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TDM #9 - The Weather Outside is Frightful [FIRST EDITION]

Pumpkin Hollow Gazette: Winter Issue

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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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Further Details...

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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Arrival

Aster is quick to get their affairs in order once arriving on the island. More out of a desperation than anything else. Get off the ferry? Check. Get a room key at the Oak and Iron? Check. Get that first stipend? Check.

Getting a pack of cigarettes is really the end goal here though. And a lighter, of course.

Aster went for the least fancy lighter but even that ended up being rather fancy, all things considered. Way fancier than a cheap bic. Outside the general store, they can't help but marvel at it before flicking it, lighting up and taking a thick drag before exhaling.

They cough. Seems some things don't change even after death.

Shapes in the Snow

Some of you may or may not see large aggressive birds during these snowstorms.

Some of you may even find Aster out in the snow, fighting said birds. Fighting being quite generous. It seems to be a combination of kicking, shielding their face, and running from said birds.

But it does work to keep them safe. For now.

(ooc: feel free to borrow the birds for ur own tings if you want! they'd look kinda like this, but made of snow.

worth noting also, the character would not be seen as purple/blue by your character, they have a pale/peach/white complexion! this is simply the artists interpretation of them! everyone in the game is color coded :D)

1. Who knows where the road may lead us [Festivities]
Jack has been at the Oak and Iron for long enough to realize he has no clue what he's doing, but even less clue what he wants to do. So he's still a Laggard. But the good thing about that is that it gives him free time.

Find him on rented ice skates trying to balance on one of the safe-labeled lakes in the area (arms flailing more than likely), or at the Winter Market curling his whole everything around a cup of cocoa like the Little Match Girl.

2. Only a fool would say [Shapes in the Snow]
The snow on this day is heavy, and Jack is, at this point, lost. Which would be bad enough, but now the sun has gone down, and there's an eerie sound in the wind like the clinking of a shower of coins. A whirring sound like the spinning of a roulette wheel.

Jack is frozen as he hears it, breath turning to jello in his chest.

"No. No, no, no." Every muscle is clenched, as he looks around, trying to pinpoint from what direction the sound is coming. He can't get it together enough to try to flee, but worst of all?

He's not sure that what he's hearing is real.

3. Who knows if we'll meet along the way
[This is your wildcard!]

first frost.

It's winter, for real. Fever can forgive how cold it is for the sheer wonder of it happening at all - snow, ice, and the changed world. Her first true winter that she can recall, if one ignores the time jumble in her head, and so small things become intensely exciting. Bundled up, she's often at the Winter Market after work, perusing the stalls with interest and thinking about the upcoming holidays, or watching the sleigh rides go by with a curiosity.

Other times, she might be out ice skating, determined to master this before the season is out. That at first, it's going to be rough...well, she's never minded looking foolish in public before. Only practice will build grace, and Fever eventually begins to find a rhythm with it at a point. The truly brave, though, might have the same idea she does about going out to the hot springs in this weather. The combination of the warm soak and the icy air is more pleasant than one would think, and she finds it worth the trip out there. Ask politely, and she might even share the refreshments she's brought with her to make it a full experience.

carving ice.

The monsters in the snow aren't the only hunters out there. What approaches with malice may find itself cut down, hot blood upon the snow, and their killer sets about ensuring they cannot rise again without significant intervention. It is inevitable. It is dangerous. And in such a state, perhaps those nearby are the bigger threats than what comes out at you. Fever's mind is strained, drawn thin, and every slash, every cut, helps by degrees. Her head, full of blood, yearns ever for more.

Winter is here. So everything inside is louder than it was in autumn, and her footsteps are muffled by the snow. Someone known might get a direct challenge - someone unknown might need to prove theirself. And those who find themselves in true danger...do you risk calling for help? Will the distant figure in the snow be friend, or a new foe?

[ooc: up for both aggressive confrontations and friendly encounters, as well as rescues.]

wildcard.

[other options? let's go.]

"Beg pardon."

The man slipping past Fever is nearly six and a half feet tall, but he carries himself like he's trying to apologize to the world for being that tall, and his voice is rough at the edges. It's the sound that a steam engine on a stately old train might make while edging past another train on the next track. He's looking curiously at a stall of potions offered by a local alchemist, a vague frown on his bearded face.

"Oh, let me move-"

He's so tall, and mentally she reminds herself to check again if any taller shoes have yet come into fashion in this world. But beyond that, the look on his face catches her, and she can't help but to add:

"Not seeing what you're looking for?"

"I'm not certain what I'm looking for. The world from which I hail is one where magic is not real."

That fact has been his anchor while facing many Fucked Up Situations (because we love a guy who gets put in Situations), and suddenly being in a place where that's demonstrably not true is one of many things breaking him a little right now.

(Being dead is another, but everyone's got that on their list, so his hardly matters.)

