The Dark Master

Yuletide Adventure III: Season Without a Santa
“The Dark Master”

After I fended off Hollyum’s treachery, & bound him in garlands, I freed the Santas from the sack & turned my mind to the problem of the JINGLE RING. It posed an awful danger, if it remained open. Sure, one might use it to taste impossible cocoas, to gaze upon Christmas trees in worlds where dinosaurs roam, to peek ahead at thine own gifts from a world where Christmas lands on December 20th—truly, endless possibilities! But could they possibly outweigh the risks…?

As I pondered how to proceed, Hollyum gurgled back to consciousness. “Dark Master, Dark Master!,” he crowed. “He comes at last, hollyum hollyum.” As I knelt to stuff his mouth full of candy, I heard a horrible scraping behind me, the sound of reality grinding against itself. A great & terrible eye gazed at me, through the JINGLE RING, & it began to stretch wider! Sparks of ӕther flew, colder than Limbo, as the portal yawned up through the ice-cave’s roof. & as it grew large, I beheld the face of the architect of this wretched season: GOLLUN MUSK.

The most wretched of wretches, a being of pure greed & loathing! Poor Sméagyule had not set these events in motion, he was their victim! Twisted not by his own desires, but by the twisted willpower of this Archon of Avarice. Gollun Musk exists in the Void of Humbug, a dreary space between Christmases. Sméagyule caught his eye, & a plan formed: Gollun wished use the JINGLE RING to become “real.” To let him step fully through the portal, to release him from the Void of Humbug, would be to doom our world! No world could survive such a horrible beast as Gollun Musk!

The dastard jabbered at me from his portal-perch, attempting to impress me with a “rags-to-omnipotence” story. Gollun Musk, it seems, wandered into the Void of Humbug at the dawning of the world, believing he would find power; warped he became, as void on the inside as the realm he inhabited. As a void-being, he feels no cheer of his own; only by stealing it from others can he feel for even an instant. PATHETIC. Steal he has—who among us has not this year felt the cheerless sting of his sinister influence? Pulling Sméagyule’s strings, twisting him into Hollyum, kidnapping Santas & casting gloom on entire worlds. THIS MUST END!

One of the rescued Santas summoned a sleigh for me, pulled by mighty BLITZEN, & we took to the air! More rapid than eagles, we bold two flew! I whistled, & shouted, & called him by name:

“Arise now, Blitzen! Dire greed awakes, darkens this December! Let wand be raised, let cheer charge us! On Blitzen! On, to ruin, & the world’s ending!”

Will I seize victory? Will hope & cheer return to the world? Find out Wednesday in this Yuletide Adventure’s finale!

I hope, despite Gollun’s machinations, ye enjoy some good cheer this week, mortals. I thank all who read these dispatches, I thank the fine folks who joined in for the “Doom Room Holiday Special” last night, & I thank especial all who have worked to bring kindness & good cheer to others this holiday season.

‘Til Christmas, mortals—be safe, be well, & be sure to give a rousing speech or two. It truly lifts the mood, TRUST ME.

Cheers,
Amoenus Franco
Wizard, Writer, Reindeer-Rider of the Merryhirrim