Krampuslauf
Happy Yuletide, everyone! This year’s Holiday comic comes courtesy of our latest Patreon Poll. Asked to pick which seasonal monster would do battle with our heroes, our Quest Givers settled on that lovable Christmas demon Krampus. (Better luck next year Wendigo, Demon Reindeer, and Mimic Santa’s Sack!)
As we all know, Krampus is the anti-Santa sent to punish all the evil-aligned kiddies of the world. Not content with passing out lumps of punitive coal, Krampus comes armed with birch branches for swift beatings, as well as a basket or sack designed for spiriting away naughty children. Presumably said children are then eaten, taken to Hell, or drowned. You know… all the usual Hallmark Channel holiday hijinks.
Of course, the most fun you can have with Krampus is pretending to be him. That’s where the Krampuslauf comes in. And if you’re anywhere near as American as this writer, you had to google it. A parade dedicated to dressing up as demons and drinking schnapps sounds like good fun to me, but you’ve got to admit that it might be too metal for mainstream audiences. Is it any wonder then that Magus hasn’t heard of it? I can only assume that our uncultured catgirl grew up watching White Christmas, Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, and Love Actually.
This all brings me to the larger point of today’s comic: when you’re confronted with the strange and new, take a moment to investigate before acting. We all know how important it is to identify monsters, but the same can be said for weird cultural traditions. For example, I could easily imagine gamers making some assumptions about a society where folks regularly cosplay fiends. Same deal with traditions that involve live sacrifice (the church is evil!), explosions (these people are crazy!), or simulated drowning (the church is evil again!). It’s possible to make any of these things into “gotcha moments” where players are set up to think that something nefarious is afoot. It’s equally possible to decide “my character overreacts” like Magus did in today’s comic, which is occasionally worth the lols. But more generally, I think it’s best to use cultural traditions as “part one” of an encounter rather than the whole thing.
For example, rather than simply throwing Krampuslauf at the party as a “look how interesting this setting detail is” element, you could insert the real Krampus into the festival. The heroes have been hired to track down the actual demon, which is trying to use the parade as camouflage for its child-napping habit. For the live sacrifice example, the church can be a recently-reformed cult. They used to sacrifice sentient creatures, but now only do animals. How will the party react when they realize that some evil-aligned druid has awakened the terrified creature en route to the chopping block?
So as an exercise in worldbuilding, what do you say we each put a twist on a holiday tradition? Pick a real world cultural practice, then figure out how to build an RPG plot around it. Will goblins steal the fireworks? Will aquatic doppelgangers replace the unsuspecting novices during baptism? Perhaps a well-meaning brass dragon is taking all the fun out of La Tomatina by dominating the tomato fight? Sound off with your twists on tradition down in the comments!
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One idea i like is bringing cupid to trial and justice for repeatedly shooting people with love arrows without their awareness. One thing my dm recently did was teleport us to the north pole and have us fight a greater nurgle demon posing as a santa-esque character planning to give the gift of disease to all the worlds boys and girls in our warhammer themed world.
How do you catch Cupid to put him on trial? Is there some sort of summoning circle action?
I never said i thought the idea through much:).
I must say, Magus looks quite fine in her outfit; she clearly puts quite a bit of effort into character descriptions. Inquisitor also looks nice, and that broth(?) only adds to the look; what I initially assumed to be a healing broth may actually just be a fashion accessory.
Magus will take any and all opportunities to dress up like a Rockette.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/35/ce/df/35cedfef9ca32897f0221aca1dc80067.jpg
As for Inquisitor’s beverage, it seems to have a cinnamon stick in it. From it’s amber color, I’m guessing we’re looking at some spiced cider.
A druid awakening animals about to be killed… now that’s pure evil right there. As I DM, I find that quite a creative and dastardly scheme. As a player… I like to play good character, ones who give people second chances and believe in redemption. But every one of my characters I’ve ever played wouldn’t hesitate to throw that druid into the Demiplane of Extremely Painful Torture.
