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The rivalry between the Old Carvas and Krampus reaches a climax when a grumpy old gnome turns the

balance between good and evil deeds in favor of Krampus, allowing the sinister archfey to take over the

Candy Throne! It is up to the characters and some Old Carvas’ helpers to teach a lesson to the greedy

Eberdeb Stooge and save Caravance!

A 4-Hour Adventure for Three to Five 1st-4th Level Characters.

CREDITS Designer: Andrés Lillo, instagram.com/azzael_ulbrinter/ Cover Illustrator: Ricardo Riveros, instagram.com/tandel21/ Interior Illustrators: Most of the art in this supplement was made by Ricardo Riveros, with the only exception being the art in page 3 which was made by Josefina Maige. Template: Simple Microsoft Word Template by Laura Hirsbrunner Based On: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

To my girlfriend and her warlock elf that inspired this adventure. All I want for Christmas is you.

Disclaimer: Meddling in fey affairs can only make for great stories. Except if one of

these fey involved is Oberon, you don’t want to end up with your head transformed into that of a donkey, right? Messing up with Krampus’ plans isn’t a good idea either, nor with any hag. On second thought, it is best to avoid dealing with fey of any kind.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, Wizards of the Coast, Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, Eberron, the dragon ampersand, Ravnica and all other Wizards of the Coast product names, and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast in the USA and other countries.

This workSample contains material that is copyright Wizards of the Coast and/or other authors. Such material is used with permission under thefile Community Content Agreement for Dungeon Masters Guild.

All other original material in this work is copyright 2020 by Andrés Lillo and published under the Community Content Agreement for Dungeon Masters Guild.

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ONTENTS C

Introduction ...... 4 Adventure Primer ...... 4 Old Carvas’ Cabin ...... 5 Starting this Adventure ...... 5 Little Helpers ...... 5 Exploring the Cabin ...... 5 Krampus’ Arrival ...... 10 Stooge’s Routine ...... 11 Arrival At Waterdeep ...... 11 Running this Act ...... 11 Stooge’s Day ...... 12 Bedtime ...... 13 Entering Stooge’s Dreams...... 13 Caravance Eve ...... 14 Running this Act ...... 14 Caravance Past ...... 14 Caravance Present ...... 16

Caravance Future ...... 17

The End of It ...... 18

Epilogue ...... 19

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ADVENTURE PRIMER INTRODUCTION “I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the elcome to A Caravance Carol, a D&D 5th Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of edition adventure set in Caravance, the humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or equivalent of Christmas in the Forgotten Realms. This adventure will have the with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one characters meddling in the affairs of two wish to lay it. powerful archfey and will require the use W —Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol of their creativity to scare a stingy old gnome named Stooge in order to save Caravance. ADVENTURE BACKGROUND SHARED STORYTELLING For centuries the Old Carvas and Krampus have fought This adventure showcases a variation of the Plot Points over the matters of how to improve mortal behavior. While rules presented in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. On the third Old Carvas methods involve rewarding the nice children and final act of this adventure, the characters will interfere with gifts, Krampus methods focuses on punishing the on the dreams of Stooge, changing the scenes in order to naughty kids. This conflict ended when the Court of Stars tell a better story and scare the gnome. You should feel agreed in the following method to determine who would comfortable with the players changing the scenes and be decide what to do with the behavior of mortals: quick to adapt over these changes. This adventure contains  One of the archfey would be declared as the ruler of the many guidelines to aid you running this act. Candy Throne and have total authority on the matter.  If by the morning of the first day of Tarsakh of each ADJUSTING THIS ADVENTURE year, the number of bad deeds exceeds the good ones, While this adventure is designed for low level characters, it the other archfey would take control over the Candy is not built around combat and thus it can be adapted Throne. easily to any level and any number of players. Low level  The new ruler would have a whole year to turn the tables characters are still advised, as powerful spells could harm in favor of the good deeds again, or the rulers would the impact of some scenes. In the same hand, for a better switch places again. experience at the third act it is recommended to have It was decided that Old Carvas would be the first to rule between three and four players. and he has maintained the throne ever since. Old Carvas celebrates this day by delivering gifts the nice children all A FEY TALE along the Sword Coast during the night before, in what is If you wish to have an even more magical experience with known as Caravance Eve. this adventure, invite your players to declare their actions Things recently haven’t been all calm and bright though. in third person and in past tense. Simulating the narration Currently the balance between good and evil deeds has from a fairy tale. been pointing towards evil and all thanks to a grumpy old For example, if an elf characters wants to ask Old Carvas gnome named Eberdeb Stooge. Old Carvas is employing all something, instead of “I approach Old Carvas and ask him his resources to turn Stooge into good, but Caravance is where the library is”, describe “Little Tryvain approached coming and so is his deadline. For the first time ever, Old Old Carvas, and asked him: Mr. Carvas, can you please tell Carvas might not be coming to town for Caravance Eve. me where the library is?”. This may be confusing at first, but will result in a memorable experience. You can also grant inspiration to ADVENTURE OVERVIEW This adventure is structured in the three following acts: players that manage to do a rhyme or a really fancy Act 1: Old Carvas’ Cabin. Characters meet Old Carvas and description. explore his cabin, meeting its gnome Helpers and finding

