Page 68 of The Christmas Accomplice

“I’ll buy you every appetizer on the menu after this.”

“Big spender.”

They shared another smile, then Reece walked around to the front of the table and called for attention. As he welcomed everyone, a low buzzing started in the back of Welton’s brain. He knew it was nerves, and closed his eyes to will it away.

“You okay?”

Welton jumped and opened his eyes to find Dean standing right next to him, wearing a red elf hat that looked good on him.

“You need to wear some jingle bells or something. Where’s your ski jock?”

“Trent? He’s talking to Edward about how excellent the skiing will be tomorrow.”

Welton looked over and saw an incredibly hot guy with a dark blond beard. He wore a green elf hat and a sweater with a figure skating reindeer.

“Wow. You’re really trading up.”

Dean looked at Trent, then back at Welton. “Not at all.”

“Well, that’s very kind. I’m doing okay, thanks for asking. And thanks for encouraging me to come here and do this.”

Reece turned toward them and waved a hand. “And this gentleman right here will be the Christmas Master, or CM, guiding us all through the journey to save Castle Claus! Let’s all give a big hand to Welton Monroe, who’s slayed more dragons and orcs than anyone else I know.”

The guests applauded, and Dean let out a loud, “Whoop, whoop!” Welton smiled then waved for everyone to quiet down. “Thank you for that. I’m excited to be here, and I think we’re all going to have a great time. There are quite a few more people than we had anticipated, but we’ve got some extra tables and chairs coming. For now, I’d like those of you standing up to break into groups of at least six. For those already seated, I’ll come around and have you decide what role you’ll each be playing in your group.”

Welton had the players in each group choose one of the character roles, where were amusing Christmas-themed take on traditional D&D: elf bards, reindeer druids, snowmonks, polar bear barbarians, snow fairy sorcerers, and Mrs. Claus herself. The extra tables and chairs arrived, and Welton assigned everyone to a role in good time. He returned to the head table and was surprised to see a microphone had been set up.

He really hated to hear his voice amplified. Singing the other night had been terrifying enough, and now he was going to have to listen to himself talk through a microphone for hours?

This is for Reece. You owe it to him.

Sitting down, he cleared his throat, looked out at everyone staring back at him, then leaned in and said quietly into the microphone, “Hello?”

Quiet laughter rippled through the crowd. In the back, Dean gave him two thumbs up that Trent immediately copied while flashing the most perfectly aligned and brilliantly white teeth Welton had ever seen.

“Let’s begin, shall we?”

Welton read the game introduction, putting all his skills as a dungeon master to work in an effort to create a fun and believable game. All in all, the storyline wasn’t too bad. A disgruntled elf warlock named Icicle, who had been passed over for promotion one too many times, had conspired with Periwinkle, a reindeer rogue who resented being overlooked as a member of Santa’s sleigh team, albeit the second string. Their plan was to take Santa and, by extension, Christmas itself, hostage in demand for the recognition they felt they deserved. Icicle and Periwinkle had laid elaborate traps all around the North Pole and the Castle Claus. It was up to each of the groups to find safe passage through the traps, into the castle, defeat Icicle and Periwinkle, and rescue Santa. The character sheets were all written to be gender neutral, except for Mrs. Claus, who, it turned out, was a highly skilled ranger with a bow that shot icicle arrows.

Game play was a bit clunky with the first few tables, and Welton quickly realized he couldn’t run each table’s interaction with the puzzles and traps on his own, so he assigned Reece to manage a couple of the tables, Nick to two more, Dean to two others, Edward to another two, and Trent to the two in the back corner.

He worked with two himself and was happy to see the gameplay and player participation and interaction pick up. When it came time for the NPCs to get involved, he laughed to hear the voices each person had developed. The players themselves got into the game even more, and soon they were excitedly rolling dice and shouting out numbers.

Welton checked on Edward now and then, hoping to surmise by his expression what he thought of the job Reece was doing. As it was, Edward seemed to be having a great time himself interacting with the guests and following the game’s storyline. That had to be a good thing, didn’t it?

Castle Claus was rigged with a variety of traps and enemies for each team member to outwit or battle. Fireplaces that launched fireballs threatened the snowmonks and snow fairies. A pair of candy cane wielding gnomes had to be charmed by the elves with the right holiday songs in order to lower a drawbridge. Aboveground, handling the worst of Icicle’s weather-themed attacks was up to the reindeer, and tough ice nutcracker golems guarded passageways, challenging even the toughest of the polar bears. Not every player’s character made it through the winding hallways of Castle Claus, but everyone laughed and shouted and seemed very engaged.

At one point, Reece looked over his shoulder at Welton and flashed a big, bright smile that made Welton’s heart race and a tingle spread across the top of his head and down his back. He had never felt anything remotely like that before just from seeing a man smile, and it was a little unnerving.

One of the players slapped the tabletop in frustration about a dice roll, and Welton blinked back to the moment. He dragged his attention away from Reece to check out the game play, and found Dean watching him with a knowing smirk that grew into a full-fledged smile when their eyes met. Dean gave him two thumbs up before turning to oversee some of the game play on one of the tables he was assigned.

And the award for most supportive ex-boyfriend goes to…

Welton still found it hard to believe Dean had encouraged him to do this. Had been encouraging him to open up to Reece all along. Where the hell had this Dean been when they had been a couple? Maybe encouraging someone else to work on their own relationship?

Fifteen minutes before the activity was scheduled to end, Welton walked the players through the final encounter with the Big Bads, angry elf Icicle and sneaky reindeer Periwinkle. Thinking they would be the last of the challenges, he was surprised when three tables managed to get past both enemies and found not Santa impatiently awaiting rescue, but a line of living Christmas treants decorated for battle.

The tree creatures threw explosive ornaments and shot pine needles. These took out the players at two of the remaining tables, but one table managed to defeat the trees, beyond which they discovered Santa, bound with tinsel and tangled Christmas lights. This table saved Santa and, by extension, Christmas itself, winning the game. Welton was surprised when everyone in the room cheered, and not just that table’s players. No sore losers in any of the groups. The Christmas spirit was apparently running strong through everyone. Or perhaps some very strong eggnog.