Episode 17 - Have a Scary Christmas and a Haunted New Year

## Summary

While Susan, Shamanda, and Krashlee deal with a yuletide haunting, Adam shows up to the Old Navy knives a-blazin' to rescue CEJ from the salamander people. Oh, and uh... someone's going to have to give A.D. the bad news about her passenger side window.

## Previously On...

Hey, is this the end of the line? Oh, thanks. Name's Chet. Hey, no joke. This is my second time up here.

Well, it's a hell of a story. So this kid, CEJ, he iced me, right? But then I get up here and they say there's no record of it. Not possible, they said. So I get sent back down and now I'm tethered to the little shit. But the more I'm around him, the more it starts to feel like...like the universe depends on him being a boring, normal kid. It's weird.

And there's some*thing* out there looking for him too. So, then he gets some new friends and they're full on creeps. And I'm like, 'Hey kid, you gotta steer clear of these folks. Okay, they got nothing but bad ideas for you.' And what's he do? He picks them and banishes me back up here. But get this, it turns out those friends, they're Salamanders. I know I... Oh. Hey, it looks like your number's getting called there.

No worries. Hey, put a good word in for me.

## Plot

### THE OLD NAVY

Adam screeches to a halt in front of the Old Navy, behind which he can see the Haverford Generating Station, which powers all of Mystery County. Adam gets out of the car and runs inside, past an old woman and a young boy. Alarms are blaring from the back of the stores. No one else is around. He cautiously heads to the back of the store. He feels something hit his shoulder, he turns around and punches a display of Florence Henderson, completely destroying it. For a moment, Adam completely believes that the cardboard cutouts in the store are alive. He panics and runs back to his car.

He takes a moment to compose himself before he goes back in wielding a large knife that he had previously taken from his mom's kitchen. He slashes through the cardboard cutouts and runs into the employees only section of the Old Navy. At the end of the hallway are two Salamander people attacking a small Demon. CEJ is screaming in a room down the hallway. Adam runs toward his cousin's voice and finds CEJ strapped to a table, with two other Salamanders hovering over him with scalpels and other magical equipment. In the corner of the room another Demon is fighting more Salamanders.

> "Leave my cousin alone!"
>
>

Adam stabs a Salamander next to CEJ and cuts into its back. The Salamander drops the scalpel, saying 'She must be served'. Adam tries to mentally dominate the Salamander, but runes carved around the room appear to block his mental abilities. Instead, he slices through CEJ's bonds and gets his cousin up. CEJ tells Adam that his nunchucks from the fancy travelling gun show were taken. Adam does not care and tells him that he can get new nunchucks in May when the gun show returns for 'May the Gun be with You'.

The demons fight back the Salamanders and tell Adam and CEJ to get away. 'I think those are my dad's demons. I think they're on our side.' They rush out of the employees only section of the Old Navy. Adam realizes that, while he was in the forest, his connect with Shamanda had gone quiet, but it had returned in full force. She was in danger. At the Quivik house.

At the front desk, the Salamander within the corpse of Brian Mosby lays dead, green skin showing through a stab wound in his flesh suits neck. A computer and a printer are within reach of the front desk, and Adam spits out the coordinates where Shamanda is, and CEJ types them into MapQuest. They print out directions and head to the car.

Demons appear to gain the upper hand and usher the two teens away. Adam hands CEJ the kitchen knife, ready to shift into his monster form if needed. CEJ spins the knife in his head, showing off. Adam tells CEJ that he needs to keep him safe, and CEJ tells Adam that they have to get to the power station.

> "This town is going to be like, not a town pretty soon."
>
>

They make it to the Oldsmobile and CEJ dives through the closed window, shattering it without a thought, looking completely unharmed. Adam is disturbed. While picking himself up and dusting off the broken glass, CEJ discovers a new pair of nunchucks wrapped with a bow under the seat. A present from Aunt Diane that she had been saving for him.

### INSIDE THE QUIVIK HOUSE

The house is covered in twining, twisting Christmas lights, alive with strange power. Krashlee is in the living room, talking to a women bound in lights up the chimney. Susan and Shamanda are stuck in the kitchen, unable to make it through a wall of lights without upsetting the vengeful spirit, and a demon appeared, ready to protect Shamanda as she was violently rebuffed from a telepathic connection with Melvin Quivik.

Susan immediately recognizes the demon, Vamilla. He doesn't spare much time to talk to her before tearing into the Christmas lights, which start pulsing and flashing. The prong of a lights whips around and gouges Vamilla in the back. Susan realizes that as the lights attack Vamilla, the barrier at the door starts to lose some of it's form. The animating force keeping the lights in motion cannot maintain attention in multiple locations.

