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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!
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"And for that, I will always be grateful. And it's my task to remember it, to know I won't fall down if I can't manage alone, to know I don't...have to. It's just...hard."
Like learning a new weapon, or a new dance, the muscles have to be used, exercised, before it becomes reflexive.
"Sorry for being so difficult."
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Valdis squeezes Fever's hand, leading her well clear of the trail of blood and through fresh, clean snow. She lets the silence linger for awhile as she considers how far they all have come. Max has become his own person, she's learned to open up and feel, Fever has begun to heal and seek who she wants to be. Valdis wonders if any of this would ever have been possible on their own worlds.
"You're just not used to having friends yet."
Or partners.
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Months upon months. When spring falls, it'll be a year here, to say nothing of the time spent on the ship, and the months spent beforehand running from the Absolute. One would think she figured out something of a knack for it by now.
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"I don't know why you're asking me, my track record with trust and belief isn't exactly long either."
She stops and turns to face Fever, not releasing her hand and looking into her eyes.
"But we can figure it out together."
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"You promise?"
She knows she doesn't need to ask, but she wants to, just so she can hear the answer aloud.
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"I promise."
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When they're near one of the clinics is when she speaks again.
"Thank you, for pulling me back."
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"I will always be here for you, Fever."
She glances at the clinic, not having had to actually come to one since the plague.
"Will you wait for me?"
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She's trying to be a little more lighthearted instead of letting her worry over this injury predominate. Right now, Valdis is the one who wants to take care of her, and so she has to remember to keep allowing it.
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"If you need sleep you should go home."
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Besides, she wouldn't sleep peacefully no matter where she is. The exhaustion is physical, not mental.
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Valdis leans over to plant a kiss on her cheek.
"I'll see you in a moment then."
Hopefully that is all it will take.
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"Did he fix it?"
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"For not having magic I think he did great job with an unusual circumstance."
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She nods in approval, and stays near.
"Can I walk you home?"
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The cold scar on her chest is proof of that.
"And of course you can walk me home, I will never turn down your company."
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But they both know the way to her house, and if Fever needs to settle on the couch and doze when they get there, she knows she's allowed to do so.
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"Would you like me to deny such things so you can push back?"
A joke, yes, but if Fever finds it amusing then she'll consider it from time to time.
"You...are welcome to stay the night if you wish. The spare bedroom is free."
Part of her is hoping Fever will stay nearby, just so she can keep an eye on her for a little longer.
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This as well is allowing Valdis to care for her - accepting an offer to not be alone after everything. And Fever finds it to be welcome, even as she knows it might be a fitful sleep when she tries to drift off. The important part will be resting near someone she trusts.
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She reaches for Fever's hand with her unbandaged one, relieved that she's accepting the offer. Valdis would feel much better if she was nearby as Fever continues to recover.
"Come on, we can keep each other warm on the way there."
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Even as she says it, she's coming close, to stay near and try to keep Valdis warmer. Just because she's an immortal doesn't mean she's immune to a cold, after all. Or maybe she is. Things Fever never thought to ask.
"I'm not really used to staying over at someone else's, so I don't know how this goes."
At least, not in a way where she actually tried to sleep there and didn't just sit up awake the whole time.
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Valdis breathes deeply, savoring Fever's scent and closeness, all pain forgotten.
"Are you sure I can't take revenge on your behalf?"
She's teasing, mostly.