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ph_memes2024-03-08 12:39 pm
TDM #5 - Paradesium
[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.
Page 1
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!
no subject
The farmhouse is within sight of the chicken coop, and not a long distance either. If Darcy looks they will see that pump and a bucket nearby.
"Other than that, petting them and picking them up will help get them acclimated to people. The chicks get cold easy and like to cuddle." Eddie smiles.
no subject
"I don't actually like. Produce body heat. Sorry. I'm dead."
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Eddie goes into the coop, and pulls a wool cloth from one of the incubator shelves. It's warm from the ambient heat there. Eddie hands this over to Darcy.
"You can wrap the chicks up in this when you hold them. And there's another empty shelf with a wool liner in the incubator, just switch them out if it loses the heat. But being close to you will still help them people-acclimate."
[[ OOC: I don't particularly want to look up old-timey incubators but I'm going with a wool liner on its shelves for padding, since wool is resistant to catching fire ;) ]]
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"I did, but I don't think I made a good impression."
He takes the blanket and kneels down carefully, trying to coax the chicks into stepping up.
"Sorry about that. I'm... abrasive. And it's been a while since I've had to meet new people."
no subject
The chicks peep excitedly and rush toward Darcy, because attention and warmth, hell yeah! One manages to jump and land inside the blanket, but the others get confused and need the coaxing. It's a bit chaotic, but at least nobody's pecking anybody else.
"We get people arriving pretty regularly, but if you want to avoid them, I think that's doable." Eddie shrugs. His next words are offered up in a light, informative tone. No judgement. "There are some folks that live in the woods. I know Sam fixed up one of the cabins out there, and Amaterasu has a den. Or you could work an evening shift for the factory, rather than during the day at other jobs. If you were real committed to avoiding most of us."
Small smile.
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He hates the idea of being coddled like that, not having to do something difficult. The chicks at least are behaving well enough, and they kind of stick a finger in to maybe pet one, getting pecked in the process.
"I'm working at the Oak and Iron anyway. So. I live at the inn, for now."
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Eddie nods. "I appreciate you coming out to lend a hand. Everybody, really. Since you're on cuddle duty, I'll check the water for the rest of the animals."
And for a while, Darcy will be left alone with the chicks, while Eddie grabs a bucket, fills it up, and walks over to the barn. He'll be in sight, walking back and forth a few times, in case they need to get his help before he comes back around. But otherwise, it'll just be a nice quiet time with only the peeping and cheeping of the baby chickens looking for Darcy's attention.
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So he sits with the chicks. The blanket cools down quickly enough and it's a bit of a pain getting a new one, but if this is what his job is then Goddamnit he's doing it.
One of the nest times Eddie goes past, one of the chicks is out of the blanket, all puffed up, and is attempting valiantly to kick Darcy's held-out hand while Darcy makes sound effects in mockery with each kick.
"I think this one has an attitude," Darcy calls.
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"Wow, I picked a really different name that I've been calling him."
Which he will now not reveal because it's embarrassing. He keeps his hand there while the chick plays, obviously too energetic to nestle with its siblings yet.
"How can you tell? Like if it's playing or not without asking it."
no subject
Eddie shakes his head a little. "I named one of the girls Hatty, and John Rambo immediately gave her a different name when he picked her out. So now she's Co, and I think she likes that name better."
no subject
...
"Are you selling them?" he asks with the cautious tentativeness of a kid about to ask for a bicycle for Christmas.
"I ehn- some of my family had a pig farm north from where I lived, but basically all the chores I did for them were just carrying things around, I never actually dealt with them."
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If Darcy wants to insist on paying something, Eddie will take his money, but Eddie would really rather just see all the chicks go to people who will care for them.
Whether or not Brass changes hands is up to Darcy.
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A small smile cracks at the corner of Darcy's mouth, and he settles the chickens in his lap to do some quick maths, trying to work out the conversion rate of brass to euros and then back again, mumbling to himself as he does.
"Twenty brass? He is a whole animal. I know that this is, like, your livelihood."
no subject
"That sounds fair." Eddie says with a nod. After all, the cost for a hen proven to be a good layer is fifty brass. Roosters don't cost as much in any case. Eddie smiles. "Do I get to know Frank's new name? Or, uh... yours, even?"
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"Darcy. I've ehn- I mean I haven't also been going by my surname because it hasn't mattered. Kind of like Prince."
He doesn't know if this guy is from a world with Prince.
"And ehn," Darcy's ears go a little pink, "Mephistopheles the demon chicken of death."
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You know, with the whole 'my attention gets grabbed by the mention of a car' thing.
"Nice to meet you, Darcy." Eddie glances down at the newly-renamed Mephistopheles, and how the young chicken seems to strike a proud pose when Darcy says his name. Eddie bobs in a short bow, "And nice to re-meet you, o demon chicken of death, Mephistopheles."
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"Car guy, ehn? Sucks for you to be here when all there is is like. Horses and carriages. Unless you can work out a convertible carriage. My ehn- I had a friend back home who had a... fuck it wasn't a Washington but I can't remember which president it was named after. I don't do cars. And I respect it but also, When Doves Cry? Iconic."
Maybe it does like the name. Maybe evil lurks deep in the heart of this rooster and Darcy has seen into the depths of his soul. Or maybe more likely he just likes the attention.
"Kingdoms will tremble from my wraaaaath" he voices the little guy, y'know like how you do voices when your pets 'talk'. He's already got the hang of it.
no subject
But, clearly, Eddie would get a kick out of messing around with even the early type of car. Alas.
After Darcy speaks for Mephistopheles, the baby rooster gives an emphatic, excited "Peep peep!" so maybe it is the attention that the little guy likes.
"Mephistopheles will probably try to tag along with you, if you let him. Chickens are social creatures."
no subject
Suddenly, very earnestly.
"Do you think I can teach him to sit on my shoulder like a parrot."
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That earnest question makes Eddie grin. "I'm pretty sure you could! The hens like riding around on my dog's back, so teaching your boy where to perch ought to be easy."
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It's a fond memory. At that revelation, though, even Darcy's disaffected cool-kind persona has to shift a little.
"Dude that's so cute, what the fuck."