes himself off, the doorbell rings and he rushes off and darts. As we come around the corner into the kitchen, we see preparing what looks like a massive turkey that was probably delivered not too long ago. The foil being pulled off on one side, the smell of it beginning to permeate throughout the kitchen.

You see Iris Ginsburg Blake if you wouldn't mind describing your mother for me it will be hard for this audience to picture her but she's so cute she's 5'6", she's got dark brown hair she is cooking up a storm and she's always the center of attention She's so cute. She's 5'6". She's got dark brown hair. She is cooking up a storm, and she's always the center of attention.

She's a busybody, and she's always got a big smile and telling a joke. And right next to her is me. You are now walking into the kitchen as she kind of looks over her shoulder. Ralph, if you'd be so kind as to help me place the rest of the table, I don't know how this works. Okay.

Happy to, Mom. I think, I mean, I'm so used to having matzo ball soup and lighting the hanukkiah, but I guess this is how the goys do it. I mean,

do you baste first and then you cook it? Or do you cook it first and then you baste it? Let's just baste it twice. That sounds fine to me. Look, for the both of us tonight, we'll just watch and learn as best we can. I come barging in the room. Hello, dear.

My dad wants you. Oh, hi, Bethany. Wow, that's a really great outfit you've got on. And did you change your hair? It looks so... Shut up, chode. Thank you, fair daughter. I'll go see to your father.

And she exits the room with a kind of glance over her shoulder and huffs out of the kitchen, leaving the two of you alone amongst the undelivered spread. So, um, do we... I didn't see a stocking for you. Aren't you going to hang a stocking? My mom always hung the stockings. Well, we could start a new tradition tonight.

I just really want to get this whole Christmas thing, and really, I'm sort of schvitzing over it a little bit. Yeah. Maybe we could go into our parents' room and get some of your mom's skanky underwear and hang it from the fireplace instead. I just think that they're really in love, and I think we should support that.

And, you know, they're a family, and I guess we are too, although not blood-related, so, you know, technically, anything could happen, legally. I better go you really should I'll hang a stocking for you do you hang them on the tree or

I'm so new at this just get out as you dart out you see Do you hang them on the tree? I'm so new at this. Just get out! Okay, okay! As you dart out, you see in the central foyer of the household your mother, Iris, and your new father, Mayor Cameron Blake. She's been washing off the front of his shirt, but they're both locked into full deep kiss. As the doorbell rings again, they both draw still awake. She brushes his shoulder and then darts off as he turns.

Ahem. Ralph, would you be so kind as to greet our first guests for the evening? Sure, Mr. Blake. I mean, Dad? There it is. It won't take long, son. Happy to. Welcome to the Blake home. The Ginsberg, the Bader

Ginsberg Blake home. I'm Ralph Bader Ginsberg. Good Bader Ginsburg Blake home. I'm Ralph Bader Ginsburg. Good. Blake. No relation. You're doing good, you're doing good. Here, now, ready? On three. Okay. One, two, three. As they open the door there, there are two kids

there awaiting first as their parents are still getting their materials out of the car. Let's go ahead and start over here. Tristan, if you wouldn't mind describing yourself. Yeah, I'm Tristan Beasley. I'm one of the older kids at school. I'm the same age as Bethany. Got a big head of curly hair. He's cute. He doesn't really realize it or understand it. And he's very confident, and you're never really sure why. He's tall. He's gangly, he has a way too long scarf on and

a big smile and he's got his arm around his kid sister's massive puffy jacket. Hey, happy holidays! Sorry, the doorbell's not broken, isn't it? We knocked for a bit too long. We knocked for like three minutes. We were just trying to get to the

household, not a worry. I mean, we are a little early. That's fine. Gwenny, was it? Yes. Gwenny. Gwenny, thank you so much. Guinevere. Guinevere Beasley. You can call me Gwenny. Sorry, I'll let you talk. Of course. No worries. You're doing great. Come on inside, and

I'll go ahead and greet your parents as they come around. Gwenny, do you mind describing yourself? Yes. Gwenny is 13 and three quarters, and she's got pigtails, she's a kid sister of Tristan, she's just, and she's got headgear, and, you know, she's just figuring it out. Love it.

I spill all over myself here. I have that effect on people. Yeah, you do. Well, welcome to our home. He means us. Hey, Ralph. Hey! What's up?

Hey, Bethany. Hey, Ralph. Hey. I've got a cool icebreaker. How about a joke? Love jokes. What's Madonna's favorite sauce? Hollandaise.

Laughter comes barreling into the door as you watch both of the Blake parents stepping through with the Beasleys. There you see Walton Beasley, the father of these two teenagers, step through himself as kind of like quiff-puff blonde hair with like a wave to it. He himself has a

scarf that almost matches that of his son's. He's got that little bit of the artistic goatee and these like nice kind of European leather gloves about him and he has that like, my god, this place looks amazing, doesn't it? I'm just so glad you invited us over, Mayor. We've, for a long time, just dallied around in social circles, so it really is an honor, isn't it?

And he turns over to his wife, Phaedra, who has this long, dark brunette hair that has so many curls, almost flows like a fairy as she walks in. And she's like, indeed, it's so nice to be amongst culture. What? Are those panties on the fireplace?

That's me. Those are my mom. He watches Iris, and goes, That's probably a mistake, and she darts off, and he watches Walton leans over onto the mayor and goes, you dog. I guess it's going to be a good Christmas Eve. Swingers, they are so swinger.

Yes, of course. Okay, Dad, save it for the house. They step on into the rest of the chamber as the door closes behind. Out on the driveway, we do catch one, what looks like a bicycle that is riding up along the side. Who do we see riding that bicycle over here? Oh, that makes sense. So, I'm Dylan.

You kind of get a sense I've kind of got long shaggy hair like a definitely like an army surplus jacket that may have never been washed

it's hard to tell jeans that are ripped up and are hanging on it's cool and kind of has an air of like just no matter

where he goes somehow it's loitering all the time and he's biking up and he's got like like just no matter where he goes, somehow it's loitering all the time. And he's biking up and he's got like a small gift bag with him as he's biking up and kind of just lets the bike drop and keeps walking.

Hey, Mr. Blake, can I call you Cam? As you're shouting as the door slams and you're just kind of not even paying attention, you're still kind of out in the driveway. Was that Dylan? I think it was. Yeah. Was he even invited?

I mean, I think he knows about the window. I probably invited him, I think. You invited him? Well, I invited a couple people. I know this is not my house. I just... It's the holidays! You know what? That is in keeping in the spirit of

Mazel Tov and of... It's the spirit of Mazel Tov. Yeah, it's just spreading the joy of the season and we should let him in. Thanks, Ralph. I open the door. Bethany, hi. I open the door. Bethany, hi, a Merry Christmas for you. Merry Christmas for me?

Yeah, yeah, you know. I look inside, what is it? It's a series of books that are tied up with a ribbon with a little, looks like little comic books maybe. Yeah, I thought so. What'd you get? Dylan, you shouldn't have. I had to literally punch text.

Nothing, it's beer. Go away. Lots of beer. I'm going to run to my room. She's so mysterious. It's great to see you all. Hi, Gwen. Thank you. Oh, hey, How are you? Are you kidding? Look at this place. It's great. I'm going to walk over, sit down, put my feet up.

Whatever. Take a seat. Relax. Do you want anything to drink? I'm supposed to do that. Well, do it. Well. Dylan, man, did you bring presents for everybody or? Oh, I didn't know who was going to be here. So I just decided, no.

Ralph? Hey. Hey, hey. Hey. We're cool, right? What do you think? I mean, come on. Of course we're cool. Yeah, we're cool, right? Okay. What's the matter? I mean, come on. Of course, we're cool.

Yeah, we're cool, right? Okay. What's the matter? I feel like there's tension. And I love some tension. No, no, everything's fine. I'm just, I'm plotzing a little bit here. And you know what?

I'm going to go get us, there's past hors d'oeuvres. So I'll be right back okay wait Ralph what do you only like a little bit of alcohol when we just got here it's okay sorry I'm just getting really excited

my mom usually has me lets me take a couple sips of Manischewitz I could get that for you. What's that? It's really good. Why don't you show me? There's a heavy knock at the door suddenly. Oh, I should

get that. It's my house. Hello. Welcome to the Blake residence. I'm Ralph. Hi. Hi. Riley, if you wouldn't mind describing yourself. You see a disheveled teen girl, maybe 16, just turned 16.

She's a little sweaty because she just grinded a sick curb on her skateboard and did not dress up for this at all and kind of just has this air about her at any given time that she doesn't want to be here or talking to you. Hey, oh, what was your name again? Ralph Bader Ginsburg. Ralph.

Blake. Right, I've seen you around school. Yeah, you're the new kid, right? Yeah. Wow, and you're like from, from like Korea or something? No, no, well I'm from the United States, but. Oh shit, my board!

Shit. Wait, it's rolling down the street, hang on! No, don't, come back. It's a long driveway, steep. Are we about to learn an amazing lesson? Sorry. I come back from upstairs where I was hiding my comic books. Hey, this is Riley.

Oh, John. Hey, how are you? You used to live in Berlin, right? Isn't that your deal? That's what it was. Yeah, my dad was stationed over there. She's fluent in German. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not.

Yeah, I've kind of traveled around, you know. He's actually a major. He's a nuclear engineer. So he's kind of babysitting with nuclear silo. So you're not fluent, but are you like semi-fluent? You know, a little bit? Yeah, I can say fictish. Excellent. with nuclear silo. But so you're not fluent, but are you like semi-fluent? You know, a little bit? Uh, yeah. I can say fictish.

Excellent. What's that mean? Fuck you. Oh. He just asked what it means. Yeah. How did she get an invite? This is lame.

Children, children! Holy shit, this house. The fuck? Where is everyone coming from? Oh, hey, Rebecca. Bethany. Bethany. What's up? You're more than welcome to join. Are you rich? Yes. Cool. How did you hear about the party? Oh, Lynn invited me. Uh, Gwen. Oh, Gwenny.

You can call me whatever you want. I'll respond to it. I told her, because she's new to town, and I just figured, you know, in the spirit of the holidays, we should all just be nice to each other. Yeah, we're all mishpucha here. That's what I said.

Is that German? Sort of. That's a touchy subject. Oh, no. At which point, Iris Blake is in the doorway entering the foyer and is like, oh my, so many more arrivals. Are your parents coming as well?

Uh, no. My dad, Mayor Hole, Major Hole, sorry. He's working the night shift at the silo. Walton Beasley walks in. He's like, really, more than Mary. Damn. What? He's gross. Just like, give it a little bit.

The children are being obnoxious, dear, and Wanda wanders back into the chamber. Tristan, your dad's weird. Have you met me? Met you? and wanders back into the chamber. Tristan, your dad's weird. Have you met me? Met you? I mean, your reputation precedes you. I saw you in a non-skating,

non-musical version of Starlight Express, and you were fantastic. Oh, you've been to Grundle Brush's Playhouse? I have, yeah. Yeah, I'm starting out there. You know, I'm like first assistant dramaturgist and slash janitor at the theater, and I'm kind of working my way up, and I'm just over in the background now,

but they're doing Richard III in the coming season in January. Oh, and you're in it? I'm going to be. Did you say you're turgid? Not that time. Children, children, please. I'm glad you're all here. You watch as Mayor Cameron Blake

walks in once more, kind of adjusts his lapel. It is indeed the Christmas season, and we're happy to host all of you who need a home this eve and a bit of community. So, our home is yours. Open to all who want a place to stay,

to cherish and celebrate the holiday season. Bing bong! Who else is here? He goes to go for the door and opens it up, and what you see waiting across the way is the sun's, like, setting in the distance. You see a man in his early 30s, kind of greasy, dark hair,

kind of in an Elvis-like coif. He's wearing a white button-up gas station attendant shirt, but he has it open with a wide lapel of it, and he's like, hey, brother, how you doing? The mayor goes, tell this, I wasn't... I wasn't where you were invited into our abode.

Pelvis, of which the Blake children probably know, is the estranged younger brother of the mayor who hasn't really shown up much around the household, but seems to be kind of cool with little weirds. He's carrying a large cardboard box that kind of sits on the side he lifts up and kind of things rattle around inside. He goes, well, you know,

just I got nowhere else to go around here in town. And since it's the holiday season, figured I'd go ahead and bring a few gifts. I got some keepsakes, got some presents for some of the kids. And I actually got some old family heirlooms here to pass on to them. So I don't know. I think it'd be a good idea to get the family around. He looks past him towards the kids and uh i actually got some old family heirlooms here to pass on to him so uh i don't know i think it'd be a good idea to get the family around he looks past him towards the kids like

nodding for approval yeah can i take your box for you oh yeah by all means uncle pelvis thanks hey pelvis wow what's up billy good to see you too oh I didn't realize it was a thing. Hey, Pelvis. Hi, Gwenny, Gwenny. All right, looks like we got a good gathering here. I'm gonna go ahead and get a beer. Cameron, there are no beers here, unfortunately. This is a sober family affair. What?

What? You could have mentioned that. I didn't know. Riley kind of leans into Gwynny. Is his name Pelvis or Elvis? Or was it Elvis and people just call him Pelvis? Or is he Pelvis and he's trying to make Elvis happen? See, we don't know.

Okay. Just curious. Yeah, it's a good question, don't know. Okay. Just curious. Yeah, it's a good question, though. As you all gather into the family den around the massive, immaculately decorated by other people that were hired to do sochery, a number of presents are scattered

about, conversation that bores you to tears, continues to drag you through the early part of the evening. Eventually, dinner begins to be served, and the night mostly seems to be the adults talking about business and politics and money and all the obnoxious little secrets

they like to tell about the other neighbors around, but kind of relegate you all to the kids' side of the table as you do so. I lean, sorry, I lean forward to Dylan. There actually is alcohol in the basement. In the basement? Yeah. Can we get there without

being seen? I know how to get down there without being seen. Sorry, I can read lips. How do you know that? I have been here so many times. Like, two.

Everywhere. Invited? Were you invited? Yeah. Cool. As some of the smaller gifts are kind of presented after dinner, and eventually Pelvis kind of pulls up the remains of the box, he goes, Now, I don't mean to, like, take over here for a second, but while y'all have been doing your family thing,

I've been looking into our family history a little bit, and I found out that, I don't know if y'all remember, we had a sweet little grandmother on the Blake side of the family old Oma Sigrid a few generations back left a bunch of things that were just kind of floating in what's that called

rep or something but uh reprobate that's the one well I figured it'd be a good thing for y'all to have. I kept a few things myself that seemed to have a little history to the family. She kind of pulls out like an old tattered mug

and like, well it looks like a fake pearl necklace that looks nice, but you know, it also looks a bit tarnished. Sets it down. The one thing he kind of pulls out that looks really cool, he goes, ah, now this here looks like a jewelry box, but I can't get it open for the life of me. And he pulls out this rather

large, strange-looking wooden box, about one foot by one foot, that is intricately carved. You can see where the four feet of it sit. They seem to curl up as hands that clutch the edge of each corner of the box. Amongst them, along the side, it's like these swirls that

form like holly leaves and berries and beautiful bits of vine that seem to creep up, just carved into the wood itself. There's other details in there, but even at a glance, you can't quite make out the specifics of it. And it all seems to reach up to the handle at the top of the box. And there's a massive, it's like a tarnished

iron lot that sits over the front with an open keyhole on it. That is so cool. It's an ancient artifact. Can I touch it? By all means, I've been trying for a while. Pandora's box. Does it shake? Does it rattle? Is there a keyhole or a contraption?

There is a keyhole in it. However, it doesn't rattle when you shake it, but it is far heavier in your grasp than you expected it to be. You know what? Go ahead and roll an instinct roll for me. Oh, no. First roll. First roll. Oh, no, no, no.

Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Wait, I got to find my... First roll. There's only two dice. I know, no, I'm choosing Oh, no, no, no. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Wait, I gotta find my... First roll. There's only two dice. I know, no, I'm choosing the right ones, okay? Oh, okay. Well, I rolled a 20, but with fear. 20 with fear.

Okay, good to know. So, as you're clutching the box here for a second, you get this kind of odd, ominous sense as your hands touch it. You can almost feel like the vines begin to move and shift. You can glance into the interior of the woodwork itself, the fine, kind of darkened texture of it seeming to almost move and writhe. This warm, fuzzy feeling seems to fill you inside. It's almost joyful, like the onset of a sneeze that never goes away. Looking upon it, the hands themselves seem to almost clutch harder on the edges, and you swear you can almost hear faint music in the back of your mind, sourcelessly.

And then as you release it, you're back at the table for a second and kind of set the box down. That was odd. Are you okay? Yeah, this box is just weird. Well, you were just shaking for a second. Yeah, is there fumes on it? Mark a stress form. Oh, come on! You look stressed. Honestly, a lot of the

varnish from back then was, like, really toxic. Yeah, don't lick that. Is that leaded paint? Oh, how old is this You look stressed. A lot of the varnish from back then was really toxic. Yeah, don't lick that. Is that leaded paint? Oh, how old is this box? I don't know. I tried to get it to pray. Say it's probably a few hundred years. Say it's of a German make.

It's where Omar's cigarette was from. It's our family background. You see Cameron be like, Indeed, and we've made a better life for ourselves here in the US hearing this can Riley kind of look over and kind of poke at it and can I use my ability

I spent time overseas to check it out my experience sure go ahead and roll a knowledge roll and then add that bonus to it you spend a hope to do so okay I to do so. Okay. I will do so.

Spending a hope. Okay, so that's going to add plus three because my knowledge is zero. Or sorry, plus two. Ew! Icky! Okay, that's going to be a twelve with fear.

I'll go ahead and take a 12 with fear. Ugh, 12 with fear. Yikes. I'll go ahead and take a fear for that. Oh. So you, as you stare into this box, you can, there are definitely like deeply set, it looks like letters, but they're not language that you understand necessarily. They're like older runic carvings,

things that are reminiscent of like Northern European make or even like old Germanic maybe. But it definitely seems to have a holiday feel to it and elements. You can see where like the holly and the vines are just old. It's definitely old.

But you yourself even staring into it too deeply feel like the sweat beginning to pour on your brow and you take the stress as well As this is happening the rest of you kind of find it find yourselves kind of leaning in towards the box Before Iris who's halfway into opening a present and no one's paying attention goes, honey They're not looking Wait, Cameron goes, everyone. I think that's enough distraction now from my brother And Cameron goes, everyone, I think that's enough distraction now from my brother.

We'll take care of these things later. He picks up the box and takes some other things, puts it in the bag. We'll finish up dinner here and go on with the rest of the evening. You kids can have fun in your room upstairs. The adults will have our own time in the parlor. And he goes and begins to take the box down into the basement. I'm hearing a boof, boof, boof downstairs as Iris opens her present and goes, oh my god, it's a blouse!

Looks expensive. We shift on to later in the evening now as the parents are laughing off into the den and the rest of you have kind of been relegated off into the children's side of the party. It's long past the sunset. The night stars are out. Dylan. What? I brought my slingshot.

Do you want to go shoot some squirrels outside? No, no. This... I feel like this sucks and I want to fix this. It is not time to be distracted. Squirrels are great. I came for beer. I

am so disappointed. I thought your family was rich enough to have beer. We do. We have a whole refrigerator of beer down in the basement. Come on. I lead the group down. Whoa. The door to the basement's locked.

The door to the basement's locked. The door to the basement's locked. Well, try to... You don't have a key? Yes, of course I have a key. Nope, nope. Where is the key? Can I look around the kitchen for the key? Sure, if you want to.

Go ahead and make an instinct roll for me. Another one. Try and glance around for where it may be hidden. I mean, you can look, but this is what we have Dylan for. Wait, I was gonna... Is there a phone in the kitchen? Oh, there is indeed. It's a phone that's affixed to the wall there. I'm going to walk right by you while you do this.

I rolled a nine with hope. Okay, well, you gain a hope. However, you are kind of staring around and moving the drawers and pushing through. There is just all matter of strange objects, devices. Oh, I forgot to tell you, my mom rearranged the drawers in here. She thought that this system was more organized than your mom had it. Did you see where your mom put the key to the basement? No, I didn't. I didn't see.

But I do think that this system is a little bit better. Why are you looking at me like that? That's a look of murder. Dylan. This party needs more delinquency. Hold on. And I'm calling for some beer. You're calling for beer? Wait, we have a cold fridge.

Can I try to pick up? I'm waiting. I'm letting the phone ring. I'm calling the guy I have. So eventually the line picks up. Hey, Tanner. Where are you? And what do you look like as you answer your phone? This is Tanner, standing inside of a phone booth in my family owned dump. This is Tanner. Speak. Hey, trash boy.

