Hello everyone, and welcome to Playing Games with Strangers.
I'm your DM for tonight at Josiah Crandall.
Woohoo.
Yay. Did it? Nailed it. Hot. Yay. Woohoo. Um,
tonight playing with us, uh, we have Dave. Hey,
that's me over here, and we have Steve. Hi everybody.
And John actually gets to join the crew in the role of a PC
today. So that will be fun. Not, and not an npc.
And not an npc. Yes. So we've got that. And, uh,
if you haven't already guessed, um,
this is a Christmas episode from the, from the title, which I,
I assume we're gonna make a Christmasy type title. Um, so yeah.
Yeah, this will be a lot of fun. This is kind of a,
a one shot special Christmas episode, so that's why I get to,
I claimed running one this time, so should be fun.
All right. Let's, uh, play that theme song.
Uno Me Alba,
playing games with strangers. You know, there's no
playing games with,
with strangers.
It was the eve after Christmas, and the night was now colder.
Not a creature was stirring. Not even a beholder.
Wrappings and boxes were now strewn everywhere for the jolly sink.
Nicholas had already been there.
The heroes were nested all snug in their beds.
While visions of bug bears danced in their heads. But up in the north,
it was time for some fun for the reindeer.
Game C have now just begun.
All right. I need everyone to roll a D four for me.
That's a four for me. I got a four. It's a, it's a three.
Okay. All right. We'll start with, we'll start with Steve. So Steve,
that's me. You wake up,
there's a gurgling and a Swain back and forth and back and
forth, and your face down, um, beneath you, you just see wood planks.
Where did I go to sleep? Where did you go to sleep? Good question.
You went to sleep in your bed, like normal, like, like a normal night.
There's a, you had a big Christmas party. Um, you went to bed,
and when you're waking up,
now you are face down on something wood and it's rocking
back and forth, back and forth, back and.
Forth. What do I hear?
You hear a gurgling kind of arg.
Um, kind of a, like a thick, thick water, um,
moving slowly around you.
I think I'm on a boat or maybe even a ship.
Yeah. As you, as you kind of get up, um, and you look around,
you find out you are on a small little ship. Um,
there's a pack of something wedged in the corner. Um, cigarettes.
And.
All over , more like a, a small backpack. Oh, okay. In the corner.
And leave them.
Alone. , .
Um, and as you look out, there's kind of just a bunch of icy terrain,
and you're, um, in the middle of this, this, uh,
Milky River, basically.
And there's chunks of ice kind of floating in this Milky River. Um,
and there's some, some frosted trees and stuff. Um, all,
all around your little ways from shore. Um.
How big of a river is it? Is it like the Potomac or is it like a stream?
Um, it's more towards the stream side than the Potomac.
Okay. Um, but I wouldn't wanna like,
jump in and try to get to the other.
Side. Yeah, you probably wouldn't. You can, you can tell that looking at it, it,
it's, yeah,
it looks pretty chilly and very murky looking kind of a white
foamy.
What type of ship is it?
Is it like a skiff or is it like a.
More of a, more of a, like a almost canoe. Like, I mean,
it's just like a little, little ship. Just a little boat.
So it's a, it's more of a boat than a ship.
Yeah. More of a boat than a ship. Yeah. More like, like a,
like a lifeboat sort of thing.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
Um,
I look around outside to see if there's maybe an another boat that
this came from.
Like a bigger, bigger ship.
Y no, a smaller one. .
Someone like about that big floating room.
Yes. Okay. Yes. A bigger one. Um, go ahead and, uh,
roll for pers a perception check here.
Perspiration. Let's.
See where is at? Yep. Perspiration check.
That's a four. That's.
A four. Yeah. Uh, it's, uh, it's pretty foggy out here too as well.
It's hard to, hard to see more than a few feet in front of you. Um,
so yeah, you don't,
you don't really see any bigger ships or smaller ships around you. Um,
tell me one thing. I'm gonna go ahead and, and throw this in your court.
One thing you do see, um,
just throw it out there. I'm, I'm gonna let you have something here.
One thing you do see.
, uh, the, uh,
the Starship of the ancients descending towards me.
The Starship of the ancients descend. Well, I'll give you this .
It's about .
You do see something that looks like a Starship, and it's, there is a bright,
uh, shining star up ahead of you that's kind of cutting through this fog.
It's way up, um, probably to the north of you, um, in the distance.
But cutting through the fog, you can see this bright shining light. And to you,
it, it, it does look like a starship.
The starship of the ancients.
You thought you saw a Starship,
but it turned out to be just a Jefferson airplane.
. Yeah. I see what you did over here,
over here.
And as you're waving your hands, um, shouting over here, over here,
uh, we'll go to, um, our other guys here. So we go over here,
we have, um, Dave and John. Um, you wake up,
um, to the sound of wind just howling, and it's bitter and it's cold,
and it's cutting through you.
Um, is, that's my voice to you. Is that what my voice sounds like to.
You? Yes. That's, that's what your voice sounds.
It's that, it's that. See what it's like accent, man. I'm.
Over here, over here.
Um, and you guys are, you, you, you find yourself your face down on this cold,
hard, rocky surface.
Not gonna lie. It's not the, it's not the most, uh,
cumbersome place I've ever woken up in.
And Dave, this, uh, you hear this voice coming, um, from the left of you,
a voice you've never, never heard before.
Yeah. As, as I hear that voice and start coming to,
I immediately just put my hand on. Uh,
well, I reach for my simar.
All. So you reach for your simar. Um, and, uh, you, you,
you do, it makes a slight scraping sound as it as, you know, you,
you kind of rustle it a little bit. Um, and, um.
Russell the cemetery.
Yeah. John, you, you would,
you would hear it and recognize someone reaching for a sword.
So, uh, do you pull your, do you pull your, your, uh,
sword out for everybody? Or am I just special?
I don't quite know who you are.
What, what are we doing here?
Well, if I knew that, then
probably wouldn't be waking up in a boat in the first place. Uh.
You're.
Not my name.
You're not in the boat.
We're not in the boat.
No, no, no. You're, I thought you were the boat.
You woke up to biting wind and you're,
you're face down on a hard, rocky surface.
No.
Wait. You were in a boat at one time.
I had a dream about being in a boat. Sorry.
Um, hi. I am. I'm taka tough.
Um, where are we?
Hello, uh, Mr. Tuff. Um, my name is Pepper.
Comby com. Call me Tonko.
Oh, uh, yes. Tonka. Um, my name is Pepper. Um,
I have no idea where we are at all. So, um,
I apologize. I'll put this back and, uh,
I'm gonna look around. Uh, yeah. Do I see anything else, or is it still,
is it foggy like it is for Steve? Steve? Sure.
Um, go ahead and, uh, roll, uh, just, uh,
perception or investigation for me, um,
whichever one you prefer as you're looking around this cave here.
All right. I'm rolling.
A cave word cave. I'll give you that.
. Uh, I've rolled investigation and I rolled an eight.
Okay. Um, you don't see, well, um,
you can't see too far out of, of this cave. It is kind of foggy out there,
but you do, you do see that you're in a shallow cave. Um,
and it is, it's kind of rocky, but, um, it, it is, uh,
got these red and white stripes, um, going through it. It doesn't seem like,
you know, the normal sort of cave you would expect. It almost, um,
looks, uh, it, it's kind of got a glossy miss to it as well. And you,
and you're getting this slight smell of, uh, uh,
the peppermint for, for whatever reason. Um,
and there are, there's two, two bags, um, in the corner of the cave as well.
Hmm. Would this be a candy cave? Oh,
no. Sorry. I'm gonna go investigate the bags.
Are these yours? Tonka Tonka, right? Um.
Yeah. Tonka. Um.
Yeah. So you go over to the bag, um, and you're gonna,
you're gonna open up the bag. Mm-hmm. . Okay.
Are you sure about that?
Yeah.
Yeah. , um, you, you open up the bag, um,
and as you're kind of rustling in round, um, you find, uh,
it's a small pack with, it's got this deck of cards, uh,
that looks pretty festive. It's got some gold foil on it. Um, they, they seem,
uh, like they may have a, a bit of a sparkle, uh, to them.
Um, you also find a, a scroll in there and,
um, something that looks like rope, except it's, uh, um,
rather reddish, um,
and some small candy canes as well.
So these don't belong to you?
No, no. Those, uh,
those would not be mine.
Hmm.
I'm gonna cinch the bag back up.
Mm-hmm.
. And how heavy is it? Is it pretty light?
It's pretty light, yeah. I mean, it's, it's not heavy stuff in there. Yeah.
Okay. Um, I'm gonna throw it over my shoulder and I'm gonna,
I'm going to see if I can figure out if there's a way out of this cave that
I'm in. Yeah.
Yeah. Um, I mean, in front of you, it's, it's open to the,
to the sky. I mean, so like, you're not like, deep inside the cave,
you're just Oh, okay. It's pretty, pretty, pretty shallow cave.
So you're in the cave, and then out in front of you,
you can see outside the wind's blowing in. It is, it is kind of foggy out there.
Okay. So you want to, you want to kind of peek your head outside?
Is that kind of, or walk, walk that direction. Yeah.
Okay. Yeah. I, I wanna walk out enough to where maybe I could, um,
at least get my bearings.
Yeah. All right. So you, you walk out of the cave, um,
John or Tonka, um,
what do you want to do right now? I'm.
Gonna get up and I'm gonna be kind of dragging my great at my great xx behind
me.
Um, so your great xx is, uh, making this just scraping sound,
um, on, as you're going in little flakes of, um,
this, this peppermint, um, is just kind of flying off behind you. Um,
and as you guys step out of the cave, um,
I need you to go ahead and roll a dex save for me here.
Ooh, Nat 20 for a total of 24.
Okay, here we go.
Uh, I rolled a tw total of 23.
I also got a Nat 20. Ooh, you.
Guys, guys. All right. Um, as you step out of the cave, um, it's,
there's just kind, kind of an ice icy sheen out in front of you. So you almost,
um, if, if you were not as surefoot as you both are,
you would've slipped. Um, but you guys are akay,
but you see out in front of you, like it's, it's a pretty narrow ledge.
And down below, um, even though it's foggy,
you can tell you are up high. You're very high. You're, this is kind of,
um, mountainous. Um, and as you guys are, are looking down,
um, I'm gonna go back to Steve here. All right.
So Steve, you're,
you're standing up in your boat and you're waving your hands and you're
shouting. Um, and just at that moment,
something flies right past, um,
your head and it, it, uh, lands like,
sticks into the boat.
I duck down. Okay. And try to look from the,
in the direction where that came from.
Okay. Um, go ahead and roll, uh,
perception for me as you're taking a look, and it, uh, with disadvantage,
since it is foggy outside.
So do I roll twice? Is that it?
Uh, yes. Mm-hmm. .
Perception, so a seven.
Okay. Seven. Um, yeah, you can't tell what direction,
um, that thing came from, but you can, you can, um, find,
um, what was shot at you. Um, it's, it's kind of in the back of the boat.
By where? Or, uh, yeah. Where by where that little satchel, uh,
backpack is.
Is it my satchel?
Uh, no one else is around.
I know, but is it the one that I usually carry?
Uh, the one that you usually carry it, uh,
it doesn't look like yours. It looks, uh, um,
unfamiliar to you. Okay.
Um, what kind of a, a thing? Was it?
Was it just an arrow or some sort of special bolt.
Or, uh, you see what looks like a, uh, a peppermint stick,
um, but very sharp, sticking into your boat. Uh, just like,
like a little bolt.
Did it make a hole? Is it leaking?
It's just lodged into kind of the side of the, the,
like the back edge of the boat. Not leaking or anything. Huh.
And it doesn't, it, it's, it is not glowing. It just looks like an actual.
Yeah. Peppermint stick. A like a, you know, like a nice peppermint stick.
It doesn't have that. Is it a, it's not a candy cane in then? Not a cane.
Like a peppermint stick.
Peppermint stick. Yep.
Cuz that's important. Yeah. Later on in the game.
You never know.
It's like, oh, I used the, i, I used the end of the candy. No,
it was a peppermint stick. Um, alright. I'm,
I'm just going to duck down and, and try to stay out of.
