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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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In any case, while he doesn't catch the specifics of what all of that means, unfamiliar with some of the words she's using or the particulars of them, he can get enough of the gist that it resonates.
"Yeah," he says, sighing. "They sound like a fun bunch. Last thing before I came here, I'd been sent pretty far from home too, on a rescue mission with my own share of unlikely allies."
He smiles, ruefully, thinking about Luis. Thinking about Ada.
"Was almost at the end of it too, but, you know. Sometimes things go sideways. Here's to finishing what we started, though, or at least hoping we gave everyone else the best chance we could."
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"Tell me of your allies, muthsera. Tell me their stories, if that will not bring you too much pain."
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"Sure," he says. "I don't have quite your way with words, but..."
He takes a sip of his drink, mulling over just what to say.
"I guess first up is Ashley. She was the one I was sent to rescue, but she wound up saving my skin a few times over in the process. Brave as hell - first thing she did when I showed up was come at me with a candelabra because she thought I was one of her captors." He laughs a little, shaking his head. "Ashamed to admit I didn't expect a lot of her at first, but she's sharp and adaptable, and keeps her head in situations where I've seen trained soldiers lose it entirely."
"Then there's Ada. Not sure I should call her an ally. She's the kind of woman who's really only out for herself and isn't ashamed of that, but I guess... our interests align just enough. She's hard to describe. Just about every time I think I know anything about her, she proves me wrong, and I think she likes it best that way."
He pauses again, swirling the whiskey glass in his hand and staring into it thoughtfully.
"Anyway. Last there's... Luis." At this, his voice goes distant and mournful. "I found him tied up in some basement on my way to find Ashley, and after letting him out I found out he used to work for some people who did... a lot of terrible things."
Sitting back, he closes his eyes, sighing.
"I wasn't happy about that. I didn't trust him, but he kept showing up and insisting on helping, and we weren't in any position to refuse. He acted like the whole thing was some grand adventure though, like we were heroes in some fairy tale. Couldn't take anything seriously." Throwing back the rest of his whiskey, Leon sets the glass down on the table with a thunk. "He died. Saving me. Gave me the tools to save Ashley, too. We both would've died, if not for him. Or worse."
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"I cannot say that any of my companions worked for people who did terrible things, per se, but I know a similar feeling. Haldor's people and my own have a long history of conflict. It's something he still struggles with, but... he's barely more than a boy. I hope that he will live on to learn that there is good to be had between mer and men."
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He thinks about Luis's last words, somehow feeling like they were both freshly burned into his memory and like a lifetime ago already.
'People can change, right?'
And it hurts, to think that he was carrying that guilt until the end, that Leon was his best and only option for something like absolution, struck dumb as he was in the moment and unable to think of anything he could say to make things right. Wordlessly, he refills his glass.
"Looking out for the good that can be done instead, though - that's probably smart. World might be a better place if more people thought like that."
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"Such was how I felt when I met Shor in the caverns of Snowthroat."
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"Wise words," Leon says, sincerely. "Tell me about Shor, though. You said they were a 'missing god'?"
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"The Dunmer see all spirits as our ancestors, though we favor the Daedra over the Aedra, for they are more active in our lives. Likewise, when we depart the world, we remain watchful over the living, joining our ancestors as lesser spirits that will one day grow to approach their knowledge and power. Therefore, Shor- though I rarely called him by that name, before meeting him face to face- is an ancestor like any other spirit, whose word is to be considered and heeded."
"As I have said before, I cannot see. I could not tell you what shape he took by my own senses, though I know he was small, and my companions said he was in the shape of a black fox. What stood out more to me was the sound of drums in his voice, deep and steady, like the heartbeat of the world. I sang with him, when we faced his ancient foe together, and it's the doom-drum of his voice that gave me a shred of hope to contest the poison song."
Those... sure are words.
cw: messy ex-Catholic feelings
"That... sounds like it must've been incredible," he says, after a moment's silence to take it in. "Meeting an ancestor, like that. I don't think anything like that happens back where I come from. If there's any angels or spirits watching over us, they don't... make themselves known."
And they aren't doing a very good job of it, he thinks, a little petulantly. But his own long crisis of faith isn't the point, here.
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"And... yes. Speaking with Shor, singing with him, was profound beyond words. It stirred something in my heard that has laid buried in ash for a long time."
