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So for fun with a group of friends and just to pass time between our real campaign DM'd by a friend of ours. we run our own parallel campaigns some world and characters but it's own story and such. all of them are beginners as am I with DMing and it all is just in fun of course hardly much seriousness. basically it's seen as lighthearted practice with them getting used to RPing and lvling, but it is still treated as it's own campaign.
I'm wanting to run a module or maybe somehow whip up a christmas themed adventure for my party, and I'm asking if anyone can help with ideas, possible module that already exists or monsters and scenarios.
We are in the world of Golarion, and currently the party is about to finish the Feast of Ravenmoor Module. which at the end of the module should leave them in Magnimar. I've calculated their XP and they will be lvl 4 and 200 away from 5 once this module finishes.
We are running the fast track XP and the party consists of.
Male Human Barbarian AC18 with a greatsword, combination of PA and furious focus deals a min of 15(2d6+13)dmg without the use of rage (tends to forget he can rage) or enhancing items. tends to think with his head ~_^ and it's gotten him into trouble in this module and in our other campaign xD
Male Half-elf Inquisitor, AC 17 he's mainly melee focused scythe wielder with the deity of Apollyon. min of 5 (2d4+3)
Female Catfolk Rogue by actions and character (2ranger/1rogue) is going with the catfolk advantage of d8 sneak attack with claws, AC 17 Favored enemy human, twf rapier and shortsword, and occasionally claws. (can't recall his min dmg)
Male Human Archer (fighter archtype) this character is mine which is there cause I enjoy being apart of the game as a player but am very good with separating the two workings, I most of the time leave the decisions to them unless they turn to my character or to help with examples of rp. AC 19 (chain shirt, armored kilt and +4 dex) Archer with Dervish dance. Min dmg 6 (1d8+3+2 [deadly aim and STR rating] not accounting extra shot with RS or +1 from point blank)
I understand if this is useless info but I thought maybe this could give an idea to what I am working with, also no one has magical items. and I was thinking the boss be some sort of similarity to Nicholas the Renegade from SAO on how the boss is santa themed.
Any help and thoughts will be appreciated and considered thank you :3
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Ever seen Metalocalypse on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim? You could use Nathan Explosion's suggestion that the Christmas Spirit is "a ghost who kills children." Oh and throw in an evergreen tree with Faerie Fire and Dancing Lights cast on it, then possibly recruit the party to deliver some toys and rescue Yule-Father.
I'll definitely take this into consideration, I'm hoping to hear from others to see what else people can come up with :D
I only posted some non-serious because I figured you would have a lot of input on this. I have built Christmas themed game sessions into two different modules I have run, so it's definitely something I am into. Tomorrow I'll write some better ideas if no one else steps up.
We had to save an NPC version of Santa Claus once. He had a superior bag of holding and at the end of the adventure he gave us all one present of crazy overpowered totally random treasure.
We had to save him from a recurring bad-guy Devil who summoned a Tower from Hell right next to our group's stronghold. We still haven't gotten rid of the Hell Tower, but we did Consecrate the Hell out of it. Pun intended.
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I gave my players "gifts" from their respective gods, Christmas is a religious holiday, isn't it? B-) In one case the player hadn't chosen a god, so a god chose him. It's given me a LOT of roleplaying material.
Also last year The Big Bang Theory had a great episode that included a Christmas themed D&D game.
The end of the BBT D&D game was great.
OK so I have included run two separate christmas themed D&D sessions.
The first featured Se'antu Necolas, a jungle-dwelling, dwarf who travelled from one impoverished village to the next delivering much needed supplies. He travelled of course in his famous red outfit. As our party of heroes passes through one of these villages, the people there bemoan that Se'antu has not arrived and they will not make it through the winter. The PCs are hot on the trail in no time and track down a orc who lives alone in the jungle who has kidnapped Se'antu (and incidentally possesses strange supernatural powers granted to him by an abberant alien life-form), and now wears his famous red outfit. The villain is built to engage and entire party, just as Se'antu single-handedly performs his duties. He rewards them with presents from his magic bag, just for being good. The PCs succeed and later meet the orc (now resurrected by his dark god) later in the game, when they finally meet the dark god.
