Monthly Plotting Post | May

[pumpkinhollow]

Monthly Plotting Post | May

Happy May, everybody!

As you all probably noticed, March and April were a little wonky, with a SUPER late March event, no proper April event, and no TDM reprint. For a variety of reasons, the earlier spring months took the wind out of a lot of folks’ sails this year, and I personally have been fighting an ongoing battle with extremely prolonged double ear infections. But the world keeps on turnin’, Summer is on the way, and we have lots of fun stuff planned! So let’s get into it!

SPRING TDM

March through May

This’ll be the final month of the 2025 Spring TDM, so whether you’ve got a certain type of Pokemon you want or don’t wanna miss your opportunity to get in on flower-based body horror, hop to it! We’ll also have one more run of our Swift Social, so grab a seat and make a friend! That'll be next Saturday, so you've got some time, but since we've lost a few players, we're also looking to start advertising on the EMP again. Make sure you keep your eyes peeled for new friends!

MAY EVENT - All Too Familiar

May 18th

A mysterious letter. A missing book. A foul shift in the air.

This month’s main event is going to be a surprise plot that is being co-written with long-time Mod Helper and NPC player Meghan, and will be centered around Elsie!

While player character Hector Monaque is in the midst of his deal with King Eligos, which involves writing terrible letters to his neighbors designed to strain their relationships, another letter is snuck into the delivery. One made out to Elsie, containing information that might just change her life.

Check out Meghan’s teaser in the comments below! Further information will be distributed as the event gets closer, but what we can say is that after a few months of magical traps and existential dread, it’ll be nice to have a problem that can be fixed with violence. Any character that has died since arriving in Pumpkin Hollow may want to make sure their death certificates are in order, though!

Green King Voting & Anniversary Prep

Late May

Now that a test year has passed and the residents of Pumpkin Hollow know FOR SURE that the beloved Cucumber Festival isn’t due to have any further interruptions, voting for the Green King will resume as normal! Time to learn about a new Pumpkin Hollow tradition!

The Cucumber Festival is a summer holiday celebrated in early June. While it is by and large a carnival and a celebration of agriculture, it is also the time of year to elect a Green King alongside the Flower Queen. Like with the Flower Queen voting back in February, any male or otherwise masculine-identified person over the age of 18 can be nominated for Green King, and must accept the nomination before voting begins.

Because the festival is so early in June, voting will open on May 24th and close on May 31st, so we’ll go ahead and open up nominations below! Discord crowd, you’ll receive reminders as the 24th approaches that nominations will be closing, so please help pass the word along to non-Discord-using players as you’re able. Thanks!

Also, tangentially related: coinciding with the Cucumber Festival will be the 2 year anniversary of Pumpkin Hollow’s first TDM! We’ll be hosting a party in the Discord server on the anniversary itself, June 7th. Thanks so much to all of you who have made this an AMAZING 2 years of mystery-solving horror-comedy fun! More info about the party towards the end of May, but expect a revisit of PH trivia, Jackbox, Among Us, and more! Last year’s party was an epic 14 hour blow-out so feel free to come and go as you’re able!

CURRENT METAPLOT

Efrain, the Prince of Sorrow’s Song, was defeated by Nimona! The end of this is still being threaded out, apologies for delays, but everything from April will have included this information. That means that two of the four Demon Royals who have been making trouble for Pumpkin Hollow residents have been felled. All that remain are the current Regent of Hell, Eligos, the King of Treason, and his conniving youngest son, Prince Aster of the Dark Feast.

However, the fewer Demon Royals there are, the more Aster’s half-demon daughter Dahlia comes into her own power. She has begun performing demonic boons, demonstrating that she seems to have her own Infernal Domain. But that should be impossible--- tieflings aren’t part of the infernal hierarchy, and the chain of command doesn’t even have language for women, much less space for them.

Unless someone changed the rules.

Stay tuned to find out what Eligos and Aster have planned for each other, and for Dahlia, in their family feud for the fate of Pumpkin Hollow! And what will our resident Elder One do when the feud resolves? Will anyone be able to identify him through his human disguise before that happens?

Also, since we have a crop of new people, I thought that a link to our Lore Document would be helpful! It could use a bit of updating but has most of the relevant info to help folks get caught up, so check it out when you have time!

(CODE)

Comments

QUESTIONS/COMMENTS/CONCERNS

[pumpkinhollow]

MAY EVENT TEASER

[pumpkinhollow]

Re: MAY EVENT TEASER

[hereticofthewilds]

While Elsie is away frolicking in fresh fields of spring flowers, a letter is delivered directly to the hollow in her tree. The envelope is plain, with only her name written and no indication of who the sender might be.

