Session 11: The Holiday Special Finale, Freeing a Trapped Spirit and Surviving!

General Summary

Defeat The Spirit of Christmas!

The session began with a brief journey through the euphoria ridden town, and the Spiritual Travelers were soon at the center of town which was positioned on the shore of a frozen lake

You all gazed up on the incredibly christmassy scene before you, and saw the one responsible for the changes that had been overtaking the forest. As the rest of you were gazing upon the strange creature on the shores of this lake, Namina began to approach with hopes of communicating with it. As she stepped forward, the spirit also moved towards her and the wings of the dove at its center began to spread wide as a shockwave was felt by each of you. Light also came with this shockwave and you all felt an overwhelmingly dense form of the emotions you had been feeling. This light and force also caused some strange cloud of smoke to appear from Hysteria. This smoke was filled with eyes of all different sizes, shapes and colors, and it stared at Hysteria as it began to dissipate at the edge of the light. This light, and the accompanying emotions, caused DAN and Kaswink to sing holiday-themed songs as they were overwhelmed with joy. The rest of you managed to resist this urge though the feelings were still there.

Combat proceeded from that point with each turn bringing about more joy, generosity, and exhaustion from the cold. The Spirit of Christmas would spend its turns lodging Euphoria Spikes into the minds of various people (mostly DAN thanks to their distractions) and slowly twisting around itself while being stretched and pulled deeper into the ground. Its transformation was apparent to all and it rarely moved during this encounter, though began to do so later on. While it moved the points that had been stretched remained fixed to the ground causing further unpleasant distortions. You can view the descriptions/my notes of each turn's "lair actions" here:

Show spoiler

Round 1 - nothing Round 2 - “As the encounter stretches on and these feelings of euphoria persist, you begin to feel…different. It starts as the dove’s wings begin to elongate at the end and stretch down towards the ground. The transparent form surrounding it begins to fade as well, and the deep sense of pure joy within you begins to distort. Rather than the wholly pure feelings they begin to feel almost obsessive, that ONLY this creature could make you feel ANY joy. Additionally, this will use the Just Toys Lair Action and everyone needs to make WIS saves. They’ll all also witness their bodies stretching into points from unexpected places and being pulled towards the ground. Round 3 - “With a new round come new horrific revelations. The elongated wings of the dove have now started to twist around on themselves in some frightening double helix. Its beak and tail have stretched down as the wings had before, and the bellstring has dropped to the ground, dissipating as it falls over these next 6 seconds. The spirit that surrounded this dove has again gained some of its opacity, no longer fading, and its own limbs have started to stretch and distort.” Additionally, this will use the Frozen Over/Slippery Lair Action as the entire battlefield suddenly freezes over and becomes very slippery. Certain areas will cause characters to freeze in place, and the rest will cause them to slip and fall or possibly slide farther than they’d like. STR checks can help them escape if they get frozen, and DEX saves might be essential to not fall over. Round 4 - “The beak and tail feathers have begun twisting with the wings of this Dove Spirit and the outer spirit that it resides within has gained even more opacity. To the point that you can barely see the dove within. It’s stretching and twisting frame proving to be even more horrific as it’s beatific smile persists throughout the entire ordeal. A creature smiling and showing a display of pure bliss as it also experiences some bizarre demise… Your own bodies have continued their own stretching and are indeed twisting around themselves. The points that were stretching from you never reach the ground though and are instead folding in on themselves while more points stretch and twist with them.”

Hysteria hid behind the nearby Christmas Tree before beginning to attack the creature as often as possible. They also spent their time making sure that Namina was able to safely commune with the spirit and they stabilized people when necessary, especially Agave. They dragged Namina to the safety of Agave's bonfire when she became incapacitated, the fire helping her not potentially freeze to death. While their weaponry was not entirely useful against the stumps later on in combat, they were able to continuously attack/distract the more visible spirit. DAN was a bit more aggressive with their approach as they got as close as possible to the spirit. They spent their turns juggling with hopes of distracting it, and they were successful! The Spirit focused most of its energy on DAN while Namina and Agave were able to find as much information about the situation as possible. DAN also eventually began attacking the spirit as things became more and more dicey. They saw many Euphoria Spikes including one that caused them to feel as though they are in a cozy room with a fireplace and friendly, familiar faces that they've never seen. Kaswink spent her first turn approaching the spirit, but the Euphoria Spike that struck her after her attack caused her to float up into the air as she witnessed the spirit and the entire party laughing at her. She used this floating to her advantage though, grabbing onto the nearby Christmas Tree before breaking off the top of it to use as a club against the Spirit. On one of her subsequent turns on the ground, she decided to uproot a nearby stump to use as a weapon, she was successful but also witnessed a strange property from Stumps which caused her arms to spiral into nothingness before she yanked it free and they returned to normal. She then began to destroy the other nearby stumps as well, ignoring the spirit. Agave spent combat maintaining a bonfire for you all to remain as warm as possible. He also awakened the nearby Christmas Tree with hopes of learning more about what had happened in this area. He learned that certain events occurred before the Spirit of Christmas even arrived in the area, particularly that nearby trees had vanished, and that their stumps began to sing. Agave also attempted to communicate with the Spirit, and at one point did get its attention leading to a spike entering his mind; this was possibly an attempt to communicate. With this spike, Agave felt the usual blissful damage, however, he also was able to hear the song of the stumps that surround him and the rest of you. He collapsed from the damage of the spike shortly after learning this information. Frode stood strangely motionless near Agave's fire...what's up with that? Namina spent her turns meditating and hoping to communicate with the spirit within. Her mind was filled with the song of the nearby stumps, and the disorientatingly positive emotions that were being twisted into some unhealthy thing. When she saw that the creature was being held against its will by some outside force she redirected her pursuits to finding what that was. In so doing she found her mind and spirit trapped as she felt her own perspective remaining both motionless in the cold and being dragged forward along a track that spiraled further out of existence. This unpleasantness was not without its realization as she did find the source of the problem to be the nearby stumps, though she was unable to convey this information to the group, much like Agave.

