How the Lich Stole Christmas

A 20th Level Holiday Event One-Shot RPG ran by Dungeon Master Travis

As a high-ranking adventurer, there’s nothing you’ve been looking forward to more than the chance to unwind with your community and make the most out of the holiday season! Unfortunately, that mean old Lich Dresden that lives in the tower outside of town has other plans in store while you all slumber in bed…

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How the Lich Stole Christmas is a homebrewed holiday 5e campaign created by DMDave and Rick Hershey, and ran by DM Travis. You can support the original creators by clicking here to visit their Patreon.

This game will be a one-shot holiday roleplaying game. Anticipate 3-4 hours of gameplay.

Admission:

$20 (players will receive a merry holiday RPG keepsake with their admission!)

Admission may be paid in advance or at the register the day of the game.

Space is limited. To reserve your seat, please use the form near the top of the page. Spots will be filled first-come-first-serve. If you would like to have you or extended parts of your party placed on a wait-list for a filled game, please use the contact us form. There is no fee to register. Please let us know asap if you need to cancel so that we may free up the slot for another player.

Hardship admission: in the spirit of the season, if anyone would like to join us for a game but are unable to afford the admission price, we will wave it. Please let us know at the register!

Additional Info:

For any player who’d like more information or a guiding hand, or want to avoid potentially offensive/upsetting subject matter and desire going over community gaming safety tools with their game’s Dungeon Master prior to playing, we recommend either arriving early to the game, or reaching out and contacting the DM. You may contact us and we can facilitate connecting you with the DM, or all DMs may be reached directly on our Discord channel (let us know who/what game you’re looking for, and we’ll help you from there if they don’t contact you first).

Want to play but are afraid of/have scheduling conflicts? Let us know! Often games are flexible with time or date changes, or new games can be made with enough interest. We can even video-call/Discord players into the game if they are running late until they are able to make it. The more feedback for scheduling we get, the better our current and future games can get at meeting those times.

– – –

Every adventurer down in Ostenwold liked Christmas a lot.
But the Lich who lived just east of Ostenwold did not!

Dresden the Lich hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season!
Now, please don’t ask why. No one quite knows the reason.

It could be, perhaps, that his phylactery was too old.
It could be that his brown molds weren’t that cold.

But I think that the most likely reason of all
May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.

But, whatever the reason, his phylactery or mold
He stood there on Christmas Eve, hating folks from Ostenwold.

Staring down from his tower with a sour, skeletal frown
At the warm lighted windows below in their town,

For he knew every adventurer down in Ostenwold beneath
Was busy counting all their loot and XP.

“And they’re hanging their shields,” he snarled with a sneer.
“Tomorrow is Christmas! It’s practically here!”

Then he growled, with his bony fingers nervously drumming,
“I must find some way to keep Christmas from coming!

For tomorrow, I know, all the Ostenwold fighters and clerics
Will wake bright and early to their bards’ obnoxious lyrics.

And then! Oh, the noise! Oh, the noise! Noise! Noise! Noise!
There’s one thing I hate! All the NOISE! NOISE! NOISE! NOISE!

They’ll stand close together, with Christmas bells crashing.
They’ll stand side-by-side, and those adventurers will start slashing!”

“And they’ll bash! And they’ll pierce! And they’ll STAB! STAB! STAB! STAB!!”
And the more the lich thought of the rogues’ sneak attacks,
The more the lich thought, “I must stop this whole thing from coming back!”

“Why for five hundred years I’ve put up with it now!
I must stop Christmas from coming! But how?”

Then he got an idea! An awful idea!
The lich got a wonderful, awful idea!

“I know just what to do!” The lich cackled in his throat.
“I’ll make a quick Santy Claus hat and a coat.”

That Christmas Eve, Dresden the Lich came down from his dark tower
To steal away Christmas, during the latest hours.

“This is stop number one,” the old Lichy Claus hissed,
As he climbed to the roof, empty bags-of-holding in his fist.

Then he slid down the chimney, a rather tight pinch.
But if Santa could do it, then so could the lich.

He got stuck only once, for a minute or two.
Then he cast etherealness and right into the wall he went through.

Where the little adventurers’ magic weapons hung all in a row.
“These magic items,” he grinned, “are the first things to go!”

Then he slithered and slunk, with a smile most obscene,
Around the whole room, and he took everything!

It was quarter of dawn. All the adventurers still a-bed,
All the heroes still a-snooze, when he packed up his sled.

Packed it up with their plate mail, and shields, and bows
Their lutes and their axes, their trinkets and ten-foot-poles!

Then a planar portal, Dresden opened up
Into the Astral Plane, all the adventurers’ stuff he would chuck!

“Pooh-pooh to the heroes!” he was evilly humming.
“They’re finding out now that no Christmas is coming!”