TDM #5 - Paradesium [REPRINT]

Pumpkin Hollow Gazette April Issue

[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.

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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!

IMPORTANT MOD NOTE

As of April 8th we are allowing characters under the age of 18 to apply to Pumpkin Hollow. As we begin to navigate how to approach the change, we ask that anyone posting a TDM toplevel after this date include their character's numerical age (or a general idea of their age) in the title of the comment. We may not stick with this strategy permanently, but for the time being it allows players to quickly gauge what interactions and relationship dynamics are appropriate to pursue with unfamiliar characters! Please bear with us while we experiment!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I. Arrival
The mayor's office may have given him lodging and temporary work (fine, fine! Needs must and all that), but what they have not given him is a proper wardrobe, despite Dantalion's insistence that a man of his caliber cannot go out into the world in such an improper state. Nevermind that he spent most of his youth clad in naught but gore and sand and dust; he is who he is now, and at this point he would gladly lop his other arm off and exchange it for a proper justaucorps and stockings and a nice laced jabot and silk shoes and perhaps a nice hat and of course a stylish cane. Or even those twenty-first century clothes! He'd quite liked those — not as much as what he wore in France, or even centuries before in Italy, but at least something more befitting of a man of style.

"You there." Dantalion snaps his fingers imperiously at the first passerby he sees. "Where can one purchase a proper wardrobe here?" Nevermind that he has no money at the moment.

II. Charity

Well, children are the future, after all, precocious little creatures that they are, even if Dantalion thinks it's a little too much fuss for hospitalized children when there are plenty of healthy children around too. Survival of the fittest, and all that.

Still, he will join in, as a man of principle and an artist. However...this is much more difficult with only one arm. Dantalion balances the little doll on his thighs, spool gripped between his teeth as he stabs at it with the needle. Bah! His skilled hands are meant for coaxing chords from pianos and moans from women, not for this kind of fine work. But Dantalion also refuses to be defeated. Won't you help him out?

III. Paradesium
He had meant to go to the hot springs, to have a relaxing dip and regroup, but the sharp scent of strange magic issuing from the cavern stops him in his tracks. Dantalion sniffs hard, clearing his sinuses, but his track is already set--he can't simply ignore something like this. Dignified, principled, and sophisticated he may be, there's something in the magic that sets off his territoriality, putting aside the fact he's only been here a couple of days.

Though the air coming from the cave is absolutely saturated with magic, sensitive nose picks up the smell of something living--

--and a moment later, the underbrush explodes as an Elephant Raptor bursts out. Dantalion means to avoid the foot and then return with his own lightning, the burst already heating up in his throat, but his missing limb throws off his balance and instead of a skillful dodge he overbalances and goes rolling into a tree. He's already getting back up, but the monster is practically on him--blast!

IV. Wildcard
[Hit me up in DMs or at

vaderetro!

Dantalion's cause of death is also what caused the loss of his right arm, so he's very much unused to these circumstances.]

Edited 2024-04-16 16:58 (UTC)

Carrying over the hills in the early evening comes some of the most sublime music he's ever heard. It's a woodwind, possibly an oboe, singing a lover's lament to the heavens above.

Somewhere in the distance, a lone figure stands in an open field, silhouetted by twilight. Perhaps the Monsieur will approach?

He's always enjoyed music--he's a musician himself, after all, though it's the piano and organ that have tasted his favour.
The music soothes his savage, roiling, unfathomable heart; he decides to explore, approaching the figure.

"Such a sublime melancholy," he comments, trying to see the musician. "A ribbon of bitter sorrow against the curtain of the setting sun."

She waits until she reaches a stop in her phrasing, before she stops. There's not really a way to glimpse any of her features, under mask and hood and bandages. She's entirely covered.

"Good evening, muthsera. I am glad that my playing is pleasing to you."

That's a form of address he's never heard before. Dantalion gives up trying to see (unbecoming to impose on a lady's privacy, after all!) and straightens up, ever the picture of a perfect gentleman.

"If only I had my ivories, I would be tempted to join you. But there is much to be said of the benefits of a solo. I hope the lady does not mind an audience."

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!

CHARITY DRIVE ENCOURAGES CULTURAL EXCHANGE

PLANTING SEASON BEGINS!

HOT SPRINGS OPEN FOR RELAXATION

STRANGE CAVERNS DISCOVERED BENEATH CRANE’S RIDGE

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Jean-Marie Dantalion | Original | OTA (Newcomer)

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sorry for the delay!! i really am excited for your new oc, just bad timing <3

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III Paradesium

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4/2/24 | TDM #5 - Paradesium [REPRINT]
Content Warnings: individual CWs found per prompt in "Further Details"
Forecast: Very rainy! Chance of severe storms.