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Kirito     SITUATION RECAP:
    A few days ago, Rudolph (quest NPC) tracked down Staren and offered a special, by all accounts completely unique quest to SAVE CHRISTMAS. Or, rather, the quest is 'travel to Nicholas' home and purge it of a curse to free him of his madness.' Details? Completely unknown.

    The situation calls for a FULL RAID however - 49 people. Meaning... it's gonna be pretty big. Bigger than a handful of Elite players can manage? Quite possibly.

    So word was spread to a few other trusted associates and long-time acquaintances. Alicia Rue of the Cait Siths, Sakuya of the Sylphs, Eugene of the Salamanders. Numbers? Oh this group has numbers alright. There's easily between twenty and thirty well-geared players of those races as part of their leaderly entourage present to make up whatever's needed.

    "If it's an event like this? I can't wait to see what kind of materials we'll nab!" States a pink-haired Leprechaun girl, Lisbeth. She's grinning.
    Somewhat worryingly, a shorter Cait Sith might be thinking based on her nervous, frequent glances. A blue-feathered tiny dragon's flying around her head. "Geeze, Lisbeth! Don't forget we're here to save Christmas." Silica. The little dragon echoes her opinion with an emphatic *CHIRP-SKREEK!* "... See? Pina thinks so too!"
    "Brooother! Are we really riding with a reindeer for this quest? I'm all excited!" Exclaims a blonde Sylph. Character name? Leafa!
    The black-clad Spriggan next to her, Kirito, exclaims exasperatedly as they all walk through the woods to the meeting spot, "Do you still not believe that Rudolph showed up at the Log House, Sugu?"
    A salamander garbed in vaguely Samurai-style gear and armed with a katana points out, "But you know, Kirito, this quest... isn't it... didn't you..." Klein seems to be having trouble getting out what he wants to say.
    Kirito doesn't respond. ". . ." His lips press together quietly.
    This prompts a rather large dark-skinned Gnome who towers over the others by at least a foot at a glance to say, "That was then. This is now. We'll settle this once and for all." Agil.

    Well, enough about what those guys are up to.

    Everyone's been instructed to party up as they best can and meet up at the edge of an evergreen forest in Sylph territory.

    Once everyone is gathered at the spot and partied up, a campfire's constructed out of the special logs - 'Signal Yule Logs' is their item name - Staren was given. Strange motes of light and oddly colored smoke floats into the air...

    And in almost NO TIME AT ALL, a very special reindeer indeed descends from the heavens, through the trees, over everyone's heads... and skids to a landing near the fire. "You guys really did come!" He exclaims, a little reverently. He's definitely feeling indebted here.
Iria     It's Christmas Time, or the holiday season if you prefer. For one young bounty hunter named Iria, it's a unique type of Christmas for her. Recently she'd racked up some extra money by bringing in several bounties close together, allowing her to have a little extra money for presents and things like that. Meaning she's been a bit more cheerful than usual. Those who know her well will think there's something up with her, but hey, things happen, right? It's holiday magic time!

    So when a young female Sylph appears in the spot, those who recognize her might be surprised to see she's actually smiling a little as opposed to the usually grumpy expression on her face. She strides over to where the others are gathering and nods a little at the campfire. "Cool design," She comments, smirking a little. Then the reindeer comes in, and Iria turns to greet him. Usually she'd be rather cranky and sarcastic, but today, given how her fortune has been, she smiles a little. "Yep, we sure did come!"
Staren Moments ago:

    A wyvern lands at the meeting place, on its back are two Cait Sith and one Undine. One is Staren -- the other Cait Sith is a brown-haired young woman in front holding the Wyvern's reins, dressed in robes with pockets and a crossbow slung over her back, and the Undine is a young man with long blue hair, wearing what might look like a normal townsfolk's outfit if he weren't wearing a wizard hat and cape with it and holding a staff.

    "Leafa, long time no see, good to see you again!" Staren waves after dismounting, and gives similar greetings to the other SAO survivors. Then: "Alicia, Eugene, glad you could make it." Staren nods to them, and the cait sith woman unsummons her wyvern once they're all off. Staren talks to the two that came with him quietly, apparently pointing out and naming people or something as they look and nod.

    And soon enough, the party is gathered and the campfire set.

    Staren looks around expectantly, and gasps in mild surprise as Rudolph comes out of the /sky/ -- then he mentally facepalms, since of /course/ he can fly, he's one of Santa's reindeer.

    Then he smiles. "Of /course/ we came! After finally seeing you again and getting the chance to save your friends... we couldn't leave you hanging!"
Na`Sabal-Une Fang      There is a cheater in the midsts of the party, Na`Sabal-Une Fang has appeared in the world of ALO. Having taken the warning seriously though, Nasa... has opted to come in /in disguise/. She is... a special NPC! Currently, Nasa is in her 'Tiny' mode, standing at just 3 inches tall, she has come in guise of a Navigation Pixie. A very... unique navigation pixie. Possibly a /private pixie/ that has not yet been documented!

     In this battle, she has decided that she's going to be a bit of a support character, flying around, scouting things out... and with several bandoliers of the in-game potions. While presently they're tiny, they're normal potions that shrunk with her when she entered her tiny form. Really, she's probably going to be doing stuff completely out of the ordinary, but she already had the story that she was a one-of-a-kind Nav faerie. Because really, it was true.

     Because she was the cheater faerie. Anyway, at present, she hasn't seemed to actually be linked to anyone though, just kind of hovering around above the group of people quietly, leaving a trail of pixie dust in her wake, because she is a pixie, and that's what pixies do, right?
Yuna Kagurazaka While Kagura missed out on the initial quest drop, now that the main holiday is over and she can relax some more, you better believe that the Puca is here. She comes in by air, having taken the time to re-familiarize herself with direct flight control, and alights not too far from the campifire, a bit behind Rudolph's own arrival. "Merry Christmas, everybody! Hopefully I'm not too late ... and you're Rudolph?" she asks the unfamiliar-yet-distinctive reindeer.

She bows formally to Rudolph. "I'm Kagura the Puca, a friend of Kirito and Staren, and a member of their guild. I wish we were meeting under better circumstances, of course, but ... well. Since I missed previous information, anything I need to know besides 'we're trying to save Nicolas'? Like 'how do we do that' .. ?"

She turns to wave to Kirito and Staren and all of the others. If answers come from them rather than from the NPC, she won't ignore them - but she's got an ear perked at Rudolph while she's looking away from him.
Auron     With most of the situations that needed dealt with... well, dealt with, there hasn't been much call for Auron to visit ALO on business. So for the most part he's just been enjoying himself there. Having fun is a noble pusuit indeed, that he's allowing himself to is even better. For him, anyway.

    But yes. As the requisite logs are being burned, and Auron (as a Cait Sith, of course), crouches with his own party, a handful of Alicia's Cait Sith. They've obviously tried to stick to traditional MMO roles as much as possible with the party, as the muscular white-haired Cait Sith (that would be Auron; he looks NOTHING like he does in real life) has a pair of large claws with attached bracers that look like they could stand up to several assaults. With him is a smaller player with a pair of daggers, and another player with a staff.

    Rudolph appears, and Auron looks to the other two Cait Sith and inclines his head. His party thus alerted, Auron turns to the quest NPC and listens. He's not sure what's going on either, but that's why he hasn't said anything. The more he listens, the more he can figure out.
Yuuki Konno     It probably took a bit of convincing to get Yuuki to concede to join a full raid, and not simply take off to attempt the quest just with the Sleeping Knights! She's more than willing to help out though, since this group helped her and her friends achieve their own special objective and also since she doesn't have a Rudolph-summoning device. The Knights aren't glory hounds. They LIKE fighting and accomplishing things no one thinks possible of course, but they're social and open to helping out, particularly in a case where it could be considered payback.

    The Knights make up their own raid party, though there's room for one more to round the group up to the maximum 7. They're pretty diverse, covering several races and the tanking, DPS, and apparently caster classes fairly thoroughly judging by their gear. They fly in, all using voluntary flight, and set down together off to one side of the summoning fire.

    "Merry Christmas, Kagura!" Yuuki greets cheerily, stepping out from around the massive bulk of Tecchi the Gnome. "And hi Staren and Kirito, and everybody!" she adds, grinning enthusiastically. "Quite a raid group! Are we going to try level 100?" the Spriggan woman Nori asks playfully.
Asuna      Asuna is never late, you all simply started the quest early!

     There's a flutter of wings up in the air, blue wings, strangely enough. Asuna sails over everyone's heads, throwing herself into a well-navigated backflip as she lands, humming merrily as she goes. Anyone that knows their carols can recognize her as deep in the second verse of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.

     Arranging herself next to Kirito, she crosses her arms, before looking away with a sigh, before rescuing Yui to give her dearest daughter a hug. This is her Navigation Pixie now, Kirito. Her Navigation Pixie. She glances around at the group, then over at Kirito.

     "Kirito-kun..." She says, her voice soft. "You, Klein, me. We're really the only ones that know, but... this is part of your story, this is part of your heart. So... you might as well start talking." Blunt, but polite. Bless Asuna Yuuki.
Theo Morrison 'Theodotus,' the white-haired, grey-eyed Leprechaun avatar of Theo's, is already waiting at the designated position when everyone else starts to pile in. His typical quasi-mechanical not-quite-power armor looks freshly polished and maintained, and his enormous two-handed hammer -- vaguely resembling a jet engine, to match the style -- is planted head-first against the ground.

"Yo!" Theo raises a hand, waving as people start to show. "If you need last minute maintenance done, now's the time!" He /is/ kind of an absurd crafter. He probably has spreadsheets.
Annie Sandberg      "The Puca musician, Silverbloom, has arrived!" announces the little fairy, striking a pose with her staff as she comes within sight of the others, coming along with Yuna and possibly some other Pucas who'd been invited. She stows the staff and brings out her lyre as the others set up the logs- she plays a few Christmas carols to set the mood. Finally, Rudolph arrives, and she gives him a happy wave. "This is... a really big group!" she notes.
Tomoe Tomoe was ready to go for this she was geared up she'd got all the buff gear and situational tanking items she thought she might need as she comes in for a landing and makes ready t0 join up with the rest. She seems pretty chipper as she joins up with everyone else into the raid.

"Hey good to see all of you this is going to be a party in and of it self."

Still get gets to thining she only knows part of this story herself as she catches up with Asuna. She also gives Klein a look nodding to him a bit.

"Yes it's related to that I think..."
Kirito     "Ummm... oh! Staren, wasn't it? It's been a while!" Leafa affirms, though her attention's on the matter of hand.

    Yui's plucked out of the sky with a surprised little yop, but wraps her arms around her mama's... cheek! She's small. "Merry Christmas, mama!"

    Sakuya offers an elegant, confident smile to those who recognize her. Alicia Rue offers a cheerful wave! And Eugene's got his arms folded, smug and determined warrior smirk plastered all over his face.
R
    "I should warn you," Sakuya remarks in an attention-getting, sharp-tone of voice, "Word about this quest leaked to some of the players while we were organizing our forces. A few Guilds are redoubling their efforts to beat Nicholas the Renegade as we speak."

    "Quite the pickle this turned into, to be sure! Buuuuuut... we've got a team here that can't lose, don't we?" Alicia Rue offers a mischief-filled, catty look of confidence. Her ears twitch a few times for good measure! How is she doing that?

    "Why do I have to?" Kirito frowns. "Oh... we're not fighting Nicholas, thankfully. At least... I don't think he'll show up. Hope he won't. Yo, Yuuki!" He answers Yuuki's greetings with an enthusiastic smile.