I know I’m the one that writes ’em, but I always get a kick out of these little creativity exercises. I found myself struggling for another example, landed on live sacrifice, and got a fun plot hook out of the other end of the prompt-machine. That’s always a good feel.
For real though, I might wind up using that plot at some point. The potential for saving and recruiting multiple sentient animals to the party, then leading them in a fight for liberation, sounds like a blast and a half.
Cruel entertainment: Awakening and then fighting a bull.
Imagine a bullfight, but when the bull gores its tormentors, it’s not an act of self-defense or instinct. It’s deliberate, violent revenge. It goads the fighters into a sense of safety, then tears into them in a bloody spectacle and sheds so much blood it ascends to demonhood of some description.
Now there’s several plot-hooks: The players might have been asked by the bull to aid them in its revenge, it might be a previous ally of theirs transmuted into an animal, or the players might be asked to aid a village haunted by a demonic threat, except the players might come to realize the demon isn’t the true evil here.
I recently ran a one-shot for my friend’s birthday, and since his birthday was close to Christmas, I ran a one-shot with some Christmas incorporations. It was centred around a very rich gnome adventurer, and his neogi friends. See, the neogi has ships, which can fly through the air at great speed. They also have mind-control abilities. So the premise was that the neogi were going to dominate the “Winter Elves” (halflings that genuinely believed themselves to be elves), and use them as slave labour, while the gnome used his vast fortune to purchase the raw materials. The gnome would then fly around the world in the neogi ship, the Open Slayer, and deliver the toys created by the enslaved “elves”.
I will have you know that “Open Slayer” got a groan out of me. Now people are looking at me all weird in the coffee shop. So thanks for that.
The most obvious one would be to take April Fools, and to have a fey portal open, with mischievous fey sneaking into the world. Faerie dragons, pixies and quicklings all have themes of pranking… but perhaps after April Fools ends, the portal closes, and the fey are trapped? It could be that the fey never realise that their merriment has ended, and someone must stop the trickery. Alternatively, the fey instead approach the adventurers for help; the portal was opened first by a great day of trickery, so perhaps the fey need aid in pulling of a town-wide prank great enough to open the gate and return home?
So like… The party needs to help them build up “prank energy” to open a planar gate? That’s not a bad comedy premise. The trick is giving the players the tools they need to help them invent their own pranks.
You’d need 1) suitable NPCs for pranking, 2) a set of props to help with the pranks, and 3) a system for adjudicating the success of a prank. I’m thinking 4e style skills challenges could be good for the third part, but it’s the first two that would make or break the session. Maybe you have dignitaries visiting, and you have to prank them just enough to open the portal without ruining diplomatic relations in the process.
I’ve often wondered about why people get buried, rather than cremated. I understand that some people wouldn’t want their relatives turned to ashes, but in a world of zombies and necromancers I think the majority of people wouldn’t put bodies in graveyards. The Day of the Dead is about remembering the deceased, which would be especially important once even the body is gone. I’m think a mix of necromancy (from the death theme) and mind (from remembrance). Maybe… mind flayer necromancer? And the bodies are cremated, so undead would be made of smoke and ash. A mind flayer is going to attempt to take in all of the memories, emotions, and feelings towards the deceased people, to create one greater smoke monster, an amalgamation of all the deceased, sustained by the memories of the living, driven only to slay the living.
I think your draft of “Coco” is too metal for Disney Pixar.
Related to this, necromancers should logically have no interest in ‘dinosaur bones’ which are technically just plaster casts or bone-shaped mineral deposits. Instead, only the most powerful necromancers can reanimate dinosaurs out of raw dust and soil.
For a moment, I was worried it was Gunslinger in the Krampus outfit, but then I remembered that he’s ginger. Also, Barbarian is going to throw a fit if Magus drips that little-helper-blood on her bouffant…
I should also compliment the authors on their excellent variant-outfit merchandising senses; ‘Holiday Magus, Festive-Colored Rapier Included’ and ‘Protective Aura of Cozy Sweater Inquisitor (see other side of packaging for bonus cinnamon tea recipe)’ will sell like hotcakes!