The second time was very different, and I can't do it justice with words. A mysterious dwarf-like outsider in a red suit who carries an artifact level musket that also functions as a wand approached the party and asks their assistance. They will travel through a portal to a demi-plane inhabited by evil drow and their dwarven slaves, who die by the dozens from overwork. The PCs and the outsider will go there to deliver to the slaves hope and glad tidings! and presents. Now I had unwittingly sown the seeds for my own failure here, and was so in love with my own holiday gaming session that I failed to see it forming before my eyes until it was too late. The party penetrated the stronghold covertly at first, then not so covertly. Soon they were known to their enemies and the gig was up. Drow warriors assaulted them by the handful, as dozens more approached, with hundreds more readying themselves. Now my group of PCs was not exactly "good". The party elf wizard unleashes a massive AoE at the drow. The player knew that the party rogue/fighter was 5 ft in front of him invisible, by the character did not. The sneak attacking rogue wielded an elf-bane, flaming burst waraxes (named Elfburn) is now enraged and full-attacked the wizard in the middle of the battle. The other front liner, a CN barbarian/rogue (who owned a magical great sword that had been forged by the hands of enslaved dwarves and then tempered in those same dwarves blood. the sword constantly longed for their blood again) shouted "Chaos!" and full attacked Santa. Santa responded by unleashing a critical attack on him and nearly killed him in a single attack. The party archer (who was always itching to move south of his neutral alignment) protects his friend and unleashed hell on Santa. The wizard blasts the fighter rogue, who responds in kind. The party is badly hurt and the drow continue to attack. Santa tumbles away and is able to magically escape. The party has to literally run for their lives, which is possible only because the drow have died in such great numbers that their fury is overtaken by their fear. No presents nor goodwill were delivered that year...
There's an old radio play called the Cinnamon Bear that I've always wanted to make into an adventure. It is essentially the story of a pair of kids who lose the silver star that goes on top of their tree. They meet a toy bear, 4 inches high by the name of Patty O'Cinnamon, or the Cinnamon Bear and he and other characters in a fictional world take them to go find it.
The wrap up at the end is classic. The main protagonist is the Wintergreen Witch and she stole the star because, well, she's mean. But the trail eventually leads to the north pole and Santa's workshop where the witch pulls her final battle. She assaults the workshop and the elves defend the place while the kids watch. In the end all turns out well and good and they get home with their silver star, but their mother tells them they were asleep this whole time.
Anyway, if I were to write this as a 4th level adventure you'd have a minor artifact that summons powerful, positive energy. Each year this artifact is activated by a pair of twin children and, once employed summons a wave of goodwill across the land and helps ensure the general peace. Unfortunately the device has been stolen. Since the region has been peaceful for some time they have no heroes trained and equipped to deal with this situation. Fortunately the children are able to call upon a guide who can track the Silver Star - a tiny, sentient bear.
The characters are tapped to accompany the bear in tracking the device. Their adventures lead them to the lair of a dragon with multiple different scale colors (the Crazy Quilt Dragon from the story) who at first is suspected of taking the star but on surviving the PCs initial attack does not retaliate and instead cowers before them. The dragon has in fact been reduced to this simpering heap by the Wintergreen Witch; a hag of great power. The party, now accompanied by the dragon, must travel into the frigid lands of the north and once there meet with the Silver Star's original maker - San-Ta, the ancient fey Primean (or whatever those fey overlords in the first world are called).
San-Ta is a legend, a myth in the lands of mortals. He's said to be able to travel through the light of the Silver Star by night and be everywhere it touches at once. He brings small gifts from his realm to the mortals to help them through the winter months. Since all have what they need then none are left wanting the magic of the star stays intact.
The real story is that Wintergreen was a pupil of San-Ta but that she was cold, ambitious. He withheld his greatest powers and housed them in the Silver Star, then banished the witch from his realm. She has taken the device and intends to corrupt it's power with the essence she stole from the dragon's heart. Once turned evil she's going to destroy San-Ta and his whole realm, bringing down an ice age of hate. The party will have to find a way to get the star from Wintergreen even while her minions siege San-Ta's citadel.
In my version of Golarion, the Varisians have the following traditions, which have spread to the non-native people who live along the Lost Coast (including Magnimar and Sandpoint).
The final day of Winter Week is called Yule. Children hang stockings by the hearth before they go to bed. At midnight on Yule, Desna sends the Night Monarch to fly over all the land to bless the children with good dreams for the rest of the year. If the children have been good, the Night Monarch sends a cloud of swallowtails carrying presents down the chimney, which put the present in the child's stocking. If the child had caught a butterfly in that year's Swallowtail Festival without injuring it, and later let it go, the present will be especially nice. Typical presents are small toys or sweets.