    Rudolph has been asked, meanwhile! So the four-legged friend steps forward, nose faintly pulsing with red light. "Right. So. Thank you all again for coming. I've been able to find out some things while you were getting ready. So, I'll teleport everyone to my home in just a bit! Everyone's seen Nicholas and the chaos he's causing in Alfheim. It's all because of a curse! I escaped from it before it got too bad, but it has everyone else under its power. You fairies should be immune to the worst of it though. So... one of my friends is stuck there. He might've found the curse's source. It's in the caverns under the workshops. There's three crystals giving off evil power! But they're guarded. If you can get into the caverns and break all of them, that might end the curse! ... And if Lady Sakuya's right, we'd better hurry."

    Without further adieu... Rudolph starts chanting a spell. Golden letters swirl around him and lock into place, glowing as he chants. It's rather odd indeed. The Words of Power, for anyone paying attention, just are not AVAILABLE to players.

    Everything goes white for everyone... but as the world comes back into focus...

    The group has been transported somewhere strange indeed. It's a vast, snow-covered plains with the occasional evergreen tree. However, every single tree is done up like a Christmas tree - save for using colorful magical flickers instead of electric lights. In the distance there's a great tree. A huge, majestic pine that's decorated enough to light up the entire field - kilometers, easily... but it's dark. As are the dozens and dozens of festivally decorated log houses, warehouses, and strange huts.

    What is probably supposed to be SANTA'S WORKSHOP at the NORTH POLE - the field name is, strangely, 'Winterland Workshops' and not part of the normal map - is covered in an oozing, unhealthy darkness. As if this darkness were indeed tangible, like fire, it oozes across the snow, from cracks in windowsills, between the logs of log houses.

    Those with high Searching can immediately pick up on the Color Cursors of monsters in the distance. Good eyesight and keen observation in general notices movement too. Strange, ugly, tiny humanoid things that look like they're made of ice... and wearing tuxedos, are all over the place. 'Frost Minions' they're called.

    The cavern entrance is about a kilometer away. Past a good amount of them.

    The seething darkness has overtaken the entire field.

    FLIGHT IS IMPOSSIBLE WITHIN THE DARKNESS. ALL FAIRY WINGS ARE WITHERED.

    You'll have to walk.
Na`Sabal-Une Fang      The tiny faerie 'Lune' flits over towards Yui, her fingers lifting to wiggle at her slightly. Just a quiet little greeting. Sakuya begins to speak, and Lune's attention turns towards her. Extra potential enemies? Hmmm. That's annoying, but shouldn't be /that/ hard to deal with. She decides relatively quickly that Sakuya seems like the best perch.

     And unceremniously, she flits over to start hovering nearby her almost lazily, as her gaze shifts from person to person. These people were the trustworthy ones. She would work at remembering who everyone was.

     Rudolph begins to speak, and Lune listens intently, her eyes half-lidding as she does. Hmm. A curse. Interesting. She was glad for her magic resistance suddenly, as that would keep the worst of any curses off of her. Golden letters forming, a spell that Nasa watches intently, her eyes half-lidding as she does. Hmm. Interesting. A language she didn't recognize though. And then.... teleport!

     And then... darkness. Lune's sharp eyes shift from place to place. She lifts a hand to point, speaking in an almost emotionless voice, "There. Movement. Enemies." She states simply. She didn't sound /exactly/ right for a Navigation Pixie, but at least she was trying!
Staren     Staren considers sending people to go help Nicholas to buy them time... but decides it's just too late now. They'll just have to complete this quickly. Staren doesn't think anything of Alicia's ear-twitching. It's more most cait siths' /lack/ of it that seems strange...

    Winter workshops, huh? Staren takes a moment to take it in. He /can't/ see the monsters coming, but he frowns at the message about lost flight. Oh well, he used to make do well enough without it, right? A glance and a shrug are shared with the two he invited. Then Staren gets an idea: "Hey, Alicia! I can think of some spells that would be useful here..." And then he starts reciting Words of Power to both provide darkness-elemental shields to as many people as he can spread the effect to, as well as provide increased movement speed at night (hopefully, the effect will stack with the haste spells of wind mages). The Undine tries to throw up a multitargeted ice-elemental shield -- may as well put that racial magic boost to work, right?
Yuuki Konno     "A time limit then!" Yuuki cheers. They have to destroy all these crystals and darkness and stuff before some grinches loot Nicholas! Er, kill him, that is. Kill Saint Nicholas and ruin Christmas. And get all the loot. Ahem.

    Nori's the Sleeping Knight with the best Search skill, so the dark-skinned fairie girl is the first of them to point towards the enemy. The first of the Knights, at least. No doubt many here are more specialized in things like Search... the Knights are comparatively weak in non-melee skills. "Frost Minions closing in on us!" she cries out eagerly. The Knights wheel and start heading for the penguinlike creatures, forming a loose wedge with their healer Siune tucked in behind.
Iria     So one minute they're meeting up, the next they're at the ALO equivelant of the North Pole. And now they're being briefed on what happened. "So, sounds like poor Saint Nick isn't a Saint anymore!" Iria says, the smile running away from her face. "I don't know what's up with that, but I do think we'd best do something about it!" She cracks her knuckles a little and looks around, shivering a little at the coldness of the atmosphere.

    "If we've only got a little time, then we'd better hurry!" She doesn't seem to mind that she can't fly or anything like that. In fact, when the minions are called out, she narrows her eyes and then says, "I'll never look at penguins the same way again!" Before attempting to go in towards them.
Yuna Kagurazaka "Get into the caverns, break the crystals, don't die," Kagura recaps Rudolph's 'briefing' after the group teleports to the destination. Oh, and they need to do this before players can take down the raid boss version of Nicholas the Renegade, so not only is there a time limit but the group doesn't really have a way of knowing what that time limit *IS*.

At least the 'don't die' part is balanced by 'death' being a temporary thing. Still, Kagura unslings her harp and plays some buffing melodies for her allies, trying to boost everyone's speed, agility, and damage resistance before the group splits apart too far - or just spreads out too much. After she's played her buffing songs, Kagura swaps to her buckler and sword and hurries after the others, jogging or sprinting since her wings are no longer an option.

Somebody might have to catch her before she wanders too far *ahead* if she catches up faster than expected, though - her Search skill ain't great.
Asuna Yui is collected.

     Asuna sighs and glances at Zekken and Kirito, before chirping out her opinion, gesturing as she goes. "Yuuki takes the one on the left! Kirito, you take the one on the right! I'll go up the middle. That's three of us swordsfighters split for terms of balancing out the group. I suggest Sakuya and Alicia Rue's forces split up equally between DPS, mages, healers, and tanks between teh three groups, and then the rest of our elites fill in as needed."

     Jee, it's not like Asuna did this for 'fun' in a death game for a year.
Auron     Auron listens, gets the gist of the situation. Dark crystals, evil energy, break 'em. He can do that. And then suddenly they're teleported! To... somewhere that looks really nasty. And it doesn't take long before Auron figures out that he can't fly here, either. Well, that's fine too. He brings up his inventory-- not the bag, the pet inventory-- and activates his squirrel. "Spot," he says. The command to tell the Familiar to keep watch.

    When spells are being handed out Auron does his part too. He might be more physical fighter than a mage, but he does have buffing spells. Hence why he went with Earth magic. He'll be handing out as many of those protect spells as he can manage. Including his familiar.

    And when the rest of the groups head in the direction, he goes too. Ratoska keeps a perimeter around him, hopefully to warn him of any incoming danger.
Tomoe Tomoe seems to be ready to go at this point as she got her tanking gear out and she seems to be redy as she's 4ver going to be. she is one of the more notable tanks hee today and she's going to be as ready a she's 3ever is. She listens for what Rudolph has to say and she wonders just where this is going to lead. She listens as they get more quest details.

"So we got ot go help him then we best not dally."

She then head on with the eest once they are teleproted she's moving in to take point as it's her job to tank the enemy. So they got a bit of a hike she mutters a quick spell and a hovering light orb now follows her at shoulder leavel as she heads ot keeping tabs on everyone, some of the people here are going to make it a challenge to keep agro on her with people like Zekken, Asuna and Kirito here..

"I bet there's going to be ad swarms."

With Asuna barking orders it is like the old days as it seems she's going to be a roaving tank today.
Theo Morrison Theo nods, once. Go in, smash stuff, win fight, pass out loot. Easy enough in theory. He's looking forward to the tricks and traps. Straightforward boss fights and raids are the stuff of old-school boring brawls. There's /definitely/ going to be something cool happening here.

They get teleported. Theo starts squinting at the distance immediately. He doesn't note the monsters, but he does note the terrain and the distance. It's kind of a walk on foot. The buildings, though... Theo opens his inventory, materializing a helmet in his hand. "If those buildings aren't either trapped or full of monsters," Theo asides, more or less to Tomoe and anyone who happens to be in earshot, "I'll eat my hat."

He puts it on. It's definitely a full helm, and there's definitely a wreath around the top of it with Christmas lights worked in. It's festive /and/ provides high defense!

Theodotus starts to move forward, shouldering his massive hammer. Instead of providing plans and expecting the serious raiders to follow them, he sings a song.

    "It's beginning to look a lot like fish-men,
    everywhere I go!
    From the minute I got to town,
    and started to look around,
    I thought these ill-bred peoples' gill-slits shoooowed~!"

It's totally seasonal, shut up.
Asuna      Asuna whips around and points at Theo. "You're on my team now." She informs him, before whipping right back around and starting to head for the third crystal.
Annie Sandberg      Silverbloom joins in with Kagura's songs. She'd also been hoping to practice some illusion magic, but with the darkness enveloping the area she suspected that her show would fall on blind eyes anyway. She giggles at Theo's song, before deciding to group up with Yuuki. "All right, let's do this! For the children of Alfheim!" she exclaims. ...Most of the children are NPCs, but they would get presents too, wouldn't they?
Kirito     Spells aplenty are cast! By Staren's crew and others! It's a good thing. Prolonged exposure to the darkness seems to be inflicting several Stat Downs, which these magics counter - and slightly best. Seems Rudolph wasn't kidding about how this curse weakens Fairies!

    "Kagura, look out!" Kirito yells, dashing out to the rescue while the group fans out to sweep through the Frost Minions.

    The Frost Minions are worth watching out for! They're small. No more than two or three feet tall! Weird, things with icicle noses, frozen skin, lanky arms and googly eyes. They look kind of like some kind of strange, impish, snowman-devil... that's wearing a tuxedo and a fedora. Why? Well whatever. As people approach, they gesture to one another and howl out some weird gibberish nonsense to each other, wave their comical arms around and cackle, point fingers, and LAUGH at the fairy assault team!

    Then things get weird. They scoop up snow from the ground, draw their arms back and- THE SNOWBALLS GLOW!

    Oh hell.

    That's right. What at first looks like nothing more than a horde of easy enemies is, in fact, TOP NOTCH ARTILLERY. 'Snowball' Sword Skills are clearly a thing in this quest, and everyone's getting pelted by them.

    This is going to sting. A lot.

    Kirito splutters in astonishment. So does several of the girls in his crew. But after he and the others take a few customary Snowballs to the everything, they set about pushing throught he hordes. Frost Minions explode by the dozens into colorful voxels!

    The Sylph, Cait Sith, and Salamander forces have little trouble - largely because the organized Salamander Mages mass-cast fireballs, obvious bane of the Frost Minions.

    All in all though, the Frost Minions aren't what we're here to beat. They go down fairly easily to a group like this. They were designed for top level players.

    Not GAMEBREAKER players.

    Through a few minutes of effort, everyone's going to have managed to reach the Winterland Caverns. These are deep mines. Mine cart tracks even come out of the entrance and trace a path in. Here, presumably the elves - and maybe dwarves? Who knows around here - mine for raw materials to use in the workshops, it seems.

    The tunnels are twisty and full of falling icicles as hazards. Watch your step!

    It's a long haul through them. We can gloss over most of that. Just watch out for falling icicles! And the occasional minecart that happens to be a special breed of Mimic.

    Eventually the tunnels reach a three-way split, in the middle of a large cavern. Down here... the group encounters a small, stout man with a thick, fuzzy, crimson beard.

