The Great Garvaldian Christmas Pudding Hunt.

Time- Monday-Sometime in Late December.

Place-St Garvald’s School for Promiscuous Girls/Santa’s Garvald Airbnb Mansion.

Santa’s Airbnb.

Santa’s Cousin Ernie getting mugged.

An innocent snowman with all seeing eyes.

           In the senior common room of St Garvald’s School for Promiscuous Girls,the chatter turned towards the lack of Christmas Pudding on the menu in the canteen.The Japanese exchange teacher Yunomi Yudai was asking “ What is this Chlistmas Pudding and also these Mandolin Olanges that you talk about?”Head girl Aneed Morehead turned quickly around and informed her teacher that it was “A mixture of fruit,spices and cake boiled for a long time and served with custard-very healthy!The mandalins as you say are oranges but in here usually they come in tins”.Yunomi ponders and says “Where can we get some of these Chlistmas Puddings and Mandolin Olanges?”Tahra Dactyl piped up and stated “I’ve seen crates of both being taken into the Airbnb on the other side of the village.Not that I’m nosey but I’ve heard that Santa has taken up residence with his entourage of scantily dressed elfs and pantomime characters in order to have a rest before his annual big night”.Yunomi exclaims “I have a pran!We go and steal some of these Chlistmas puddings and also steal any boxes of mandolin olanges”.Anita Cox agreed and said “I’ll bribe some of the lower form with the promise of a mandarin orange or two and I’m sure we’ll have some volunteers.They can do the donkey work and also take the blame if it goes pear shaped.””I’ll get my two exchange students Chelly Brossom and Kiwi Gross to help porish  off Santa’s erfs.”quipped Yunomi.She then turned towards the other sixth former in attendance Petra Fried and said “Make sure the hockey sticks are very sharp and the catapults are plimed and leady.”Petra headed off.   

The Sixth Formers head out.

Around the graveyard.

Younomi,Cherry and Kiwi.

 So the scene was set for this year’s Christmas game which has been in the planning for a couple of years but plagues and people being otherwise engaged have got in the way of this game being played. I headed out on what was a balmy evening towards the Garvald Film Studios in order to indulge in some seasonal nonsense involving Santa and some local schoolgirls,which is probably a normal day in Garvald.

The lower formers charge in.

Little John chats with a snowman.

      The synopsis of the story is explained in the above preface and as it says the game involves raiding Santa’s Christmas Pudding supply. I used Black Ops rules mainly for the stealth and sentry rules and they were to prove a handful from the start or as in our case flipper-full.The sentries were all put out with the lovely Santa’s helpers doing the hard work.Little John(and I mean little)was co-opted into guard work as I didn’t have any more guards.Also to help the defence were the snowmen who came complete with sensors.

Another innocent looking snowman.

Ivy evaporates.

Swinging their way around the woods.

         El Presidente took charge of the St Garvald’s Girls School and had planned his attack on three fronts with the sixth formers making their way around the edges of the graveyard whilst the lower form schoolgirls crept through a local wood.Yunomi Yudai took  the direct route and headed for the side door with her two disciples in tow hoping to do away with Santa as an extra bonus.Obviously they don’t have Santa in Japan.

Mrs Claus entertains the troops.

Little John taking care of Cherry and Kiwi.

Younomi dispatches Holly.

    I had introduced random appearance cards introducing various Christmas Carol characters interspersed with pantomime characters and lo and behold on the first arrival of a deuce card an explosive penguin appeared right beside one of guards who went by the name of Ivy and immediately headed for her before detonating and wiping Ivy from the board-a rather ignominious start for Santa but since he was snoring away at the time he didn’t hear any noise.

Younomi now tries to do away with Santa.

Ali Baba and an exploding penguin chewing the fat.

If you are ever lost.

     Yunomi,Cherry and Kiwi headed towards the side door of the mansion hoping for a quick entry but standing in their way was the gallant figure of Little John-all three feet of him-standing firm with his big stick waiting to waylay all intruders.Cherry and Kiwi attacked poor Little John but he held his own and eventually dispatched both of his assailants before resuming his guard duties.The fracas did incur a couple of noise markers but still not enough to rouse Santa.Must have been all the egg nog consumed.

Younomi goes down in the third.

The Sixth Formers finally arrive.

How Mona Lot doesn’t disturb the racoons I don’t know.