Party at the Blake's house. It's minimum two six-packs. Are you in? Hey, Big D. First of all, it's not trash boy. It's just trash. Second of all, two six-packs? That's going to run you a fat 20 note. I need a Jefferson.

Can you wait till New Year? New Year? Yeah, I'm a little short right now. Yeah, all right. But the vig is steep, I'm just going to tell you right now. Two six-packs, I'll be there in two shakes of a lamb's tail. What's wrong with that kid? Did you invite Tanner Trash to the house?

No, I invited beer, and it comes with a side of Tanner. It doesn't take too long for eventually a soft knock at the window of the kitchen. And what do they see standing outside the window, Tanix? They see a big fog spot on the window and then a dick being drawn in. With a bunch of spiky pubes and some spurt, spurt, spurt. And then I see Ginsberg inside and I'm like,

hey, Ginsberg, open the door. Look, he drew a picture of your uncle growing. I quickly go over and open the door. Tanner, what are you doing here? What do you mean? I'm on a delivery. Do you have my money or not, Ginsberg? Me?

I don't. My money? Your what? Hey, Tanner. Oh, hey, Tiffany. What's up? It's Bethany. Yeah, Bethany.

Yeah, how's it going? Where's Dylan? He's here. Dylan! Dylan! Oh, what? Oh. Oh, my God, you got it. Oh, I owe you so big. It has been so lame.

Thank you. Oh, hey, Tanner. What's up, turd? Did you come over for the holiday celebration? For the what? We're all hanging out. Hey, Tanner, are you coming in? What's up, Hamlet?

Wait, did you bring anything? Yeah, I brought two six-packs. How many of you guys are there? You should crawl through the window. We split off from the adults. We're getting out of here. I usually go to the back door, but there's a bunch of parents. How many of you guys are there? You should crawl through the window. We split off from the adults. We're getting out of here. I usually go to the back door, but there's a bunch of parents. Usually?

Do you come here a lot? What are you guys dating? Listen. Wait, are you? No way. Like, I would ever date Tanner. Oh, so you're single. Wait.

Like, do you want to come in or what? I mean. Yeah, I think you should come in. Is the mayor inside? Yeah. Yeah, okay, I'll come in. It's Christmas Eve. You should probably go down the chimney.

So, Tanner, describe what they see as you come into the homestead. You see Tanner Codswallop, also known as Tanner Trash, or just Trash for short. Tanner looks like he got held back about seven times. He's a varsity football,

wrestling, lacrosse, basketball, baseball, and swimming. Has a little peach fuzz on his lip and probably shouldn't be in school anymore. But also there's a skunky odor emanating from his hoodie. What's that smell?

That smell? What smell? Are you a narc? No, I just smell something. It kind of smells like a skunk. Yeah, it's the dump. You smell the dump. Yeah.

Listen, one of those beers, by the way, is mine. It's got my name on it. Turd, why don't you grab me a brewski? I'll see your name anywhere. Just... Do you see the one with the bottle cap on it? There you go. It's about this time you notice

at the edge of the doorway is Phaedra Beasley, the mother of both of you. Kind of in her lace little dress, arms crossed, looking upon this display. I immediately dive in front of Gwenny and fill the frame of the door so that Mom can't see. Hey, Ma. Hi, children. Looks like you're having a little party here.

We're just hanging out. Hi, Mrs. Beasley. Yeah, we're figuring out electives for next year at school. You're not doing anything unsavory, are you? No. What? No, of course not. No, Miss Beasley.

You can trust us, okay? Miss Beasley, you look fantastic tonight, and I have a joke that you might like. I'm going to use my experience called Class Clown to try to distract her with a joke. Okay. I'm going to say to her, what a joke. Okay. I'm gonna say to her, what's Mr. T's favorite month?

April, fools! Definitely roll a presence roll. Okay, with my bonus, that is a 21. With hope. With fear. Okay, so mark off your hopes and your experience. I'll go ahead and take that fear. She leans in close to you and goes,

I'm sorry, I don't get it here. Oh yeah, he's doing it. Mr. Cheese, this guy, he's on TV, he's really cool. I smell something. Mom! She sniffs in the air. You start getting a little nervous. Is it that skunk smell?

I believe that is, and she looks over towards Tanner and walks forward towards you. He ran over the skunk outside! Her, like, kind of fade dress kind of flows as she kind of beelines towards you, like a latch reel intensely towards Frodo. It's like, Is that an illicit substance I smell on your person, Tanner? How's it going, Miss B?

Uh, no. No, I just came from wrestling practice, and I haven't batheded and my gooch smells. You would be in very serious trouble if the man of this house learned that you had brought illicit substances into his home with his daughter.

Perhaps you need to get rid of it quickly. Whoa. Hamlet, your mom is fucking cool. Sure, Mrs. B. I just, you know, the skunk I ran over outside, there was this little baggie next to it. I don't know.

How did it get in there? I don't know, but make sure it's disposed of properly and, you know, don't put it in any brownies. Well, what even is that? Merry Christmas, children. Oregano. And she exits the chamber. Dang.

Did she take her whole stash? No. Ooh, that was close. Winnie, you and I are probably going to have to sleep downstairs in the den in sleeping bags tonight. Okay. Mom and Dad are going to... Oh, yeah.

Yeah. I feel like whenever I smell that smell, they're usually up all night. Wait, wait. Your parents party? Hello? Mrs. Beasley, our mother, is the sex education teacher. That makes so much sense. I just thought she was crazy wise.

Wait, wait, wait. Were your parents hitting on our parents? Oh, they're definitely into some swingers. I mean, they don't do that anymore. Dude, it's written all over them. Wait, what? I don't think. You hear laughter from upstairs,

and the skunk smell gets stronger. Dang. I mean, that's so gross. We gotta get out of here. We gotta get out of here. Yeah. No. That's gross, but, like,

is this that kind of a house where like, people can't... Let's go. Hey, wait, Dylan, Dylan, I brought a Polaroid. Maybe we should just, you know, like... What? What? I mean, that would be offensive and gross. We should get out of here.

Do you have the hots for their mom? Yeah. Bethany. Bethany, this conversation begins to dull into a... in the background as you look past the hallway that leaves the kind of kitchen window area, and you see the light from the basement door that was previously locked just open and spread against the hall. Hey guys, maybe, maybe we can get away from the noise downstairs.

Basement time? It looks like it's unlocked. How'd you do that? I don't know, maybe it was just stuck or something. Yeah, let's go. Bring the beer. Sweet! And the oregano.

You all quietly gather what materials you need from the kitchen and begin to quietly tiptoe down the basement stairs into the underneath of the household, where the laughter and conversation of the parental units amongst their separate holiday shenanigans gets more and more distant. Oh, boy. Here in the basement, you pass by the massive

hot water heater that's always kind of like dinging every five or ten minutes or so. The pipes themselves running about. You can see the massive piles of old rags and bundled up blankets and what looks like old toys from your childhood, both of your childhoods, kind of placed on different shelves.

You can see there's an old card table. Maybe an ancient past in which your father used to host poker nights with his friends. It's kind of gone to the wayside a bit. It's covered with a sheet, and there on top of it you see the cardboard box that your uncle Pelvis had brought here earlier.

I go over to the box and I open it up. No, seriously, guys, this thing is weird. What's in the box? I don't know. We can't open it. I could. It gave seriously, guys, this thing is weird. What's in the box? I don't know. We can't open it. I could. It gave a weird feeling, though. When I was looking at it earlier, that lettering on it,

I mean, it kind of looks like German, but it's, like, bold. It's not, I don't know, it's weird. Doesn't German just look like English, except in, like, the wrong order? No, they got some weird squiggly letters and, like, weird dots over some of them. It's a little weird. Yeah.

If you can open it, go for it. Oh, Dylan can open anything. We have him down at the dump, and every time we get a car dropped off, he gets the trunk open like that. True story. Yeah, and worst case scenario, Bethany, we'll just do what we did when we were so pissed about finals and we went down to the dump and threw televisions in the air

and let them break. Yeah. Every Christmas, my dad lets me go through the lost and found box at the mall and pick whatever I want or anything he confiscates. That's so cool. And I had a lockpick set about two years ago.

I didn't bring it because, you know, I was trying to respect the house. Why? How far is your house? It's on the other side of town, but... I'll tell you, do you have, like, I don't know, a hairpin or something or a... All right.

I've got a thing called pick and pull, which gives me advantage on opening locks I'm going to get a beer and I'm going to spend a hope for one of my experiences I'm just going to MacGyver this Alright, so go ahead and roll a finesse roll for me and adding your, is it plus two for your experience?

It's a plus two plus a d6 Alright, It's a plus two. Plus a d6 for your experience. Plus a d6, alright. Come on. Don't suck. That doesn't suck, that's pretty good. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 23, I think,

with hope. Whoa! 23 with hope. Take your hope on that one. Yeah. As you kind of look at it for a second, fiddle with it, and as your Oh! That was really good. Take your hope on that one. Yeah. As you look at it for a second, fiddle with it, and as your fingers are touching the outside of the box, you can feel that strange tingling sensation travel through your fingers of your hand,

hearing this distant music. It's odd, it's like somebody had turned on the stereo system two houses down far too loud, but it's inviting. And as you inspect the lock, and it is a large lock, whatever key this was built for was an old, like, thick iron key.

But to that point, you find the tumbler is not too difficult, given your experience in opening all things you shouldn't. You all kind of gather around quietly as you watch Dylan kind of get close, passing one second tumbler, and with each push, you almost swear

you can see the hands on the side of the box beginning to relax. Oh my god, the hands are relaxing! How are you standing next to us? I'm just very close to Dylan, just loud breathing.

Your breath smells like bologna. Can you please back off? I just had a bologna sandwich! Yeah, hold on, let me get it. There's a little bit of it on your mouth guard. Sorry. Sorry. And then, as you hit the final lock tumbler,

the box lid pops off onto the ground as light begins to filter out from the inside of the box. The entirety of the basement ceiling is now lit like a massive light is just shining onto it from below. You all stand back as the air leaves the room. You feel like this warmth is now emanating like a bonfire has just suddenly flashed in the middle of the chamber

like your eyebrows might be burned off, but it's welcoming. You hear music. You hear laughter. You in the middle of the chamber like your eyebrows might be burned off, but it's welcoming. You hear music, you hear laughter, you hear the voices of song. Get back, it's radioactive, it's the commies! Eureka! As this happens, you watch as vines begin to curl out

and wrap on the sides. Holly bushes seem to expand, bright red berries almost peering off the sides of the table. The tables become part of the slide. I push Ralph behind me. Oh, the light default! The lid that sits on the slide. The light as a glowing blue orb

seems to appear from the inside, and with it, you watch as ribbons of light and color seem to just spill out and wrap around the actual load-bearing pillars of the area and begin to wrap around all of you. This light seems to take almost a human shape, like the tiniest of beautiful humans, this kind of androgynous-looking humanoid fairy-like entity.

This semi-translucent blue spirit seems to unravel, yawning. Commies are small. As it unleashes its hands, the light gets brighter. The vines shoot out against all of you, wrapping around you. You find yourselves tethered, and you feel that warmth beginning to grow from within you like a fire's about to burn you from the inside.

As it does, you suddenly start to shift and change. Is this a Christmas thing? Some alien ancient magic seems to take root within your actual physical selves and begin to turn you inside out. Let's begin here. Take the young one, she's still a virgin! Whoa! How do you know?

Riley. I have sex virgin! Whoa! How do you know? Riley. I have sex all the time! No, you don't, everyone knows! There's nothing wrong with being a virgin! Each of you, correct, each of you have envelopes in front of you. Pull the one from Marisha to you. Oh my god.

As Marisha, if you would describe how you transformed. Oh my god, I'm so excited for this. What? What? Oh wait, that's not me. This is, shit, wait. Marisha, you already know yours. Oh, I know, but I, okay, wait,

I have the paper for this, I just wanna be refreshed. I'm waiting, I'm waiting. There we go, describe it. Okay, so you see, you see Riley's cargo pants start to get shorter and shorter. First they're like high waters, and then they go up to the knees, and then they keep going as you see hooves start to elongate out from the bottom of her jeans.

Riley! You know, her puffer jacket does the same thing as it gets shorter and shorter, and her red bushy hair that's coming out from under her hat starts to spread, and it gets bushier and bushier and turns almost into a mane. As her arms start to elongate, and then she cracks her head a little bit as her nose starts to elongate and turns into a reindeer skull. And from out from the back of her ball cap, antlers start to grow and start to reach the ceiling as you see, and they almost start to catch

some of the Christmas lights that manifest and start weaving in and out between her antlers. And then you see along her arms, almost Nordic-style art is starting to be sketched around her fur. Whoa! Ah! At which point, Tanner begins to feel this tether within him and begin to pull him into a strange new physical presence.

Tanner, would you mind describing your transformation as the rest of your time? Trash! I scramble backwards in the basement, I find a trash can nearby, and I grab the metal lid, and I'm like, what the fuck is... And Tanner starts hitting the ground, and as he's hitting the ground,

his forearms start growing, the muscle starts adding to his arms, and fur starts to grow, his hoodie starts to split, it turns into like these suspenders, and all of a sudden his red bandana turns into like a Santa! And Tanner

turns into this fucking silverback banging cymbal toy monkey! Monkey! What the fuck is happening? Gwenny, as you're screaming, your voice seems to shift.

I'm going to leave the basement. As you turn to run, your legs seem to not be quite as sturdy as they were before. What's happening? What's happening? Indeed, Gwenny, what is happening, if you wouldn't mind describing what you become. Okay, as the transformation happens, Gwenny's eyes turn into just round, black voids of terror. Gwenny? And she starts to shrink,

but fills out into three round balls of snow. Her headgear turns into this horrifying metal mouth! Arms poking out! Terrifying. What the fuck?! As you watch Gwenny partially, actually melt in front of you and scream that, Dylan, if you wouldn't mind, as you look down at your hands and stuff.

I start to feel something weird in my mouth, and I, and it's, there's these teeth, these like tusks that are sort of growing out of my mouth, and I look down, and there's white hair that's starting to cover my hands, and then my cheeks just start to kind of pulse and my eyebrows

pulse, and my face changes and becomes this weird simian pulse, and my eyebrows pulse, and my face changes and becomes this weird Simeon type, and my hair gets really long and white everywhere. My chain of wallets starts to wrap around me. I'm doing it! Sharing in the screaming, Tristan joins the fray as you... He's freaking out over his little sister has turned into a lump, but his body starts to elongate.

His arms get longer, his legs get longer. He stretches up till his shoulders are pressing into the ceiling. His clothes start to burst. Everywhere is tufts of fur spread out on his chest. The pants split open Hulk style, His clothes start to burst everywhere as tufts of fur spread out on his chest. The pants split open Hulk style and horns grow up out of his head straight up and out to the side. And his tongue elongates out until he turns into a ripped fucking Krampus. Oh my God!

What? Oh my God, look at my abs! He's a teen wolf! They're gonna cast me as Richard III, motherfuckers! Has his tongue and lashes around in the space, the energy of the magic spreading into the chamber. Out of the corner of your eyes, you're so focused on yourself, you don't realize the massive icicles that are growing on the edges of the chamber

and cutting up through the floor, the growth of the strange ivy and vines and holly itself, turning the basement around you into a veritable dark forest. As Bethany, what do we see? I start running away and clutching at things, but as I do, I fall over and

I realize my legs are slowly disappearing as my skirt gets longer and longer and I start shrinking more and more. My body turns into kind of this bulbous sphere and my face starts cracking and turning into wood. As I realize I've turned into a tree topper. Oh no.

I didn't even know that. I'm so... A tree topper. Oh no! I need a dance! It's a tree topper! I try to flutter my stupid mesh wings and I take off from the ground just a little bit. Your eyes are so scary. They are! What happened to your eyes? I don't like it! Bethany, you're a toy!

In the middle of all this chaos, poor Ralph Bader Ginsburg Blake, screaming. I'm screaming, I just want to enjoy Christmas. I just want to enjoy Christmas. I just want to enjoy Christmas. I just want Christmas. And as I'm chanting, my acne,

which, by the way, this is just makeup. My acne starts to explode. And green pus starts spewing out of all of my acne all over my face until my entire face erupts and becomes green. And I shift and grow and turn into a large Grinch. I just want Christmas for myself. And I also kind of look like Grinch. Go Flyers! As the immediate panic subsides into near hyperventilation of you all looking across at each other,

in the middle, the strange kind of blue, fairy-looking spirit stands there smiling amongst all of you. Ah, I'm free from the jubilant box. Ah, mein Lieber. Frühe vier Tagen, mein Children. Wait, wait, you speak German, right? Yeah, yeah, she said,

she said something for talking. What? Feiertagen. She said Merry Christmas. Frohe Feiertagen. I'm pretty sure that means Merry Christmas. All must be cheerful. All must be in the spirit.

You are all beautiful, and I will make everything just as beautiful. I must call my friends. No. The children must be judged. No, no, no. Takes off shattering outside of the barely visible basement window. Give me my hands back, you bitch!

And scatters off into the night air as you watch the still-growing ivy curling out the window. The spirit vanished into the night. Tristan! Winnie! You guys, they're going to stick the military on us! We've got to get out of here. You guys, my dad's gonna kill me! I'm a fucking snowman!

Yeah! How am I supposed to move? Wait a second. Wait a second. Why are you the only one who got hotter, Tristan? That's not fair! It's not fair! I'm kind of okay with it. We gotta come up with a plan.

I think you still look pretty good, Bethany. Shut up. Okay, okay. Ginsburg, that's real weird now, dude. We gotta get out of here. We gotta move. Where? Where can parents see us?

What can we do? Is there a window in this basement? Or storm cellar doors? There's the window the spirit shattered out of. The box still sits open in the central table. Wait, is there anything else in the box? You look inside, and it's just a still, like, plain wooden interior

with the tiniest chain affixed to it. A chain? Like a broken chain? Like a chain that may have held what was once there. Oh, she was chained inside. Is there any chance that a gorilla, a Krampus, and a true detective monster are going to fit through the window?

Probably not. I'm going to flutter up the steps to the basement and peek out of the door. As you head up the steps, which by the wall themselves now are overgrown and the door is partially pushed in from what looks like a tree, is now rapidly growing out of the side of the wooden frame.

You peer into the hallway and you can see now, first off, the temperature has dropped significantly. And as you glance inside, there are sheer walls of ice. Like, the interior of your house has, like, snapped frozen. Good news, guys. I don't think our parents are going to kill us. Bad news, I think our parents are probably monsters just like us. Mom! Dad!

Aw, I don't want to go check. They're probably in the middle of boning. Oh, what if they fused? Oh! Oh! No! I took out my Polaroid. Actually, maybe we should go check.

We should go check. Yeah, that sounds crazy and interesting. You guys head up the stairs, and indeed, the interior of this gorgeous mayor's household has become this nightmare wonderland with cracking ice that seems to pierce out of the nearby windows. You can see bits of green are growing out of

wherever wood is exposed. The center of the kitchen island is pushed off to the side from what looks like an actual massive pine tree that's now pushing in real time, growing out of the floor and beginning to pierce the ceiling. You push past and head to the parents' den upstairs, where you heard the laughter as well.

The smell of weed is still strong from it. It's kind of peeked through the doorway and the ice itself has pierced and coated the interior of this chamber. Most everything itself is locked in these massive kind of glacier-type ice, like monoliths. And there you can see indeed the mayor, Cameron Blake,

straddled by Phaedra Beasley, both... Close on! It looks like the night was just beginning, but they are frozen in ice, and their eyes within the ice turn towards you, panicked. Where's my mom? Where's my mom? You look on the other side and Walton Beasley is in the process of giving

a nice shoulder massage to your mother. Mom! They are both also frozen in ice. Her blouse is kind of off the shoulders. But they're both looking panicked and their eyes also roll over towards you within their ice cautions.

I see a blanket frozen and frost on the side. Can I break it off and try to cover my mom? Sure, I'll allow it. Okay. We gotta rescue them. If they stay like this for long, they could die or something. We gotta get them out of here.

We gotta solve this. I immediately grab Ginsberg and everybody else and I start shoving them through the door but my hands keep clapping so it's like clang, clang, clang, clang. Don't use your voice if they can see us. What if they know it's us?