Yeah. Stay low.
To range. Yes. Stay low.
Okay. Um, you, um, as,
as you're in the boat, um, it starts, you,
you also hear, uh, or you feel, you feel something bump, um, into you,
um, as well as you're, you're floating along.
Into my person or on the, in the.
Boat. Like the bottom, like something, something is underneath the boat.
It bumps, bumps into you.
Oh, okay. Um.
So the boat kind of like, uh, moves a little bit. Uh.
Is there like an ore or any type of device? Yeah.
That, yeah, there's, there's a couple ORs and stuff. Yeah.
Is it like a,
more of a rowboat or is it like a one paddle for a canoe type of a thing?
Uh, it's, uh, more oars for like a rowboat.
Okay. Um, and I don't see where that candy cane came from exactly.
No, you can't see the fog makes it hard. Um, hard for you to see.
Oh.
Yeah. It's too far, too far in the distance. Yeah. But you, you do see the,
you do see the star.
All right. Um, what's so foggy?
It probably was just a mistake.
So why would anyone be shooting candy cans at me?
So I'll, uh, hook the oars in and start rolling towards the light.
Okay. You start rowing towards the light. Um, go ahead.
Are you trying to be quiet or, or stealthy or, or anything at all.
As No, I'm trying to get my, their attention. Okay. It's like,
look at me down here.
Um, then go ahead as you're going and make a, uh,
go ahead and make a, uh,
a I'm gonna have you make a, a, a deck safe.
22.
22. So you hear the sound of like a, a,
a crossbo, you kind of hear some mechanical and,
and, uh, as you, as you hear those noises, you know, to move out of the way.
And this,
this another candy cane bolt just sails right past your head as you move it out
of the way. Um, and this one flies past you in, into the, into the water.
Wow. And the candy cane didn't, didn't shatter the first one.
It j just stuck right.
In. Yeah. This one, this one just flew past you, um, into, into the water.
Wow. Um, alright. Wow. I'm gonna duck down again.
Okay. And I'm gonna like,
touch the candy cane to see if it looks like an actual candy cane,
or if it just looks like a candy cane. No, I mean, I, yeah.
Peppermint stick. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry.
I keep saying candy cane because I'm thinking in the future if I keep saying it
enough, then I can choose whichever one it is, whichever serves my purpose.
Um, yeah, you, you look at it, it looks like a very sharp, um,
peppermint stick. Uh, it didn't, it didn't shatter,
so it may have some sort of magical reinforcement to it. It,
um, but it's definitely like if you wanted to lick it, uh, you could,
you could lick it and it would taste.
I'm, I'm not gonna be looking. Okay.
Random peppermint sticks falling from heaven.
Oh, come on, Steve. Just,
you don't want to take random objects and just cram it in your mouth.
All right. All right. I just eat the whole thing. Okay.
And the boat and the pack.
Turns out the boat's made outta chocolate.
All right. I'm gonna duck.
Down. Yep, you duck down.
And as you duck down and you're looking out into the woods,
we're gonna go back to our other two Tonka. And your name is what? Pepper,
stripe. Pepper, candy, Stripe. Yeah.
Pepper. Yep.
Pepper cane strip.
Mm-hmm. . So you guys are looking out over this, uh, this mountain?
Um, it seems pretty, um,
pretty frigid. Uh, pretty steep. Um, but there,
there is a little bit of a path, um, kind of running down towards the,
towards the south.
Ah, well, um, uh,
you want to go this way or you want to go back in that cave?
Well, I mean, there's nothing in that cave except two bags of God knows what.
So, um, I don't know. Do,
do you have any recollection on how we got here?
Can I roll a history check?
Ah, yes. You can roll a history check.
Oh, ann net 20 plus.
Two Ann net 20 plus two. Um,
so as you, um, think back, you, you,
you remember your, your, tell me,
tell me a little bit about your Christmas celebration before this evening.
Before.
So Christmas Eve, or.
This is, this is post Christmas, so Christmas day. Oh, okay.
Okay. Um, you know, uh.
How do the candy stripes celebrate their Christmas?
Well, I'm currently the only one, so alone,
um, perfect. With, with a mug of
the hottest hot chocolate, like, you know mm-hmm. , add some,
some chili powder into the hot chocolate.
Yep. Um, you know,
just reading some books, nothing, nothing fancy. I,
I don't have family or, or friends near me.
So that's what you remember. You remember that, uh, the night before,
the day before was just a pretty, you know, standard day for you. Um,
except for near for your hot cocoa was extra spicy.
But you do recall this, this little nugget, uh,
this little thing that you remember from, from growing up. Um, the rumors there,
there are rumors about these things called reindeer games.
Um, this was a story you might have heard as a, as a child,
you can't quite quite place it, but there was,
there's always this story that the day after Christmas, um,
Santa would, would, um, it said that the year after, the day after Christmas,
Santa would gather up, um, naughty elfs, um, and,
and make them fight. Um, and, um, that, um,
it would be kind of a, a competition of sorts. Um,
and that's, that's, you kind of remember that, that joke. Josiah.
Did you put us, did you put us in a, in a, uh, hunger games.
Scenario? Did I? No. No. Reindeer games. Reindeer games.
.
And, you know, it was kind of a, a, a free for all, uh, uh, um,
last man standing sort of thing, last elf standing.
So you kind of remember stories about that. Uh,
you also know that it was the naughty elfs groups that, that not,
not the nice, not on the nice lift people who are on the naughty lifts, who are,
who are gathered up for this.
Okay. Well,
last thing I remember was some hot cocoa,
and that's about it. You.
Uh, j John, go ahead. Go ahead and make a, uh,
a perception check. I, I want you to just, you, you,
you catch a twinkle of something in, um, in Dave's eyes here. Like,
you might have remembered something.
Uh, not one.
You didn't, you thought you saw something and then, um,
a, a bird flew overhead and you were really distracted. .
Um, yeah. Uh, sorry, I wasn't paying attention.
I got a headache.
Uh, sorry. Uh, how,
I mean, is it manageable or could we maybe get along,
get down this mountain?
I mean Yeah, that's, that's, that's fine. Um,
yeah.
Um, trying to, as, as you guys are, are standing there, um, you, you,
you hear this, um, rumbling, uh, of sorts kind of, uh,
from from behind you and above you.
And it doesn't sound like the good sort of rumbling, it sounds like. Uh, well,
uh, rocks falling and snow moving, you know, that sort of rumbling.
Almost say, we should probably get out of here as fast as possible.
And I'm gonna start, uh, moving
as swiftly and as safely as possible down this path,
whether Tonka follows me or not. Uh, yeah,
I'm gonna follow.
Okay. Um, as you're going down, I'd like you to roll both, both some,
some decks, um, deck phase as you're making kind of this
treacherous. I mean, there's, there's rocks and, um, pepper, mac.
Uh, total of four.
Total of four, okay. Total.
Of 23.
Okay. Who's, uh, who's going fir who is, who is in the lead here? I,
I assume Pepper was.
Yeah, I do believe. Yeah, he started running.
First. Yeah. So as Pepper starts running first,
he seems to be having no P problems. Um, but Tonka, um, he,
he, he takes a couple steps and there's another patch of that, you know,
that black ice that you, you had no idea was there.
And you start sliding down this path, um, and you are,
are headed full speed, sliding down it, right? Right at Pepper, um, pepper.
I'm gonna need you to make another deck. Save As,
as Tonka is headed straight for your feet. He's gonna take you out.
If you're not on top of it, that's.
A 10.
A 10. Um, yeah, I'm gonna say that you, uh,
you managed to, I mean, he hit, you, hit hit you right in the feet,
but, um,
you don't fall nearly as hard as you would, but you still fall. So you're,
you're both kind of now kind of sliding and tumbling. Uh,
I'm not gonna make you take any damage for this. Okay. Um, down, down, down,
down this hill, you're moving at a pretty, pretty steady clip though.
And as you're, you're kind of tumbling down this pathway, um,
you can hear that the rumbling from the top getting louder and you can,
you're, you see outta the corner of your eyes that the snow is,
is just kind of, um, about ready to start flying over.
And we're gonna go back to Steve here. Steve,
I don't know what your character's name is.
My character's name is Wow. Oh, riven.
Wow. Oh, riven.
Wow. Oh, riven reverend.
Um, so, wow. You're crouched, crouched down, um,
in your little little boat here. Um, pepper, pepper,
mint sticks, flying from who knows where. Um, what are you gonna do?
Um, okay, so there's two sides of the river.
One side is one side.
I can tell that's where the shots are coming from.
Mm-hmm. .
The other side of the river. How far is it away from the boat?
Um, I would say, I don't know, 25 feet, something like that.
Okay.
Then I will cast Misty step.
Okay. Yeah.
And briefly surround myself by a silvery mist.
I teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space that I can see.
Okay. Sweet. Yeah, that works.
So all this mist that's around you kind of gathers around you even more.
And then, bam, you're on the other side, uh, no longer in the boat.
Um, and the boat, you, you can kinda see it,
it's flowing or it's, it's, um, continuing, um,
down the stream and you are, you're safely, um, on the other side.
Okay. Um,
I'll also try to get somewhere where there's like some cover.
Yeah. Just in case the, there's, there's trees and stuff, uh, behind you.
I mean, it's Okay. Woodsy still. So you can, you can definitely peek,
peek back in there.
And is the, um,
the light still in the distance?
Yeah. You still see the star in the distance? Uhhuh.
. Okay. Um, so I'll, uh,
run towards that.
Okay. Um, yeah, you start, you start running towards that light.
Now we're gonna go back, um, to our other two, Tonka and Pepper. All right.
So Tonka and Pepper, um, you've tumbled down, um, and you find, you, you hit,
um, kind of at the, the edge of this cliff there. There's a, um,
a snowman just like, just standing there. And you, you, you,
it kind of stops you from tumbling any further, um, down this mountain.
Um, and you see,
just as you hit it kind of to the left of you, this,
this avalanche just, just pouring over the sides of the mountain. Um,
and there's a few rocks and stuff coming your way,
but you seem to be out of the, the main, um,
spread the main spray of this, um, this fall of,
of rocks and stuff. And you're much, much closer to, um,
the bottom of the mountain at this point. You've got, what, 60?
Uh, I don't know, maybe about a hundred feet, um, to,
to the bottom, so you can, not, not like you're gonna jump it or anything,
but it's definitely, you're, you're close to the, to the bottom.
And there's some evergreens and stuff down there.
For the evergreens that we do see. Are any of 'em tall enough to get to the,
to be pretty close to the ledge that we're.
Yeah. That you're, that you're at. Um, yeah.
You could probably make something work to, to jump onto 'em. There,
there's one that's, um, I mean, it's a, it's a nice,
tall, old, um, tree. Um, it's probably,
I don't know, 10, 10,
uh, 10 ish feet. You know, there's a little bit of a gap between you and,
and the mountain, but it's, it's, it's there a good like, jump could,
you could land in it.
Well, I'm not a wise guy myself. No. So,
um, yeah. I'm gonna, I'm gonna poo this out and, uh,
that's a bad choice of words. , uh, .
Um, love it. I am going to be like poo and, uh,
leap from this cliff to that said tree.
Okay. You're going to, uh, I'm,
I'm gonna have you make an athletics check as you do. So.
Uh, I got a eight.
Yeah. So you.
that, that's from, yeah. So.
You start, you start, you're very confident that you can make this, you,
you just about to take the leap and you look down and you're like, Nope.
And you kinda skid to the stop. Uh, you're, you're hanging, you,
you sl start sliding down the mountain.
You have hardly anything to hold onto and you're just hanging on by your
fingernails, basically, um, to the, to this ledge here. A hundred feet.
Um, up.
Little help. Little help.
Here. Yeah. I walk over and I,
I grab him by his wrists and try to pull him.
Okay. Go ahead and make a strength check.
You're not gonna or contest this at all, are you?
? No. . Don't.
Talk to me. Just making check. Yeah. So go ahead. Uh, strength.
That's a five.
Five. Oh yeah. He's, he slips a little bit. He, you, uh, he's, he's a little,
little heavier than, than he looks. Um, evidently he's Tonka tough.
Uh, you'll stout. Um, yeah.
