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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?"
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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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"I did catch you, but despite your spindly limbs, you are, apparently, exactly heavy enough that you dragged me down with you!"
Despite all appearances, the bluster is, in reality, more of a response born of relief than it is of true and serious frustration with Sam. It's easier to react like this than to show just how much the floor giving way under him and her not being sure she could catch him before he snapped his neck made her panic. How much seeing him alive and well, terms and conditions applied, makes her heart pound.
She pulls out a chair by Sam and flumps down into it, leaning against the table. "One second there I am, grabbing your arm, next, I'm sat in what was apparently god's waiting room for the not-quite-hopeless-cases and then—" she gestures around demonstratively. Sam assumedly went through the same steps she did.
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"Yeah...that sounds pretty familiar. I remember falling, thinking you'd caught me, and then it's like you said."
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Alice claps a hand on Sam's shoulder and says, with mock gravitas: "Oh my darling man, you are a baby shrimp. But even the babiest of shrimps isn't immune to being made into gravity's bitch. Let alone the big sexy lobster standing right behind him."
Never underestimate Alice's willingness to take a joke as far as possible, even when it includes referring to herself as a sexy lobster.
The hand falls away. "Figured we were running the risk of becoming some scary story told on the internet forevermore, but this isn't exactly what I had in mind."
She really is gonna need that pint of her own.
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"Oh oh, or do you think it'll be Chester or Norris who reads it out it it's a talker?" Yes he is distracting himself from thinking about the ramifications of what's going on by having a morbid little joke about their co-workers having to hear/read about how absolutely stupid Sam is.
Colin'd never let him live it down.
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Alice pulls a face that implies she's putting much more thought into her answer than she actually is, and still comes out with: "Chester, I reckon. I can hear his toff-ly, dulcet tones now, repeating the word mulch over and over until it loses all meaning and then describing the quaint, Victorian charm of this place like something out of a Dickens novel."
What she deliberately doesn't say is the obvious: Chester always seems to be responsible for cases connected to that damned institute. Because Alice 'doesn't pay attention'. And so clearly, she doesn't know that. Clearly.
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He hadn't even told Celia he was going, or that he was dragging Alice along for the ride. They just wouldn't be showing up for work. Lena'd be pissed.
"Guess I really didn't last long, huh? Looks like you were right, the smart money really wasn't on me."
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Alice's brow wrinkles slightly at that observation being put out into the air, but in true Alice fashion, does not comment on it to minimise the risk of Sam getting more ideas.
"And I don't even get to collect my winnings." That's entirely a joke, getting a betting pool going in the office would be impossible even if she'd really wanted to; Gwen's got too much of a stick up her arse, Lena's... Lena, Celia would be a subject of the bet, and Colin's on leave. "You're a real over-achiever, you are. Most washouts just quit because they get too freaked out. You went above and beyond all that."
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As for not Sam not getting more ideas...yeah he's already blaming himself for all of this. He'll just mask it with humor as they both do with everything. Fake a smile until it's real, that's how mental health and coping works right?
Totally.
"Hey, at least you finally got that vacation."
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"Does it really count as a holiday if we still have to work for a living? I mean, sure, this dying island has figured out UBI before the Tories have even figured out people aren't talking about UTIs, but still."
Even Alice would go a little nuts sitting around doing absolutely nothing, not even bullshit fake-feeling work like the OIAR has always been. Especially as...
"They don't even have the internet."
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"Don't remind me." There's a groan as he shakes his head. "Looks like you'll have to do what people used to do before social media was a thing if you want any gossip."
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She snorts. "Unlikely. Pretty sure our job only existed because of some politician who took too many mushrooms back in the 80s, saw the hat man just a little too clearly and became so obsessed with the idea the supernatural's real that they set up a whoooole department that they just never shut down. Not sure this place can match that energy."
She can't help the amused fondness in her face at his dramatics, though she does what she can to hide it in downing half her own pint in one go.