How would they know it's us? It's good boy. It's good boy. Wait. Do you think we're having a contact high? I've heard that's a thing. What's your boy? There is a lot of smoke in the air I Did I did say why oh Pelfast drug just that's what happened. We don't know what kind of swag was in that 200 year old box Okay, okay. Hang on drugs drugs. She said that the Blue Fairy,

she must have been like the spirit of Christmas or something. She said, she said, Frohe Weihnachten, I think. What does that mean? Merry Christmas! Are you listening to yourself? Merry Christmas to you, too! And then she said something about Obelisk.

What did she, can I, can I, what did she say, Matt? You said it so fast. I know. I was so distracted. She mentioned the Jubelnbots. Jubelin? Jubelnbots. Jubelin. Do we know what that is?

Which I'll say, because you know a little bit of German and the context of it, it means the cheer box. The cheer box. Yeah. That's what she was in? Yep, yep. And Froi Furtagen is happy holidays. Oh!

What is it, what is it? Froi Furtagen, okay, okay. Felicia Weihnachten. Okay. But that doesn't tell us how to fix it. No. What am I supposed to do in the summer? Winnie, chill.

We're gonna solve this. Winnie, we're gonna fix this. We have a few months. I'm freaking out. Look, all we have to do is get the blue fairy back and put her back in the box. That should contain all of the Christmas scariness, right? Yeah, is there any fairy juice on the walls or traces? I don't know

how fairies move. What the fuck is going on? She went out the window. We got to hit the town then. Let's get outside and see where the trail goes because probably wherever she flies, that's where the worst of this is going to be. She said she was going to go find her children or something like that.

That's right. What the fuck children is she talking about? I don't know. I head down the stairs, but not like a human would. I just like use my hand and my feet run up on the wall and I'm like, oh, bodacious. I just start barreling downstairs. I'm going to head for the front door and try

and find the basement window to see if I can find any trace of the blue fairy. Certainly. Alright, so you head to the basement window and look around. I mean, she's definitely absconded. You very easily do see, though, as through the window what was just a well-manicured grass lawn,

you can't see through, because now it's completely overgrown into a dark forest just beyond the glass. Grab the box! Okay, hang on. Wait, let me take a look at this. May I use my gifted tracker ability to spin to hope?

Yes. And then you have to tell me the answer to any number of questions. Is that like a reindeer thing? Any number of questions? Yeah, it's one per hope. Oh yeah, that's right, yeah. So I'm gonna spend one hope to ask,

which direction did she go? Oh. Whoa. So you step outside of the front door of the household to get a better look at the neighborhood and the path she was going, and indeed, the entire household has like a slow-growing, dark German forest beginning to consume it from the outside.

And you see a path, a trail of where it would have moved through the neighborhood. These little streets and homesteads themselves are now being consumed as well by these massive trees. You watch as streams of lights begin to apparate. All these little lights begin to dully glow from beyond the needles. You can see shards of ice growing up around

and what was once a dull gray sky was a gentle snow begins to thicken and the wind begins to pick up with more of a chill. You spend a hope and you're asking where it went? Yeah. From where you sit, which would be to the right, the northeast of Creepy Miss Springs' house,

you gather that it is likely traveling in the direction of... Actually, roll a d6 for me to see where it was going. Roll a d6. Man, I do not trust anything German. Five. Five, okay. All right, it is heading pretty far north, actually.

It's heading in the direction of the water tower. Okay. You see, like, in my antler, or, like, under my reindeer skull, my eyes kind of flicker a little bit, and it's almost like a night vision that almost kind of cues in Riley's head. Whoa.

And she knows the way. Guys, follow me. And as she starts to clomp forward, she hits a patch of black ice and just goes, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck. I love that song. and just goes. I love that song. Wait, oh, wait! And then I turn around and I look for my skateboard

that I left on the front porch. But it looks a little different. Oh. It's a sled. Okay. Wait, did we grab the box? Yes. Who grabbed the box?

Tanner grabbed the box when he went down there because I screamed it at him. All right, so go ahead, Mark. Down there, you have the Ubel box? I got the box. And you're just pinching it between two giant symbols? Yeah. Yeah. This is where lacrosse comes in handy.

Perfect. Maybe, oh, maybe we can shove it inside Gwen's snow. Go for it! Yeah, yeah, yeah. Take a big breath. Super. And just kind of like, it's like pushing into a doughy slush pile. It doesn't hurt. It feels comfortable.

If anything, it gives you a little more strength. I don't feel anything! Great. I put one hoof on my toboggan, and then I use the other hoof to start pushing, and I start leading the way north. Great. You all follow behind Riley. I'm going to flutter up. This is like my mesh wings are really shit at flying,

so I'm going to flutter as hard as I can and land on top of one of Tristan's horns. And as I pass a frozen car window, I'm like, God, my pecs are so choice. I got like a 12 pack. Alright, let's go. Okay.

Following down Easternly Lane, up towards where the bridge crosses the river that winds through Spingdale Springs, you can see the edges of the bridge itself are encased in shards of ice, and the river below has become just glacial, frozen, immovable

ice in both directions. You can see what looks to be one sort of a smaller vessel that was probably coming through, carrying materials down the river that's just frozen and locked partially out of the water itself. It's hanging lantern lights, kind of glowing in the distance. You can see one car that was coming across the road itself is pushed up by the ice and is partially encased. You continue past the bridge towards the direction of the water tower. And there, you just barely make out

over the tree line that surrounds the city, this pale, like in a bluish glow, kind of like figure eights over the horizon before vanishing into the trees around the base of the water tower. Dylan, you know the water tower, right? Because you tagged it. I mean, I've tagged a lot of things.

I don't, I mean, it says Dylan right on the top of the... In seven-foot letters. That could have been anybody. I mean, we can head that way. There's the old car cemetery right nearby. We can try and get some cover. No, no, I saw that. She went that way.

She went towards the tower. We got to go to the tower. I'm not going first. I can't go in the water tower. We don't want to go in the water tower. Tristan, go. You have, like, so many pecs. All right, I'll do it.

Ah, wait, let me get off your horn first. Okay, so are you all trekking towards the water tower? Are you leading the charge? I'll lead the way as the enforcer. Okay. Tongue just swinging side to side.

It's like a foot-long fruit roll-up. Are you all beelining, or are you going stealthily? Oh, should we stealth it? What does the blue light look like it's doing? Is it flying around, or is it staying there? The blue light, you saw, like, figure eight around, like, the base of the water tower, and then vanished into the tree line near the base of it. You're not certain where it's at.

Yeah, we gotta go. We don't want to lose it. Yeah, we gotta go. Yeah, we move quickly. Fuck stealth. Okay. All right, all right, of it. We gotta go. We don't want to lose it. Yeah, we gotta go. We move quickly. Fuck still. Alright, alright, alright. As we're going, by the way, as we left the house, I grabbed a handful of candy canes from the dish, and I've just been

eating them, like, just non-stop. I just need more Christmas. Anything raw, raw, raw, raw, raw, raw, raw. Like more Christmas. Anything like a muppet. Perfect, I love it. None of it's actually being swallowed, it's just breaking into the mouth and falling out. Yeah. Charging across the bridge

and coming to the outside of the water tower, you can see there's the heavy tree line around it and the numerous abandoned cars that are scattered around the base. The chain link fence is pushed over in places, elements other cut around it, but you can see the tree line is just now growing. You can see these odd, almost

briar-like growths out of it. Instead of thorns, there's holly bushes popping out of it, and the faint glow of little candles and elements of odd, almost natural Christmas light string apparating out of odd, almost like natural Christmas light string sort of apparating out of nothing, curling

around the trees, giving it a hauntingly beautiful theme, like an amalgamation, an alien interpretation of a nightmare Christmas. And as you get closer, too, you can see the lights themselves slowly wrapping up the outer poles of the massive water tower itself.

No current sign of the spirit, but its presence is definitely changing the landscape. Okay. How do you want to approach this? Yeah, how do you want to do this? I need direction, motivation. Am I going to use

the box to capture the thing? Or do I just grab her by the neck? Yeah, yeah. This is, um, this is Death of a Salesman. Okay. I'm Willy Loom, and I can work with that. I'm tired of the road. You're tired of the road, and you just want to...

I never saw Death of a Salesman. I don't know what you're talking about. Okay, no, no, this is that brand new show that just came out, Les Miserables. And you're Jean Valjean, and you stole a loaf of bread, and Javert is after you, and I don't know where this is going,

but I really like that show. Revolution is so good. It's good. I'm going to spend a fear here. Oh no. And you watch as this blizzarding kind of, or not blizzarding yet, but the growing storm of snow and wind is picking up around you

out of nowhere. A bolt of lightning strikes from the clouds somewhere between the thicket of trees before you, and you see a flash of flame and a bit of cinder. Oh, shit! No, it's okay, it's okay. I know what we're doing over here.

I'll go check it out. And I'll start to... Cymbals on the snow. All right. Who's following Tanner? I'm right behind trying to like, I just watched

the new American Ninja film that came out like three months ago. I'm going to spend another. I'm going to land on Dylan's head. I'm going to spend

another fear. And as you land on Dylan's head and the rest of you are trying to get up, the thicket grows between your troop and you lose

entire sight of Tanner, Dylan, and Bethany as they kind of vanish deep into space. There's a wall in front of you now of just tangled vine and holly. Bethany, no!

I think they're dead. We should cut loose and run. I do too. Should we go back? No, no, no. We have to be brave in the face of adversity. We just have to get... You're not... We have to cut through this forest. Okay.

How do we do that? Well, we could brute force it. We could sort of find our way... Oh! I know how. Oh, boy. I'm going to use my ability. I saw that episode.

I saw an episode. I saw an episode of Unsolved Mysteries where a group of kids was lost in the woods and they found their way out by following the sound of water. Let's see if that works. I think that's normally the opposite of what you're supposed to do.

I'm pretty sure I saw that episode, so I'm going to listen for any sounds that might lead us out. Okay. So you're going to make a group roll with your side of the troop here. So I'm going to say for this, go ahead and make an instinct roll. You're the leader of this. Sure. Before you make the roll, you're all contributing to this.

Yes. So I'd like each of you also to make an instinct roll to contribute to the bonus of this final check. Okay. Oh! No. This is a reaction roll, so you don't gain any hope.

Seven with fear. Okay, so I don't gain any fear, it's just a reaction roll, but that is one failure. Nine with hope. With hope? I mean, you don't gain a hope on this, it's just a reaction roll. but that is one failure. Nine. With hope. With hope? I mean, you don't gain a hope on this, it's just a reaction roll. That's right, you literally just said that, I'm so sorry. Oh, we'll keep saying it, don't worry. I know.

16. With hope. Okay. No, it's good to say it. It is nice to say. I'm saying that I'm hopeful that this is going to work. I get that. And I love that for you. Thank you. All right. So that would be minus two plus one.

So overall, it's a minus one to your final group check. What? You're navigating them through the space. So go ahead and make your instinct roll minus one. I made my instinct roll, and it is two tens. It's a critical success. Oh instinct roll minus one. I made my instinct roll and it is, it's two 10s, it's a critical success. Oh, there you go! Great. Yes.

I'm cavelling over here. Great, so as a crit, you also gain a hope and clear stress if you have any. It's a Critmas miracle, Ralph. Oh wow, it is. I can feel the spirit of Christmas sort of flowing through me, and it's pointing that way.

You can hear the faintest sound of trickling water. I don't know from what, but we're going to follow it. All right, so as you guys are following that sound, we come back over to Tanner, Dylan, and Bethany. As you guys haven't noticed yet that the rest of the tree hasn't kept up, but you begin to snake around the thickened trees. You can see now the branches almost

seem to reach out slowly like hands. You kind of push past them, and you can see there's a number of abandoned cars, their tops kind of caved in, their trunks open or torn away, their engines either already pulled for parts or themselves just rusted over, and now within them you can see like the intricate little bushes growing out,

these kind of relics of abandoned industry have been taken by the holiday spirit. And you can see these tiny little red berries that are appearing all around it. You can also smell this scent of like smoldering wood almost. It's like something that had burned

the impact of the recent lightning strike. Oh God, I think I'm really flammable. I mean, just, you know, I think as long as you're not touching the ground, you're probably okay. I don't know how lightning works. My hands light up. Guide us.

Guide us. Okay, now I would like you to guide a navigation role to your side of this troop now. Does that hurt? I can't feel anything, it's kind of warm. Weird. Fuck it up. Dylan and Tanner, both of you make instinct rolls for me.

Man, that is gonna make a love life really difficult. I'm okay with it. 23 with hope. It's a festival of lights. 17, and it's none of your business if I lose hope. All right, great. So you get a plus two to your roll as you are leading this, but they helped you out. And I'm rolling an instinct?

It's instinct, yes. God, why didn't I give myself better instinct? Plus two. That would be 15 with fear. Okay, that's not bad. That's not bad. So I do gain a fear. Good job, Becky.

On that one. So you... You know my name, Trash, okay? Independently, both troops take wider routes, separated, but do eventually kind of guide themselves to the central point at the base of the water tower. You begin to see where part of that thick brush begins to separate and where the heaviest cluster of abandoned cars sits on the right-hand side, or the eastern side of the water tower.

The heavy, tall chain-link fences wrapped in razor wire at the top are partially bent in as part of the growth is kind of punctured through and overtaken. And there in the middle you can see where the lightning has struck. There is this kind of glowing, almost like a runic circle in the middle, and the spirit sits there with its hands

up, and it's just muttering to itself with a vast smile that gives off a bright, wonderful, warming glow. And you see from within this kind of crater a bit, a bit of like a torch of flame. And you watch as a figure kind of emerges from this hole. You see

a humanoid, a little bit bigger than Tanner's human size, a little smaller than what you are now. Its body covered in what looks like clothing, old clothing, but it's kind of tattered and dirty. Its arms, bundles of sticks. It looks like some sort of massive scarecrow

that seems to almost grow as it steps out of the center of this. But where its scarecrow head would be, it is currently split in two. And where it was split, you can see the embers burning of where the lightning struck and divided it. And on the inside, both both sides kind of seem to move like two parts of a mouth kind of shifting on its own. And it kind of emerges from within and spins over towards the spirit.

The spirit says, Velkommen. And begins to fly off into the sky. No, no, no, no, no, no. That means welcome. Thank you. Do you want to do anything before it tries to take off? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. That means welcome. Thank you. Do you want to do anything before it tries to take off? I shoot her with my slingshot.

Go for it, let's go ahead and take a shot. Oh, bad. What the heck? Eleven with hope? Eleven with hope. Unfortunately, does not hit. But you do gain a hope for the roll. As you fire, it just goes wide

and kind of vanishes into the night. But the spear turns around, takes notice of you all and goes, You've come as well? Please, walk with Hans. Hans, embrace the children. The Scarecrow turns around, flames at his

split head. Keep him away from me! No, no, no. No, Hans! No, no, no, no, no! And it begins to kind of head towards you, lumbering. It's going to take one heavy swing over towards you, Riley. It looked smaller distance. Now it's probably about ten feet tall on the shoulder,

and its splintered head, the closer you get, it looks like what you expect to be burning cinders. You almost see teeth writhing on the inside of its split head as it goes rushing towards you. It's going to go ahead and attempt to take a burning maw attack against you. I'm going to spend a fear to do that. That's going to go ahead and attempt to take a Burning Maw attack against you. I'm going to spend a fear to do that. That's going to be a 12. What's your evasion? Miss.

Ooh! So question, my evasion is 15, but I get plus one against the creature that I've been tracking. Would this count? No, because you're tracking the spirit. Okay. But still, that still is a myth. It goes wide from there, pulls back. I'm going to burn it.

Oh, no, it's not have relentless. So that's the end of my go there. Oh, it's hot. It's hot, hot, hot, hot, hot. Can I rush forward to try and get it off her? Yes, you can. Tristan had this satchel on his side with all his plays and notes in it, but it's a big, huge sack now, and he pulls out a massive swatch of birch branches

that form a switch, and I try to beat its ass as I launch at it. You've been naughty! I critted. Yeah! You did! For a 25.

Alright, so you gain a hope and clear a stress. That's a nice opening. Go ahead and roll damage on them. Now, also, as a crampus, when you succeed on an attack against a target within melee range, you can mark a stress to kick yourself off them, dealing an extra 2d6 damage. Let's go.

Roll an extra 2d6. So the switch is 2d8? Okay. Here it comes. Yeah, that's seven and that's one. Okay, here it comes. Yeah, that's seven and that's one. Well, you add that also, too, because you crit with it. It's your max damage plus that. Plus that, so 16 plus that. 16, okay.

17, 24. Plus the kicking. 24 plus three is 27. Plus kicks. For a total of 33 points of damage. So I run in and slap its scarecrow ass with the switch and spin it around and then just start kicking up its body. And I leap up into the air

and crash down in front of my little sister. What the fuck do I do now? So that's a severe wound, so marks three hit points on that. It does get a reaction. Vengeful spirit, as Hans Trapp, this strange entity, you come down and slam it in its face.

Before you kick off its body, it reaches up and its extended claws, its wooden claws seem to rake out and grab your body for a second. Before you can kick entirely off of it, it pulls you in, and the fire burns in your face. The cinders seem to intensify, and you swear you can

see where the twigs begin to withdraw, and writhing flesh and teeth begin to take over from the inside of its split head and throat. As it tries to pull you in, you kick off in time, but the flames still burn you for... It's okay, you'll use it for sense memory work. 14 points of physical damage.

Ooh, 14 points? What? Ooh. Ooh. Guys! I'm just gonna be here on that. Does this enemy remind you of the mascot of our rivals, the Waterfall Falls fighting Von Trapps.

What? Yeah, what, because I was, what did you say? DM above the table? Hans Trapp. Hans Trapp? Not Von Trapp. No, Hans Trapp. Rules, point of order, that was major damage for me,

so I'm going to use some of my curly chest and shoulder hair as armor and mark that off so I take one hit point of damage. You got it. Okay. Can I, can I, since Tristan is standing in front of me, can I sort of like peek around and

I just put my hand out and shoot out a cinder grasp? Sure, yeah, if you want to. All right. So the partially burning scarecrow, you're going to rush up and try and finish the job? Yeah.

All right, now is that a melee attack? That is a spellcast roll that you can target within melee range. All right, yeah, so you have to get right up close to it to do it. So you dart around your brother Tristan and charge up towards the flaming, angry scarecrow. Your tree branch hand is on fire! So I roll attack.

Is that? All right, all right, all right. Why can't you ever read dice? We've traveled across the entire country. You're using new dice. All right, that's 15 with hope. 15 with hope is actually just perfectly enough. Yes.

So you take hope and roll your damage on them all. All right. Okay, so that is 20 plus three. 20, 20. Okay. Oh, oh. That's 22 points of damage. That's going to be a major wound,

so it takes two hit points from that. Why do I have a fire ability? This doesn't make any sense! You're bolting! That's what was once the burning inside of its split head. Now the flames begin to curl across its shoulders, a number of parts of its body. It's now like half of a

burning wicker man, like in the middle of this space as the spirit's kind of drifting way up in the air, looking down, kind of smiling and looking upon the chaos. Do you think this thing was a person like we were? It doesn't matter. We gotta end this thing. It's evil.

Kill it! Kill it! I'm gonna spend a fear immediately to have it jump in here and make a twig claw strike against you since you're right in its face and just set it aflame. You hear this evil, angry gurgling inside. It's fury.

Why is it making that noise? That's gonna be a nine to hit you. What's your evasion? It's 11. No, you can't hit anything. And when a creature acts while on fire, they must take an extra 2d6. Roll 2d6 damage.

Okay. It swings wide towards you, furious, but it's motion. Five. Five damage, all right. That is just a minor wound to it, so it takes another hit point. It swings a heavy, angry flaming arm towards you, but your lithe snowman body.

I roll backwards. You just out of the way. Goes wide. I know Mom is frozen in coitus right now, but for some reason I think she'd be so proud of you. All of this action is making me so verklempt and so nervous, and my stomach is bubbling, and I ate a lot of candy canes,

and so I come up close to it, and I just barf candy at it using my elemental breath ability my Grinch draconic ability and I'm going to try to hit it with a candy barf. Let's go for it. Oh shit, Ralph is ralphing.

Twelve with hope. 12 with hope will not succeed. You gain a hope, but unfortunately, as you try and gurgitate up, it gets caught in your throat. You're not familiar with this much candy in the middle of your body. It's caught.

A couple pieces fly out. But the noise is loud enough that the entity turns towards you, Hans. It's going to go ahead and charge up. Actually, no, from where it's standing, it's going to go ahead and make a lob ember attack since the flames are in there. So I'm going to go ahead and stress on him there.

