You are a hero, a person with great abilities, good temperament, a strong heart, and an even stronger love for spiked eggnog. As you sit in your favorite fur-covered, sheep wool-padded chair, alone in the solitude of greatness, you hear a series of thuds on your roof, followed by what sounds like scratching against the roof tiles. Your neighbor must have lost their gryphon again. You decide to round it back up and, hopefully, you will not need a finger reattachment from the cleric again... You walk out of your cottage, it is winter but there’s no snow on the ground. Not yet. Climate change has seemed to shift the snow into the early months of the new year (and they say it’s a hoax?). Anyway, the towering buildings of the bustling city can be seen in the distance to your right, it is strange though… you are clearly part of a fantasy world, but the cityscape looks quite modern, like New York, Seattle, or Portland. There’s no time to dwell on the finer details though, you have a gryphon to catch! When you look up on your roof, you do not see an eagle-lion at all. Rather, to your aghast, you see a very different creature! Above you, holding a bag full of wrapped parcels and decorated from wingtip to tail, is Kringle Klaws! You didn’t even believe in Kringle but here she is, right in front of you. A sack full of gifts and all. What a sight to see! Not only are you shocked that you are beholding Kringle Klaws but you are nearly floored when she starts to speak to you. “Adventurer,” she says. “Something terrible has happened and I have been forced to seek your aid. I have known of your deeds since that very first piggly-wiggly you saved over in Yazoo and I need your skills. Only you can save our holiday.” Knowing that you are too stunned to speak, she continues. “Another godly being has come from the land of the Vikings, the fiend calls himself ‘Kris.’ He has stolen my Red Globe of Illumination and I need you to get it back before the sun sets. Without the globe, I cannot deliver the gifts to your fellow humans.” You have only the whit to ask “Where?” “I watched him place the globe into a chest strapped to one of his reindeer,” she says. “I was able to follow the furry beast to a fort in the hills not far from here. There, the hooved menace passed by a large illuminated tree and disappeared down some stairs. We need to hurry, I am running out of time.” —description from the designer