“He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
A Visit from St. Nicholas, Clement Clark Moore.
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples, how merry!
And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly
That shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.”
Alternative names: Berchtold, Bokkenrijder, Nikamund the Red.
The being that would become known as Santa Claus began its life as a warrior among a now-extinct tribe of reindeer shamans in what would become Siberia. The warrior was a scourge of those that worshiped the Great Old Ones. Entire villages were razed, and the inhabitants slaughtered if any hint of the gods’ corruption could be found. He committed them all to hammer and fire, in the name of Nodens and his bride, the reindeer-goddess Ddhelam. When the warrior fell in battle, Nodens resurrected him as a champion, to carry on his fiery retribution against the Great Old Ones.
For millennia, Santa Claus has ridden across the night sky in the far-northern regions of the upon his eight-legged reindeer. Theirs is an eternal hunt for the followers of the Great Old Ones. Santa Claus has a particular hatred for Ithaqua and its cults. Santa Claus does not slay all the abominations he encounters. Some he has pressed into service for his hunt. These include the elves, the Kallikantzaroi, Krampus, and Jólakötturinn, the Yule Cat.
Over the millennia, Santa Claus has come to be revered across the world, though few remember the bloody origins of the tales. There is a small cult of children that keeps the old faith alive. They conduct gory rituals involving the sacrificing of adults and decorating a tree with the remains.
Snow Form: spending a Magic Point, Santa Claus turns into a mist of snow, able to slip through the smallest of openings, such as chimneys and keyholes.
Detect Corruption: at a glance, Santa Claus can know if someone has been tainted by an encounter with the Great Old Ones or their minions.
Santa Claus, the furious hunt
| char. | average |
| STR | 120 |
| CON | 50 |
| SIZ | 90 |
| DEX | 65 |
| INT | 50 |
| POW | 500 |
Average Hit Points: 14
Average Damage Bonus: +2D6
Average Build: 3
Average Magic Points: 100
Move: 7/12 (flying on his reindeer)
(For the reindeer’s stats, use the maximum stats for horses found in the Keeper’s rulebook)
ATTACKS
Attacks per round: 2 (warhammer, gore, trample)
Santa Claus attacks with his warhammer in combat. When mounted on his reindeer, it may gore with its antlers or trample an opponent. Santa Claus also has the full range of weapons and attacks available to any humanoid.
Trample (mnvr): on a successful attack, the victim is knocked to the ground. Roll a 1D8; the result is the number of hooves that kick and stomp the victim. Roll 2D8 for each foot.
| WarhammerGoreTrampleDodge | 60% (30/13), damage 2D6 + damage bonus50% (25/10), damage 4D6 + impale50% (25/10), damage 2D8 for each foot30% (15/6) |
Armor: 5 points of thick skin and heavy hide clothing. If reduced to
Spells: Many, including Contact Nodens, Contact Nightgaunts, and Resurrection. Santa Claus may teach spells to those that leave gifts for his hunts.
Sanity Loss: 2/2D4 to discover Santa Claus is real.
Bruce is a sociology student and co-host of The Crypt Keepers podcast