1. Oh, the more it changes [Arrival]
Ferryman drops off a tall, haunted-looking man with a mass of wild curls on head and chin, who doesn't seem willing to stand at his full height as if he might somehow offend someone by towering over them. He's shivering as he makes his way into town, toward Town Hall.

Perhaps you're a worker catching him there, or you find him later at the Oak and Iron. The tavern, at least, is an environment familiar enough to him. He's sitting in a corner, looking like the archetypical medieval fantasy character watching the room with wary feral intelligence.

2. The more it stays the same [A sad boy with a sick]
Unfortunately, the arrival into the chill was a shock to Nostradamus's system. The already hoarse-voiced man is even gruffer sounding, and his sneezes are as large as he is. It is clear after a few days that he is Sick and Miserable.

But. What also may become clear is that he knows something about traditional remedies. Despite being flushed and swaying a little as he walks, he's out seeking mallow root and licorice syrup for his throat, and mustard seeds to put in a tallow poultice for his chest.

(He is not, however, going to any of the clinics to seek penicillin or any other 'standard' medication. Congrats, Watson, you're now VERY not the medical professional who has the most to learn about modern medicine.)

Catch him out shopping, or perhaps at the Oak and Iron getting soup after he does that. Don't worry, his plan is to take it to his room rather than exposing others.

3. And the hand just re-arranges [Gingerbread Hell]
Nostradamus is insistent that his world did not have magic (no, his ~~gift~~ ~~curse~~ foresight did not count), so seeing something so demonstrable as the transformations of buildings into baked goods--and ones made with Expensive Spices From The East--is baffling.

You may want to stop him before he starts breaking chunks off your house or a public building to examine further, though. Because he's totally about to do that next. Or chip off some of the frosting gluing everything together.

4. The players in the game [Wildcard]
[I double-doggy dare you.]

Hawk is stocking up on some of his more conventional remedies when he hears the sniffles from the other side of Sally's apothecary. Flu season remains the same no matter where he is, and Hawk makes his way over, tapping on a bottle from a decent enough distance away as to not get directly in the splash zone. It's a good thing there aren't sumptuary laws here, because Hawk looks a little like a very lost peacock in his red floral waistcoat.

"Hey- big guy, you got the world's most delayed hay fever or do you need some treatment?"

Being called "big guy" is enough to make the already hunching Nostradamus fold in on himself a little further, like somehow he can disguise the fact that he is lorg. It doesn't work, and it looks a little ridiculous. He almost gives the impression of a stooping vulture.

(Which, fair.)

"I seem to have acquired an illness on arrival. Fear not, my intention is to stow myself in quarantine in my room at the tavern, once I am properly stocked. Though I don't see any catnip for tea, here...perhaps at the general store?"

"Catnip?" he asks, "have you got cat scratch fever?"

Hawk can't really talk, he stoops over just the same, but he's built like a 2x4 whereas this guy is built like a log cabin.

"Don't worry about it- get yourself back to your room and I'll stop by my clinic and bring by a few things that should actually work. Just leave something on your door so I know which one I'm making my house call to."

"Catnip. It helps relax the body and let you get to sleep, and can help with the coughing. Add honey to soothe the throat and it's significantly better than just drinking warm water. Licorice root is better during the daytime, as it can rid you of excessive phlegm in the throat. But too much of it, especially in older patients, carries a risk of what Al-Akhawayni called 'al-imtela', an excess of blood in the vessels."

Or hypertension, as it's known nowadays.

"I know my dosages for it, though."

Two things become very apparent to Hawk very quickly. The first is that this man is either from a world or a time before modern pharmacology, rather than a world with magic plant healing powers. The second is that if he's describing hypertension, he'll need to change tact.

"Right- okay, you're a professional, got it," Hawk concedes, and he picks up his scarf to cover his mouth and nose as he takes another couple of steps closer.

"We're both professionals, I don't know if you have Doctors where you come from, but that's what I am- I practice medicine. Like Hipocrites and Galen and all of them. And I don't doubt that where you're from, you've found a way to make these plants really work for people. But where I'm from, we've worked out what makes these plants-" he indicates towards Nosty's plants- "help people, the uh- the parts in it that do their thing. So in my world, we skip the middle man and just use those parts, we've worked out how to extract them from the plant. It lets us manage doses better, and even get around some of the side effects. If you want to use these, I'm not going to stop you, but I'd certainly feel more comfortable if you weren't managing your doses while you're sick."

"We have doctors. For a time, I was in school to become one. They expelled me for working as an apothecary while I was a student. Doctors, you see, are not supposed to sully themselves with a 'manual trade'."

He would laugh, if he didn't know it'd set off a coughing fit. Seeing Hawk covering his face, there's a small nod. If one lacks for a plague doctor mask, one grabs the next best thing, right?

