A short gnome can be seen, swaggering his way up to the ruins of the tavern, the small crowd still gathered there. From a distance, anyone could see he held a huge mug, and was toting a red wagon, with a comically large sized barrel on the back of it.
"MERRY SHMASHMAS!" he screams out, and then takes another sip from his drink "CIDERSH ALL AROUND! Come come, yesh, theres plentys for everyone!" one of the town's residents walks up to get a class, clearly a usual of the tavern formerly known as The Shady Corner. The gnome looks at the fellow, and starts to tell him about 'Smashmas':
"You see!" he pauses as he tries to think, clearly intoxicated "We rosy cheeksh, we know how to truly partysh... hic! Shee, what you don't know, what you don't know, what what you don't know" he starts to lean on the fellow, who has a smile on his face as the short gnome babbles at him. "See what you don'ts know, is the Smashmas is my FAVORITE time of year! My old lady, she never liked me celebrating Shmashmush, because see, she liked thish here chider toooo much!" he giggles a little bit. "ALL da gnome women be loving the cider for Smashmas! Its a Smashmas Tradition!" he says, and he gives the patron a nudge. "It gets ALL their cheeks red hehe!" he talks to the fellow a bit more "but see this year, I am on vacation, so I get to do whatevers I please! No bonds for this gnomey!"
Riddles sees others approaching, interested in the cider and the warmth of the smoldering building. "Yesh Yesh! Come come, Riddlesh's Bomb Diggity Cider! Come come! Have some! Even you dark eyesh! We can ALL enjoy each other in the SMASHMAS SHPIRIT!" he sloshes a bit of cider out of his glass, and stares at the fire with a gleam in his eye. You might as well enjoy that which you cannot change, he thinks to himself.
"Teh chider gulping is going WONDERFULLY Ms. Glimmer!" Riddles says, swaying merrily from side to side. "Yesh yesh, have some ciders! It is TRULY DELICIOUS!" he says, as he swings his mug, the liquid inside sloshing out of the cup, and right back into the drinking vessel.
Riddles thinks back at what she said, raising an eyebrow in the process "Decorate? Decorate! All the decoration you need is a warm tummy and a glass of ale! Ash for a contest, that shounds more in the spirit of things... hic! Though I must say, I am not too found of drinking contests." he starts to ramble about a story from his past:
"Why, when I was at Ishtenshia's Healers College, the scholars of the healing arts would get together, and every time any of the gnomish nurses would say they were going to go out drinking, they would promise it would be a good time, and instead, they would just leave all of us stout!" he giggles and rambles on for a bit about sorority nurses "and THAT is why I don't do drinking contests!"
"Now, join me in a drink Ms. Glimmer! I have please a cookie delicious!" he says, the alcohol truly taking effect. "Come come! Yes! Take some chider!"
Glimmer flits in an around the smoldering clumps and here's something about smashmas. She pulls cookies from her pouch, as well as a pouch full of a glittery substance. Stuffing a cookie in her mouth, she throws the glitter pouch in the air and watches as it bursts and shimmers to the ground. "MERRY SMASHMAS RIDDLESIES! My oh my this is fexstive! Can I have some cider? We should decorate! Don't fall over! You're quite far ahead of me on the cider gulping. OHHH! A CONTEST! We can call it Riddles' Cider Gulp and Dash! We'll call it that cuz they'lla ll gulp it, then dash to lose it when they've had too much. What a MERRY idea!" Glimmer flits to Riddles and stuffs some cookies at him, saying "You should eat something or you'll never stay awakesies for the end of the festivities. Queen Festivia says everybody has to be festivitied at all times!"