"If you think I can't start up a gossip network by carrier pigeon within a week you underestimate my power severely." She shakes her head. "But seriously. We're going to have to socialise the old fashioned way, like every boomer who's ever failed to operate a smartphone and developed a grudge against technology thinks we should."
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Maybe he'd ask that Cecil guy if there was a position at the paper that he could do. Or at least something.
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She huffs out a dismissive puff of air. "Hell if I know, mate. Unlike you, pretty much my only stint in the prison that is capitalism was in that dingy basement sorting out creepy stories. And I don't think my BA Honours in a social science is going to help me much here in fantasyland. But you know me, I'll get creative, figure something out. A little ol' job hunt's not enough to defeat Alice Dyer."
Cecil will later suggest her trying out comedy for real and she really will consider it if only to see Sam's face.
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"You, Ms. Dyer, are absolutely no help. You know that?" Of course it's just more teasing, just their usual banter. "I don't think there's anything that could really defeat you. At least not anything that doesn't also include your incredibly unlucky side kick."
It's him. Alice. He's talking about himself.
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"Awwww, sweetums," your hair is being ruffled, Sam, please do not resist, "you can't be that unlucky when you get to be the very adorable sidekick to the coolest girl this side of the multiverse that apparently actually forreal exists. Even if you do keep tripping and falling into manky holes metaphorically and now physically."
She pats his head twice before removing her hand entirely.
"Look. It's not like I've got any nepotism shaped bones to throw out here, but these folks do seem pretty desperate. So long as you don't try and convince them you can do hard labour it can't be that hard to fumble your way into something."
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"Yeah, just sucks. Right when you help me get a new job shit goes south again." Even further south apparently. And he dragged her with him. Great.
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"Hey, look on the bright side." She will wait for him to look right at her before finally following up with: "Once you've literally died there's really nowhere to go but up."
She's helping.
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"You know, you aren't wrong." The laugh is a little awkward but it's very much Sam. He's trying, really he is. And at least she did manage to get him to look at her, that's a plus.
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"That's because I'm always right. Now c'mon." She slaps the table and straightens up. "You want another pint? I feel like this all warrants another pint. I'm pretty sure after dying we're entitled to at least a week of feeling sorry for ourselves and drowning our problems in booze before we even think about all this jobs and houses malarkey. Even if this whole food and board situation feels like it's gonna give me flashbacks to halls at uni. Catch me waking up thinking I've missed a lecture even though I'm in my freakin' thirties and a whole other dimension."
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"God don't get me started. The last thing I need is test anxiety when there's no actual test to be anxious about. I think I'd rather be stressing about a new job then that."
At least for now Alice is right, they should have at least a little while before really worrying about anything. Take the time to relax and adjust. There's no Magnus Institute to worry about here, there's nothing like that to catch his attention and hold it for ransom or anything.
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It's Alice's turn to wave down the bartender; she flashes a quick 'two' sign followed by a thumbs-up in thanks. They'll be over in a minute.
"There really is nothing worse than the way school haunts you for the rest of your life. Like, c'mon. Totally bogus that it gets to grab you by the nuts so hard." Though, truthfully, for Alice it's never really been a big thing. Oh, sure, it's a convenient, relatable sort of concern to talk about with her tongue in her cheek, but most of the stress of university feels distant compared to the whole mess that came after.
The break-up, her parents deaths, stepping up for Luke, getting the OIAR job... what a fucking stretch of time that was...
"Warning you now, though. If I wake up one day suffering from this plight I am dragging you down with me. If one of us has to relive our uni days then we both have to relive our uni days."
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"Who do you take me for?" is said with mock offence, then immediately followed up with a bright, unashamed: "Of course I would. Suffering tastes sweeter when it's collective, my friend. Even my own."
She finishes the remainder of her first pint in one go, then pushes it to the side alongside Sam's just in time for the new ones to arrive.
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"There's probably a schmoopier way of putting that last part for toast format, but it's the spirit that counts." She picks up her own glass and raises it to match. "To new beginnings and totally not thinking about uni and test anxiety."
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Feeelingssssssss
feels!!
feeeeeellllssssss
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