Main Story Thread

After seeing the fellowship enters the cave, a gremlin hiding behind a rock makes a series of complex hand signals to a mouse sitting above the cave.

However, the mouse was sleeping quite soundly, dreaming of Christmas dreams. The gremlin grunts in annoyance, and throws a rock at the mouse. The mouse wakes up with a start, kicking the pile of snow lying above the entrance, activating the Magical Avalanche Trap. Tons upon tons of snow fell, and was barreling into the cave towards the fellowship, threatening to swallow them up.

Rudolph shouts with command.

"RUN!"

And so the fellowship ran.

As Lego-Lass and the Indiana Gnome topped a hill overlooking the entrance to the Warg cave, they heard a thunderous roar. Frozen by the unexpected sound, they saw Buddy and the Grinch come running out of the cave entrance and just as suddenly devoured by the avalanche. As the snow dust cleared, they could see a collection of rocks and the limbs of the hero's sticking out of the snow.

The Indiana Gnome sighed, "Oh my, it looks like they tried to out run an environmental trap in a cave... Did they forget that's my thing? " The Gnome looked at Lego-Lass with an 'Am-I-Right' expression. And he was confused by her less than approving stare.

"Anyway, he continued, we should get down there and dig them out before they stick that way"

Turning back towards the frozen disaster that had once been a party of Santa's Heros, they were again fixated by a strange new sound. It was as if there was a pitter-patter of many small boots. Wait, Pitter-Patter... Pitter-Patter my @-- , it was a cacophony of stomping, as if a freight train of jack boots sounding all slightly out of time was barreling down on them.

And then they saw it, Constable Frost's eyes nearly leapt from his head, Lego-lass let out a such a high pitched squeal that it conveniently served as the censors beep covering up what the Gnome said.

Only Toht smiled, that maddening smile that spreads across the hopeful face of all who seek Cthulhu just as they find him. Realizing that the doors are finally cracking and the end is nigh. I'm pretty sure he even pee'd a little.

Yes, the Santapede had appeared. The Sock puppets had described it accurately, only they were lucky. Had they possessed actual brain cells, they might have been discovered drooling and lost in the insanity that our remaining hero's were facing now.

This dozen Santa long monstrosity stomped its way into what remained of the clearing, circled the avalanche and stopped. The lead 'Santa' stood, (try not to visualize this) with the remaining 11 Santas 'head to butt' as the Socks had said.

A coarse crackle ripped from it's throat, "The man was right, he was, steal the bag, get foods. And look, foods we have. We will eat and eat until we've had so much it hurts. Then we will Split!!! And the man says more will come and we will eat again and again we will Split... There will be no end to us."

The Gnome was the first to recover, "We need to distract it. Frost, Toht, hide. Lego-Lass, shoot it with your bow and we'll lead it away. Hopefully the Constable can get the others freed before it returns."

"Or before we get re-labeled to 'foods'.. Lego-Lass quips as she draws and lets loose on the Santapede.

Lego-Lass's arrow is the perfect distraction ... too perfect actually as it immediately draws the Santapede's attention away from the buried Heroes and to her instead. The Santapede charges towards her as she tries to acrobatically dive out of its path!

This gives Sprungli the opportunity he needs to run to the snow pile to begin digging out fellow Heroes from the Avalanche Trap with his mighty pick-axe. Mining Heroes can't be too different to mining chocolate, right? Sprungli thinks as he digs as fast as he can.

Lego-Lass gasped at her 'success' at gaining the Santa-pede's attention. Diving back down the hill, she hoped to avoid the immediate repercussion of listening to that Gnome. Indiana Gnome was also astonished at the speed of the Santa-pede. However, years of underestimating his foes had sharpened his reflexes. As the Santa-peded's 'head' went screaming by in search of Lego-Lass, the Gnome's whip reached out and made an 'introduction' the Santa-pede was unable to ignore.

The Santa-pede skidded to a stop, turning to stare at the Gnome. Who immediately went running down the hillside.

Sprungli was already fast at work, it turns out, mining hero's is easier than mining chocolate. Something about not wanting to die in an avalanche makes them a little easier to mine. Constable Frost appeared suddenly and began to help Sprungli in pulling the hero's from the snow.