When Elsie discovers that letter, she gleefully rips it open. Her expression crumbles with apparent disappointment, however, once she begins to read...but only at first. The deeper she gets into the letter, the more her eyebrows rise and her eyes sparkle. Once she's digested every last word, she clutches that letter to her chest and speeds away into the dusk. There's a look of determination on her face now. Whatever that letter said, it's given her an urgent mission.

GREEN KING NOMINATIONS

[pumpkinhollow]

To nominate someone for the role of Green King, pick any masc-identified character over the age of 18 that you believe fits the role, and reply to this post in the following format:

"[your character's name] would like to nominate [other player's character] for Green King."

The other player must then reply and accept the nomination. If they decline or do not respond, they will not be considered for Green King and will not appear on the ballot.

The Green King should be someone who exemplifies the qualities of joy, humor, and generosity. Someone who is a loyal friend, who gives back to his community, and who is a bringer of happiness and fun.

PLEASE NOTE: the Green King will, in the evening portion of the festival, be asked to participate in something called the Rite of the Pickle King. During this "ritual," the other members of the Green Court (the King's fellow nominees who did not win) will buy him an alcoholic beverage of their choice, thereby "pickling" him. If the King is a non-drinker, he will be given pickle juice instead.

[closureisformovies]

Alice would like to nominate Gerard "Gerry" Keay for Green King.

[hadnoright]

Daisy would like to nominate Jonathan Sims for Green King.

[stoneoftherose]

Shen Qingqiu would like to nominate Capochin Bastone for Green King!

[staybizzy]

Capochin Bastone would like to nominate Hector Monaque for Green King!

[thethirteenthchild]

Dahlia Leeds would like to nominate Walter "Radar" O'Reilly for Green King <3

[lofi_charm]

Martin Blackwood would like to nominate Shen Qingqiu for Green King!

[sunshinesally]

Sally Boyle would like to nominate John Crichton for Green King <3

[apocryphalarchivist]

Jon would like to nominate Martin Blackwood for Green King.

[in_for_a_penny]

Mr. Pennyburrow would like to nominate Father Mulcahy for Green King!

ELSIE OOC PLOTTING

[hereticofthewilds]

It's going to be a big month for Elsie! Without giving too much away, I am looking for CR/friends of Elsie to help with a matter of plot importance. I'd like to limit it to 1-3 people with a weighted preference for players who have not had plot involvement opportunities yet! (If you don't already have CR with Elsie, come hit me up and we can get some started! I might be willing to handwave more familiarity between characters if they get on well, but I'd need at least one thread between them to go off of.) DM Elsie's journal to volunteer.

Meghan's Funny Little Guys

[maximumcake]

I may add some addendums to this later, but I want to get my thoughts out for now to get started.

Max Maximum:
This will NOT finally be the month I get his new business put together and opened up--unless?? (Not me trying to reverse psychology my own brain.) In all seriousness, I'm really going to try to do that and write Max a proper open post for it. In honor of his nomination for the green king, I'm hoping to make this month more of a focus on Max so I can find my footing with him again. He's had some close CR Drop or drop to NPC status so I need to figure out how he's dealing with all that.

Lord Erik Osborne:
Erik will be out and about as usual, but I have no specific plans with him. He'll be available to help with whatever new catastrophe the event will bring. But since it's violence, just let him change out of his good suit first so he doesn't get blood everywhere. Open to assist in other plots.

John Crichton:
I think he needs a pokemon. I should put him on the test drive so he can get a spring pokemon to play with Runt. Other than that, I don't have solid plans for Crichton this month. He, like Erik, will be up for helping with the next event. He'll be donning his official enforcer garb for it, most likely. Open to assist in other plots.

Elsie (also has her own plotting comment)
It's going to be a big month for Elsie! Without giving too much away, I am looking for CR/friends of Elsie to help with a matter of plot importance. I'd like to limit it to 1-3 people with a weighted preference for players who have not had plot involvement opportunities yet! (If you don't already have CR with Elsie, come hit me up and we can get some started! I might be willing to handwave more familiarity between characters if they get on well, but I'd need at least one thread between them to go off of.) DM Elsie's journal to volunteer.

[stoneoftherose]

I would honestly love to do a thread between Pyotr and Max. Perhaps after we've wrapped up the opera thread with Erik and settled what their relationship will look like in the aftermath?

Blue | Daisy, Ruby, Alice, Gwen, CT, Melanie, Margaret

[liesdontfindyou]

Okay, getting thoughts in order!

