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ph_memes2024-04-02 06:46 pm
TDM #5 - Paradesium [REPRINT]
[Find our plain text version here!] MOD NOTE: April's event for members will take place between April 12-25 and will impact the whole island. As such, any tags taking place here over that time will need to be back- or future-dated unless an alternative is discussed with a mod. Don't worry over the details of this too much--- time is soup, after all. Just something to be aware of. Thanks!
Pumpkin Hollow Gazette
4/2/24 | TDM #5 - Paradesium [REPRINT]
Content Warnings: individual CWs found per prompt in "Further Details"
Forecast: Very rainy! Chance of severe storms.
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 past March is on record the highest number of new residents in a single month!
We are incredibly grateful for all of you coming to our home and filling it with life once more, even though the dangers of our local curse have significantly increased since all of you began arriving. This reporter isn’t complaining--- additional harm to my own person notwithstanding!
If you are a new arrival, please report to Town Hall at your leisure so that we can help you find work and permanent lodging. Or don’t! The Oak & Iron is happy to rent you a room for as long as you need. Best of luck to all of you, and as we say in Pumpkin Hollow, may your lanterns always be lit!
CHARITY DRIVE ENCOURAGES CULTURAL EXCHANGE
By Cecil Gershwin Palmer
One of the charming toys created during last year's Doll Picnic.
FESTIVAL GREEN - Preparations are underway for the upcoming annual Doll Picnic. A charity event sponsored by the Artisan’s Guild, this picnic is an Anwyllic tradition that was brought to the island and continued with love. The first Doll Picnic was organized by Dame Meredith Idlewild of the town of Glyn Rhuthun on Kora’s Haven, with the toys being donated to the local children’s hospital after a massive landslide engulfed a local school.
The Artisan’s Guild has baskets of material available for making dolls, including fabric, yarn, stuffing, buttons, and the like. However, tradition states that sourcing materials from the natural world (for example, acorn husks to use as buttons or deadwood to carve for doll arms and legs) results in the toys being blessed by Serrenai, who will watch over the children who play with them. The toys will be donated to local children after the picnic, including those who are ill or whose families can only afford necessities.
Newcomers are explicitly invited to join in the making of toys, and the resulting picnic. As a personal note: the locals have never heard of a teddy bear before. This reporter expects to see several, as we introduce our traditions to their traditions.
PLANTING SEASON BEGINS!
By Yorick Aberdeen
After a difficult winter, the appearance of spring's sprouts lifts our spirits.
NORTHWEST HOLLOW - The spring thaw is in full swing! That means it’s time for our local farmers to begin planting. Town Hall is offering a small reward to any of our newest arrivals who would be interested in assisting with planting season for farms less than a year old.
Anyone fresh off the boat interested in making 100 Brass should seek out Eddie and Angel Kasbrak, Arthur Morgan, Cèsar Salazar, Mairi Miann, Ylva Wolfsdottir, or Muriel and offer assistance with tilling and planting. We look forward to rewarding you for your contributions!
HOT SPRINGS OPEN FOR RELAXATION
By Yorick Aberdeen
Photograph provided by the Safety Board!
CRANE'S RIDGE - After a recent earthquake opened up a hot spring on the lower portion of Crane’s Ridge, a small portion of the Pumpkin Hollow Damage Claims Assessment Corps has been working to get the area cleaned up and safe for use by the general public.
Following its recent approval for compliance by the Safety Board, we are pleased to announce that Porter’s Spring is now available for public enjoyment! It can be accessed by taking the train to the North Station or by following the central trail out of Northwest Hollow, though the Safety Board does not recommend making this journey on foot due to its proximity to Lake Sal-Co-Penn. Enjoy!
STRANGE CAVERNS DISCOVERED BENEATH CRANE’S RIDGE
By Yorick Aberdeen
A small glimpse into this world beneath our own.
CRANE RIDGE - In addition to the hot springs, the earthquake can also be credited for a major cave-in in our Crane’s Ridge mines. A large tunnel was completely buried in rubble by the inexplicable natural occurrence. For the past several months, our mining team has been chipping away at the cave-in to try and regain access to the blocked tunnels in the lower area of the mountain.
In one of these tunnels, however, the team discovered a shocking surprise as the rubble was removed! Apparently, just beyond the mine walls, there has been an entrance to Hepogaia--- a subterranean nation running below our own fair country and many others. It seems that this particular portion of Hepogaian territory is also trapped within the barrier. Brief attempts at scouting by the Safety Board have noted a plethora of subterranean wildlife, both familiar and unfamiliar. This incredible new environment, hiding just out of sight beneath our island, is so full of wonder and splendor that it has earned a fitting name--- “Paradesium.”
