songerein | Saving Christmas

✵ SAVING CHRISTMAS ✵

As the sun sets and the moon rises on Christmas Eve, a strange sound of jingling bells is heard high in the sky as the snow suddenly begins to fall heavily upon the town. A heavy weight of sleep slowly overcomes everyone, and just as their eyes close they'll hear a loud, raging bellow—

That damn bastard!! I won't let you ruin—!

Before the words are finished, everyone will suddenly jolt awake and find themselves scattered in a strange looking town called Whoville. Although it looks as if it's supposed to be festive, none of that holiday cheer is evident. The town is completely ransacked with torn up decorations, broken gift boxes and toys. Even its colors seem faded, music distorted and muted.

All through the town the Whos stare listlessly at their hard work now ruined, some crying openly while others remain indoors in their grief. A brave few young souls try to help clean and bolster some cheer, chanting, "It's not too late, we can fix this! We can't let that Grinch get us down!" But many just shake their heads, their eyes dim. No one seems to have noticed the sudden arrival of new faces.

In the meanwhile, the tapirs appear to inform the Dreamwalkers that they are inside another large dreamscape similar to the one during Halloween. This time, however, an entity called "The Grinch" had suddenly appeared and attacked it, stealing all the presents and leaving everything to ruin as they see now. The tapirs point to a meter floating high in the sky, and although it's not rock bottom, it keeps wavering and lowering as time passes. The Dreamwalkers must help raise the meter to save the dreamscape from turning into a nightmare.

"But the big guy is really angry now," the tapirs chatter among themselves. "If they help fix things, maybe they'll gain a powerful ally!"

Dressed in Christmas themed attire, it will be up to the Dreamwalkers to try and restore the Christmas spirit before the day is ruined forever.

I. HELPING WHOVILLE

The town is an interesting looking place with its unique architecture, bright colors swirling and curving about that it make it look like it could be made of cake or candy instead. It's supposed to be adorned with all manner of Christmas decorations and lights, and yet all of it is missing and instead everything looks so drab and dreary, the colors faded and nary a carol sung. Its tree has also been stripped bare, the presents pilfered, and the much too big Christmas Star gone.

A. Gift Retrieval. The Grinch has scattered all of the presents and decorations throughout the surrounding forests and they need to be returned before Christmas is over. Dog sleds big enough to load up found presents are provided to be used, and the dogs will help track down presents. However, those who enter the forests should be cautious. While there aren't any huge threats, there are present mimics, monsters that pretend to be present boxes only to attack any who approach. They will also eat real presents, so be careful they don't reach the sled!

» BONUS: PRESENT DELIVERY. The last objective is to deliver the present to their rightful owners. However, it's possible the Grinch may have tampered the presents, and this will only be revealed upon opening. Players must RNG 0-5 to determine if the recipient likes the present or not.

» BONUS: SPECIAL PRESENTS. There are some special marked boxes that are guarded by present mimics. Get past them to retrieve the present. However, upon touching the box, it will disappear in a poof of orange and be replaced with a pumpkin pie that will help amplify one's dreamotion abilities if eaten.

B. Fixing Decorations. With broken ornaments and torn wreaths and ribbon everywhere, a massive cleanup is in order along with repairing and redecorating. While anyone good at crafts can help, positive emotions and dreamotion abilities will be key to help brighten everything from its current dreary atmosphere. Creative minds can help produce the necessary decorations while the athletic can figure out ways to bolster their skills to reach those high, hard to reach places. Another RNG for rating is here as the residents will judge their work.

» BONUS: JUDGMENT. Anyone can throw up decorations, but will it be to the residents' liking? Players must RNG 0-5 to determine what kind of rating their efforts receive.

» BONUS: CHRISTMAS STAR. The original Christmas star was smashed to bits so a new one is in order. Although anything can be used, the Whos do have some preferences on what can be used on the star, even if those materials may be hard to find. Rainbow crystals found in the forest will surely help give the start that glittery feeling; they prefer to have it gold; and it needs to illuminate on its own so some kind of light source is needed.

C. Christmas Carols. Carolers are doing their best, but everyone is stumbling over their verses and instruments are out of tune. A bit of positive reinforcement and Christmas cheer will help sort things out. Those who are musically inclined can lead the way by singing and even creating new songs to help inspire others.

» BONUS: A SPECIAL CHRISTMAS CAROL. In the designated thread, a new carol will be composed by the dreamwalkers. Each one will supply their own verse in response to the previous (click here for example). The thread is only for the verses, but there will be another thread where players can go ham for their characters to comment on the song as it goes on. Anyone can participate multiple times but must wait for another comment to be made first.

II. SANTA'S TOY FACTORY

Just beyond Whoville with just the Winter Forest to separate them is one of Santa's toy factories. It, too, has been attacked and smoke rises from the damaged buildings. With machines malfunctioning, toys are running rampant and everything is chaotic. If not fixed soon, there will not be enough toys for Santa to deliver.

A. Elf Rescue. The Grinch not only stole the presents and destroyed the toys, but they also sabotaged the machines running the factor. Now elves are trapped inside and are in desperate need of rescuing as toys malfunction and start to turn on them. The machines are even trying to box up the elves as gifts instead! Behaving similar to the present mimics, boxes, wrapping paper, and ribbon bounce around in search of anything to wrap up. Dreamwalkers must venture in to try to turn off the machines and rescue the elves without getting turned into a present themselves. The more elves rescued, the more allies gained to fix the factory and more favor earned from Santa.

