"You might not like that I'm still in Lazytown, but I promise you this. For as long as I'm here, you'll never have to spend the holidays alone."
-"You're insufferable."
-"So I've heard."
-"Do you plan on standing there the whole time, or are you going to sit and join me?"
-"Whatever you like best."
-"Don't play smart with me."
-"But you love it when I do!"
-"Ugh, just sit down already you sappy oaf!"
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Bonus!
Sportacus and Robbie as Yule lads to bless your day :)
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Happy Holidays <3 <3
i found a couple more sketches/ideas for a story beat I was gonna do w mattie and tidied them up and it got lodged in my brain again…soo if anyone’s interested here they are and there's a plot synopsis under the cut
little prequel info that i was gonna do in another comic - when Mattie was 4 or 5 Hilda once showed her the winter tales book and told her abt how she had met the yule lads, thinking she’d find it fun…and bby Mattie found it extremely scary and Hilda had to stay with her at night to help her sleep again. Mattie was super young so she forgot this incident very quickly. Hilda didn’t.
several years later - it’s the day of the sonstansil bloom and Mattie wants to go to the market w Hilda like they usually do. Hilda has other plans (checking in on the yule lads to make sure they’re not kidnapping children again) but doesn’t want to scare Mattie. Jo tells Hilda she should take her sister and Hilda gets frustrated and tells her she can’t take her everywhere with her, which Mattie overhears :(
Hilda ends up making up an excuse and tells Mattie she’ll come find her at the market later but there’s stuff she has to do first. alone
Mattie takes this completely normally and recruits her friends to help her stalk her sister to see what she’s up to
they spot Hilda leaving an alleyway looking kind of suspicious. once she’s gone, they go see what’s in there and find the cottage, and the yule lads in the middle of making the broth to give to grylla
the yule lads seem vaguely familiar to Mattie as a concept, but she doesn’t remember where she heard about them or any other info. curious that Hilda seems to know them, she tries to befriend them and complains a bit about how Hilda doesn’t want to hang out with her anymore >:( at this point Moppet starts to get anxious and runs off and Mattie chases after him, bumping into the pot and spilling absolutely all of it in the process. I’m sure you can see where this is going
the yule lads freak out and try to bag the kids as a replacement offering. Arwen already didn’t like these guys on sight so sees what’s coming and manages to jump out of the way. Moppet's familiar instincts kick in and he gives Mattie some luck magic to make the yule lads miss her on their first attempt. They run to safety and look back to find that Harvey isn’t with them
😬.
Arwen suggests they go to Hilda for help and Mattie stubbornly refuses, absolutely not wanting to go beg for help when her sister already seems to think she’s not good enough for her. instead they go back to her home and Mattie manages to find the winter tales book based off what the yule lads told her and her vague memory. they read it and realise what they’ve gotten into
at the same time, Hilda is with David and Frida at the arranged place at the market, waiting for Mattie and starting to feel a bit bad about earlier. as more time passes she starts to get more worried, and asks Frida to cast a locating spell
Mattie and Arwen return to the cottage bracing for a fight and find it empty. they go to the sonstansil tree and see the sacks are gone. Mattie is starting to realise she’s in way over her head but there’s no time to even try and find Hilda and get her to help her now. she and Arwen start heading for the city wall as fast as they can. in their hurry, they accidentally leave Moppet behind
some distance out of trolberg they come across grylla, making her way back to her lair. Arwen takes one look and freezes up immediately. Mattie tells her it’s fine and she can go get Harvey herself, and sneaks forward and starts climbing up grylla’s back - she’s got a bunch of things on there, what are the chances she’ll notice one more?
halfway up and trying to guess which bag Harvey might be in, Mattie slips off a spike, quickly rights herself, and looks back up. to see grylla staring right at her
she panics and falls off onto the snow, grylla reaches out to grab her - but Mattie is suddenly pulled out of reach and dropped several yards away. she looks up to find Hilda and Twig standing over her, with Frida and David not far behind
Hilda asks Mattie what on earth she’s doing out here and Arwen catches up to them
Hilda: oh hi Arwen you’re here too… wait so where’s Harvey?
Mattie: 🥺👉👈
Hilda: …Oh No
Hilda tells Mattie and Arwen to go and leave this to them. Mattie refuses and insists she help since it’s her fault and Hilda reluctantly agrees. She hands Moppet over to her (after losing Mattie he came and found Hilda instead) and tells her to find Harvey while they distract grylla - Hilda and Twig run circles around her, Frida casts some spells and David resorts to throwing rocks. with the extra distractions and Moppet’s luck magic Mattie is easily able to find Harvey this time and free him. Frida makes a magic blast which gives them all time to get away safely before she can catch on
back inside the city walls, they run into the yule lads and Hilda has a stern word with them about kidnapping her sister’s friends, but Mattie jumps in and explains it was kiiind of mostly her fault to begin with. Hilda asks them if they’re gonna be okay since they just lost their offering again and they reply that since they had already handed it over by that point, they’re ~technically in the clear for another year
Hilda and Mattie have a little heart to heart and Mattie laments not being able to handle things like she does bc Hilda never gets scared of anything :( Hilda explains that she still wants to be around her but also wants to keep her safe. even she gets scared sometimes… like when her sister almost gets herself kidnapped by an ogress. she also promises to give Mattie a little more credit for what she’s capable of now and tells her she can always come to her for help
they make it back to the tree just as the bloom is about to start and Harvey and Arwen say their goodbyes and run off to their respective parents. Mattie stands around awkwardly for a sec before Hilda asks if she’d like to join her, David and Frida and they watch the bloom together :)
Kaisa and Johanna show up and ask what they’ve missed
[Part 3 of this year's Christmas series, following the Yule Lads and Grýla. I love this image; it's good at stressing that this is a giant domestic cat, not a "big cat" like a pantherine, indicates scale delightfully, and is a very recognizable feline behavior. Although in context, much more sinister. Bad kitty!]