Daisy has exactly one corpse out there, which is down an eye but otherwise at full strength! Which, in her case, means nigh un-fucking-killable. The only way to take her down is, historically, a headshot! Anything else she either heals almost instantly or can survive and only be slightly slowed down (the latter being things like, removing whole limbs).

I would really love to do something with this, because it's a good chance to show how fucking terrifying she'd be if she actually wanted to hurt people! And the nature of the beast is that most people aren't going to be able to put her down, so there's room for multiple encounters.

Normal Daisy is also a good ally to have because of this very same factor, and also she has a cursed gun that she might begrudgingly use. She'd offer it out but it'll just teleport back to her, lmao.

My other corpses are Alice and CT, who are comparatively much easier to put down. Alice is a normal ass woman and CT is a skilled fighter, but still just a normal person. For them I'd say it'd be most interesting to have CR have to handle them, with or without their living selves present.

Outside of that, Alice herself will probably try to hole up in town hall again, similar to the plague event. Success will depend on other plans, but really she doesn't have much to offer in a fight lmao.

CT will be out trying to fight, she has a gun and knives. She'll also be wondering what the hell caused this, which will drive her choice of places to move. So I'd like to do things with people she might fight alongside/notable corpses she might encounter/etc.

Melanie will be holed up in the radio tower and broadcasting updates on the situation as she hears them and occasionally smacking an undead with her cane if they get to the door. I'd be down with her holing someone else up there with her, or sending stone calls from people outside, but otherwise she'll largely be handwaved probably.

Gwen and Margaret I'll go where CR/whims take me. Gwen's got the ability to move around quickly on rooftops and between buildings (and can punch a person's jaw clean off). Margaret will probably want to hole up somewhere safer.

And Ruby will be entirely handwaved as holding the line at the farmhouse with her family, she has a scythe and will be able to largely handle the threat between them.

[not_the_last]

It occurs to me that Daisy once told Cassandra how to kill her if she ever had to. [cheerful]

britt | henry blake mr brand new in town

[letemallcheer]

HELLO SO.

On account of my not wanting to give Henry zombie trauma immediately upon arrival in town, I'm offering him up as a sort of "get away from zombies free" card.

He's going to be mostly unaware of the horrors happening in town as he does casual things like actually scout out an area for a golf course, ponder how he might replace his beloved fishing hat in the name of style, have a drink or two, gaze out at the water and breathe in that fresh sea air, and so on and so forth. You get the idea. All the while, people are fighting for their lives in the background I guess.

Anyway, if you either have a character you'd prefer not get involved in zombie stuff or you'd just like to give them a silly little breather, throw em my way.

OH YEAH ALSO.

For any thread that I'm in please please please I beg of you feel free to threadjack with a little "meanwhile in the background so and so does this wild zombie killing move" or something idk. It'll be fun and funny.

Re: britt | henry blake mr brand new in town

[redlightgreenlight]

Let me know when you put up a TL

Phoenix | Nimona, Gaeta, Radar

[incomingchoppers]

Radar
Recently, Radar received a boon from Serranai: Johnny Boy, a stone arcane construct that -- among other things -- can provide limited protection to Baker Ranch. Between that, the ranch being in a more isolated spot, other fortifications they can scramble together, and a guy with an axe (Edgar), it'll be a good spot for folks to hunker down if they need and/or want it! Radar will be personally calling all his CR to offer an invitation, but the ranch's doors will be open to anyone, regardless of whether or not they've ever met the Baker Ranch crew. I plan to set up a TL that can serve as a gathering spot for this.

Nimona
Nimona's the best suited of my three to actually fight the zombies, so she'll be running all over town doing just that. Hit me up if you want to tag-team against some undead, get rescued by her, or anything else!

Gaeta
...is going to find someplace to hide that's either well fortified or alongside people who can offer a modicum of defense lol. Basically I have almost no plans for him, but would love to make some.

ZOMBIES
All three of my gang have died at least once, so among the undead will be two Gaetas with their throats slashed open (if he had a nickel, etc etc), one badly-mangled Radar who fell from a great height, and a Nimona with fantasy rabies. Happy to offer them up for any zombie-fighting threads, or feel free to handwave their presence among the horde! Nimona will obviously be the most dangerous and difficult to fight; the others, being Just Some Guys, will be much easier to put down.

OOC
Mentioned this in the server, but I'm switching departments at work next week! While this is exciting, New Department is extremely busy, which means I'll have no DW/Discord access during US Eastern work hours anymore. Pls be patient if you ping or tag me -- I promise I'll reply once I'm off the clock ❤️

[not_the_last]

Oh hey also: any interest in developing Gaeta CR with any of mine?