So, so at this point, your hand is kind of slipped. You're,
you're hanging on basically by, by one, one hand. Now, um,
candy stripe, you can, you can have another go pulling them up here.
Um, actually go ahead and make a perception check for me too.
And John, go ahead and make a constitution save as you are.
22. Um, as you are hanging on by a thread here.
22.
Perception, not three, eight, strength.
Six, uh, one, one more. You're, you're,
you slipped a little bit more towards the edge. So you said 22, uh,
pepper.
Per four perception.
Perception. Um, out of the corner of your eye, uh,
you see that snowman that, uh, you ran into that,
that, um, stopped you, it's moving closer, uh,
towards you at this point. Um,
and it doesn't look very like a happy snowman.
I am going to lean into my slipping situation. I'm gonna kick my feet out. Okay.
And try to launch myself onto said tree.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a good, good call. Um,
go ahead and make a, eh,
let's call this an acrobatics check cuz this is more of an acrobatic move here.
And I know that your character's built for this. 11, 11.
I will take an 11. It's not gonna be pretty, um,
in the most undignified way possible,
you kick off of this cliff, um, and you're just,
your arms are wailing. Um, and somehow you manage to, to,
to snag onto a couple of branches on this evergreen tree. So you're,
you're up there and it's, it's kind of swaying back and forth, but you're,
you're hanging onto it.
Um, as I'm, as I'm hanging onto it, I'm gonna start shouting snowman at him.
Okay. Like snowman, uh, yo.
.
Pepper, candy shark.
Um, yeah,
I'm going to turn to look behind me.
How close is the snowman to me?
How close is he is? Um, he is close to you.
You've got about, I would say five, like five feet. He's right there.
And he's got this you didn't notice before, uh, an ax,
just like a hatchet raised up. He's, and he is coming at you with it.
I I'm gonna yell at him and say, jump to me, I'll catch you.
Uh, nope. I'll take my chances.
And I'm gonna just run headlong into this snowman.
I'm.
Trying all into the snowman. Okay. Um,
go ahead and roll. I would just, uh, I'm just gonna call this an attack.
Um, just a unarmed attack is what I'm gonna call this. Okay. If you try to,
um, yeah, just shove him aside basically is kind of what I get. The,
are you trying to tackle him or shove him aside and get past.
Him? Really just plow right through him. Okay. Now I wrote a dirty 20.
A dirty 20. Mm-hmm. . Okay. Uh, so let's see.
This would probably be, uh, yeah.
So you do plow, you, you plow right through this guy. Um,
he, um, just kind of, you,
you take a good chunk of his side of snow off. So part of his face,
part of his middle. Um, and he's just, um, half,
half the snowman he used to be. Um, but he's still, he's still moving, um,
as you glance back at him.
Okay.
So are you keep running through him or are you going to turn around and,
I mean, what, what are you doing here?
Yeah. Um, after I see that I've, um,
disarmed him, so to speak, yes. Uh, I,
I turn and I look right at Tonka and
I, I say
at least try and catch me if I don't make it.
And I'm gonna just sprint and long jump into the tree.
Okay. Let's see it. Gimme something here.
Athletics.
Athletics. Yep.
15.
15. Perfect. Uh, yeah. Uh, it's not the prettiest, um,
but it is not, um, not bad. Not bad. You make it,
um, to the tree just a little lower, uh, than, than Tonka. Um,
so you are both, you're both hanging, um, kind of in,
in this big old evergreen tree. Um,
and I would like, um, let's go ahead and have,
um, wow, uh, roll a, um,
roll up perception check. Wow.
6, 6, 6.
Um, as you're kind of traveling along,
you hear a few shouts, maybe people,
maybe birds, uh, just coming from, um,
I don't know which direction. So, to, to the,
to the east of you we're gonna say, I'm making up the directions as we go.
So to the east of you, um, you hear maybe,
maybe some shouts, maybe maybe some birds.
. Does it,
does it sound like what I imagine the ancients would sound like?
Uh, does it sound like you imagine the,
an what do you imagine the ancients to sound like? ,
if you imagine the ancients to sound like someone running and yelling,
um, as they leap into a tree, uh, then yes.
It sounds like the ancients .
I don't think that's how the ancients would sound .
So I'm gonna keep running towards them.
Towards the, towards that sound. Yes. Okay. Towards the light that you.
See. No, the, the light.
Yeah. Yeah. Towards the light. Perfect. Um, yeah, you,
you keep running towards the light. You pay, um, that, that sound,
uh, no mind. Um, as you, as you continue, um,
through the woods here, um,
let's go back to candy, stripe and, uh, no. So yeah, candy, stripe,
and Tonka in the tree.
I'm going to just start shimming and crawling through branches to
make my way down.
Yeah, you, you definitely, that that's, I mean, it's not too hard.
It takes a little bit of time, but you, you get down, you're,
you get down to kind of the, the base level of the tree. Are you gonna, um.
Also, what is the status of the bag I had?
Yeah. Do you still have it? It's with you. Yeah. Okay.
You've managed to manage to keep it on you. Okay.
I also will be climbing down.
The tree. Okay. Yeah. So you're both, you're both down, um, on the ground. Um,
and you're more in a, you're in a foresty area.
There's more evergreens and stuff around here. Um,
nothing, nothing too. I mean, it's lots of snow. Um,
the snowman seems to have stopped up on, on on the hill. You, you're,
you're in a decent place.
Okay. Uh,
there's nobody around us that we can see once we get to the bottom.
Um, actually in, uh, you see a bush,
uh, kind of rustling, um, in front of you.
Uh, I,
I grab both hand axes that I have strapped on my sides and
mm-hmm. , just like,
walk up to the bush and just like slide the hand acts through it to kind of
open the bush, essentially. Okay.
Oh. Oh. Uh, oh. Hello there. Uh, uh,
you're not gonna hurt me any, are you?
Uh, do I need to.
Uh, no, no. I, I, I'm, I'm, I, I'm just, uh,
trying to, to, to survive.
Jimmy Stewart, everybody.
Uh.
No, this is, this is porridge Bay leaf .
Uh, survive. What?
There's all sorts of, uh, people around here and they're, they're not,
not too nice, not, not too nice at all.
Um, how do we know that you're nice?
I'm hiding in a bush.
That doesn't mean anything.
Well, well, uh, it's a ice bush.
Uh, well, I, I, I don't know. I, I, I, I'm un unarmed.
I I don't have have any weapons. Um, I I'm not trying to hurt you right now.
Am I?
Hey, pepper. Uh, why don't you, uh,
why don't you pat him down to make sure that he is in fact
unarmed?
Uh, well, you could see my hands are full right now, so, um,
go ahead.
I'm gonna pull my, I'm gonna hold my greats in a menacing manner.
I'm gonna say, turn out your pockets old man.
Oh, oh, oh. Yeah.
He, he turns out his pockets. He has a a what,
what looks to be a, a knob from a, a staircase. Um,
he has a, um,
a long lasso of sorts. Uh, but that's, that's about it.
He doesn't seem to have anything else on him.
Hmm. Well, that, that, that, that's all I have, honest.
Alright. Put him in the bag.
This bag here when you're Gary. Alright.
Yes. And, and he puts him in the bag.
Uh, that's a very nice bag. I, I,
I saw one just like it. Where, where I woke up.
Um, and your shoes.
My, my shoes. But, but it's, it's cold out here.
Put your shoes in the bag.
Oh, no. No. Okay.
And he, he reaches down and he takes off his shoes and, and puts,
puts 'em in the bag.
Oh, this is, this is not the sort of, uh,
thing I, I, I wanted to happen. I, I just made, oh.
Like you said, there's not good guys out.
Well, that, that, that's true. That, that's true. It's, it's, uh,
it's all those, those reindeer games. I, I always thought they were to lie.
Do I know what the rain Gde games are?
Uh.
Roll a history check.
17.
Yeah. You, you remember these, these stories and rumors about, um,
Santa gathering naughty elfs, and making them fight, um,
after Christmas.
Okay. It's all coming together now.
Yeah. Yeah.
Fat man. The fat man. Put me in here for my business.
Oh, your business. What, what sort of business do you have?
And he, he's, he's backing up a little bit.
I make trucks.
Trucks.
He's trying, I make trucks and he's trying to edge me out.
He wants my business. He wants to use, he wants my to use my family name.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. I, I thought there was some more, some,
some other sort of business that you were talk, talking about there. You,
you know, the not not as good, good, kind toy making that's a, a valiant,
valiant, uh, business. I'm a banker myself.
Well.
Yes. I I'm not into this whole, uh, survival, uh, of the,
of the best and sort of thing. I mean,
I hear there's great riches and, uh,
flying reindeer and stuff like that in it for the winter, but, uh, no,
that's not for me. I, I just want to survive. I mean, well, it'd be out of here.
Well, there's a, there's a cave, uh, up that mountain.
Uh, probably the safest place you are gonna be.
If you find a snow man, he'll help you get there.
Well, a snowman, uh, up that, up that way. You say, in, in, in a cave.
Yes.
Okay. I'll.
I'll, I'll make my way, uh,
up there without any shoes in the cold. And he,
he starts, he kinda backs away from you and starts walking that way.
And then you see, um,
and as he starts walking a sh you hear, you hear a noise. And this,
uh, peppermint stick just flies right into him, uh, and threw him into,
into the snow. Um, and he just, he,
he looks down for a second and then he falls over. Um,
he and just face first into the snow. Big.
Well, that's that.
And then I need you both to make decks. Um, saves.
18.
Okay.
Six.
Um, okay. So pepper, um, you,
you hear another click, um,
you see a candy cane bolt flying through the air. Um,
you like a,
like a barber pole moving at supersonic speeds. Um,
and you, you dodge out of the way. Um, but, uh, unluckily,
uh, tokas right behind you and it hits, hits him in the shoulder. Um,
I need you to take, um, okay, well, you got off,
you got off easy. Uh,
seven piercing damage as this peppermint stick
lodges in, in your shoulder.
Okay. I'm gonna reach over and break it off like you would with an arrow.
Yes, of course.
Um, did I see where it came from?
Um, it came from in front of you. Um,
you don't like see anything specific, but like dead, dead in front of you,
um, is where, where it came from.
Okay. I would like to rage. Okay.
And I'm going to run in,
run in the direction where it came from with my great a just shrieking in
rage with my great aha aloft.
Okay. Yeah. As you, so you're freaking in rage, um,
with your great ex held aloft, um, charging through these trees. Um,
and then, wow, you hear a shrieking, um, in the forest.
Um, and, uh,
it sounds maybe vaguely like what you think, uh, the,
the ancients might sound like vaguely.
Well, that sounds vaguely like the, what the ancients might sound like.
I'm gonna run towards that.
Um, yeah. You start running, um, towards, uh, that,
that streaking sound. Um, and, and as you do,
you'll notice that the trees in front of you, um, seem to, uh,
be a, as you're kind of running through this, this foresty area, uh,
heavy laden, um, with some sort of large loaf,
it seems to be laden with loafs. And, uh, a as you're kind of running through,
you'll notice, uh, one, you, you hear a big thump, um,
behind you as you're running through. And, um, as you're going, uh,
you hear the, the, this screaming getting louder and all of a sudden, um,
this, you see the, the, the glint of an ax and the,
I don't know what you look like, um, of a, of a Tonka.
I'm a drow elf. So I'm,
I'm wearing
kind of black clothes with, uh,
bright yellow trim to emphasize the Tonka
motif.
Perfect .
Um, and yeah, so very furious,
very strong, uh, drought.
Yeah. Leaping out in front of you and you're just, you're kind of running, uh,
through, through. So you see this guy just jump out in front of you.
How far in front of me?
Um, he's about what, 40 feet in front of you or so.
And how far away is the tree line?
Well, you're kind of in the, in the tree line at this point. You're in, in,
in the kind of the, the foresty area.
Okay. Um,
then I will do my very best to, uh,
be dexterous in like trying
to like, jump into the trees and to be a little stealthy or.
Okay. A lot stealthy. Yeah. You have roller steal check for me at,
at disadvantage. Um, well, let me see. Um,
I'm gonna have Tonka roll a you're raging to,
uh, you're looking. Yeah. Just roll me a stealth check at disadvantage.
