[IC] The Guild's White Elephant Gift Exchange

[Throndir]

The Day of Giving was upon them all, as the guild members cheered. Like the day before with the raffle that handed out shards, Arelia was once again the one organizing the event. She called the guild members to the hall, though this time around, it looks like as if some redecoration had happened as all of the tables and chairs had been pushed to the side. At the center of the hall was a large tree decorated with various ornaments and magical lights that flickered different colors.

Not only that, Arelia herself wore a new hat.

"I'm sure some of you had already prepared for this, but it's time for a white elephant gift exchange!" Arelia beamed with excitement, uncharacteristic for her and her heritage. She composed herself a moment later and proceeded to outline some of the rules while she began placing a gift under the tree.

White Elephant Gift Exchange this time. If you don't know how it works, it's something like this:

• Everyone places a gift at the center of the tree. You must PM me, or tell me what the item is.
  
• Be sure to describe thoroughly on how the packaging looks like in your post on this thread. It's perfectly fine to say it looks like a generic red striped box, put enough details so players can choose a gift just from the packaging alone.
  
• Once all participants and characters have placed gifts, sometime around Dec. 25 or later, we'll start the gift exchange.
  
• How this works:
  
• A person picks out a gift from the tree and opens it.
  
• The DM will then describe what the item is, or PM the player beforehand if he or she wishes to describe it themselves.
  
• The players opens it and shows everyone in the circle what the item is.
  
• The next person then can choose to either steal an item that had already been opened by someone, that has not yet been stolen, or pick a new item out from the tree and show it to everyone.
  
• If an item is stolen, the character who loses the item must pick out a new gift from the tree or steal another gift, but can't steal back the gift that was just stolen.
  
• A gift can be stolen up to 2 times. After that it can no longer be stolen. Basically, if you're the third 'receiver' of the gift, it's yours.
  
• This keeps going until everyone has picked out a gift.
  
• All participants are given 500 coins per character, but only if that character posts in this thread. Use the money to pocket, but preferably use the money to help in buying something for the gift exchange.
  
• Aim for gifts in the 500gp -> 1000gp range. Feel free to be more or less generous than others.
  
• I will be forcing players to pick from the tree, by random dice rolling, if there is inactivity after ~72 hours from when they need to post.
  

[Ella]

Callista Fae

Invisible, child-sized Callista walked up to the tree with a wrapped up box in hand. She did not want anyone to see her put the gift down, fearing that would make people suspicious of it and so pick it last. Although she given "prank" gifts in the past, they had all still been useful to their recipients, so there should be no reason for people to fear it being a prank gift. Even so, the faerie was well known for her love of pranks among the guild members and townsfolk, so it did not hurt to be cautious.

It was a fairly large box, making it impossible for her to carry in her smaller form. She had wrapped it up with a pretty paper printed with holly and little red berries all over it, happy to have found such a thing. Having felt like it needed something more, the faerie had glued red sparkles on all of the berries and, instead of a bow like most gifts, found actual holly leaves to glue to the package.

Setting the gift down carefully between other gifts that had been placed around the tree, the faerie quickly withdrew. She wondered who would get her gift and hoped they would like it.

[Mysticsage]

Kryas
The half elf walked up to the tree with a box lined in shiny red paper. He had placed an illusory pattern on the paper to make it look like the small snow flakes were falling across it's surface. He had to plan where he placed this gift well. He placed it on one of the upper most ledges by the background of the tree. Certainly by no means obscured from view, the box was large enough that he doubted anyone could miss it, but it would take a lot of work or someone even taller then he was to reach it. He smirked a little to himself as he looked at the small hamshank shapped tag he had even mad it look as if it had frozen in a block of ice. He chuckled slightly it was a little self referential but it was serving a more basic purpise a lure.

The gift was planning to give had quite the upside but if the rumors held true from the shadowy merchant he had bought it from it might also have a bit of a downside. Well Santa had a bit of a mischievous side didn't he? After all he was said to have an army of gnomes helping him make things which by definition meant mischief, Well regardless if his plan did not work out surely things would turn out to be interesting this year.   

Serena

Serena walked up to the tree a few hours later with a small stain box in hand.  This was her first giving day with friends for a while. Just last year she was holding vigils for families who lost loved ones. While she loved reuniting families being surrounded with the spirits of the dead for at times weeks later was not the most fun. For now she did not have to deal with such pain and just enjoy the lighter side of the holiday. Once the actual day came around she would no doubt set up  a shrine with the help of the near by temple for viewings. They had been hesitant at first but when she said she would have a donations basket out with for them to use when she was done they were more then willing.

