The Winter Guardian

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

The story to the Snowman is basically -

*Boy makes Snoman.
*Snowman comes to life.
*Snowman shows boy wonderful time.
*Boy meets Father Christmas
*Next morning Snowman melts, boy's innocence is destroyed.

[Ail]

Thanks Drinnik, suddenly that connection is evident =)

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Nov 16th: First snow! Dad says I can play after the cows are milked and the chickens are fed, and after we've fixed the fenceposts on the upper field.

Nov 18th: Finally, enough snow for a snowman! Cleaned out the gutters and the storm drain, and then to my masterpiece!

Nov 19th: No one wants to play, that's fine; I'll dress up my snowman and we'll play together.

Nov 20th: Can't tell anyone about my snowman. Mom punished me for the fine clothes I used, but I barely felt the whipping. All I know is, I have to go talk to my snowman again tonight, even if it means I sneak out.

Nov 21: Talked all night with my snowman, which left me too tired for chores. Funny how my dad thought I was sick, though; if I didn't know better, I'd think my snowman gave him the idea! Getting my rest for a night of fun with my snowman.

Nov 22: No chores again, dad still thinks I'm sick instead of tired. Mom caught me sneaking out to play around lunch, but just as she's going for her belt, suddenly she's talking about me sleepwalking, like it was all about me being sick! This time I saw my snowman through the window--it's got to be his doing!

Nov 23: Last night he threw his voice, made spooky noises, and even changed his appearance! Laying in bed "sick" all morning, I know he's making my parents nicer to me. I'd ask him to use his friendship trick on all the kids who didn't want to play with me before, but I'd rather play with my snowman than all the kids in the village!

Nov 24: Can't play sick forever, and dad really needs help with the chores. The snowman showed up in the form of a friend from the village, and we get all the chores done in record time, then play all evening and into the night.

Nov 25: My snowman made a snow-me! It looks and talks just like me, so we set it to doing my chores while we explored deep into the woods. I'll never be afraid of the woods again! We flew through the air, kept warm, made music from nothing, met animals, and lived off wild berries! I can't wait to go back tomorrow!

Nov 26: We fought GOBLINS! The were no match for us at all, with my snowman bewitching their weapons and keeping me from harm. Their wolves turned against them, and they were tripping over themselves, and I don't think they'll ever be back! I suppose we ought to get a medal for saving the village or something, but he says no one must know. I suppose the important part is that the village is safe.

Nov 27: The snowman took me flying over the mountain, invisible to everyone below. We met strange people and learned to speak to them in their own tongue, and ate all the best food! I've never been this full before!

Nov 28: Another long trip, this time over the water. More strange people, more good food! Some of them were suspicious of us, and thought to rob us, but my snowman kept us safe.

Nov 29: I hate waking up in my own boring bed every morning! We're going on a long trip, and we'll leave the snow-me to play my part for as long as we're gone. First, we went deep into the woods, where my snowman showed me how to talk to animals and plants! We're going to sleep out under the stars tonight--no worries about the weather anymore!

Nov 30: Okay, I guess I spoke too soon. There was a storm last night, but my snowman summoned a little hut for us that keeps us warm and dry anyway. We spent the whole day talking to animals and plants, learning how to summon and command them, and using a puddle look around the forest without leaving the hut. I think I'm learning to do some magic myself!

Dec 1: This day was really wet, so we did a lot of flying. I managed it all by myself, while my snowman practiced turning into birds. He says he thinks he can teach me once he has it figured out.

Dec 2: Today, I was a fish!

Dec 3: We're up on top of the mountains today, and we found the goblins again, with the rest of their tribe. They were pretty fearsome, but after we killed about twenty of them without getting hurt, they threw down their weapons and surrendered. Wasn't sure what to do with them then--all we ever knew about goblins was that they killed people, but these had kids and stuff. So, we made them promise never to hurt people again, and hoped that was enough.

Dec 4th: The tunnels into these mountains have all sorts of monsters that don't have little kids! We killed about a dozen today, and found plenty of tunnels that go deeper.

Dec 5th: We spent all day exploring those tunnels--I was invisible, and my snowman walked through stone--and finding out which monsters have kids and which don't.

Dec 6th: This mountain is a lot safer now, and we even got some treasure!

Dec 7th: I don't want to do lots more killing, so we tricked and teased and got the monsters with kids to fight the ones that don't have any. I thought I'd learned how to detect evil in other things, but this place confuses me too much.