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In another time and place, Leon thinks he might be willing to believe that something out there was guiding his steps out of Raccoon City, and not just pure dumb luck. There were definitely enough times that he absolutely should have died in that hell, and only survived through what a more faithful man would call a series of miracles. But as it stands, he can't bring himself to think that. It feels... arrogant, to believe he had anyone's favor when so many others clearly didn't.
But hey. That doesn't mean that's the way of things everywhere else in the wide multiverse.
"I can't even begin to imagine," he says, quietly. "Been a long time since I felt anything even sort of like that. What was this enemy of his, though? If you don't mind telling me."
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“The Sharmat… the Poison Song. He puts a star into the mouth of the world to kill it. He is older than time, older than music. He is a blight that makes all things like him. He offers a false world and calls it true, and that place is resplendent and full of plenty. But it is a hollow world, a house of ashes. The Sharmat is a desire that swallows the heavens and the earth, and stills the world song.”
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"Sounds serious," he says, and it feels like an understatement. "So Shor's the one who set the creation of your world in motion, and the Poison Song wants to - end it? Freeze it in place?"
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"From what I can understand, it... it believes that the world is a lie. And not just the mortal realm, but the void of space and the distant realm of Aetherius. I've heard his followers speak of such in their trance-like fervor: 'Our eyes once were blinded, now through him do we see. Our hands once were idle, now through them does he speak. And when the world shall listen, and when the world shall see, and when the world remembers, that world will cease to be.'"
"But I think that suggests that the Sharmat believes there is a world, a true world, from which we need to be freed. It's just... I mean, it must be wrong. But it is convinced. Passionate. It acts as righteous, which makes it a far more terrifying adversary."
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"So... the world is a dream, and it's time to wake up," he says, drumming his fingertips on the table as he mulls over the idea. "I'm sure there's more to it than that, like you said, but... That does sound like a hard thing to fight."
How would you know if it were wrong? Does it matter? Leon doesn't know what to make of it, but in general he's for not ending the world, even if someone tells him that things will magically be better afterwards.
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cw: discussion of parasitic body horror, mind control
"'Course he can't recruit followers to his apocalypse cult the normal way," he says, and hesitates briefly before going on. Technically he shouldn't talk about this, but it's not like his handlers are here to complain, so... "...I got here in the middle of dealing with something a lot like that. They called it las plagas - a parasite that attaches itself to the spine and takes over the host, making anyone who's infected a slave to whoever controls their - queen, or alpha, or whatever exists at the top of their hierarchy."
He swirls the whiskey left in his glass, frowning down at it.
"The guy who was carrying around the biggest, strongest plaga was just a regular man, originally. From a long family line of parasitic slavers like him, sure, but not a god or force of nature like it sounds like the Sharmat is. It was just his goal to unite the world and achieve lasting peace by stripping everyone else of their free will."
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She pauses.
"Las plagas, you call them. Can the damage they do be reversed?"
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Which is a line of thought that's made his job... interesting, at times. The world of a US intelligence agent does not exist in clear cut good or bad choices often, and there have been many nights where he's been kept up for hours by decisions he's made that could've been better, smarter, kinder.
Speaking of which.
"If you catch it early enough, before the parasite fully develops. Luis, the man I mentioned earlier, found a way to extract it without killing the host. But after it's in there..." he sighs, shaking his head. "There's no coming back. Not that knowing that made it easier to fight off the people who'd been taken over by it."
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Is that even how it works, though? He has no way of knowing here, and even if (when) he gets back, he's not exactly going to have time to stick around and check once Saddler goes down. Getting Ashley home is the priority - any cleanup will likely be handled by the Spanish government, or possibly a joint effort between them and the US if deemed necessary. Either way, he's not likely to get a lot of closure on it.
He sighs again. "Is there any way to keep Corprus contained? Or does it just spread until whoever's at its center gets taken out?"
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"The new variant seems less virulent. I haven't heard yet of it becoming airborne, though perhaps that is only because this new Sharmat's power is still developing. That being said, it does seem to respond to tonal magic, if only a little."
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"Well that's good, at least." Makes containment easier, if not actually easy. "What's tonal magic, though?"
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Truth be told he's a little envious of all the folks he's run into with magic running around. Sure, it probably causes as many problems as it solves, and he's got things like vaccines and modern medicine to be happy for, but being able to summon up a spare hand or play healing music is cool.
"I've gotta ask, though. What does healing music sound like?"
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wrap