She encourages Vamilla to keep attacking, "I think you almost got him, keep, kick, kick! Use your feet!"

While Vamilla is distracting the lights, Susan and Shamanda are able to slip into the living room with Krashlee. The woman in the chimney just keeps asking Krashlee to help her, and Krashlee knows that she needs to act soon as the fireplace is dangerously close to being set alight from a faulty bulb, sending out sparks toward the dry wood.

Krashlee pulls out a mini fire extinguisher and covers the wood in foam, as well causes the sparking light to go dead.

> "Ma'am, I know that you are going through a difficult time right now, but I have a couple questions for you." Krashlee tells the bound woman.
>
>

She tells Krashlee her name is Theresa Serbinski and that she was part of the crew hired to clean up the Quivik house. She, Fernando, Pushpa and Doug were all pulled in to the house by the lights. Theresa had been on the roof.

Trying to get the Quivik house to overlook her, Krashlee starts making up a song about the game Operation, and tries to subtly pull apart the lights. For a moment, the lights all tighten up, but something in the kitchen draws the attention away from the strange behavior of Krashlee Grenadine. Shamanda and Susan get to Krashlee and start to help Theresa.

Theresa starts to freak out about the possibility of spiders, and Krashlee tells her that she's never been more than two feet from a spider in her whole life. This does not help.

Shamanda tries to reach out to Theresa telepathically, but Theresa starts to hyperventilate and scream.

### OUTSIDE THE QUIVIK HOUSE

Adam Miller and CEJ pull up to the Quivik house and push through the crowd. CEJ notices Derrk Pflifer, a classmate from Denver Broncos in the crowd. As Adam jostles him out of the way, Derrk seems excited.

> "Wow, I've never really been pushed out of the way before!"
>
>

CEJ tells Derrk to move and calls him dumb, which does not seem to bother Derrk at all.

### TOM KNUTTS TOM'S NETS SHOP

Tom Knutts is in the back of his shop, fixing up an old net, one that may be used as a Marie Antoinette net wig. He gets a call from the Chamber of Commerce, and Marcus Verhmese tells him that there is a situation at the Quivik house. Tom needs to get there immediately. Marcus hangs up abruptly, after giving his instructions.

Tom sighs and looks longingly at his nets.

> "Guess I'll have to finish my wig later."
>
>

## Characters

**Main Cast**

* Rashawn Nadine Scott as Shamanda Felt
* Jeff Murdoch as Adam Miller and Tom Knutts
* Erin Rein as Krashlee Grenadine
* Claire Linic as Susan Wexler
* Alan Linic as CEJ and Derrk Pflifer
* Tyler Samples as Chet Gibbons, Theresa Serbinski, Vamilla, Marcus Verhmese, and everyone else

## Introductions

Tyler: Welcome to Mystery County Monster Hunters Club, where we use dice to tell a story of small-town smiters and crepuscular creeps. I'm Tyler Samples, your Keeper of Monsters and Mysteries. Let's meet our players:

Rashawn: Hey everybody, I'm Rashawn Nadine Scott and my character is Shamanda Felt, the Crooked; and Question: Tell me what you think about me. I buy my own diamonds, but I wish I had a nice ring.

Jeff: Hi, I'm Jeff Murdoch and I play the character Adam Miller, the Monstrous. And let me tell you, puberty is really *bugging* me.

Erin: I'm Erin Rein. I play Krashlee Grenadine, the Flake. And you know, there's nothing flaky about Krashlee except the way her cornflakes crashed to the floor. Yesterday. When she dropped them. But otherwise, not a flake, thanks.

Claire: My name is Claire Linic. I play Susan Wexler and I am the Expert, and an *Eggs*-pert at using eggs in my decorating.

Alan: Hi, I'm Alan Linic and I play CEJ, the Spooky-Mundane. And I'm definitely not re-upping my old Navy membership rewards plan.

## Notable Quotes

* "Shamanda kind of has all the deets." - Tyler Samples
* "Adam. You got this. You got this. Don't let Florence Henderson keep you from living your life." - Adam Miller
* "Coming here was really brave...and really stupid." - CEJ
* "My heart is full of love for aunt D. and my face is full of glass." - CEJ
* "Stop flirting with me Susan, I'm working." - Tyler Samples as Vamilla
* "I am so sorry that we have to mourn another of your boyfriends." - Shamanda Felt
* "Buzz, buzz - uh oh!" - Krashlee Grenadine
* "Keep the spirit of Christmas in your heart." - Susan Wexler
* "♫Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle don't kill us. We'd like to be free from here in a timely mannered way, hey!♫" - Shamanda Felt
* "Wait, are there spiders? I have agoraphobia, I can't handle spiders." - Tyler Samples as Theresa Serbinski

## Links

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