A recent ecology study and expedition run by Pumpkin Hollow’s own Dr. Elias Coldwood has redirected their efforts to this new location, but those interested in exploring and scouting out this fantastical new discovery independently are encouraged to pack thoughtfully and travel in groups of two or more! Any information obtained during excursions into Paradesium would be appreciated by the Pumpkin Hollow Board of Safety.
Page 1
Charity Drive
The Doll Picnic Charity Drive will run throughout the next two months during our TDM, and there will be an event later on involving posing the dolls for a picnic. Once a photo is taken, the children will be allowed to come picnic with their new toys and take them home after!
There is absolutely no way this could possibly go wrong. Absolutely no dollmakers will be jumpscared or attacked by possessed dolls. None at all. (Okay, maybe some of them. But it’s fine. It’s for a good cause.)
[Mod Note: you can just make a doll without it coming to life and trying to kick your ass, that part is optional. Also the dolls will be blessed at the picnic and rendered unable to attack children.]
Planting Season
Any brand-new characters will get 100B extra on their stipend if they submit an AC-length thread with one of the existing farmers on their first Activity Check! This will be available regardless of whether the character qualifies for normal bonuses, but can only be redeemed by those who app in.
For reference for new players, threads are considered AC-length if they are ten tags in length (meaning 5 of your own tags and 5 from your partner.)
Hot Springs
Porter’s Spring is a perfectly normal and safe hot spring! However, you can encounter any number of perils on your way there if you decide to travel on foot, allowing new players to revisit some of our earlier events.
Check out our bestiary (pending update to new format) for more information on creatures such as Brutoks, the River Walker, and the Pine Devil, or stumble on Lake Sal-Co-Penn for a nasty surprise! Brutoks may also steal personal items from spring-goers on occasion. Don’t chase after them alone unless you want to be turned into a tree!
The Tristitia
In addition to the creatures in the wild, in town after dark characters may also encounter the Tristitia, Pumpkin Hollow’s newest cryptid.
She is a wraith-like spirit which haunts the island. Wearing tattered black clothes and colored all in shades of gray, she appears as a woman who walks around weeping with a caved-in chest, covering her face with her hands. Harmless if given a wide berth, but if she is set off, she will take out her desire for empathy for her grief on her target. She does this by embracing them and drawing out their own grief and trauma, leaving the target catatonic before she fades away, temporarily assuaged.
Into Paradesium
Crystals, golden with light and raw magical energy, cast what looks like sunlight down into the cascading cave. For every foot lower that the ground curls down from the entrance, the trees stretch ever-higher, carrying the raucous cries of animals unlike the surface of Marrow Isle had ever heard.
A jungle, so lush with life, sprawls ahead of any brave enough to venture into it. But what is there to see?
For Paradesium specifically, the bestiary has received a significant update. Creatures featured in prompts have their links to the accounts by Dr. Coldwood and his team marked with stars for easy location.
Below are multiple prompts for some encounters to be had in the jungle, but feel free to create any of your own encounters with any of the creatures listed! If the descriptions are short, feel free to write the creatures' behaviors however makes sense.
Welcome to the Jungle
Swallowed by dense canopies and noise, the jungle is quick to swallow any who travel within it whole.
Eyes are quick to find you, however. Perching in the treetops are a variety of small wyverns in vibrant colors, heads tilting as they try to comprehend what you could be. They squawk, chatter, and some of the bolder ones draw closer - if you sit anything aside and leave it unattended for too long, some even bolder than that will pilfer it, taking the object into the trees to admire with its companions.
Reptilian hunters with bright, keen eyes, the Plommon, consider you with much of the same interest. This interest increases tenfold if you happen to feed them.
If the prying eyes are no bother, then the forest's bounty is ripe for tending and taking. Bananas hang off trees, colorful citrus fruits catch light on their waxy peels, and bulky cocoa beans are jostled by movement in the branches above them. Even the broad leaves of the plants prove extraordinarily useful, whether you're looking to come in and quickly leave, or intend to push further within.
Wherever you go, those curious eyes follow you. Perhaps even out of the cave, should your attempts to shoo an adventurous creature away. What an odd way to gain a new team member.
Down a Few Notches on the Food Chain
(CWs: Potential for death, gore, or animal death)Unfortunately, not all can be pure bounty and new friends in a place like this.
With the cavern sprawling widely and massively, there are many significantly larger creatures in this space, and some seem to be keen to take up opportunity for new prey. As you explore, there's a new feeling of eyes upon you, and the silence that overtakes the surrounding trees spells nothing good to come.
Any one of the massive predators in the wood has you in it's sights.
