Twenty-five sessions. Over 100 hours of play time. A year and a half in the real world. Our party has finally completed 5e’s infamous adventure, Curse of Strahd! In our most recent episode, we reviewed our experiences as both DM and players traveling through the dread lands of Barovia.
During the episode, DM Tony asked what my hope was when I ran this adventure, what I hoped to get out of it. As I have stated many times on the podcast, I was hoping to see how this adventure ran as published. As DM Thorin has astutely remarked, I wanted to see the classic movie that everyone talked about.
In many ways, I feel that this was accomplished. Story-wise and mechanically (aside from the advanced grappling rules we developed for DM Tony’s wrestling barbarian, Hawk Morgan), I stayed very true to the adventure as written for over nine levels of play. It was at this point that the holidays rolled around and I decided to run a Christmas adventure that stayed true to the tone and setting of Curse of Strahd. It also completely changed the power curve and lower magic setting of Barovia with my introduction of Christmas gifts at the end of the adventure.
How do you run a vampire-laden, gothic horror Christmas one-shot, you ask? Quite easily, actually. One has to look no further than the Joe Hill novel, and later television show, NOS4A2.
Charlie Manx. Abducted children. Christmasland. A chance to run my Curse of Strahd party against a vampire almost as powerful as the published CR 15 Strahd.
So, in its entirety, here is 3WD’s Christmas gift to all of you – a joyful, dread, merry and gothic one-shot that checks all the boxes for vampires and Christmas!
Welcome to Christmasland
A picture is worth a thousand words. This is even truer when you find the map by C.P. Wilson III that was included in Joe Hill’s graphic novel:
All I had to do was look at the legend and the drawings to have a flood of ideas begin. Basically, plug and play.
First, I had to get my players from Barovia to Christmasland. As it plays in the television series, I used the idea of Ways, a bridge that certain special people can use to travel to other places. The Megaliths, similar to the ones found behind Old Bonegrinder, that I placed outside of the village of Krezk in Barovia served this purpose.
As the players arrived in the snow-filled forests outside of Christmasland, they came upon the Sleigh House, Charlie Manx’s former home where he had murdered his wife, Cassie, and kidnapped his daughter, Millie.
The players find the ghost of Cassie who tells them the story of Charlie Manx and their daughter Millie as well as revealing that Manx has kidnapped Wotan, the All-Father (Santa!) and is draining his power and ruining the Wild Hunt (Christmas!).
She then gives gifts to the players: A unique ornament that allows entry into Christmasland as well as necessary MacGuffins for later in the session, including a wooden stake, a bag of carrots and straw, a bit and bridle fitted with sleigh bells, a key, a match, and a flask of strong-smelling liquid (gasoline).
The players then arrive at the entrance to Christmasland:
The Rules of Christmasland
One of the advantages of one-shot adventures is that they allow you to play with different rules and mechanics within the game because there doesn’t have to be as much consistency with your normal sessions. So, you can play up certain factors to add to the theme – in our case here, Christmasland, “Where Everyday is Christmas and Unhappiness is Against The Law!”
Christmasland, as revealed in the series, is a fantastical amusement park where Charlie Manx brings children to feed off of their lifeforce – turning them eventually into a form of undead. To add to this flavor, I included the idea of “Soul Money” as the currency within Christmasland – a piece of the player’s soul reflected as a decrease to their hit points as well as a reduction of their maximum hit points. The ornaments that the players possess allow entry into Christmasland. Additionally, any Soul Money transactions are stored in their ornament. If all of their “money” is gone, they are forever trapped in Christmasland.
I added extreme weather conditions, requiring a DC 12 Constitution Saving Throw each hour, with failure resulting in a level of exhaustion, cumulatively. Effects within Christmasland could offset this at the cost of Soul Money.