    "Ohhhhh-hoohhhhhh! You must be those rescuers Rudolph said would come!" The guy waves his pickaxe around at everyone. "Come to break the curse, didja? The name's Cornelius. Chief of the Winterland mines! And have you guys come at the right time."

    He gestures to the three tunnels... all of which are FROZEN CLEAN SHUT with a huge ice wall. "Three tunnels. There's trouble behind all of them! Big trouble. Tunnel number one? Big, green-furred thief. Creepy guy with spider breath. Tunnel two? Big horned creature, most unfriendly thing I ever met. Tunnel three? Fancily dressed ice sorcerer! The last of them's responsible for these walls. Not like I can't dig through them, but what's one guy gonna do? ... we're dealing with minions of Thrym, King of the Frost Giants... they're no pushovers. You guys think you can stop 'em? Pick a tunnel, I'll have it opened in a jiffy!"

    Well now.

    The short man strokes his beard, beady eyes turing towards Theodotus. "Well! Nice hat you've got there."

    Huh.
Staren     Staren gets one last spell from his 'crew' who noone seems to have guessed the identity of, the undine wreathing their weapons in fire. "We'll try to keep the minions away from you guys with my booms and your mother's monsters." The Cait Sith has already summoned a monstrous bear. "Once you find the caves... we'll keep an eye on any groups the Gatecrashers don't go with. Good luck out there." "We'll save Christmas. Whatever it takes. ...I wonder if any of these monsters are tameable?" The pair run off towards the race leaders' armies, providing additional healing, boomchucking, and mauling.

    Staren isn't that worried about the frost monsters at first... but then, SNOWBALL SWORD SKILLS. "You /gotta/ be kidding me!" Still, his modus operandi is overall enhanced by a darkness-affiliated setting. Sometimes, an ally might be fighting a Frost Minion only for Staren to break invisibility as he lightning-stabs it from behind. Staren uses stealth spells to hide from the ice-things while creeping around assassinating them.

    When they finally get to the fork in the tunnels, Staren confers with allies to figure out how this is going to shake down.
Yuuki Konno     Tecchi takes the lead for Yuuki's party, shield raised. Jun and the others get pelted a few times, but take no serious damage. Yuuki herself dances through the snowball barrage, only occasionally getting hit, and just as often striking back and cutting down a snowball that would threaten one of her team. Siune is quick to heal them, keeping the strength of the Knights up. They waste little time worrying about defense though, each breaking out in turn from the cover provided by Tecchi and Yuuki to cut down the frost minions within easy reach, leaving the flanking minions for other parties with ranged casters to deal with.

    Falling icicles will provide little trouble for the group, with their dedicated healer Siune and their 'pixie' ally keeping them topped up. The mimics might be another matter entirely though. None of them are good with traps and tricks, though once the enemy becomes known they're artful and fast to turn just about anything into a smear of red pixels.

    When they reach the intersection, the six Sleeping Knights peer at the ice walls dubiously. "I could ... try to chop through?" Jun suggests, hefting his massive two-handed sword before him. Big as it is, it's dwarfed by the ice. "O-or we could get Cornelius to do it." suggests Talken helpfully.

    Yuuki shrugs, and looks back at the raid. "I can't say I like the idea of fighting spiders. I hate getting slowed." she says. "And the unfriendly guy sounds pretty fun. We're good at handling boss aggro!" she claims. "But we'll go wherever needed. Asuna-neechan can take out the sorceror blocking our way, but I'm good with us taking out the other midbosses at the same time!"
Na`Sabal-Une Fang      The darkness was feeling... ... less welcoming than usual. Which was saying something, as Nasa already wasn't very thrilled with darkness to begin with. Her fingers shift slightly as she glances around. This was a game, right? Did she have to worry about it causing long-term damage? ... Hmm. But Lune didn't really want to let it leave those long-term effects if they /did/ fail.

     More importantly, there were frost minions throwing snowballs. Lune moved quickly, shifting to get into cover. She was in her small form, so even with her enchantments, taking that directly wouldn't be pleasant. As such, she moved to quickly get with one of the groups -- Yuuki's -- to help them and take cover. Once they were through that and in the caves, 'Lune' flitted over to attempt to plop on Yuuki's shoulder, lifting her hand up to produce a small ball of glimmering light. Basically acting as a torch, on the off chance the caves were dark.

     "...It is ice. There are fire mages." 'Lune' says in that quiet, nearly emotionless -- yet musical -- tone towards Yuuki. When they fought things, she did, in fact, help keep people topped off! And also used status removal potions as well, if necessary. Because she may or may not have raided a shop for max stacks of every common healing item.
Annie Sandberg      Silverbloom gets through the minions in a Puca-ish manner- spinning her staff in an attempt to deflect the flying snowballs, and then, after taking a hard hit from one, striking back with a piercing sonic scream. Then, at last, they arrive at the caves. She waves to Cornelius, not having lost much energy on the journey, before awaiting Yuuki's decision on which way they should go, in response to the elf/dwarf/whatever he was's explanation. "Okay, let's go for the guy with the horns," she says. "Some kinda... grump monster."
Theo Morrison Theo basically gets a montage of him smashing the hell out of trash mobs. It turns out that when your primary combat skill is 'hammer,' all your enemies look like nails.

Tiny, fragile little nails, full of XP and shiny things.

Eventually, they get through, and are faced with the route split. Theo salutes the short man, grinning underneath his helmet. "Thanks! Made it myself. Thought it might be festive for the event!" He shoulders the hammer again, and... onward they go!
Auron     Fortunately that's the other kind of magic Auron specialized in-- Water magic. Healz plz! Yes, heals aplenty are offered through the fights with the minions! Most of it from Auron is regen-style rather than direct healing, though. But at least the staff-wielding player inhis party has proper healz. Auron himself acts like a proper dodgetank and tries to dodge as much of the bombardment as possible. But even he isn't going to perfectly dodge everything.

    The caverns aren't really as bad, strangely enoguh. Inside a cavern there's walls. And wall-running is a thing Cait Sith do. So Auron has more avenues of attack and defense, believe it or not, than out there on an open snowy plain. Sure, he's limited for wall-running time, so he can't do that endlessly, but falling down on a MimiCart from the ceiling probably does a fair amount of damage. And icicles don't fall on the walls.

    Once they get to the small man with the red beard, Auron looks at the three tunnels. Looking to the Cait Sith with him, he asks the pair of them, "What do you think?"

    "Well, you know we're not good against things that can slow us. We need to be mobile," the staff-user replies.

    The dual dagger-wielder notes, "Yeah. Let's go for the second tunnel."

    "Sounds like a plan," Auron replies. Looks like his group's choice is made.
Iria     "Door one, door two, or door three, hmm??" Iria wonders with an evil smirk. She taps her hand on her chin a few times, then shrugs her shoulders a little. "Well, no harm in going down there!" She points to the cave where the Krampus supposedly is. "I'd love to meet something new, I haven't had a good encounter in this world for awhile!" She chuckles as she remembers the time she told Fujikurow about the game and how he said he'd get queasy trying to fly in the game world.

    "Anyone else coming with me? The more the merrier!" She seems a bit too eager but that's just Iria.
Tomoe Tomoe is ready as she's going to rush in and she eyes the Snow Miser and seems to set her sights on them, she will launch her taunts though as she attemps to get past the frost mimopms thankfully the Salamander spell casters are on the ball purging things in fire. They make for the the tunnels shr takes a moment at the mention of Frost Giants? Oh that is never good when your dealing with Norse things /at/ all.

Tomoe makes up her mind she's going to head down tunnel three and do her damnest to tank them.

"We should get Cornelius to help us with it!"

BEfore she makes for the tunnel, she's confident with the people they brought along be they from the GU or the other guilds, and sharing a quest like this with them will do good things for their relationships with them.
Yuna Kagurazaka Three bosses, no waiting, from the sound of things. Hopefully they can reinforce each other if one of the three monsters goes down faster than the other two ...

Kagura joins the group headed towards the SECOND tunnel, that of the 'horned giant'. Spider breath sounds more terrifying than she wants to deal with, truth being told, and since Asuna's group has already claimed the other, that only leaves one choice ...
Asuna      Asuna leads her team bravely forward! This crystal is, in Asuna's mind, likely to be the crazy one; that's how it is. The outliers are the minions and then the big boss sorcerer in the middle. Well, not really the middle, being the third tunnel, but you know how it is. Of course, she could be entirely wrong and they're all minions and they secretly have to fight Rudolph. This is a video game, it could HAPPEN.

     As they approach the crystal, they find that... it's definitely getting chillier. Even the Frost Creatures that are peeking around the corners don't seem to like this area, and while they do attack, any sort of throw back will get them to scurry off for the most part as they continue through the caves. It is frankly kind of ridiculous. What sort of weather is going on in these caverns? Is it work of the sorcerer? (Anyone with any sort of magic sensing will be able to tell that yes it is him.)

     "This is ridiculous." Asuna says, simply, before pausing the group she's got to cast some elemental resist magic. Thankfully snow is related to water and she's an Undine! This'll work out wonderfully. She is shivering like a chihuahua though, but instead of fifty percent tremble and fifty percent hate, she's fifty percent tremble and fifty percent oh god no get me the heck out of here.

     She rubs her hands together, teeth chattering a little as they eventually break through into a large, mountainus area in a gigantic cavern, covered in trees and snow and more of the Frost creatures, woh immediately start pelting the group with Snowball Sword Skills. There's a moaning noise in the air due to the wind... or is it? Either way, there's a simple pathway leading forward.
Yuuki Konno     Yuuki looks at her options. Ice walls with a spider thingy, a giant boss monster, or... Asuna-neechan. She watches Asuna go, a bit sadly. But ... Asuna had said that she should lead one team while Kirito leads another. Yuuki can't let her neechan down!

    "You!" Yuuki abruptly cries out, whirling and gripping Sigfreid by the shoulder. "You and your salamanders break through the ice here and go after the thief!" she insists. Tactically brilliant Yuuki might not be, but sending the best fire mages and tanks after that foe seems sound enough to her. "Knights, follow me!" she cries, turning and heading ... for the Krampus.

    This decision seems to catch the rest of the Knights flat-footed. They were prepared for Yuuki to whimsically follow Asuna. But Siune is the first to raise her staff. 'Hooooh!' she cries out, a rather weak and non-aggressive battle cry. The rest of them follow suit however. 'HOOOOH!' they cry, and charge after Yuuki, heading towards the Krampus.
Yuuki Konno     Meanwhile Yuuki reaches up to put her left hand around Na'sa. The touch is gentle, just to support and assist rather than to corral. "I have good night vision." she claims. "If it gets too dark, help the others with your light. But you're welcome to ride there." she adds impishly, pleased at having her own 'navigation pixie'.
Staren     "Hm. So that's how things are shaking out." The Undine leans forward on his staff and strokes his chin, looking at Door #3 as Asuna and co. head that way. "Well, guess we got ourselves a grinch to slay." He turns to use his own fire magic to help the Salamanders break the wall. or maybe use ice magic to just part the wall directly, if that's possible. The Cait Sith swaps monsters. "Paddington, return! Batty, I choose you!" She's heard of pokemon, too. Out goes the bear, in comes the giant cave bat.

    Meanwhile, people are /charging/ down the Krampus tunnel. "Oh geeze." Staren sighs, casting a haste spell on himself and then running after them.
Kirito     In the end, Kirito, Klein, Agil, Lisbeth, Silica+Pina, Sakuya, and Alicia Rue head down TUNNEL NUMBER ONE with some of the elite Sylph and Cait Sith troops. A cloaked figure also ducks in after them, apparently having managed to remain quite hidden for some time.

    TUNNEL NUMBER ONE opens up into a large cavern, illuminated by torchlight. The cavern's walls are jam-packed with colorfully wrapped presents. In the middle of it all... stands the fifteen-foot-tall creature as described.

