TDM #5 - Paradesium

[pumpkinhollow]

Pumpkin Hollow Gazette March Issue

[Find our plain text version here!]

Pumpkin Hollow Gazette

3/8/24 | TDM #5 - Paradesium
Content Warnings: individual CWs found per prompt in "Further Details"
Forecast: Partly cloudy with a chance of rain

WELCOME TO PUMPKIN HOLLOW!

By Yorick Aberdeen

Apparently the ferryman needed a bigger boat!

ACROSS TOWN - Since June of 16:53, a steady stream of new arrivals to our sleepy little town has flowed in by ferry, emerging from the fog. And it seems this trend is due to continue, as this March is due to be on record the highest number of new residents in a single month!

We are incredibly grateful for all of you coming to our home and filling it with life once more, even though the dangers of our local curse have significantly increased since all of you began arriving. This reporter isn’t complaining--- additional harm to my own person notwithstanding!

If you are a new arrival, please report to Town Hall at your leisure so that we can help you find work and permanent lodging. Or don’t! The Oak & Iron is happy to rent you a room for as long as you need. Best of luck to all of you, and as we say in Pumpkin Hollow, may your lanterns always be lit!

CHARITY DRIVE ENCOURAGES CULTURAL EXCHANGE

By Cecil Gershwin Palmer

One of the charming toys created during last year's Doll Picnic.

FESTIVAL GREEN - Preparations are underway for the upcoming annual Doll Picnic. A charity event sponsored by the Artisan’s Guild, this picnic is an Anwyllic tradition that was brought to the island and continued with love. The first Doll Picnic was organized by Dame Meredith Idlewild of the town of Glyn Rhuthun on Kora’s Haven, with the toys being donated to the local children’s hospital after a massive landslide engulfed a local school.

The Artisan’s Guild has baskets of material available for making dolls, including fabric, yarn, stuffing, buttons, and the like. However, tradition states that sourcing materials from the natural world (for example, acorn husks to use as buttons or deadwood to carve for doll arms and legs) results in the toys being blessed by Serrenai, who will watch over the children who play with them. The toys will be donated to local children after the picnic, including those who are ill or whose families can only afford necessities.

Newcomers are explicitly invited to join in the making of toys, and the resulting picnic. As a personal note: the locals have never heard of a teddy bear before. This reporter expects to see several, as we introduce our traditions to their traditions.

PLANTING SEASON BEGINS!

By Yorick Aberdeen

After a difficult winter, the appearance of spring's sprouts lifts our spirits.

NORTHWEST HOLLOW - The spring thaw is in full swing! That means it’s time for our local farmers to begin planting. Town Hall is offering a small reward to any of our newest arrivals who would be interested in assisting with planting season for farms less than a year old.

Anyone fresh off the boat interested in making 100 Brass should seek out Eddie and Angel Kasbrak, Arthur Morgan, Cèsar Salazar, Mairi Miann, Ylva Wolfsdottir, or Muriel and offer assistance with tilling and planting. We look forward to rewarding you for your contributions!

HOT SPRINGS OPEN FOR RELAXATION

By Yorick Aberdeen

Photograph provided by the Safety Board!

CRANE'S RIDGE - After a recent earthquake opened up a hot spring on the lower portion of Crane’s Ridge, a small portion of the Pumpkin Hollow Damage Claims Assessment Corps has been working to get the area cleaned up and safe for use by the general public.

Following its recent approval for compliance by the Safety Board, we are pleased to announce that Porter’s Spring is now available for public enjoyment! It can be accessed by taking the train to the North Station or by following the central trail out of Northwest Hollow, though the Safety Board does not recommend making this journey on foot due to its proximity to Lake Sal-Co-Penn. Enjoy!

STRANGE CAVERNS DISCOVERED BENEATH CRANE’S RIDGE

By Yorick Aberdeen

A small glimpse into this world beneath our own.

CRANE RIDGE - In addition to the hot springs, the earthquake can also be credited for a major cave-in in our Crane’s Ridge mines. A large tunnel was completely buried in rubble by the inexplicable natural occurrence. For the past several months, our mining team has been chipping away at the cave-in to try and regain access to the blocked tunnels in the lower area of the mountain.

In one of these tunnels, however, the team discovered a shocking surprise as the rubble was removed! Apparently, just beyond the mine walls, there has been an entrance to Hepogaia--- a subterranean nation running below our own fair country and many others. It seems that this particular portion of Hepogaian territory is also trapped within the barrier. Brief attempts at scouting by the Safety Board have noted a plethora of subterranean wildlife, both familiar and unfamiliar. This incredible new environment, hiding just out of sight beneath our island, is so full of wonder and splendor that it has earned a fitting name--- “Paradesium.”

