The fourth in a series of Knightmare fanfics written in instalments on the Knightmare Discussion Forum through the posting of its members. As with its three predecessors (Interactive Story #1, Interactive Story #2, Interactive Story #3), Interactive Story #4 was started by Emii, who began the thread on 06/11/05 in response to a comment posted by Becxsmagic the day before ('Methinks we should get another started soon... ;) Never taken part in one of these...').

The story commenced with Treguard receiving guests in his antechamber: Brother Strange escorting Mogdred. An instalment by forum member Skarkill revealed that Mogdred had been brought back by the Alzan race, who also had an agent named Leytan. Drassil raised objections to this - 'Not only are Leytan and the Alzans Ricky/Skarkill's long-standing creations, but they've been extensively developed through roleplay and writing outside this forum, and I'm not sure that I'd be comfortable 'playing' with them myself' - and duly offered an alternative continuation of the story:

"I am here because the Powers That Be need me," intoned Mogdred. Relishing Treguard's disgust at this idea, he continued. "A certain deed has been perpetrated by my alter ego, and the monks of your Dungeon, while greatly troubled by its implications, know that I can help like no one else."

Treguard found his voice faltering. "Merlin? He... he's back? What has he done?"

"Yes. It's Merlin," said Brother Strange slowly. "He's stolen Christmas."

This was partly a tongue-in-cheek reference to Merlin's infamous Christmas scene at the end of Series 4. Drassil's post was accepted by the other contributors, and the story was back on track.

After discovering more of the chaos caused by Merlin's Christmas fervour - he'd merged Hordriss and Brother Mace in an attempt to create Father Christmas, and enslaved the elves in a toy workshop - Treguard, keen to prove himself anew, led an expedition to Winteria in the hope of forming an alliance with Queen Aesandre. En route, the adventurers encountered more evidence of Merlin's yuletide mischief, including:

a Wolfenden bereft of Christmas cheer;
Majida posing as Elita ('Merlin kidnapped me to play genie in Christmas pantomime. I had to use disguise to escape');
a wellway room adapted into a bomb room with a giant exploding Christmas pudding;
Skarkill mutated by the spell TINY into a representation of Tiny Tim;
a blend of Pixel and Tiny the hobgoblin ('Merlin mixed us up! He wanted me to be bigger and Tiny to be more...Christmassy');
a 'Back To Reality' ruse (SEE: Red Dwarf) in which Ariadne was posing as a Televirtual TV producer;
'the figure of the Dreadnought in a santa suit'.

Treguard, Pickle and Mogdred finally reach Merlin in Winteria (he wanted a guaranteed white Christmas, and had dealt with Aesandre by crushing her under a lion), where Mogdred tricks the others into merging him with his alter ego:

"Fools!! This was my plan all along. I never wanted to balance Merlin's mind - I have used my growing evil to take it over! Now I am powerful enough to make the entire Dungeon quail!!"

Fortunately, Lillith is summoned. In the final part of the story, written by Mashibinbin, Lillith teams up with Mogdred, who spellcasts GLORY, 'but in a very cruel twist of fate it played against the scheming schemers sending them back also but with the added bonus of sending a scroll, detailing all that had happened, to Knightmare Castle to be duly transcribed by Cadrighan the Chronicler....' An alternative ending was submitted by Drassil: after ending Christmas with a SALES spell and undoing all the magic, Lillith captures Mogdred (her former husband) under the mistletoe and vanishes. Sidriss takes over the throne of Winteria, and Treguard, his self-confidence replenished, heads to the Crazed Heifer with Pickle for some mulled wine.

Interactive Story #4 lacked flow and continuity in a number of places, suggesting that some contributors had not read and remembered preceding instalments all that carefully, but it succeeded in being an entertaining and seasonal yarn for writers and readers alike. If it were to be given a less generic title, perhaps 'Gold, Frankincense and Merlin' would be a fair choice.

The storytellers were, in order of first contribution: Emii, Becxsmagic, Skarkill, Thanatos, Drassil, BillyH, LordF (Lord Fear), Mashibinbin, Turaga Nuju. The story, which reached four pages, can be read here.

[Earlier version: 2006-11-27 16:18:10]

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