Escape is difficult, but manageable, as is fighting back. Creatures can be challenged, and hides, bones, and other spoils can be claimed from them, should there be success! If not, this is a good opportunity for familiarization with the Death page.
The silkhide chimera specializes in persistence. The longer and further you go, the more exhausted you'll get. A break is an opportunity that it will be keen to take.
The greenstalker excels at ambushing and high-speed pursuit. At top speeds of 30MPH, your party will need strategy and skill on their side to keep this beast at bay. (Or, alternatively, a source of fire.)
The elephant raptor does neither of these - the beast's sheer length of reach does all it needs to. Water and mud soften the sounds of the gargantuan creature's approach. Stay alert, and be sure that you hear it before it's upon you.
Safe travels become more difficult to manage, the further in you go. Deep, rumbling snores tell you that there's a chance you're just getting to the greater threats this paradise has to offer...
Fragments of the Past
Through great distances traveled, this "uninhabited" cavern begins to show signs that may speak to that not having always been the case.
Ruins of homes, crumbled bricks and tiles, can be found at the deepest reaches of the cavern. These dilapidated buildings, though worn with time, tell a story: the people who left his place, one that could be identified as a stenholm to any familiar with dwarvish culture, did not leave it on good terms.
Essentials were clearly taken with them, as the ruins of this place lack tools or clothing. Valuables are still scattered throughout, however. Large objects with too much history to have been left behind by indifference dot the collapsing homes. Ritual circles still waft radiant energy from them.
In the remains of a temple, an altar stands, cracking with age and covered in plants as the cavern reclaims it. Old candle-stands have rusted with age, but still stand, undisturbed.
Just before the altar, folded onto its side (as best as one can be, when only pieces remain), lies a skeleton. The clothes are tattered remains of stained whites and dulled blues, and the wildlife have cleaned flesh from bones, but it's remained undisturbed by time.
There's a quiet sadness to this place that lingers, even with the people who inhabited it so long since lost.
Should you linger too long, however, there comes the distinct feeling of not being alone.
Clair de Lune
(CWs: Long-term isolation, extinction)Golden eyes of a human face follow your every moment, and the moment you lock your gaze onto them, the face emerges from the darkness, partially covered by spilling dark hair.
What follows this face, however, is not a human face - but, rather, a feline body with sprawling, grey-flecked wings.
There's a long, tense silence, as it emerges fully. Standing easily at eight feet tall while on all fours, the size of this creature becomes more and more apparent as it emerges from the dark of the collapsed wind.
Unlike the other animals of the cavern, though, there seems to be an anxiousness to its look. The lion's chest rises and falls with short, nervous breaths.
And then, in a hushed, woman's voice, hoarse from disuse, it speaks.
"Who are you? Why have you come here?"
-------------------
The Sphinx is a new NPC available for characters to interact with, should they delve deep enough into the caverns to find the stenholm. She's wary of all the new faces, and tends to be somewhat flighty, but seems cautiously interested in what new humans being in Hepogaia have to offer. For the sort looking to understand this place, it's people, or intend to trade, she can be communed with.
To interact with her, comment on the TL provided from beastsofthehollow with her icon, and if the initial introduction isn't your speed, feel free to encounter her however you like!
no subject
He begins to walk towards him, resisting the urge to prowl. He clearly doesn't need to make any effort to intimidate this man. If this were the Shen Qingqiu from his own realm, that terror would have been gratifying in the extreme--but even once his master had learned to fear him, no matter how Luo Binghe tried, he always kept a far tighter hold on his responses. As for the other one...well. Fear certainly wasn't his first reaction to seeing Luo Binghe.
So what's going on with this one? How far will his facade of polite calmness stretch?
"Ah, I had an accident," he replies, letting himself sound a little regretful. Remembering the state of his sword in the other realm, and watching carefully for how Shen Qingqiu reacts, he adds (truthfully): "With Xin Mo."
cw: misogyny in the context of a shitty male power fantasy novel
Well, that didn't take long. The mask of calm shatters into a thousand pieces, leaving shock and -- yes, that really is horror in its wake. Shen Qingqiu stares at Luo Binghe like he just announced that the sky is pink and he's taking a vow of celibacy (which might be less weird, if he was only faking to infiltrate a nunnery or something!) and says, "But how? That's impossible -- Unless it was the Tender-Spined Septicrocodile? Or that tramp from the Five-Tailed Fascination Fox Clan?" He sneers. For a moment, his face looks exactly the same as the original Shen Qingqiu, whenever he looked at Luo Binghe.