For now though she could have her fun and Kryas would know doubt leave her smiling and laughing he always did

Grey

The merchant had only gotten here a few weeks prior, but he understood the importance of good will. He placed a long rectangular box under the tree It was wrapped in a pine green wrapping with white ribbon. After the event the banker had even said that she would use the guild's network to find him a place to set up his workshop in the hall and a place to put up a makeshift stand. Whoever got his gift he hoped would show it off to his friends. They would see his craftsman mark and then want ones of their own.

[Linwelin]

Vladimir

It had been a little over a year since the methuselan had joined the guild, and many moments of joy, sorrow, pride, and despair were shared amongst the guild over that time. Unlike the last Day of Giving, Vladimir had more than just a couple friends with which he could share his thanks; this time, it felt as though the whole guild were his family, and they all deserved something. But he wasn't about to spend all he had buying something for every member. Thus this year's theme relieved him a bit. One gift, given at random, and everyone got something.

Luckily or him, he had some useful items that he'd jumped on in the market months back. At first he thought they'd be useful for himself, but once the season approached, he realized that, though interesting, the items would be of more use to others. Thus, Vladimir wrapped a small box, one that fit in hand palm, in golden wrapping paper, tied cross-wise with maroon ribbon. With that, he smiled while placing the box under the tree, wondering who would find it.

Kin

"Ah, the giving season! Always interesting to see what's shared. Sometimes a little TOO interesting..." Kin notes off-hand, remembering quite a few prank gifts from seasons past. "Given that my last gifts are so long-lived, I think I'll take it a bit easier this year. AH! I know just the thing." The halfling had been staring cheerfully at the giving tree, but upon having his idea, quickly scurried up to his room and dug through his belongings for a certain item.

"Ha! There it is!" Kin digs out a kit of some sort, "I'd thought they'd be useful, but with the new swordsmanship I'm being instructed in, I don't feel I'll have much use for them." Quickly wrapping it in a vivid blue paper, tied with white ribbon, Kin rushes back downstairs and carefully places his gift.

"There, that should make someone happy. Now, time to practice." Kin nods to himself contently, then wanders out to the training area to work on techniques shown to him by Swordsage Suttikul a few days back.

[Throndir]

Annia Siadon

As Annia carried her gift, it rattled and jingled as if there were glass inside. She seemed to take extra care in moving the box. The wrapping was golden, much like her armor, with a silver colored ribbon that neat-fully completed the gift. She carefully placed it under the tree.

Nyuko Nyun

The gift Nyuko carried looked flat. The dimensions were about 2" x 15" x 15". It was wrapped in a simple brown colored wrapping paper, without any further embellishments.

Golas Rorn

It was a rather large gift. A few feet in length, width, and height in all directions. It was hard to tell whether or not the item was heavy or light, as Golas had simply slung the item on his shoulder and proceeded to walk to the tree with it. However, with the slight movements of how the box lifted up and down, and when Golas strained his muscles to gently lower the large box at the tree, it was easy to tell that whatever it was, it was heavy. 

Like his trademark cloak, the box was wrapped in a crimson-red wrapper. There was hardly any finesse to the wrapping, and it looked like as if the the large man had quickly put it together.

Golas grinned as Katrias followed after.

Katrias Lyseer

"Bigger isn't always better."

Unlike the others, Katrias came up to the tree, and dropped what looked like a purple card or letter. It did still have a red ribbon across it however.

[Lance]

[spoiler=Open/Close for Music (18 second delay)]
http://www.youtube.com/v/SLuW-GBaJ8k&autoplay=1
[/spoiler]

The streets were in silence, the doors were closed, and the children were kept safely indoors. For Lyolf was going through town, the crowds parting safely before him, while he was busy shoving a giant gift-box before him. Along the way, several other upstanding mage-folk had seen his plight and, after checking the bag's contents, decided to lend a hand. Thus it did not take long for Lyolf's entourage to reach the guildhall and for the elf himself to squeeze his gift in through the front gates.

...where it was placed beside the tree, towering over it in the spirit of Christmas. Lyolf smiled, for he knew that his was not just any gift, no...