    THE THIEVING GROUCH stands proud and tall, treating the encountering party with a grin so foul and wicked that his entire face warps to accomodate it. He's covered in sickly green fur, wearing a santa outfit of crude and trollish design, and carries a bo staff. An enormous sack of goodies happens to be tied to one end of it.

    As everyone files in, FOUR HEALTH BARS appear and quickly fill up!

    THEN a GIANT BULLDOG flagged as MAXIMILLIAN drops in from the caverns' ceiling. He has TWO Healthbars.

    The girl in the cloak promptly freaks out at the back of the group. "HYEEEEIKGH! GET IT AWAY!" ARGO THE RAT dives for the presents to hide...

    When did she get here anyways?

    OH WELL.

    TUNNEL NUMBER TWO:

    Similar to the first, the tunnel leads to a large cavern. It's an icy expanse fit for a Yeti, or maybe a Wampa. The floor's slippery so footing will be somewhat troublesome. At the center of it all... a fifteen foot tall humanoid creature. It's covered in thick, white fur and is hunched forward just slightly. Its horrifically ugly face is wrinkly and bestial, featuring two enormous goat-like horns. Yellow, slitted eyes. Sharklike, razor-sharp teeth. Underneath its white fur the skin is tough and weathered, leathery.

    THE KRAMPUS is wreathed in an aura of darkness that floats around him like a strange halo. Some magical effect? Hard to say.

    He has four Health Bars.

    As the party enters, these appear and fill rapidly. He stretches out with both arms, shaking an assortment of dangerous looking heavy iron chains. These chains are the only clothing he wears, if you can call it clothing.

    And once people have finished filtering in... the creature HOWLS! It's a mad, twisted noise.

    According to Legend, the Krampus, while a freaky and somewhat troublesome figure, isn't exactly a berserker beast. So it may be a little odd how he suddenly opens up with a few sweeps of those HUGE CHAINS across the ground!

    They can be easily JUMPED OVER... once one learns the timing cue.

    Argo's muffled screaming about THAT HORRIBLE CREATURE comes through the walls, rather muffled. But noticeable.
Theo Morrison Theo marches on... into the cold side of things, because Asuna apparently has need of his enormous murder power. Or maybe there's a crafting minigame that she suspects is down that passage. Either way, off he goes -- into the /cold/. He thought it was before, but this is getting ridiculous. It's a good thing he's well-insulated. Until the cold seeps into his armor, which he is wearing another layer under (Christmas event and cold? Yeah, c'mon), he'll be... well, not /fine/, but pretty okay.

"Sorcerer, sorcerer, gotta smash a sorcerer," Theo mutters to himself, keeping in step with the words. It's a simple marching tune that makes him ignore how annoying it is to actually go this way. He briefly considers breaking out some kind of fiery consumables, but doesn't want to waste them so early.
Auron     Auron's going to get hit by one of the chains. That first one, Auron doesn't know the timing cue for. But once he figures it out, he shouldn't have any trouble with it. His Cait Sith form is good for jumping.

    Once the party is safe, the three of them get to work. The Cait Sith with the staff stays back out of the way, and the dual-dagger-wielding Cait Sith attempts to flank. But not before Auron gets in there and strarts drawing aggro. That aura may be a problem, though. In fact, Auron calls to his dagger-wielding buddy, "Stay back for a moment!" He wants to make sure that aura isn't instantly deadly.
Na`Sabal-Une Fang      A hand around Nasa gets a slight shift, almost as if she'd expected to be taken off of Yuuki's shoulder or something. She stays still until it turns out to be a gentle touch. "...We share traits. I have good night vision too." Nasa mumbles quietly, the glow beginning to wink out again afterwards.

     Nevermind the fact that in spite of being a 'Navigation pixie' she had a health and MP bar. Said MP bar was slightly ridiculous, even considering she's probably the equivalent of a high-level person in the game. Mysteriously, it seems to only be hovering at about half-full though, and has been like that from the beginning.

     "...I will attempt to scout out what I can and watch the battle to see what changes." 'Lune' says quietly. She wasn't really thoroughly disguised, so it'd be easy to recognize her as Nasa. Twitch twitch. A cry from beyond the wall? Were they that close to each other? Hmmm. When they continue down the path and begin to make their way down the path, Nasa keeps her eyes out.

     She crouches down slightly, taking hold of parts of Yuuki's clothing. However, once the chains begin to sweep, Nasa quickly leaves Yuuki's shoulder, flitting up to get above the party, just high enough to be out of range of being swatted by the jumps. Watching the attacks. She silently counts the seconds between each sweep. She also takes note of people who get /hit/ by each sweep, so that she can flit over and upend a potion over them. Not the most glamorous way of healing someone, but it seemed to work well enough! After dumping said potions out, she rather unceremoniously chucked the potion bottles at the boss -- to see if it had some sort of reaction.
Staren     Down the center tunnel goes Staren. What will lie beyond? A great horned beast of some sort... Staren stops just outside the boss room, casting DARK SHIELD, INVISIBILITY, and CHANNEL LIGHTNING. Then he enters, and almost falls over on the slippery ground. "Woah! Tch..."

    It's... the boss! "[THE KRAMPUS], huh?" Staren drops into a combat stance. "Yeah, he looks like something my tactics should work on."

    SUDDENLY CHAINS!

    Staren jumps... and slips on the slippery floor. The first chain grazes him, and the second chain WHACKS him right into the wall. "Owwwnnngh..." Oh hey, healing potion! Though some fumbling might be involved if Nasa can't See Invisible and has to go by the position of his cursor. "Thanks Nasa..."
Yuuki Konno     The Sleeping Knights respond fairly well to the initial sweep of chains. Yuuki herself is up and over one, vaulting it cleanly. She's followed, perhaps surprisingly, by the slight unathletic form of Talken. Tecchi leans in and tanks the attack. Jun is knocked flying but his armor protects him mostly from the strike. Hardest hit are Nori and Siune, neither getting clear nor having the armor to resist the attack.

    Yuuki, seeing her allies downed, shrieks in fury. "Here, you big ugly brute!" she cries, charging in and ripping into the Krampus with her sword, carving several lines of red into its leg and arm. She's using an aggro skill, Battlecry, to hopefully draw some hate away from the others, to turn the boss and let them regain their feet and have Siune and Na'sa heal them up. She, meanwhile, switches to defensive mode the moment she gets the boss's attention. This is a well-practiced maneuver, and part of the way the Knights regularly train. Yuuki's their key front-liner, with much of the group's strategy revolving around her superhuman combat speed.
Yuna Kagurazaka "Well, it's big and beastly and foul-tempered, that's for sure," Kagura remarks as the Krampus greets them with a loud howl, and sweeping chains -

"KYAAAH!!!"

The *FIRST* sweep of the chains takes Kagura right off her feet, and she lands pretty badly; the good news is that her harp was in her inventory and not prone to getting smashed around with the rest of Kagura's avatar and equipped gear. The downside is that her HP bar goes down too; her best chance for getting out of that initial assault is to capitalize on any knockback and let the Krampus drive her away from itself. She gets back to her feet as quickly as she can, eyeing the chains and the distance between her and the boss ...

Then dares to swap her harp back into her equipment slots, and starts playing another buffing tune. Her HP is hovering around 50% by now, between the earlier snowball projectiles and getting chain-combo'd by her chosen enemy boss; what her allies (and Kagura herself) need right now is improved reaction times, as far as she can tell ... so that's the tune Kagura plays, an upbeat, even urgent melody - one which would mix nicely with boss-battle music, if there's an actual background track accompanying this fight.
Annie Sandberg      "Fairies, forward!" Silverbloom calls, pointing her staff forward as they head down the corridor, until finally they arrive at their opponent- The Krampus. She jumps the chain pretty easily- given her background, jump rope comes naturally to her. Still, the landing's a bit unsteady because of the ice. Bringing out her lyre again, she starts renewing her buffs on the others, especially Yuuki. She goes to Kagura's side as she sees the other Puca take a hard hit. "Oh no! D-do you need help, Miss Kagura?!"
Iria     "So, I wonder what this thing is capable of?" Iria asks to no one in particular as she makes her way down the cave with the others. "I mean it's got a weird name, sure, but then again, I've seen quite a few weird creature names here in this game! I wonder if one of its powers is giving us cramps?" She laughs a little, but the laughs stop when she sees Krampus for the first time, and her eyes go wide. She stares in disbelief for so long that she doesn't see the chains coming for her until it's too late.

    "Ahh!" Iria yells out as she tries to dodge the attacks, but it's too little too late, and she goes down to the ground as one of her feet get caught by the chain. "Damn it! This is worse than the time I nearly got beaten by Kei during a sparring match a few days ago!" She pushes herself back up and shakes her head a few times from side to side. When Kagura begins playing the melody on the harp, it does help a little, but now Iria's really peeved, as is normal when she gets caught like that. "OK, freak, now you DIE!" She rushes in attempting to strike hard at the Krampus.
Tomoe Tomoe has ended up with Asuna at this point and is happy to be tnaking for her, but she looks at the things ahead of them and scowls for a moment but she keeps attacking those monstrs that get too close and she also does her best to pull the enmies off her comrades. She halts at the moaning noise and goes to take point.

"I'll go first and tank what's coming up ahead."

She's going press on ahead and keep her guard up who knows what's waiting for them.
Asuna      MEANWHILE, IN THE COLD DARKNESS OF HELL...

     Seriously.

     Asuna stops as the group walks through the forest mostly unmolested, and the pathway winds around the mountains in the back. The strange noise in the wind grows deeper, and now it becomes obviously apparent that it's not just the wind through the stones, but... honestly, it sounds like someone's crying. Asuna blinks, puzzled. The group has no choice but to move forward, at least until they come to a small clearing, in which a dapper man of snow white skin and pure white hair, dressed down in a blue tuxedo with silver accents grasps at the block of ice that has entrapped his foot. Every time he lets off an anguished 'boo hoo' that echoes in the wind, teh snow gets worse.

     "Really?" Asuna asks, slightly exasperated.
Kirito     It is, indeed, not too hard to jump over the chains. The chain sweeps, bearing the telltale glow of Sword Skills, aren't terribly dangerous. The problem...

    The problem is that just jumping over them involves landing. Landing on very icy floors. And then dealing with the next swing. WITHOUT WINGS.

    Balance is troublesome, and the walls are covered in icicle-spikes - not a pleasant thing to get knocked into!

    Auron finds that the aura is... actually completely harmless. It's a standard 'glow' effect, similar to what ends up used for things like 'berserker rage' powerup effects or some super buff effects bosses occasionally use.

    But now that he's SO CLOSE, there's a MURDEROUS GLEAM in the Krampus' eyes. It pauses momentarily and SPINS around, swinging its arms meatily in a pattern that's meant to KNOCK AWAY ANYONE IN MELEE. There's just a short warning between the eye gleam and the swings!

    The tossed potion bottles shatter on impact, inflicting only minimal damage. Tiny decals that vanish quickly. The boss does not seem bothered by this. Gonna need to hit it harder, Na`sa!

    Yuuki, on the other hand, meets with success. The Sleeping Knights draw the boss' attention in a flash. IT focuses on Yuuki and tries to smack her with a few swipes of its big, clawed hands. However... it's far from fast or unpredictable. She has no trouble dancing between the strikes and digging into it with her obsidian sword for blow after merciless blow. The first health bar's reduced by a half over a half a minute of this.

    But then THE KRAMPUS howls and leaps backwards, inhaling a mighty breath... and spewing it out as a freezing, blizzard gust that sweeps across the whole room. The gust is full of large ice chunks that need to be dodged! Getting hit with one of the BIG ice chunks triggers a freezing effect...