Was a character we know in the costume?
As I’ve said before, the most appropriate holiday encounter is for the party to get food from your setting’s “Not-China”, and catch a play of their exploits. At that point you go Ember Island Players on them, and have it be based on their exploits. Everyone switches around character sheets, and they recreate moments from their adventure but with their characters personalities completely screwed up.
I gave Laurel free reign on that one. She opted for “random townsperson.”
Come fine folk and listen to the tale I tell you of the people of the Wood. Can mortal minds understand the games of Farie? One might never truly grasp them, but the results of their twisted ways are still visible.
Every year, near the changing time between Winter and Spring, the Fae gather near a small hill. There they await… the Groundhog. Should it leave its hole and stay outside, then the Winter King must surrender rulership to the Spring Queen at the changing time. Yet should the Groundhog leave its home and then reenter, the Winter King shall rules for another 6 weeks!
I can see a number of plots here. First, the Groundhog is an awakened animal or perhaps a powerful spirit and every year it bargains with the two fae. The party needs to help sweeten the pot so the Greedy Groundhog veers one way or another.
The second plot in this case is a twist on the Groundhogs Day film; there are two fae, one of Spring and Winter, that are working to change the outcome. Should either be conscious and the Groundhog didn’t do what they wanted, the fae reset back to that morning and try to repeat. The party is able to remember for one reason or another (its the fae it doesn’t have to make sense) and must kill or knock out one of the two secret fae and let the Groundhog do its thing.
Lost my shit at “groundhog.” Good stuff.
If I ever get around to playing a Mouse Guard game, I think ima include a groundhog soothsayer.
Aw, it seems Magus’ rapier’s handguard no longer sports its ‘ball of yarn’ decor. Or I suppose she upgraded to a +X weapon in between.
As for traditions getting players into trouble… There is that thing the Church of Malar has. On the one hand, there is the High Hunt, where the faithful come together to hunt the most dangerous game ahem.
On the other hand, there is the Feast of the Stags, where they pledge to keep certain people or even an entire village fed through the harsh winters. So maybe investigate what exactly this particular hunting group is hunting before rolling for initiative. Especially seeing that lycanthrophes are among the more avid worshippers…
I think that’s the same rapier she’s always had. Am I misremembering some design element?
Churge of Malar: The kingdom’s #1 provider of ethically sourced long pig.
Well, it does look a bit different then in the Battle Trance comic.
coughtypocough
As for other real-life traditions mucking things up in fantasy-land, how about fireworks for Silvester (New Year’s Eve). The loud noises are supposed to scare off evil spirits. Possibly fey too. Imagine that’s exactly what it does, because the veil is thinner on that day.
On the other hand, all the nearby forest critters suffer panic attacks every. Damn. Time. The local Druid is not amused. So this year, things are going to be different. But Druid may still regret his decision when they come through from the other side…
Both the girls are looking cute as Heck this time around
What do you suppose Ranger is wearing this Yule?
A fine new buckskin cap
This comic leaves so many questions. Like what is Ranger adorned with this holiday season? Has she attempted to tame the raindeer? And what kind of beverage is Inquisitor holding?
Ranger goes home to visit her family every holiday season.
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/wild-child
I therefore assume she’s adorned with the blood of her prey.
As for Inquisitor’s beverage, it seems to have a cinnamon stick in it. From it’s amber color, I’m guessing we’re looking at some spiced cider.
Real life holiday/cultural practice: The Alka of Sinj.
It’s essentially a mixture of a jousting tournament and a game of darts – instead of two knights on horseback trying to stab each other with a lance, the jouster attempts to hit a very small metal ring with a bullseye, hanging high up above (such that you need a very long lance to even reach it.
As for how to RPG it… I’m a loss. Technically anything that would count in a normal fantasy skill-based competition works. A wizard might be using magic to cheat for one of the contestants. The local BBEG / black knight is in the tournament, and nobody can touch them as they’re not technically doing anything bad… For now. The horses are all horrifying monsters in disguise that eat people when left alone.
