ph_logs | December Event - To All a Good Night

To All a Good Night

Givingstide

Winter is hard for everyone, but none more so than the residents of an island that has been isolated by the cruel hands of fate. Where the rest of the Emerald Isles is able to rely on imports from other nations in warmer places, Marrow Isle has no resources but her own. All the while, her mettle continues to be tested against the horrors brought on by the curse.

It is for this reason that among all the holidays celebrated by the Mothers' children, Givingstide is particularly beloved. A warm and cozy festival based around wishing each other prosperity and love in the new year, the lengthening of days, embracing generosity even in the lean times, and celebrating the fact that the darkest part of the year is coming to an end.

The fireplace is lit at the Oak & Iron. A wreath of pine boughs hangs over the merry blaze, paper horses and snowflakes decorate the walls, and a table in the center of the room has been done up to look like a silver sleigh. As people file in, hot food and warm drinks begin coming out of the kitchen and bar, and gifts begin piling up on the sleigh table. (Ultimately, a fair amount of them end up on the floor around it.) Everyone greets each other warmly with hearty handshakes, firm hugs, and wishes of a blessed Givingstide. Perhaps if you have a clever eye, you may even see a horned figure drinking hot cocoa in the corner harmlessly, enjoying the atmosphere of good will and keeping watch over the party to prevent any troublemakers. And for once, just once, for the first time in so long on this frightful, forsaken island, there is true peace.

[ Enter the Tavern. ]

The tavern is warm. Orange firelight flickers, as if dancing with the shadows. Decorations of shimmering silver and hunter green, the colors of Givingstide, adorn the dark wood decor of the Oak & Iron. The stucco and timber walls of the dining hall safeguard those within from the bitter wind and snow. It's no Leeds gala--- the food is simple, but it is beautifully made. Roasted chicken, potatoes, onion soup, and fresh-baked bread. Slices of pumpkin pie are passed around for dessert. Hot cider with or without alcohol, mulled wine, coffee, and spiced tea are served with the meal. It isn't glamorous, but it's made with love and tastes like coming home somehow.

As dinner carries on, music begins to be played from the tavern stage, and Mayor Poe has Yorick assist her in doling out the gifts from the table. They read the tags and summon the recipients to the table to recieve them. You can open yours right there or at your table, and decide for yourself whether you care to announce the name of the giver to the room.

Once the gifts are distributed, the partygoers are left to their own devices, allowed time to laugh with friends, dance to music, drink to their hearts' content, sneak off to while away a private moment in one of the inn's sitting rooms, or head home for an early night. Regardless of your choice, let it be with a loved one. A friend, a partner, a member of your newfound family. Blessed Givingstide, and may your lantern ever stay lit.

gifts and vouchers

Some important information regarding gift-giving and vouchers can be found below.

[ Review. ]

Gifts can be purchased using your own Brass, or via the holiday bazaar vouchers found in our December TDM. If you haven't taken the trivia quiz on the TDM, you still can! You can take it for each character or just once and give all your characters the same voucher.

For simplicity's sake for both our mods and our players, we will allow you to decide for yourselves the prices of your items so long as they are reasonable. You can use other purchase requests in the bank as a reference or simply decide on a price you believe is fair based on your experience. You do not have to list prices. We will trust you to make fair decisions! If you're still unsure how much an item ought to cost, feel free to ask us in the question thread on this post, but in the spirit of the holiday season (both real and fictional) we would rather allow your characters to get gifts for all their loved ones than worry too much about financials. Perhaps your character is simply a very good bargain hunter!

As a slight aside, we would love to thank each and every one of you for being a part of making Pumpkin Hollow amazing this year. We truly could not ask for a better group of players and are extremely grateful to have met all of you delightful, creative, talented, funny, incredible people. We hope you had a great holiday season, whatever that looks like for you, and we're so honored to greet the new year with this fantastic community!

Hand in hand, we put the darkness to our backs and step into the light. Rejoice, spring cometh.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Emery hugs Bart back. "I'm glad you like your present. If the colors or the sizes are wrong, you should be able to trade them in. The lady at the booth wrote out a receipt that you can take to the tailor."

(Surreptitious sniffing... Emery's not sure he likes how much alcohol he can smell on Bart's breath. But he doesn't say anything just yet... he stays close to keep an eye on the kid. Little Shadows seem to have a knack for getting into trouble.)

He accepts the package and carefully unties the bow. He looks up at Bart and smiles. "Thank you. This will add some variety to my meals."

He plops himself down in another seat at Bart's table, and asks, "Do you know Tarantulas? Is he here tonight as well? I have something for him."

It's almost certain that something is going to have to be hemmed or taken in or otherwise adjusted, he would just have to see to that when he has the chance to try the clothes on later. He almost doesn't catch the sniff to try and gauge how much he's drunk. He's not particularly impaired, just a bit silly. It may be best for him to stop after he finishes this cup, though.

Bart is very clearly pleased at the acceptance of his gift, and he nods. "These sorts of holidays are meant to be for giving those things that one wouldn't normally get for themselves, and you've always struck me as a very practical sort, so why not get something small and indulgent?" he reasons.

At the question of Tarantulas, Bart nods, settling himself down again with his new clothes resting to one side of his chair. "Last I saw, he was lurking in a corner watching the festivities. The two of you have met, then?" His friends are friends, then! He's pleased to hear it.