Free the Spirit of Christmas...

Namina was able to awaken while Hysteria attempted to stabilize Agave. She was able to heal him and the rest of the group a little bit, but you all noticed that the healing was a little less...potent than it really should have been. Maybe she was holding out on you, or maybe the strange cloud of eye-filled dark mist was up to no good. Either way, it was enough to awaken Agave, and the combined information from the two of them confirmed that the stumps need to be destroyed. With this new information regarding the nearby stumps unlocked, the lot of you spent your future turns destroying them as you became more and more exhausted in the snow. Agave repositioned his bonfire around one while Kaswink performed a rather spectacular maneuver on the other side of the field by "slingshotting" her way from one stump to another, using their strange spiraling nature against them, and DAN hacked at a stump as well with their outrageous number of attacks. The stumps were quickly disposed of, and the Spirit was able to return to its journey. Towards the end of combat, Kaswink became frenzied with blood lust as her health depleted. This was the first time any of you had seen this, including Agave despite their journey through the desert. Namina attempted to help Kaswink by healing her wounds, and the health was enough to bring her out of it. However, before she returned to normal, a rather menacing voice did say that "One day she'll slip up, and ill-" Before the spirit left it provided a gift to the nearest person with a container handy. This just so happened to be Kaswink, and a jar that she was carrying was filled with some strange glowing "liquid" that solidified when stressed. It smelled "christmassy" and Kaswink decided that she would give it to Frode. As the Spirit departed, free to continue its journey through The Gates, you all returned to your normal selves and watched as the town slowly disappeared and reappeared around the spirit as it traveled. The myriad of Content followed it as it traveled, and you were free to find Croak at the entrance of town. He was also back to his usual self.

Surviving the Cold; Thanks, Croak!

The effects of the cold were apparent on you, especially Namina who was motionless during most of the encounter. Her fingertips now have a bit of frostbite at the tips. You were all very tired, and while the snow was melting in the returned heat of the forest, it was still mid-autumn, and the journey back to camp was hanging heavy on all of your minds. Croak, sensing that you might not want to travel much right now, offered to help you get back home. He explained there would still be some walking, but not nearly as much as he touched a nearby tree. It shimmered, as if a mirage in the desert, and he gestured towards it. Agave noticed the potential druid-esque witchery and decided to ask Croak a question in Druidic, which Croak seemed to understand as he did reply in the same language by saying "It doesn't last very long, you'll need to hurry."

Back at camp, you all were excited to pass out as soon as possible, and the long rest and delicious meal waiting on the other side was something to look forward to. However, Croak suggested that, before you sleep, you should prepare for the creek to flood as heavy rains were upon you. Agave, also aware of this, suggested the same and began moving the camp along with the rest of you. Kaswink investigated the grotesque angler monkey that she had knocked out earlier and found that it was mostly the same, though instead of a candy cane it now had a bunch of berries at the end of its lure. DAN similarly investigated the Teacup Dragon that was in their coat. It also still existed and was still the same adorable dragon, however, it had somehow found a hot cup of soothing peppermint tea which it held with the end of its tail. The trees which had been munched on by eager chocolate eating adventurers earlier that day still had bite marks, but they were no longer made of chocolate. Everything seemed to be back to normal!

The session ended there, we'll be starting the next one moments before a nice long nap. It's currently only around 11 AM, but that's never stopped me before, why should it stop a group of adventurers that just trekked several miles through the snow to beat up the spirit of christmas?

In-game Date:
Nurend 05, 308

Report Date

03 Jan 2022

Primary Location

Lake Carranashtuss

Secondary Location

The Contented Town of Euphoria

Related Characters