Dec 8th: We're back on top of the mountain. The goblins have new leaders, and they are still trying to fight us. The snowman figured out a way to make them so they can't hurt humans, or they'll get sick and die. Then we send them down inside the mountain with all the other monsters.

Dec 9th: We don't have much of a need for this treasure, so we're going to give it to the village in secret. Now that I know how to be invisible and avoid dogs, I can go wherever I want!

Dec 10th: Well, I gave most of it to the church, and some to my parents, and some to the little old lady who lives above the miller. I also found out about why uncle Joe isn't going to get married, and why Dad tells me not to go down by the millpond on full moon nights. It's kinda strange seeing my own life from the outside, though. I don't like seeing the snow-me sitting at the dinner table.

Dec 11th: I wanted to see more of the world, so my snowman taught me how to teleport. Now we can got anywhere we've ever been, and lots of other places, too!

Dec 12th: We chased clouds across the countryside today, and learned a lot about how they work. I teleported too high, though, and couldn't breathe, so my snowman has made us another camp outside a big city, and he says tomorrow is all going to be on the ground.

Dec 13th: All through the big city, there are so many people, good and bad and in between. I tried to help a man who says he needed food, but he just kept drinking. I tried to help a woman getting beat up, but I think she actually liked the guy anyway. It's still so confusing, so we practiced looking inside people's thoughts to figure out how they work.

Dec 14th: Ugh, people are so messed up, inside and out! I can't figure it out. Animals seemed a lot simpler.

Dec 15th: Today I was a fish again, and then an eagle, and then a bear. All the other bears were hibernating, dreaming of another world. The snowman summoned some creatures from other worlds when we were underground--maybe those make more sense.

Dec 16th: We spent all day summoning elementals and talking to them. Their thoughts work differently than ours do, but they are a lot like us in other ways. It sounds like their world would be fun to visit!

Dec 17th: Water and Air were pretty simple to understand, but it was so funny to sleep while falling. And with no ground, falling seemed a lot like flying.

Dec 18th: We went to the City of Brass and talked to the efreet today. They had never seen a snowman, of course, but they were polite about it. They gave me a sculpture made out of flame, but my snowman says it's cursed so we left it behind.

Dec 19th: The space in between Air and Water and Fire is all mixed up, and the space in between the space between is full of ghosts. They aren't so scary anymore. We learned stories from a bunch of them today, and they made me angry and sad and lonely.

Dec 20th: We went back to our world, to another big city. I'm sure I can help out if we can find out the worst of the baddest people.

Dec 21st: We got a bunch of the baddest in jail, but someone's keeping the guards from holding them there. It's like someone messed up all the laws.

Dec 22nd: A wizard came after us today, said that we're getting in his way. He must be the one who's getting the bad guys out of jail! We fought back with everything we had, but we couldn't quite get him.

Dec 23rd: The wizard says he works for the king, but actually the king works for him, cause of a spell like we used on the goblins. We broke a lot of his spells and let the king deal with him.

Dec 24th: We cross over the ocean to wait until that one sorts out a little more. A bunch of satyrs and pixies come to our camp, and we have a wonderful party! We dance naked under the moonlight and drink fairy drinks and talk to the rocks until we fall asleep.

Dec 25th: A dream stalker crashed our party, and my snowman got a little worn out fighting it off. I let him rest today while I checked back on the wizard and the king. Looks like everyone's taking sides there, so I helped out where I could to make sure the wizard would lose.

Dec 26th: I never thought I'd beat my snowman in our cloud chasing game! I teased him that he was still tired after the dream stalker, but he gave it his best, and I still beat him 11 times out of 20!

Dec 27th: The wizard is done for! He challenged me to a wizard's duel and I beat him, with barely a word of advice from my snowman. Now he's in prison without any magic of his own, and no one one to bend the laws for him, either!

Dec 28th: We took a visit to the astral plane today, just to say we've been there. I loved splashing in the color pools, but the monsters there were irritating. The snowman let me fight them all by myself, just to keep it interesting.

Dec 29th: I think my snowman was cursed, either by the wizard or the dream stalker. He can't see it, but he's getting slower and weaker, and even worse at magic. He says I'm just getting better at magic than he is, but I don't think that's all of it.

Dec 30th: It's not a curse or a wound, but he's definitely getting slower. He lost every game of cloud-chasing today, and he couldn't stay a bird all day long like he used to. I'll have to investigate.