11.
Um, you think you're, you know, you're being stealthy.
Tonka roll a investig or a perception check.
You're trying to beat 11 here.
I also wrote 11.
Okay, so you catch the fake lips glimpse of,
go ahead and describe yourself. Wow.
Uh, an elf, uhhuh, , medium size, about five foot five, uh,
hair argent, eyes zantec,
skin cian.
You see this blur of colors, um,
go towards, uh, just kind of disappear in, in the trees in,
in a couple of these trees here, going.
After 'em.
Steve, I'm gonna have you pick a number between one and four. And John,
you can just roll a D four. So he goes for one of these trees here, and,
uh, you just probably kind of take your ax to it. You can, you, you can.
I'm gonna let you just, if you want to chop,
chop through this tree looking for this, this guy. Fair enough? Yeah.
And you take your ax through the tree and it just, you know,
it just cranes right through this tree. Does he find you there? Wow.
No.
.
Okay. Um, so this tree, um,
just falls to the ground with a, a big thump. Um,
and pepper, pepper, you hear trees falling and screaming, um,
coming from in front of you, cuz I assume you're,
you're still kind of hanging out where you were.
Yeah. Uh,
I'm actually going to pick up the body of, okay.
The guy that just got shot and I'm gonna.
Him over.
Yeah. I'm gonna,
I'm gonna heft him over one of my shoulders and start heading in the opposite
direction.
Okay. That's good. In front of you a a little ways ahead.
You see smoke, uh, coming from, from somewhere.
I'm gonna follow that smoke.
Okay? We're going to go back to this, this, uh, fight going on here.
Um, you wanna try for another tree here? Um,
Tonka.
I rolled that three.
Okay. Roll the three.
So you head over towards this third tree there, and I'm going to,
um, have Wow. If you want to roll a, um,
stealth check if you, if you need to move or, or something like that,
I'm gonna give you the opportunity right now to do that. If,
if you want to move, I mean, if it's not a good role, you might, um,
divert I roll.
The 22.
Okay.
So I'm gonna, I'm gonna move.
Okay. So you're, you,
you move to a tree here and you chop chopped through this third, third tree,
um, a, uh, tree number three. Um,
and as you hit it, um, one of these,
it doesn't fully fall down like the last, last one it did, but there's some,
it rustles it. And I need you to make a, um,
deck save as one of these giant fruitcakes, uh,
fall from the tree
for you are in the fruitcake forest.
17.
Uh, yeah. You make it, you make it outta the way, so you,
you wa whack into this tree, um,
and it cracks and one of these fruitcakes fall. But you,
you jump out of this way as this large brick of cake and
fruit, um, hits the ground and sends snow flying everywhere.
I'm just shouting. Get out here and take your medicine.
Um, and at that moment, um, you a, uh, another,
um, peppermint stick flies, um,
from the left of you and lodges into a tree, another tree next to you.
And this is kind of from the opposite, uh,
different direction than you've been looking.
If I turn the direction where it came from, do I get a,
do I get a sense of who may have shot it?
Yeah. You see, you see the, um, a figure, um,
on top of a, some sort of four-legged, uh, creature, um,
in red, um, just through the trees, ways,
I would say 60 feet or so.
Okay. Um,
I would like to throw my hand ax at him.
Okay.
If I could please.
Yeah, go ahead and make that roll for me.
15 To hit.
15 To hit. Let me look here. Oh, that, um, it will miss,
uh, but not by much. Um, you see your, your, your blade is true.
Um, it's flying straight at this person. Um, but as it,
as it gets towards them, um,
they're able to just kind of knock it out of the way, um, right at the,
right at the very end. Um, um, and you see,
you see them. They, they kind of look at you, um,
give you a dirty look, I mean, kind of from what you can tell.
And then they start, uh, turn around and, and the,
the, and you can see as it turns around, it seems to be a deer, uh, a reindeer,
um, start bounding off, away, away from you.
Now was it the reindeer who shot me or somebody writing.
The reindeer? Someone writing it? Yes.
There's a someone in red on top of the reindeer.
All right.
I'm gonna throw my other hand ax at him at before he gets outta range.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go ahead.
It's a reindeer tour. man says.
Yeah.
That would've been, that's awesome.
Idea. Thought that was only a 12. That was only a 12, so.
Yeah. It doesn't, doesn't hit. Yeah. Um, uh, were were you aiming for,
um, you're aiming for the person?
Yeah.
Yeah. Doesn't hit. Um, so, um, okay. So yeah,
that, that person, um, rides off, um, away from, away from you.
Uh, wow. Do you wanna do anything?
I want to remain stealthy and watch what's going on,
because I don't know Yeah. Who these people are.
This guy just tried to attack me then someone had tried to attack him with the
same weapon that attacked me before. Mm-hmm. . So my, well,
the enemies of my friends and my en no,
the friends of my enemies are the en the enemies of my,
these guys might be nice.
.
No, I don't know about that, but, uh, go ahead and roll it. Another,
let me have you roll one more steal check here. See if you can,
um, stay hidden in these trees.
Come on. Stealth.
So far you've been rolling. Great. So.
Natural. 20.
Um, let's go back to pepper. Um, now, so pepper, you've,
you've made it a little ways, um, with this guy on your back. Um,
and you see a little, um,
what seems to be cottage cabin sort of thing. Um,
white peaked roofs. Uh, it seems to have some,
some multi-colored, um,
gumdrops on top. And the all the edges are piped really nice.
And this white, uh, frosting. Um, and, uh,
it's just the smell of ginger, uh, in the, in the air.
Okay.
Which house could this be?
. ? Uh, yeah,
I'm going to How far away was that?
Oh, you're, you're, you're right up, you're right up there now. I mean,
unless you're wanting to be further away, but you're,
you said you're heading towards the smoke, you're like, if someone's there,
they're not, they're not gonna see you,
but you can see the house really clearly, like it's in front of you.
Okay. Um,
I'm going to
set the body down and I'm gonna grab one of the shoes out of the bag.
Mm-hmm.
.
And I'm gonna use magical tinkering.
Okay.
And I'm gonna make the shoe
smell like a really bad fart. .
Okay. . No, nevermind.
And then I'm going to throw the shoe through
a window that I can see.
Okay. Um, yeah. So give me a, I don't know,
a strength check to see if you can get this through the shoe,
through the window.
Uh, was it tin.
Tin? Um, yeah, you throw it, um, it,
it cracks through the window as the windows don't seem to be like that strong
actually. This almost, uh, a thin candy, um, if you will.
Um, and the shoe flies, flies into the room. Okay. Um,
and do you, you, you sit there and you watch for a little bit.
Doesn't seem like if anyone was in there they didn't notice it or they,
they don't care. Um, there's not like any movement or anything from inside.
Okay. Um,
I'm gonna grab the deck of cards that was in the bag.
Yeah.
And.
It in wrap that. Yeah.
Is.
This a deck of many things?
Uh, you look at it and it, it says it's the,
the deck of Mary things as you're, as you.
Look.
.
Okay. Um, yeah, I'll,
I'll unwrap it and just look through it.
Okay.
Yeah. I'll just, I'll like, just randomly grab a card.
It looks like you drew from my deck of cards a tin of spades, which, uh,
is a sprig of missile toe suddenly appears, um,
in your hand instead of that, that card.
Okay. Um,
I'm just gonna put everything back in the bag and I'm gonna stealth up to the
house. Not very sneaky. That was a seven.
Um, yeah. As you're, as you're stealthing up towards the house stealthing,
um, you see a couple of these gingerbread men,
large size standing outside, um,
and they catch your eye as you're trying to slink along
here. And they don't give you a very friendly vibe.
So they notice me and I notice them, like, we kind of make that eye.
Contact Yes. Each other. Yep. They, uh, they look at you.
Halt.
I'll just stand there and put my hands on my hips,
just above my hand axes.
And where do you think you're going?
Well, uh, I, I,
I think I'd like to go there and I point at the house, but.
In, inside our, our house.
Uh, yes. It's, it's rather cold out here. So.
Were you in invited inside our house? Hmm? Do you have an invitation?
Where could I get one of those please? Where could I get one of those.
From, from me if I, if I wanted you to come in.
But you seem to be an elf.
You're taking part of those reindeer games, aren't you? Hmm.
I suppose so. Um.
Is that a problem? I should have known. So is that a,
is that a problem you think? We like having,
having people running around our forest, killing each other?
Oh, I, I haven't killed anybody yet.
Oh.
And then, uh, you see, um, a gingerbread man,
uh, kind of come out from the woods behind where you were and he is.
We've got a body over here.
What were you saying?
No, that was there when I got here.
A likely story. .
And he, um, he goes for his sword at his side.
Let's do this.
So he brings this sword forward.
You sir. You sir. Coming with us.
Our weg. Where exactly are we going?
And I'm going to grab both of my hand AEs.
We're gonna lock you up in our basement until this is over with,
till we can have some words with someone in charge.
Is it warm?
It's a pretty warm basement, yes. Oh, fully furnished.
Weld. Then I'm gonna put my hand axes back. Alright.
Lead me there.
Oh, all right. Yes. All.
Right. Unless un unless you prefer to fight and kill someone,
you know.
No, no, no, no, no. Uh, I'll try to avoid that at all. Cost. We're not,
we're not really built, uh, for combat.
You don't say.
Jimmy. He's coming peacefully. Oh, thank heavens.
And they, they, they come and they lead you inside and it's nice, uh,
quaint house, um, this nice fire going. Um, and, uh,
they lead you down, down these gingerbread stairs, uh, into their basement.
Um, and there's a nice big comfy marshmallow couch.
I know. You just stay right here.
Oh, absolutely. Not a problem.
All right. And then.
Uh, good. Good. I need anything? Some, uh,
I don't know, broccoli.
I actually, uh, it was, uh, in the mood for some milk and cookies.
We don't have any of that here. What? What do you think? We are monsters.
Oh, I apologize. I forgot the company that I'm in. Uh, I'll,
I'll sit here and, um,
I'll wait for whatever it is you are wanting to do.
Right, right. Good. You do that?
I will. Uh, and he, he, he heads back, um, upstairs.
Let's go to Wow. And, uh, Tonka here in the forest.
Um, you guys are just, I mean, Tonka, what, what, what are you doing, Tonka?
I'm frustrated.
Uh.
Because obviously the guy who's been shooting me with Peppermint
Sticks has rode off on a reindeer mm-hmm.
. Mm-hmm.
. So I'm heading back to where I had left Pepper. Okay.
And obviously I find that he is gone.
Yeah. The he's not there. The body's not there.
Um, so I would like to track him.
You'd like to track, uh, pepper? Yes. Okay. Go for it.
Roll a, uh, the survival Tracking. Yeah. Survival.
19.
Oh yeah. Uh, pepper wasn't, um,
trying to hide his steps or anything like that, and they're pretty deep.
He was carrying someone on his back. Um, so you can,
you can track him pretty well.
All right.
Uh, and as I'm going Yeah, as you follow, hi him. You, you'll, you'll head out,
um, towards this, um, little cottage, this little, uh,
gingerbread house, um, while you're, while you're traveling. Wow.
Are you doing anything? Are you gonna.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna follow him, but at, you know, at a distance.
At a distance? Yeah. Okay. Um, like.
A far distance.
Okay. Let's see. I'll just have,
uh,
Tonka you want to roll a perception check too as you're just, um,
yeah. See if you hear anything as you're going along.
19.
Okay. Uh, well you wanna roll a steal check?
You think you can do better than that?
Yeah, I can do better than that. Lots better than that.
Cut 15. See? Okay. Wait a minute.
less than more.
No. Yes. Yeah, that's it. That's exactly it. Um, you hear,
you hear some footsteps,
just very faintly crunching behind you as you're going along Tonka.
All right.
Um, but I'll say you notice it,
you probably right about this time that you get to, um,
you see the, the, the, the body, a body lane in the snow in front of you.
I'll run up to it to see if it's, uh, to see if it's pepper. Yeah.
And as you flip it over, um, you see it's porridge, Borge bay leaf.
I just kind of grunt an annoyance, just a .
Um, do I see the house from here?
Yeah, you can see your h See the house from here? Mm-hmm.