Then he continues, "More like the Two-Faced Facetious Fox Clan, right? Ugh, I always hated her. Her silly games with poison aren't funny or cute, right? Okay, here's what Luo Binghe needs to do." He crossed his arms, stroking his chin in thought. "Clearly this is some sort of interquel chapter, right? Like when Binghe seduced the daughter of the Duke of Zhou and then was lured into a dream trap by her less comely younger sister, does he remember? So Binghe isn't really dead, he'll return to his world as if he simply had a near-death experience. But that doesn't mean he should continue to put up these shenanigans!" Shen Qingqiu slammed his first into his open palm. "As soon as Binghe recovers, he should seek out a Pearl of Eternally Efflorescent Purity, which grow in the oysters of the Sea of Ancient Tears. It will help him cleanse and strengthen his meridians, so Xin Mo will have a harder time gaining a foothold the next time an 'accident' occurs. Then," he continues, his excitement increasing, "You need to harvest leather from a Yang Beast, iron from the Ghost Mounds of Yiling, and carbon from the stomach of the Twenty-Kalpa Abyssal Whale. Using these items, Luo Binghe can craft a collar which will regulate the energy of a demon wife and make her more subordinate to his will, which should stop that stupid anime waifu-wannabe from trying to 'prank' him all the time with fatal poisons!"
no subject
By the time the tide of Shen Qingqiu's enthusiasm has carried him to the triumphant conclusion, Luo Binghe is no closer to figuring him out.
"...Shen Qingqiu certainly seems to believe he knows a great deal about my household," he says at last, slowly. "And, indeed, about elusive demon clans. The Five-Tailed Fascination Fox Clan has made no contact with the outside world in many decades. How is it Shen Qingqiu is so knowledgeable about the marital suitability of its women?"
no subject
But there's nothing for it. If he can't come up with a believable lie, he'll just have to tell the truth. Well, part of the truth. Okay, some of the truth, edited to sound more xianxia and shit. If he tries to tell Luo Binghe that he's a character in a book beloved by a bunch of mouth-breathing internet-addicted incels, there's no way he'll ever believe it! Or worse, he believes it and it makes him feel bad!
That would definitely be the worst-case scenario.
Shen Qingqiu coughs delicately and
sticks his hands into his sleevesfolds his arms across his chest. "The truth is," he says carefully, "This master was once a scholar of the void between worlds. Using my skills I scried upon the lives of many glorious heroes and wise emperors, but no hero or emperor's life inspired in me greater admiration than that of Luo Binghe. I made a special study of him, and so learned a great many secrets of his world, and paid witness to many moments in his life that would have otherwise remained secret. But in this lay my undoing: the more my admiration grew, the greater too grew my sympathy for the trials and suffering he was forced to endure. In a moment of weakness I cursed the gods for endowing Binghe with such a stony fate, and for this sin a deity of the void cursed me to endure suffering at my hero's own hands. My soul was forced into the body of Shen Qingqiu, and I was sentenced to live out the last ten years of his life." That is, count them out, the last three years of Luo Binghe's discipleship, the five years he was supposed to spend in the Endless Abyss, and two years for him to ruin Shen Qingqiu's reputation and torture him to death. What a terrible, disproportionate sentence!"Even now that I've managed to flee to another world, the curse still dogs me," Shen Qingqiu adds, and gestures to his own face. "Binghe can see that I am forced to wear Shen Qingqiu's visage and answer to his name, but now that the deity is no longer controlling my actions, do I really seem anything like the man he knew?"
no subject
What?
That's a lot to grapple with. Indeed, if it wasn't for their present situation, and for everything else he's recently seen, Luo Binghe might refuse to accept it at all. But the thing is, he knew Shen Qingqiu – at both his highest and his lowest. Luo Binghe saw how he behaved in a comfortable position of power, and he saw his wretched end. It's almost easier to believe this man's story than it is to imagine the Shen Qingqiu he knew behaving like this...
...Or like the Shen Qingqiu he met before.
His mind races. He considers everything he saw in that other realm in a new light. Is that it, then...? Is the truth that there are any number of Luo Binghes, and he simply had the misfortune to be the one whose master was not somehow replaced by some easygoing impostor?
"...Say that I believe you," he says. He does believe him, but he expects he can get more from this man who says he isn't Shen Qingqiu if he thinks he needs to prove something. "What do you mean, precisely, that your actions were controlled?"
cw: reference to suicide
On the other hand, if this some other version of the protagonist from some other timeline (and exactly how many cultivation novels has Shen Qingqiu read with story arcs built around that exact premise?) who was stuck with the original goods for the full thirteen years, then any attempts on Shen Qingqiu's part to describe how he tried to circumvent the System will just make him look like a lying madman! Unless...