It reaches into its split head and pulls out some sort of strange burning coal-like section of dark material. Ew! And chucks it at you for... That's going to be a 10 to hit you. What's your evasion? My evasion is 12.

Man, this guy can't roll for crap. That's okay. I'll make it up later. So you just dodge out of the way. So while all that is happening, I assume now they're in melee. They're at it. They're not.

The one who's in melee currently would be Gwen. Okay, well, that works. I'm going to get close to this thing. And I normally have like a weight in my wallet that I use to just like, you know, just in case you got to run and smack someone in the head real hard. Yeah. And I go for it and my wallet is gone. It's just this like weird ice ball weight.

And I just start giving it a swing and I give it a lob, I don't know why, and the blade of ice just fires off of it. Hell yeah. All right, so go ahead and roll an attack. All right, that is... Here we go. Ness. That is...

17 with hope. Whoa! Gain of hope, and that indeed hits. Go ahead, roll damage. All right, so that's, here we are, 2d8 plus 2d6 because I've got that rogue class, so I get that little sneak attack. Yeah, you do.

Whoa, okay. That's a lot of damage. That's a good roll. We're all Gwenny now. Whoa! 26 points of damage. That is a major wound, which takes it down its final two hit points.

How do you want to do this? Oh! As the foot-and-a-half-long icicle that has just broken off my weird chained ice sphere hits it, it just starts to branch out like a snowflake and slowly snuff out the fire, just piece by piece until it's brittle and cold. It kind of like freezes up at that moment, the fire seems to subside and go out, and now it's just another frozen sculpture amongst the frozen forest, the spirit kind of floating above. I'm going to spend a fear. Oh! The spirit of holiday cheer is going to take its turn and go, oh, Hans, but your time is not over.

It's going to spend another fear on its inspire myth ability. And Hans tapped. What? Suddenly the flame begins to burn anew from within. No! The ice begins to melt, and it's recovered some of its hip points. Oh, shit. No!

The spirit of Christmas is so strong. The spirit's just encouraging its brethren. Why are you doing this? Because it's the holidays. It's a good point. Uh, Riley. Do you want to go now? It's back to you. Uh, can I? Oh, sorry. No, good point. Uh, Riley. Do you want to go now? It's back to you.

Uh, can I? Oh, sorry. No, you go. No, you. Go. I was on top of Dylan's head when he did that final attack, so when I see it come back to life,

I'm going to just fly forward off of Dylan's head and take my two light hands and stab it into its face. Got it. Let's go. Let's go. Okay.

Okay. Oh, no. light hands and stab it into its face. Got it, let's go, let's go. Okay. Does a seven with hope? Okay. Wait, no, I add anything. No, I don't add anything to it. Do I? Do you? I mean, whatever your weapons. Strike.

Okay, well, that's a 10 with hope. 10 with hope, unfortunately does not succeed. You gain a hope, but as you try and jam towards it, you actually feel like your hands get too hot. You try and strike towards the center of its chest, and it turns and leans in, its mouth open, and the flame is burning from the inside of its, I don't know, like torso,

makes you pull away at the last minute before you ignite. I knew it, I am flammable. It's now going to go ahead and spin around and try and hit you back before you manage to escape its range there. It's going to go ahead and make a burning moth strike against you. I'm going to spend a fear for that.

There we go. That's a 20 to hit. That definitely hits. Okay. It's always fun to ask just in case. GM's out here. So it's going to strike you for 12 points of physical,

sorry, 15 points of physical damage. Oh, my head's a gold. Okay, that takes it up to major. All right, are you going to spend your armor to reduce it or not? I'm going to, yes. Okay, so it reduces it to a minor wound. It does have an ability called Momentum, which when it hits a target with a successful attack within melee,

I gain a fear, so I get a fear back for that. But that finishes my go. Oh, oh! I'm going to get so mad! And I'm going to use my vengeance ability. I'm going to take a stress, and I'm going to force that jerk to take a hit point, because I took a hit point.

Okay. You should not make Bethany mad. When she's mad, things start to... My hands start to flare up, like, really, really, really bright. She's having a tantrum! As you flare up, the flames in its body seem to intensely burn, and not from its own self.

And you kind of withdraw a little bit. Kind of catches itself. It looks very hurt now. Like you've singed it back and it's barely holding onto itself once more. Eat it, chode. I haven't seen you that mad since dad said you couldn't have

Colors by Benetton perfume. I deserve Colors by Benetton. You know what I mean? Tanner, would you like to go? Yeah, I'll run up on the sides with my two symbols, and I'll run up one of the sides of the trees, and leap and just try and... Hell yeah. Let's go.

That is 16 with hope. 16 with hope, great. Go ahead and take that hope. That is a successful attack. Go ahead and roll damage. Tanner, how do you want to do this? Yeah! I run up and and just smash on either side and all the twigs and kindling go Alright, as it shatters and scatters

across the ground the spirit goes, oh goodness Hunts probably deserve that rest for a moment the chicken rubs her fingers and you see the twigs start to slowly move wait wait wait

what's your name I must go see to my address you should get back in the box and begins to fly away anyone want to do anything as it's flying away can I try to fly after her sure sure it's flying away? Can I try to fly after her? Sure, sure. Bethany, we're trying your...

It's really hard to keep up. Go ahead and make a strength check for me to see if you can maintain speed alongside this. Okay. With your paltry treetopper wings. Listen, I'm used to pushing through. Can I use my experience? Just deal with it, Bethany!

Yes, I'll allow that. So spend a hope and add that to it. Okay, okay. That would be, and it's a strength? Strength, yes. Amazing. So that's plus six, so that is an 18. 18? Nice.

That was with hope. Huh? With hope. Great, yeah, take that hope. Alright, so you, as the rest of you are kind of on the ground and the spirit takes off, you watch Bethany just, her sides of her candle arms flare for a second before, you know, it's like the streak of blue and the streak of red kind of following after.

And you're both now high above the city. And as you're kind of like looking up towards her angrily, you glance down and you can see like the actual path, the trail that has been carved where the spirit has passed through the town with only this brief moment and how the landscape around is just transforming by its very presence.

This is just like missile command at the arcade. Yeah. It arcs up and then just kind of looks over short and sees you and stops and spins and smiles. Ha, sweet sea. Hi. You should get back in your box. I've been there too long.

It's time to be free. Listen. Share with the world the greatness of the holidays. You kind of turned us all into monsters, okay? You're beautiful. I have no legs. And I have no legs. And I have no hands.

Please. Maybe if you come down, you can, um, you can just talk to us, and we can help you. Go ahead and make a presence check for me. Can I, um, no, she wouldn't give a shit about who my dad is.

Sure. Why not? Do it. Can I add, do you know who my dad is to this? He's the mayor. I just ran into the microphone. I'll ask you. Yes.

How do you think this entity has any idea what a mayor is? I don't. I don't think I should get this one. I don't think you should get this one. Call him the Burgermeister. Okay, oh, okay. That would be 18, fear. be 18 fear. 18 with fear, all right, so.

I cocks her head towards you. I have too much to do in so little time, but please, I want you to meet the rest as a family. Oh, shh. It means to arc away, heading back in, you can see towards the eastern side of town. Eastern side. Eastern side, wait, the eastern town or west? East, and girls.

Do you stay and watch where she goes? I want to stay up in the air so I can see exactly where she's going before I go back to the group. Okay, so as you watch ahead, the rest of you on the ground are watching the streak, and you can see now the sticks are getting to reach. I'm getting everybody. Everybody just grab a handful of kindling. We're going to keep this thing apart, and I'm grabbing as much as I can. You're grabbing the kindling?

I am. Okay. Anybody want to join in? Sure, sure, sure. Okay. Anybody want to join in? Sure, sure, sure. Okay! I'm watching Bethany's light arc to the sky and just talking into my breath, now is the winter

of our discontent. Made glorious summer by this son of York. What did that mean? Shut up. Bethany's the coolest. Who's gathering tinder bits of Han's trap?

Oh, tinder bits. Ew. Mark that down for yourself. I will also grab a few. So you've taken the separated bits, some of which is still kind still burning like a cinder. There's an active flame on it, but there's smoke and bits of ember on the edges of it. You gather it, hold it off to the side, and you all begin to- Oh wait, I don't want to touch this! This is too hot! Sorry, I didn't mean to scream.

I'll hold you, snowman. You did. All right, so mark that down. Snowsis? As you all, glancing up towards the flaming arc that is Bethany, keeping watch, you no longer have sight of the spirit of holiday cheer as it has vanished beyond the tree line of your sight.

But you, Bethany, watch as it arcs down. It seems to vanish right around the base of Dorkdug's Arcade. Dorkdug's Arcade, that place is awesome. Okay, as I see it land, I'm gonna fly back down to the group. It just went to Dork Dugs. Shit.

Do you think it likes Metroid or like... Rampage. Rampage for sure. Golden Axe. I don't even want to think about what kind of monsters it can create over there. I'm going to get fired. What about the claw machine?

You hear a heavy crack in the distance, in that direction, uncertain of what it may be, but something has definitely shifted loudly. What was that crack in the distance? We gotta go, we gotta go. With the gathered bundles of flaming sticks that still seem to pull towards each other like a perpetual magnetism,

as you hold them under your arms, themselves forcing, trying to reform itself in your presence, within your grasp. You all trudge out through the heavy, thick-covered wood on the outside of the now-shadowed water tower against the moonlit sky, the blizzard clouds barely starting to close over to prevent any sight at the stars above.

As the cold winter wind takes over, you push to the east of Spring Van Springs. I call first game. And we're going to go ahead and take a break there. Whoa! So funny. Wow. So we'll take our intermission.

We'll see you all here in a little bit. Grab your snacks, grab whatever you need, use your bathroom, and we'll see you shortly. Happy Christmas, y'all. Oh, hey there. Laura Bailey here to tell you all about the glorious goods we create inspired by our stories. Our stores are filled with the basics, like character-inspired T-shirts, dice sets, and pins, as well as more specialty items like fancy jackets, puzzles featuring gorgeous artwork, the comfiest joggers and pajamas ever, and much, much more.

There's also a few special items that support charity efforts, like our dedicated Critical Role Foundation merch. You can check out all of our regional online stores by visiting the Shop tab on critrole.com or head straight to the U.S. store at shop.critroll.com. Every purchase helps support our shows and the stories we tell. Speaking of which, let's get back to the story. What is he giving out? Are those burritos?

Philly cheesesteaks. Oh, Philly cheesesteaks. That makes more sense. What are you doing, Sam? Are you... Oh, no! Oh, man! Did you just throw a loose sandwich?

Are those real sandwiches? Let me smell your hat. Please tell me those weren't actual sandwiches. No, it's merch wrapped in Philly cheesesteak. Oh, okay. Awesome. That scared the hell out of me. And that was for our wonderful VIP guests up front,

but the fun doesn't end there. I have another giveaway for someone further in the back. Section 204, seat E15. Look under your seat oh there's a secret gift or at least we're going to bring it to you or something I don't know I don't really know I didn't plan this

I mean I did plan it but they said there's nowhere to hide it under the seat so they said just announce it and we'll bring it to them it's a Philly cheesesteak wrapped in merch. 204, E15. Yay, there you are! Yay, congratulations!

You are the winner of Critical Role. It's now your company. So much less stress we have a lot of HR problems your problem is now well welcome back everybody so we missed you As we left off

This troop Of strange Festively transformed teenagers Are trekking across Springvale Springs In search of the rogue Spirit of holiday cheer As a terror forms and terrorizes their hometown,

vanishing somewhere in the direction of the arcane as you all continue to track in that direction. Is there anything you wish to prep before you head that further into the city? Oh, prep. Oh, how are you? You have prep? How are you doing on help?

Oh, I should know, too, by the way. I now have a clock up for Han's trap, which you have all brought his pieces with you. Oh. Oh. So I'll just put that there and keep tabs on that. So give me what you're doing. What?

What? Don't worry about it. Hate when he says that. We've got to figure out what we're going to do. Like, we can't just keep going after this creature. What if they just keep creating new monsters everywhere we go? What'd she say? They said they needed to spread Christmas cheer and...

To all their children, right? Stop it. What if we set, like, an ambush? What if we make them come to us? What if the spirit of Christmas really loves, you know, some sticky icky icky? I don't know what that means. Yeah, we, like, you know, we could fan the flames a little bit

and see if we could draw them out of the arcade. You said they're at the arcade. What if we challenge them to Miss Pac-Man or something? Somehow that's a better idea than yours. I don't know. I thought we were cool, Dylan. I thought we were cool. This is an ancient spirit.

It's not like they know Mrs. Pac-Man, but it's been around a long time. That's great. Thank you, Bethany. By theMan, but weed's been around a long time. Screw it. Thank you, Bethany. By the way, just to say it out loud, did you guys notice that we totally changed into monsters and have magical abilities now? It is pretty weird. It's wild. I kind of hate it, but I kind of love it at the same time.

It's pretty warm. Also, your dad threw a key party for Christmas. And invited children. I mean, how creepy. I mean, this night is cursed in so many ways. We could also, what if we do like Christmas caroling? Ooh, I like that idea. What is that going to do?

To keep spreading cheer? Well, maybe to get the spirit's attention? Do you guys know O'Dradle, Dradle, Dradle? I do. Okay. That's one. I don't know. I feel like maybe we should do some, like, research.

I know that sounds super lame, but maybe we should go to, like, the library or something. This just feels so out of our depth, and I don't want to keep fighting wicker men. No, it's super lame. Do you even know to the library or something. This just feels so out of our depth, and I don't want to keep fighting wickermen. No, it's super lame. Do you even know where the library is? No, I don't. It's not on the map.

No, it's not on the map. It's literally not on the map. We could go to the comics. The comics store is like a library. Yes. Honestly, though. Actually, that's a really good idea. The comic book store might be a really good place.

They have like, hey. They have a full run of heavy metal. And it's already on our way to Dork Doug's Arcade, so we can maybe just stop on the way. Dominic's Comic Nook? Yeah. Yeah, also, I worked there one summer. You worked at the comic book store?

You didn't know? No. Yeah. Like, I would ever go there. Bethany, that's not true. Comics are really great. You should really... Maybe I could show you some of mine sometime. She's fine. Just let it go, man.

I got this really cool... I got this really cool one. It's black and white. It's called The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It just came out. Oh. I think it's going to be really big. I don't know. Listen, I mean, like,

what do I care about turtles? It's not like Donatello would totally be my favorite. Wait, you know? Wait, you know about it? Listen, I don't want to talk about this right now. There's bigger things

happening to the town. She always hides her comics in her textbooks. What? What? What? Look, Bethany, I think,

I know nerds aren't cool now, but I have a feeling that in the future, nerds are going to be super cool. I just feel like you know you shouldn't the more you try to deny your inner passions the more it's just gonna like eat you up inside

you're an idiot so here to try and relate to you because I don't relate to you in literally any aspect whatsoever my dad he gave me a bunch of old mercury I don't relate to you in literally any aspect whatsoever. My dad, he gave me a bunch of old mercury from a bunch of thermometers, and I broke them all, and I put them all in my hand,

and then I told everybody that it was my alien symbiote. Whoa! Yeah. That's pretty cool. That's so cool. He took it away later because they said mercury's toxic, but I kept a lot of the mercury. Wow.

Maybe that's why you're a reindeer skull right now. Okay. So, so, I really think we shouldn't rule out that this might be a radiation leak from the silo. I'm just saying. I spit on myself a little. I'm just saying, though. You have no lips.

I mean, it's going to happen. That's true. My tongue has nothing to keep itself from falling out. It's weird. I mean, maybe if we trap the spirit of Christmas in the box, then we can throw it in the nuclear silo. But we've got to do it. Elliot Tanner.

I'm telling you. Wow. You still have the box, right Gwen? Yeah, it's in there. Tristan steps out under a spotlight, a streetlight. Listen, you guys. Look at that happy trail. Trash, did you notice? We'll talk later.

We were always nerds and freaks in our different way, and now we really are. This is the moment where we save our town and save the holidays by embracing that inner nerd and freak. This is our time here. Right now, this is our time.

So I say we go get that fucking fairy monster and stick it in the box and stick that box and stick it in a nuclear factory. Whoa, that was an awesome monologue. You should audition with that next year. Dude, that was just mine and Tanner's ideas that you just like rephrased into a speech. You

suck, bro. You kind of did, Tristan. He took good writing and he performed it well. And now you get a D6 rally die to spend on anything you want because I found my light and delivered! Thank you. D6 acknowledge. Nice.

And you ungrateful fucks can use that for reaction rolls, action rolls, or to clear a number of stress equal to the result. What? Okay, now we're cool. That's pretty major. Even you, Riley. Reaction rolls, what else?

Action, reaction, or use it to clear stress. Okay. Listen, do you think the comic book store would have like old German Christmas tales or something? Hmm. Like ancient horror stories or stuff like that? He does have some eclectic stuff, yeah. Maybe we should check it out then. I mean, there's books that tell you how to fight vampires,

space aliens there. There's got to be something. Yeah, let's swing by. Let's swing by, yeah. All righty. So as you're now trekking back across the town, you hit the street from beyond the water tower, curving kind of on the direction towards

Dork Doug's arcade, but kind of turning left towards Dominic Nook's comic nook. There you can see already in the distance the kind of glowing neon sign of the arcades on the side are starting to be overtaken with shadow as the exterior

of the comic shop itself is mostly dark. There's like a faint bit of blue light inside the front window, but it is closed, being Christmas. The doors themselves shut, but it is there and at your disposal should you were to find the way in. Can you still break into things with your giant paws?

I have very delicate fingernails right now. They're sharp, they'll do the job, and I still have that bloody hairpin, excuse me. I'll need some light, though, come over here. Thank you. Yeah, I'm rolling for it. That's a... Where'd it go?

He's so stupid. I love it, that's a... Where'd it go? He's so stupid. I love it. That's a... Okay, so I'm just going to roll straight for that. That's Finesse? That would be Finesse, yeah. All right. That's 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21 with fear.

So I'll go ahead and take a fear on that. However, you do manage to succeed at this as you kind of like, kind of turn the thing in the inside of the lock, find an interior little spring, and it opens up on the inside. You can already see like the dull security lights that just barely light the interior. Most of it's just shadow shelves of various books and comics on all sides. That familiar

smell of a fresh comic store, which is a fine mix of fresh print, old print, and comic readers. Put it in my veins! I say we love big ones. But as you all shuffle in, which is a sight to behold, you are a modicum of strange shapes darting into the shadow, closing the door behind you, which rings. As the door shuts behind you, as soon as the ring of the bell hits, you hear some shuffling and then silence in the far back corner.

What? Hello? Wait, why would you? Shit. Fucking turn. I don't know why I did this. Well, go check it out now. I'll roll over.

Okay. Like a snowman does, you kind of roll over to that space. It's like BB-8? Yep. You go past, like, the main desk and the front kind of store front shelves to kind of the middle section of the shop where the majority of, like, the backlog is kept.

There is the, like, dark cloth-covered adult section, and at an immediate glance, you don't see anything in here. There is the dark cloth covered adult section. And at an immediate glance, you don't see anything in here. I don't see anything we just heard. I'm going to try and sneak back there and check it out. Ralph, go in the back, grab the vault of horror and any of the Christmas issues of Heavy Metal you can find. Yes, sir. All right. If you want to, go ahead, Dylan, make a... horror and any of the Christmas issues of heavy metal you can find. Yes, sir. Right. Alright.

If you want to, go ahead, Dylan, make a... We'll make this a... This would be an instinct roll to try and see if you sense anything else within the region. Okay. I'm going cloak, too, as best I can. I'm trying to stick to the shadows as much as I can. Which you can use as your class ability

without issues. Oh, yeah. Alright, so this is an instinct roll? Instinct roll. See if you can perceive what may have made this noise. That's a seven with hope. Seven with hope. You take the hope. You fail to notice anything out of the ordinary.

As you head towards the back, kind of right corner, you can see there are sections of bare shelving, like where stocked books have been either sold or have been restocked. And then a shape suddenly turns past your shoulder and starts rushing out towards the front of the chamber. Grab it! You guys hear this and you just see a shape, a shadow, like running past.

Let's grab it! Who wants to try and reach for it? I will. All right, I need you to make an agility or strength. I'll make a strength roll. That is 14 plus fear. I got a monkey head, what about it? It's so cute. Shut up!

I'm fearsome! I'm tall! As the shadow darts past, your monkey arm reaches out, the symbol catching the front of what looks to be, at an immediate glance, a teenager. You see an around 15-year-old girl with tightly curled red hair, freckled face, braces, kind of chubbier cheeks, and a really angry-looking

kind of visual expression. She's wearing like overalls with a heavy coat over it and looks like a heavy bag under one shoulder. And like gets caught and goes like, hey, what are you doing? Let me go! Tex? Tex Sanderson, I should have known. What the fuck is going on?