    And once it's done ICE BREATHING the room, the Krampus ducks forward and CHARGES with an eye for GORING through anyone that got frozen using its horns!
Tomoe Tomoe pauses at the situation she didn't expect. She sess that the boss seems to be well? Stuck something seem to have gone wrong with his powers. She stares for a moment and she sighs facepalming little bit.

"They are really going full ham on this event."

She does lower her weapon slightly even as they look the man over.

"So might I ask what seems to be trouble?"

She looks at the person before the party and seems curious she seems to be backing up Asuna's attempt to talk this one down.
Staren     At least pain is dulled somewhat. Ice spikes, owww... "It's from some versions of Christmas myth! While Santa rewards good children with presents, the Krampus takes bad children away in his sack!" Staren explains when Iria doesn't get it. And then he follows Yuuki's advice, getting out of range so he can cast a couple more spells -- a lightness-of-feet spell to help him deal with the terrain (wind magic! It does everything!) and a jumping enhancer spell that lets him jump more like a videogame character.

    Now properly equipped for this fight, Staren tries to sneak around behind the Krampus and stab it with lightning-charged daggers, using the opportunity while it's busy with Yuuki as best he can!

    But then, ICE BREATH! Fortunately, Staren's now ready to dodge. He doesn't have a plan to help those who got frozen, but he /does/ know a 'time to hit the boss' moment when he sees one! So he gets clear, and then dashes in to backstab the Krampus while it recovers from its charge!
Theo Morrison March, grunt. March, grunt. Stupid snow. Stupid ice. March, grunt. The marching is broken up -- nay, punctuated -- by the occasional interference of wandering mobs. It gets the blood flowing again, and keeps them on their toes. Between the group of them, it isn't anything to worry about, and serves to get everyone familiar with how the others fight. It works for Theo, anyway.

And then they come to... "Um... Jack Frost?" Theo guesses. Or the local equivalent thereof. "What's, uh... what's on your mind?" He intends to scratch his head, but it's covered by a frost-coated helmet. He totally expected a boss fight, here.
Auron     Oh good. Auron gives the go-ahead for the DPS to get in there once he's drawn the Krampus's ire. So now there's two Cait Sith wailing on the Krampus briefly. At least, until it starts swinging its arms around. Auron draws back, crossing his arms and letting the large bracers draw the majority of that strike, while the DPS from his group jumps behind him. The strike damages Auron, and actually throws him out of melee range.

    The howl is a signal to Auron that something is wrong. "Back up!" he calls to the rest of his team. They only just barely get out of range of the freezing effect. The charge prompts another mad scramble for 'someplace the Krampus is not' to stand. And while they wait to regroup, the magicat of Auron's group starts giving healz. Not just to Auron's group, but to those in range from other groups.
Kirito     WHOMPF! Staren's enchanted dagger bites deep into the Krampus, inflicting a goodly amount of damage. It coincides with Iria's strike. But the Krampus barely flinches! While still up against the wall, it stomps one cloven hoof into the icy floor... and SWOOPS AROUND.

    Swoops around with a SACK that it has pulled out of BLOODY NOWHERE for both Staren and Iria. Maybe getting directly behind it is a bad idea? Because it executes the manuever with its head turned to look behind it instead of actually turning around.

    NAUGHTY, NAUGHTY BACKSTABBERS.

    The sack comes at them so fast they'd need lightning reflexes to react! Gonna be hard to dodge. it CAN be escaped with a lot of button-mash style slashing at the fabrics, but they've only got a few seconds of time to do that.

    Because if they can't break the sack's durability in about three seconds - and nobody rescues them somehow - the Krampus pulls his chains about the sack's mouth and starts SWINGING it like a morningstar!

    ... the weighty sack would then be flung, still attached to the chain, at Auron and his group.
Staren     "WAGH!" The cat is put IN the bag! "See, this is what I mean!" exclaims Staren, unfortunately trying to cut it as if it were a real sack at first, realizing too late he needs to damage it like a game object. "OW GEEZ F***!" he starts swearing as he's used to beat people with, but now that he knows what to do he'll hopefully be able to cut himself out before he's actually killed from damage!
Na`Sabal-Une Fang      Nasa continues to watch intently as it attacks and makes note of anything she can. Glowing eyes right before the attack that knocked people back, the aura didn't seem to do anything to Auron, and... oh god it's inhaling. Nasa /immediately/ darts behind someone big and heavily armored, only keeping her head peeked out.

     The lack of damage from the empty potion bottles, Nasa had expected. That was fine. It wasn't meant to deal damage. It was just a test to see if people should be ready for sudden counter-attacks. With the mages handling the healing... Nasa shifts slightly.

            "Now! Out of the way!"

    And Nasa lifts what looks like a tiny, orange potion. A fire already burning inside with the mixture of magical ingredients, tar, and an everburning fire. About halfway along the path, however... it ceases being a tiny bottle, and becomes a rather normal-sized bottle, as it leaves the zone of Nasa's shrinking spells.

     BOOM! FWOOSH! If the monster doesn't somehow dodge it, mid-charge, it would possibly have a sudden sticky fire exploding, aimed at its face. This fire would /easily/ burn for hours, and refuses normal methods of quenching. Being an ice spirit, of course, the Krampus might not have a hard time quenching it with magic, though.

     And then Nasa is back to her healing duties, flitting around and dumping tiny potions on people's heads.
Yuna Kagurazaka With her Haste buff cast, Kagura is .... honestly having some trouble being certain of what else she SHOULD do. Krampus is moving around an awful lot, the party tanks don't seem to be able to 'persuade' it to stay in one spot and focus on them; of course, with its rapid-fire chain skills, maybe they aren't making much progress either.

Either way, this is not being an easy boss fight. Kagura spends some time dodging as well as she's able, calling out thanks to Lune (Na`sa, she thinks) for the healing potion bestowed in passing ...

And as the Krampus switches up to trying to bag Staren and Iria and then to use them as a blunt object, Kagura makes her decision - finding a safe place to stand for the time being and playing debuff spells at the Krampus. Slow, Clumsy, Weak, whatever statuses she can inflict on it in a hurry. She'd love to swap back to her sword and shield, but she's going to do her best to weaken the boss before resorting to damage-dealing.
Yuuki Konno     The Knights have varying degrees of success with Krampus's attack. Yuuki dances away from its murderous spin, able to read it clearly and expecting a short-range power attack to retaliate for her slicing into the beast. She slips and skids before sliding out of reach of the monster, taking only a small portion of health damage as she avoids most of the beast's melee attacks though she's rendered at least momentarily out of the fight by the icy floor and by her skidding farther away while on the defensive.

    As a group the Knights react fast to the Krampus leaping back and breathing its gust of wind and ice. Tecchi is frozen fast, having tried to tank an ice chunk. Nori and Talken both move fast and free, easily avoiding the ice as they begin to skate in to take up the offense while Yuuki scrambles defensively. Siune is out of range of the worst of it. Jun was actually up-front, and somehow the little Salamander has the easiest time dealing with the ice and the gale. Must be a combination of his heavy Salamander frame, relative small size, and heavy armor. He slams that greatsword home against the Krampus before darting away, allowing Talken and Nori to chip away at it.

    Yuuki, still scrambling to regain her balance and return to the attack, makes one mistake. As she goes to turn out of the path of a streaming chunk of ice her ankle twists and she goes halfway down. She looks up, only to be slammed by the ice and stuck in place.

    Tecchi bellows, letting loose with an aggro skill that would do little to affect the boss's standard AOE attacks. It might make the boss decide to charge and gore him first, however, giving Yuuki a chance to defend herself since she's far more frail than the mighty Gnome. Tecchi takes the hit which strips off at least half his health. Yuuki struggles to free herself as the boss turns her way. Jun's there in moments, slamming his greatsword into the ice in an attempt to free her, then covering Yuuki as he faces the boss. It'll have to get past him to hit her. This probably doesn't bother the Krampus, but it'll suffer a full-on homerun swing of that greatsword as it charges Yuuki down.

    Yuuki, if she's still trapped after Jun tries to free her, will do her best not to be gored. She has her sword, and she lashes into the ice with her own diamond-shaped sword skill attacks to help Jun with cutting her free. If that's also not enough, she'll duck down and cover herself at the last moment, suffering a trampling to spare herself from getting gored.

    Siune's unable to cover Yuuki, not from that far away, but she moves to support Tecchi, healing some of the damage and disenchanting him to free him from the ice. Nori and Talken, seeing the group's tanks momentarily out of position, slide in to slash and smash at the Krampus in passing, keeping up the pressure as ordered.
Asuna      Asuna facepalms.

     "Oh man, I'm an idiot. Hey, Tomoe, Theo!" She steps away from the sorcerer, giving him a comforting pat. His boo-hoo dies mid-phrase, staring puzzled at her as she motions in the giant hammer and the giant, you know, whatever in the heck Tomoe is wielding.

     "Give that crystal some hammer diplomacy for him, will you?" She asks of the two tanks with a grin.

     "Don't worry, we'll have you out here mister cold mister."
Iria     The sack of surprises if you will...

    Iria gets hit hard by it and is knocked against a nearby cave wall. "AUGHH!" She cries out as she hits the wall with a wham, racking her virtual body and leaving her dazed for a moment. "Oooh... what the hell?" She mutters as she regains her senses. "Damn it! Twice that thing has gotten the best of me!" Iria rushes in faster, ignoring her injured body for the time being. "This time I'm holding nothing back!" She cries out!
Kirito     CRASH!

    Na`sa's POTIONGEDDON strikes true on the Krampus' front. the glass vial shatters, and nastiness follows. This is not an 'On Fire' status from the system though. It's a 'real' fire that shouldn't be IN the system. THE KRAMPUS pauses oddly, body shaking in a very glitchy fashion, as if it isn't sure how to process this turn of events. The flames quickly spread all over its body and its health begins a steady descent! ... Though it might take five to ten minutes to deplete it all at this pace.

    After about ten seconds, THE KRAMPUS continues its rampage. It dashes across the floor, heading straight for Tecchi, whom it did indeed target first a bit ago!

    By now, it's suffered quite a brigade of strikes from the Sleeping Knights!

    But something's odd now that it's running around while... ON FIRE.

    THE ICE FLOOR IS THAWING.

    The BURNING KRAMPUS, a vision straight out of a children's worst nightmare, next SLAMS both its fists into the ground.

    Kagura's Debuffs are slow to take effect. She has to try casting several times before anything sticks. The Krampus is struck with Weakness and Slow! Physical power down!

    But that ground slam... surely was meaningful somehow, right?

    LOOKING UP IS PROBABLY A GOOD IDEA.

    GIANT ICICLES are shaken loose from the ceiling and fall in no particular pattern at all. It's worst directly around the Krampus, but even people at the fringes may have to deal with a few falling ice spikes!

    The Krampus has been reduced to 2 health bars out of 4, largely from the Sleeping Knights' sustained assaults and Na`sa's fire. The bars turn yellow!
Theo Morrison Theo looks at the man. Then he looks at the block of ice. Then back at the man. He sighs a kind of long-suffering sigh that you don't usually hold down push-to-talk for, but that everyone has once in a while. He walks across the clearing, apparently measuring distances. Eventually, he stops next to the man, unslinging his huge hammer from his shoulder and holding it kind of like a baseball bat.

"You might want to cover your eyes in case it explodes," he warns.

Theodotus draws back, and with a yell, swings the enormous not-quite-rocket hammer at the thing pinning him. It's going to either save the day or trigger a boss fight. He's not sure which.
Auron     Dodging is really important here! Not only because the sack o' friends would hurt Auron, but because it would hurt whoever was inside it! Auron's group scatters again, though the bag 'o catte does strike his arm. He did have to try to protect the DPS, after all. He's thrown back, but gets to his feet quickly enough.

    And then suddenly icicles are falling. This is where Auron is glad he picked a light race-- WALL RUN! He can hopefully skirt most of the icicles by running on the wall. Game hitboxes can be funky at times. If he can, he's going to try to run around the Krampus, and see if he can do some hit-and-run claw-sniping.