A recent ecology study and expedition run by Pumpkin Hollow’s own Dr. Elias Coldwood has redirected their efforts to this new location, but those interested in exploring and scouting out this fantastical new discovery independently are encouraged to pack thoughtfully and travel in groups of two or more! Any information obtained during excursions into Paradesium would be appreciated by the Pumpkin Hollow Board of Safety.

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Further Details...

Charity Drive

The Doll Picnic Charity Drive will run throughout the next two months during our TDM, and there will be an event later on involving posing the dolls for a picnic. Once a photo is taken, the children will be allowed to come picnic with their new toys and take them home after!

There is absolutely no way this could possibly go wrong. Absolutely no dollmakers will be jumpscared or attacked by possessed dolls. None at all. (Okay, maybe some of them. But it’s fine. It’s for a good cause.)

[Mod Note: you can just make a doll without it coming to life and trying to kick your ass, that part is optional. Also the dolls will be blessed at the picnic and rendered unable to attack children.]

Planting Season

Any brand-new characters will get 100B extra on their stipend if they submit an AC-length thread with one of the existing farmers on their first Activity Check! This will be available regardless of whether the character qualifies for normal bonuses, but can only be redeemed by those who app in.

For reference for new players, threads are considered AC-length if they are ten tags in length (meaning 5 of your own tags and 5 from your partner.)

Hot Springs

Porter’s Spring is a perfectly normal and safe hot spring! However, you can encounter any number of perils on your way there if you decide to travel on foot, allowing new players to revisit some of our earlier events.

Check out our bestiary (pending update to new format) for more information on creatures such as Brutoks, the River Walker, and the Pine Devil, or stumble on Lake Sal-Co-Penn for a nasty surprise! Brutoks may also steal personal items from spring-goers on occasion. Don’t chase after them alone unless you want to be turned into a tree!

The Tristitia

In addition to the creatures in the wild, in town after dark characters may also encounter the Tristitia, Pumpkin Hollow’s newest cryptid.

She is a wraith-like spirit which haunts the island. Wearing tattered black clothes and colored all in shades of gray, she appears as a woman who walks around weeping with a caved-in chest, covering her face with her hands. Harmless if given a wide berth, but if she is set off, she will take out her desire for empathy for her grief on her target. She does this by embracing them and drawing out their own grief and trauma, leaving the target catatonic before she fades away, temporarily assuaged.

Into Paradesium

Crystals, golden with light and raw magical energy, cast what looks like sunlight down into the cascading cave. For every foot lower that the ground curls down from the entrance, the trees stretch ever-higher, carrying the raucous cries of animals unlike the surface of Marrow Isle had ever heard.

A jungle, so lush with life, sprawls ahead of any brave enough to venture into it. But what is there to see?

For Paradesium specifically, the bestiary has received a significant update. Creatures featured in prompts have their links to the accounts by Dr. Coldwood and his team marked with stars for easy location.

Below are multiple prompts for some encounters to be had in the jungle, but feel free to create any of your own encounters with any of the creatures listed! If the descriptions are short, feel free to write the creatures' behaviors however makes sense.

Welcome to the Jungle

Swallowed by dense canopies and noise, the jungle is quick to swallow any who travel within it whole.

Eyes are quick to find you, however. Perching in the treetops are a variety of small wyverns in vibrant colors, heads tilting as they try to comprehend what you could be. They squawk, chatter, and some of the bolder ones draw closer - if you sit anything aside and leave it unattended for too long, some even bolder than that will pilfer it, taking the object into the trees to admire with its companions.

Reptilian hunters with bright, keen eyes, the Plommon, consider you with much of the same interest. This interest increases tenfold if you happen to feed them.

If the prying eyes are no bother, then the forest's bounty is ripe for tending and taking. Bananas hang off trees, colorful citrus fruits catch light on their waxy peels, and bulky cocoa beans are jostled by movement in the branches above them. Even the broad leaves of the plants prove extraordinarily useful, whether you're looking to come in and quickly leave, or intend to push further within.

Wherever you go, those curious eyes follow you. Perhaps even out of the cave, should your attempts to shoo an adventurous creature away. What an odd way to gain a new team member.

Down a Few Notches on the Food Chain

(CWs: Potential for death, gore, or animal death)

Unfortunately, not all can be pure bounty and new friends in a place like this.

With the cavern sprawling widely and massively, there are many significantly larger creatures in this space, and some seem to be keen to take up opportunity for new prey. As you explore, there's a new feeling of eyes upon you, and the silence that overtakes the surrounding trees spells nothing good to come.