Yule Cat
CR 13 NE Magical Beast
This creature resembles nothing so much as a fluffy domestic cat the size of an elephant. Its fur is gray with white mottling, and its eyes are wide and yellow.
Once upon a time, on a distant planet, a god of strength was challenged to perform seemingly simple tasks by a trickster titan. These tasks were all impossible but disguised with illusions, and one of them was to lift the giant’s cat—in actually, the Midgard Serpent, a primordial beast that encircles that globe. When the god tried to lift the serpent, and managed to get one paw off the ground, a kitten was born that was a metaphysical echo of the immovable cat. That kitten kept growing and growing the more she ate, until she was the size of a wagon. This is the Yule Cat.
The Yule Cat is a predator of small game, like any domestic cat, only due to the Yule Cat’s size, “small game” is Medium and Small humanoids. The Yule Cat prefers the taste of succulent young flesh, but hates the taste of newly made clothing. Thus, she preferentially attacks the impoverished and already suffering. In places where the Yule Cat roams, children are given gifts of clothing in the winter in order to make them less palatable to the great cat. The Yule Cat cannot be moved unless she wants to, and can be an impassible obstacle if she decides to set herself in front of a door or bridge and just wait for prey to pass by
The Yule Cat is “owned” by the fey troll Grýla, but like all cats, is as much an associate as a dependent. The Yule Cat stays in Grýla's cave for most of the warmer months and goes off hunting in the colder ones, but always manages to be by Grýla’s table in the winter to demand a portion of her finest human stews. Of Grýla’s children, the Yule Lads, she likes Stumpy the best, and will occasionally let him ride her. Rumor has it that the Yule Lads, Grýla and the Yule Cat once all lived on a distant world called Earth, but a ritual spell intended to force that darn cat to get up and move had the unforeseen consequence of sucking the whole monstrous clan through a portal and depositing them on Golarion. That said, the actions of gods and monsters can send distant ripples throughout the cosmos, and reports of “jotunn cats” may indicate that the Yule Cat is merely the most prominent member of a whole species.
Defense
AC 28, touch 14, flat-footed 22 (-2 size, +6 Dex, +15 natural)
hp 175 (14d10+98)
Fort +16, Ref +15, Will +9
DR 15/magic; Resist cold 20, fire 20; SR 24
Defensive Abilities immovable
Offense
Speed 50 ft.
Melee bite +21 (2d6+9 plus grab), 2 claws +21 (1d8+9)
Space 15 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks pounce, rake (2 claws +21, 1d8+9), swallow whole (Medium or smaller, 2d6+13 bludgeoning, AC 17, 17 hp)
Statistics
Str 27, Dex 23, Con 24, Int 8, Wis 17, Cha 12
Base Atk +14; CMB +24 (+28 grapple); CMD 40 (60 vs. bull rush, overrun, reposition, 68 vs. trip)
Feats Acrobatic Steps, Combat Reflexes, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Nimble Moves, Power Attack, Skill Focus (Perception)
Skills Acrobatics +16 (+24 when jumping), Climb +17, Perception +12 (+8 if target is in new clothes, +16 if target is in old clothes), Stealth +12, Survival +6 (+2 if target is in new clothes, +10 if target is in old clothes); Racial Modifiers +4 Acrobatics, +4 Climb, +8 Stealth, +4 Perception and Survival if target is in old clothes, -4 Perception and Survival if target is in new clothes
Languages Giant (cannot speak)
Ecology
Environment cold mountains and forest
Organization unique
Treasure incidental
Special Abilities
Clothing Sense (Su) The Yule Cat gains a +4 racial bonus on Perception and Survival checks to detect or track a target wearing clothing six months old or older, and can detect and pinpoint these creatures at twice the normal distance with scent. The Yule Cat also suffers a -4 racial penalty on Perception and Survival checks to detect or track a target wearing clothing a month old or newer, can only detect these creatures with scent at half the normal distance, and cannot pinpoint such targets by scent.
Immovable (Su) The Yule Cat can become nearly impossible to move as an immediate action. When it does so, it freezes in place, even in midair, until it decides to move again. When frozen in this way, it can still attack, but cannot move from its square unless it chooses to render itself mobile as another immediate action. The Yule Cat gains a +20 racial bonus to CMD against bull rush, overrun, reposition and trip combat maneuvers (this bonus does not require an action to activate or deactivate).
First ever Fakemon designs! Inspired by folklore, brownies, trolls, yule lads, with some mandrills and proboscis monkeys mixed in.
Gniblet- A tiny household pest who endeavours to clean anything it can reach, and often gobbles down food when unsupervised.
Glomdhu- A gangly mischievous mon known for sneaking into places to steal food, mess up pots, and grab berries.
Grabnate- A lazy stern elder, they tend to find busy roads and bridges to seize as territory, demanding a toll in exchange for maintaining the structure.
