Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Finder’s Archives.
This week is the final week of the Julekalender. I hope you’ve enjoyed it so far, as here comes the grand finale. Remember these sessions are supposed to be no more than an hour long (though some of the enterprising ones of you out there might get more time out of it) and has no set game system for it. Simple, narrative systems will probably work best though.
Part 1 (Days 1 – 7) Part 2 (Days 8-14) Part 3 (Days 9-21)
That said, we pick up where we left off.
22nd of December
The following morning, the heroes have barely woken up when they hear a ferocious roar. The little lizard that crawled into their backpack back on the 16th turns out to be an enchanted dragon, one that the Troll King had hidden as a nasty surprise to the heroes. The spell had taken longer to fade than he had expected, and as a result, the dragon is irate both at him and at the heroes – if they’ve treated it badly (or not discovered that it was there). If they treated it well, it’ll be helpful to them, and take them to the Troll King’s Castle. If not, it’ll fight them until it drops to 20% health/hit points or less, at which point it’ll surrender, and take them.
Once they arrive at the Troll King’s castle, they find it to be a strange, twisted version of the Court of the Faerie King and Queen. Where it stood tall, Troll Castle is decrepit. Where it was beautiful, Troll Castle is hideous. There is only one obvious entrance – a drawbridge that looks strangely unguarded. In reality, the guards live underneath it and are a motley crew of Ogres and Trolls. The Troll King doesn’t allow them into the castle, but they make good and loyal (if stupid) guards. Sneaking in or using trickery is a safer choice – any reasonably plausible excuse has a chance to confuse the guards enough that they’ll let in the heroes. Getting across the moat and up the wall is difficult, but far from impossible for a determined group of heroes. Inside the Troll Castle, there is only a single building, with a single door.
23rd of December
The door doesn’t open until sunlight hits it, which happens the following morning. Once inside the heroes must negotiate a few simple traps (dart traps and pit traps), but nothing truly dangerous, until they get to the center of the building. There, sitting on a stolen throne is the Troll King. And he seems to have packed in his sanity at this point, as he clearly thinks that the heroes are his underlings. In his hands is clutched a small, snow-covered wand made of crystal – and it is glowing green. The wand is the cause of all the trouble – it’s scrambled the brains of the Troll King as he’s nowhere near powerful enough to use it, and he’s stolen it from the Faerie Queen, who normally wields it.
The heroes can either fight him (which will make for a tough, but not impossible, fight), or they can convince him that he should bring the King and Queen to his “court” and interrogate them. If they successfully convince him of that, he’ll tell them where to find the Faerie Court in his dungeons. Bringing them back up to the Troll King’s Court, the Queen’s eyes go wide when she sees the green energy around the wand. It’s been corrupted by the overwhelmed mind of the Troll King.
She asks him in her kindest, gentlest voice to give it to her – slowly coaxing it away from him, and with a bit of prodding, he hands it over to her. She concentrates for a moment and the green energy around the wand clears up, and changes to a faint, healthy blue. She thanks the heroes for their assistance, and explains that the magic that overwhelmed the Troll King is the magic of Winter and of the Winter Holidays. No one can hold that kind of power for long and even she only wields it for a month each year. The magic contained within can only be held within the hearts of all mortals everywhere. With a flick of her wand, she sends the heroes back with a bright smile.
24th of December
The heroes wake up the next morning, to the smell of baking and cooking. A tree has been magically enchanted and takes up the whole ground floor of their friend’s tower. Warm rum toddies and sweets await those who want them, and faint singing can be heard from outside the tower, where their old friend is currently giving cookies away to a children’s choir that arrived at the doorstep that morning.
When he returns, he explains that the holidays have been saved. It wasn’t his experiments that did it apparently, but that the Troll King used that very moment to steal the Faery Queen’s Wand. But now, the holidays are saved, and the heroes can kick back and enjoy it. And who knows what they’ll find in their presents the next morning?
And that concludes our Julekalender. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone. Or as our beloved host GM Chris would say: Peace, Love, and Good Gaming. 😊
Kim Frandsen
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