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ph_memes2024-12-13 12:53 pm
TDM #9 - The Weather Outside is Frightful [FIRST EDITION]
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Pumpkin Hollow Gazette
12/13/24 | TDM #9 - The Weather Outside is Frightful [First Edition]
WELCOME TO PUMPKIN HOLLOW
By Yorick Aberdeen
The crop for which the town is named.
Hello and welcome, one and all! As time marches on and the ferry continues bringing newcomers to our fair land, we start our newest edition of the Pumpkin Hollow Gazette with a warm welcome to anyone who has just made landfall in our accursed but cozy little town. It’s winter, which can be a challenging time of year for a secluded place like Pumpkin Hollow, but you’ll also be able to join us for beloved traditions such as Mourner’s Night, Givingstide, the New Year, and Merrymeet! Local experts have also reported to the Pumpkin Hollow Safety Board that we should be in for perfectly normal and utterly harmless auroras this winter, barring any complications. The night sky will most likely not try to kill you this year. What luck!
We invite you, as with all those who came before you, to enjoy your stay at the Oak & Iron tavern inn while you settle in. Please stop by Town Hall to discuss opportunities for work and more permanent housing! All newcomers get 100 Brass in their pocket upon arrival as well, so we encourage you to take advantage of this as well. Reach out to your neighbors for help if you need it, and don’t forget to pick up your copy of the Pumpkin Hollow Gazette whenever you need the local news!
WINTER WEATHER REPORT
By Phil Connors
The Paring River looks gorgeous this time of year.
Wrap up in those winter cloaks, plug those drafts, and stock up on the oil and wood. It's frost season, and it's only getting colder from here. These nights will be the longest nights. Keep your toes warm and your rooftops clean; when we get snow, we're getting inches of it. The end of the season will get a little warmer, but prone to temperature drops and refreezes, and the wind will still be just as chilly. There will be ice all season long, so be careful on the streets, because there won't be any wet floor signs to warn you. Because it's ice.
Snowfall means roads blocked, and roads blocked means roads need clearing! Town Hall is recruiting volunteers to help shovel the walkways in public spaces. Shovels not mandatory for those of you with powers that can clear snow, or perhaps a machine like a snowplow, or perhaps machine snowplow powers. (No heat-melting allowed; we're not making a skating rink here.) Inquire at Town Hall to sign up!
WINTER ACTIVITIES AROUND TOWN
By Timothy Stoker
A peek at the Winter Market.Speaking of snow, it turns out shoveling and falling face-first into a mound of snow on your way to market aren’t the only things you can do with all this fluffy white stuff falling out of the sky! All throughout town, there’ll be opportunities to take advantage of this weather’s unique charms all winter long.
The Safety Board is happy to report that several of the lakes and ponds around town are now thick enough to ice skate on. Ice skate rentals will be available at the Oak & Iron for 5 Brass a day. You’ll find that the safe places to skate are marked with a notice from the Safety Board, so make sure you check, unless falling through the ice sounds like your idea of fun! One of the safe locations, to the shock of everyone involved, is Lake Sal-Co-Penn, so take this opportunity to enjoy its scenic location while it’s completely free of horrible visions of dead loved ones. Just don’t look too hard at what’s in the water under the ice.
Additionally, check out the Winter Market all season long on Main Street. It’s a great place to check out deals on artisanal crafts for Givingstide (or whatever else you might celebrate) and will also feature baking, cooking, and crafting contests of various kinds every weekend from now till the end of February. Grab some hot cider or cocoa at the refreshment booth, and consider taking a friend or date on one of the horse drawn sleigh rides available.
And last but certainly not least, head on out to the farmlands in Northwest Hollow to take part in the Neighborhood Sanctioned Snowball War. No sense letting those big plots of land sit empty all season! If you enjoy frozen architecture, have applicable tactical experience, or just want to throw stuff at other people, the Snowball War is the place for you.
TOWNSFOLK BEWARE - SNOWSTORMS MAY HOLD SINISTER SECRETS
By Yorick Aberdeen
Friend or foe?
