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

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!

[abhorrently]

You, with the roster of three lovely people, who would you like to nominate.

[not_the_last]

um um um do I have to pick just one?

I kind of want to see where Fever's current threads with Zivia and Cass wind up, and maybe pick based on that? Although I'd also love Zombie Fever attacking Baker Ranch and Edgar backing up Live Fever to drive her off / take her down, if that might be feasible.

[abhorrently]

wrt to Zivia, I think that one's nearly wrapped/due for a timeskip, so we can discuss what's coming with that. However, I'm also so down for her going for the ranch and Edgar playing support while Live Fever wants to decimate her here and now to prevent further damage. live fever hollering SET HER ON FIRE

[not_the_last]

yesssss FIRE TIME

[yournewsidekick]

HELL YES

would Fever like to team up with Nimona for a portion of the light show

[abhorrently]

do you even need to ask. hey nimona do you want to hit everything even harder

[yournewsidekick]

omg and it's not even her birthday

ALREADY CACKLING WITH GLEE AT THE POSSIBILITIES

[abhorrently]

THERE ARE SO MANY GOOD SPELLS I CAN NOW BREAK OUT IT'S GOING TO BE PHENOMENAL

[lovethyneighb_or]

Mulcahy will almost certainly die several times over the course of this event, no doubt at least once at the hands of zombie fever (or zever) & if you want to have fever deal with that lmk :3

[abhorrently]

music to my ears. let's have zever commit more crimes

Re: mira | fever

[redlightgreenlight]

I propose Valdis and Fever taking down the evil Fever

[abhorrently]

How cool are you with undead Fever deciding she's going to unleash an entire spell barrage at Valdis? Because it might be a fun inversion of the times where Valdis has helped/saved Fever to give them a different time where Fever comes and destroys the threat and works to save Valdis in return

[redlightgreenlight]

Sounds good to me! Valdis dislikes magic users because Hellhounds don't have as many defenses against them, so she would genuinely struggle with being in direct combat with one.

[abhorrently]

It would probably make most sense as well if Fever was already aware of her double so she could be hunting them down, so this might be the second kill or the third or who knows how many times. And be prepared for Fever to fuss afterwards to make sure Valdis is okay. Healing or not, she worries.

[redlightgreenlight]

it would yeah, and Valdis needs to learn to accept the fussing, so go for it <3

Re: mira | fever

[ss_buttcrack]

wrong journal, but I'd love to see what Fever and Erik can do together. Either fighting her zombie or his. She's one he'd think to call because electricity and eyeballs don't mix well and he knows it.

[abhorrently]

she's always wanted to fry a guy so hard his eyes pop. help her achieve her normal girl dreams

[ss_buttcrack]

He will make her dreams come true. He just wishes she didn't enjoy it that much, lol. (But who is he to yuck her yum)