Pre-Party
GB had spent the last three weeks planning and executing his genius business: Garreth’s Magical Manufacturing and Marketing. He expanded his sky-advertising service to include fabricating simple objects for people and taking their scraps to form new raw material blocks out of them.
Reynard Manor
Mo had decorated Raynard Manner with gorgeous, but cheap, dollar-store decorations. Pip’s and Mo’s cooking filled the air with decadent aromas. Tarps and enchanted heat lamps freed up the outside for more space. Bawkapella, including Zreet, sang and performed. Kurt, Clara, Nambu, Pinból, Dub, Rydell, Stokes, Zreet, and Ivy all made an appearance or spent the evening at the party.
Everyone came dressed in costumes or festive wear.
Nathan and Mari arrived in a couple’s costume from a story about a princess and a dragon. Mari dressed in a full-length gown while Nathan appeared in a rich crimson and gold in the style of a Musketeer. Rosie dressed all fancy in a princess-pink skirt and fitted top. Boss was dressed like he usually did, Patsy was wearing a pink jacket, and Tinker was dressed as a carriage with a lightning bolt drawn on.
Lark wore an ugly sweater with a blue and red background and a painted white symbol on his chest: Pip’s rear end. He hung day-old egg tubes on it. Jastra came in a goblin-made dress with arms holding a Mo in front of her belly. Dub and Cyl came in a couples costume as a two person dragon costume. Dub was the ass.
Saxi dressed as the Dragon Mother, wearing her wings open, decorated as a dragon, and with a multi-colored dragon mask. She also carried a sack with gifts. Nambu, the loxidon, wore a pair of mouse ears.
GB wore a deerstalker hat, cloak, scarf, and calabash pipe as a genderbent version of the lead detective from Puppies of Mystery, Cher Lock Bones. Oisin dressed in a white coat with white streaks on his face. Pinbol had a white hat and white glitter beard. They were the Snow Queen and Hazamoo Hiduboo.
Connor wore a dragon outfit and a white star. Zreet sat on a stool...she was a stool pigeon. Kali came dressed the famous female pirate captain, The Siren. Primeheart decked himself in fur and carried a glaive so that Lady Ennith walked again.
Mo made himself a pirate, complete with an eyepatch, and ran into everything.
The group also took turns entertaining everyone at the party. Kali sang the 12 Days of Elumis. Saxi and Nathan took turns singing Dragon Eggs Roasting on an Open Fire. Cyl sang Jingle Birds.
Rosie hid all of Nathan’s right shoes all around the party. Nathan handed out portraits to the party, each on separate mediums. Mo handed out stockings to everyone, each filled with random things: random loose candy, loose screws, a piece of wood, etc.
White Loxodon Gift Exchange
Mo was very excited for his White Loxodon Gift Exchange and had gone to a lot of trouble to find very unique gifts. GB received a small, black monocle that revealed hidden doors, reduced perception while on, and then blinded the wearer for a few seconds after use.
Kali got a Witch’s Wart: it was a small wart with little hairs that became permanent after a few days, but for that duration it made the owner a bit heartier. Saxi got a Wall of Ice-Pick. Nathan received a half-strength, half-sized fireball casting banjo. Rosie got a giant bone and gave it to GB.
Oisin got a blank-faced doll that changed to Oisin’s face upon being picked up. Mari opened a small, silvery nail—a “rigged relocation nail.” It would take the person that dropped it, and take all their nearby allies, to a safe place. The location was guaranteed to be safe, but Mo had no idea where it would be.
Primeheart selected a heavy-metal playing flute that did something to monsters. Lark got a 3’ by 1.5’ wide salami. When some of it was consumed, it granted inspiration 1x per day until fully consumed. Connor received a 3’ tall pitchfork that generated enough candy hay to feed six people per day.
Cyl found a jar of fermented cherries sitting in moonshine. They would provide a small amount of healing as you ate them, but too many could get you drunk. Since it was a food item, Cyl was less enamored with her gift and Saxi offered to exchange gifts with her. Saxi was fine with food that healed and Cyl was much more excited about the ice pick wand.
GB gave up the monocle for the chance to get something new. His second go, he got a cow tongue that could be put in a shoe to speak any one language for a day.
Santa-Jot
As the White Loxodon Gift Exhcnage wound down, there was a sudden commotion at the fireplace. A chubby, red-suited, black-mustachioed, Santa-Jot came down the chimney and burst out in a flaming ball of Jot. Water followed him down, dousing the flame, and filling the room with smoke.
Santa-Jot handed out presents while singing Merry Jotmas. He kissed Rosie and handed her the Cloak of the Dashing. He granted Cyl a magic Swear Jar that would swear in random languages when she opened it. Oisin got a metal bucket with a rope handle and was told that any liquid put in it would be turned into a random liquor. Jot passed Primeheart a pair of grey socks that would always be warm and dry.
