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

[hate_gettin_older]

"Colonies?" His brow furrows a little bit; no sign of recognition. "Don't think so. That where you're from, then?"

[not_a_traitor]

"It was." The ache at the past tense is so old -- and has been supplanted by so many newer aches -- that he hardly notices it anymore. "But if you're not from there, then, ah."

The wry smile grows fractionally, as he gestures to himself.

"Maybe I just have one of those faces."

[hate_gettin_older]

He bobs his head, not certain but willing. "Could be."

(It's a nice face, some part of his mind registers.)

"Anyway, uh -- nice to meet you? I'm Edgar. Just got here the other day."

[not_a_traitor]

"Felix Gaeta," he offers in return. "Pleasure. And same, more or less."

A beat.

Rueful: "I'd move closer so we don't have to shout, but..."

[hate_gettin_older]

"Oh, hold up," and Edgar picks up his own half-finished drink and gets up, crossing the space between their tables.

"That better?"

[not_a_traitor]

"Much," he says, but it still sounds rueful; his knee-jerk instinct, even now, is to insist his own inconvenience isn't a bother. (Ridiculous. After everything that just happened, he still falls back on this behavior? Gaeta has to take a second to push the frustration at himself aside.) "Thank you."

Idly, he rolls his glass between his hands.

"So where are you from, if not the Colonies?"

[hate_gettin_older]

Edgar's smile gives a rueful tilt. "I'm from the Tail section, and that's kind of a long story but I could tell it short if you want?"

[not_a_traitor]

There's something familiar about that rueful tilt to Edgar's mouth; something Gaeta saw plenty of times on Galactica, when mention of the Colonies or where were you when stories began to circulate.

"Only if you want to," he says, a little quieter.

[hate_gettin_older]

There's something in Gaeta's tone of voice there, something Edgar can't put his finger on but he knows what it means: this is a guy who's used to dealing with people who might not want to talk about their past.

"Well," he says, his voice lowering too, and pauses for a moment.

"The Earth I came from froze over when I was a baby. Only life left on the planet was in this huge train, built to go all around the world and never stop. Folks who paid to get on the train, they were Front. Us who got on by lottery, we were Tail."

[not_a_traitor]

Gaeta exhales a curse between his teeth, even as something in his heart leaps in recognition.

(Among other things: it's the first time he's heard someone mention Earth and not begun to wax rhapsodic about how beautiful it is. It's a odd relief, like someone finally breaking character after sustaining an unfunny joke for too long.)

"I don't think I can say I'm glad to meet someone else from a frakked-up planet," he says. "But... I've been there. I'm sorry."

[hate_gettin_older]

"... Hunh. Think I know what you mean."

That sense of familiarity gets stronger, but by this time he's more or less decided that it's false; just reminding him of things or people he's known, rather than actually knowing this particular person.

(False or not, it's still making him lean toward liking the man.)

"Want to tell me what happened to yours, or save that for another time?"

[not_a_traitor]

A fleeting smile, exceedingly wry, crosses Gaeta's face. "Sure," he says, and drains more of his beer as if steeling himself.

It wouldn't be fair to ask someone to spill their traumatic past and not reciprocate, after all.

"Um, the short version is that my entire civilization was wiped out by an all-consuming nuclear event. Twelve planets; fifty billion people. The only ones who survived were in the air at the time, plus a few lucky people on the ground that we managed to rescue later." He hitches one shoulder in a shrug. "A battlestar's bigger than a train, but this is the first time I've seen trees and a real ocean in seven years."

[hate_gettin_older]

Edgar's eyes widen for a moment, but he keeps his mouth closed on the curses rising to his lips. Twelve planets, fifty billion --

"Christ almighty," is what he finally half-whispers, and it doesn't feel like enough.

[not_a_traitor]

He can't imagine what Edgar's words might mean, but they have the weight of an oath to some distant god. Gaeta nods, just once, before draining the last of his drink.

"Makes me wonder how good that white-haired woman's offer actually is," he says. "I'm not sure I want to go back. You know?"

[hate_gettin_older]

He draws a long breath, lets it trickle out slowly.

"Yeah," very low, "I know."

Half a beat, and he visibly rallies. "There was this other place, though, where I went after -- I dunno, maybe they'll send me back there. That'd be all right."

[not_a_traitor]

"Another place?"

Up go the eyebrows.

"You mean between here and -- wherever home was?"

[hate_gettin_older]

"Yeah. Uh -- three places, actually, did anyone tell you about the cursed fuckin cruise yet?"

[not_a_traitor]

The small crease in his forehead deepens. Slowly: "I've heard a few people mention it. Something about being trapped on a ship for years?"

Gaeta can only imagine how that must have felt to someone trapped on a train their entire life.

[hate_gettin_older]

"Yeah. Wasn't years for me, I got there only about half a year before everything went to pieces, that was right before here. But before that I was at this bar at the end of the universe, and before that -- after that too, that was twice -- I was in, swear it's fuckin true, a fairy castle."

A pause, and a little sigh. "And that was all after I died."

[not_a_traitor]

"...I don't remember that part of the Scrolls," mutters Gaeta, an ironic tinge to the words. "That would have been an interesting twist."

Strange enough that there's an afterlife to begin with. If Gaeta had woken up in a fairy castle after his execution, he would've thought he'd lost his mind. Maybe that he was still on the Demetrius, or Raptor 718 --

He slams the brakes on that thought before it goes any further.

[hate_gettin_older]

Edgar snorts at that; Scrolls isn't familiar to him, but it translates well enough.

"Yeah," he goes on in unconscious echo of Gaeta's thoughts, "thought I'd gone fuckin mad the first time, din't I. Weirdest damn thing to get used to, but by the time I got here it just felt like ... all right, here's the next one, let's have it then."

[not_a_traitor]

A wry, amused huff. "Maybe by the third or fourth afterlife, I'll feel the same. I just hope the next one has basic computers and more long-distance travel options."

He rubs the back of his neck.

"'The third or fourth afterlife,' gods, listen to me," he says, half to himself. "I didn't even expect to get one."

[hate_gettin_older]

He shakes his head, sobering a little. "Me neither. Some of the folks back in the Tail used to talk about Heaven, but ... I dunno, never really thought about it much."

A long swallow of his drink. "Maybe this is just how it always works, you know? You die and you just ... wake up somewhere else."

[not_a_traitor]

Gaeta breathes out a long, long breath at that.

Quietly: "Sounds frakking exhausting after a while."

[hate_gettin_older]

Edgar considers that.

"I dunno," a little softer, "maybe sometimes you wake up somewhere you get to rest."