Any one of the massive predators in the wood has you in it's sights.

Escape is difficult, but manageable, as is fighting back. Creatures can be challenged, and hides, bones, and other spoils can be claimed from them, should there be success! If not, this is a good opportunity for familiarization with the Death page.

The silkhide chimera specializes in persistence. The longer and further you go, the more exhausted you'll get. A break is an opportunity that it will be keen to take.

The greenstalker excels at ambushing and high-speed pursuit. At top speeds of 30MPH, your party will need strategy and skill on their side to keep this beast at bay. (Or, alternatively, a source of fire.)

The elephant raptor does neither of these - the beast's sheer length of reach does all it needs to. Water and mud soften the sounds of the gargantuan creature's approach. Stay alert, and be sure that you hear it before it's upon you.

Safe travels become more difficult to manage, the further in you go. Deep, rumbling snores tell you that there's a chance you're just getting to the greater threats this paradise has to offer...

Fragments of the Past

Through great distances traveled, this "uninhabited" cavern begins to show signs that may speak to that not having always been the case.

Ruins of homes, crumbled bricks and tiles, can be found at the deepest reaches of the cavern. These dilapidated buildings, though worn with time, tell a story: the people who left his place, one that could be identified as a stenholm to any familiar with dwarvish culture, did not leave it on good terms.

Essentials were clearly taken with them, as the ruins of this place lack tools or clothing. Valuables are still scattered throughout, however. Large objects with too much history to have been left behind by indifference dot the collapsing homes. Ritual circles still waft radiant energy from them.

In the remains of a temple, an altar stands, cracking with age and covered in plants as the cavern reclaims it. Old candle-stands have rusted with age, but still stand, undisturbed.

Just before the altar, folded onto its side (as best as one can be, when only pieces remain), lies a skeleton. The clothes are tattered remains of stained whites and dulled blues, and the wildlife have cleaned flesh from bones, but it's remained undisturbed by time.

There's a quiet sadness to this place that lingers, even with the people who inhabited it so long since lost.

Should you linger too long, however, there comes the distinct feeling of not being alone.

Clair de Lune

(CWs: Long-term isolation, extinction)

Golden eyes of a human face follow your every moment, and the moment you lock your gaze onto them, the face emerges from the darkness, partially covered by spilling dark hair.

What follows this face, however, is not a human face - but, rather, a feline body with sprawling, grey-flecked wings.

There's a long, tense silence, as it emerges fully. Standing easily at eight feet tall while on all fours, the size of this creature becomes more and more apparent as it emerges from the dark of the collapsed wind.

Unlike the other animals of the cavern, though, there seems to be an anxiousness to its look. The lion's chest rises and falls with short, nervous breaths.

And then, in a hushed, woman's voice, hoarse from disuse, it speaks.

"Who are you? Why have you come here?"

-------------------

The Sphinx is a new NPC available for characters to interact with, should they delve deep enough into the caverns to find the stenholm. She's wary of all the new faces, and tends to be somewhat flighty, but seems cautiously interested in what new humans being in Hepogaia have to offer. For the sort looking to understand this place, it's people, or intend to trade, she can be communed with.

To interact with her, comment on the TL provided from beastsofthehollow with her icon, and if the initial introduction isn't your speed, feel free to encounter her however you like!

Comments

Ylva | OC | OTA

[actuallyawolf]

Planting Hunting season

A note appears on the community bulletin board. It is written in careful but inexpert letters, and there's been a very clear attempt to do it in Braille as well, with the limited tools she has -- though there are one or two spelling mistakes in the Braille version that don't exist in the print version.

More people means, we need more food. Come help me hunt or forage in the forest, I can teach tracking or what's good to eat if you dont know. Probably good if you now how to fight already. My name is Ylva so please use the sending stone.

Following up on this note will result in arranging a meeting to venture off into the woods together, and she will show up early and eager.

[nothingbadeverhappensto]

Leon's conversation with Ylva over the sending stones is short - he's more inclined to treat the things like comms than a phone - but it's efficient, the two of them arranging a time and place to meet so Leon can learn the ropes. He's by his own admission a bit of a city boy, but he's a crack shot with most weapons and figures it can't be too different hunting animals than fending off human or formerly-human attackers. If anything, it'll probably be a lot less frantic. By his understanding, most animals out there would much rather run and hide than try to bite your face off.

"Hey," he says, nodding as he approaches. "Are you Ylva? I'm here to help out with the hunting, if you'll have me."