Dec 31st: The wizard wouldn't talk, so after he passed out, I went looking for the dream stalker. Summoning them is tricky, but after getting some advice from a genie and a token from a dryad I was able to draw the circle just right. After the wizard, I was in no mood for games, but by sunrise I was convinced that the dream stalker knew nothing, so I allowed it to die.

Jan 1st: Resting and recuperating today, it's getting obvious that my snowman is very ill. I paid the wizard another visit today, but he had nothing more for me. My snowman thinks it's about the weather, but that can't be right! He went to the City of Brass, floating on a sea of lava! A simple change in the seasons can't be enough to make him melt!

Jan 2nd: After talking to the grandfather serpent last night, I'm forced to admit that my snowman is right: he's tied to the natural seasons, and must depart with the coming Spring. Very well, I'll just have to find a way to keep Spring away from us.

Jan 3rd: Impossible! I've lowered the temperature below freezing, rebuked the spirits of growing and germinating in this whole valley, and still he fades! This isn't fair!

Jan 4th: We've taken refuge in an ice-world, but it's only a small delay. He's tied to the world where he was created--my world, gods blast it--and there, the seasons continue to turn. My powers, coming through him, have also diminished. There's no way I can save him.

Jan 5th: He's lost the ability to change forms. We talked all day, but it will never be enough time. This damnable world has cheated us of the life we were supposed to live.

Jan 6th: At midnight, he said his final words, and his clothes changed back into the ones I gave him. He told me what I have to do. It's getting cold.

Jan 7th: I had barely the power left to return to my homeworld, and I lost the ability to fly upon reaching the woods. I found the snow-me chopping wood out behind the house. He looked at me with that stupid smile, waiting for his orders right up until I rammed a dagger through his heart. My mother found me smashing the bits of snow apart with the axe and went straight to scolding, barely mollified when I showed her the clothes weren't hurt. I think she sent me straight to bed; I was heading there anyway.

Jan 8th: Pa woke me up early this morning, to milk the cows and feed the chickens. He says I won't get to play until after we've repaired the rest of the fenceposts.

[Manofevil]

Frosty the snowman was a fairy tale they say.
But he said let's run
and we'll have some fun
now before I melt away-Frosty the Snowman

Together they would travel
on a boat with billowed sails
Jackie kept a lookout operched on Puff's gigantic tail
Noble kings and princes
would bow whene'er they came
Pirate ships would lower their flags when Puff roared out his name.-Puff the Magic Dragon

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Indeed.

"Dragons live forever, but not so little boys..."

[Manofevil]

Song still breaks my heart.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

It's that time of year again. My kids just watched Frosty the snowman for the first time (OK, it's the '05 remake/sequel, not the original, but...) and I definitely got a creepy vibe from the story. Kids sneaking off to play with a "magical stranger" and ignoring their parents' rules to do so.... this is a good thing?!? Not in Ravenloft... I thought to myself, "Self, there's a Ravenloft story to be had here.... waitaminute.... I think someone did it already...." So I searched the forum and found this post which I'd forgotten. I agree with my past self: awesome. Well Done, DS.

[Dark Angel]

There was a poem from the comic series, Before Watchmen, where a plotline was following a child murderer and the lines of the poem were written in a sing-song fashion as you follow a child about to get captured. This is to the best of my recollection, but always saw it as folktale for Tempest or even Mordent. Here it is retyped below.

“When children are playing alone on the green, in comes a playmate that was never seen.
When children are happy and lonely and good, the friend of the children comes out of the wood.
Nobody heard him, and nobody saw, his is a picture you never could draw.
But he’s sure to be present, abroad or at home, when children are happy and playing alone.
He lies in the laurels, he runs in the grass, he sings when you tinkle the musical glass.
Whene’er you are happy and cannot tell why, the friend of the children is sure to be by!
He loves to be little, he hates to be big, ‘tis he that inhabits the caves that you dig;
‘Tis he, when at night you go off to your bed, bids you go to sleep and not trouble your head.
Whene’er you are happy and cannot tell why, the friend of the children is sure to be by!"

[TheSalemlord]

I like this! Thanks for sharing!

[Dark Angel]

I like this! Thanks for sharing!

Sure, in hindsight though it comes across more Mordentish. One would have to go through it to make it far more foreboding and sinister for Tempest.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Dusting this off for the backstory of my son's PC. It'll be interesting to see if he meets the Guardian in the Feywild.

[Mistmaster]

Vorostokov, boy. There Frosty will live forever.