Connor | Agent Carolina (and maybe a little bit of Ripley we'll see)

[cyansoldier]

Agent Carolina:

You can bet your bottom dollar Carolina's throwing herself into this fight. She has several guns and legs that can crush cement blocks (or in this case, the zombified heads of her neighbors), and she's ready to help wherever may be needed. As of right now, I'll be including closed threads to Valdis and Gerry on my Top-level, and I'm more than happy to talk plans if anyone wants to be rescued by or fight alongside her.

She'll be chasing action all over town, depending on who she's fighting with. She'll also be offering herself up to Baker Ranch as defense, since that's close to her own farmhouse.

Ellen Ripley:

Ripley will mostly be sitting this one out unless I make specific plans for her. BUT. She has died once to the Hanahilators, so if any of her CR is interested in taking her out, she's there.

[yournewsidekick]

Yesssssss I'm excited for Lina and Radar to cross paths again!!!

AND ALSO. At some point, would she like to team up with a very violent shapeshifter to bash some zombie skulls?

Batya | Zivia, Edgar, Cassandra

[not_the_last]

Plans! Or at least, a place where plans can go.

Zivia is a cleric and may therefore have some advantages in a fight against undead, though I still need to find out if those will work. She will want to find a place to defend and keep people safe; I know Town Hall has been floated as one possible refuge.

Edgar will initially be defending Baker Ranch as mentioned above, but once word gets out that this will end if they can kill enough undead, he'll want to go on the offensive.

Cassandra may have something planned with Elsie! Aside from that: people she knows rising up as hostile undead is a very personal horror for her and she will be having a Bad Time, though not in any way a Bad Time that precludes killing undead.

All three of mine have died at least once since they showed up here, so they're all going to be available as hostile undead! Zombivia in particular may be dangerous as she's in the violent stages of the plague, and may or may not also have magic at her disposal.

Want to make plans? Hit me!

[yournewsidekick]

hey

hey

since edgar had to face down nimona when she was a raging plague zombie

wanna have some fun with nimona and zombie edgar :DDDDDD

mira | fever

[abhorrently]

LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOO

So. There is a Fever zombie running around with no ethics, no morals, and a whole lot of rage. She is on hand to fight and murder and in general cause chaos - and while more killable than some of our heavy hitters, she will be using her magic indiscriminately. Point blank, if you engage with her and don't have some way to outright counter magic or to survive a hell of a lot of it, you will die, because she'll give chase and will not stop until her target is dead. Living Fever will make tracking her down and killing her every day a high priority.

However, living Fever has more tricks up her sleeve than her counterpart, and is willing and ready to bring all that force to bear against the undead. She'll be checking in with her CR as well as going out to meet the threat where it stands, and can go perform rescues if needed, as well as teaming up for fights with others and giving tactical advice to those who are at her side. Her sending stone will be on her, and basically, this is the first time she's really gotten to pop the fuck off in this setting. Come watch the light show, but don't get in her way.

I want everything and anything, so if you don't have any ideas but still want to thread, we can cook something up together!

[not_the_last]

[raises hand] I have no ideas but still want to thread!

guildenstern - mulcahy, phil

[lovethyneighb_or]

okay okay, SO

Phil is probably going to be mostly holed up at the farmhouse. It will be pretty well-defended between his Many Sword Children and their menagerie of pokemon, so he can safely hunker down there. If anyone wants to throw zombies at him though, let me know.

There's only one Phil zombie: his unmarred corpse from when he died coming back from the Dreamlands. He's going to be annoying to deal with with his flyby attacks, and worse when he turns into a bird-monster.

Mulcahy is going to have a more active time, probably; he can't not put himself out there to help the community at large and will probably be helping people in shelters. But if he sees a zombie Mulcahy--and he will--he will not be able to stop from wanting to go Get Him. Feel free to deal with Mulcahy maybe getting a little too violent on himself. He will also certainly die a lot of times in this event from all the zombie heavy hitters running around and the fact that he's just Some Guy.

There are four zombie mulcahies (zomcahies) to start with: two that starved to death, and thus really easy to smash to bits; one with its throat slashed open from the cult sacrifice and thus really gnarly to look at; and one unmarred from escaping the Dreamlands via the Necropolis. There will probably be more bloody Mulcahies from getting dropped by other zombies (such as Fever's). Pick your poison et cetera.

[not_a_traitor]

soooooo

what do you think about a zombie apocalypse being the first time mulcahy sees gaeta since the opera

SAFEHOUSE

[stoneoftherose]

Leave a comment here if your character is establishing or attempting to establish a safe zone, as well as whether you'd like to plot some kind of break-in event!