"It is as it sounds," he says heavily. "Naturally this master had no desire to torment an adolescent, even without my knowledge of Shen Qingqiu's fate. But the deity stymied all my attempts to change Shen Qingqiu's ways, and mend his relationship with his disciple. It forced me on pain of total obliteration to consign Luo Binghe to the Endless Abyss, stilled my tongue whenever I attempted to explain my actions -- even my attempt to end Shen Qingqiu's life, which I hoped would at least allow me to escape torture, seems now to have been an act of futility. If the gods that rule this world force me to return to Luo Binghe's world once our work here is done, no doubt I will simply awaken once more in the Water Prison. But," he smiles sadly. "I can see Luo Binghe remains incredulous. And why not? Could I not be the real Shen Qingqiu after all, having simply taken leave of my wits or choosing now to say whatever I think might persuade my former disciple to spare my life? But there is an easy way to confirm my story, if Luo Binghe is willing."
Easy, but terrifying! Shen Qingqiu can't believe he's really about to suggest this, but needs must.
"Binghe is still a master of dream magic, is he not? Simply place this master in a deep sleep, and examine my memories via dreams. Luo Binghe will soon see that I speak the truth." Yeah, and he'll also have carte blanche to torture Shen Qingqiu as much as he wants! But let's be real here, he already has that anyway. In these ruins underground, it's unlikely anyone would even hear Shen Qingqiu scream. So they might as well get it over with, right? Maybe he'll be impressed by the audacity, or something.
no subject
"You were terrified when you first laid eyes on me," he points out, fixing Shen Qingqiu with a skeptical, flinty look. "And yet you would offer yourself up to my power?"
Not that he won't take the offer, but... Well, he assumed he'd have to work for this. It feels a bit anticlimactic, honestly!
no subject
mentions of torture
The fact that someone knows about it in excruciating detail is...almost humiliating. What else must this stranger know? When did he begin watching?
With that in mind, he feels it is in fact only fair that he should be allowed to look through 'Shen Qingqiu's' memories in turn. At least then they'd be on even footing – although Luo Binghe would much prefer to have the higher ground altogether.
"Very well," he decides. He gestures to the building he stepped out of with a curt jerk of his chin. "I won't ask you to sleep out on the street."
no subject
So he naturally tries to fill the silence with some small talk. "Has Binghe had the chance to study these ruins in any detail?" he asks. "I'm told this is an architectural style favored by one of the dwarven cultures, cousins to the short, stout people in the town above -- but nobody seems to have had any contact with this group, or any idea that they'd ever been down here. Most curious, don't you think?"
no subject
He identifies this reaction in himself immediately and crushes it like a bug. Even if this was the real Shen Qingqiu, his opinions would be meaningless to Luo Binghe; even if Luo Binghe's reply disappoints him in some way, what can he do to him? If this man so much as made an attempt to express his disapproval of Luo Binghe's lack of archaeological expertise, Luo Binghe could easily sear the flesh from his bones.
Okay. He feels a bit better now he's reminded himself how easy it would be for him to obliterate Shen Qingqiu with his immense dark powers. His reply is still kind of curt though.
"...Indeed. Certainly I have seen nothing else of its like above ground."
no subject
"Of course, such things are of little interest to the great Luo Binghe," he hastens to course correct. "Look at how picked-clean this place is! Not a single sign of treasure -- not to mention the absence of lovely young maidens! Hardly a site worthy of another chapter in Luo Binghe's tale."
Pay no attention to the fact that he hated most of the "maidens of the week" and was constantly hectoring Airplane to slow down and describe the scenery more. He can't expect Luo Binghe to share his priorities! In fact he kind of wishes a nameless maiden was here right now, maybe she could lighten Binghe's mood by taking the edge off his sexual frustration!
no subject
"Is that what 'Shen Qingqiu' thinks of me?" he asks as he clears some more rubble from the table inside the ruins. He laughs bitterly. "My exploits must not have made as generous an impression as you implied."
no subject
Preposterous!
And yet...
"I'm a great admirer of Luo Binghe, and his many exploits," he quietly insists. "He'll see for himself soon enough. This master was only trying to make some light conversation. I meant no offense."
no subject
"You're right," he says, and nods to the cleared table. "Lie down, then. Let me see."
no subject
"Shen Qingqiu's" mind is a maze, corridor after marble corridor, not unlike the water prison of Huan Hua Palace. An anxious whispering fills the air, just over the line of comprehensibility. Luo Binghe finds himself at a crossroads; to the left is darkness, while to the right he can just barely perceive a faint yellow glow at the corridor's end, like sunlight.
Which way does he wish to go?