. All right. And I'm going to
examine, make it look like I'm examining my great acts,
but I'm going to use it kind of as a mirror to,
to see if, uh, I can see who's following me. Mm-hmm.
, um,
I can't use all the great words that wow used to
describe himself. Um.
What kind of elf are you, you.
Can use? I allow you.
I don't, I don't remember. Uh, it was char truce in there.
I'm a, I'm an allergen elf.
I'm an rin elf, and my hair argent,
my eyes zan thick and my skin.
I don't know what any of these words mean.
Cian.
Cian. That's the one. So you see all that in,
in the reflection of your ax.
I'm gonna turn around, uh,
I'm gonna turn around with my great acts raised and
say, who are you and why are you following me?
I raise my hands up, not like in surrender,
but to show him that I have no, no weapons. And, uh,
I say, I believe that we share an enemy.
The canes of candy that were shot at you red
were also shot at me while.
And Wait, wait, no. Is he fat? And does he wear red and have white beard?
I, I didn't see him,
but the weapon was the same. I,
I believe we share the same enemy. I mean, you no harm.
Fine. And I,
I turn around and I start heading following pepper's,
footprints to wherever they go.
Okay. Um,
you see that they go around pretty much straight towards this,
um, this house there. Mm-hmm. . Um,
and you see two gingerbread men, you know, just kind of standing outside big,
you know, life size.
Okay.
I'm gonna walk up to one of 'em and take a bite out of 'em cuz I am hungry.
Okay.
Yeah, you do that.
Wow. What's the big ideal checking a bite out of a person like that?
And he, he, he, he just punches you.
He just punches you trying to get you off. Um,
does a, does a three hit.
? No.
Yeah. These guys aren't, um, again, they're not built for, built for this.
Um, they're not Tonka tough.
Not Tonka tough. No.
.
Um, so yeah. That doesn't, he, and he's, he, he, um, is clearly,
uh, annoyed and shocked that you would take a bite out of him. How.
Do, how does he taste?
Uh, oh. Um, there's a, there's a hint of, um,
ginger and, and, um, cardamom and, um,
cinnamon. Um, it's a little stale. You know, you, you,
you'd hoped it would be, have a little more, you know, um,
little less of a crunch to it. But it's very, very nice.
Mm. Because I, I haven't eaten since I woke up and I'm, I,
I'm a hungry boy when I wake up in the morning. So, uh, yeah.
This is gonna be a, a survival of the fittest. He's gonna,
he's gonna taste my steel.
Okay. Go ahead and, uh, um, yeah,
you can just go ahead and attack him if you want anything. I'm.
Gonna let you, I just did. Uh, okay. And it was, it was a eight.
An eight, um, that does not hit. Um, as you,
you, you swing your ex, um, I assume you're attacking with your ex.
Yep.
At him. And you, you kind of go, you, you, you aim for him.
Um, but you just kind of go right, right at that chunk that you already bit off.
Um, and then he, he looks at you and his, his friend, um, looks at you.
Alright. Oh, we see how it is.
Um, let me eat you.
No, he, um, goes ahead and he attacks you.
Does a is a seven hit?
Uh, no.
Yeah. Uh, but he can make, uh, another attack against you.
He's got a multi attack here. So let's see if his other one
Oh, uh, does a 17 hit though?
Yes.
Okay. Um, so he just kind of like,
hits you with the broad side of his hand. Um,
and he only does four damage.
Okay.
It's the way the cookie crumbles.
That's the way the cookie crumbles. Uh, wow. Are you getting in on this?
No, I'm watching from a distance still. Okay. A safe distance.
Wow. Is watching us Wow.
Is watching us.
From a distance. Horrible song, but thanks.
.
Tonka, what are you gonna do?
Uh, again? Uh,
am I I'm probably not still raging from my first Yeah.
Rage. Uh, unfortunately, no.
I'm.
Okay. You rage again?
Um, I am going to
bury my great accent to the.
Sky. I'm sure you are.
Yeah. That's a 25.
Oh, definitely hits. Yep.
Uh, five plus two extra mae damage.
So 5, 6, 7.
Yeah. Uh, you, you basically sliced this guy, uh,
in half. This one side falls to the ground, lifeless the other side,
um, with one eye just looks, looks shocked, um, that you would do this.
Um, and, um, the other gingerbread man, um,
off to the side, he, he just vomits out sprinkles,
um, into, into .
Oh, no. Oh, no, no.
I'm just sprinkles flying out. Um, so,
um, the one that you were attacking, he, he's desperately,
he desperately tries to like, hit you with his, with his head,
with what's left of his head.
.
They were gonna say he was desperately trying to pull himself back together.
. Yeah. No, . That would be good. No, it's a 10.
He's not rolling. Well.
Yeah, that's, that's not gonna.
Hit. So he just kind of flops flops on you. Um,
and he's barely holding it together here.
All right. And while the other one is bent prone, Uhhuh, um, I'm going,
I would like to bring my ax down on him. Okay.
Go ahead and do that.
That's a 22 to hit?
Yeah, definitely.
Uh, that's gonna be 11 damage. Okay. Whew.
So you, you shear off his, his trip, like he's shear in half.
Like you just as he's leaning over a vomiting, you shear she him in half.
And so his front half is, he's just kind of crawling around now,
and his legs are kind of walking around a little bit. Um, and pepper,
you just hear all this commotion of, of screaming and, uh,
vomiting. Um, and, um, from kind of upstairs.
Uh, what all is in this room? Is it just a couch or.
Uh, there's this nice marshmallowy couch. Um, there's this big,
um, the, the,
the fireplace from upstairs that actually continues, um, downstairs here.
So there's a, another fireplace down here. Um, there's a couple,
couple lamps. Um, there's a,
a chest in the corner with a quilt on top of it. Um, that's about,
that's about it.
Yeah. I'm just gonna, is there,
is there a door that goes back upstairs?
Yeah. Yeah, there's, it's just the stairs. Just the stairs. It's.
Pretty Oh, okay. So it's open.
Yeah.
Uh, okay. Yeah. I'm going to,
I'm gonna sneak up the stairs just to see mm-hmm. ,
what's going on?
Yeah. Um, so as you sneak up the stairs, you see there's,
there's no one around in the, in the main room. And you see some,
some movement through the windows, some shadows, basically moving around, um,
out front.
All right. I'm gonna really push your DM skills. How is the house laid out?
Like when I come upstairs,
would it be possible for me to find a back door or a different door?
Yeah. Um, so there is, um,
there is a back door. Um, if you go past the fireplace, uh,
through the kitchen, um, there, there seems to be, um, a back door there.
Um, and you, you hear some, some noises, um,
out back as well, just like some, some grunting, um, nothing like,
like there might be some livestock out there.
All right. I'm going to ease the back door open.
Yeah. Um, you ease the back door open, um, and there's a,
it's a fenced in area. You see some, some hay and stuff, and you see a couple,
um, there's actually a couple reindeer, uh, tied up, uh, in the back here.
I'm going to go and untie the reindeer.
Okay. Uh, roll for untying knots. Um.
.
Roll for slide of hand. Slide of hand or survival.
Okay.
That is a 22 dirty.
Oh, wow. That, that knot just comes untied. You're,
you are master of knots. Um, yeah.
And, uh, and the, the reindeer, um, kind of, kind of turns his head and,
and glances at you, uh, gives you a look.
Like, uh, what, what are you doing?
I'm gonna just look at, straighten the eyes and then shrug,
and then I'm gonna smack it on its rump in hopes that it runs off.
Yeah. It it does that. You, you smack it on its rump. It, uh, it,
its eyes go, go wide and it start,
it kind of bucks and jumps over the fence and starts, starts running away.
Okay. Uh, is there, like, is there a shelter?
I assume there's a shelter for the.
Yeah, there's a little shelter, right? Uhhuh.
. Okay.
I'm gonna hide behind that shelter and just kinda wait things out Okay.
To see if anything comes my way. Yeah.
So, uh, wow. As you're standing, standing on the ridge there watching,
um,
as you're watching Tonka like shear these cookies in half, um,
and, um, Tonka, by this time I'm gonna go, go ahead and say you've,
you've done your work on them. They can't do anything to defeat you,
so you are clear to chow down if you want. Well.
I, I was about to say that one that was trying to hit me with his head. Yeah.
That was still alive. Uhhuh after I see, um,
after I make short work of his friend, I'm going to eat him face first.
So instead of you're just gonna grab him and just start numbing on him.
Um, the, the, the one that, the one that's still alive, the first guy Yeah.
That's still alive.
Yeah. Yeah. So you're nobbing on him as he's on his.
Face.
As he's screaming Perfect. Face off. Um, so that,
so you, um, pepper, you hear some screaming from the,
from the front and some heavy, heavy numbing. Um,
and wow, you're seeing, you're seeing this go on, you see, um, a reindeer,
um, he's actually running, running towards you. Um, from, from the house.
Does it.
Look like he's, it's an attack or does it look like he's.
It looks like he got smacked in the rump and is, um,
just running off.
Um, okay. I'll, uh,
make sure that he has a wide birth. Okay. So,
or I give him a wide birth and make sure he knows that I'm not going to
be trying to stopping him or.
Okay. He turns on you and kills No.
.
All right. See you guys later.
Uh, yeah. He, he just, uh, he just shoots past you. Yep.
Okay.
Uh, Tonka, um, you're, you're,
you're standing there. You've just finished,
you've just finished two cookie men, um,
and you're feeling, you're feeling pretty good about yourself. Well.
I mean, I'm, I'm a big boy. I got a big appetite. Yeah.
What are you gonna do? Do you have anything that you wanna do?
Right around here, there's the, there's the, there's the house.
I'm gonna kick in the front door and be like, pepper, where are you?
Okay. So you kick in the front door, pepper, you're,
you're kind of out back, but you, you, uh,
you hear something that sounds like your name.
I'm gonna sneak back to the,
to the back of the house and just kind of like,
put myself up flat against the house and just mm-hmm.
wait to see if somebody comes out the back door.
Okay. So Taka, you're in the house,
you see the fireplace and door to the kitchen stairs.
I'm gonna go up the stairs.
Okay.
Or do they go down?
They, they're both, there's one set going up, one step, one set going down.
All right. I'm gonna go up.
Okay. Yeah, you go up the stairs. Um, you see, um,
there's, there's a couple bedrooms up there. Um,
the, it's all, you know, very festive, um,
very, uh, candy. There's, there's gum drops, and there's,
um, little chocolate candies decorating everything. Um,
there is a door that, that's closed, um, at the end of the hallway.
Um.
Not anymore. It.
Isn't, and you kick it in, uh, with no problem.
And you see, um, this seems to be some sort of like, uh, uh,
there's, there's a few, there's a couple like, uh, weapons and stuff,
like almost a, a gun locker, um, you know, a little armory, um,
in there. Yeah. There, there seems to be up in the corner,
some sort of whip, um, rolled up has these,
what what seems to be almost like a little, um,
specks of, of color, um, on it. Um,
and there there's also a, um, a couple,
it looks to be like little plastic looking grenades on the,
on the shelf. And, um, there's also this,
this large ax, uh, hanging up as well.
I'm gonna take the gr I'm gonna take it all.
Okay. So you have just picked up a,
uh, let's see, Christmas light chain. So it's a, it's a whip,
which has a plus three to hit. Um,
and it does two D six plus five slashing damage. Um,
you've also picked up some toy grenades and you've picked up the acts of
Christmas trees, which will give you a plus four to hit.
Nice.
Yep. So, um, that's,
that's basically all you find upstairs as you're wandering around this stuff.
You do, you do not see, um, any sign of pepper.
I'm gonna come down the stairs again,
and I'm going to explore around that,
that floor level to see if.
The main floor.
There are to see if there's another entrance that maybe I missed.
Yeah. You see, uh, as, as you're walking around, uh, you feel a slight breeze.
Um, and, and there seems to be a door open, uh, in the back.
Um, I'm gonna go step out the back and shout for pepper again.
Yeah. So you,
you step right outside the door and you shout pepper as as loud as you can.
Yeah. I'm, I'm just going to
attack Tonka with my hand ax.
Really? Yeah.
So pepper takes his hand ax and attacks. Tonka.
