To Prove D&D Exists for Echolon

OOC: Why yes, yes he can.

Darting your eyes around the room, you see a comfortable space measuring about 30 by 20 feet. One corner mostly occupied by the figure in the red suit, his chair, and a side table with a red cloth hat flopped on it. The wall behind him is dominated with a filled shelf of books. Centrally located is a oval low table with a plate and cup. You can see and smell fresh baked cookies upon the plate and the cup seems filled with a white liquid. To the left, there stands the most magnificent green triangular tree you have ever seen. It seems to sparkle with its own pin points of light. It is loosely wrapped in wide ribbon and there seem to be small fruits hanging from the branches. Beside the tree is an enormous bulging sack tied with golden rope. One of the far corners on the right has a fireplace with a crackling flame but you don't detect any heat or smoke from it.

"Well son, it's a long story." he sighs  "In short, I made a mistake. Last year I was headed home after making some deliveries and I got an itch that I had to answer. Seems there are some folk in this mountain that deserve a little bit of joy. A young lady and a few rambunctious boys have earned some happiness in this ..." He frowns and there is a flicker of anger on his face "This pile of reindeer droppings!" The man looks up and shakes his fist.

He takes a deep breath and sighs heavily again. "It was a trap. AGH! A very clever one." The man hitches a thumb at the fireplace "That there is a one-way chimney, and thanks to this thing," he opens up his coat and shirt and shows you a shining green gem-like bug attached to his chest. "I can't get out by my normal means."

"But I had to come," leaning forward, elbows on knees, his eyes, once again warm "you understand that right?"

Tommary uses Waywatcher cant to indicate to the party that he's parlaying and they might as well advance to his position.  The communication is gestural and consists of him turning toward the passage from whence he came, making a sort of duck head with his left hand and moving thumb and fingers to make it look like it's yammering, and extending his right arm out toward the tunnel and bringing in his right forearm with palm extended in a repeated motion like he's waving in a barge on the locks or docks. He turns back to Santa.

"Wait, have you been her almost _exactly_ a year?  What about your deliveries for this year?!?"

Toots turns to Ely and Ily, shrugs, and walks into the room with Tommary and Santa.

Quote from MidnightPlat >>

"Wait, have you been her almost _exactly_ a year?  What about your deliveries for this year?!?"

The Santa figure looks up at the party when they near, glances at the book, "good, good, mostly good," nods and smiles, then places the book on the side.

"Honestly little Tommy, I'm sure you're well aware of what happens if I don't get out of here. We've only got 3 days."

Quote from MidnightPlat>>

OOC: So Santa sight can see past invisibility?  Actually not surprised there.

OOC: Wouldn’t he need Truesight to know all the naughties and nices and sleepings and wakings?

Quote from Wysperra >>

"Honestly little Tommy, I'm sure you're well aware of what happens if I don't get out of here. We've only got 3 days."

 
OOC: (If nobody here is a Family Guy fan this will fall flat): Somebody call KISS!!

OOC: What, if anything does Toots’ Detect Magic reveal about that “one-way chimney,” and the green gem-like bug on Santa’s chest?

IC: “I’m… I’m good? Or at least mostly good? Really? Even with all the…” •whispers• “…’not-so-good*’ stuff I did in my past?”

*(Toots’ spell list is chock full of dark or insidious magics because she has not always been such a nice person. When other bards might use snark and pith as weapons, or cold steel like Tommary, Toots primary weapon is decay itself. Toots’ greatest talent is the worst consent violation imaginable, her abilities to reach directly into the minds of others. On top of that, it appears some divine power has taken an interest in her, and the nature of that being seems particularly unsavory itself. Her relative “goodness” genuinely concerns her.)

Ilyara was last into the room, hanging towards the back with eyes as wide as saucers.  She'd heard legends of the Saint of the North, of course.  Everybody had.  Some claimed him a wizard lord, giving away toys as part of centuries-long magical experiments.  Some claimed him a demigod, combating darkness not through violence and force of arms but through spreading its antithesis - joy, cheer, and light.  Some legends claimed him a Force, handing the mantle of Saint of the North down to a deserving child on the cusp of adulthood once every hundred years to ensure the spark of childhood joy never left the Saint's spirit.  No matter his nature or origins though, everybody knew the Saint of the North knew who had been naughty and who had been nice.

And there were few people indeed who would consider followers of the Traveler to be 'nice'.

"...how can we get you out of here?  If...if this is real, then..." Ilyara mumbled, more than a little nervous and overawed herself.  It wasn't often one was in the presence of an actual-for-real legend, of the mythic children's story variety.  She remained as alert for tricks and traps as she could, there was no way she'd put it beyond this accursed mountain to try and bamboozle them...but something in her gut told her this was real.  And that meant she might need to do some seriously rapid work to get her Niceness back in good standing...and make sure all the other children out there got what they deserved this year too.

(OOC: GDI Wysp, just weavin' the ol' Christmas one-shot directly into the ongoing game, eh? :P  Nice.)

Quote from IamSposta >>

OOC: What, if anything does Toots’ Detect Magic reveal about that “one-way chimney,” and the green gem-like bug on Santa’s chest?

The fireplace/chimney is a combination of strong illusion backed by reality. Deeming it safe to get closer as there is no real flame, Toots looks up and sees that the way out is blocked by black rock and rubble. Elyona lets out a silent whistle, the chunks are raw adamantite ore.

The bug on Santa's chest matches the description of the scarab you are to return to the lords of Cliffside. It has powerful anti-magic properties. 

As if reading your thoughts, because maybe just maybe he is, he holds a palm to his face as if sharing a secret with you, "Ho ho, not to worry, I know there is good in you." he winks with a broad smile.