B. Reindeer Games. The reindeer have been scattered all over and the only way to bring them back is to attract them with fun and games. In order to do so, dreamwalkers will transform into reindeer and will have additional abilities granted to them, such as flying and manipulating snow. As for what kind of games, they can choose from any of the following:

Ring Racing. High up in the air is a flying course with rings made of magical frost. Racers must pass through each ring to count, but they must fly quickly. As soon as they approach, the ring will start to contract, and if too late it will close and the racer will be disqualified.
Sleigh Pulling. This is a contest of strength! Sleighs will be piled high with presents and, if not enough presents are available, large rocks to weigh it down. Each reindeer must then try and pull their sleigh down a simple straight lane to the finish line. Just beware, rogue toys will appear on the track and will need to be dealt with somehow. There are no restrictions—each reindeer can use whatever ability or skill they can think of to help pull the overloaded sleigh. The contest can be 1v1 or 2v2.
Robot Reindeer. All the excitement does attract many of the reindeer back, but unexpected guests arrive as well—and they're not friendly. Sent by the Grinch, robotic reindeer will suddenly descend from the skies to ruin the festivities. It will be up to the dreamwalkers in their reindeer form to fight back against them—or try to convert them to help out instead.

C. Gingerbread Army. Giant gingerbread men occasionally appear and try to smash through the toy factory, hampering rescue efforts. Fortunately, they are only made of gingerbread and easy to fall apart. Unfortunately, they will not only regrow lost parts but grow from severed parts. Their weak point is the glowing gumdrop located among the many gumdrops on the body, and destroying it will destroy the gingerbread completely.

[Mod Note: Details can be read and questions can be asked on the Event Details post. Submit all special threads and ratings to the Event Thread Submissions form.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Gold was definitely dense and would make the tree top sag. But his remark about framework and glass... he might be on to something. The who that turned the corner and saw their home all lit up was in shock, eyes slowly widening to the size of saucers. Her hands went to her mouth.]

Can't say I ever worked with glass, much less coloring it. But maybe we should check the woods, after... haha... after this woman has a moment.

[She smiled, nodded to them.]

Your home's all done, dear. Go get your family and enjoy your holiday; we'll take things from here.

[They breathlessly hurried to do so. Madhuri's eyes hardened with determination.]

Alright. I say you and me are gonna make a ding-dang darling tree star. I always found nice things in the woods in Reverein. Santa's world has got to have something nice, too.

[ Goodness... That sure was a reaction from the Who there. Luca can't help but smile. ]

Heh heh. I'm sure she enjoys all the new decorations.

[ He pauses to see the Who woman off before he regards his companion with a cheeky grin. ] Well then! I may not have experience in glasswork, but that won't stop me from trying. Lead the way!

You got it!

[The woods were out this way. According to the whos, there was everything magical about the place, but they had to be careful about wolves or even bears out here.

Pfft. Wildlife. She took down full-grown marlboros before her tenth summer.]

It would be a good dreamotion practice opportunity as well. I've managed to make flowers so far, but nothing material. What about you?

[ Easy for her to say! Luca's habitat is the inventor's workshop, he never had to go out and slay monsters until fairly recently. ]

Mmn... Well, besides generating a sword of pure electricity a couple of times, I haven't gotten too much out of it yet. I mean, as useful as making things appear out of nothing is I'm not too used to that sort of thing.

[ ... He should practice more. On one hand, summoning materials would be useful. On the other... It kind of feels like cheating, doesn't it? ]

Elemental weapons! That's pretty neat. I hope we won't need anything like that here, but it's good information to have.

[Once in the woods, she drummed a finger against a cheek.]

Damn... that funny pie would be great right about now. But I don't think those whos want a star made of pinecones. Maybe if we find some big icicles, we can work from there.

You never know.

[ Ah, the forest. Much snow and trees. Luca glances over at her with a raised brow. ]

Good idea, but what's this about a pie?

I had a present given to me by the whos earlier, and it had a pumpkin pie of... magic? Let's say magic.

Whatever it was, it gave my dreamotion a big punch for a while. I should ask for their recipe.

[She turned her gaze higher. The trees didn't seem to have what she wanted, but maybe there'd be a cave somewhere that'd have the ice they wished. Unless...]

Hold on... you said lightning, right? Is that the only element, or do you think you could conjure others? I have an idea.

Huh... That was rather nice of them.

[ He wasn't expecting them to give pies and such. ]

I seem to specialize in electricity, I'm afraid... Though I had worked with dark energy during my time as an Aspect. Why do you ask?

I figured we'd cover our bases. My thought is maybe we'd shape some ice. With the right facets cut into it and a few lights, we'd have something unique for the top of the tree.

Without that, maybe we'll collect some icicles hanging off the trees or something that's been chilling away in a cave.

Right... And we'll need to ensure the ice doesn't melt too quickly. I know it's winter, but the heat from the bulbs might be an issue.

... And we may need to waterproof the lights just in case...

Waterproofing, that's right! It may be cold and dry tonight, but what if it warms a little? Then there's the risk of blowing everything out. I won't have these whos hurting themselves.

Perhaps if we ask Santa, wherever he happens to be, he can keep it very chilly for us? At least for a little longer? It's his ... town, I think, after all.

Saving Christmas

RNG says... 5! BOOYAH!

The RNG gods have smiled on us.

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Let's see.... star RNG is 4.

They did pretty good!

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