To add one more level of joyful horror, I added the Christmasland Children as a roving band that the players may encounter. The children would play their favorite game, “Scissors for the Drifter,” wherein they would overwhelm the party and attempt to stab the players to death. The children were undead commoners with scissors that dealt 1d4 Soul Damage – hit point loss AND maximum hit point reduction.
Filling in The Map
As I showed earlier, the map drawn for Joe Hill’s novel laid out the one-shot for me – all I had to do was populate it with encounters: combat, exploration, social and treasure encounters. What follows are the encounters I built within Christmasland from my actual session prep notes. I broke them out along the different streets within Christmasland. As you can see from the map, there are more buildings than what I included, which gives you even more possibilities for your own Christmas game!
Gumdrop Avenue
Small one-story Gingerbread Houses w/ “snow” frosting on roofs and windows. All the NPCs working the counters at these shops are automatons. They exist to welcome new “children” to Christmasland and complete the transactions. They are not built for combat. I used a Commoner stat block if needed.
Le Chocolatier – Hot chocolate and chocolate candies remove Extreme Cold Save and exhaustion. Costs 1d4 Soul Money
Punch & Judy’s – Puppet show starts when PCs enter. Can use to provide clues or rumors about Christmasland and Charlie Manx through the puppet show.
The Toy Box – PCs can purchase a wrapped toy for 1d4 Soul Money. Random roll on Magic Item Table B (DMG pg. 144) I created a limit to how many gifts a player could purchase.
Mr. Manx’s Mulled Cider Shop – Mulled Cider costs 1d4 Soul Money and removes exhaustion and need for Cold Saves.
Great Christmas Tree – Players can see all of the children’s ornaments on the tree. Their ornament must be placed on the tree to allow for Soul Money transactions. A shimmering energy field surrounds the tree. It is the magic that is allowing the draining of the children’s lifeforce, the PCs’ and Wotan’s.
Reindeer Road
Kastle of the Frost Kings – 3 Frost Giants dressed as Santa Claus, Father Christmas and St. Nicholas welcome the party by saying, “Merry Christmas, children. How about a snowball fight?,” then pummel them with giant snowballs.
The Cloud Pirates – Pirate crew that is formed out of snowy cloud-like material. The boat begins to swing back and forth, ascending 20’/round into the air. Progressively difficult DC checks (Athletics or Acrobatics) to stay in (DC 12, 15, 17). Failure means players fall out, take bludgeoning damage concurrent with height. Success means the ride finishes by making a circuit around Christmasland where you can see a huge being (Wotan) chained in the middle of the Gumdrop Forest and Ice Maze.
The Krampus Korkscrew – Admission is 1d4 Soul Money. Make a Constitution Saving Throw (DC 14) or get sick, fall out and take bludgeoning damage (2d6). Success means PCs can see where Wotan is being held.
Christmas Queen’s Tower – Admission is 1d4 Soul Money. Only one PC can enter the tower at a time. Holly the Christmas Queen asks the PCs a riddle. Correct answer means they get crowned an honorary Christmas Queen and are gifted with a present (random roll on Magic Table B). Failure means they are thrown from the tower and take 3d6 bludgeoning damage.
- I come with many colors, so beautiful and bright, I turn so many houses into a beautiful sight. What am I? Christmas Lights.
- Why are Christmas trees so bad at knitting? They always drop their needles.
- Why do mummies like Christmas so much? All the wrapping.
- When you go out in a blizzard and see a vampire, what do you get? Frostbite.
Tallow’s Terrific Wax Works – Admission is 1d4 Soul Money. PCs who enter get to make their very own wax homunculus that they can command while in Christmasland.
Licorice Lane
The Gumdrop Inn – Cookies and eggnog cost 1d4 Soul Money and provide healing (1d8). They do not remove any reduction in hit point maximum.
The Arctic Eye – Giant conductor is a Stone Golem. Ride costs 1d4 Soul Money. Common Ferris Wheel ride, when you reach the apex, you can see where Wotan is being held in the Gumdrop Forest/Ice Maze.