He points at Elyona's waist and says, "Yes, you too young lady, I'll make sure you get that lilac scented oil you want... If we can just get out of here." You imagine(?) the sword blushing pink.

Usually around this time of year, Tommary's public sentiment toward the season could be summed up by one of the Vault's greatest wit Bards:

However, in the presence of Santa, Tommary's mind reels with echoes of his favorite song for the season from the vaults, he's particular fond of it's pairing at the beginning of that reel about the ferral goblinkin:

Baby, this Santa needs to get home, and Tommary will full on Die Hard to see it happen, with a resounding Ode to Joy, even:  Heck, there may even be a score to be had:

OOC: Ahh, Die Hard. America’s favorite Christmas movie. (At least it was last time I saw the poll results.) I would also like to take this opportunity to share my favorite childhood Christmas special which many of you may not know:

And my new favorite Christmas special as well:

IC: With a hint of moisture threatening to overflow the corners of her eyes, Toots gives the jolly Klaus a look of gratitude far deeper than she would ever voice aloud. “Thanks….” She mutters, for once at a loss for more words.

“Well now… how about we try helping you outta this awful, gross, miserable mountain of doom? I think that green bug-gem is one of the things we’re here to recover for Cliffside anyway. So I think we kinda gotta take that off yer hands… er, chest anyway. And if it’ll help, I can temporarily turn you into a little tiny bug or something so you can escape. Even if that chimney is as blocked up as it looks, you can still get out the same way we got in. You should still be fine until you get to the slippery, anti-magic room with the death pits…. I’m not sure how you can get past that unless we head back with you so Ely and Ily can set up the whosywhatsit we used to cross this way… but we’ll figure something out. Well, the rest of you will figure something out, I couldn’t figure it out the first time. Wadaya say?”

Toots then examines the green, gem-like scarab a bit more closely, trying to figure out how to get it off of Santa. (Arcana: 14)

"I've got one more try at Dispelling bad mojo today," Ilyara offered, still a bit agog at just what, and who, they were dealing with.  "D'you think I should try it on th' chimney, get ridda whatever illusion's causin' a fuss there?  I'd maybe need some help, I've burned through most of my tricks for makin' sure a dicey gamble like that pays out..."

The scarab's body is made up of jewels and finely crafted brass and mithral filigree. The shell pulses in a steady rhythm with enchantment  and you see the legs deeply buried in the skin of Mr. Klaus. It is obvious that some....damage will occur if the piece of jewelry is removed.

Santa pulls a golden watch from his coat and tsks, "Ah, two days. Tick tock ladies."

Tommary can shed some inspiration to Ilyra if she wants to vacate the likely fake Yule log set up.  OOC: I need to figure out a seasonally appropriate pep talk similar to Friday Night Lights.

"Hey, Tallboots...can you use your find-stuff-out spell to maybe figure out how that awful bug-thing works?  There's gotta be a way to peel it off'a somebody without taking a chunk of th' somebody with it.  I'll sit on my Dispellery for now, we may need it for this literal sucker...hn.  I don't got much else that can really help, unless maybe it's something I can turn off with a couple of deft picks?" she asked, patting her thieves' tools.  Then glancing up at the Saint of the North with a blush visible through her fur.  "Uhh, no offense, Mr. Klaus...sometimes a girl's gotta learn some naughty skills t'do nice things, right...?"

Elyona enters the room cautiously.  Her eyes widen when she sees the Saint of the North. Initially she looks suspicious, and looks the figure up and down carefully.  Eventually, though, she relaxes a bit, choosing to tentatively believe he is who he claims to be.  When he mentions her sword wanting lilac scented oil, she looks startled; when she senses the sword blushing she starts to smirk before glancing at the figure in red and quickly schooling her features.

”I’m best at aiding others in battle, not for tasks like this, I’m afraid,” she responds to Ily and the group as a whole.  She Looks up again at the adamantine ore in the “chimney,” trying to suss out if there was a way to dig through it.

OOC: given what I know about adamantine, I’m guessing that digging through it is not very likely, but Ely knows more about ore and metal qualities than I do.  Let me know if you’d like me to roll a check for her.  

Elyona takes a closer look up the chimney and is certain that it is real or at least a real hole, that is packed with real rock and ore. She suspects that digging some loose might be possible but knowing you're hundreds of feet under the surface, there might be something of a minor cave-in.

OOC: With the presumption that Tommary uses arcane duckduckgo, he discovers that the item protects the wearer from magic no matter how strong. It also...sssssss shluck eats the rest of the spell.

Tommary does in fact do his whole bell book and candle identification ritual to figure out the Scarrab, and explains, "So I think it's sort of magic, but can't tell because it basically eats magic.  I think that's a kinda magic, I think.. on the more profane end of things I do still have this bomb and a lot of oil if we want to full on Nakatomi Plaza that chimney."

As recent events may have indicated, Tommary never made it all the way through Waywatcher Sapper school (for "reasons") and knows nothing about combat engineering, he will gladly lend material and help support to anything Ely may come up with.

"I don't think blowing stuff up's gonna get us outta this," Ilyara.  "But, if we can fix this, then maybe we won't need to?  I'm really sorry, uhh...Mr. Klaus...but do you mind if I try and see what kind of, like...off switch this stupid bug might have?"

{Presuming Actual Santa doesn't tell Ilyara to scarper, going to Guidance and inspect the scarab in the same way she'd check for hidden traps or catches, looking for some secret mechanism.  Nekkid d20, +2 for Investigation or +6 for perception, and a 1d4 for Guidance: 12 to figure out the magic-eating clockwork bugger.}

"But But, this is the time of year we blow things up and set trees, preferably piles of trees on fire.  And PRESENTS"