[spoiler=it was the BEST gift]

[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Gift-Box Description]
The box is huge, as in creature-Huge. It is colored white with red ribbons. There is no other apparent tell-tale feature but those trained in the arcane arts might detect a minor seal placed on the box's lid. Additionally, if you watch closely, the box appears to be growing.
[/spoiler]

[Fellow Rabbit]

Gandin, son of Gehin

The door to Gandin's sleeping quarters abruptly swung open, slamming on the wall as it opened far enough, only adding to the cracks and other damage that repeated recklessness in opening the door had caused. Today he was in an especially lively mood. Why? Nobody could quite tell, although one might speculate that the exaggeratedly gigantic box in his room had something to do with it. It was several feet tall and equally wide. The last dimension, however, was just slim enough to fit through the doorway without having to cause any more damage to it. He had opted not to wrap the box, but instead spent several hours giving it the adornment of the majestic artwork of his people. Among these artworks were a giant egg opening to reveal a sunset behind it; a large ship with butterflies instead of sails; a steampunk horse skeleton in the middle of an apocalypse; and a gorilla eating a taco.

[spoiler=The magnificent artwork on the four sides of the box.][/spoiler]

He had been absent from many events for the better part of three days. Many, he assumed, were worried that he might have run off, been kidnapped, or abducted by headless horsemen, but after seeing all the work he had put into making this gift truly a masterpiece to behold, there could be no doubt of where he had been. And you bet Gandin would agree with anyone who said it was worth the worry and wait!

He smiled with starry eyes as he beheld the beauty from his doorway. He could swear it was glowing with radiance unmatched by any other gift before it. He deeply wished in his heart that he could just stand there all day and admire his own work, but this sadly wasn't a gift of which he could enjoy such a pleasure. In fact, he was likely already growing late for the event he had constructed it for in the first place. He would have to rush to get it where it needed to be before he was disqualified or some other such nonsense.

Stealing one last glance at the fabulosity before him, he grabbed a rope he had tied around the box and began pulling with all his might. A normal person might have put wheels on a box of such weight, but Gandin soon realized he had made the mistake of forcing himself to drag it the whole way. He honestly hadn't expected it to be this heavy, but clearly he should have considering the true glory and size of the gift inside.

For nearly a half hour, he pulled the monstrous crate, creating many obnoxious scraping noises as he maneuvered the box around tight corners, repeatedly yelling at other guild members to get out of his way so he wouldn't be late. Several gave him some looks he wished he could have pummeled them for, but he hadn't the time. He could feel that they were going to start the White Elephant Gift Exchange without him and that might be something he would be willing to fight over.

Fortunately, he finally dragged the package all the way across the guild to the room in which the exchange was being held. Through the doorway he went, dragging the obscenely weighty object behind him. He towed with the last of his might until the fabulous container stood tall and proud just next to Lyolf's gift, which was about the same size. Both were much taller than the tree itself and put every other gift to shame, he would believe. Whatever the case, Gandin knew which gift he had to end up with at all costs by the end of the exchange.

[Fellow Rabbit]

Isaák Amantes

Special care and great lengths had gone into the acquisition of this gift, such was the trouble Isa?k was willing to go through to ensure the merriment of the members of the Guild of Galas'nor. Petty things like prices couldn't get in his way, although he did accept the generous offer of a discounted purchase. Wrapping it had taken much less effort, but truly he also would have anyone who asked know that equal care had gone into that portion of the gift as well.

The package was small, but not too small. One could perhaps fit it underneath their bed if they so chose. It weighed very little as well, and it showed as Isa?k carried it from his quarters to the exchange room. It was perfectly cubic, wasting as little space as possible in containing the object he had put inside, but still spacey enough so that the item wasn't smooshed against the sides. Its wrapping was fairly simple; only paper with a red and green Escher-esque interlocking bird pattern, accentuated with a bright green bow with a tag on it with text written in calligraphy, but baring no practical information whatsoever.

He placed the gift under the tree, but as far from the larger gifts as possible. In doing so, he hoped to make the gift stand out as much as possible despite the gaudiness of the other gifts. He wished for the gift to be taken early on so that perhaps its glory would be made known to the rest of the participants. If he was lucky, he could even use that to his advantage in choosing the gift he hoped to keep throughout the night.

After adding the gift to the collection of presents underneath the tree, Isa?k made his way to a vacant seat and waited for the event to begin. Surely it would be fun for everyone involved.

[Throndir]

Arelia the Banker

"Looks like everyone is here then! I'm sure I don't need to explain the rules. But in case we have daft people here, basically we go one-at-a-time, and we either choose a gift from the tree, or steal one from a person. If someone steals from you, you then have a choice of stealing from yet another person, or taking from the tree. Once an item is stolen two times, it can't be stolen anymore. In other words, if you're the third holder of the gift, it's yours! Now. I know things can get pretty rough, but this time..." She turned to Lyolf specifically.

