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This is going to be a bit different than a usual campaign diary. This is a summary of the adventure that I ran for my mom for Christmas. This update is a bit on the longer side because what was intended to be a one-night one-shot ended up lasting three days. Rather than three updates, I’m just making it one. Please enjoy.

Also: I got the initial idea of this from the holiday one-shot “Not a Creature Was Stirring” by Jon Witt on DM’s Guild. Although I substantially reworked basically everything, from the encounters to the story, I wanted to give a shoutout and encourage you to check it out and buy a copy as it’s a great adventure on its own right.

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This holiday adventure takes place in the far north of the continent of Tandaree on the border of the human kingdoms of Ruserval and Farasi. In the small logging town of Ambershandy, it was the night before the Winter Solstice, known by followers of Pelor the Dawnfather and Rao the Mediator as Breadgiving Day. This is a special time of year when citizens gather together to spread warmth and love.

Soon, everyone would gather in the center of town to celebrate. Those in need would be placed at the front of the line and treated to good food, warm drinks, and much needed cheer. Clothing would be distributed, as would toys for the children. Hymns and festive songs would be sung, and enough ale would be consumed to drown a stable of horses. Everyone would go to bed rosy cheeked and smiling, warmth in their hearts shielding them from the longest, coldest night of the year.

Even so, small pockets of celebration had begun springing up throughout the town. The Ambershandy Loggers were already fairly deep in their cups, and the tavern district clamored with the sounds of their revelry.

Inside the Trembling Timber, a number of loggers gathered after their last shift before the holiday to unwind before they headed home. At a table in the far back, Janet “The Phantom” Ortholis sat at a table with her co-workers, all nursing cups of ale and playing card games. Eventually, everyone decided to head home. On the way out, however, Janet ran into a small person wrapped in a dark brown cloak. After a moment, she recognized her as a goblin named Flora Shortbottom, one of her old friends and part of her former adventuring party.

After retiring from the military, Janet wasn’t sure how to re-enter civilian life. She eventually stumbled into adventuring with a group of like-minded people: Flora, the goblin druid; Dralvis, the dragonborn bard; Tracy, the half-elf alchemist; and Malcolm, the human paladin.

On one of their adventures, the owner of a mining company asked them to investigate why workers had begun disappearing in the mines. They soon found a connection from the mines to ancient tunnels underneath the city, filled with dark, evil things.

The experience seemed to affect Malcolm the most. Normally outspoken and charming, he became withdrawn and quiet. No one expected him to suddenly turned on the party and kill Tracy. They pursued him, but he disappeared into the twisting tunnels of the Underdark. After that, Janet retired, eventually settling in Ambershandy for a quieter, simpler life.

Flora revealed that she and Dravis were traveling together, believing they’d tracked Malcolm to this village. Suddenly icy wind whirled around them, and when the snow cleared, they found themselves face to face with three large toy soldiers. As Janet approached them to investigate, runes on their foreheads glowed and they attacked.

Meanwhile, Dravis found himself following a dark figure carrying a large sack into a house down the street. Sneaking inside, he was struck first by the festive decorations, then by the huge toy soldier tucked into the corner. As he moved closer to examine, runes on its forehead glowed and Dravis was attacked by it and a plate of gingerbread men.

Once the toys were defeated, the three adventurers investigated these strange toys and found all had gift tags attached that said, “To the undeserving. From Ms. Thorpe.” It was only moments later, a swirl of cold air and the smell of hot cocoa filled their senses, and they suddenly found presents at their feet with a note: “Looks like you could use some help. From: Sinter Klaus.”

They combed the town for information about Ms. Thorpe, eventually learning she used to live in the area but moved off to a cabin in the woods by herself. Since moving, whenever she’d been seen, she ranted to herself about “The Winter Queen.” They also learned that a lot of people were going missing in the past few months — children, elderly, and able-bodied alike.

The three adventurers decided to go to Ms. Thorpe’s cabin to investigate further. The climb through the mountains was tough, and the closer they grew to her cabin, the harsher the weather seemed to become. They found themselves not only battling the weather but the very trees themselves.

Just when it seemed all was lost, they finally arrived at Ms. Thorpe’s cabin. Inside it was only slightly less cold than outside, but was at least out of the direct wind. Seemingly empty for now, the cabin’s decoration was sparse and rustic. The only semi-ornamental piece of decoration was a tarnished silver picture frame containing a picture done by a child with two figures labeled “Mommy” and “Me.”

In Ms. Thorpe’s room, they found a desk with a diary on it with dates ranging two years back. In the early entries, Ms. Thorpe wrote of she and her daughter Nayla moving to the cabin, leaving behind a man named Renard. She called the move an opportunity to start over. However, later entries discussed how hard it was to get supplies. Most of the townsfolk wouldn’t associate with her, and most refused her service. There were also a few longing entries about how she could see Renard’s house from her cabin, and she often watched him and “That Woman” for extended periods of time.

There was one entry written on warped, stained pages where the handwriting became haphazard and jagged. It mentioned a sledding accident. No further entries mentioned her daughter.

From then on, the handwriting became erratic. She mentioned dreams and whispered voices on the wind. Someone she called “The Fallen One” came to her and told her where to dig to free the rightful queen of the north, Queen Mab, the Winter Queen. The diary ended with an entry dated two days prior:

“I knew this place would be my new beginning. Since I arrived here, I knew I was driven for a greater purpose. Ambershandy may turned its back on me—Renard may have turned his back on me—but now I know that I am beloved. And soon I will be powerful.