What are you doing in here? Why aren't you a monster? Just hyperventilating and looking at these terrible nightmare creatures. Tex, it's Tanner, and Dylan, and Gwen. It's Tanner and Dylan and Gwen. It's me, Gweny. Her face. No, Tex, listen, it's me. I know my name.

It's Bethany. I don't want to die. You're going to die. Just calm down, okay? Bethany? Yeah, everything's going to be fine. Is this a stupid prank? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. These are just costumes, and it was a prank that went wrong, but everything's going to be fine, and Bethany can put in a good word for you at school if you help us. She doesn't even go to our school, Ralph. Yeah, she's from Waterfall Falls. Oh, well fuck her.

Fuck you! And Tex tries to pull from your grasp. Do you let her free or do you hold on? I'll let go. No, no, wait! Shut up! Tex pulls free and kind of like

adjusts the jacket. Fuck your Christmas losers and goes darting from the front door. I cast Veil of... I'm gonna... Not Veil of Shadows. Where is it?

Can I try to hook her bag before she darts out and grab it off her shoulder? For this, I'd say go ahead and make an agility check for me if you don't mind. Agility check? Yeah, go ahead and roll for agility check for me, if you don't mind. Agility check?

Yeah, go ahead and roll for agility. Okay, okay, okay. Oh, no, I scroll. Okay, that's a 18 with hope. Great, take that hope. So she darts. You grab the satchel and pull the bag away as she gets to the door and goes to reach for the handle. Since you unlocked it, it opens up easily, and she begins to dart out into the night and let somebody do her thing.

I'm going to trip her. You're going to trip her? I put out a long, spindly reindeer leg and trip her. Make a finesse test for me on that one to see if you can just maneuver your foot in the right place to catch her right as she tries to exit. Okay. Can I assist?

Oh, you want to help? All right, go ahead and spend a hope. I'm going to spend a hope. I'm going to assist by trying to squirt out some snow. Say that again? Say that again? Like, just like, little snow go. Little slushy?

Slippery when wet, bitch. Yeah! Let's go! So you can add appery when wet, bitch! Yeah! Let's go! So you can add a. Crit! Oh, look at that! Yes! Yes!

Yes! Fantastic, gain that hope, clear that stress if you got it. As Tex Anderson rushes right through the exit to freedom before just landing face first and strawberries across the sidewalk for a second. You hear, gets up,

just a bloody face. He goes like, you dickweeds. Gnarly. Springvale sucks. Why are your books? The books are mine! And she reaches for the bag and it's gone and looks over.

Suck it! Nice, Bethany. Fog traps rule! Flicks you off and then runs off into the night. All right. I got her books. What was she even doing here on Christmas anyway? Maybe there's a clue in her nap sack.

Is it actually Christmas where our parents have a key party on Christmas? Christmas Eve there's a clue in her nap sack. Is it actually Christmas? Were our parents having a key party on Christmas? Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve. Don't worry. Tomorrow is a holy day. Does that make it worse or better for you? Not at all.

Okay. What's in the bag? Maybe she was looking for the same books we were looking for. She's always looking for the same books we're looking for. What does she got in this? You glance inside and it is a whole series of, like, new edition collections. She was stealing.

It looks like she had snuck in on Christmas Eve to steal some of Springvale Springs' finest comic books. Respect. She's going to get turned into something if she stays out there. She doesn't even read them. She just resells them to other kids at the school. Don't think I don't know what she's up to.

You know what, though, Bethany? You might like this one. It's called Watchmen. Ooh, that guy's naked. Maybe we could read them together or something sometime. Wait, I'm not thinking... Oh, all right. Felt judged.

You are talking to a treetopper floating in front of your face. We've got to figure out what's going on. Okay, okay. Find some weird German comic books that tell us about spirits. Oh, maybe Dominic has a holiday display with all of the holiday comics that would have holiday spirit. We should check the children's section because Germans have some really weird ass children's stories. Oh, yeah. I don't even know where that is in this store. I do.

I've never been in there. I do. Oh, sure you haven't. All right. This will be a group knowledge check here. From all of us? Who would like to be the leader for this? I will since I worked here.

Okay, fair enough. So you'll be leading it. Everyone else who's part of this, we're going to go down making knowledge reaction rolls to help your friend out as you're all basically scanning throughout the store. Oh, crit! Whoa! Double dice, baby!

That's two successes. That's great. That's plus two already. 22 with hope. Three, baby. Double dice. That's two successes. That's great. That's plus two already. 22 with hope. Three. It's plus three. Okay, okay. We're still rolling, even though they rolled double crits. They were the ones making the final roll.

Double die. Are we going to find something translated or not? Can I go ahead and add spend time overseas to this? If you want to, to help your ability to contribute to it, sure. Just spend a hope to do so. Okay. Okay. Sorry. Mapping. 18. Sorry.

15 with hope. Okay. So that's plus four on that one. 13 with fear. 13 with fear. Okay. So that's minus one. So that brings it down to three. Eight with fear. Tristan's just in the bathroom making his pecs dance. All right, still with all that, it's still a plus two to your final roll. Okay, okay, here we go.

This is the one that matters. Okay. 26 with hope. Literally rolled it out. Plus two, 28 with hope. Literally rolled it out. Plus two. 28 with hope. Yes. Guys, I found something called Der Strühlpeter. It's a collection of

German short stories meant to scare children. And it's real. That's what we need. Indeed you do. This in particular is not just a book, it's a series of graphic novel collections from the early 1940s and 1950s

when the original Tales from the Crypt and Vault of Terror and all these great series were first coming out, and a lot of them are these exuberant tales of various awful German folklore, and it seems like this might be a good source of information. There's many stories throughout, so you're not sure what to look for, but should the moment arise where you need to learn

what things might be crawling about, it might be useful. Okay, okay. We're pocketing this and moving on, is that right? Or are we going to read it now? We've got to speed read. How many copies are there? How many different issues? Multiple issues, multiple books. This one's about me.

Should we divide it up? Yeah, divide it up. Divide and conquer? Just look for a blue fairy. Are we going to do a comic reading montage right now? We can, if you'd like to. Do you have a song? Would this be considered a short rest while we comic book montage? If you want to go ahead and take a short rest, we can.

Oh, that's awesome. I haven't done that in skimming yet. All right, great. That's weird. Do you have the thing for short rest? Yeah, it's right here. Let's go. So for this, we'll go ahead and...

So at this point, you all begin to sit here in the dark with a little bit of lights you can find here in the comic shop. You look them down and pouring through these graphic novels individually, you make them story to story. You begin to consume and really truly understand how deeply fucked up German folklore is. Like, we are a soft nation. Like, children were forged for survival

for hundreds and hundreds of years through terrifying tales of entities that basically children would have from their parents at holiday time would share joy and the knowledge that if you didn't work your way the entire year, you would have horrible things happen to you by terrible things.

And if you're lucky, you'll get a potato. It's a lot to take in. You do get to take the benefits of your short rest, which means you can take a couple of downtime actions here. However, because you are taking time on this, I also get to add some fear to me. I am maxed out on fear now. Maxed out? And because the timer's been out, I'd like someone to roll 2d6 for me, please.

I got it. Here goes. Roll good, O'Brien. Roll bad, O'Brien. Roll bad, O'Brien. A five and a one, it's six. He rolled both. Six. Well, this clock has six spaces. Oh.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, oh no. Okay. That's a trivial pursuit part. So you finish up the books and start kind of sharing information of what you've seen. I'm gonna use my short rest to remove, to fix my armor and heal my wounds. Me too.

I'm going to zhuzh my chest hair and cover over my ouchie. You got it. All right, so is everyone taking their downtime actions? Yeah, I'm reading up and I'm feeling better. Gaining some hope. You all finish up reading and start, like, sharing some horrible stories you've heard, some interesting myths. I'm on the speed reading team.

Yeah. Just as the smell of burning twig begins to fill the chamber, you all turn around and realize that in your focus, you didn't notice the various bundles of Hans Trapp had slowly shifted and pulled out of your

grasped backs and reformed. As the terrifying, massive scarecrow man, now burning of angry cinder, begins to rise up inside the comic shop and goes after you immediately. The closest to him, I'll say, for the purposes of this, I'm going to say it's you, Tanner, over there. Going to go ahead and rush forward,

spend a fear to go into a burning moth strike against you. That's going to be a 20. I believe that beats your evasion. It sure does, but I'm going to use my ability to scramble and once per rest when a creature within melee range would deal damage to you, you can avoid the attack and safely move out of melee range of the enemy! It's massive, terrifying, like weird cinder clawed arms reach out towards you.

These massive billowing clouds of black and glowing smoke behind it. It reaches and tries to grasp for you, and as the smoke fills and begins to dissipate, you are not where it thought you were, and it spins around. It's split, flaming ahead, kind of now reaching for any sort of sight of where you are and still keeping track. All right, it's your go. I'm going to reach out with my hand, and my hand starts to glow, and I'm going to cast Bolt Beacon

straight at the creature, which will also make it glow if it hits. Let's go. I will roll. That's terrible. Seven with fear. Seven with fear. Oh, plus three, so that's ten with fear. Ten with fear. Unfortunately, it misses, and I gain a fear. Seven with fear. Oh, wait, plus three, so that's ten with fear.

Ten with fear. Unfortunately, it misses, and I gain a fear. So what happens now? Back up! As you fire the bolt towards it, it actually strikes it in the arm, but it rears back. It doesn't do enough to damage it, but it causes it to kind of pull away from the flash of energy

that even you're kind of curious how this apparated out of your hand. As it hits, it pulls its arm back and slams it into one of the nearby shelves, knocking a bunch of books off of it, and flame begins to catch along the books and the bookshelf to its side. It looks like the comic store is on fire. No!

Hurry, throw Gwennie at it! It's now immediately going to rush towards you as the one that scared it and sent it off the way. As Han's trap rushes towards you, both of its arms forward, immediately spend a fear to go for a burning maul strike on you. No! That's going to be a 15 to hit you.

That hits! That hits. No, I'm going to jump in front of Ralphie! Using? My ability, I am your shield! What? Okay. And I'm going to mark a stress to stand in the way

and take the damage instead. All right. Bethany, no! So you take 12 points of physical damage. That is so stupid. Wait, no, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. This is the Burning Maw attack. I rolled a 12s for this.

So that is instead, ooh, that's gonna be 20 points of magic damage on you. Ooh! And you are currently restrained until you can break free with successful finesse or strength rolls. I'm going to take an armor to knock that down and... Oh, he makes me so mad! Oh no, another tantrum! See, watch as it grabs and sweeps up the tiny, flying tea-tropper, tea-tropper, tree-topper, phrase, talking,

and just stuffs her into his flaming split head, and it closes around her, and you are now burning within its joint. I'm gonna slam my arms up into it, and I'm gonna use vengeance. Go for it. If he's gonna take a hit point as well, just for me being angry at him.

Hell yeah, I'll write him working that. And I'm gonna slam my stupid little light thing into his face and it's gonna break and shatter and turn really sharp and I'm gonna turn unstoppable. Unstoppable, unstoppable, unstoppable. Unstoppable. Unstoppable. What does that mean? That means I'm extra badass is what it means. All right, so mark your D for your unstoppable has begun.

Yes! Living broken beer bottle. Now it's still in your guys' go, who wants to go? Well, I'm going to commit such a sin, I'm sitting praying to whatever dark lords of rock that I believe in. Is there a sprinkler system in this room? There is. It hasn't quite picked up on the smoke and flame yet.

Oh, forgive me, Stan Lee. And I'm going to send a knife and break and set off the sprinkler system. Great. Go ahead and wolf a finesse for me. Oh, God. I'm so bad. I hate it. Oh, the comics. Great, go ahead and roll for finesse for me. Oh god, I'm so bad. I hate it. Oh, the comics!

Dylan! That's finesse. That's 24. 24 with hope or fear? With hope. Wait, no, with fear. Never mind. With fear. Take that fear back. Alright, so you slam upward.

You hit the sprinkler system. Suddenly the entirety of the building, not just the comic shop on the base floor, begins to just spray with water at all points. As it hits the Hans Trap entity, the combination of flames on it that still contains you within its mouth, and the water causes smoke and steam to fill out the room,

making the entire room now partially obscured. Also, all the comics are likely... It's okay! Most of the comics are bad! I'm going to kill you when this is done. I will say in this moment that for the next roll against

it, Han's trap is considered vulnerable. I just want to get this... We gotta get him out of the shop. I am melting! Ew! Gwyn, he's melting! I'm going to, you see in the steam that is rising, just big puffs of air coming out of my nostrils,

and I start to scrape my hooves, and I want to do a big charge attack to see if I can push it back towards the door. Nice. Are you trying to do damage, or are you trying to push it? So, well, as a deer, as part of my ancestry, as a fur book,

I get a charge attack, which is that I can deal damage, but I would like to push it. Yeah, go for it. Go ahead and make the attack. Okay. Okay. Oh, go for it, go ahead, make the attack. Okay. Okay. Oh my god. You have that D6 if you wanna use it.

The rally die, rally die. It's not gonna work, it's a one and a two. Well then fine, I'm gonna- If I leap on her back to do a team attack, does it boost his chances of success? You would've had to claim that before the battle. However, I can call out to you, you need to do this for Bethany, my sister,

and I'm going to reassure you so you get to re-roll your dice. Yes! Bethany, we're going to come out. We're going to get you. You're right. For the secret nerd. That's better. You got a rally die too

If you need This is plus Do I add anything? Plus What do I add? Strength Strength I don't have any strength

16? 16 is a success Yes 16 with hope or fear? With fear Good to know Stop it Not a lot of hope at this table Alright so with fear. Good to know. Stop it!

Not a lot of hope at this table. All right, so you said you were doing damage. Go ahead and roll the damage on that. Yeah, so I can mark a stress to deal a d12, so I will do, yucky, three damage. Three damage, okay. I mean, that's still one hit point on it, so it's still just a minor threshold.

So you go ahead and rush forward. Slam into it! It does do a lot of damage, but. I mean, that's still one hit point on it, so it's still just a minor threshold. So you go ahead and rush forward. Slam into it! It does do a lot of damage, but it does push it. It goes slamming through the front glass doors, or the door in the window. Shattering out the front of the entire comic shop. This big trail of smoke rolls across the ground, eventually catches itself there.

Lance, you definitely feel the impact being rattled inside. While I I'm being rattled around inside and I feel he got pushed, I'm going to fling myself forward and use a body bash attack from the inside. You can do that. Go for it. It's outside the shop now? It's pushed outside, yeah. Okay. I'm going to roll out there. The shop is still beginning to burn. Well, no, you're about to fire those.

Yeah, the fire's out now at this point. All the comics are perfectly wet. They're comics are perfectly wet. They're in bags and boards. They're fine. Well, all the good ones are. That's 16 with fear. 16 with fear?

Sure enough. That works. Okay, so I get to do my damage and add my strength to my damage. So that's nine plus, wait, plus six is 15 plus three. 19 damage. 19, that's gonna be a major wound, so that's two more hit points on it there.

I'm gonna spend a fear to have it immediately retort on you, and it's gonna go ahead and try and crush you further within its jaw with a secondary brain-bomb attack. Spend a second fear to do that. So now it's gonna try and just continue to chew on you from the inside. I'm just gonna hold my broken hand. Thatend a second fear to do that. So now it's going to try and just continue to chew on you from the inside. I'm just going to hold my broken hand. That's a natural one.

So it tries to chew on you, but you manage to pull up and kind of pull your way outside of some of the twigs and sticks, and you're partway out of the mouth. Now you still have to try and make a roll to break free if you want to, but you manage to avoid being further chewed on the inside of its bisected twig head. It's back to you guys, who wants to do what?

I'm rolling out there, and I forgot to say this earlier, but I also play the oboe. I am in band, and I have my oboe with me, which is also my improved short staff. So I'm going to take out my oboe out of my body. One time at band camp? It's reverse Bandcamp.

I'm going to baton swirl it, and I'm going to take a swing. Go for it. Go ahead and roll for that. Okay. Okay. Wait, wait, wait. That's good. Okay, no, no, no. You can't read her dice, man.

I know, I know. I don't know why. I don't know why. Every week. Is that how? Every week. 15 with hope. 15 with hope just hits. Okay.

So take that hope. Let me take that hope. All right, it's 2d8. That's three. Let me just take two of them. Getting a little excited. Okay, okay. That's three. Let me just take two of them. Getting a little excited. Okay. Okay. That's, uh, uh...

12 points of damage. 12 points of damage. That's a minor wound. Takes one hit point on that. Drop it! Starting to look kind of busted apart, but the twigs are breaking about. It's fairly hurt, but still hold not.

Tristan crashes through a remaining window, leaping out with a Caprian leap and lands on its back, and I'm going to hoist it up by its waist so its scarecrow ass is in the air. You've been naughty. And I will start wailing on its ass with my lash. Go for it.

Okay. my lash. Go for it. That is six and nine is fifteen plus. Oh, you can't read your days. That's a nineteen with... I never criticize you. Yes, I do. That's a nineteen with

fear. But it hits, so I will also, I will donkey kick him in the back of the head after I beat his ass. All right, so roll the damage on the first strike. Yeah, so that is, that's a nine damage for the ass beating, and then another six for me kicking him in the back of the head.

All right, so that's one hit point each for both hits, because those are just above its beneficial. Okay. What's the donkey kick sound like? Huh? What's the donkey kick sound like? Ah! Ah!

You kick it hard with your donkey kick, and it does an impact damage, but what happens is your feet end up kicking into its body, breaking the outer twigs. It's going to go ahead and use its vengeful spirit on you to try and strike you back. That's going to be a 10. What's your evasion? It's not that, it's a, it's a, it's a 10. It just hits you. So with that, as your feet kick through it, that is going to be 19 points of physical damage as your legs actually get stuck inside of its burning interior. And you're now like partially into it.

You pull your legs free, but as you do, your hopes in the bottom part of your legs are now like burned pretty heavily. Okay, so that breaks through minor damage, which is one hit point, but I've got all of that thick fur on my legs, so I will mark off an armor, and I... If it goes past your minor, there would be two hit points. Two? Okay, so then that burns my beautiful calves, but I'm okay, and I dance out.

Okay. One hit point. One hit point, you got it. All right, with that, because it was fear, it's going to go ahead and take its turn. It's going to immediately, after you finally, because it was fear, it's going to go ahead and take its turn. It's going to immediately, after you finally kick out and pull back, it's going to go ahead and lob an ember at you.

So it's going to mark stress. And it comes right back at you with a 12. Somebody's getting cold! Does hit you for... Here it goes. That's going to be... Oh, that's not too bad. It's going to be eight points of magic damage on you

as it just reaches into the air you just kicked out, pulls out this burning coal-like ember, chucks it at you, splashes against you, like burns and sends the edge of your shoulder there. So that is a minor damage, because it's under my... It's a minor point. Okay, so I will, the last of the fur on my legs burns away, and you can see my bare calves.

And I'll mark another armor. You got it. All right, it's back to your goat. Oh my god, we gotta get this thing. I'm gonna run up to it screaming and grab it by its sticks. Get it, Ginsburg! And cast Rune Circle.

Just, I'm gonna remember what my sister did earlier, and I'm gonna throw a tantrum. Okay, okay, okay. Let her go! And I'm going to have a mini tantrum and cast Rune Circle, trying to knock it away from us. Okay, go ahead and roll your spell, Casper. Okay.

16 with hope. No, 19 with hope. 19 with hope, that succeeds. Go ahead and take that hope. Okay. So, the Rune circle blasts it. It's 2d12 plus four, which is 21 magic damage,

and it is knocked back to very close range. How do you want to do this? Ooh! Yay! I want to grab Bethany's hands and sort of force, a force wave emanates out of me, but it only affects the enemy. So the enemy that's sort of surrounding Bethany gets blown back, but I still keep holding onto her weird light hands,

looking in her eyes with all of the just normal familial love that I have for her. Perfect. As you focus, this wave of arcane energy blasts out from you, and you watch as this, like, hulking wicker man of a flaming scarecrow gets scattered into 400 different piles of kindling and sticks that all kind of just dissipate off into the shadow of the street,

just spreading off into the snow, and then you're nearby bits of sidewalk. Nobody messes with the Blake family. Nobody. Okay, I'm still not comfortable with that part of it, but that was a really good tantrum. Good, I learned from the best. I'm gonna grab a piece of Hans.