Got a 23 woo. That does six slashing damage.
So how did, how did you attack me? Uh, pepper, just so I.
Yeah, it would've been So, if, if you were actually watching me,
I would've grabbed the hand acts that was on my left.
I would've grabbed it with my right hand and just swung it straight,
like wherever my arm would land, so mm-hmm. , if,
you know, it could either be leg or chest,
depending on if there's like a step down or not.
Mm-hmm. .
So I just like line swung it.
Because you were just, you were just backed up against the side of the house.
Right.
All right. So if that's the case, then, um,
I'm gonna try to grapple him.
Let's see how it goes. Okay. That's the strength of seven for Pepper.
Yep.
So you gotta beat the seven.
Uh, 24. Oh yeah.
That will do. So.
You just, I mean, how do you want to, how do you want to grapple him? I mean,
he came at you with this ax.
I'm going to jump at him and put him in a bear
hug.
Okay.
That's my immediate reaction being hit with an access to give someone a hug.
.
Well.
No, I, I, I get ya. Uh, yeah, you give him, you just, you just, you look down,
you look at him and you just wrap him up in your, in your arms.
Yeah.
I'm loving. Embrace.
Thrashing around. Yeah.
Okay. Well, I, I got a, I I have a theme going,
so I guess I'm gonna bite his face. .
.
Alright.
Mike Tyson, uh, that you.
How do you wanna do this? Unarmed strike or? Yeah.
Well, teeth are pretty sharp. Um, yeah, I'm gonna say unarmed.
Unarmed strike. I think that's the best way for this.
I'll give you,
I'll give you advantage since you've got him in a, in a hold.
But eighteen's pretty good.
Yeah, he got it.
Yeah.
18. 18.
It bites.
What are you biting on his face?
His nose for five damage. .
Yeah. So you, did you take a good chunk of his nose and it starts bleeding?
It is not nearly as, I mean, I don't want to,
it's not as satisfying, um, as the cookie .
Josiah is like, I, I, I don't want to tell you how you feel about this,
but in my opinion, doesn't taste as good as the cookie. Yeah.
Batman returns action going on here. Um,
cool. How free would you say my hands are?
You're in a pretty big bear hug. Um.
So like, if he's got me like this, can I still like, gesture with my hands?
Yeah, I would,
I would say you'd probably be able to gesture with your hands cuz he's,
you probably, you you probably are around his elbows or, or like,
I mean, when, when you say Tonka, you're not like, his hands can move.
Yeah. I, I've, I've, I've got you around like your upper arms. So.
I mean, like, yeah. Okay. Um, while being grappled,
I'm going to cast frostbite. So John,
you will need to make a constitution saving throw
and you have to beat, uh, a 12.
I got a dirty 20.
Oof. You did.
Okay. So even on, let's see, that's a failed save.
Okay. So nothing happens. You just see me moving my,
my hands and muttering something to myself and nothing happens.
I'm gonna look in, in the eyes and be like, well, look at you, the wiggle worm.
And here I was coming out to help you and give you some weapons I found,
but somebody had to be the hero.
You could let me go now.
so you can attack me again.
I wasn't thinking, I was just doing what I felt like I needed to do.
Uh, in Can I insight? Check him on this?
Yeah, go for it.
Uh, six.
Um.
Hmm.
Yeah, I mean, I'm gonna go with the dice roll. I'm gonna
kind of put him down, but kind of take a step back at the same time.
So there's not a reflexive attack against me when I set him down.
So I'm gonna, I'm gonna go with wow real quick here. Mm-hmm. . Um,
so while do you, do you see, um,
you kind of see a scuffle going on behind, behind the house,
um, with a, a guy you haven't really seen before in, in Tonka.
Um, does that, uh,
move you in any way.
Um, direct any other weapons in the house?
Are there or around the house?
Um, there. I mean, not that you can tell from here. Yeah. Okay.
So I will as, um,
and as long as I'm in within 60 feet and he can hear me,
uh, use Bardic inspiration. Okay. And for 10 minutes,
um, um,
Tonka can add one D six
to one ability check, attack rule, or saving through.
And this can be added after seeing the rule, but before knowing the outcome.
Uh, when Tonka, as you step back from Pepper, uh,
you feel this, like you hear someone shout.
Tonka.
Uh, and, uh,
you like someone does care about me,
you get a little warmth in your heart.
Okay? Right now I'm more focused on what pepper's about to do now that.
I have, let me go.
Yep. Yeah. A as, as you let me go. I,
I just take a step back and,
um, just like feel my nose, make sure,
like see how much is actually left of it.
And I'm assuming at least the tip is chewing off.
Yeah. There's a, this is a little piece Mason.
That's a interesting trick. You.
Uh, I always keep 'em guessing. That's my motto.
Apparently. So
I apologize you mind.
You mind explaining to me why you attacked me.
You've heard of the reindeer games, right?
We are in them.
Right? I wasn't sure if you were aware of that or not,
obviously. Uh, we both can't make it out.
Why? Not.
To never happen but happened before.
The rules only work if you play, if you choose to play by them.
I mean, we're here for a reason. We weren't, we weren't good.
Apparently this year.
It's all relative. Good. Good. By who? Standard.
The big guy.
What? Santa. I'll tell you what,
I lived my li I lived my life this last year. Perfectly fine.
The fat man's put me in here because he wants the,
he wants controlling sh he wants the controlling shares of my company.
Wait, wait, wait, wait. That the, you are.
The fat man is.
You are that Tonka?
I'm that Tonka.
Wonderful. You're not gonna believe this.
So I was, I used to be the,
the head of the truck division for Santa
and we couldn't make quota. We weren't selling enough because of your company.
That's why I'm here.
Sounds like we have equal measure to take this fight to the fat man.
What have you been doing?
You ran off. I was.
Follow,
I someone shot me with a candy cane or a peppermint stick or whatever.
Hmm. You.
Fond him and then well no. Well, I did, but he ran,
he rode off on her reindeer. I found this other guy back there, um,
seems to be fairly harmless. Um,
ran into two, uh, gingerbread men.
Yeah. Yep. Ran into those. They.
Were delicious.
You ate them.
Well, that's what they're made for. I'm, I'm,
I'm respecting their culture.
Yeah. I, nevermind, uh,
I've got a history book I should probably share with you. Uh, okay.
So this other fellow that you found, um,
mostly harmless, maybe we could use him as a prop.
Get into the big guy's, um, office, take him down,
change the game. I'm.
Like the, I like the way you think. Um, here.
I, I'm assuming I can trust you now.
Yes. Sorry. Poor judgment on my part.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna hand him the whip.
Okay.
And I.
NA na yeah. So you get this, you get a whip, uh, with these,
you know, I mean, it, it's Christmas lights. It's a Christmas light whip.
Cool. Um, well, I,
I opened the bag, so I found some things in here. Uh,
deck of cards pulled one out and I got, um,
what's it Missile.
Toe. Missile toe. Yeah.
I got this and I set it to the side.
Um, and then.
There's also a scroll in there and there is a,
um, a, a a rope, um, that seem,
that's red seems to be made of some sort of candy.
Yeah. So I pull all of these things out.
I mean, do you want any of these?
Um, nah, I'm good.
Okay. Well, I'm gonna stick the,
I'm gonna stick the cards in my pack and then
I'm just gonna leave the rope there, but I'm gonna undo the scroll.
Yeah. Um,
you undo the scroll and inside, um, on the top,
top of it, you see, you, you, you're familiar with spells and stuff,
and you notice, you know that this ishmm some sort of spell mm-hmm.
. Um, and as you read, you see that it is a,
a Christmas wish is is what it says on it.
It's a Christmas wish spell.
Okay.
Um, and, um, I'll go ahead and tell you. So this will let you change.
I'm gonna, it is like a, a baby wish spell. Um,
you can, I, I'm gonna let you change some one thing either in, in, in the past,
like a tiny thing or in the present or in the future when you use it.
Okay. So just one use.
Yeah. One use. So it could be like a, a role that's,
that's happened or you left something behind and you, you like,
oh, yeah. I I actually wish that I'd picked that up. And you,
you did pick it up or, um, something if you in the future, like,
oh, next time that someone attacks me, you know, maybe I'll, uh, you,
you, you can be creative with it. Okay. All right.
It's more something in the present. Like, right now I want to
be healed or something like that. . So.
Um, yeah, I, I'll just go ahead,
andow that in my pack and look at Tonka.
So where's this other guy?
Uh, I'm gonna take him out front.
I'm gonna take him out.
, take him out. No, I'm gonna take him out to the front of the house.
Okay.
All right. So you,
you take him out to the front of the house and there wows kind of up a little
bit, um, just kind of watching.
You guys can go ahead and approach him.
Boy, you, what are you doing?
I am, I seem to have woken up here,
and apparently, uh, this gentleman and I share an enemy,
so I was following him.
So at least we could have some sort of a,
a confederacy in case we were attacked again by the same
person.
Hmm.
And just as you guys are sitting there or standing there, I,
I don't know why you're standing there. I'm talking you, you, uh, o overhead.
You, you see, um, something kind of fly by, uh, just,
um, seems to be a reindeer, uh, with someone on it flies overhead.
Would that be recognizable to me?
Um, you haven't seen, I mean, you could probably make a guess.
Um, but, uh, Tonka has definitely seen, um, some,
something like this. Um.
Uh, can I throw my javelin at it?
Um, you can, but you might know better. It, I mean, it,
it was making, it was booking it going pretty fast.
Towards nevermind then.
Yeah. Um, towards that bright light, uh,
in the distance that star that you hadn't really noticed until this point.
But that's, that's the direction it was headed.
Okay. I I,
I'll look at the other two and I'll say, well, gentlemen,
it appears we have a direction.
All right.
Lead on.
Um, before we go any further.
Unless we were going to stay here and not be led yet,
in which case that would be fine too.
You can do what you want. Uh,
I believe the two of us are going to take out the big red guy.
Lead on.
I'm Pepper, by the way, this is Tonka.
Ah, very nice to meet you. And he says this,
and he's actually using, um, the, uh,
the sounds found in a different language, but it sounds like a word that,
you know, and the word is Wow.
But he says it more like he's introducing himself. He says.
Whoa.
It sort of sounds like a word in a foreign language,
but it just happens to be a word that, you know.
I'll look at him. I'll go, wow, .
Uh, you're not getting the inflection. Right.
But Alex wow, it's again, um.
Wow.
Perhaps a little deeper. Wow. Say it from, from the,
from the, from the diaphragm. And it, it works a little.
Wow.
It's a little better. The pepper. You, wow. Not so much,
but the.
Um, and as you guys are standing there, , um,
I'm gonna need, I'm gonna have, uh, wow. Roll a deck. Safe. Wow.
Do I make fun of your guys' names?
.
Y'all making fun of wanka.
You can.
11.
If he was a Pokemon, he could let, he could evolve into Oh, my.
11. Yeah. Um,
you, um, you suddenly a, uh,
in your leg there is a large, um,
peppermint stick. You just, just, you got shot, uh,
for, uh, let's see. You'll take three,
um, piercing damage on that.
Ouch. And I look down and I see the thing and I'm like,
uh, uh, where did that come from?
Anybody?
Um, it's those jerks riding those reindeer. That,
that's it is who it got me.
I'm gonna point at the broken off piece of peppermint that's in my shoulder.
Ah.
Um, and you see, um, a little ways off. Um, someone,
um, running towards you.
They're running towards us.
Yeah, they're running towards you.
Okay. I'm gonna patriot missile himm with the, uh, javelin then. Okay.
And I'm gonna fire off a shot from my bow.
Perfect. I'm going to let you do all those things here.
I got a 24 to hit.
Yeah.
Uh, that's nine Damage with that javelin. Okay.
Look at this real quick. Great.
And that was a 17 for me.
Let me see that. Will, that'll hit.
And how much damage do we got? I.
Got, uh, six piercing.
Six piercing. Oh, yeah. Um, this person, um,
it's, it's down like they are, they fall, um, backwards,
um, in, into the snow. Um,
and they are, they've, they're, they're dead. They're definitely dead.
turt.
With two withs like arrows in a javelin, just sticking, sticking out.
They're making a literal snow. Angel.