GB received a Dog Whistle that could only be heard by the person that GB chose before blowing into it. Jot gave Lark a dread helm with eyes that glowed and, at random intervals, it would declare “I am the law” in the voice of whoever wore it.
A Jotmas Sweater of Mending that could repair itself was given to Mari. Jot presented Connor with a fanny pack of holding that looked like a male-presenting belly. Saxi got a rolled map that Jot described as a treasure map.
Jot ripped the blue incisors from his magical sack and gave them to Nathan as Blue-Tooth Speakers. They would project the sound of random people talking, but also allow the holder to speak through the other of the pair to another person. Jot granted Kali a Candle of the Deep. Zreet picked up Jot and walked out, leaving a wrapped gift behind.
The label said “To Nathan, from J.” After a moment, the group realized that the ‘J’ might have been referring to Jezebel, Nathan’s new patron. Nathan opened the box and found a house made out of waffles. As the group realized what they were seeing, Binxie appeared from inside the house and was immediately greeted joyfully by the party.
Party Gift Exchange
After all that excitement, the party started to exchange their gifts with each other. Saxi pulled a wagon with a blanket on top over to Oisin and Pinbol. Inside were two kittens that had coats which would ‘glitter’ in the sun. Kurt and Clara gifted a special cherry tomato plant to Primeheat. Some of its fruit would be magical and it was heartier than normal.
Oisin gave Saxi a signed, new copy of Zacknar Feddles book. Aldion and Pinbol gave Saxi and Oisin two tiny vases with liquid and an empty larger one. They told them that when two people poured the liquid from the small vases to the larger one, they could relive a shared memory.
Mari gave Nathan a paintbrush/quill roll-up case with orchids on the front. Nathan proposed to Mari with a small silver ring. She said yes.
Cyl gifted Dub an oversized lapel pin, crafted into the shape of a rose out of dark metal. She identified it as being made from a nocturne helmet. Zreet came back in and handed Rosie a gift card for “sackbutt” lessons for them to learn together.
GB sent Purrl to each party member with an envelope in her mouth. The envelopes had a single gold-ink paw print on the front. Inside was a shiny silver card the size of a credit card with GMMM in gold paint on one side and a gold pawprint on the other. A handwritten note said that the cards signified priority, free fabrication and ad space at Garreth’s Magical Manufacturing and Marketing.
Ivy revealed to Connor that Cecily had looked for him when he disappeared, and had left him a letter before she passed away. Connor got up and got his gift for Ivy. He had found a painting at a thrift store of the Heroes of Cinderhaven, including Hobbes and Cecily, all celebrating together at The Beer Forge. Connor could also be seen off to one side of the painting.
Kali gave Connor a blue wrapped box with gorgeous boots inside that would aid in masking any tracks he may leave. They were Boots of False Tracks and would make his footprints look like someone else’s.
Boss granted Lark the deed to the Green Iron Village and pledged to help build pretty much whatever he wanted there. Lark told a story of his childhood, professed his love to Jastra, and presented her with a teddy bear. It was one foot tall, tie-dye colored, and crafted from one of Dermitt’s legs.
Kali received a two-and-a-half foot tall statue from Afra. It was a sculpture of the original symbol of the Dragon Mother, one that had mostly been lost to time. Afra had it researched and created for Kali’s temple.
Afra then gifted Cyl an incredibly old tome describing, in rough terms, the Goa creation process. She then walked Cyl outside to a wagon and gave her a boulder of raw eirshale, about eight feet long.
Primeheart gave Kali an egg shaped container with coupons for tattoos at a local parlor. They weren’t magical, but she would be able to replace her old tattoos if she wanted to.
Rosie walked to the center of the party. She said that she had never stayed around in one place long enough to get close to anyone before. She declared she loved them all and then became embarrassed.
Gifts from a Man in Red
A red coated courier delivered a parcel from Mathias to GB. GB tipped him the giant bone. Inside the parcel was a painting that GB had never seen before. It portrayed GB and Hobbes playing on the farm together. A pawprint was etched into the frame with the words “Paw Here”. GB put his paw on it and the frame played Hobbes’s voice saying, “You’re a wicked good boy.”
Rave
When someone said the word rave, glitter erupted around Reynard Manor. Finkoo had set-up some of his GDU’s to help them celebrate, since he could not be there.
A Furrier Courier
Ms. Fennec knocked on the front door and introduced herself. She brought a five or six foot tall box. She invited herself into the Manor and greeted Mari. Ms. Fennec cryptically said that Haley left the package for Mari, that Haley had loved Mari, and had wanted her to have it. Haley used her last year’s wages for it. Inside, Mari found a blown-glass Staff of the Woodlands in the shape of a sunflower.
Winding Down
Jastra returned her wedding ring to Rydell. As Rydell pondered the ring, the rest of the party saw Stokes kneel behind him with a ring. After a few moments, along with some hints from the group, Rydell turned around and happily said yes. Stokes and Jastra shared a happy, and conspiratorial, smile across the room.
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