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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.
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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!
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"Try to sort out how best to fit into this community, truth be told. Be gainfully employed, explore every bit of the isle I have time for, revel in freedom of all sorts. You'd hardly believe how starved you can get for a little bit of plantlife."
The others are talking about it - she might as well be frank. But not Frank.
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By that description, she's a woman after his own heart.
"Were you also from that boat thingie everyone keeps talking about?"
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"The Serena Eterna. A beautiful name for a wretched place. By now you've probably heard enough of the complaints and confusion and general hatred for it all."
She won't rehash the problems, if he's already heard them. Certainly all a mood killer, unless he's got some kink for soothing a weary heart or the link.
"Comparatively, this is paradise. Or nearly."
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"But no, I'm glad you all got out. This place has its quirks, but it sure sounds better than there. I-"
...
"Is the heat making me delirious or are your ears pointy?"
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"All those stories we're ignoring did mention you might not find someone human, yes?"
Half human, technically, but let her play this up for a moment.
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"For medical purposes I can't get into right now, you have to let me bite them."
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She's drifted close enough to tap a finger against his chest, head tilted just so to be able to look into his eyes.
"Promise me they'll stay attached? I've only got the one set, after all."
And the best promises, after all, are sealed with a kiss. It's sheer indulgence to kiss him after toying with the idea like this, when all she has is his nickname of all things, but her best ideas always have seemed a little dubious at first. She'll hear if someone tries to come up, and there's no reason except the modesty she doesn't have to resist. So Fever will kiss him, and kiss him well, and enjoy every moment of it.
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And then he's getting kissed- there's a faint sheen of sweat across the parts of him that haven't been submerged from the heat, and he's got a couple of day's worth of stubble because he wasn't expecting to make out with someone here, but he lifts his wrinkling hand out of the water to cup Fever's cheek and eases into it, pushing himself closer. When they separates, he remarks-
"I think I missed."
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"Of course you did. I'm trying to bewitch you and confuse your senses."
Another kiss with a smile in it, but he has enough room to wiggle out and do as he likes. Third time's the charm and all.
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The her of just a week ago couldn't have fathomed this. Her jealousy would be through the roof.
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"You ever considered becoming an ear model?" he jokes, low and breathy, before sinking his teeth in a little more firmly. His free hand goes to her hip, long fingers fitting to the curve of her body.
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"Ah- never did."
She's not above asking him to do it again, if she has to.
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"Maybe should've done it before I got to you, I might be about to void the warranty on these," and his teeth graze the point where her ear attaches to her head, nosing against her jaw.
"You are lovely, aren't you?"
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Easy to turn her head, to brush another kiss across his lips, to bestow them between her phrases.
"Can't decide - if I want you to speak - or just kiss you."
At some point she's going to have to consider if there's a real rule against encounters like this, or just common courtesy. But that's something for later her to worry about, and not the her who is currently on the kiss him side of things. Who knows when something like this might happen again?
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"Keep my mouth occupied, trust me, you'll like me better that way."
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That can be corrected with time, though, and following her own impulses. Kissing the corner of his mouth, the line of his jaw, finding where the strongest pulse beats in his neck and resisting all urges to simply bite down. Old instincts, but a gentle nip can't be bad, if she kisses afterwards to soothe the sting away, working her way down his neck like so.
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"Get to know me better, then," he teases, "you're already off to a good start."
His hand drifts up to the small of her back, tracing small circles over her spine.
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He can probably feel her grin against his skin.
"Do you think someone's going to be terribly upset if we stay where we are?"
That's not necessarily a deterrent, since in the water or out doesn't change her intentions, the way tension starts to slowly ratchet up in that delightful way that she's after.
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"If we can't dump chlorine in here then I guess we should get out."
He gestures, "ladies first, I'll cover your rear."
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The freckles, as one could determine, do end up everywhere. But beyond just that are the scars, markers of battles survived. Most of them are simple things - where a bandage works better than wasting spells, things that'll fade in time or are fading since they've been allowed care. Things not worthy of mention, really, when her frame says that while she's not a fighter swinging a sword around, she does fight. Staffs require discipline as well.
And then, only visible when she turns around, is the rather more vivid one - the one that looks like someone didn't so much fail at closing the wound as not give a shit about it. The biggest on her frame, a hack doctor's work at opening up her insides and shoddily closing, because it was going to happen again and again. But still, she's here. Still, she's smiling, inviting him to get out and join her.
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But the ones on her front, unremarked on previously because his eyes were elsewhere, wrench his gut, and he stops eagerly following to actually look. This isn't from natural healing, it's from... those are stitches, but they're worse than when his sister was learning to cross-stitch.
"Did you lose a fight with a lawnmower or something?" he says, voice tight.
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The question makes her stop, the water from the spring cooling on her skin now that they're out. She looks puzzled, and then sees where his eyes are. Oh. After living with it, with companions that all knew about it, it still catches her off guard to need to explain this.
"...if you're worried, it doesn't hurt, and there's nowhere you're not invited to touch. But it's not a tale that'll quite add to the mood."
If he really wants to know, she'll tell what she knows, says her tone.
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And look, he's uncomfortably half-hard by now, he doesn't want to blue balls himself in asking about something that evidently she's not having a problem with. The scars are a nightmare to look at, but they are healed.
...
"Pencil me in to ask about it later?" he asks, as he heaves himself out of the spring, careful not to scrape anything delicate on the rocky surrounds.
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There's a very low hanging fruit there with that phrasing, she's well aware, but she'll settle for watching him get out. Her eyes travel over his body with clear appreciation and admiration before she pulls back, walking backwards away from the spring.
Look, if she already has all the setup for being the mysterious sorceress in the wilds who lures someone away, she's not going to give it up so quickly. But there's likely somewhere nearby to be half out of sight that'll do for the two of them.
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