. Yes.
Time, time to go get my javelin back. I'm gonna go and get my javelin back.
Yeah. Um, as you're there and you're pulling, um,
out the javelin, um, you'll notice, you notice there are several, um,
peppermint sticks, uh, also, um, in the back of this person,
like sticking, sticking in them. What? Eating.
Good.
Tonight guys? , uh, is what, what is he,
is he an elf too?
Yeah, an elf as well.
. I'm gonna look over and I look over at Pepper and be like, well,
I think our score just went up. .
And I look in the sky waiting for some kind of magical numbers to show up what
the score is. .
Oh. And as you're looking in the sky, uh, you see a, a,
you, you see another peppermint, uh,
stick heading straight at you and lead you to roll. Uh,
actually for this one, um, I'm going to roll.
Mainly cuz Josiah doesn't trust that I won't Oh, yeah. Crit on my roll. No.
No, no. Yeah. Mainly because of that. And this is, can you blame that? I want,
I want to use this, this character. So that is a 28, uh,
to hit, just missed, well.
Close my eyes.
Um, um, that is 12,
uh, piercing damage as this, this candy cane, this candy,
this peppermint stick. Steve. Uh, it, it,
it goes right into your eye. Yep.
Uh, yeah, I just, Dave.
Have you ever noticed when we do these one-offs, you just kind of get mauled?
Yeah, it seems that way, doesn't it? It's like people are picking on me.
Um, yeah.
But you do see, you see, I mean, there's, it was from,
there's this reindeer, um, like leaping, leaping over you, um,
landing in front of you. Like it's flying over.
They shot this peppermint stick at you. And, uh,
they're landing not too far in front of you.
Uh, I'm, I'm just gonna collapse on the ground.
Yeah. And
I'm going to cast cure wounds on myself.
Okay. Well that was Sure. .
Six. Yeah. He'll do something for six. Yeah, man. I mean.
I don't, it's like half damage.
. Yeah.
Your, your, your nose, your nose grows back. Is basically.
Nose happening? Yeah. Nose Your nose is fine now.
Yeah. It still, I still got , still got a peppermint stick in my eye.
Yeah.
Uh, okay. So in front of you kind of skidding, um,
on this reindeer, um, you see, um, this elf, uh, woman,
um, long, well black hair, um, and braids,
um, with this giant crossbo pointed at you guys.
How close is she to, uh, pepper?
How close is she to Pepper? She kind of leaped over you guys. She's about,
uh, 15 feet away from pepper.
What's the blast radius on the grenades that I.
Have? 10.
All right. I'm gonna check my blast. I'm gonna check my grenade at her,
one of my grenades at her.
Yes, you can do that. Um, you check one of the grenades at her. Um,
so it's a plus three to hit, um,
and it'll do three D six damage.
So plus three to hit, he says mm-hmm. .
Uh, 14.
Okay. 14. Um,
that, um, will not hit her,
but it will hit her mount.
Uh, okay.
So go ahead and roll that damage for me.
It was 3D six you.
Said? Yep. 3D six.
Uh, 12 damage.
Okay. 12 damage. Um, so this, yeah, this little toy grenade,
it just kind of flies, rolls over in front of her. She looks at it, uh,
and it explodes. Um,
and all these little pieces of plastic shrapnel, um, land in,
in inside, um, this reindeer who,
who bucks up and she flies off the back, uh, of the reindeer.
And he, um, starts running, running off, um, away from her.
It's a Lego bomb .
Yeah.
She's got one of those little studs just stuck in her forehead. Stud.
Uhhuh. .
Um.
Actually it's just a Lego head.
It's a mini thing head. Yeah. Yeah.
All right. Uh, anybody else gonna.
Take, she's on her back prone. Yeah. Anyone else? That's all one.
That's all you pepper. If she's prone, you've got advantage on hitting her.
Uh, technically I'm prone as well.
So he, he laid on the ground. Um, so it's, it's a, wow. It's up to Wow.
Here. I have.
No weapons and I was planning on just.
Hiding.
Behind.
These guys. So.
.
You, you should've been.
He's going, he's going for the non-lethal trophy in this game. Yeah.
Um, I, however, am going for the, uh,
I'm going for the genocide trophy . So, uh,
I guess I'm going to run up and chop her up like she's made
outta cookies.
Okay. Um, so you, you run in, um,
to attack her. Um, let's see, let's see.
You just, you just attacked. I'll give you,
I'll give you one more attack here before its our turn.
Okay. Uh,
attack action. Great. X
that's, uh, tw 23 to hit, which I'm assuming hits.
Yeah. That will hit, that will definitely hit.
And with my new great X, what's the, uh, plus to damage?
So it's one D 10 plus five slashing damage.
Uh, that's gonna be a nine. Then.
You chop off, uh, kind of the tips if one of her fingers, um,
as she rolls, um, out of the way. Um,
and she leaps to her feet. Um,
and she looks at you with this, with this glare.
You can't take down catless evergreen, that easy . And she.
I'm just gonna look her dead in the eye and be like,
the fat man sends you to finish off his work.
As the two of them are verbally sparring. Um,
I've gotten to my feet and I cast ice knife
and Okay. Uh, that was a 19 to hit.
Uh, nine. Yeah, that hits.
Okay. And that's five piercing damage.
She, uh, glares at you now as this, uh,
it was ice spike that you threw at her. Yeah, I, okay. Um, is coming,
coming out of her, her shoulder. Oh, you, you,
you don't wanna mess with a big man. He's too good for you.
Hmm. I think I do.
This is gonna turn into the origin story of, uh,
XOs here is what this is , uh, . Um,
cause I keep slipping into his accent. .
And I am going to, uh,
frenzy striker with my fists. Okay. If I can. Yeah.
So, so first is a 22 to hit.
Yep. That hits.
The second is a seven to hit, which I don't think does.
Uh, does not. No.
Okay. So for that first punch to the nose, she takes five damage.
Okay. All right. Yeah. So that, that punch hits her in the nose.
And then she, um, as she steps back,
she goes ahead and takes out her, um, her long sword,
um, and, and just, um, brings it down, um,
on you. Um, and she's going to use, uh,
sine Smite as well.
Oh, Paladin. All right.
Oh, does a 13 hit?
It does.
Not. Okay. Um, so she pulls out her blade, um,
but she's clearly, clearly better with the crossbo as this, uh,
swings past you and misses.
All right.
As I'm moving toward this action,
I'm going to take one of my hand axes and toss it to Wow.
Okay.
It might be nice if you have out a little bit.
You also have your whip too.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna toss the whip too, or at least drop it. Okay.
So how do I use this? Let's see.
So that would be a 20.
Roll for damage.
Three.
Right? Um, okay. So it is, uh,
cat's turn again. Um, she's, she's still coming for, um,
for you, Tonka. Um.
Does she actually have a cat?
She doesn't, she does not have a cat. She's catless. She.
Okay.
She's catless.
. Just wanted to make sure.
That's maybe why she's so angry. Um, so she takes her, her,
uh, long sword again, and she runs at you, um,
Tonka and just, she's just trying to stab it straight into you,
which is probably not the best way to use the long sword, but, um,
and she rolls a 16.
That's gonna be.
It's a hit. Okay. Um,
and this will be with Sir Smite.
Um, so this will do
seven nine damage. All right. Um,
and then you must make a constitution savings throw at the start of your turn
or take a D six fire damage.
Okay. Well, so I have to wait to the start of my turn to do.
That. Yep. Yeah, on your turn. So Whenev, right before you attack,
I'll have you do that. And she's like.
Ha.
Not so smart. Now, are you?
Um, yeah, I, I will attack her. I'll,
I'll run up and attack her with my seminar.
Okay.
I'm just gonna slash it. It's an 11 so it doesn't hit.
It does not hit No, she, she, uh,
takes the blade out of Tonka and just perries it to the side.
Side. Okay.
You really want to do this?
Well, you kind of in our way.
In your way.
Yeah. To the big man.
Like I said, you don't want to fight him.
And why not?
He's, he's the big man. You can't stop him.
He'll have your trucks.
Oh, they're not my trucks.
I'm as, as she's talking to him, I'm just gonna bury my ax in her bag.
Uh, 13 to hit, I'm assuming no.
Doesn't hit No, sorry.
Yeah. With my second attack, uh, 26.
That does hit Yes. How much statement are we talking here?
Uh, for some reason it rolled two D 12, which, no.
So let's try that again. That'd.
Be cool, huh, man?
Uh, 14 damage as I, as I bury this accident or back,
I'm gonna look at her and say, you talk too much. Just die.
Whoa.
Um, and she, uh, as she staggers forward, she turns around,
um,
and she lets lu a close range Crossbo bolt at
you.
Uh, that is gonna be at disadvantage, sir.
Yeah, I know. It is. Um, this is going to be,
um.
1919 Hits.
Okay? Uh.
That's what this advantage.
She has a plus 11 to hit on Crossbo.
Oh goodness.
She's also a higher level than you guys are
that's going to do, uh,
10 piercing damage as a, uh, candy. Nope.
Uh, peppermint stick, um,
from her crossbo vault just shoots right into your chest.
Don't make me call him.
Uh, to the people who are around us, I look rough.
Hmm. Just throwing that out there.
Um, I'm going to
cast frostbite. So Josiah, you will have to make a con save.
Okay? Not my strength.
Have to be to 12.
How about a five?
Uh, that is a fail. So, okay.
So she gets covered with this frost and takes four freezing damage or
cold damage?
Four.
Mm-hmm. .
Okay. She's looking really rough at this point. She's, she's,
you see she's reaching her hand down, uh, into her, like, uh,
her pouch on, on the side.
I'm going to roll a D 20, so that'd be an eight.
Nah.
Okay. Didn't.
Think so. that doesn't do anything. So Yeah, you're not,
you're not used to the weight of this hand ax. It's just a little, you know,
you prefer something with a little more heft to it. I think.
You haven't used one of those before. I have not, sir.
Josiah, I have something I'd like to try. If go for it. You'll allow me. Yeah.
I want to take it. I want to take out my second grenade.
Uhhuh .
Slam it in her mouth and hold her mouth shut.
Um, let's, uh, let's rule,
let's do, uh, contested strength on this, um, as she like,
brings her hands up to try to try to stop you. See if you can do it.
Uh, I rolled an 11 for strength .
She did not do great. So, let's see. Strength.
I've got a 10.
.
So she reaches up and you just barely,
you just shove it in there. Um, and, um, let's see.
That does, how much damage did I say that was.
3D? Six.
Yeah, 3D six. As her, her mouth closes on it. She,
she's wiggling around trying desperately to, um,
get free and just kind of choking on it as well.
She takes nine points of damage inside her.
Mouth. Yeah, that'll, that'll do it. Um, that will do it.
Um, her, her head just explodes, , um,
and all these meaty bits and Lego bits fly
everywhere. Um, since you are technically in range,
we all are. Yeah. You guys are all gonna take half,
half damage on that.
Uh, who's got two thumbs in his unconscious.
? Uh, not this guy.
This guy. The D Oh.
So how much damage did we take? Five.
Five. Five damage. Um, dad.
Saves.
Five damage. Uh, Tonka is laying on the ground. Um, he is not,
not in his, not in his best, um, not living his best life right now.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna go ahead and cast cure wounds on top. Okay?
Perfect.
So you get nine points,
nine HP back.
Hazah.
So you're, yeah, you weren't, you fall to the ground unconscious pepper, um,
springs to action. And, um, you,
you open your eyes again, your eyes open. Um, for a ble brief moment,
everything was not there.
All right. Big guy, get back up.
And, uh, as Catless falls to the ground out of her, uh,
satchel on her side, a a snow globe, um, rolls, um, out.
And then all of a sudden you hear, um, the wind,
uh, around you starts to pick up.
I would like to loot her body.
Sure. Go for it.
I know that's a foreign thing for you guys, but .
I know some people do it.
So, um, it's.
Like math.
, there's, there's some, there's some gold. Um, she has a,
a crossbo on her. Um, if you want that.
Um, oh, glad I'm crossbo. If no one else wants it.
Go for it.
Yep. They have peppermint bolts.
Anything I'm specifically looking for like a healing potion.