    His DPS buddy gets the idea, and follows suit, but on the other side. And their magecatte stays out of range, dodging icicles while renewing/stacking buffs and distributing healz when possible.
Annie Sandberg      Silverbloom joins Kagura in debuffs, before spotting the icicles falling. Getting out of the way of one, she ends up forced forward, closer to the Krampus- the one that's now burning. The heat was pretty intense! Returning to her staff, she gripped it tightly and proceeded to whack the beast with the end of it a few times- at least, a part of it that wasn't burning- while she looked for a chance to get away.
Yuna Kagurazaka Kagura is cycling through her debuff riffs, so multiple attempts are a thing that she can do ... at least, when she's not dodging massive icicles.

Or when she's not lying flat on her back after the ground gets quaked by the boss slamming his fists down on the floor. Ow.

On the plus side, if she didn't wind up flat on her back, she wouldn't have NOTICED the icicles; she's already scrambling to get up some lateral speed as she works her feet back into position under her; she's skating more than running when she gets into motion, but she can work with that; she's got some experience at skating (albeit more rollerblading than actual ice-skating). Once she's in adequate motion she starts strumming her harp again, singing debuffs ...

... Singing? Yes. Actually working Words of Power into 'lyrics' as she tries to double up (sort of) on her magic. Puca style enchanted music is probably more likely to work for her than the 'traditionally chanted' spells, though.
Staren     Staren cuts the sack and tumbles out after only a couple of whacks, so he doesn't get caught in the fire.

    Staren tries jumping in for quick dagger slashes and immediately jumping away, but then the icicles force him back.

    Since he's having to back up to longer range anyway, Staren takes advantage of this opportunity to refresh one of his buffs -- <Darkness Barrier>, and then to attempt a direct attack spell on the Krampus: <Lightning Bolt>!
Na`Sabal-Une Fang      ...The Krampus seemed to be glitching in response to the alchemist's fire. Yep. This was why Nasa had delegated herself to largely just doing potion duty, since she couldn't do computers well enough to get the game, much less install or run it effectively. Though this might one of the few she /could/ manage, perhaps.

     Still, a steady descent of health seems like it's a pretty good idea. Especially with the timeframe given for how people are doing taking out nicholas the renegade. Alright. Nasa takes a soft breath as she began to draw magic again. And then... the floor begins to thaw without further cheatery on the drowess' part. "...Right then." She says quietly. She wasn't a seer, really! In spite of the fact her name means 'Amber spirit oracle'.

     BOOM! Falling icicles. Oh god. Nasa has to make an effort not to get speared by one, being small and fragile in her current form. Still, there are a large amount of them, and she dodges one, only to end up skidding along the side of another icicle, spinning along the edge of it. Until she's left kind of twirling in mid-air, looking dizzy. Also, to those who see health bars, her more-fragile-than-a-mage status shows. Luckily, being more fragile than a mage means that a potion is fairly effective, but her health fell rather dramatically from even an indirect hit. Which is why she was staying /way/ out of the way right now while she sips at a potion. Even going so far as to hide in some of the icicles along the sides of the room.
Iria     No matter what happens, Iria tries her best not to get hit by the icicles. And the quake doesn't faze her since, this time, she's timed her jump just right. Meaning that she's unfazed this time around, but her patience is another story. "Doesn't this thing ever die?" Iria wonders aloud. "I mean seriously, I know the bosses can take a bit of punishment and all that, but this thing just seems to keep going!" The music from Kagura seems to soothe Iria's patience a little and make her more focused on the fight.

    "You sing just as well as you do in real life," Iria says to Kagura with a slight smirk. "Too bad it's this thing's last song!" She then goes in again with more swiftness in her attacks than just pure strength.
Yuuki Konno     Tecchi, restored by Siune's magic, takes up the main tanking role once again. He barrels forward, slamming his hammer down on the Krampus. The rain of ice doesn't do much to him, though he pays far less attention to the ice than he does to the boss itself. The ice might shave his HP down if it hits him... the boss could turn him into a Remain Light.

    Nori is struck by falling ice, crying out more in surprise than in pain, retreating towards the healer for a little renewing magic. Siune's beginning to run low on mana but she heals the Spriggan warrior maid, and Yuuki too when the Sleeping Knights leader is finally free of the ice.

    Jun continues the assault on Krampus, though he tries to remain agile and free of the falling ice. He has more success avoiding the slow and powerful Krampus than he does the ice, and takes a series of hits that come close to knocking him out. He reels away, only to have Tecchi reach down and pick him up, flinging him towards Siune.

    As the Salamander tank flies out of melee range, Yuuki charges in. "50 percent! Boss is changing patterns!" she calls out in warning. With the enhanced footing provided by Na'sa's attack, she darts at the boss, weaving in and lashing out with a blazing-fast vertical square sword skill, hitting Krampus with steel and an explosion of Darkness energy. Once past it she turns and hits it again, carving red lines up and down its back and thighs. Her attacks are incredibly swift, though she lacks the power of the heavy hitters and her strikes are shallow, only depleting the boss's health through repetition.
Tomoe Tomoe keeps her long sword ready as Suna calls out to her ans Theo with a plan. She looks at the sobbing man for a moment gives him a goofy grin and moves to help Theo. Her blade is ready and she moves in. It seems that Theo is of the same mind as her, she readies a sword art. Then when he launches his attack she joins him in asupporting it, she kinda of hopes this is saving the day rather than a boss fight. It would be very different...than the normal sort of events she tends to fall into.
Asuna Theo swings the hammer around. Tomoe brings the greatsword done. The two connection at nearly the same the time, and the resulting reaction shatteres the ice that was holding the Winter Wizard, and, in a drastically swift action, she makes her perception check. Blink. "Uhhhh." Beat. "Um. Uh oh, I didn't think about that, uh-- duck?"

     That's to Tomoe and Theo. Asuna has thrown herself bodily on top of the sorcerer as the crystal explodes in thousands of shards in a earth shattering boom that causes the mountain to shake. It seems that this has now turned into a game of, based on the sound of thousands of pounds of snow running down the mountain, of outrunning an avalanch with a NPC ... without access to their wings.

     "Theo, in front! Clear out the path more for us! Tomoe behind him, and I'll ... I'll follow. We'll make it! Just have to put one foot in front of the other!"
Kirito     AURON and his crew have the right idea. The walls aren't as ICED UP as the Floor (although the floor IS thawing...) and wall running is a very good way to dodge the icicles. They all manage to leap in and slash THE KRAMPUS a few times for goodly damage - but WATCH OUT, it's still ON FIRE.

    A LOT of fire. Even with the weakening debuffs on it, and all the damage they're doing... getting IGNITED would be pretty bad. And humiliating.

    LIGHTNING strikes it, courtesy of Staren. The blast leaves a nice, scorched, red decal and shaves off about an eighth of its second health bar- second to last, that is. Combined with the damage from Auron, it's down to about 1.5 from that.

    Jun's continuous assault is mighty, but when combined with Yuuki's it's simply devastating. Down, down goes that healthbar as the blades bite into it. It makes ineffectcual counter swings, now focused on Yuuki over all others. Yuuki has ALL OF THE HATE!

    Surely the Krampus was meant to be PRETTY TOUGH, right? It would take a Guild like the Sleeping Knights to reduce its health this fast. Them, and the array of exceptional players around here.

    Surely, this thing was meant to be fought with more than a few handfuls of people at once.

    There's only one problem.

    CATASTROPHIC RUMBLINGS shake the ENTIRE KRAMPUS BOSS CAVERN. Once. Twice. Then finally a THIRD TIME!

    And the WALL COLLAPSES. With almost no time to spare, THE THIEVING GROUCH emerges from the settling dust cloud into the icy cavern, cackling in a weasely fashion and hurling bombs over his shoulder behind them! He's dashing around like a madman!

    Kirito and the others are knocked backwards by all the explosives. Meanwhile...

    THE KRAMPUS decides to home in on Yuuki, completely ignoring THE THIEVING GROUCH's presence in his room.

    THE KRAMPUS focuses almost on Yuuki and Jun, first with a stream of punches and then...

    THEN it leaps backwards with greater speed than before, spins up its chains and starts sweeping them for the Sleeping Knights! Well, at Yuuki. And everyone behind her. The chains are moving faster this time!

    Meanwhile...

    Meanwhile, Kirito and the others emerge from all the explosions. They're at fairly low health when THE THIEVING GROUCH turns on them, spins around and drops into a combat stance with its staff in hand. The GOODY SACK dangling from the end of that staff KICKS AND WRITHES AND WRIGGLES. Someone's in it?

    Argo and Lisbeth's voices. So they too got sacked, so to speak, huh?

    THE THIEVING GROUCH thrusts with its staff at Kirito and company, but Kirito and Agil team up to force the staff thrusts off course! In that moment of weakness...

    "SEEEEEIIIIYAHHH!!"

    Klein engages a KATANA Sword Skill and cuts a burning trail across THE GROUCH, forcing it back further towards the east end of the KRAMPUS CHAMBER.
Tomoe Tomoe has honestly been having fun, while it could be a serious problem she's going to assume this is just a slightly wonky event. She atually laughs, yet she does hear the warning and hits the deck. Soon they are staring to have to run from the snow. She knows how to normally avoid such but there's no real way to get to the side so they have to do the insane and try to run! Somoe is doing what she can to cover them as she moves.

"Do not stop moving unless you want to be found in the frozen food section tommrow!"
Theo Morrison 'Uh-- duck?'

Theo ducks.

When he's up off the ground again, the mountain is /coming down around them/. Theo looks up at the source of the avalanche, jaw dropping and eyes getting wide as dinnerplates. He takes a little prompting to get going, but he takes off at a sprint, using the weight of his gear for momentum as he's going /away/ from the /snow/.

"Environmental hazards aren't supposed to be boss fiiiights!!" Theo yells, with a gamer's rancor.
Staren     Rumbling. Staren's not sure what it is, so he recharges his daggers. He's gone through a lot of MP this fight, but that's better than hoarding it, right? He can always drink a mana potion if he runs out...

    Oh it's the wall. And the grinch. Who has bombs?? "Oh, /he/ gets to use explosives, but if /I/ use explosives I'm a cheater?" Staren's already running through the chaos towards The Grouch, aiming for an opportunity to cut the GOODY SACK and release their allies! And, y'know, while he's there, maybe backstab the monster, too.

    Staren's father sighs as the fight becomes a /mess/. He pushes nonexistant glasses up on his nose. Part of him can't help but think /this is actually such a cool boss fight/, though! And he's got his part to play in it! Fire, Water, and Lightning -- the Undine has raised his skills in all three to harm, heal, and buff! While the Grouch is away, he casts one of the longer spells, <Well of Healing>, a wide-area regen spell, to help the people fighting The Grouch.

    Which includes the bat we saw before! It's looking beat up, but as its wounds start healing, the Cait Sith commands it to try and grab that sack! Having the same idea as her son will either make it easier for Staren to cut Argo and Lisbeth free or go /hilariously wrong/. She also takes this opportunity to shoot The Grouch with basic <Fire Bolt> spells while it's farther away.
Na`Sabal-Une Fang      Okay, things were proceeding well, and while the Krampus' patterns changed, nothing too ridiculous seems to have happened. She seemed to have avoided much in the way of aggro, possibly because she was an aberration that shouldn't exist in the system. Hmmm.

     And then the other boss breaks through the wall into the central room, her eyes shifted between the various enemies thoughtfully, before she draws her twin (currently tiny) kukri.