He's got his Enforcer-issue sidearm with him, as well as that knife he stole from the restaurant on his first night out and conveniently forgot to give back. Probably not the best tools for hunting, all told, but for now it's what he's got.

[actuallyawolf]

Ylva's shown up with her hair tied back into a ponytail, pointed ears visible, and her feet bare now that the worst of the frost is melting. She gives him a grin and looks him over assessingly, but not particularly critically.

"Yeah. You're Leon? Is that your weapon?" She points to the gun curiously. "How strong is it?"

She honestly doesn't know.

[nothingbadeverhappensto]

“That’s me,” he says, nodding. The question about the gun gives him some pause, and he thinks about how to put it before responding. By the look she’s giving it and the fact that she had to ask whether it was his weapon at all he feels like he can probably assume she’s not too familiar with guns in general, which makes it hard to put it in exact terms.

“It’ll kill most things the size of a human or smaller, if I shoot them in something vital,” is what he concludes. “And if I hit something that’s not vital, it’ll hurt enough to stop most people or things in their tracks. The trick is mostly aiming, but I’ve been working with something a lot like this one since I was a teenager. I’m not a bad shot.”

Understatement. He was top of his class in police academy when it came to many things, marksmanship foremost among them. But he’s not here to brag.

[actuallyawolf]

Ylva gives this some serious thought. A projectile weapon, then. And she knows something about hunting techniques other than that favourite of both wolves and humans, Running After Something Until You Catch It.

"So if I ran into the bushes and scared rabbits or ducks, or whatever else, flushed them out into the open, do you think you'd be able to shoot them?"

[yournewsidekick]

Nimona still feels kinda awkward around Ylva. On the one hand, Ylva knows way more about her past than almost anybody else from the murder boat, more than Nimona would've preferred to tell if she hadn't stuck her face in those stupid memory-loss flowers. But on the other... she was chill about it. No, she was downright kind. And she's probably not gonna get weird about it if Nimona doesn't want to be human.

So -- awkwardly -- she sends Ylva a message over the Sending Stone, and -- slightly less awkwardly -- a literal pink panther comes padding up to her on the agreed-upon time, a crooked, hopeful smile on her face.

"Hey," she greets her. "Uh, am I gonna need opposable thumbs for this?"

[actuallyawolf]

Ylva's smile is warm and glad.

"Nah," she says. "Not if you don't want to. I wasn't going to use mine." She rolls her shoulders comfortably. "Probably just going to be a wolf. You and me together, we can probably take down at least a good sized deer or something without too much trouble."

[yournewsidekick]

Well, if there's one thing that'll get Nimona to unclench a little, it's the offer of violence!

"Metal," she declares, as her smile widens to show off her incisors. "Man, it's been ages since I wasn't just scavenging stuff. Kebabs and pizza? Awesome. But..."

She cranes her neck, looking up at the bright, bright sky. The cruise from hell only lasted half a year for her, but seeing how clouds fleck the blue, real clouds, and flexing her claws just to feel them dig into the wet dirt underfoot --

"This is way better."

[actuallyawolf]

"Yeah. Yeah, it really is."

Ylva looks up too, and sighs. She could stay here forever and be happy. She wouldn't even mind Siffleur so much, in a place like this. She stretches a little.

"So I could talk as a wolf on the boat," she says, "but I can't here. I don't mind so much, but you should know that. I saw signs of deer down that way," she points, "so I think we should go try to pick up a trail."

[takethatnature]

Wilson has never been a morning person in his life, apart from when he lived in the Constant and sleep was optional. It's been less than 48 hours since he got off the ferry and when he used the magic rock telephone to set this up he expressed a fervent hope that either equipment would be provided or he'd be able to find flint and grass to make basic armor and a spear after the party got underway.

So here he is, looking bedraggled to a greater degree than usual and badly dressed (well, he's wearing the clothes he showed up in), full of as much coffee as the innkeeper was willing to serve him.

"Did we have to do this so early?" he complains to anyone in earshot.

[actuallyawolf]

"It's a quiet time. It's a good time to listen."

Wolf hours are dawn and dusk, mostly. She looks him over, biting her lip thoughtfully. "What do you fight with?"

Maybe he's a claws and teeth sort of person, too. Maybe not.

[takethatnature]

Wilson makes a little grumbly noise of dismay and a frown to match. Ylva's right, or at least he doesn't have a good counterargument to say she's wrong, but he doesn't like it. The coffee isn't doing nearly enough to wake him up, either; he still feels tired, but it's been wrapped in a layer of restless jitters.