A healing potion. Interesting. Um, let's see.
She does have a healing potion on her. Um,
it's just a potion of healing. Just a common, um,
let's two D four plus two.
Two D, four, two.
Yep.
Uh, six, seven. That's another seven points. I will take it.
All right. Um,
and as after you've finished looting her body, um, the storm,
the storm around you, it just seems to be picking up heavily. Um,
and then you see a, uh, a bright red light, um,
that's getting larger and brighter. Um, heading towards, you said.
You said that that snow globe fell out of her satchel, right?
Yes. Yeah.
And then the storm picked up.
Yep.
I'm gonna smash the snow globe.
Okay. Um, yeah, you smashed the snow globe. Um, the,
the weather does seem to lessen, but in front of you, um,
now you can clearly see coming your direction is a large man
on a small reindeer with a red nose.
The reindeer has a red nose, or the large man has a red nose.
I'm, uh, just,
just in a low gorgo Rudolph Santa.
Uh, yeah. And so they are flying towards you and, uh, for,
for your information, Steve, they are,
they would be in range of your crossbo in case you're interested.
Oh, all right.
Know they're coming towards.
Us. Yep. Coming towards you. Definitely coming towards you.
Will, Dustin Hoffman. Um.
Definitely, definitely coming towards you. Definitely. I.
Sorry, it's just the way you said. Definitely coming towards you.
Definitely . Um,
it, it, would this be a thing where I'd be able to patriot missile him with the,
uh, javelin? Like I did the one guy?
Um, yeah, you could. Or is he? You could try. Yeah.
You can try. That's what we're here to do.
So give it a whirl here.
Uh, 15 to hit.
15 To hit. Yeah. That, uh, that meets.
All right. Oh, five five damage. I rolled a.
One. Okay. Five damage. So yeah, you, you, he's, he's heading towards you.
Um, both of their noses are glowing red. Um,
and this j the javelin, it glances off him, but he's,
he still keeps coming. Um, and, uh,
he is about, I would say, 60 feet from me, from you.
Now he's coming in for a landing.
I'll shoot my little thing. Adam Crossbo.
Rolls. I thi this. It's a plus one crossbo, so D 20 plus one.
Okay. I roll the nine.
So what do I add to it?
One, I'll take it. Yeah, you'll, you'll hit 'em.
All right.
So one D 10.
That would be an eight.
All right. Um, so as you launch this, um,
minus, um, cross bill bolt into him, he, um,
he comes down in his reindeer's, um,
horns are pointed at you guys, and he kind of, he's,
he's flying this reindeer right, uh, into you.
I need y'all to make a deck saved to get out of the way here.
Oof. Uh, no.
Okay.
Nine, six. I got a six.
Yep.
Six. 16.
16. So, wow. Uh,
manages to get out of the way after shooting off that Crossbo bolt, but, uh,
wow.
Wow.
Tonka and Pepper both get, either, either horn. Um,
and you're going to take, uh,
nine, uh, piercing damage as these horns, um,
scrape into you.
All right? Horns work. Try the lights.
line of the night. Um,
hold on, hold on. Before you do this one, I'm going to, before you do that,
let me,
let me do this cuz this is gonna be something you're going to appreciate.
Um, I'm, I'm gonna like this in a here to unforeseen
event. I'm casting fairy fire on the fat man. Okay? And his, uh,
reindeer. Um,
so he needs to make a deck save both of them do actually.
Um, so that's a 22 on the fat man crap.
Uh, and his reindeer,
10 on the reindeer.
Okay? Reindeer failed.
So he is outlined in a magenta glow and magenta any
attack. Yes.
And any attack on the reindeer is with advantage. Okay?
Okay. I was trying to get it on the fat man too, guys, but.
That's all right. Um, with that done, uh,
I'm gonna slash old Rudy with
Myar mm-hmm. , okay? And, uh,
that is a 24.
Ooh, that hits him. Come on. He's not, Rudy's not.
At nine. Slashing damage.
How do you wanna do it?
Um, well, being the not so nice guy, I guess I've turned out to be,
I would like to, um,
I would like to take Rudolph's head home as a trophy.
Yes, you.
Would.
. I mean, if you're gonna put anything on your wall.
I mean, come on, that's one. I'll just wire the, the nose back up. I.
I, I support this decision. Dave. You, you don't need to be upset about it.
It's.
Amanda. It's not a horse. Amanda might have words.
It's not a.
Words. Amanda might have words for you.
It's not a horse.
, you're playing games. Killed Christmas. Yes.
.
Um, okay, so yes, you do that. Rudolph is, he's a gunner.
He has seen better days. Sorry.
Homie.
But his, his, his, his rack looks very nice. . Um,
that's gonna look great on your mantle.
.
Do you know how many, I'm gonna look at him and say,
I'm gonna look at pepper and be like,
do you know how many hats you can stick on that?
I mean, it'd be great if I wore hats, but, um,
maybe I'll use it as a mug rack from my hot.
Chocolate.
Ooh.
Marks. Oh,
so I heard you boys wanted to talk to son of,
oh.
Yeah, all I want for Christmas this year is my business back. You fat jerk.
Oh, I want for Christmas is your two front teeth. Come here.
. And he punches you in the face.
. Whoa.
Um, and he does, he does punch you in the face for,
let's see,
does a 16 hit?
Yes.
Okay, so this.
Is, I thought you were gonna say he did 16 damage punching me. And I'm like,
what?
No, no, this is, he's just, he's just punching you.
This is nothing special here. Uh, three damage.
Um, and then he looks at, uh, at you guys. Well.
Pepper, glad you could make it.
Um, you invited me against my own will,
so why wouldn't I be here?
Oh, that's true. Oh, oh, always so funny.
Too bad I had to fire you.
Well, I don't, and.
You, why? I don't recognize you,
but you must have been a very naughty boy to end up here.
I woke up in a boat.
. Um,
I'm gonna cast chill, touch on Sandy, okay? Mm-hmm.
.
Uh, where, where are you going to, uh,
touch Santa.
? New line of the night.
New line of the night? Um,
um.
It's, that's the question I needed to ask.
. It's true. Um, ,
well, I'm, I'm not, I guess I'm not really subtle, like we're, we're talking,
so I'm just gonna reach out and just grab his arm that's closest to me. Okay?
He's.
Gonna poop him on the nose.
I, on his arm.
I wanted to, but then I was like,
I feel like that'd be too obvious and he might have too much time to, uh, react.
Okay?
You're grabbing him on, on his arm.
Um, well, that was terrible. Uh, I only rolled a six.
Yeah, it doesn't do anything anyway, um.
Snowballs.
So, um, he looks at you with your, your arm on his shoulder. Um,
and then he, um, you, you catch a,
a glint in his eyes and he cast cone of cold,
um, on you. Um, so that's going to be, um, a,
so each creature in a 60 foot cone, oof.
You gotta make a constitution saving throw, um, and take
a lot of damage if you don't make this here. So.
That was an 11 for me.
Okay? I believe it's going to be, what did you roll?
What are we?
Okay, I'm just, what.
Are we rolling for.
That I didn't know we were rolling. Cons, constitution, saving through.
Goodbye.
Everybody. .
Um, I rolled a 12. Okay? Uh, you, you,
so you'll take half damage. You other two will not.
Uh, 43 damage.
How much Holy.
43 Damage.
Well, I'd be dead. Can I.
You.
Take half damage, Steve?
Well, if I took half of 43 damage, then I'd be on the ground as.
Well. How much on the ground? What are you at.
All , all the way on the ground. less than zero,
me and Robert Downey Jr.
. That was a fun game, everybody.
Good night was.
A All right, thanks Josiah. Next Christmas, we're gonna have another special.
Um, no, so I'm going to, here's what I'm gonna say. Um,
the scroll falls out of your pack pepper as you're falling to the grounds and
you have, you have one chance to make this, to make a, a good wish.
Um, it's a little Christmas miracle, as the DM likes to call it here.
Wish for Santa to be dead, and you can just, I get that.
Wish for the Starship of the.
Ancients.
Um, so yeah, as I'm falling in slow motion
and I make contact with the scroll, I think.
Wow, I really.
Wish this was all a.
Dream.
And you're directing that to me. I'm sort of honored.
I just.
Said it. You wish it, you wish it was a dream.
He said, wow, I wish it was a dream. So he technically talking to.
Me. He did say, wow, that wow. Um,
no, I got, I got it. Here's what happens.
So as you guys fall into the blackness, um,
you suddenly wake up, um, pepper,
you're in, you're in your house, in your big comfy chair by the fire,
empty cup of cocoa sitting next to you. Um,
and you hear the sound of, of, um,
the creaking floorboards, um, in your house.
Sounds like someone's sneaking, sneaking them around in your house.
And you know that there's no one else in there.
I'm going to
change the way I'm holding my cup and hold it and get ready to use it as a
weapon.
Okay? Um, and then, um,
out of the, the corner of your eye coming, well, kind of in front of you,
um, you see a tall figure, um, sneaking in,
um, to your house, dressed in, dressed in red.
I'm just going to put it b sit quietly Satan.
Um, and as he approaches you, he, he takes out a small bag with some,
some, um, dust in it,
and he's about ready to sprinkle it on you.
I never liked you, pepper.
I'm gonna smash him in the face with my mug.
Okay? Um, and you, you take your, your mug,
you smash him right in the face. Um, he falls to the ground,
his handful of, uh, this, um,
fairy dust flies in his face and he hits the ground, um,
unconscious.
I take his suit and I leave the house.
Uhhuh, , .
Um, and then Tonka, um, you,
you wake up, um, all of a sudden, um, in,
in your house and you have memories of, um,
Santa and um, this trying to,
a couple of these other weird characters. Um,
but, uh, everything seems pretty normal in your house.
Must.
Have been one too many bad potatoes.
Um, and next to you is a plate full of gingerbread cookies.
I proceed to bite the heads off of.
Them. Yes.
And then, uh, wow.
Wow.
You wake up. Wow. Um, wow. You wake up in a,
in a ship.
, what kind of a ship?
More of a.
Star.
Ship ship. . Initially, initially.
You thought that they were angels, but to your surprise,
you climbed upon that star ship.
That star ship, ship headed for, for us.
Come sail away. Come sail away. One of my favorite songs.
Um, yes, you find yourself aboard a, a Starship,
and it looks like it might be of the ancients.
Ancients. Is it really you,
plural? Wow. Is that you? My little boy
.
And you get a big hug. And that's where we're gonna end the.
The story from the ancients. All the ancient ancients.
Hug me, all the ancients hug you. Can you feel at peace?
That's a wonderful, that's a, a wonderful,
beautiful Christmas alien. Mm-hmm. abduction .
Instead of being abducted by Santa,
you were abducted by aliens. That's where we record.
.
I like it.
Thank you, Josiah. Yep.
And that's, that's nicely done. That's work out for you. All right? We did it.
We kind of, we kind of did it.
All right, everybody,
thanks for tuning in to naming Dave with Strangers.
Uh.
.
It, we, we, we got it a little wacky. This is our,
this is our Christmas episode. Hope you guys enjoyed it. Uh,
we went off the rails at the end,
but that's how you do when you got our Agent of chaos as our dm. So, yeah.
Um, we would like to encourage you to like,
rate and subscribe to our podcast.
And whatever pod plat podcast platform you are listening to this on that helps
get us in front of like-minded individuals like yourself,
please consider becoming a pat on our Patreon at
patreon.com/playing games with strangers.
And if you have a better ending for us for this episode.
.
Let us know and we will. I, I will,
I will consider re re ending this story,
better way.
With that being said, thank you so much for listening.
We love all of you guys out there. Except for you, Todd Ferguson.
You owe me five bucks. Uh, that being said,
stay fresh cheese bags.
I wish,
wish.
You have been listening to the Playing Games With Strangers podcast,
with the voices of John Har you, Katherine Zinsky,
Dave Clements, CLE Js Earls, Celeste Mora,
Josiah Crandall, Eric Campan, and Steve Macon.
The theme music was written and performed by Steve Arthur, used with permission.
Find more of his music on Facebook or wherever you purchase music digitally.
Please review this podcast wherever you download it from to help other
podcasters find our podcast and join our community. And once again,
thank you for listening.