Money Pumpkins

Summary

Money Pumpkins are a type of fantasy pumpkin whose seeds serve as currency in the world of the campaign. In Session 5, the party discovers a field full of these valuable pumpkins while investigating the Money Pumpkin Field. The pumpkins are described as big, ripe, and healthy, growing in a cultivated area that appears untouched despite the crops being ready for harvest.

The concept originated when Abdul suggested the pumpkins "have money inside of them," which Shawn embraced by establishing that "the seeds inside of the pumpkins are like. Like round and flat and hard. And people do trade them." These coin-sized seeds represent substantial wealth, though not all seeds in each pumpkin grow to coin size. The pumpkins' high value explains why the Gordian guards the field so fiercely.

Properties

Money Pumpkins are large, ripe pumpkins that grow in cultivated fields. Their most distinctive feature is their seeds, which are round, flat, hard, and coin-sized. However, only some of the seeds in each pumpkin grow to coin size, not all of them. These coin-sized seeds function as legal tender and can be traded throughout the world.

The pumpkins themselves taste "almost ripe enough to make pumpkin pie," according to Sucks, who gets covered in pumpkin guts during the battle with the Pumpkin Catapult Creature. The pumpkins themselves are not evil or poisoned—only the creature guarding them poses danger.

Both the seeds and the flesh of the pumpkins have economic value. The coin-sized seeds serve as currency directly, while the pumpkin flesh can be sold as food, particularly valuable given the food shortage in New Smoke. When processing them, the coin-sized seeds can be extracted while preserving the pumpkin meat for other uses.

The abundance and quality of a money pumpkin crop depends on growing conditions. The Gordian's field produced an exceptional yield because it had been fertilized with human corpses, creating conditions that yielded more coins than typical cultivation would produce.

When fed to Goober, the pumpkins cause dramatic growth in the creature. By Session 7, Goober had grown significantly larger from consuming the pumpkins, reaching almost the same size as Sucks himself.

History

Session 5

The party encounters the Money Pumpkin Field while traveling. Upon seeing the ripe, healthy pumpkins, Sucks and Cat immediately recognize their value and want to harvest them. Erin suggests "collect these and give them to Goober" to see how the creature would process them.

The pumpkins become central to the session's conflict when the party must fight the Gordian guarding the field. During the battle, the creature uses the pumpkins as ammunition in its catapult, smashing many of them across the battlefield. Sucks gets covered in pumpkin guts during this encounter and reports on their taste.

Following the battle, Safia questioned the mechanics of money pumpkins, prompting Shawn to clarify their properties. He explained: "I think that if I were to retcon one thing about money pumpkins, I would say that not all of their seeds are coin sized. Probably just some of them." The reasoning was economic: "200 coins is a wild amount of money. So I'd say if you did want to empty a bunch of pumpkins and keep the meat, that's cool. But yeah, you're probably going to get 200 total from all of those because then why wouldn't everybody just grow these pumpkins?"

The party obtained approximately 200 coins worth of pumpkin seeds from all the smashed pumpkins in the field combined, not 200 coins per individual pumpkin. This exceptional yield was attributed to the Gordian's fertilization method—the creature had been killing people and using their corpses to fertilize the pumpkin patch, creating growing conditions that produced "probably more coins than you would get from a field like this normally."

The party develops several schemes to monetize their discovery. They discuss "collect these pumpkins, pull out the coins, and then sell the pumpkins to New Smoke" to address the settlement's food shortage while extracting the valuable seeds. Another proposal involves feeding the pumpkins to Goober and having the creature "make pumpkin flavored stuff that we sell when we get to new smoke." Brad exclaims "Holy shit, we're rich. That's twice as many people as there are in the world" upon learning of their windfall.

Abdul noted that they "loaded Goober up with pumpkin before we left," and mentioned making "a pie out of them." Brad described how the party "started making pine or pumpkin snowman," suggesting creative uses for the produce.

Session 7

By Session 7, the effects of feeding pumpkins to Goober had become apparent. Goober had grown significantly larger from consuming the pumpkins, reaching a size almost as large as Sucks. The party continued transporting the remaining pumpkins toward New Smoke, where the crops were expected to have value due to potential food shortages in the settlement.