No! Hold on a minute. I'm gonna take a piece and want to put it in the box. Okay. I don't know why. Sure, yeah. Let's do it. I just figured me as suffering some of the pieces. So you're going to put the monster in a box in yourself. Yeah. Cool. Put it in your

box. Yeah, put the monster in your box. Okay. And then just shove it right in. Put it in your frigid box. Whoa, that feels weird. Could get hot in there. All right, so,

now that Hans has been scattered, this is a weird alt version of Frozen. We gotta move. Let's move. Did any of those books say anything about a scarecrow burning creature actually one of you right before it reaffirmed it was almost an odd moment where as you're looking over the story

about this Hans Trapp entity once a historical figure like a very wealthy knight of actual history although the folklore says that he spent all of his money just whining and dining and on women and the luxury life, and then eventually kind of made a deal with the devil for all these ill-gained riches, which then led to cannibalism. He began to eat the flesh of other

folk in the neighborhood. Yikes! He began to dress up like a massive scarecrow and began to go out and hunt people to eat their flesh. And then one day, God went, Nuh-uh, that's not good, and struck him with a bolt of lightning that split his head with flames. But he persisted and thus continued to hunt in the Christmas

time, looking for naughty children to destroy and devour. What? Germany. Germany, let's talk. I feel like we skipped some steps there, but okay. Wait, wait. Does the tale say how to destroy him? It says that his presence is only around the spirit of the holidays. Get rid of her.

We got to get rid of her to get rid of him. Okay. Got to kill the source. That's just science Did we learn anything about the spirit of Christmas? Christmas cheer? Holiday cheer? The holiday cheer

What you know is It doesn't speak of an entity But it speaks of a presence It is the coming of the holiday That brings these creatures out And it's the closing of the holiday that sends them away. So you gather through the lines as the somewhat truncated

narrative of these graphic novels that kind of glosses over a lot of the unnecessary details that likely this entity is what brings these creatures to bear and should it be sealed, you would probably put these creatures into a similar sealed state. Yeah, we gotta put it in her frigid, slushy box. That's what we gotta do.

I'm ready for it. I'm waiting. I'm open for it. Any other useful information about how to capture her? Not in a graphic novel. Alright, let's go to the arcade. I found a really cool X-Men run.

As you go, head over to the arcade, which is now completely surrounded with this heavy briar, twisting holly branch. You begin to approach the front before the front door shatters, and a glowing blue light, kind of giggling, vanishes out the front. Kiss it, kiss it!

And you can see now, it seems like it's finished its business at the arcade, and you can hear the lumbering and creaking of something within as it begins to dart now in a somewhat southward direction. Forget the arcade, we gotta go after it! I agree. I'm gonna try to grab her.

I'm gonna cast Mystic Tether. Oh! Yes! It's far range. Okay. Spell cast roll plus three. Can you, oh, never mind. Oh, okay.

It's a 19 with hope. Oh, never mind. A 19 with hope? Yes. That succeeds. Yeah! Okay, on a success, they are restrained, and if they are a flying creature, they are grounded.

So, as the- And they mark a stress. Ooh, good to know. So as the spirit of holiday cheer goes darting out of the arcade. Hold it right there. Describe what your tether looks like. Because I'm a Grinch, my arm just sort of elongates and reaches out sort of like a slithery snake

and grabs her and just smashes her to the ground. Nope! Oh! Five foot two, that's my children. I'm gonna take out the box. Yeah, we immediately run and try and pounce, like try and seize the moment. Very well.

I'm going to go ahead and use a fear immediately as you all begin to charge towards her. She's going to go ahead and cast Twist Terrain. She's going to go ahead and mark a stress. What? I want a Twist Terrain. And the ground around her suddenly begins to crack. All the cement seems to break apart as you watch as vines and trees begin to emerge around there. There is now a barrier between the spirit and you.

Damn. Tanner! Can I use... You can do whatever. I was going to say, Tanner, why don't you smoke her out with weed? That's not a terrible idea. We should multitask. We'll put a pin in that one.

Can I use death maneuvers and I pull out my sled? And I can mark a stress to just immediately get anywhere within far range without making an agility roll? Sure. I'll say make an agility roll to at least get around the wall, but you don't have to roll it for the distance, or you have to roll twice to get there. Can I use Gnarly Kickflip Bra to take my... Is that an experience?

Yes, it is. To take my sled and grind along the wall. Yes, you can. Absolutely. Spend that hope and get that bonus. All right. Yep, yep. I'm going to spend that hope, get that bonus. 14.

14? No, that succeeds for that, because you're not against the creature, this is you going against the wall. So yeah, indeed, you go ahead and rush alongside, leap, and then grind on the outside of this rising forest wall. Gnarly! Like, full-on, we're talking Tarzan-style, like, riding along the branch, as you do on your sled, before, like, breaking through and landing, and you are now right next to the spirit,

which I'm going to spend a fear immediately, and it's going to go ahead and attempt to darkly smile at you. That's a nine. What's your evasion? Oh, very high. Oh, very high, 15. So it smiles at you darkly, and you are unaffected by it. Your dear skull is unpleased. She sees that she's been determined.

Okay, great. What am I yet correct? Shit, I'm here. Now what do I do? I want to get her down. Tanner, do you have anything to do? Well, yeah, while she was doing that, I took out my main stash of weed.

I took out a big handful of it. I pulled one of the jingle balls off of my harness and I pried open one of the little corners, shoved a bunch of weed in there, closed it, took out my big collider that I also held in my waistband, blow it into like a red glowing ember, go, yeah, that's good shit, and throw it. I just have it to get her feet with just a little bit of.

Okay, so you're lobbing it over the tree barrier? Yeah. Let's go for it. Like a little weed grenade. I love it, I love it. Because this is trying to get it over into land nearer, I'll make this a finesse roll. Yeah, I got that.

No, I don't. Well, that's not bad. Actually, it's a 16 with hope. Oh, that's good. So you gain hope. However, that is not enough to strike spirit. Use your rally die. Oh, I got a D6 you gain hope. However, that is not enough to strike spirit. Use your rally die. Oh, I got a D6 rally die.

Five, 21. 21 is a success. Yes! Thanks, rally die. You're the best. As your makeshift rapid jingle bell weed grenade careens over the growing wall of dark German forest wood, it strikes the ground and... As you land on the other side,

looking at the spirit, it smiles. All of a sudden, it's like... And just the smoke billows around it before the spirit kind of pulls back a bit. Whoa! Wow! Oh, what fun it is, am I right? Christmas is such a great holiday.

I'm going to say the spirit of holiday cheer is vulnerable for this one. And it's still your guys' go at the moment. I will not jump in there yet with fear. Actually, no, I know. I'm going to do that. Never mind. I take that back. Because I can. Because you started this.

All right. I'm going to spend that fear and it's going to go ahead and smile darkly at you again, but it's more of like a... That's kind of worse. That's going to be an 18. Ooh, that hits. That hits That hits So you take one stress And it's going to begin flying Continue to fly south away from you

No, can I fly up and over the wall? Through a wall? There's like a forest that's been growing over the way It's certainly pretty tall, you can either try and go around it. Can I leap it as Krampus? If you'd like to. Yeah. All right, it is kind of over a close distance

to get there, so it will be an agility roll to get around him. You can leap anywhere within close range just so that you're using normal movement. That's terrible, guys. That's terrible. That is agility? Yeah. Oh my god, that's five, guys. That's terrible. That is agility? Yeah.

Oh, my God. That's five with hope. Well, you take a hope. Yay! Need more stage combat. Yeah. But the play does return to me. From there, the spirit of holiday cheer continues to dart away.

Which way? Which way? It's kind of zigzagging a little bit. It's kind of wandering a bit strange, and it remains in a vulnerable state. Here's my slingshot. I did a cool, cool maneuver to get up close. Take a slingshot, go for it.

All right, all right, dang it. Use that wrist rocket. I'm just going to, I'm also a little high now, but I work out under pressure, and I'm just going, focus and fire. Go for it. That's really good. That's really good.

Okay. That's gonna be 21, plus my agility, so 24 with fear. That's a success. And then I want to use Ruthless Predator to

mark a stress and add a bonus to my proficiency here. Okay, so you're rolling an additional damage die on this. Nice! Alright, let's go. I'm also going to spend a hope to use my ranger's focus and put focus on her. Okay. Whoa. Wait, that's my hit points. That's not my hope.

Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. For now. Okay, okay, okay, okay. 2D, okay. This is gonna be... I'm so stressed. Okay, this is gonna be... You shouldn't be.

That thing's just smoking over there in the corner. Should be pretty chill. Get a little paranoid. The cops are right behind us. Your mom's here to pick you up. Quick. I'm going to use my rally die to add to this. Dylan, your dad's here.

Okay. It's all right. Four, eight, 12, 14. Rally die adds to your attack and reaction rolls not damage. Oh, okay. Okay. Not damage. Oh, okay, okay. Not damage. Okay, sorry.

Then that's going to be 12 plus 6. 18. 18. Thank you. 18. That is beyond its major threshold. That's two hit points on the spear. Oh, nice.

You strike it from afar. Nice! Release, and you watch. The rest of you are rushing around the wall to try and get a good visual on it. You're leaping up and getting caught on the wall and the tree's growing and you're holding onto it. You glance over and watch it zigging away. You watch as the ground is freezing beneath it

and the ice is reaching outward as it does. And it just, this flash of blue is going to... Thank you, Scott. And then continues darting off in a southward direction. With my ranger's focus, A flash of blue is going to. Then continues darting off in a southward direction. With my ranger's focus, when I damage them, they have to mark a stress. And I now know precisely where they are at all times.

Whoa! Whoa! Yes! That's awesome. With direction they're in. That's great. So, Because You're Old With Fear does come to my go after that, which means the spirit of holiday cheer is now beelining, and that's now like three movements beyond there,

and it has moved pretty quick. So it is now pretty much beyond the range of any of your attacks, and is about to clear your visual range. We can see her for a split second? For a split second. Not knowing how or why, I open a line of telepathic connection

with the spirit of Christmas. Just as she blinks out, I have to spend a hope to do it, which I do, and I just think we are going to punish you German style. But I think that

holds, right? Does the telepathy hold? Yeah. And you keep your mind on it. As it vanishes from sight, you do see and notice very directly the direction that it's traveling and where it's settling, which is in the direction of Springvale Springs High School.

High school. High school. Principal McGee's going to be so pissed. I'm just going to say, I feel really relaxed right now, but also, like, this isn't so bad. What if we just stayed this way? I mean, she's got a point.

I have no hands. And you will melt at some point. That's right. Not if it's always Christmas. That's a good point. What's happening to my job? I'm gonna very slowly turn around and see what's happening to the video arcade behind me that I need to be okay because that's where I get my money.

Okay. Well, you glance back and look at it. Beyond the fact that the exterior is completely encased in a massive tangle of dark German forest wood and rising branches and roots, the normal flashing interior glow of the arcade is quite dull, as many of the machines have also been consumed and destroyed by the extent of the... You guys took a short rest, kind of reading some books,

and in the interim, the arcade has been demolished, but you see movement from the inside of something that was summoned by the spirit that's currently trying to claw its way from the arcade. No, we should not stay here. Should we just barricade the outside of the arcade? Do you want to take the time?

No, we don't want to take the time! Let's just keep going! Yeah, trash! Let's push some cars into the front of the store! Whoa, cars? We're huge! If we're running, then that's fine, and I'm gonna not even knowing what I'm doing,

I'm going to cast Veil of Shadows. Okay. And I'm gonna not even knowing what I'm doing I'm going to cast a veil of shadows okay and I'm just gonna sweep my arm angrily at the store and this

living shadow is just gonna come up from the front of the store and blanket it in darkness ooh okay whatever's inside

can no longer see out okay but if it comes out I can see through it. Fair. Only me. And the two of you are going to try and push a car up in front of it? Yeah, I get down on all fours and start kicking backward against a Volkswagen.

Yeah, it's an old beater that's probably, like, belonged to one of the night shifts in one of the nearby buildings there, but you just start kicking into the back of it. I don't help. I just bang my cymbals above his head. All right. Well, okay, symbols above his head. All right. I'm going to try to help, too. Can I help him?

If you want to spend a hope to go ahead and... I just rolled. I don't think I'm stronger than I look. I believe it. First off, did you roll with hope or fear? Oh, me? Hope. Hope, okay. I got a 13 with hope. Am I rolling, me? Hope. Hope, okay. So you're hoping that. I got a 13 with hope.

Okay. Am I rolling two or? No. Well, no, you spent a hope to give him an eight, so you add a D6 to that. I'm actually gonna. That's a 19 with hope. Whoa!

That's great. So one heavy donkey kick cracked the car, dents in on its side, and skids up and slams into the front. The exterior boundary of the forest kind of curl over it, and it seems to be a pretty heavy barrier to the front as you hear the impact of something banging from the inside of the arcade,

not trying to push out, but unable to break free in this moment. We've got to get to the high school. Okay. This is crazy. I'm sorry I've been ghosting you in the cafeteria for a week. I just got caught up with my friends in the drama department, and that was wrong. I've been naughty.

I'm ready to be nice. Are you guys, like, together? No. No, I'm pretty sure that they've been hanging out and doing some heavy petting. What? Is that true? Listen, maybe if his abs look like that all the time.

Which is what I'm saying. Do we really need to change anything? I have no vagina. How can you even check? You have no hands. I can check. It's still a hole. Can we just go?

You look like an upside down cop. This was a mistake. We know, we knew from the beginning. So with the arcade temporarily secured, are you heading towards the heist? Yes! Yes! Riley, didn't you ever hear any stories

while you were in Berlin about some creepy holiday spirit? I mean, everything in Germany is a little creepy, you know, like, I don't know. Yes, but that's why we looked at all the comic books. Do I remember anything? Don't you have, like, an experience? Yes! I spent time overseas, and I've used it, like, three times, and nothing has helped!

Wait a minute! Make a knowledge roll, please. And you can spend a hope to add your experience of an overseas tour. Fine! Okay, well, I rolled with hope, so spend the hope, get the hope back. 17. With hope. get the hope back. 17.

With hope. That's not bad. Nothing about the spirit specifically, but thinking back to the box, you kind of want to, you have an inkling you need to inspect it and see if you can borrow it quickly from Gwenny. Just grab it. Just put your hand in there and grab it. Go for it.

Go for it. That's not it, that's my elbow. Ah! Oh man, you're leaking all over the place. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. There it is, she got my box. She found it. Hand is numb.

I have that effect. I'm done. Okay. So, looking towards it, you can pick up amongst the weird runes that were there, there is very faint Germanic writing. Like along the very baseline of it that almost looks like it matches the wood grain.

Yeah, I saw this. The best you can make out with rudimentary German that you know is it's like words that speak of emotion, rain. Rain? Redemption. It's like having a hard time finding out what it actually means.

It has some sort of emotion and water and redemption, punishment. Water. Rain, emotion, punishment. And these words seem to have something

to do with the box's intent and construction. Rain? Emotion. Yeah, like rain from the sky? Maybe. Rain. Is it in German or is it in runes?

It's in German, but it's amongst the various runes that are dark along the box. And you can't, can you speak, read German? I can just pick up like the basics. Are there more words in German? Yeah. Maybe we should check the German class in the high school. Maybe they would have, like, a textbook or something? Mr. D'Angelo's class?

Yeah. Let's go. Great idea. I mean, let's go. All righty. Giuseppe D'Angelo. Or maybe we should just go after the spirits so it doesn't keep turning other things into monsters. I don't know.

Well, it's at the high school anyway. It was heading towards the high school. Okay, okay, okay, okay. All right, let's go. Should I put this back in your balls? Put the box back in the balls? Yeah, not there, not there. There we go.

That's a little better. One ball's bigger than the other one. As you continue trekking towards the... Towards the high school. The snowfall gets more intense, and the wind begins to pick up. The sense of becoming Blizzard begins to grow with your passage, and the path carved of strange holiday mutations throughout Springvale Springs.

You watch as the entire path there is just this mass of fast-growing trees, now icicles seeming to almost protrude from them sourcelessly. The very moisture in the air began to freeze throughout. You come to the exterior fence line of the actual high school perimeter, and there, where once there was a playground, you see these columns, these, like, jagged monoliths of ice

that now push through the swings themselves, torn free from the ground and hanging at an odd angle, the chains broken. You can see all manner of heavy trees climbing up to outside of the main high school building. You can see the faintest bit of light in the inside

of the halls. It is Christmas Eve and likely there's no school happening, but you get the sense that at least the spirit has taken up residence in there in some way. High school. All right, Tristan. German class.

Let's go. All right. Through the front door or one of the windows? A window. We shouldn't... I mean, it knows we're coming. Be brave, Bethany. Be a Blake. Just deal with it, Bethany. Be a Blake.

Just deal with it, Bethany. Just deal with it, Bethany. All right, let's go through the front. Okay. You all continue onward, hearing the of windows, glass breaking from the inside out as you see the expanding holly bushes beginning to fill out from the inside.

You come to the front doors, the two massive glass doors that greet school in the mornings, but now you can see it locked from the other side and the chain affixed to it by whatever security's been set within. Mentally, I send out, Alright, you little weirdo.

We're coming in the back entrance and we're gonna fuck you up. Nice. Nice. Redirect. And then we break the window and the doors. Are they glass doors or are they wooden doors? They're glass doors. Just break the glass.

Okay, are you willing to be the one to break it? I got it. Tanner, go ahead and roll for strength for me, please. Ball. It's a 14 with fear. 14 with fear is not too bad. You smash into it and it cracks, but your shoulder kind of pops a little bit. You take a stress from the impact.

You feel like you may have done a little bit of damage to your shoulder that you're probably going to feel in the morning. But it does crack, and you figure with one additional swipe, you do manage to push through. Not like a heavy breaking the doors open, but kind of like force your way through the glass. It's a little awkward, and you kind of scratch yourself as you push through,

but you do manage to force enough room for people to get through. This way. All right, are we going to German class, or are we going to go find this thing? All we know is it needs rain. Maybe if we set off the sprinklers and...

It's interesting. Do we want to try to find a German-English dictionary in D'Angelo's class to try to translate the rest of the box? You guys go after it. You and me. Let's go to the German class. We'll meet you there. Okay. Go. Where? So who's going to the German class?

I grab Bethany and stick her on my horn and start stalking down the hallway. Okay, so the two of you are heading towards D'Angelo's class. The rest of you are... Maybe we can go find the spirit? And distract it. Yeah. All right.

We'll try and get it pinned down. Okay, fair enough. Godspeed. Thanks, Glenn. Thanks, Benny. As you both begin to divide off down two different hallways, the fluorescent lights in the ceiling are flickering. One of them kind of

breaks as roots begin to push through from the ceiling and begin to kind of gnarled down and close off. You get a dark pass before they even close to touching you, but now the hallways are growing dark. You are now stepping through pitch black. Can any of you see in the dark?

I have light-up hands. You're going to the German class. We're going the other way. Oh, you're talking to the other troop? Either troop. Do we have answer to one? I have, yeah, I've got low light living, so I think I can actually, yeah. So you can see pretty well. Oh, also, I have low light living, so I think I can actually, yeah.

So you can see pretty well. Yeah. All right. Oh, also, I have prestidigitation, so I can illuminate a room. Yeah. All right. So, yes, you guys actually have light sources on both points. As you're kind of spreading off through the different chambers, it's cold and it's quiet.

Those heading to D'Angelo's chamber you turn one corner and you see a long beam of light sitting amongst the darkness that just kind of hits one of the far walls leaving almost like spotlight you know I think if we live through this you should really consider the drama department you've shown a lot of presence

tonight and I think you could bring that to the stage thank you maybe we that to the stage. Thank you. Maybe we should find the German book. Do you speak German? Nein. I'm not talking about math, I'm talking about German!

What is that light? what is that light? What is that light? You approach, get closer to it. You see the light is shining on what looks like a locker. And you find the source of the light across the hall where there's like kind of a T-intersection. And it looks like the edge of a flashlight that's set on the ground.

Lighting up a certain locker? Or does it seem like a trap? I don't know. Oh, God. Lighting up a certain locker? Or does it seem like a trap? I don't know. Oh, God. Or somebody was mugged and their flashlight fell. Go check it out! Okay, yeah, I'm going to fly over to the downed flashlight. Okay.