Just as the Indiana Gnome was regretting getting out of bed this morning, Lego-lass fired another arrow into the back of the Santa-pede's head. It did a double take, apparently not smart enough to deal with multiple enemies. Stunned for a second, it swiveled between the Gnome and the Lass.

Sprungli and Frost were making great headway in freeing the remaining hero's, but they weren't sure they'd make it before the Santa-pede refocused on them. However, there frantic efforts were momentarily frozen when they heard Toht's voice.

"Hello, wonderful creature. I am Toht, I believe in you. I believe creatures like you deserve to exist and thrive. What is it you desire? How can I help you?

The Santa-pede paused, confused or perhaps considerate of Toht's words. It stared at him, wondering if it was possible that someone actually cared about it's needs.

In the background, the hero's were being freed from the avalanche. Each striking their combat pose, they faced the Santa-pede - Unaware of the moral dilemma it was facing.

The Santapede shakes his head, as if dismissing a silly thought. It laughs a hearty laugh, a multitude of ho ho hos reverberating thoughout the length of its form. From the presence of muffled chortles emanating from within the Santapede, it seemed that all the Santas in the Santapede had mouths, as disturbing as that thought may be.

Without another word, it barreled towards the heroes like a train, twisting and turning with a practiced fluidity. It side swiped Toht, swinging all of its left arms at him. Toht valiantly deflected the first few blows with the extensive combat prowess he had, but alas, most anyone would struggle against a barrage of 12 left hands. Cracks could be hurt as the blows landed on his body, and Toht gasps for breath.

The Santapede moves on to its next target, leaping at Indiana Gnome like a 4th dimensional spring.

Unfortunately, Indy's move did not go as planned. The dreaded Santa-pede trampled the gnome before he could get out the way leaving nothing but boot prints on a pile of snow, Indiana buried somewhere beneath. The Santa-pede then turned and circled the freed but exhausted fellowship, slowly marching a tighter and tighter radius. The prospects looked grim ...

... when in the distance the sound of jazzy, R&B, soul-filled christmas music approached. The Santa-pede looked up in surprise. Over the snowy hill charged reinforcements, the entire cast of Will Vinton's A Claymation's Christmas Celebration! Balthazar, Caspar and Melchior charged into the valley on their snazzy camels. Quasimodo and his battlion of bellmen, hammers raised, were only a few steps behind. His sling shot raining down hail stones upon the beast. Two thanoi and their squadron of penguins swooped in on one flank while the other was attacked by none other the California Raisins. Finally, the Christmas Dinosaurs, Rex and Herb, finished the job, storming into melee to tear the Stana-pede segment from segment.

When it was all over, injured heroes lay everywhere and it became clear that the segments of the Santa-pede were kidnapped mall santas, now writhing in the snow dealing with their trama and injuries. Winter Willow, Santa's Village's healer, cast a mass healing spell to ease everyone's pain until she could brew the biggests batch of her hot chocolate elixir that she had ever done.

The wind rose in the valley, blowing snow to and fro. At the top of one pile of snow, the wind revealed the hints of a buried fedora. Catching Constable Frost's eye, he started to walk over to it, but heard a sudden crack. High in the cliffs above a giant chunk of ice fell, hitting the side of the snowy mountain and rolling towards the half-buried hat. The police snowman froze in shock as he realized he was too far away to help. The chunk of ice rolled down the mountain, gathering speed and snow as it became a massive crushing ball. At the last moment, an icy gnome hand burst through the snow to grab the hat and then the body it was attached to rolled to the side just before the enormous snowball rolled over. Indiana Gnome stood up, placed his fedora on his head and brushed the snow from his cloths as he made his way over to the heroes encampment just in time for a warm cup of coco.

Once everyone had a cup or two, the hot chocolate's magical powers soothed and revitalized all. The recovered mall santas even asked to join the fellowship as they continued their quest. The heroes headed down into the Den of Wargs to look for the Warlock who had stolen Santa's Sack of Holding ...

... but that is a story for another year.

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-Apr. 13, 2022

HAPPY EASTER EGG HUNT EVERYONE!!!