Well damn. That looks pretty cool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8895VO6oPE
I like this as a timing-based thing. If the evil knight has been magically conjured, the group’s Fighter-Man has to keep getting a bull’s eye every round to prolong the competition. Otherwise the evil knight wins the maguffin-prize. Meanwhile, the other PCs are searching desperately through the crowd, trying to pinpoint the magical anchor that allows the conjured knight to continue existing on this plane.
How about the Carnaval de Nice?
Two whole weeks of parades, costumes, and intense uncanny valley chariots leave a loooot of room for shenanigans. Let’s see…
-A cult has managed to infiltrate the officials in charge of the carnival. They’ve changed the parade routes, swapped the variety of flowers that are thrown everywhere, and incorporated subtle arcane symbols into the various chariots’ decoration ; all of this was done so that every artist and spectator becomes an unwitting participant in an elaborate and powerful summoning ritual for whatever bad guy this cult worships.
-A simple one : a group of outlaws are using the general hustle and bustle as well as the high concentration of costumes to conduct one of the biggest smuggling operations ever seen, right under the nose of everyone.
-An evil mage animates the (frankly already creepy) chariots, that start causing havoc everywhere. This provides quite the distraction… but for what?
That’s all I can come up with on the fly, but there’s a lot of material here (either with that one carnival, or one of the other big ones, like Venice’s or Rio’s)
Battling animated parade floats sounds amazing and I love everything about it.
DM: „Roll Perception checks everyone!“
Rogue: „30isch“
DM: passes note to Rogue
Rogue: „say Wizard, the eyes on the piñatas in the shop look strangely like the beads on my Necklace of Fireballs…, them magick?“
That is the best idea for a gollum fight….
It deals crazy damage, but every time you hit it healing potions come flying out, lol.
Ok, here’s an idea of combining Easter and July 4th, with a sprinkling of Paradise Lost and Narnia.
Long ago, before the devils were devils, the celestials were as one. They ruled over a peaceful world until the demons invaded, and the celestials who would become the devils were on the front lines. They drove them back into the depths, but the constant exposure to evil began to corrupt them as well as they developed more and more extreme tactics to war against the demons. Asmodeus began to resent the heavens, and desired a kingship of his own. The celestials grew wary of Asmodeus’ ambitions, and soon war broke out between them, and with the forces divided the demons began to encroach. Finally the war was brought to an end by the sacrifice of a powerful solar which sacrificed itself to close off the major portal to the Abyss and separated the Hells from the Heavens. Asmodeus channels some of the power from that explosion to cause a powerful volcano to erupt, wiping out hordes of demons and forging the landscape of the Hells. Asmodeus was also content with this, deciding it better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven.
For the good people (or at least good churches), this event is known for when the heavens sacrificed to save the realms, and is not-Easter. The tomb of that solar is still a holy site, the subject of annual pilgrimages. Further, one person a year can be resurrected by the power of the tomb. Meanwhile, the evil-churches celebrate this as not-4th of July, complete with fireworks to commemorate the volcanic eruption. Neutral and non-religious folks tend to just celebrate whichever is regionally popular. Some even merge aspects of them together and celebrate both at the same time (casting not-4th of July as celebrating Independence for the Material Realm) which the good religions find a bit heretical but which is popular in more pluralistic societies. However, should someone who has sold their soul to a devil be the one resurrected at the solar’s tomb, that power flows into that devil, who you use the temporary power to reshape the borders of heaven, hell, and the material realm.