Avoiding the light beam. All right, you hover above and flutter towards the T-intersection. To the right, the flashlight is indeed laying on the ground, and about five or so feet from it, you see a person who is sitting, kind of slumped against the wall. At the first glance, you can see with your arm lights as you kind of, you see

a security guard uniform. You know Lenny Kors. He's the security guard of one of the handful of security guards for Springvale Springs High School. Looks like he was doing the evening shift of security here at the high school. And you kind of see his face. But what you see more intensely is the trail of blood that's coming from his jaw.

No! And kind of looking down his body, you can see across his midsection is a massive laceration. It looks like he was completely gutted from end to end. Someone had disemboweled him and what you see emerging from that massive wound that has cut him from side to side are tufts of hay and trash.

And his entrails have been kind of scattered on the ground around him. Oh! I miss Hanukkah. But he's just a corpse, he's not moving? He's very dead. Oh my god! We'll avenge you! I don't know.

Are we in the German Room? This is on the way. Oh, God. But you also hear like a strange creaking and scratching sound echoing down one of the far halls. Oh, shit. We got to figure it out, right? We got to figure it out.

We'll go selfie, quickly. The classroom's a little bit further past the security guard. I grab the flashlight. I click it off, because we've got your hands, and I stick it in my satchel. And I stalk forward with Bethany on one of my four horns. Yeah. Towards the sector or toward the classroom? Towards the classroom, we're on a mission.

All right. You both approach the classroom and kind of head for the opening door, and you hear what sounds like something rummaging, some sort of movement of materials. You hear a desk scrape and a grunting sound. What does it look like?

Immediately, the overhead floor is like flickers and you see two hunched furry humanoid creatures with massive curled horns and pointed ears, like smaller versions of your compatriot here, of Tristan's transformed form, and they both kind of like,

one of them kind of begins to look over past and kind of turns out the other, kind of slowly guttering under its breath, like, The frow, the frow demands satisfaction. And they both go charging towards you both. Just on instinct, I light up my horns and eyes with flame and use enrapture, and shadows grow on the book walls behind me, and a giant devilish Krampus form just flickers on the back wall

as embers burn in my eyes. On a spell, cast roll against a target within close range. Nope, I've got one for multiple people. All adversaries in front of you within close range. Let me make the spell cast roll. Okay, so that's presence. All right. Shit, balls.

I'm going to use my own rally die. That is 10. This is 13. Gets me up to 19. Okay. 19 succeeds on both. Go ahead and roll damage. Yes!

That's not damage. I have just hypnotized them. Ooh! And multiple miniature hairy demons like them surround me, so I look like I've got a gang, and they all have little tiny tree toppers on one horn on the side. They both go from like a rummaging

charge towards you to like a stop and a stare, and you can see like they're a little bit squatter and whiter, they're like large eyes, kind of burning black with like a little red pupil, big sharp teeth and like a heavy thick saliva. They're still burly,

but they're not quite as like tall and thin like you, but they're very similar in appearance. You had read some sort of a story in the graphic novels that you've gone through about something called a straggler, which are these kind of squat horned demon-like creatures. They travel in a pack. They travel in a pack around their leader, their frown.

While they're held in this place, we're going to come to the other group here. The rest of you are currently continuing to peruse the interior. We're just going down the hall, trying to listen for sounds, smells. Who's leading the charge on searching for the spirit? Just peas and carrots to clean up. They all mark

a stress and they are stunned in this pinprick moment. I'm still tracking the spirit. Just peas and carrots to clean up. They all mark a stress, and they are stunned in this pinprick moment. Good to know. Over to you. I'm still tracking the spirit. Okay, yeah, of course. All right, that's true. You know exactly where it is. You don't have to roll for that.

Perfect. Ranger speaking. All right. Getting behind Riley, you begin to maneuver through some of the various kind of opening classroom arrays, eventually coming past sort of the G building, which is where a lot of the students would gather, and then heading what looks like the direction of the gymnasium that's affixed to the southern side of the main building.

But at that point where you arrive, you can see the hallway itself is completely choked with trees and branches. I think the spirit's through here. Wow, you're so cool. Rangers are so cool. And dagger heart. You're so mean. I'll take my two symbols and I'll say, let's clear a path, and I'll start hacking away

at the brambles that are in the hallway in front of us, trying to clear an opening. Go for it. Are you trying to do damage to the brambles? Yes. All right, go for it. That is four, 11, that's 15 with hope to hit the brambles.

15 with hope, that succeeds. Go ahead and roll damage. Amazing. That was worse. 9. That is 14 points of damage. 14 points of damage. Alright, so you tear through a big section of it and you watch as it breaks away. I'm going to go ahead and spend a fear as the remaining

grasping holly around you begins to reach out and tear towards you to try to pull you into it from the shadows. So I need you to make an agility reaction roll for me, please. You got it. Agility plus two. Oh, that sucks. Oh, that's nine with fear.

That's a fail. You immediately suffer six points of physical damage and you are restrained and vulnerable as the Holly's pulling Tanner into the action where she's broken through. I'm going to talk to the holly and the brambles. With nature's tongue, which is an ability that I have, and I can talk to plants.

Get to talking. I'm restrained indeed. All right, I'm going to make an instinct. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So close. I know, it was so close to a crit.

That is a 18 with fear. Okay, 18 with fear. I'll take the fear on that. All right. So you begin to speak towards it. You kind of magically all of a sudden feel like you can connect and Understand the here. Okay, Flora. What is it you want to speak? Brambles in the holly berry. I don't know why I'm talking to them Can you understand me

You hear a series of strange, like, almost childlike voices, almost singing in unison around you, just kind of... Nope. Nope. That's nice. Kill it with fire. And it's almost like you can hear all of the growth in here. I hear them all. It's just happy and can hear all of the growth in here.

I hear them all. It's just happy and jolly with the spirit, and it wants to just grow and consume. Oh my god. All right. Can you let my friend go, please? Go ahead. We're just trying to walk through you.

Make a presence. Roll for me, please. I'll assist, I'll burn a hope and assist her. Okay. Yeah, yeah, we're trying to move through, we're trying to make things better for you and me. I'm going to give six to this. Oh, okay.

Oh, okay, okay, okay. Having a holly jolly Christmas. That's 16 with hope. 16 with hope, you take a hope. Hey, hey, hey. The song continues for a moment. How beautiful. You creeps, what?

I wasn't fucked up at all. As it begins to kind of appeal to your mind, you... The words leave your mouth, and it seems like it pulls away for you. And it kind of leaves an opening for you and your friends. But you do not let go of Tanner.

I'll get you out. Fireball. Wow! Yes. Let's go. Fucking Gansburg! Not great. Not great. It's a nine with

fear. Oh, wait. Twelve with fear. Twelve with fear. Okay. That actually is enough for the difficulty. Just barely. All right. So I'm going to roll 2d20 for damage. Let's go.

Yeah, plus five. So 21 points of fire. Oh! So as the... It's okay. It's all right. Get out of there, Tanner! Everything is now screaming in your mind.

All the trees and all the nature around you is just screaming as it burns and withers and crumbles and it cinders. Tanner is released, and you are set down on the ground as the flames begin to curl and burn into the gymnasium itself, which is now a choked, dense,

deep, dark, German nightmare forest. Flames now beginning to slowly burn and trail within. Did Tanner take any damage? Fuck yeah, I'm gonna use my bone ability, Brace, to burn an armor slot using an additional hope because fucking shit, that was hot! Damn, way to light the menorah, Ralph. It's a miracle!

So as you all begin to slowly trek into the gymnasium towards what awaits you in this space that you know to be the spirit, its presence not far from where you stand, the two of you now are up there in the room. You go ahead and watch these stragglers kind of stand there staring off into space, these weird kind of illusionary versions of themselves.

I just want to fly in over them and avoid them and just grab a textbook and any other books that seem germany on the desk. Easy enough to do. You grab their all manner of dictionaries and various instructional booklets and, you know, there's German 1, German 2, German 3,

advanced AP German. German Christmas stories. Sure. Sure. You've got a whole chunk. German Christmas stories. Sure. It's sweet. You grab them up real fast. How long does that last? Well, I don't know, but as soon as I cast it, the next thing I do while Bethany is checking the shelves,

I will say, You have new orders. You're meant to protect the perimeter of the school. Go! And I will say, you have new orders. You're meant to protect the perimeter of the school. Go! And I will try to deceive them or persuade. Okay, all right. So go ahead and roll a presence check for me. Yeah.

I can spend a hope to add a d4 to the roll, and I do it at advantage to deceive or trick for Depth Deceiver. So it's at advantage, and I add a d4. So a d4 and a d6, if I'm understanding that correctly. All right. Negative. Terrible. Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve with hope.

Well, you gain a hope. That's the good news. Yeah. But both the entities kind of look over at you and go, The Frau needs to judge. And they both break free from their current element there and rush towards you. Both of them are going to take a strike at you. They're going to go ahead and spend a fear to do a group attack because they are both minions.

Oh, no. Okay, okay, okay. That is going to take a strike at you. They're going to go ahead and spend a fear to do a group attack because they are both minions. That is going to be a natural one. Okay. So they miss you in a very intense way. They both skid across the ground, like face first. Across the wood. What are you both doing? I just, I'm going to, yeah, we're just going to get away as we can, if we can. You want to run?

I think we should just run. All right. I grab her out of the air. You both just go fleeing back to where you came from? Yeah. You both go charging back, kind of follow back, hopefully to find out where your friends were going, and kind of corner off. Suddenly you hear a massive explosion and detonation.

You scream. That sounds like Tanner. Oh, my weed! You go rushing to try and catch up with them while the rest of you have stepped inside this massive forest. You can see the faint blue glow kind of drifting in the air, and you hear what sounds like chattering conversation. Can I understand it?

It is in German. Go ahead and make a knowledge roll for me. You burned up all my Anakin Skywalker. I will once again use spend time overseas. You really should have studied the language while you were there, Mor. I was on an American army base. What do you want

from me? Effort. Better. You're an American army base, what do you want from me? Effort. Better? I didn't even want to be here tonight. You guys suck. Sorry. 16 with fear. 16 with fear, I'll take that fear. Okay, so as you are trying to kind of listen in,

there are two voices here. You hear the spirit speaking in German, and the best you can make out are broken bits of do not worry. Some are to come, and many more throughout the city and beyond. The other voice goes, Good.

I long for more. Bring them to us. Oh, no. This might be a trap. Shoot. Not a Vaan trap. What. Not a Vaughn trap. What if it's the Vaughn traps? Oh my gosh.

What if this whole thing is waterfall falls? Is waterfall falls? This is because of homecoming, isn't it? When we fucking stomped their asses. 12 days of Christmas, 12 Vaughn traps. At this point, both Tristan and Bethany catch up to your troops. We found German books. We found the Vaughn traps. Can you read this?

Let me try! Come here, find the words on the box! Okay, okay, okay! You hear a sound that's supposed to... There's two of them, there's two of them! You hear in German. I smell children. They smell you, Gwenny.

Kinder! All right, all right. They're coming for us. I think we should hide while we try and read real quick. Hide in the trees? Yeah. Okay. All right, let's make a group stealth attempt

here to redeem this charge. I'm going to cast Mysterious Mist around us, concealing us. Okay, indeed. Mist evaporates from around you. I beat it. Oh, you very much did. With hope or fear us. Okay, indeed. This mist evaporates from around you. I beat it. With hope. 21.

As you all feel this mist surrounding you and encompass this space, you also hear, What is this? You hear this creepy scratching sound, and the voice in German once more goes, Find them! They're looking for us! You hear now creepy scratching sound, and the voice in German once more goes, find them.

They're looking for us. You hear now multiple feet moving, and other like small guttural. They want children. Technically, we're not children anymore. On the outskirts. Oh, yeah, that's true. I had a bar mitzvah.

I'm a man now. All right. Yeah, so I'm fine. Who's searching the book? I guess I will. Plus Tanner's 22. With the book, as you're like looking through it, it takes a minute to do so, to kind of read through

and kind of match the words on the box that you recall with what you find. It wasn't rain, it was tears. The box needs tears to be activated. It needs to absorb the emotion of the punished children to close the loop on the spirit's intent. Wait a second. How are we going to feel emotions?

It's like someone would need to... You're a fucking loser. You're a fucking loser. You're a loser. I can't stand you. I can't stand your stupid mom. She doesn't deserve to be with my dad. Riley sees what's happening and just starts slowly... Yeah.

We start moving the box under the tears. Your breath smells bad, your feet are small, and I've always thought you were a dork. I mean, I was hoping that Tristan was going to read us a dramatic monologue, but... But that's way worse!

Dark shadows of strange, straggler creatures are crawling through the branches and starting to get close. Cry harder! I can't! I'm crying! I strap them across my face. All the way with my candle seat. Do we ever... Do we have a chance? No!

No! The tears begin to flow. At about the time, a voice goes, The branches curl back, and you watch as this hulking, hag-type shape steps out of the shadow. You see a crone-like woman, tall, maybe like 10 feet to the shoulder,

with this massive shawl around her face, where her nose is. A crooked iron nose replaces it in the middle of her face. Oh, no! Her foot steps forward. One of her feet is a swollen swan foot. And you watch as she pulls forward, holding on one hand this stick

with a large satchel over her shoulder, her other arm hidden within her robes. And she goes, Have you children been good? Tanner? Let's do it, hold him off! Let's show this witch how rampage works. What are you doing?

We are both climbing rampage style all the way up there. We're just gonna tear into this witch. Let's go, let's go! So that's a tag team attack. Are you doing a tag team attack? Yeah. All right, so whoever's helmet nets, spend the hope. And I'll also use my blade ability, a soldier's bond, once for long rest.

When I compliment someone, ask them something they're good at. You both gain three hope. Yo, brother, your stories, send me. Let's go. Let's beat Lottie. Yes! Where am I hoping? Oh, bitch! 19 with Hobbes! Yay!

All right. Also 19 with Hobbes. There you go! You were trying to win, but you didn't win anybody. And it's the same age as Tanner! So, that is indeed a success. You both get a shot at success on that one,

so go ahead and roll damage for both of you, and then add them together. No problem. That was really high. Oh, that's pretty good. Just like you. And I don't get a bonus, because technically we're both in melee. Yeah, so that's...

We've got two baddies, right? Yeah, it's 16. There are straggler crawling through the trees that haven't gotten to you yet. The Frau is currently invisible and they're attacking her, and the spirit is somewhere in the wood. 18? 18. 28 for me.

So that is, for a total altogether, that's going to be... 46. Yeah. All altogether. 46. Yeah. All right. Yeah, that is going to be, that is a severe wound to her. That's what happens when you mess with D&T, baby. All right, that's awesome. I'm immediately going to spend a fear to go ahead and activate.

No! Frau Pö activate. No! Frau Pertschter. No! So she's going to go ahead and pull out the other arm that was hidden, pulls out this long, bloody, curved knife that was within. And she is first going to go ahead and interrogate you, Dylan. Say it. Are you naughty, child? I need you to make a presence reaction roll for me.

Oh boy. Those are 12s. Oh, those are Ds. Thank god, thank you. That would have been bad. That's 11. Oh, I feared. Oh, that doesn't matter. All right, that's a failure. So you are now marked as naughty by Perchta. Fair. Spending another fear for Relentless to go ahead and follow up.

She's now going to say, and for that to be punished. And she pulls out her blade and is going to do a massive strike in your direction. That's going to be 14 to hit. It does, it would, except earlier I put up a spell that brings my evasion up to 15, which the rogues dodge. That'll do it. Goes wide. However, I'm really going to follow that up by spending another fear to activate the straggler minions around here, as Fra goes, Come forth, straggler! Take down the children! And they all of them go, Of course, Fra Postor!

And they all begin to rummage out. All of a sudden, this army of us, like four, six, eight of the straggler furred beasts begin to pour out of the nearby brush and begin to swarm you, Dylan, as you dodge out of her attack. So spending another fear to go ahead and activate their group attack. Take me instead, you bitch! That's going to be a five to hit you. Man, rolling bad

on that opening round. That's okay, that happens. Can I retaliate yet or no? If you want to. I mean, I just finished my go. Since I've just got all of them swarming me right now, and I assume they're all in very close range. They are, they all moved in. I'm going to cast Rain of Blades.

Okay. So I'm going to make a spell cast roll, and I'm actually going to use this d6. He's like, well, yeah, I want it. I actually want to see it. I don't know how any of this works. Okay, I'm going to add this too, just for fun. That's not bad.

That's 21 with fear. 21 with fear, that'll definitely hit us. And that basically means I'm spinning my little ice ball in a chain around, and ice daggers are just flying in every bloody direction. It's a whirlwind of them. All righty. So... Do I roll damage that succeeds against them?

Yeah, it's... Targets you succeed against, I'll get a 2d8 plus two. So... None of them are vulnerable. That's all right. No. So that's six.

The only vulnerable one is the spirit that is slightly higher. That's 12 points of damage each. Okay, so all the stragglers, your minions, all get spent off and thrown. The blades spin them to the wall. And they all kind of go unconscious. All immediately just blasted against it.

Yes! I'm going to spend a fear to immediately activate the spirit of holiday cheer. Shit. And it's going to inspire myth and is going to bring three of them back. No! No! The spirit goes, please, it is too soon to give up.

They must all know what it's like to be punished. Jesus. However, it's back to play for you. I'm going to grab. Is Ralph's tears doing anything to the box? I'm going to grab the side of his head and force it forward. Collecting the tears.

Just hitting the back of the head. Here's what I'll do. I'm going to go ahead and make this another positive clock here. So you have to collect enough tears to activate the box. You've successfully spent one round to do so. If any of you want to try and further this process,

it is going to be a series of checks based on what you want to try and do to get more tears out of your good friend. Can we get tears from other sources? If anyone wants to try and do so. I have a confession. Why are you looking at me? You seem like

the safe person to tell this to. When I had to leave the army base in Berlin, I had to leave behind my pet rat. His name was Gorbachev. Oh! My dad used to

always call him a rat bastard So I thought it was really clever And I loved him so much And he was my best friend And when we left the army base I let him out Into the wild And he's probably dead

And I'm a bad rat pup. I miss you, Garbage Ham. Go ahead and make a presence roll. Okay. Come on. Oh my god. Jeez. Okay. This is important, I'm going to use my rally die.

Okay, okay, okay, okay. Okay. 20. Yeah, that's great. You squeeze out some true, missing your rat tears. Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. You watch as the tears begin to absorb. It just darkens the outside,

and you're hoping something happens, but you begin to watch as some of the runes, like. Yes, yes. And it is starting to react. I'm sorry. That's a secondary. Good job. I just hugged Ralph.

I'm going to spend a fear now to activate Foul Perch once more. No! Angerly is going to go ahead and slash out towards you, Dylan. Oh my god. Whoa. That's going to be a 19 to hit you.

Oh yeah, that is. All right, since you are considered, you are marked as naughty by her, she does an additional d12 damage. That's judgmental. Oh my gosh. That's going to be 32 points of physical damage. Whoa! As her blade suddenly slashes across your chest twice and then jams it into your torso through your shoulder. Whoa!

I'm gonna drop that down to a major. Because ow. Fair. A major. As a reaction, you spend another fear and she's gonna attempt to disembowel you. Oh! Oh no! That is going to be 16 to hit.

That hits. No! With that, you take an additional 18 points of physical damage. I'm gonna use another armor and drop that down to minor. Okay. The blade is stuck in you and she's like, You will be filled with the garbage you are, Tyler.

Oh, God. Oh, God. Jeez. But that finishes her go. It plays back to you. Who wants to do what? I want to fly down and help Dylan. Okay.

Can I fly over and help him? Sure, you fly over, and she's not up against it. Some of the stragglers are starting to pull themselves free of the nearby trees. Yeah, I'm going to run. Don't the nearby trees. Yeah, I'm gonna run. Don't worry about him. We gotta finish her. What? We gotta finish her. Dylan's about to be disemboweled. I'm gonna run forward and, oh, I'm sorry.

Forceful push. Forceful push her to try to get her away from him. Sure, let's go for it. I'm gonna, like, body check her. Do it, do it. Okay. You care about him, but you don't care about me. That is a 16. A 16? 16 with hope.

With hope. So you take a hope. That is a success against the Frau. Okay. Oh, I do want to note this real fast, sorry. Because Frau Prutschda is terrifying. Whenever she successfully attacks a player, all PCs within close range lose a hope and I gain a fear. Oh, shoot! You lose a hope.

I didn't have one. You lose a hope. So the two of you do. Oh, god! And then I can... It's your turn. I am going to spend a hope to make her temporarily vulnerable. And I'm going to get to add a d6 to my attack.

Go for it. Okay. That was 14 plus 6 is 20. 24 points of damage. 24 points of damage. It's a major wound to her, so she takes two hit points. As you push her back, she splashes into it.