     And... immediately, she darts towards that now-broken wall after boss and Kirito's party have gotten through it. She darts straight for the entrance to try to get to the crystal in the thief's room. In part to check and see if the crystal was still intact or not. And if it /was/ intact, she would swing the two enchanted Kukri towards it several times, taking advantage of the keen-edge enchantment.
Auron     It just so happens Auron's trying to run on the wall that is collapsing when the GROUCH appears. This, of course, completely disrupts his momentum and sends him sprawling and skidding on the ground. This is possibly comical if the ice is still thick enough to slide on. Particularly since he ends up on his face when all's said and done. His ears go back in irritation and he stands up, shaking his head.

    That's when he notices it. The black aura in the back of the cave. A very similar black aura to the one the KRAMPUS is sporting. He pauses, and then casts a Protect spell at his DPS. Why? Because he's heading for the crystal and intending to attack it.
Yuuki Konno     The Sleeping Knights operate as a well-oiled machine. Yuuki no sooner gets ALL THE HATE than she begins to drop back, going defensive to allow others to attack the boss in the back. Her movements are graceful poetry, if that poetry were to be described in glowing violet lines and in the red streaks continuing to dominate the Krampus. Talken darts in, embedding his spear deeply into the Krampus before darting away. Jun cuts its shin, then is smashed away only to have his place taken by Tecchi and Nori. The big gnome smashes the boss, while the spriggan darts in and embeds the spike of her warhammer into its back. It's almost dead, hopefully! It's red-bar now, which means... it's about to change its tactics!

    Nori goes flying, the action a mostly defensive leap to escape the sweeping scything chains. Tecchi follows, struggling to adapt to the sped-up rhythm of the assault. He's struck several times, but evades more than he tanks.

    Yuuki, meanwhile, studies the Krampus. It's maybe close enough to dead that one good attack could take it down. One VERY good attack. The other Knights are doing remarkable damage as always, and the others in the room are doing their parts too. They'd have been dead by now if it weren't for Na'sa healing and igniting the boss, for sure. She smiles, a tight little grin of pleasure. Yes, this is fun!

    The faster chain-sweeps have a consequence, Yuuki can tell. Though they're sweeping faster, the chains are no longer than before. That means less of their length sweeps out to the end, and the height of the sweep goes by faster than before. The combination means that while she has to be FASTER to dodge, she doesn't have quite as much dodging to do before she can strike the boss.

    Timing her move, Yuuki begins her final attack. Hopefully final, at least. "YaaaaaAAAAAAHHH!" she shrieks, lunging in and leaping over a chain, stitching a line of glowing strikes across the Krampus. Still in the air, she draws her arm back and strikes again, stitching another glowing line of strikes too fast to be seen. Krampus.... time to die!
Yuna Kagurazaka It was going so well and then the OTHER boss came barging through. Kagura stops playing briefly, partly to get the hell out of the Grouch's way and to make sure no more icicles are about to be dislodged on top of anyone else's head ... and once things seem sort of clear, she lifts her harp again.

o/~    Snowflakes ride on the wind 'neath our wings
    The blessings of winter depend on us all
    A maddened great spirit, a generous fae
    Twisted to evil, its life on the line

She's basically making the lyrics up as she goes, but she's doing so FAST ... and the melody to her song *IS* spell-music, the riffs of various party buffs and enemy debuffs linked one after the other. It's not the sweetest song ever, but as luck would have it? It *works* as a song, at least a sort-of-crude one.

It may or may not work well ENOUGH for purposes of the fight ... but as long as it benefits her allies, Kagura's hardly going to complain.

At least, it keeps working up until the Grouch actually does breath spiders. That's the point where Kagura freaks the hell out, all but dropping her harp and resorting to yelling a spell in Words of Power. The effect is going to be a ball of light exploding - and if Kagura were focused, it might go off in the Grouch's mouth. It's more likely to reduce the barrage of spiders, though. (Or maybe just scatter them further 'all over'. She's too freaked to care, Yuna *HATES* bugs and spiders and creepy-crawlies.)
Iria     Spiders? Oh no...

    Iria doesn't mind spiders generally, excpet when they're coming out like this. "Get outta here!" Iria yells as she tries to swat them away using her feet. She doesn't want to touch them with her bare hands... even though she's touched worst over the past few hunts!
Kirito     With THE GROUCH momentarily stunned by Klein's passionate usage of the Scarlet Fan Sword Skill, Staren and his family manage to cut the goody bag loose! Part of the cloth - the separated, small part tied around the wooden pole - derezzes and explodes into voxels just like that, and a PILE of boxes are released as the thing tumbles to the ground. It's just FAR too heavy for a bat familiar to carry for more than two or three seconds. Lisbeth and Argo rip the cloth away and gasp for fresh air, rolling out of it upon release... "Hahaha... phew. Now I feel like hurling..." Lisbeth murmurs to herself while Argo executes a few lopsided backflips away and behind a massive ice stalagmite for cover, groaning.

    "Magnificent work, Staren!" Sakuya cheers, having seen the affair. She waves her exceedingly long katana weapon in salute. Alicia Rue lets out a cheer for the effort. "A hero is born!" She teases, hand on her hips.

    THE GROUCH also proves to be decently vulnerable to fire. Klein's Fire slashes and the Fire bolts do a number on its remaining HP, bringing it down to the last bar in a hurry.

    YUUKI'S insight proves mostly correct. When you can react THAT FAST, the change in strategy is in fact of benefit to her. Her swift efforts slam into the Krampus! its health depletes rapidly... and hits Zero!

    Which happens a bit too quickly for Auron, unfortunately. The crystal flickers and dims, the black light dying down quite a lot into a dull, faint pulsing. It STILL needs to be destroyed though!

    A few whacks from Sword Skills is all that takes until it fragments into a million pieces!

    Meanwhile, the KRAMPUS... THE KRAMPUS hits zero health! It blurs, image distorts... but with the SOUND of hattering... does not shatter at all. INSTEAD it falls to one knee, the health bar vanishing. Gasping and panting, simply HEAVING for breath. "Grrrgh. You win, fairies." The creature states whilst rubbing its head as if pretty bewildered about why it's THERE.

    The fight against THE THIEVING GROUCH continues however. The green-furred TROLLTHING in the santa outfit regains its footing and immediately enters a new attack.

    Yuuki gets a WINDOW:
    CONGRATULATIONS: You got the Last Attack Bonus!
    <<Devil Horns>>, a head-equippable horned helmet styled after the Krampus's. Great stats, but looks ridiculous.

    Meanwhile, Kirito has re-engaged the CHRISTMAS GROUCH with the others.

    AGIL brings down his axe with a mighty chop. Silica comes dashing in with a flurry of dagger strikes! Kirito strikes with a fierce Sword Skill to the front! Eugene comes swooping in from the side to complement it! Then.... Alicia Rue tears into it with her claws!

    But its health isn't depleting quite fast enough, even though it's doomed. THE GROUCH...

    THE GROUCH looks out over the group and unleashes a grin unlike ANY the gruop's seen before. Its whole face distorts wildly, stretching sideways to accomodate the look. Lips peel back, revealing yellowed teeth... that TEEM WITH SPIDERS. Spiders are CRAWLING IN-BETWEEN ITS TEETH!

    THE GROUCH leans its head back, inhaling with the same animation as THE KRAMPUS...

    "OH NO YOU DON'T!" Kirito screams, just after ending one Sword Skill. His OTHER WEAPON ignites with a windy fury and he CUTS STRAIGHT THROUGH the GROUCH!

    ... ALMOST fast enough.

    The THIEVING GROUCH'S SPIDER BREATH is aimed straight up at the ceiling. A tidal wave of spiders flies from its mouth and straight up into the air, coating the ceiling and drifting down onto the arena like snowflakes.

    Then THE THIEVING GROUCH glows, derezzes, and bursts into voxels an instant later.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    ... it's raining spiders.

    THE GROUCH's exploding body leaves behind a large, rusty key that fits a chest that fell from his fallen goody sack...

    Yuna's crazy panic spell just SETS THE SPIDER RAIN SWIRLING CRAZILY, turning a gentle 'snowfall' into a whirling flurry! ... Oops.

    At least they seem to be harmless now that the boss is down.
Staren     Batty snatches the bag, Staren cuts it open, and he gets buried in presents. When Sakuya praises him, a hand sticks out of the pile and gives her a thumbs-up! He gets to work climbing his way out, only to find...

    ...it's raining spiders.

    "Aagh!" Staren flails largely in reflexive surprise and tries to brush them off, and then he holds one of the present boxes over his head as a shield, while his parents summon ice barriers to block the spiderain.

    Batty the beast-tamed giant bat monster has the time of its virtual life flying around trying to catch spiders in its mouth, though!
Na`Sabal-Une Fang      Well crap. The crystal wasn't in the room like she expected. Nasa is left looking around somewhat dumbly for a few seconds. She turns and quickly flits towards the main room again. Just in time to watch the Krampus go down.

     Okay, so he was ... not meant to be /killed/ it seems! Or at least not killed killed. Or he was really enduring. Hmm. Nasa flits over towards Krampus, pulling out an icy-blue potion. She unstoppers it, and then begins to upend it over Krampus' head. It didn't heal him, or restore his MP, or anything of the sort.

     Nope. It removed the alchemist's fire from him and turned it off. He might still be covered in sticky tar though. And then... dead rat-boss monster! Oh good! ... And it was raining spiders! Eeeeeeee! Nasa begins to flit around in the air. She was totally gathering the spiders.

     It seems, even when you are a "good" drow, certain loves still appear to be inherent. Soon, Nasa is likely covered in spiders. Also she's no longer in tiny form, so that she can add them to her collection on her wings. ... Possibly while competing with the bat to see who can get the most spiders.
Auron     Auron does indeed have Sword Skills. Though in this case they're with paired claws. There's one Skill he's been working on for a while, and here he lets it go, on the dulled crystal. It /is/ a quest objective, right? A carefully-planned flurry of claw slashes should crack it open.

    Meanwhile, there's trouble in the party. The DPS is suddenly chasing the healmage. Why? Because the healmage is running around in a circle like a chicken with its head cut off, yelling, "AAAAAAH OH GOD SPIDERS WHY ARE THERE SPIDERS WHY'D IT HAVE TO BE SPIDERS?!" The healer/mage might be... just a little afraid of spiders. And the DPS is just trying to catch the mage so the mage will chill out.

    Auron hears the ruckus and looks over... and then facepalms. One of his ears swivels back, the other flattens to the side.
Asuna      For the record? The avalanche has wiped out the path. There's a wall in front of Theo and Tomoe.

     They should know what the plan is at this point. Asuna and the Winter Warlock screaming behind them is probably the clue.
Kirito     While everyone's fussing over the the spiders... LEAFA calmly picks up the rusty key and uses it to open the chest. THERE... she sees the crystal. See crystal...

    STAB CRYSTAL. With a sudden thrust of her sword. "easy-peasy!"
Kirito     With the THIRD CRYSTAL destroyed... at first, nothing seems to be happening at all. But! ... soon, the wind picks up.

    At first a brief gust. Then a tugging pull. The wind jsut keeps getting exponentially stronger! EVERYONE is simply picked up and yoinked all of the way back through the dungeon. It's forced movement by the system!

    Back out, out and out and out! They're spewed up into the air over the workshop area where the Minions were... just in time to see the wind picking up.

    A clean, crystal-pure blizzard sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeps through the air, carrying off the gunky darkness. The curse is cleansed section by section. Then it swirls UP the great evergreen tree that's central to the entire settlement. It spirals up and up, carrying the curse off into the distant sky...... where it vanishes with hardly a twinkle.

    In the following moments, the workshops, homes, and other buildings light up in stunning sequence, as does the great tree! The colorful lights and decorations mentionede before are WORKING now, and not globbed down with darkness.

    The sound of sleighbells fills the air, and something streaks across the skies! Leaving twin contrails... or tracks maybe?

    Something up there glints. And falls. FAST.

    KIRITO's face has gone WHITE AS SNOW though. Because....

    KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

    NICHOLAS THE GIVER arrives in dramatic style. By FALLING. From the sky. His boots SLAM into the ground and kick up a huge shockwave of freshly fallen snow. A few people might get plastered by that.