"Practical?" Emery laughs. "I suppose. I don't need nearly as much to get by as some of you humans." The 'you humans' is said with a note of fondness.

He nods, and answers, "We went hunting together. So Tarantulas will be keeping well fed, too."

"You also don't seem to have a burrow where I can just hand you things to keep that wouldn't end up messed up by exposure, unless you've found yourself a little weather-proof nook out there somewhere. Making sure that you've got something nice to look forward to is the least that I can do for the kindness that you've shown me."

Bart's hands wrap around his cup to keep them from fidgeting as he often does when he starts talking. "The two of you hunt together out there? It's good to know that the birth rates of the local fauna are enough to sustain such things; I'd entertained the thought of starting something of a conservation program if it looked like our arrivals here might tip the balance of the ecosystem. It seems like we're part of an influx of non-native residents that haven't been able to leave the island itself just yet, and given that this place is an island, it would stand to reason that it is a bit cut off from outside influence. Have you ever heard of 'island rule'?"

"I don't want people to know where my den is. Nothing personal, kid. I just feel safer that way." Emery shrugs. "But maybe we could set up a drop spot, if you'd like."

The chatter is... a lot. And Emery's not entirely sure whether he wants to suggest anything. Last time he did, in the nightmare, Bart ran with the assumption and maybe... maybe that was to their detriment. Instead, he just shakes his head and answers the part that was definitely addressed to him:

"No, I'm not sure what 'island rule' is."

Unfortunately, Bart is very full of words, and now that people listen to him it's as if the dam has well and truly broken, and everyone is getting hit with it. It's worse now when he has a bit of drink loosening his tongue further.

Luckily for Emery, Bart has an idea of his own. "Oh no, nor would I ask you to divulge such things," he says quickly, shaking his head. "You deserve to feel safe in your own habitat and besides, you can obviously find me when you need to. Historically, there were caches of supplies for hunters out in the wilderness, wooden boxes that served the purpose quite well, and would blend into the environment. If we can put something like that together, then it would give me the chance to drop things off for you, or if you need me while I'm away on one of miss Zelda's expeditions, you can leave me notes there," he suggests.

"'Island rule' means that when an environment is isolated enough from the outside world and particularly small, the life in that environment will evolve completely on its own in ways you wouldn't normally see in those bigger, more open places. Less diversity gives way to strange expressions and genetic bottlenecks the more generations are bred in the space. Take, for instance, a population of birds that stay up near the mountains-" aaand he's off, explaining the ways animals adapt to their specific environments by changing shapes and habits to exist in their chosen spaces. Co-evolution with the plants that they feed on and nest in. It's obvious that he's very pleased to have an audience for this talk, and that he cares a lot about the topic in general.

Sorry Emery, your Little Shadow is a ~~big giant nerd~~ very passionate student in his chosen field.

{What the heck? I swear I replied to this one...}

Emery gives a little laugh. "I think we are in 'historically' right now. So there are probably supply caches out in the woods. But we'll need one closer to the village, so you don't have to go too far." He's half-joking when he suggests, "If you make it house-shaped, then you won't have to worry about me not having a house."

That is a lot of words, once Bart gets going on his area of expertise. Emery does his best to follow along -- and some of it does make sense to him, though mostly he knows wild animals based on what is good eating -- because Emery knows what it's like not to be listened to. He doesn't want to make Bart thinl that he doesn't care about it.

"Maybe... the lady is bringing dead people here. All kinds -- humans, vampires, werewolves." Emery shrugs, and speculates, "What's to say that she's not also bringing in prey animals that died on other worlds, to lessen our impact on the island resources? Would we even be able to tell that?"

(Watch out, Em, you're going to have Bart out there trying to tag deer and feral hogs to trace the populations...)

[I saw you had and then it was deleted? Weird...]

Not only being allowed to just talk, but actually be listened to, and know that he's being listened to when Emery talks back and asks questions, is such a comforting thing for Bart. It further cements Emery as someone that he can trust. He can't help but laugh a bit at the assessment of their situation.

"Indeed. Like I've said before, it's been such an interesting challenge to learn how to use the supplies available to me in the here and now to perform the same duties I would have before. I've been sort of set back even further than when I was on the island, but I think without that precursor it would have been even harder." He wonders what the state of the world was when Emery left it; he's been assuming that it was at the very least something from the twenty-first century, just based on the way that Emery speaks to him when he can.

The idea that perhaps even the animal life is being brought the same way they are gets another nod. "Perhaps! You remember the arrival of those little creatures in the woods, the ones that almost seemed like spirits. I had one that followed me around for a time, looking like a little water drop. I think they would be a prime example of that kind of transplantation. I would very much like to be able to talk to miss Mortanne about it, if she would allow it..." But how does one beseech a living goddess? Perhaps until he figures that out, he can continue to do his own field research. Which may in fact include developing trackers for some of the feral population. Maybe he could work with the local hunters. Maybe with Emery himself. Or Tarantulas! He would get behind this kind of research, surely!

Bart is already forming a few admittedly disorganized plans, he would have to remind himself to write them down later, but for now he goes back to the first idea. "I could! I could build a little house for your supplies, to be sure they're protected until you avail yourself of them. What a lovely idea." He finishes off his drink, and simply holds his cup in both hands to keep the last of the warmth from leaching out of the ceramic until he can get a refill.

December Event - To All a Good Night

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