I think fablelands hits a lot of your preferences. It's small, we're definitely on the slower side (but everybody there is pretty enthusiastic). The mod and I think a couple of players are outside the US, so it's definitely got some friendliness for other timezones. The AC is relatively simple and can be found here. Items are bringable and there's not a lot of power nerfing going on unless it's going to nuke the setting or something like that.

Fablelands is a small spooky jamjar survival type game. Characters wake up in a fantasy land and are forced to work together to survive, while various events happen. It's only a couple months old, so I don't have a ton of information on the events, but the test drive has a recurring wolf event, last month we had a Little Mermaid type event, and this month was a little lighter with mysterious housing appearing.

There's a test drive here and reserves and apps are now permanently open! Even though Mordred's from Apocrypha, I'd love to see Mash there, so I hope you'll give it a look! I can also try and answer any questions you might have!