Gumdrop Forest and Ice Maze – Skill Challenge: 6 successes before 4 failures to navigate the maze. For each failure, the PC rolls DC 15 Wisdom Saving Throw or become affected by confusion and attack nearest PC thinking they are Manx or Strahd. Success leads to where Wotan is being held. Failure means Abominable Yeti finds the PCs. When Wotan is found, the key that the players were gifted unlocks his manacles. He is still being drained. His power can only be returned when Manx is destroyed.
Santa Street
Reindeer Go-Round – Costs 1d4 Soul Money. Sleipnir, Wotan’s eight-legged mount, is currently chained and muzzled here. The bit and bridle and the bag of carrots and straw gifted to the PCs are Sleipnir’s. They return his ability to fly. The key unlocks his chains.
The Sleigh Coaster – Costs 2d4 Soul Money. Giant red carpet that leads in is a giant tongue. Pulls PCs forward after portcullis slams shut behind them.
A set of whirling blades for the first 80’ capped off by crushing pillars (teeth) for remaining 40’. Moves 20’ per round
Initiative 20 (Whirling Blades): DC 15 Dexterity Saving Throw or 2d10 slashing damage. Half on a success.
Initiative 10 (Crushing Teeth): DC 15 DEX Save or 2d10 bludgeoning and knocked prone. Half on a success.
Leads out to Sleigh Coaster. PCs might see where Wotan is being held while on the ride.
World War Snow – Sign outside proclaims, “Let’s Have A Snowball Fight!”
Door slams shut behind PCs after they enter.
Six Duergar dressed as Christmas elves are here, already enlarged. They turn invisible after yelling at the PCs. 2 snowballs thrown at each PC per turn. +4 attack. 2d6 cold damage. If they beat the duergar with snowballs, they win a prize.
Rock Candy Cave – Boats hold 4 people each. Ropers made out of rock candy attack PCs who enter.
The Final Battle
As you can see, there are plenty of attractions to keep your players interested in exploring Christmasland, including any that you create yourself. Depending on the length of your session, allow the first 30 minutes to get them to the Sleigh House to meet Cassie, reveal the quest and then into Christmasland proper.
Once they are in Christmasland, allow three-quarters of your time for interactions and exploring within Christmasland. I would seriously recommend keeping all of these encounters as Theater of the Mind to speed up the game, allowing as much exploration as they would like.
Keep an eye on the clock and have a set time for the arrival of Charlie Manx in his Wraith Rolls Royce.
Charlie Manx is the basic CR 13 vampire found in the Monster Manual. His Wraith automobile is his coffin. The Wraith can be driven by Manx or can drive itself, to add some added environmental dangers to the final encounter. I built the Wraith Rolls Royce to be a depowered Hellfire Engine as found in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. I removed all of its actions except the Flesh-Crushing Stride. The gasoline and match provided to the players can light the Wraith on fire, destroying it within a certain number of rounds.
I included Manx’s daughter Millie in the final encounter as a vampire spawn. She wielded a rapier that dealt normal rapier damage plus 1d8 Soul Damage.
If more enemies are needed for your party, there are plenty to be found within Christmasland, as detailed out in the previous section (Stone Golem, Frost Giants, Christmasland Children, Oh My!)
Final Thoughts
Not many people would consider placing a Christmas game smack dab into the center of 5e’s gothic horror adventure, Curse of Strahd. We did. As designed, this was used for a party of six adventurers of 9th level. The encounter difficulty can be adjusted easily by replacing the type and number of monsters found throughout Christmasland.
This adventure served four main purposes within our game:
- It allowed what 3WD has begun to call a “palette cleanser.” There is only so long players can stay invested in and maintain the dread tension of a locale like Barovia. This allowed a breather before re-entering the campaign proper.
- It allowed me to introduce some special magic items into the game that the party was definitely interested in obtaining. With Curse of Strahd being lower magic than some published adventures, this is an easy way to control the flow of powerful items.