      Younomi had made her way around the mansion and had cruelly done away with Holly,another young lady just passing the time of day.After doing away with Holly,Younomi headed for the side door only to find that it was locked and her entrance was delayed due to her lack of lock picking skills.This slightly delayed her entrance to the house but after this was achieved she made her way quickly to the first floor to take possession of the box of Christmas puddings.Once again Santa didn’t budge.

Charity Case takes a one in a million shot at Santa.

The Panto Horse appears.

Hauling away the booty.

        A few panto and Christmas Carol characters did randomly appear but never where they could do any damage to the usurpers.The lower formers made their way towards the back door of the mansion avoiding the racoons who had taken up residence in some rubbish bins.Their luck continued with them finding the back door unlocked so three of them headed in whilst Mona Lot stayed at the door looking for any interfering sentries or panto characters.

The Snowmen Cometh!

Mrs Claus brings up the rear.

“They made me steal them Santa!”

        The game changed albeit maybe a bit too late as Younomi decided after dropping off the pudding laden box with the sixth formers who had finally made their way into the ground floor,headed towards the sleeping form that was Santa.On the way she  spied the crates of Mandarin oranges and beckoned Charity Case,one of the lower formers,to grab one of the crates and head for home.Younomi continued into Santa’s sleeping quarters and tried to attack Santa mid snore but alas she wasn’t quick enough as Santa sensed her presence and quickly sprang into action.A scrap ensued and after a few blows from both sides Santa prevailed and Younomi Yudai was out of the game.No Chlistmas pudding for her.

The Panto Horse wades in to help Santa.

Scrooge arrives next to a post box feet away from the action.

     Unbeknownst to the sixth formers of their teacher’s demise ,the girls continued to set about their task of ferrying the Christmas Puddings back to the safety of their school.Petra Fried and Thara picked up the case and headed out of the building.Santa heard the noise and headed downstairs only to be confronted by Ariadne Tempestuous complete with catapult.She took a quick shot and when she realised it hadn’t done any damage legged it back downstairs.

Santa goes down.

Charity celebrates after downing Mistletoe.

Petra Fried hands a crate of Mandarins to Ariadne.

        The attack on Santa had finally raised the alarm giving Mrs Claus ,who had been pandering to the whims of the snowmen reinforcements elsewhere ,the chance to enter the fray with her trusty snowmen by her side.This she did but had to put up with a little hesitation from herself and the snowmen on trying to cross the river.This delayed the reinforcements a bit longer giving the girls more time to lug the puddings towards the safety of their school.Santa meanwhile had made it to the bottom of the stairs only to be confronted by the two sixth formers Anita and Aneed who were in the process of getting a mandarin filled crate on to the back of poor Ariadne.Ariadne was definitely earning her reward. The two sixth formers stood their ground and waylaid Santa even after first doing away with a marauding  panto horse in the process.  This was revenge for the demise of of Younomi.Charity Case had meanwhile crept around the side of the mansion and had taken Mistletoe , the last of Santa’s guards out with a single shot!”Booyah!”exclaimed Charity.

The useless snowmen about to become snowflakes.

Daffy Smellie finally arrives to pick up the second Mandarin Orange crate but a bit too late.

        This left the saviour of the puddings down to Mrs Claus and her cronies, planning how she was going to spend her husband’s inheritance in the process.The puddings had reached the safety of the school dinner ladies and was in the process of being divvied up amongst the remainder of the school girls who had been clammering around the windows cheering on their comrades.Petra Fried had returned to the fray as Ariadne was being detained by the snowmen.She charge into the snowmen and waylaid two of them before they could fight back.This took Mrs Claus and the remaining snowman by surprise giving Petra the chance to decapitate the remaining snowman.This caused Mrs Claus to shriek and throw caution to the wind giving Petra the opportunity for a  coup de gras which she took and ended the game there and then.

            Victory to the Girls of St Garvald’s .

Santa has his getaway planned.

Uncle Ernie returns with a rocket launcher looking for the goblin muggers.

      A great game played in the usual spirit of Christmas games with reality thrown out the window.

            For once the figures,scenery and scenario came from my own collection although El Presidente supplied the schoolgirls (of course)and the graveyard this time without any Weeping Angels.Also my thanks to the Duchess of Garvald for providing an excellent steak pie.More fool you all for missing it!

  Wishing you all a great Christmas and a very happy New Year.

See You All In The New Year!