Door 1 - The Snow Realm (The North Pole)

[NativeForeigner]

Unfortunately, Alex was not actually in the Ice Castle, but by a campfire with Arthur and the others. Alex didn't despair, however, as he was soon informed that they were heading towards a toy factory. Even better than a toy room! After several uneventful minutes, the group arrived at the entrance to the toy factory with Alex in the lead.

***

They did not find Santa. That would be silly.

Instead, Henry indicated to Andreas that there was lots of danger above them. Lots of it, but he couldn't determine any one area of danger that was more dangerous than the others.  

[Venom3001]

They went up towards the danger and found something interesting.  

[NativeForeigner]

Upon reaching the next floor, they found a dead yeti that was cut up and pretty bloody.

Nothing else.  

[Venom3001]

"Is there anything in this room we're not seeing?" Andreas asked, instantly going on guard. "If not, we should burn the body in case it's infected.  

[NativeForeigner]

"I don't th-think so." Greg stammered, "Do we have any fire? Fire would be nice. But we al-also need to keep going up. I would ra-rather find Santa before he finds us."  

[Venom3001]

They burned the body with the fire they totally had and moved on.  

[NativeForeigner]

Further up, they heard noises. It sounded like a bunch of infected elves along with something else, something bigger.  

[NativeForeigner]

Of course, they went up to investigate. On the first floor of the castle was a small yeti, obviously infected and roaming around. Because no one in the group was an idiot and a "small" yeti is still larger than a grown man, they hid and watched the yeti for a few minutes, hoping it would move on. With luck, it eventually made its way outside and they proceeded to ascend the castle, following a trail of dried blood to Santa's room.

There they finally found Santa, accompanied by another infected yeti and several infected elves. The yeti and elves were feasting upon a mass of unidentifiable flesh while Santa was lying on the bed.

Because Andreas didn't become an idiot between the first floor and Santa's room, he positioned himself and blew the horn that the yetis had given him earlier. From it came a deep, bellowing sound. Andreas hoped that it would only be a matter of time before backup arrive.

Santa rose from his bed at the sound of the horn and scanned the room slowly for the origin. The yeti and elves ceased their eating and joined Santa at his side and he slowly approached the group.  

[Venom3001]

In retrospect, we should've gone back outside before blowing the horn.

Firmly rooted in the YOU'VE GONE TOO FAR TO QUIT NOW phase of the "plan," Andreas began looking for other places in the room to hide and shadowed or concealed paths to them. He didn't know enough about the anatomy of the infected to scramble their insides in an incapacitating way, he was pretty sure, and even if he did he could only scramble things when relying on his proprioception, and any plan that involved touching infected this far-gone was a sound "nope" in his book.  

[SiberDrac]

Knowing no other recourse of sense, Alex knocked on the door to the factory. He was not certain what the current goal was, but there was no reason to dismiss an opportunity to have toys. None at all.  

[NativeForeigner]

Though there were plenty of shadows and nooks to hide in the room, getting to those places unseen would prove to be a challenge.

Luckily, common sense chimed in and told Andreas that they could simply head back down the stairs. They made it to the first floor before the infected yeti caught up with them, followed by several of the infected elves. Upon sighting Andreas, the yeti charged.

***

"Go away!" came a voice from behind the door.  

[thegoodsamaritan]

An angry red glow appeared behind Alex, as a ghoulishly large- and familiar- sillouhette came up behind him. Should Alex have turned, he would have seen a rather tall man, with untidy brown hair, a desperate need for a shave, and glasses with a slightly cracked right lens, with a ruby-red ball of flame hovering by his shoulder- a sign that the man was, as he put it, "doing his thing." The man tilted his head at the voice that emanated from the other side of the door, and eyebrow tilted in what could be construed as amusement.

"Well," said Jasper (for of course, it was he) aside to Alex. "It doesn't sound like the tenant is much for visitors, does it?" Jasper clicked the lighter in his left hand- something borrowed (LEGITIMATELY) from the boy in front of him. The flint sparked, the fleeting wisps of flame darkening to bloody color and flaring as they reacted to Jasper's presence, before flickering away, ignored. He still was disturbed at how much this... thing was becoming a part of him- even if the irony of a firebug fireman was not lost on him. He'd discovered the power in the Forest Green Forest, and it had started to grow- a spark of thought, and an accident with a campfire later, and here he was.

His shoulders were also smoking. They did that sometimes.

Jasper walked up to the door, his were-light fireball moving almost defensively toward Alex, as though trying to keep him warm.

"Listen, sir- whoever you are- we just want to come inside, out of the cold. It is very cold out here, as I'm sure you are aware. And, truth be told, I don't trust myself in any efforts to keep us warm myself." The fireball flickered in response to this comment, as though amused by Jasper's doubts.

"So, the deal is this- you can let us in, or I can. Your call."  

[NativeForeigner]

"Listen, bub, I don't know who you are..." the voice continued as the door opened a crack. An older-looking elf poked his head out from inside. Those who had been to the Snow Realm before (namely, Arthur) would recognize the elf as Mr. Jingles, the foul-mouthed, ill-tempered elf they had met their first time through. Those who haven't been to the Snow Realm (namely, Jasper and Alex) likely had no idea about the existence of elves.

"...but we're in the middle of working, here!" Jingles continued, "What do you want?"  

[thegoodsamaritan]

Jasper's eyes drifted downward as the door opened, as someone peeked out, berating them. Someone short. Jasper blinked at the indistinct small shape in the crack of the door before him. It was difficult to see in the dark, so Jasper summoned his were-light, the flame floating happily to Jasper's shoulder, illuminating the figure in the door.

He looked like he had just been fished out of a mall at Christmastime, and an angry scowl painted his elderly features, made substantially more threatening in the red glare of Jasper's flame. Jasper tilted his head slightly, his eyebrow arched quizzically.

Huh. Guess Mom and Dad were right- there is a Santa Claus. Jasper straightened up, clearing his throat.

"Well, sir, it's like I said- we need shelter. It's very cold out here, and our campfire is alternating between dying and exploding every time I sneeze." The fireball gave a little pop, a punctuation mark on his statement. Jasper thought he could hear his hair smoking (it probably was).

"All we ask," he said, pretending not to notice the flame over his shoulder, "is for some kind of accomodations from the cold- a spare room, or storage, or something somewhere- just as long as we can get warm, and then we'll be off to rejoin the rest of our... entourage. Might you be able to help?"  

[NativeForeigner]

"It's always help you folks are needing." grumbled the elf as he swung open the door, "Always needing shelter, always taking up room, never showing up to do work around the factory. Just do what you have to have stay out of the way, things are bad enough as it is."

Jingles turned his back to Jasper and began to walk away. The open door was as close to an invitation they were getting.

Upon entering, everyone was greeted by the sight of several elves running around the festive factory. Some were working machinery, others were cleaning and reorganizing materials, and still more were reinforcing entrances.