- I was able to see how the party, at the book recommended level for the Strahd confrontation, would fare against an almost similar opponent. I was able to play full-out with the abilities of a vampire to gain valuable information to improve the challenge of the final confrontation with the BBEG.
- It opened up an important storyline revolving around the mystery of the Megaliths (Standing Stones) that I could further tease out in future sessions.
Themed one-shot adventures, especially Holiday ones, are an excellent addition to your games. They hearken back to the old-style adventuring that populated the early days of the game and allow you to play with new story ideas, rules or mechanics. Finally, they allow a short respite from long-running campaigns which, even with the most invested and engaged players, can start to drag at times.
Please let us know your thoughts on the design of Christmasland and definitely let us know what your experiences are with running it this Holiday Season.
Until next time, heroes … LIVE THE ADVENTURE!
I’m prepping to run this in my group, and I’m doing a few mods.
Firstly: there are 3 level 4 characters in my game right now, but I’m going to be bringing in a few new people, so I asked my characters: “Most people don’t actually grow up to be when they were little. Tell me what their characters wanted to be when they grew up? Were you the smart kid when you were growing up who saw the muscly barbarian come through town and wished you could be as strong as him? Were you the brawn of your friend groups and wished you could be the smart kid in class?”
I’m going to then create them some level 9 characters based on what they wanted to be. When they cross into Christmasland, their characters immediately “transform” into their children’s idea of themselves! They’ll only return back to who they were if they survive and escape Christmasland.
This will give the new/temporary players a level playing field and give them all an “epic” feel.
Secondly: I’m creating a hook using this flyer that they’ll find on a “wraith” that’s driving away with children in the back:
https://imgur.com/gallery/JXv5m5R
I took the images from the comic, book, and the tv show and quickly shopped them. I may tweak it a bit after I’ve printed and “aged” the paper. We’ll see how it goes!
I’m prepping to run this in my group, and I’m doing a few mods.
Firstly: there are 3 level 4 characters in my game right now, but I’m going to be bringing in a few new people, so I asked my characters: “Most people don’t actually grow up to be when they were little. Tell me what their characters wanted to be when they grew up? Were you the smart kid when you were growing up who saw the muscly barbarian come through town and wished you could be as strong as him? Were you the brawn of your friend groups and wished you could be the smart kid in class?”
I’m going to then create them some level 9 characters based on what they wanted to be. When they cross into Christmasland, their characters immediately “transform” into their children’s idea of themselves! They’ll only return back to who they were if they survive and escape Christmasland.
This will give the new/temporary players a level playing field and give them all an “epic” feel.
Secondly: I’m creating a hook using this flyer that they’ll find on a “wraith” that’s driving away with children in the back:
https://imgur.com/gallery/JXv5m5R
I took the images from the comic, book, and the tv show and quickly shopped them. I may tweak it a bit after I’ve printed and “aged” the paper. We’ll see how it goes!
This looks really cool. I’m a novice GM, however, and I don’t really grok how to adjust levels; I know it would be a meat-grinder for my five 6th-level adventurers….
Hey Cassy!
Thanks for the feedback! Just rant CoS group through a completely different 2nd Christmas one-shot which would annihilate your current group 😉😂
That’s a great question and can seem daunting. Two things, monsters and traps. In the DMG, there are guidelines as to how much damage traps should be able to do and what the DC should hover around for certain levels.
As for monsters, that’s much easier.
For 5 6th-level adventurers, you should shoot for creatures of CR 4-8. We’ve found that parties of more than 4 allow a larger CR. Remember that CR is based on one creature per 4 players (ie, CR 1 monster is a challenge for 4 1st level adventurers).
When I come across a one shot like this, I just populate it with creatures that are similar but not as powerful. For instance, the frost giants turn into ogres or hill giants. The abominable yeti is now a normal one.
I hope this helps!
This looks like fun