With the Fallen One’s guidance, I’ve freed Queen Mab. It took so much digging, and I could feel myself changing, becoming more powerful. I couldn’t prepare myself for how wonderful I would feel once she was freed. She was so beautiful. So tall. So fearsome. Wreathed in ice and snow.

She bestowed me with such power! She’s granted me abilities so that I can help her achieve her goals—and then my own as well.

The Seelie Court has tried to interfere, Sinter Klaus in particular, but he hasn’t been able to stop us. The Fallen One has made sure of that. The Winter Queen has assured me that soon we can exact our revenge on this town. Praise Queen Mab.”

Heading into the Ms. Thorpe’s cellar, they found her speaking to a ghostly figure that vanished as they entered. Then Ms. Thorpe turned to face them, a gaunt creature standing nearly 7 feet tall. Horns twist from her head, her legs now transformed into muscular animal hindquarters.

She used her magic to animate toys and objects and summon icy demons, but eventually, the party was able to defeat her. As she collapsed, her body transformed back normal, the animalistic transformation ended. In spite of her violent end, she actually looked peaceful in death, finally finding the rest she couldn’t in life.

The party didn’t have long to rest, however, as suddenly a burst of glacial wind chilled them to the bone and Queen Mab appeared. She hovered in the air, her navy, silver-trimmed gown flowing in the supernatural wind. Two black ram’s horns twisted out of the sides of her head. She smirked and prepared to strike the group when suddenly Sinter Klaus appeared and fended off her attack.

Sinter Klaus had everyone expend spell energy into Janet’s sword, which began to glow and hum. Then he rushed Queen Mab, distracting her long enough for Janet to strike at her with her magically charged blade. The blade cut deep, and Mab let out a howl as she was banished back to the Feywild.

The party decided to take Ms. Thorpe’s body back into town to have her laid to rest. They explained what they found to the sheriff of the village, who thanked them and gave them what gold he could spare as a reward. Everyone returned to their beds to rest after such an ordeal.

In the night, however, they were each attacked by zombies. They made quick work of them and reconvened outside of the inn. It was Flora and Dravis’s fear: Malcolm was here.

In the center of town, Malcolm waited for them with several undead soldiers standing at attention, prepared to strike. He also had an undead lieutenant, a woman wearing a tattered, dirt-stained lab coat, and carrying a staff. To everyone’s horror, they recognized this creature as Tracy, the alchemist and their late friend, reanimated and with hatred burning in her milky white eyes.

The battle was intense, but once they were finally able to defeat Tracy and Malcolm, the rest of the undead dropped lifeless to the ground. Suddenly, they heard a sickening cracking and popping sound and watched as Malcolm’s skull broke open, his brain wriggling free and sprinting away. Flora sent a flurry of lightning blasts, but it wasn’t enough to stop the creature. It looked like it might get away when Janet made one desperate, but well-placed shot with an arrow, killing it mid-stride.

With the great mystery of what befell their old friends all those years ago finally solved, the trio decided to return to town and honor the memories of their friends through the festivities of a Breadgiving Day they almost hadn’t lived to see.

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So as I mentioned up top, the original idea for this came from a level one adventure I found on DM’s Guild. As I read though it, however, there were certain things I really wanted: 1) I wanted to set it in my D&D setting, 2) I wanted my family’s D&D characters to have all known each other, and 3) I wanted an explanation of HOW they all knew each other.

Much like how I structured my first session with my original D&D group, I wanted to give my mom a bit of an intro to get used to playing D&D since she never had before. I decided that her character was retired, and that Stephanie and Brandon’s characters were coming into town to see her. But once I came up with that, I needed to answer why they were in town.

The idea that Janet retired because of an adventure gone sour made sense — not all adventurers would keep going on into their 20th level. From there, it all started falling into place — they were betrayed. Who would be the most shocking to be betrayed by? A paladin of Pelor. He killed another of their members. From there, I started researching the Oathbreaker paladin abilities in 5e.

Ms. Thorpe was a rejiggering of the antagonist from the adventure, but I wanted to give her a reason for being evil. Why would she be living in a cabin on a mountain away from everyone? And what would drive her to become evil? That dovetailed with looking into Santa Claus and finding that in some book series, he actually served on the Seelie Court. That is a thing in D&D, as is the Unseelie Court, so then it became easy to piece all of that together.

But then, once that was over, it felt wasteful to introduce all of this stuff about their old party and not follow up on it, so then I decided that the adventure would really end with them confronting their old paladin friend. But I couldn’t come up with an idea of why he would’ve turned on them so suddenly. I did some research into mind-controlling D&D monsters and came across the Intellect Devourer. I’d seen it used briefly in the early episodes of campaign 1 of Critical Role, and after reading into it, it was perfect for what I needed. And how much more of a fuck you can you get than resurrecting the very teammate you killed to have her fight her former teammates.

It went really really well. My mom had a blast, which made me so happy, and I think Brandon realized he enjoyed playing D&D outside of Shump — he had a lot of fun with his College of Swords bard.

Unfortunately, my old group confirmed for me that they no longer want to play. Stephanie and Brandon still want to continue, and I still want to continue their story, so now I’m trying to figure out who else I might be able to convince to play in our group. We’ll see how that goes.

NEXT

(For the continuing adventures of Janet and her friends, see this post.)