Stay alert during inclement weather, neighbors--- and not just because of the fall risk! Locals particularly around the Prague Mill and Bluffs area have been reporting that, during low-visibility snowstorms, insidious-looking figures have been appearing in the snow.
It’s unclear what exactly these mysterious figures might be, lurking in the roiling blizzards throughout town, but they’ve been known to vary in size and in shape. Tread with care when the weather begins to turn, and keep your lanterns lit!
GINGERBREAD CURSE DEEMED UNLAWFUL AND UNSAFE
By Cecil Gershwin Palmer
A most dastardly dessert, indeed.
Town Hall would like to remind all citizens and denizens of Marrow Island that gingerbread is not on the list of approved construction materials for buildings zoned for residential, commercial or farming purposes. Whoever is turning local homes and other buildings into gingerbread, complete with candy decorations, is asked to put it back, and not coaxingly, like when you try to get a cat to come down from the ceiling fan, but demandingly, like when you’re telling a dog to spit out the clearly-not-food item they have in their mouth. No, stop chewing. Do NOT swallow that! Come here, spit it out!
Local candymaker, Ambrose Macarius, had this to say on the matter: “I worry a bit, you know, that with the abundance of candy made available with this gingerbread house hoo-hah, that no one’s going to come visit my shop for the stuff I make by hand. I don’t use magic in the candy, you know?” Meanwhile, local ice cream parlor Gourd En Glace is selling a gingerbread sundae to commemorate the occasion.
Citizens are advised to be particularly careful with liquids in gingerbread buildings for the time being, until this matter is resolved.
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Winter Fun!
The bit about Lake Sal-Co-Penn is mostly a joke and it is genuinely safe to ice skate there. However, if you would like to do something spooky with it, feel free! It is functionally SCP-2316 but frozen. You can have a totally safe visit or a terrible one, your choice!
The costs of hot cocoa/cider and sleigh rides are negligible, don’t worry about taking them out of your Brass. Winter clothing sets cost between 100-300 Brass depending on its complexity, and pricing at the Winter Market will be comparable to the normal pricing we have on items. To avoid an absolute onslaught of price check questions, we’re more than happy to let you use your best judgement on pricing for Winter Market items based on previous pricing. Our Buyer’s Guide and this simplified Pricing Menu are great resources! Existing characters can modify their ledgers without mod approval, and new characters can wait until they app in to worry about it. Givingstide, our winter gift exchange holiday, takes place at the end of December, but the market will be open all through the Winter!
The Snowball War will be centralized around Cèsar Salazar’s farm, per the player’s request, but the whole farmland area of Northwest Hollow is free game. Have fun!
Shapes in the Snow
We give you the winter gift of creative liberty for this one! Rather than have a set creature or person lurking in the blizzard, you can have whatever you like! It can be an existing monster like the Tristitia, a Brutok, or the River Walker. It can be an eerie doppelganger of someone from your home world. It can be an opening for another player character or an Infernal Servant. It could even be a creature you make up! If you make an excellent monster, we’d love to incorporate it into the game’s canon! But whether you’re looking to have a run-in with the Pine Devil, you’ve devised a new menace to stalk our fair town, or you’re about to attack your neighbor who has innocently come to ask for a cup of sugar, remember that communication is key and feel free to get as weird with it as you like.
Gingerbread Curse
The gingerbread curse is pretty self-explanatory and is basically exactly what it seems. That one witch who turned all our crops into turnips that time probably did it. Gingerbread buildings can appear fully formed or gradually transform over time, or just take up chunks of your home or workplace. They will eventually change back on their own (the timeframe in which this happens is up to you) but if the cookie gets softened by liquids or eaten, the architecture may come back looking a little funny. Good luck!
no subject
It's more a command than a request, and she moves towards them, to put herself in the front. Her hands move, a building violet light between them, and when Aster's safe at her back, she throws the spell forward.