information about their tools. At the end of this act Krampus arrives and transforms Old Carvas into chocolate, the characters then quickly escape with few instructions and the mission of redeeming Stooge to save Caravance. Act 2: Stooge’s Routine. After escaping, the characters follow Stooge on its daily routine, collecting information about him. By the night the characters have prepared themselves to scare Stooge and change his behavior. SampleAct 3: Caravance Eve. The charactersfile invade Stooge’s memories, visiting his past, present and future. Stooge won’t change his ways easily so the characters will need to change the scenes and their narrative if they want to save Caravance.

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LITTLE HELPERS OLD CARVAS’ CABIN Old Carvas employs many gnomes as his assistants to which he refers to as Helpers. They are cheerful folk who “It wore tunic of the purest white; and round its waist was enjoy toys, candies and hugs. But as any creature born in bound a lustrous belt, the sheen of which was beautiful. It held the Feywild their emotions swing wildly. They grief over a branch of fresh green holly in its hand; and, in singular the simplest of things, such as spilling milk or accidentally tearing a wrapping paper. contradiction of that wintry emblem, had its dress trimmed Here are some Helpers that will be part of this story: with summer flowers.” Honeypot: An incorrigible prankster gnome. He is a candy —Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol gatherer but is often seen sleeping at the job instead. This gnome has curly blonde hair, freckles around his nose and is wears a golden silk robe. STARTING THIS ADVENTURE Jamjar: This shy gnome likes to expend his time at the You can have your characters begin this adventure in a library reading stories about Caravance. He has big couple of ways presented here: circular lenses, brown hair and always wears a red wool Fey Crossing. Old Carvas and his cabin are placed in the sweater knitted by his mother. Feywild, to which adventures can arrive by accident. The Vanillacake: This strict gnome is in charge of Old Carvas’ characters might get lost in the middle of a blizzard and mail, a job that he takes seriously. He is bald and wears a find themselves following a mysterious red glow guiding white cloak with yellow furry buttons. them to a magical cabin. Warmilk: This gnome is probably the smartest Helper Little Helpers. If you are running this adventure as a around. She is a talented toy engineer who has designed standalone story, the characters might be Old Carvas’ some very popular toy lines such as the wooden duck helpers already. I recommend playing as gnome characters and the magic cube. Her hair is milky white and she for a more whimsical adventure. wears a blue dress with a white belt. Helper calling for help. An Old Carvas’ Helper could be Extra Names: Cinnamonroll, Cookiecrumbs, Cupcake, looking for aid in the middle of the road or in a busy city. Fruitcake, Gingerbread, Jinglebell, Peanutbutter, The Helper is desperate about the incoming deadline and Sugarplum. needs people capable of scaring Stooge. Alternatively, if you wish to skip the first act, the Helper could have escaped already from Krampus and is looking for help. EXPLORING THE CABIN The Old Carvas cabin is a magical place inside a huge pine tree with a single door carved in the trunk. As expected, the LINKING ADVENTURES cabin is bigger in the inside than in the outside. If you are interested in running this story as part of a The interior of the cabin changes randomly all the time. bigger published adventure, here are some suggestions: While the Helpers are used to it and always find the correct Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden. As suggested path, characters attempting to explore the cabin by before, a fey crossing in the middle of a blizzard works themselves will likely end up getting lost. perfectly to drop the adventures into this story. The second If the characters are exploring the cabin without a guide and third act take place in Waterdeep, but Old Carvas will roll on the table below to determine where they arrive. If offer its magical sleigh to return to Ten-Towns. If you they are attempting to follow directions or to return to a don’t want your characters to escape Icewind Dale by room they have previously visited, make one player roll deciding to stay in Waterdeep, you can change the second 2d4. If the rolls of both dice don’t match, the characters and third act to take place in Ten-Towns instead. arrive at their destination as intended. If the dice match, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. An Old Carvas’ Helpers they arrive somewhere else. looking for aid in the city works perfectly. You can also OLD CARVAS’ CABIN have the characters meet Stooge before as a random citizen and moneylender. d10 Room Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus. Before arriving to 1 Lobby Avernus, characters can find a Helper looking for aid in the 2 Candy Garden city. You can also replace Waterdeep for Baldur’s Gate in the second and third act. 3 Dinner Room Curse of Strahd. If you wish a dark Christmas adventure, 4 Hot Chocolate Springs you can make the characters stumble into a different 5 Library Domain of Dread, the one created by Stooge’s evil deeds. 6 Mailing Room There a Helper could ask the adventures to aid it on its Sample7 Reindeer’s Stables file mission of redeeming Stooge, which would cause the Domain of Dread to collapse and return the adventurers to 8 Slide Barovia. 9 Toy Factory 10 Training Room

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