The rope kind of pulls open. You can see the gnarled grandma leg on one side and the weird twisted bird leg on the other. And you can see now the bag swings open, and inside of the bag are tufts of hay, rocks, and garbage, what you saw stuffed in the abdomen of the security guard earlier. Oh, God. If there's a way to punch in really quick,

I'm just going to attempt to cast Shadowbind on the witch really quickly. Sure. So I'm bleeding out, and I summon all of the shadows to start to pulse, and tentacles of shadow go in and go to grab her. Okay. And that's going to be a spell cast roll. Oh, come on, don't forget. Oh, my God.

No, no. What was it? It was three, enjoy your fear. Actually, it was six, enjoy your fear. Okay, I'll take that fear. As the shadows try and curl around, she goes, fool, I am the shadows. And it's going to rush forward towards you

immediately after to try and finish you off. No! No, Dylan! That's going to be another 16 to hit. No, I am your shield. I'm going to step in front. Don't do it, Bethany. Okay, mark that stress and step in front.

You take... Oh! 38 points of physical damage. Oh! That rolled really good. So that's a severe, but I'm unstoppable right now, so I'm gonna take that severe and mark it down to major. Okay.

And then I'm gonna use my armor and mark it down to minor. Oh, And then I'm going to use my armor and mark it down to minor. Oh, wow. Hell yeah. Cool. Wow. That's how you do it. Wow.

And then I'm going to spend a fear here. She did successfully hit, so I actually... And I'm going to use vengeance. I'm going to spend a hope. Okay. And I'm going to make her take... I'm going to gain a stress slot and I'm going to make her take a hit point.

Go for it. Also, all three of you lose a hope because she successfully stress slot and I'm gonna make her take a hit point. Go for it. Also, all three of you lose a hope because she successfully struck you and you're all next to her in close range. So you feel just her presence, each like a successful strike on her, it like saps your ability to think you can get out of this, but you keep trying to push through.

All right, so you go ahead and do vengeance strike on her to do a hit point. Yes. You got it. All right, from that, the spirit of holiday cheers. You go ahead and spend aengeance Strike 100, too, to a point? You got it. All right. From that, the Spirit of Holiday cheers. Go ahead and spend a fear to get in there, and another fear to inspire Myth, which three more of the struggling get up, so now

six of them are fine. In the middle of this chaos, I see Dylan almost get eviscerated. I think we're all gonna die. I focus on the fact that my father has never thought I've been enough, and that die. I focus on the fact that my father has never thought I've been enough, and that is why I fled to the stage,

because I could never sculpt like him. My body goes slack, and I begin to wander towards Ralph in the Box. To be... or not to be. Or not to be. I mean, that's kind of the question. Whether to snooble or in the mind

to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of weird Christmas shit. Kill him! And by opposing end them, to die, to weep. And with that, I also, for good measure, pluck out a bunch of giant fucking Krampus nose hairs and try to cry in the box.

Go ahead and roll a performance check. Get him in there. Okay. Come on, come on. I'll assist him, I'll assist him. Come on. By pulling out additional nose hairs. From the other nostrils.

I'm pulling out areola hairs. All right, so you can add a D6 to the roll. I kind of like it. No! Come on. Okay. One of those was a D10. One of those was a d10. One of those was a d10?

Let's not use that one. Let's use this one. No! It's with hope? Yeah. Seven plus three for me is 10. It's a 15. Oh, that's pretty good!

With hope. 15 is exactly what you need. Yes! My nipple's not in shape! He's out in the fight. He drops that part of it's real, but part of it is just your thespian acumen. I'll never make it to Juilliard! As they drip and soak into the wood, the rest of the runes are on the side, glow, and the

inside of the box that was just the dark wood interior suddenly has a golden shimmer, like it's some sort of bottomless space, and the chain now just kind of floats slightly in the air like it's weightless. The fog. Gotta get her. Come here! Get her in! Get her in!

Get ready! That was with hope, right? Yes. All right, so still you guys go. Where's the Christmas spirit? Christmas spirit is now floating up at the top of the trees, like looking down and just kind of helping orchestrate this. I'm going to throw a mystic tether at her again.

Yes! Drag her down. Come on! Let's go. Come on, baby. Ooh, can I joint attack and help out with this? If you have the hope to spend it, you can. I can.

How much does it cost? It costs two or three? It costs three hope. I have three. Oh, I only have two. I have three. Can I spend three hope to go ahead and do it? I will do it.

And I'm going to fly up and try to forceful push her down while he's using the tether. Great, so you go up above and you come below. Both of you guys go ahead and roll for your spell cast and you go ahead and roll for your attack. Oh god. What'd you roll? I only rolled a 12.

I rolled a 21. With fear. With fear. So I'll take the fear, but that is a success that you both get to share because you both tag-teamed a deck. So describe to me how this looks as you both tag-team up on it.

I reach out my long Grinch arm to grab her, and I say to, or the entity, I say to it, And I'm going to look past it, straight at Ralphie, and I'm going to say, I didn't mean any of it. You're like a brother to me. And I'm going to push her as hard as I can. Shaken Blake!

Frau Perchta has set her staff to the side and taken the long blade. What you also didn't see beneath the robe is some sort of katana-like sheath for it. As she slides into the sheath and does the one-inch thumb flick of it out, almost like she's preparing to do some sort of massive swirling strike, but you both catch her off guard

as you cast your spell, strike her, strike past her, up towards the spirit. The spirit, who's thinking that you're focusing on the Frau, looks up and sees you just in time and then smiles. As you slam her from on top, gets knocked down about 12 or so feet, right as your magical tether slaps up and grabs and pulls her down.

The spirit gets shunted and slammed into the ground. Go ahead and roll your damage for that. I rolled 26. 26. And you rolled? I don't, this is not a damage. 26 is her severe threshold. So that's three hits of damage to the spirit.

And she cannot fly. And I am going to spend a hope to make her vulnerable as well. You got it. Spirit is vulnerable. I'm going to spend a hope to make her vulnerable as well. You got it. Spirit is vulnerable. I'm going to roll over with the locks. Yeah! Okay, she's resisting.

I'm going to use a fear to go ahead and immediately take Foul Perchto, who has prepared the blade at the ready, spend another fear to activate a Swirling Whirlwind Strike, which is going to attack everybody within close range, which at this point is all of you. So for that, ooh, that's going to attack everybody within close range, which at this point is all of you. So for that, that's going to be 14. Damn.

Miss. That misses you, and it misses Dylan, I believe. No, it hits me. It hits you? I have 13. Oh, got you. So that's everybody but, all righty, everybody around here takes 14 points of physical damage,

except for Dylan, who takes 24 points of damage. And actually, Bethany also takes 24, because you have been naughty this whole time. I have? As decided by our VIP. Oh! Ew! You stinkers! I'm burning another armor to bring it down.

Good thing I am unstoppable. Unstoppable, unstoppable. Because that's going to bring it down to a minor damage for me, and I'm going to use my armor slot, so I don't take any damage. There you go. But that's my go now. So where's the spirit? The spirit is kind of held to the ground currently. and I use my armor slot, so I don't take any damage. There you go. But that's my go now. So where's the spirit? The spirit is held to the ground currently.

It's taken some damage and it's resisting. It's smiling and still giggling, but it's looking a little nervous. Get in the box. And currently you have it held by magic on the ground. I look at Quinn. Let's do this. Let's do it.

You're a big kid now! Get in the box, bitch! Can I assist her? Yes, you may. You can spend a hope to go ahead and add a d6 to the roll. I'm going to need you to make a strength or finesse, depending on how you're trying to scoop up the spirit. I'm going to try to finesse her in there. Okay. I'm just going to finesse her in there. Okay. I'm just gonna wiggle her in there. Go for it. All right. Cause she's resisting the tether

and like flying around rapidly. Do I roll the d6? You roll the d6 and add it to our roll. Oh shit. Six. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Uh, uh, uh. Marnie, Marnie.

Say it. 16. Plus six? Or just 16 Ready, ready. Say it. 16! Plus six? Or just 16 total? That's plus six. Yes. Unfortunately, that's it. Shit! No! Um, oh! Technically, you could take that hope back

because she's vulnerable. Wait, wait! So the roll already had a d6. You can keep that hope. Um, oh. Because the spirit was vulnerable from earlier. The spirit was vulnerable. Oh, so I can't also add another D6 on top of that? No, they're not stacked.

Question. Yeah. Question. Since I did say I was going to assist, Ranger's Focus that has been on the spirit, when you fail an attack against them, you can end your Ranger's Focus to reroll your duality dice. Could I do this to allow win? It wasn't your roll, unfortunately.

I know, but... But Matt, it's Critmas. Oh, but it's German Critmas. You get a potato. Too real. And with that Foulpuchta, it's going to go ahead and pry and come after you. How are you looking? I look real bad. You look real bad, it's going to go ahead and come after you. How are you looking?

I look real bad. You look real bad, it's gonna come after Dylan. Oh no! That's gonna be a 14, no, 13 to hit you. I am, my evasion is 13. Damn it. But, yeah, my evasion is, well, hold on. Yeah, my evasion is 13.

All right, so with that, that is going to be, What kind of attack is this? This is the... The blade? Okay. That is going to be 23 points of physical damage. However, however... Oh, it's physical damage, not magic damage.

Correct. Okay, so I'm going to use my parrying. I'm going to summon an icicle to parry this attack. Okay. Are either of those two a six or a five? I know. None of your dice are a six or a five? No.

God dammit! Sorry, that was a good try though. Oh, also you have disadvantage. You should have had, because I'm at one point, which means that because I have. Oh, so I'll take away a d6 from that? Yeah, well, which, what are disadvantage? Yeah, your attack would have disadvantage on me. Okay, so yeah, that would a d6 from that? Yeah, well... Why do I have disadvantage? Yeah, your attack would have disadvantage on me.

Okay, so yeah, that would have reduced it by two to an 11, so that would have actually missed you. All right. So we'll say, narratively, as the strike comes towards you, you send out this icicle, and it parries it off at the last second. That doesn't bring it back to you. This is rough over here.

I'm going to try, really quickly, to drop down. If there's a shadow I can fall into in the trees, I'm going to try really quickly to drop down. If there's a shadow I can fall into in the trees, I'm going to try and throw myself at a shadow. Actually, can I do that or can I not? We need to get this thing out of the box. So I'm going to get away from this thing. Okay, so you're going to drop into shadow.

I'm going to literally drop myself into a shadow and shadow step into the shadow of a tree that is closest to this whole disaster. Easy to do. There's a whole lot of shadow to go around in this thing. Yeah, I'm going to get as close as possible, and now I am... Dylan just disappears out of sight

and appears somewhere else in the thick brush. It's your guy's go. I need help. We got to get the box. Can I try and get the box? You can if you want to. Riley! All right.

Seeing Gwen kind of stumble a little bit because my hands are slippery. I'm playing with you. I know. I'm going to try and take, and I want to use my sled and kick it up so I can almost make the box have more purchase and slam it down on top of her.

Okay. It's a top of her. Okay. Legolas shit. I respect that. And I'm going to spend three hope to assist. To do a tag team, I mean. Let's go! Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's go. So you're still holding the box. You just hold onto it as well. Kick your sled into the air behind it and use that as

additional leverage to try and slam it over on top of her. Slam it down. Alright. Both of you roll either finesse or strength. Let's go. I'm gonna use my last hope that I didn't spend before for gnarly kickflip, brah. Let's go. Okay. Get it, get it, get it. Let's go. Damn.

I still can't believe you guys said I was naughty. You can't? There are a bunch of people in here who know things about you that the rest don't, and I think it's fair. I'm going to use my finesse. No.

Wait, did I use my finesse? I used my finesse to cry. Or my rally dive. I used my rally dive to cry. What did you roll? I rolled a 12. I rolled a 15. All right you roll? I rolled a 12. I rolled a 15. All right, so you both take a 15, which is not enough.

Oh! Now, mind you, the spirit can't escape right now because of the tether, but it is still wiggling around. It's very, very challenging for it to do. That brings it back to my game. Wait, wait, though. Wait, yeah. Wait, yeah, what you got?

What I wanted to do last time, but I failed, or I couldn't do. Wait, yeah. Wait, yeah, what you got? What I wanted to do last time, but I failed, or I couldn't do. Oh, yeah! Which, in my ranger's focus, to reroll my die. You can do that. Yes, yes, yes! Come on!

Let's go. Come on, come on, come on. Come on, work. Big money, no whammies. Come on, Riley! Oh, it's better. Uh. Oh, it's better. Math is hard with all you out there.

16. Oh, wait. 16 is not enough. Sorry. Yeah, good. Damn it. The spirit is moving around, and you can't quite capture it with the box.

You're both just trying to, it's like trying to get that one fly... Wait, was that a finesse or an agility roll? It was finesse or strength. Your choice. Yeah. Is there room to take a shot from the shadows? Can we just ruffles? Can I just run and do both symbols in the air?

Well, unfortunately, on a failure, it comes to me. Vrow no longer can see Dylan, and has shifted focus, not from you, because you seem to be kind of hard to go for, and is now going to shift focus over to this large monkey meat sack. With a natural one. It's not going to do anything.

Come on, monkey meat sack. Let me try to set you up. Let me try to set you up. I crawl over, weeping. This is so dumb! If these shadows have offended, think but this, and all is mended. I'm crying. Bet you have but slumbered here, and I will try to put her to sleep.

The spirit. Oh, it's jackass crap, bro! Oh, it doesn't do it. Wait, is this a tag team? No, it's a spell. It's an eight with hope. Good. Okay, so you take a hope, but it is back to you.

Rao is going to continue to unleash one after another towards the large, symboled monkey. That's going to be a 19 to hit. Hits. Hits. No way. You take 22 points of physical damage from that strike as the blade carves across your chest.

That's severe, but I'm gonna use my blade ability, get back up, and I'm gonna use a mark of stress to reduce the severity by one. Let's go. There's still two hit points, though, goddammit! Correct, however, that strike does gain it a fear, and all of you lose a hope. Oh.

Oh. Everyone in close range right now. We really need to start rolling with success. Yeah, yes. So, correct. Can I try and return the attack? If you'd like to, sure. Yeah, I'm going to jump in the air with both symbols

and I'm just going to try and fucking DDT, elbow drop this motherfucker into the box. Let's go. That is plus three, seven, 15, 16, 17, 18, 18 with hope. 18 with hope. 18 with hope will succeed. Yes! Come on!

2d12, double nines on this bitch, plus sale. Let's get a sense, 24! 24 damage? 24 damage! That's great, that's a major wound. That's two hit points off. Frau Prosta is looking a little ragged. Pulls back from the impact.

Spits this kind of black, weird blood that hits the ground and burns and hisses and hits. Oh, you've been very naughty. Were you attacking her or trying to get the thing in the box? Get the thing in the box! I was trying to shove her in the box! Oh, sorry, this was against the Spirit of Christmas.

Spirit of Christmas. And you rolled a... It was 18. 18 would have missed. Wait, can I assist him? It's not after the roll. Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought you were going after her.

Sorry. Okay, okay. So, you would try and strike out past the frow, go towards trying to help the spirit into the box, and you're all now swarmed around and trying to push it in, and it's just whipping around too much. Actually, you know what, it's vulnerable, so you get to add a d6 to that.

Oh! Oh, that's right! Six! Yes! Oh, get him in! How do you want him? Yeah! Jesus.

As my large simian runs up the side of the wall, he pulls the symbols off of his hands, blood rushing forth. He spins them up in the air. Ah! Wham! Slams it on top of the spirit of Christmas's head and starts elbow dropping it into the box.

As the box slams it on top of it, you hear the song still beginning to permeate. It gets louder and louder around as light begins to evaporate. The trees begin to bend and turn inward. All the seragli begin to rush out. Frau Perchtes says, No!

The box hits the ground, and light energy begins to streak out of all sides. This heavy crack sound shakes the foundation around you and all the building's walls nearby, as dust falls from the settled ceiling. Slowly, silence begins to take the room as the lid is now clasped onto the box and the wooden hands now hold the spirit of Holiday Cheer once again

within its long, ancient sealed space. Who's crying now? A moment later, all the trees begin to crumble into ash, just leaving piles of dust on the ground, and you feel a soft, warm wind begin to surround and engulf you, picking up the dust and ash until it's just a cloud of swirling light.

And then as it dissipates, you look down upon your now restored forms. Your teenage selves, a little scuffed, a little bloody, but back to normal. My skin cleared up. I'm still bleeding from a wound in my torso. I don't think we have magic anymore.

No, no, it does not feel good. I was at one hit point, so. You got real close to going, being disemboweled and stuffed with stones and trash. I'm going to rip the bottom of my skirt off and tie it around Dylan's waist to staunch the... You have fingers again.

I have hands! Oh! Cool. Cool. Wow. I'll check, too. Still circumcised. Wow.

What a party. Oh, guys. The security guard. Maybe he'll come back to life. Nah, he's still eviscerated in the hall. He knew the risks. This is going to be one holiday to remember. Hey, Dylan. Yeah.

I reach into my Wanderer's Pack because I can summon anything that I want. I want some game. And I pull out Dylan's dad's wallet. Oh, God. Told me to keep an eye out for this. You found it? Wait, you still have magic?

No, I've just had it this whole time. I am... Thank you. I was going to be in so much trouble for stealing that and then losing it. Instead, I'm going to be in trouble for bleeding. Yeah. Mysteriously.

Still owe me 20 bucks. And you owe me a favor. Ralph, I forgot I brought a present for you what me it's one of my favorite books flowers in the attic oh my god wow

thanks you know I Oh my God. Sorry. Wow. Thanks, Glennie. You know, maybe I've been looking at the wrong girl this whole time. Whoa. I didn't mean... I mean, I don't know. You're going to need some help when you start your freshman year, right? Yeah. I can help you out and just show you around where your locker is and stuff.

I'm really scared to use a locker and to change classes. That sounds so intense. Yeah, the bell is really scary the first time you hear it. But then you get used to it. Okay. Okay. Okay. Shake on it. All right.

Oh, so clammy. Cool. Well, I'm just going to go cover up the eviscerated security guard. You mean loot the body? Okay. security guard. You mean loot the body? You come back to find Lenny Kors. He's like coughing on the ground. And he's like,

and coughs up like a bunch of bloody straw and stones. And he's like, what the hell just happened? Run! Run! What are you? who's that? Run away, run away! You all go charging out of the high school security guard. Wait, wait, no, it's, oh, what?

I didn't drink! And you all go charging off, and in the night, as you see all this snow and ice that had been evaporated from this is slowly melting, and the trees are slowly vanishing. The town of Springvale Springs, slowly returning to the best of normal you can imagine, and probably a very confused

array of innocents that have stepped outside of their homestead this late at night. You eventually begin to return to gather to the, well, where were you heading next, I would say? I think we still have a whole other six-pack of beers in the basement at the Blake's

how about you know how about we drink the beers and then let's go interrupt and fuck up whatever weird shit your parents are up to let's like move in it forever so that they will never be comfortable doing it again or

we go to the secret treehouse, which you all have never let me go in, and we can all have beers together in there and let our parents continue fucking. That is the spirit of Christmas. That is the spirit of Christmas. Okay.

Let's do it. Treehouse. So as you carry under your arm a recently sealed artifact of ancient Germanic Christmas nightmare. What could go wrong? As we walk away, you hear Tristan in voiceover. Dear freak German folklore, As we walk away, you hear Tristan in voiceover.

Dear freak German folklore, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole holiday for whatever it was we did wrong. But we think you're crazy for making us go through fucking hell. You see us as you want to see us. In the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a Krampus. A snowman.

A monkey. A Grinch. A dead reindeer. An abominable snowman. And a tree topper. Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, the Critmas Club. Yeah! As the very last image you see,

before it fades to black, is Gwenny looking down at her hand and a little flicker of fire in her fingertips and a confused expression. And that's where we'll finish the game. Oh! Don't you! We did it!

Don't, don't, don't, don't! Don't sing the song, we don't have the rights to it! Also, as a note, Critical Role does not condone underage drinking. No, no. But no, thank you all so much for joining us tonight. Sorry it's so late, you guys. I know, thank you for hanging with us

for this wild adventure. Appreciate you all so much. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night, I guess. Yeah! Hold on, Matt! Thank you for listening to Critical Role. We hope you enjoyed that exciting adventure and want to come back for more. If you did, well then please leave a rating and review wherever you stream the Critical Role Podcast Network. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising,

and maybe your experience will encourage another listener our way. Well, see you next time.