"Detono." It is a wave of force that sweeps across, disturbing snow and ice and slamming hard into the birds to knock them off their feet. Even if they'll stagger back up, they'll be dazed from the thunder ringing in their ears, and it won't stop her following up with red darts, energy that hits like a strong punch, two to each in another fluid motion - they seek their prey, and will find it.
no subject
Snow flies across. Reminiscent of something more visceral. The birds that aren't destroyed in one hit are pinned down. They squawk, their screeches sounding like people going to door. Several footsteps. Loud bangs that would be unfamiliar to fever's ears, the closest description would be to an explosion of some sorts.
Aster covers their ears.
And then. Silence.
They slowly regain themselves, standing. Aster carefully walks forward to check on Fever, make sure they're unharmed.
"Are you- are you okay?" They say softly, eyes still wide with fear.
no subject
Avery's words pull her back to the present, and she makes herself focus.
"I'm fine. What about you? Did they manage to do any damage?
cw: smoking
Despite Aster's lack of combat experience it seems like they have dealt with these things before. For better or worse.
"-God damnit I thought I was done dealing with those things, I really need a smoke." Aster says, hands starting to shake. They dig into their oversized coat pockets for the items required. "You want one?"
no subject
She hasn't made it a habit, but whether it be that sympathy with fire that River spoke of or otherwise, she at least knows what she's doing with a cigarette. And it might ward off the thoughts that twitch in her brain as she looks at them - roiling, boiling, and if she shifts in place, it can seem like she's just pulling her coat a little tighter around herself.
"I'm sorry their ghost decided to come and follow you here - are you headed somewhere? I can keep close until you get there."
no subject
It seems to calm them down, at the very least.
"It's- It's alright. It kinda seems like a little bit of that shit is everywhere. Though it's a lot better here. I think." Aster manages a small smile. "Honestly I was just kinda. Out on a walk? I get restless some nights. Kind of a shit night for it, though. Guess I should get back to the Inn and hold out- Sorry to bother you."
cw: graphic murder thoughts, gore imagery.
Inhale on the cigarette. Don't think of how adorable they would look bleeding out in the snow. Navel to breastbone - everything would be at risk of falling out, organs spilling, slippery with blood. One look of horror before the slit throat, to finish the job. Hot, steaming red upon the snow. Or what about fire - what about holding them in place, and flooding their flesh with heat until it curled away, blackened and charred, the scent not unlike a camp when cooking a roast. Or lightning, shocking and convulsive, melting the hair and ravaging the nerves until the contortions and seizing stops-
Exhale. Smoke in the air. Think about red hair and a steady voice.
"I'm Fever."
based fever moments, cw: minor transphobia mentions also
Genuinely a good thing that Aster has no idea what you're thinking about there, Fever.
Luckily thought crimes aren't real and Aster knows this. Even if they did know about Fever's intrusive thoughts, Aster knows that you've saved them once. That already makes her alright in their book.
"Aster. Cool name." They say, nodding a bit, "I considered picking out a name like that, more of a noun or a verb, less of a name, but I got worried about being taken seriously. Turns out it doesn't really matter, if people don't want to take you seriously they just won't... Can I ask what pronouns you use?"
no subject
"Oh, she and her. And you?"
She figures she can clarify about her name in a moment.
no subject
"Cool. They them for me."
They manage a small thumbs up with their free hand to show approval of Fever's pronouns.
no subject
"As far as names go, Fever is the only one I remember having, so for as strange as some people find it, that doesn't change that it is." A little pause. "Of course, I don't remember much of anything to start with. Bit of a long story, but I'm doing fine, and if I wasn't, we have enough doctors in town who could help."
Shrugging her shoulders, it's a silent sentence - what can you do?
"People can be frustrating. But more often than not in this place, I've been...pleasantly surprised with them. They say they want to help, and then they mean it."
It's not every town where someone with her past can say she has honest friends, after all, and ones that know to boot. Just keep moving. Keep talking. Let the urge writhe in chains, while every step is out of sucking, sinking mud.