In my Rise of the Runelords game, the session we played in early January happened to be Winter Week, so I ran a Golarion Christmas-themed game. The PCs had returned to Sandpoint for the holiday. They received a Harrow reading from Madame Mvashti indicating that something was going to interrupt Yule, so the PCs stayed up that night. A band of goblins sneaked into town, intending to steal the bright and shiny Yule Tree in the square before the Sandpoint Cathedral... and several also tried to sneak into people's houses to steal food. (A Golarion twist on How the Grinch Stole Christmas, with quite a lot more violence.) After the goblins were defeated, the Sandpoint Devil made an appearance, and the PCs had to save one child who'd woken up by the commotion, and saw the Sandpoint Devil fly overhead, and mistook it for the Night Monarch. The PCs defeated the Sandpoint Devil, but were severely wounded in the fight. As they dusted themselves off, a beautiful giant butterfly appeared overhead, and swarms of beautiful butterflies descended from it, many streaming down chimneys. One particularly large swarm descended on the PCs, and their wounds were healed by channeled positive energy. The butterflies also gave each PC a Desna-themed minor magic item appropriate to their class and personality. The butterflies then all returned to the Night Monarch, which flew off into the night. A light snow then started to fall.
Check out War on Yuletide from Jon Brazer Enterprises. Full of holiday death cheer!
I have a plot worked out for a partially Christmas themed AP that you might be able to farm ideas from. Click here for the thread.
Basically, there are evil snow-golems (custom monster that I haven't built yet) that are abducting children with the help of soul-bound dolls. Nicholas (Santa) is a Mystic Theurge with a split personality, and the other personality is evil. The Evil personality, Karon, is trying to help the Horsemen of Death, Charon, overthrow Pharasma and become the true God of Death. He will do this, by using an artifact called the Orb of Winter (custom artifact) that absorbs the heat of the region, plunging it into a freezing winter. Anyone that dies within the range of the Orb (the area of which grows the longer it's activated) will have their soul absorbed by the Orb. With enough energy absorbed from the heat of the land and the souls of the dead, Charon will be able to usurp Pharasma as Lord of the Dead.
I am running a game for some small kids at work and they are at the moment on the way to the north pole to save Santa from an unknown danger:)
It is a very lose game with 4-16 kids aged from 6 to 10.
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The original Christmas story has loads of room for adventure. There is an evil foreign king intent on killing the prophesied new born rightful Aasimar ruler of the land. He even goes so far as to proclaim an edict that all children under two years old should be killed. There could be a lot of fun in saving those children, helping the baby king escape, and fighting evil henchmen backed by demonic influence.
There's room for plenty of NPCs like the Three Eastern Magi who need to escape too, a collection of Halfling Druids with bonded Sheep, and a host of Trumpet Archons with a Star Archon in command.
The original Christmas story has loads of room for adventure. There is an evil foreign king intent on killing the prophesied new born rightful Aasimar ruler of the land. He even goes so far as to proclaim an edict that all children under two years old should be killed. There could be a lot of fun in saving those children, helping the baby king escape, and fighting evil henchmen backed by demonic influence.
There's room for plenty of NPCs like the Three Eastern Magi who need to escape too, a collection of Halfling Druids with bonded Sheep, and a host of Trumpet Archons with a Star Archon in command.
And a non evil undead in form of a ghost?
And a non evil undead in form of a ghost?
A Holy Ghost? Those are always interesting.
Don't forget to have loads of refugees in the area, so there aren't any rooms in the inn.
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My rough idea for a quick low adventure was thus:
I don't have all the details worked out (and would love some help/advice/feedback in another thread to not jack this one).
Nicholas the Gift Giver is the latest in a long line of men who take up the mantle to offer succor to those who refuse to bow to the daughters of Baba Yaga. Going back to the to the creation of Irrisen the Gift Givers have smuggled food, medicine, ect to the small towns and villages that have called on him. In addition to these good works Nicholas promises the children of these towns if they behave, help their parents with the chores and generally help not make life any harder than it has to be he will come back once a year to deliver all kinds of candy and toys. (He keeps track of the children by the weekly/monthy reports of their parents and animal messengers if you need to know)
To help him achieve this end, he has the help of Krampus, a cranky faun (or satyr, haven't decided) bound by a geas to help the Gift Giver and protect him from the woodland threats of Irrisen.
However, this year the geas has been broken and Krampus has defected to the service of Queen Elvanna. Now its the night before Nicholas's big toy run, and Krampus has decided to capture Nicholas and bring him before his icy queen.
Nicholas calls the PC to stop Krampus and continue a centuries old tradition.