Right there you’ve got long held traditions that are changing and merging, people with strong opinions on them at odds, but most people just looking at them as nice festivals. You’ve got holidays familiar yet distinct, with easy campaign plot to build around it. The players visit a city that is more pluralistic, but has old guards on both sides who don’t like the two celebrations being merged into one. Most people see this as silly; they are celebrating the same event, and a lot of the specific celebratory elements are regionally specific. The plot could start out with, say, the body of a respected philanthropist being stolen, and the players charged with finding the body discreetly so as not to disturb the celebration. Turns out this man actually sold his soul to the devils, and this can springboard to the PCs finding out about this darker element. Further, turns out some (but not all) of the people supporting merging the festivals are secretly trying to get devil worshippers in influential positions to effect the resurrection candidate. The players now have to figure out how to stop this, who these people are, what to do with the conservative old guard and the people who see this as a way to bring cultures together, all that fun stuff. You could even end it with a holiday war as the solar tomb is taken over by the devil-worshippers and defended by fireworks canons as they try to hold out until the festive day.
I like that this one does more than pay lip service to cultural traditions. You’re considering the flow of history that shapes these things, and that’s exactly how you make a lived-in world. Good show with the lore!
Omg, holiday Magus is adorable. Dangerous and influential even. ;p
Barbarian’s salon does a booming trade in Yule Buns.
Que tal si para el cumple de quince le hacen una fiesta y la transforman en un vampiro? Oh, wait, tacit subject doesn’t exist on English. Lets go back a little. Here in my country, and many other of the region were i live, when a girl gets fifty years old his parents make her the “Quinceañera” party. Dance, food, family and the center of attention, the birthday girl. Now what if the girl is from a family of vampires? She is mortal, from the mortal side of the family. But when the mortal members of the family got to certain age, lets say fifty for teenagers girls and eighteen for boys, they join the immortal side of the family. The party job then is to protect the girl and take her to the party, the birthday one, also providing drinks for the enjoyment of the guests. Can the party survive the party? Or will the party left the party dry as ashes? 🙂
The party have to defend the birthday girl from Van Helsing et al? I love it a lot.
Is this for evil parties, or are the vamps sympathetic characters?
“Is this for evil parties, or are the vamps sympathetic characters?” See that? That are the parts i left for the DM to handle. A good party/evil vampires would be the standard thing. Now a good party/ good vampires has interesting implications. The vampires can be good, they embrace members of their family but don’t drink blood from the innocent, they may pay the party and left them go, or even invite them to the celebration. But then, what would happen when the LG Paladin sees a bunch of vampires and decrees their culture and traditions as evil because that is what his own moral codes dictates and thereof each being must observe? That is a more interesting scenario 🙂
As for the Van Helsing… if you wanna use that, go ahead and be happy. Instead i would use one of the girl’s friends who is initiating in the family business of killing vampires and her first job is her friend. Or make her the girl boyfriend to have a Montesco/Capulleto thing 🙂
Also is good to consider the cultures itself. The quinceañera party is common down here, not in the US, or at least not that much in the main population. That means that in the US a group of players may not know of the twist happy-birthday-and-coming-of-age/ritual-of-embrace. The same with the Krampus. I am from European families so i know the legend. Still most people will not know of it. Christmas, or Navidad down here, is mainly religion and family. We got Santa Claus, Papa Noel, but we don’t have a Christmas spirit to speak of. The cultural differences can make people miss a thing or two, but can also enable to surprise them with something complete unknown. Unknown situation, unknown monster can be a good change 🙂
I’m getting a very Buffy the Vampire Slayer vibe from this whole setup. I suspect that Monster Hearts might be the right system.
That wouldn’t be a bad idea. At least if you go more for the family ties and left the escorting party as secondary character, or not. They could also be a gang of teens making money and getting involved in the whole thing. Bonus points if one of the player use the Serpentine and bring their own family to the mix 🙂
How funny when you speak your mind and end up giving someone else a good idea. Glad you like it 😀
The very first 5th edition game I ran involved a large ogre in a red coat kidnapping elves and forcing them to make things for him. He got around on a sleigh pulled by reindeer and lived in the frozen north. The party ended up trying to break in through the stable of all things, and the barbarian got caught up in a brawl with the deeply unhappy reindeer while the rest of the party snuck through the main building looking for Santug the ogre.