    Nicholas is tall, far taller than any player character - easily twice the size of those bosses everyone just fought. He's dressed in the fine red robes that should need no description, but he is in spectacular shape rather than chubby or portly. A broad, warm face full of cheer and an epically long white beard to go with it. He spreads his arms welcomingly and annouces...

    "How many ages has it been? So many, many gifts I have given... yet the times anyone has given ME such a gift as this, those are rare times indeed, good fairies. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you. After so many years, my mind is again... clear."

    No 'ho ho hos' or anything jolly, but waves of pure gratitude are all but flowing from this ENORMOUS man!

    Far behind him, the famous sleigh, pulled by all eight reindeer, makes a grand landing.

    He probably could have waited.
Yuuki Konno     Yuuki's final strike, the ending thrust of Mothers Rosario, strikes the Krampus. When the violet smoke fades, she's surprised to see the beast still standing. Well, not standing... crouching. And apparently surrendering. YAY! This means they did good right?

    The loot window means indeed they did good, and Yuuki admires her rather hideous reward. Horny indeed. She notices Auron going for the crystal and nods approvingly. They have to destroy the darkness controlling this land to free Nicholas after all! There's no time to admire her loot! But of course there's also nothing left to do, not in this room. Just watch Auron get the crystal, and Nasa get ... the spiders. Weird. Yuki's bemused, Talken's weirded out, Nori's outright busting a gut laughing. The rest of the Knights are just getting together, organizing, making sure everyone's okay and there's nothing left needing doing or needing a beating.

    When they're all swept out through the underground dungeon, Yuuki shrieks. In delight as much as terror, possibly even more in delight than in terror... a delight that lasts as they rush out, as they're deposited... and until Nicholas slams down. Only that manages to sober her, somewhat.

    She doesn't respond though, just bows her newly-horned head to the winter wonderlord. Yuuki's just a sword. She didn't get any of the three crystals. This isn't her victory... the true win goes to them, she figures. She'll let them do the talking. She'll help them celebrate later though!
Na`Sabal-Une Fang      Spiders are likely sent flying out with them. Everywhere. Also Nasa is blown away easily, being small, light, and portable. Even in her full sized form, she's rather short! Aaaand she lands in the ever-so-graceful head-in-the-snow manner.

     Because, really, that wind got her easily. She got up quickly though, in a very cat-like 'I meant to do that'. Lights. Crystal-pure blizzard, darkness gone, and lights and workshops!

     Nasa just kind of sits there in the snow, her legs splayed to the side in an 'M' shape. And then a massive, heavy person lands, and sends snow flying. Nasa suddenly stops being 'deep purple' and instead looks more like a snowfaerie now. A nicely-sculpted one.

     Also the spiders that were on her wings were likely blown off, though a few specific ones rapidly skitter back up onto her wings. In response to Nicholas the giver, she responds with the oh-so-graceful "Pfbht." as she gets the snow off of her face.
Staren     Staren's attempts to find out what's happening in Alfheim are interrupted by WIND. SO MUCH WIND!

    They're launched into the sky, watching as the curse is cleaned, and then set down.

    And...

    NICHOLAS THE GIVER arrives. Staren sighs in relief even as he's splashed by snow, which he gently brushes off. He looks up, up, up at Nicholas, and approaches, stopping several feet away and extending a hand upward as if to shake, though he might have to shake just a fingertip. "After all these years... I never did forget, but I feared it might be longer still before we could save you. Somehow, Rudolph found me, so that we could all come here and lift the curse."

    Staren considers how to put his thoughts in words their programming will understand.

    "...I heard his wish, and together," he makes a sweeping gesture at the group, "We granted it. ...I... just want to know, though: What will you do now, now that you're free?"
Theo Morrison Theo sees a wall ahead of him and a moving wall of snow behind him. This is a problem.

But you know what they say about problems and hammers.

Across the mountainside, a voice rings out. It is clear and true, the time-tested battlecry of the not-quite-legendary Leprechaun metalworker who has braved the cold for the true spirit of Christmas. If there were not already an avalanche, it might cause one; such is its power in a time of greatest need. And yet it comes faintly, and puzzles everyone who hears:

"...powerboooomb the tornaaaadoooo...!!"

...maybe the translation didn't work out?

Theo hits a wall hammer-first and turns it into formerly wall-colored rubble. He pulls something out of his inventory and flings it to the ground, landing on top of it with Asuna, Tomoe and their 'sorcerer' friend in tow. The object in question is... a door, apparently intended to be part of a larger structure, now relegated to snowboard for the rest of the trip down.

It is way less stressful than running for his life, and he'll probably pay off the material cost and then some from this raid alone.
Auron     OKAY THIS IS BAD! Not having his feet on the ground is something Auron takes exception to, unless it's under his own power. So his ears go back and his tail fluffs up mightily, and he flails about in the air until he's dropped unceremoniously in the snow. He's solidly built for a Cait Sith, though, and he hadn't been able to correct his landing. So...

    Foomp.

    It's hard to see a white cat's tail against the backdrop of the snow, isn't it?

    His party doesn't fare much better, though they don't end up buried. A few moments later though, Auron pokes his head out of the snowback he'd fallen in, and then shakes the snow off his head and ears. He's at least able to see the curse and general ickiness abate from the area and disappear.

    Standing up, he smoothes his long vest down-- keep that tail hidden!-- just in time to get sprayed by snow and stagger due to a shockwave. At least he kept his footing that time. Once more he shakes snow off of him, and looks to NICHOLAS THE GIVER. Not Nicholas the Renegade, Auron notes. he bows politely to Nicholas. "It's good to see you're back to normal," he comments.
Asuna      "What?" Asuna asks Theo.

     About five seconds later, when they've rejoined the group, sounding quietly traumatized, and possibly holding onto Tomoe and Theo tighther than she normally might: "Never again." There's about five seconds and then THERE'S SANTA CLAUS. Asuna is quieted, in awe of the giant, jolly man.
Kirito     Apparently drawn by the lightshow, Rudolph flies in over the group and swoops down to rejoin his friends! It seems that all may indeed be again well in Winterland.

    Nicholas the Giver seems to be amused by this question from Staren though. "Hmmm..." He reaches down though, gently taking Staren's hand between two fingers and shaking carefully yet firmly. "What indeed. Well, there is much work to do. I'm running a few days late this year, but better a little late than never." He answers warmly. "And so..." The great big man holds a hand out generously--

    QUEST COMPLETE!

    The window appears for everyone, along with loot boxes!

    ALL SKILLS gain +20 points of growth, a rather unusual thing to have happen.
    There's enough Yurd to buy a cheap house...
    The loot contains tons of Christmas goodies - not just themed food, but house decorations, a few unique recipes, holiday-colored weapons that inflict ice damage, and various Santa-style outfits... including a few that are more 'Father Christmas' than 'Santa Claus.'

    "Everything began several years ago, before Aincrad took up its present orbit. I saw a green fellow skulking around the mines under the settlement. Everything after that is very hazy... only time will sort it out. But... I may have done some terrible things. There is no excuse for that, if I fell prey to evil magics. Beware the Frost Giants, good fairies, for it is their magic I feel at work behind this humiliation! I fear their leader, Thrym, may be up to something. Odin must be alerted at once.... before any chaos can befall Alfheim, Midgard, or the other worlds."

    Oh right. This world IS pretty Norse Mythology in action, isn't it?

    Theodotus' unconventional arrival is heralded with the same quest complete window as everyone else! Along with Asuna and Tomoe, thankfully. Nicholas does quirk an eyebrow at their entry method though.

    "There's plenty enough here to go around already. Good to see someone can enjoy themselves so well in such desperate times. Now, though... there is SO much work to be done and very little time. Let me return you to your own world, good fairies. You have done a marvelous thing tonight.. and now, you all deserve a fine rest."

    NICHOLAS THE GIVER spreads his hand out, chanting something faintly...

    The QUEST TELEPORT is happening again!

    In a little bit everyone'll be standing before a very familiar pine tree again, in front of the last embers of a smoldering campfire...
Auron     Auron receives a lot of loot! Also Yurd! And...

    He blinks.

The 'Santa Claws', a pair of ice-elemental claw weapons that look like nothing more or less than a pair of green bracers with sharp, hooked candy canes for claws. Hey, they're probably pretty powerful!

    While he's sorting through it, he listens to Nicholas. Frost giants, hm? Have to be careful there. Maybe go train some fire-elemental familiars.

    And then teleportation is happening! Before they disappear, he nods respectfully to Nicholas. "Take care," he offers.

    Then the next thing he knows... pine tree!

    The mage of his party points a candy-cane patterned staff at Auron. "Ah-HA! I /knew/ you had a tail!"

    Auron sighs.
Staren     Staren's expecting Santa to say something about how he's going to go deliver gifts, or maybe something indicating he's more than just an NPC... but he's still surprised by the extent of the christmas rewards! His eyes widen slightly as he scrolls through the window, then dismisses it. There will be time for going through it all later.

    When Santa starts explaining that the frost giants, an Alfheim enemy, must be behind this, though, disappointment shows on Staren's face. (And ears, and tail)

    Oh.

    They /were/ just NPCs.

    He made a fool of himself, getting all worked up over it.

    He stares down at the snow for a moment. But when Santa starts chanting the QUEST TELEPORT spell, he looks over to Rudolph, if the reindeer is here, and waves sadly.

    Once they're back in Alfheim, Staren turns away and trudges off towards Sylph territory. His parents follow him until he's out of sight of most of the others, before handing back the guns he gave them just in case.

    "Sorry, Staren." Comforting hugs ensue. "If it's any consolation... Look, if they're your friends after all this time, they're not gonna make a big deal over a wrong guess. It's like, it's like... Remember, you told me about the time some grey goo showed up and you were rightfully concerned and everyone said you were overreacting and then it turned out to be /friendly/ grey goo and the Union decided to feed it empty planets?" Staren sighs, "Well I'd forgotten until /now/." "And so did they! This'll be like that. Besides, if it's any consolation... I know I just said that... but anyway... at least them turning out to be normal NPCs means that sapient beings /haven't/ been tortured for the past few years."

    Staren stops walking. "Hm." he looks thoughtful. "You're right."

    "It's Christmas, and they all just got a bunch of sweet loot. Even if that doesn't take their mind off it, noone's gonna make a big deal about it now!" She smiles.

    Staren smiles back. "I guess you're right." He looks back towards the group. "...I'll see you later, Mom, Dad. I gotta go hide all the guns again before the admins notice them."

    And the catboy summons his noble steed and rides off towards the distant warpgate.
Tomoe Thankfully, Tomoe and her companions are not held for long soon they find they are pulled from where they are and sent to a new location. They are in right in the middle of Santa's domain this could be bad, however this isn't the case as Satana seems to have got his head in working order again he doesn't seem to be in any hostility now.

"Good to see your mind is clear again, it's been difficult the last few times we have met, to put it midly."

Odd for her to say that, then again a the GU and a few people like Eugene and the Sleeping Knights would get why.

"I"m glad we were sucessful. It's sad seeing you not jolly. Even though during your time cusrsed? It did save me and thank you."
Na`Sabal-Une Fang      Yaaaay! Quest completed! And... well. She gets some experience and such, which sadly doesn't mean much to Nasa, being a person and not a character in the game. And Yurd! Woo money! ... Of course, she wasn't a character, so once again it might not work as well. Or she's now covered in a pile of items and money right now, either or! She seems content either way, just to get the snow off of herself. And then... she turns an impish grin at Yuuki, who had tempted fate.

     Nasa lifts her hands, and begins to Cheat once more, sending snow swirling in a small tornado towards Yuuki to attempt to coat her and possibly the rest of the Knights in snow while she figures out the loot situation. Santa, meanwhile, is just given a flashed grin as she waves towards him. She was really just along for the ride.