"Assorted sharp objects on sticks, mostly." Or ham bats, but he's not sure if there even is a butcher's shop in this town or if he could afford to buy the necessary meaty components. "An axe, a spear, a halberd, a sword, a mace, the pointy bit from the end of a dead swamp tentacle. I hope there aren't any of those here, they're awful to fight- they'd hide under the mud and then pop out and stab you a bunch of times, plus they're barely even edible- but there were a lot of them in the Constant."

[actuallyawolf]

"I haven't seen any tentacles like that," Ylva says, very seriously. "And we're not looking for anything that isn't edible. I was thinking maybe some fat geese."

There seems to be an obvious question here.

"You don't actually have any sharp sticks," she points out.

[hate_gettin_older]

Edgar only vaguely recognizes Ylva's name when he sees the sign, and knows better than to assume that the same given name means the same person -- but he's pleased to find out, once they've made contact, that this is indeed the person he met on the big boat. They never really talked much, but he knows she and Max are close, and she seems like someone he could get along with.

On the day of the meeting, he shows up with a borrowed axe; he doesn't know if that's the best sort of weapon to go hunting with, but it's the one he knows best how to use. "Morning," he offers, approaching and holding up the axe in a non-threatening way. "Will this do? Wasn't sure what would be good."

[actuallyawolf]

"Good morning."

It's strange that they meet properly only now, but the boat had been strange. Ylva leans to look at the axe, frowning thoughtfully. "It'll do a lot of damage," she says. "That can be a good thing or a bad thing. Do you think you can hit to kill quickly?"

She does have preferences about these things, when possible.

[hate_gettin_older]

"Definitely," he says with complete confidence, then pauses. "Probably? Depends what I'm hitting. D'you know what's here?"

[prince_of_beasts]

Dimitri is also early, putting their arranged meeting about fifteen minutes before it was actually planned.

"Ylva! It's good to see you!" Dimitri's posture is crisp, his movements brisk. In all respects but physical he is bouncing on his toes. "I haven't been here long -- what's the hunting like?"

FINALLY I RESPOND

[actuallyawolf]

"Dimitri!"

When she sees him, Ylva all but launches herself at him to hug him tightly. She showed up early, too. "You're here, I'm so glad -- the hunting is great," she says, seriously, with a relieved sag, "this place might be cursed but it's real."

[prince_of_beasts]

Dimitri accepts the hug briefly before it starts to feel confining. He squirms free, but keeps a hand on Ylva's shoulder.

"I'll take any degree of cursed over that slipshod illusion, if it means solid ground and animals. And grass." Dimitri sighs. "And air I can breathe. I'd forgotten what it was like, not to be battling heat exhaustion constantly."

[dynamiteabs]

          Having survived in the Outback most of his life, this place was easy mode for Jamison. So, with things being so slow anyway, he figured, why not help out? Although he felt silly talking into a rock at first, the meeting time was easily agreed upon.

          In his Enforcer gear with a full belt of explosives, a recently sharpened axe, and leather armor (just the leather part, mind, none of the bothersome flammable cloth), Junkrat made his way over to her when it was time to begin. ❝ Alroight, I'm here ta' kill shite, hehe! I'm especially good at gatherin' fish. ❞

[actuallyawolf]

Ylva rocks on the balls of her bare feet, looking him over with a slightly wary expression. Whatever she was expecting from their meeting, this was not quite it.

"I wasn't planning on fishing," she says, a little uncertainly. "I didn't bring -- don't most people use a fishing pole, or a net?"

[dynamiteabs]

          ❝ Most people, yeah—not me. One'a these puppies right here, ❞ a gesture toward his belt was made, ❝ can bring ten, twenty fish to the surface in one go. Then ya' just scoop'em up into a bag. Bada bing, bada boom! ❞ he finished with a bright, proud smile. ❝ But we dun have to do that if ya' don't wanna'. What prey did you have in mind? ❞

late as hell

[hadnoright]

Daisy does contact Ylva again to set-up a day to go out hunting, though it has much more to do with their pre-discussed plans than it does the public invitation. She's had chance to settle a little and it's time to knuckle down.

"So. Wolf shapes?"

also late as hell in response

[actuallyawolf]

"Yeah, that's the plan, right?"

Ylva takes a deep breath. "I did want to know, though. Do you want to start with something small, like grouse or rabbits maybe, or do you want to go for something big, like a deer?"

handshakes

[hadnoright]

"Mm, that's the plan." She could Hunt in this shape, god knows she has many times before, but it's hardly suited to Hunting actual animals. Her brow furrows a bit as she thinks about the question, but, "...bigger might be better? I dunno. Sounds more satisfying."

Part of it's weighing up what will satisfy the part of her that needs this.