Subtle as Oinkbane, lol.
…
And on the off chance you’re not famliar: https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Oinkbane
TOO SUBTLE FOR YOU
No Santa hat for Inquisitor? I’ve never played any edition that involves inquisitors, but from what little I’ve heard, hats are supposed to be VERY IMPORTANT.
I keep yelling at Laurel about this… I shall yell at her some more.
Kobolds are stealing all the eggs. Also the Easter Bunny itself!
Also, the Easter Bunny is a jabberwock.
The eggs are a powerful drug.
The PCs have to traverse a trippy nonsense dungeon created from the projected opium dreams of the kobolds. Alice in Wonderland dungeon + psycho-traps!
People keep throwing themselves into a frozen pond in the middle of winter. Suspicion of some sort of underwater creature that’s mind-controlling people. Can you convince the players to join the Polar Bear group and search under the frozen lake?
Mardis Gras parade! Players are roped into helping on one of the floats, where they are forced to throw money away into the crowd! Mental trauma ensues (especially for Rogue). Maybe people will accept some fancy beads instead?
An entire caravan train is slowly winding its way all the way down the coast, made up of wagons that are garishly decorated. There’s rumors of things getting ugly in Waterdeep, and now they’re heading to Baldur’s Gate. The party must guard the citizens from the fiendish cabal that is Cruisin the Sword Coast, searching for sacrifices to their dark (though stylish) god.
The Rites of Spring are celebrated by many. Perhaps too many. While we have Easter in the real world, what is it like in a world with dozens of gods? Conflicts over who gets to use the ritual circle each day. Kidnapped animal companions and raided chicken coops. An unexpected eclipse causing at least three cults to declare the End of Days.
After finally fighting off the attempts by an evil cult to summon their god, an agreement was finally reached wherein they would be allowed to hold a ritual celebration that would grant that god power, in exchange for the promise that he would never again attempt to enter the world. Spring is too overcrowded, though, so let’s do it during the fall. (Screw wearing heavy costumes in the middle of summer.) A few other cults realized they could benefit from a similar deal, and even a few of the light gods were tempted. This led to a mishmash of costume-wearing cultists doing whatever they could to encourage others to participate and raise the amount of power gained for each one’s particular deity. Then the party arrives, seeing demons and witches and other strange things wandering the streets, begging for treats with subtle threats.
Halloween addendum: And then the party has to spread the tradition, because the agreement only holds within a certain distances of any city that holds the holiday. Which is how they saved a town out in the frozen wastes that was being threatened by just such an incursion (even if they could only get a few children to go along with the idea). The cultists are still confused about why their dark lord suddenly told them, “No.”, right on the verge of their success.
That Halloween idea cracks my shit up. You keep the “Krampus in disguise” hiinks I was referencing in the OP, but you make it a whole arc.
Get to town and observe the ritual.
Realize that monsters are mixed in.
Police the festival if things turn nasty.
Spread the festival to nearby towns.
Open one a chain of season halloween costume shops in local strip malls.
Defend business from rival cults.
So I’m unfamiliar with how Inquisitors work. They’re basically like 4E avengers right? Kind of a Monk/Cleric/Paladin mix leaning heavily on Monk?
If so, should Quiz be healing that guy?
Inquisitor is to cleric as bard is to wizard.
6 level spontaneous casting, crazy knowledge skill bonuses, 6+Int skill points per level.
Rather than buffing the party, the inquisitor can use Judgement to apply various bonuses to themselves, give any weapon they hold the bane special ability for several rounds per day, and use teamwork feats even if their allies don’t possess those feats.
How about buzzkill inevitables and devils that show up, declare the place under martial law, and start searching people and houses for contraband to suppress Bicycle Day and 420
Meanwhile, one of the party betrays you. They were a narc all along!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLoKtb4c4W0
Saboteurs have jammed the machinery of the celestial spheres, making it impossible for the world to progress into a new year until the problem is rectified
Modrons! Incompetent modrons for days!