"Once I am well again, you'll have to tell me more about the processes for extracting the beneficial aspects of plants from them. Is it a distilling method, or...?"

"What?" Hawk asks with a genuine incredulousness.

"Look- if that was still the rule in my time, I would've been expelled. I worked during my studies too- housekeeping at a resort, about as low as you can get."

Who'd have imagined it, the profession of being a Doctor being a rich man's club even that far in the past. Forgive him, he left his surprise in his other coat. Hawk waits to see if this guy is going to pay for the herbs or leave them, but either way, he'll get the door for him, so he doesn't have to touch the handle again.

"Not exactly- not always, anyway. Where I'm from is a bit more in the future than this, but it's the same principles. You uh- you from a time that has Alchemy? Turning lead to gold? Imagine that, except gold is the substance in the plant that makes it work, and lead is other similar chemicals which we can put through processes to make the substance. Chemicals- uh- like the building blocks of what everything's made of. I'll catch you up on that part when you're better."

"It is not possible to physically turn lead to gold; it was often a metaphor for a spiritual transformation in occult writings."

Nostradamus does buy his herbs, because even with these proper medicines, you're not going to beat a cup of tea for making the throat feel immediately better. But he seems to appreciate the door being held for him as more than a polite gesture.

"But you're talking about a process of refining, that I understand. Like drawing the specific pigments out of a plant to make paint, with alum and soda ash." He might be from a cruder period in history, but in his time he was something of an expert in his field.

"And now it's very, very real, as real as you yourself. And allow me to guess, it's like you're a round peg, and suddenly the world is square, more corners than you imagined it to have?"

Another force of nature as intrinsic to the fabric of the world as any other, but unthinkable when one lacks.

"Ah, careful," Tarantulas says, coming out of the general store right behind the newcomer and nearly running into them when they stop to cough. "You're blocking the way." He's blunt, but not entirely unkind; two of his spiders' legs gently nudge Aster's back, guiding them off to one side of the doorway.

Aster feels two arms on his back that don't feel entirely human.

They feel a tingle run down their spine.

They practically jump to the side, and then spin around to see who's behind them-

A human. But with spider appendages.

"What the fuck!" They yell out, started and scared out of their mind. They drop their cigarette in fear, but immediately regret it- "Ah, shit-"

Fever can see a frail but tall figure being pecked at by snowy birds the size of a human torso. They are trying to kick and run away from said birds, but it is so obvious that their twig like figure is not meant for fighting.

They do not want to fight.

They are wheezing, out of breath, as they see Fever and run towards her.

"H-help, please-" They cry out as they run.

"Get behind me."

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.

Aster stumbles, their hands fly up to their head in a protective measure.

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.

The sounds are disconcerting, footsteps and explosions, as if they could not speak but only offer a glimpse into something other. But they're destroyed, and she lowers her hands, taking a steadying breath and watching to make sure the birds don't reform out of the snow.

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?

"Oh, uh, no. I'm. I've dealt with them before? But before they were you know. Real birds. I think these are mimics of the real thing. Which is good. We really don't want the real thing here."

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?"

Watson, who maintains the point of view that professional nosiness is important for a doctor, pauses at the sound of Obvious Illness on the other side of the apothecary, and then -- discreetly as he can -- tries to get a look at what the stranger is purchasing.

Watson is, in fact, more versed with herbal remedies than one might expect; he's used to relying on willow bark extract-based headache powders and soothing licorice syrups, since the next step up that has been available to him is usually laudanum or something similarly risky. There is a difference, too, between someone visiting a chemist's with instructions from a doctor and a vague notion of what they need, and someone who knows exactly what they're doing, even when it's someone as obviously sick as this man is.

So this is clearly a professional of some sort.

"I would offer advice," he says, "but you seem to have the matter well in hand. I think we must have similar professions, sir. Dr. John Watson, at your service."

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TDM #9 - The Weather Outside is Frightful [FIRST EDITION]

Pumpkin Hollow Gazette

12/13/24 | TDM #9 - The Weather Outside is Frightful [First Edition]

WELCOME TO PUMPKIN HOLLOW

WINTER WEATHER REPORT

WINTER ACTIVITIES AROUND TOWN

TOWNSFOLK BEWARE - SNOWSTORMS MAY HOLD SINISTER SECRETS

GINGERBREAD CURSE DEEMED UNLAWFUL AND UNSAFE

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QUESTIONS/COMMENTS/CONCERNS

Aster Steinschaden | An Outcry | Age 25 | cw: smoking

Jack La Hire | Changeling: the Lost | Age is fuzzy, but distinctly adult.

fever (dark urge) | baldur's gate 3 | adult

Fool of the First Frost - Market

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Nostradamus - Reign - mid-to-late 30s

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sorry lol

carving ice

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cw: smoking

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