SAFEHOUSE: BAKER RANCH

[not_the_last]

As mentioned above, there will be a refuge at Baker Ranch, held by Radar and Edgar and the newly created construct Johnny Boy.

[impostor_syndrome]

Bastion was built to mow down humans on the battlefield, so mowing down zombies isn't a difficult adjustment unless it's someone they're friends with. (Which might come up, since there's a zombie Nimona!) They're going to meet up with Elsie, and after that they'll be roaming the town looking for other people who can help. The basic zombies will have a difficult time getting through their armour, although heavy-hitters like Zever, Zhil and Zaldis will give them more trouble.

Wilson will probably get killed fighting the zombies at least once. He's reckless, desensitised to dying violently, and he only has minor supernatural powers that aren't that great for defense. After hitting that wall he'll go to one of the safehouses.

Purple will first go to the Mipha's Grace to meet up with their coworkers. Jon and Curly, anyway; with Link, Zelda and Jean being DTNPC'd, I'm going to say they're bunkered down at home together so the other three don't have to worry about them. Once their party has armed themselves with fishing-based weaponry they'll try to make their way to some other point of interest with more people rather than immediately going on the offense.

I'm thinking they've been hiding long enough, and during this event they'll be forced to reveal their shapeshifting powers, either by having to use them to stop zombies or by getting themselves killed and having Zombie Purple - Zurple, if you will - go on a rampage. No particular preference for which route.

I don't really have any specific plans for what Fuelweaver is doing, and I figure Moiré will try to find other Bizzyboys to buddy up with.

Zombies:
I've got one in the starting lineup for everyone except Bastion, although Purple's zombie contribution isn't a dead version of themselves, it's a random Lethal Company employee who got possessed by a living mask, was pulled to the island in Purple's wake during a past TDM prior to Purple and Tom killing both mask and host, then revived and has been stuck here as a NPC ever since. So there's a basic human zombie in a hazmat suit similar to the one Purple got at the opera but orange, with the helmet visor smashed in. (Technically the mask also became a zombie, but it reanimated separately and has no limbs or teeth or anything, so just don't put on any suspicious theatre masks.) Wilson was infested and then mercy-killed at the end of the bug boat event so he's got a sliced-up zombie with bugs in it, and Moiré succumbed to Thatcher's Blight and produced a very staticky and glitchy but also wimpy and sickly zombie.

Fuelweaver - killed by the cult in the time bubble last year - is the one you really have to worry about because he's much tougher than a human and the zombie can use all of the shadow and fossil-bone magic that the actual Fuelweaver can, including most of his special attacks along with summoning sharp pointy bones, using his skull as a bludgeon, and summoning little shadow guys to eat as a source of healing. He is a boss fight in his canon, after all. Zombie Fuelweaver looks very similar to regular Fuelweaver but is distinguishable, aside from the unfriendly attitude, by a bone-deep gouge through one of his throat vertebrae that seems to extend to the surrounding shadow aura and glows red like his chest. Possibly also draped in some kind of torn-up magical bindings, I'm not sure whether those would persist.

Leon S. Kennedy (cw: zombie stuff and discussion of gun violence)

[nothingbadeverhappensto]

Leon just standing there at the start of all this like "well this was inevitable"

No but really. Somehow Leon has only died the one time (while afflicted with mind control spiders on the boat, thanks Ellarinne) and theoretically he's as easy to put down as any other normal human with combat training but here's a snag:

He's going to steal CT's gun.

He's stealthy enough to do it. Obviously his chances to restock on ammunition will be limited as a zombie, but with a weapon in his hands he'll be much more dangerous, given Leon's special forces action hero bullshittery. If anyone wants to get pistol sniped from across town like you're playing fuckin Counterstrike he's your man.

The alive Leon will be running around fighting zombies and thinning the herd as is his life's calling. He's good at it. If anyone wants to be pistol sniped from across town like you're playing fuckin Left 4 Dead he's also your man. Or suplexed/spinkicked/etc. For the most part he'll stick close to the safehouses, but if anyone needs him to be out patrolling for people who wandered too far then that's doable too!! I'm also very down for him getting killed another time or two (probably not more than that though) since we've got some heavy hitters around, BUT he won't go down without a fight. He's historically very good at punching above his weight class when it comes to OP zombies.

[ss_buttcrack]

Meant to respond to this sooner but it might be fun for the boys to go shooting together. Yay more bonding over the world being kinda shit sometimes.