The Wumpkin Needs a Friend

Read the The Moonlit Wumpkin first for better context for this ritual.

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Curse of the Wumpkin and Conducting Ritual

The ritual of gifting the Wumpkin a friend is only done once a Wumpkin sighting has been reported in the neighbourhood or nearby a gnomish household. This ritual is conducted in order to combat the Wumpkin's bad luck omens that it may impose upon a household, or several households depending on the night and its mood. The Wumpkin if it's in a foul enough mood will allegedly curse the house with bad luck that could last for weeks or months.

Often causing small misfortunes to occur to the residents, including things like stubbed toes, dropped glassware, smudged glasses that won't clean, etc.
Most of the ill fortunes are minor grievances but can still be extremely annoying if they last for several months. Gnomes absolutely hate stubbing their toes, and so having to deal with increased probabilities of sore tootsies is a major threat for any gnome.
In order to combat this bad luck, the Wumpkin must be appeased, and as such, the family or families of nearby homes will leave out various things on their door fronts to help make the Wumpkin feel loved, or cared for.

An upset Gnome that has just stubbed their toe

This often includes baked goods, and alcoholic beverages, and will always include a small look-alike plushie to make the Wumpkin feel like it has a new friend. All of these gifts are left a few dozen feet from the gnome's front door so that the Wumpkin can scoop them up at their leisure without getting too close to the home.
It is thought that the plushies especially please the Wumpkin, who sweeps up the toy and returns to his abode in order to add their new friend to their sizable collection.

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Plushie Design

The plushies are sewn by hand, usually with the assistance of the children of the home.
These stuffed toys are created swiftly, usually being completed in only a few hour's worth of time. As the gnomes do not wish to make the Wumpkin wait and risk further upsetting it.
Because of this, the toys are usually quite amateur looking, but always have a homemade charm to them.
The plushies are designed to look similar to the Moonlit Wumpkin, so as to convince the Wumpkin that they are friendly.

Though the designs vary so that the Wumpkin can have a plethora of varying friends to take home the stuffed toys do share a few common elements. They are almost always blue, have a set or two of horns, and are usually depicted as happy and inviting creatures.
The plushies are made in a variety of sizes, ranging from small hand-sized plushies that can be held in one hand. To sizes that are quite a bit larger, roughly the size of a small dog. Some have even been made to be the same size as a gnomish child.
The plushies are then left outside the door of the home, sometimes with a plate of cookies or baked goods and a cool pint of ale.

Summary

A traditional ritual held by the gnomes to help appease the Moonlit Wumpkin and stop it from laying ill omens on their household. The gnomes believe the Wumpkin is lonely and seeks companionship but is too shy to approach anyone.
So, the gnomes, an arts and crafts bunch will sew small cute companions for the Wumpkin and leave them a few dozen feet from their doorsteps, along with other sweets and treats for the Wumpkin to take. The plushies are almost always blue and have some sort of horns on them in order to replicate the look of the Wumpkin itself.

Purpose of Urban Legend

This is primarily a tale told to children for the purposes of teaching kindness, especially to those that may be lonely or shy.
Smarter children believe that their parents just take away the plushie Wumpkin before the morning in order to make it seem like the Moonlit Wumpkin has taken it. What the children don’t know is that the Wumpkin exists and does in fact take each and every plushie for itself. Storing them in an unknown horde in a hidden location somewhere in the Gnomish Lands.

To read the full details of this gnomish legend read The Moonlit Wumpkin.

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