Name one of the PCs Rudolph. Then engineer a scene where an old, white-haired man in a red suit shows up and says "Rudolph, with your (X) so bright, won't you guide my sleigh tonight?" Turns out the old man has to bring something, somewhere. He's on a time crunch where the PCs have to help that night. "X" can be anything - blade, spell, even Charisma. The point is that the old man is sick, dying; he can't perform an ancient duty he's observed for centuries. If the party doesn't help him fulfill his appointed duty there will be dire consequences.
You might also have a young boy of some great, hidden power. This lad, by the name of Charles the Dun is searching for some good in the world which has been plunged into the depths of winter. If the PCs don't help him find the meaning of the Winter Festival (peace on earth, goodwill to all) then the boy's power will doom you all. Bonus points if you can involve a dancing dog or another boy with a blue blanket.
Other plot seeds:
- the elves need a McGuffin to finish the last toy but Christmas is doomed if the PCs don't help
- An ice elemental of surpassing independence and sentience has come to the mortal world. Now the wizard who summoned him and others in the town are hunting him and he needs the PCs to protect him
- Two brothers, Djinn kings have an eternal feud. One is a scion of fire and hates all things cold; the other is a ruler over water and hates all things warm. Their feud had boiled into the mortal world and the lands suffer at their hands. A rag-tag band of misfits (the PCs) must deal with the eldritch brothers
Hmm you could include a "March of the Wooden Soldiers" element. Have an army of android gunslingers (armed with muskets) or an NPC in the tradition of the Nutcracker prince, a character who was turned into a toy soldier and wants to become human again.
If you need a Christmas-themed monster, you could always try the Gingerbread Golem Swarm from Christina Styles Presents. While you're there, you can pick up the original Gingerbread Golem pdf for free.
This is only tangentially related, but about 12 years ago, I was playing in a GURPS: X-Files game. We played a session in December that had a surprise Christmas theme!
Our team of FBI investigators were sent to the Pittsburgh area in early January to investigate some apparent kidnappings: Several children had disappeared from their rooms overnight on the 6th of January, with no signs of break-in or anything disturbed in the houses.
When our investigators interviewed the families, more than one mentioned that they had been visited earlier that day by a clergyman offering solace and condolences. The priest also asked several of the same questions we were asking. They described him as "Father Nikolaos," a heavyset Greek Orthodox priest with a typical full gray beard and long hair. He spoke English very well, but had a noticable Greek accent. They all said that he was very comfortaing, and assured the parents that God would protect their children and that he was "very hopeful" that they would be returned unharmed. Another factor we found was that all of the children had behavior problems at school or home-- many had been bullies of some sort, or had been arrested for shoplifting.
We followed up on a few more clues, and crossed paths with Father Nikolaos at an abandoned Greek Orthodox church. He tried to dismiss us, but ultimately revealed to us that he was also investigating the disappearance of these "naughty children," and he feared that he knew who had done it.
Long story short (mainly because I'm having a hard time remembering the details): The abductor was Krampus, who had been accidentally released from imprisonment within holy relic that had been hidden in this abandoned church, and since it was Christmastime, returned to his old tricks of abducting naughtly children. The night of the abduction was January 6th, or Christmas Eve on the Julian calendar.
And Father Nikolaos was in reality 1700 years old: He was the real St. Nicholas of Myra. Between us, we tracked down Krampus' lair, had a big fight with him, and rescued the children. St. Nick successfully trapped Krampus into the relic again.
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A few years ago in an Eberron campaign, I had the PCs encounter a Xoriat zone that was a christmas themed adventure. The mansion they were in turned into a trap. I honestly don't remember all of it, but a couple things I do recall that I liked.
One encounter involved monstrous looking care bears with living conveyer belts moving presents around and small sized elves attacking the PCs. There was just a ton going on in that scene. I won't lie, I made up most of what happened on the spot, just rolling some random dice behind the screen. "One of the wrapped boxes lands behind the fighter and explodes as a piece of twirly metal wraps him up (slinky!)." "The bear with a torch on his stomache suddenly puffs out his chest and drops a shower of flames on you for 7 fire damage, DC14 reflex for half."
The battle against 'Santa'. It was basically monstrous looking humanoid figure dressed in red and his red-nosed reindeer mount shooting laser beams out of it. I had a similar bag of tricks with him to pull something out and throw it, like Toy Soldiers. Rudolph could of course fly around and pelt them for like 1d6 damage against touch AC.
In the end, the only loot they got were 8 reindeer statues that functioned as the mount spell, only with a reindeer.