"No throwing turkeys."

Beneath the tree were various gifts or different sizes and shapes.



The first gift was wrapped up with some sheets of pretty gift-wrapping paper with little decorations of holly and red berries all over it. What made it more unique was the fact that it had red sparkles over each of the berries, and instead of a bow like most of the other gifts, had actual holly leaves glued to it as a makeshift bow.

The second gift was completely wrapped in shiny red paper. Though unlike regular paper, small snow flakes drifted across it on its surface, the stylized-snow mimicking the decent of the real thing. The tag stuck to it was special too, in that it looked as if it was stuck frozen in a block of ice.

The third gift was a small satin box. There weren't any other furnishings beside this fact.

The fourth gift was a long rectangular box wrapped up in a pine-green wrapping paper. The ribbon tied to it was white, and it neatly finished, almost a craftsmen's work, though of course, in a gift-box form.

The fifth gift was a small box. It was small enough to fit in one's palm. What made this unique was the golden wrapper paper with a striking maroon ribbon that tied the gift together.

The sixth gift was wrapped in a vivid blue wrapping paper, tied with a set of white ribbon. It wasn't an entirely large gift, but it looked hastily prepared. That said the wrapping was still well done and neatly placed.

The seventh gift was also wrapped in a golden sheet. It had a silver-colored ribbon that spanned the box.

The eighth gift was a flat box. It had equal dimensions on two sides, but the last one was only two inches thick. It was wrapped in a simple brown-colored wrapping paper, and there was no ribbon that held it in place.

The ninth gift was a large one. It was a few feet in length, width, and height. It was wrapped in a crimson-red wrapping paper, however like the previous gift this too did not have any further embellishments, and looked as if it had been quickly thrown together.

The tenth gift looked to be a simple card. It was placed in a purple envelope, though it still had a red ribbon across it, though it acted more as decoration rather than actual use.

The eleventh gift was an extremely large box. The proportions on it were strangely even however, and it looked like great care was done to ensure both the lid and the wrapping paper were just as large. The box itself was around 16 ft. even on all sides.

The twelfth gift was a box just as large as the previous one. Instead of gift wrap, it had various pieces of art on the side, one with a giant egg revealing a sunset, a large ship with butterflies as sails, a mechanical-like horse, and a gorilla eating some strange-looking food.

The thirteenth gift was a smaller package, it was cubic-shaped, wrapped in a paper with a red and green Escher-esque interlocking bird pattern. It had a bright green bow with a tag on it with a simple greeting written in calligraphy.

Everyone roll for initiative! Basically highest roller goes last, and lowest initiative goes first.

[Throndir]

Golas:
[blockquote]Rolled 1d20+3 : 5 + 3, total 8[/blockquote]

Annia:
[blockquote]Rolled 1d20 : 20, total 20[/blockquote]

Nyuko:
[blockquote]Rolled 1d20+5 : 19 + 5, total 24[/blockquote]

Katrias:
[blockquote]Rolled 1d20+3 : 18 + 3, total 21[/blockquote]

[Ella]

[spoiler=Callista Fae] This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 1d20+4 : 1 + 4, total 5[/spoiler]

[Linwelin]

[spoiler]So both my characters have high dex...haha...last I'll most likely be.
[blockquote]Vlad:  1d20+4 : 19 + 4, total 23[/blockquote]
[blockquote]Kin:  1d20+5 : 3 + 5, total 8[/blockquote][/spoiler]

[Fellow Rabbit]

[okay]Gandin: Gotta roll fast! Gotta roll fast!
[blockquote]Rolled 1d20 : 7, total 7[/blockquote]

Isa?k: Gotta roll faster, faster. Fasterfasterfaster!
[blockquote]Rolled 1d20+2 : 4 + 2, total 6[/blockquote][/okay]

[Throndir]

Rolling for Lance:
[blockquote]Rolled 1d20+5 : 14 + 5, total 19[/blockquote]

[Mysticsage]

[spoiler]Kryas initiative
[blockquote]Rolled 1d20+6 : 2 + 6, total 8[/blockquote]

Serena
[blockquote]Rolled 1d20+5 : 6 + 5, total 11[/blockquote]

Grey
[blockquote]Rolled 1d20+3 : 20 + 3, total 23[/blockquote][/spoiler]