Have you ever read a story involving an "Adventurer's Guild" and wondered why it's always the bright-eyed newbies who have to save the day and not the wise and experienced guildmaster? Well, now you can experience the challenge and inconvenience of managing an adventurer's guild in Guildmaster, Guildmaster! You'll have to deal with eccentric personalities, rival guilds, political intrigue, dangerous dungeons, bureaucracy, lawsuits, and more on your quest to make the Starlight Guild the greatest guild in the city of Windhaven. And did I mention everyone's a Pokemon?
Guildmaster, Guildmaster!: A Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Quest
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Early Spring, 895 CC - Character Creation
Guildmaster, Guildmaster!
A Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Quest
A Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Quest
Early Spring, 895 CC
Many years ago, Pym Reuniclus founded the Starlight Guild to provide the port city of Windhaven with an alternative to the increasingly sclerotic and profit-driven Metagross Guild. Although it never quite attained the same size or prestige as their rival, for almost 50 years the Starlight Guild stood as a shining beacon of hope and idealism in an increasingly dangerous world. That all changed five years ago, when Pym's successor, Guildmaster Xute Mismagius, organized a grand expedition to find a legendary site claimed to hold the secrets to the origin of Pokemon.
Tragically, almost every member of the expedition perished in a suddenly appearing Mystery Dungeon that swallowed their ship into a massive whirlpool. This plunged the guild into an unprecedented succession crisis, as Xute's deputy, Liam Granbull, had also been on the expedition. When the dust settled, the charismatic and well-connected Lud Exploud had gained control of the guild. Unfortunately, Lud turned out to be deeply corrupt, and over the course of the next five years, slowly ran the guild into the ground while using it as a tool to advance his political and business interests.
That's where you came in. Working with a group of concerned guild veterans, you finally managed to uncover evidence exposing one of Lud's schemes. He'd set himself and his old Team Discovery up as expert thief-catchers, routinely recovering large numbers of stolen items and returning them to their rightful owners – for a certain "finder's fee", of course. But your investigation discovered that Lud had been directly working with the gang of burglars contributing to the city's recent crime wave - effectively turning the Starlight Guild into an elaborate fencing operation! Ever crafty, Lud managed to flee the region – along with a significant portion of the guild's treasury – before the evidence against him solidified, leaving behind a much-diminished guild mired in scandal and uncertainty.
After Team Discovery and the rest of Lud's cronies were removed from the guild, you managed to get elected as the new guildmaster following a protracted dispute over the succession. Now, you must lead the Starlight Guild out of these dark times and into a new era of adventure and prosperity. You plan to eclipse your old rivals, the Metagross Guild, and make the Starlight Guild the most prominent and prestigious exploration guild in the city! And then, just maybe, you'll have the resources to do what it takes to save the world...
But before that, a few questions. Who are you, and what's your primary talent as a guildmaster?
Name
[] Write-in. Most given names in your region are short, with one or two syllables being typical.
Species
[] Write-in. You may not select a legendary or mythical Pokemon species, nor one that's incapable of surviving outside of water. (Amphibians are fine, fish like Seaking are not.) A fully-evolved species is strongly recommended.
Trait
[] Charismatic. You have a silver tongue (or telepathy module or the like) – and Pokemon find it easy to like you. Grants a +1 to all rolls to influence people or win them to your side. In situations where charisma can be used to full effect, such as making big, dramatic speeches, this gives a +2 bonus instead.
[] Explorer. You are a world traveler who's climbed to the highest mountains and descended into the deepest dungeons, and managed to return home each time. Grants a +2 bonus to rolls to navigate and efficiently travel the world when exploring, and a +1 bonus to these tasks for expeditions organized by you if you aren't personally joining them. Additionally, gives a +2 bonus to rolls to evade traps and find secret passages – whether in mystery dungeons or otherwise.
[] Fighter. Most guildmasters tend to be skilled at battle, but even for a mon of your rank, you're considered a truly exceptional warrior, adept at fighting alone or in a team. Grants +2 to all rolls involving personal combat, and +1 to all rolls for directing a team or larger unit in battle.
[] Scholarly. Guildmasters can find themselves dealing with many strange and arcane situations - dungeon anomalies, mysterious curses, lawsuits - and your long years of diligent study have given you the knowledge you need to take them on. Gives a +2 bonus to all rolls involving knowledge of law, arcane lore, or natural science. Sometimes, this knowledge can provide additional options for choices.
[] Sly. Although most guildmasters strive to be exemplars of virtue and morality, you realize that sometimes a more... pragmatic approach is necessary. Grants a +2 bonus to all rolls involving espionage, forgery, larceny, or other forms of skullduggery. This applies equally to actions taken personally or by a directly-managed agent. Also, an appreciation of underhanded solutions may sometimes open up additional options for choices.
Voting is by block/plan. Also, approval voting is in effect: feel free to vote for as many different plans as you like.
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Introduction and Quest Mechanics
Introduction and Quest Mechanics
What is this?
Guildmaster, Guildmaster! is a fast-paced, mechanics-light quest where the players control the leader of a dungeon exploration guild in a fantasy world inhabited by Pokemon. The primary inspiration is Haspen's 'Spam Kingdom' series on the Bay 12 Games forum, but you may be more familiar with the video game 'Reigns', which is also sorta like this (the main differences being an increased variety of options for each choice and more complicated mechanics deciding the outcome of decisions).
What's 'Pokemon Mystery Dungeon'?
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is a roguelike spin-off of the Pokemon games, set in a fantasy world inhabited only by sapient, talking Pokemon. Although details of the setting vary from game to game, one constant is the existence of "Mystery Dungeons" - strange pocket dimensions full of feral Pokemon, traps, and treasure. Each game features some sort of organization of adventurers dedicated to exploring these dungeons and saving Pokemon who've become trapped in them, known as "Exploration Guilds" in the second and most popular game of the franchise.
Guildmaster, Guildmaster! shares the broad premise of the PMD games, but takes place in an original world separate from the setting of the games. In particular, Mystery Dungeons work fairly differently than how they do in the official PMD games, as explained in the "Mystery Dungeon" tab of the Setting Information post.
Do I need to be familiar with Pokemon Mystery Dungeon or Pokemon to participate in this quest?
Although knowledge of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon may be helpful, it is by no means required to be able to make informed decisions in this quest! I've endeavored to explain most of the relevant setting details in the Setting Information post, and the rest should be able to be picked up as you go. Similarly, although I'll be making use of Pokemon and mechanics from all the different mainline Pokemon games, in-depth understanding of Pokemon minutia will not be required. Knowing the basics of Pokemon (type relations, moves, etc.) should be all that's needed for the quest.
Wait, haven't I seen this quest before?
This quest is a reboot of a quest of the same name that was running on the SpaceBattles forum. Some events may be re-used, but don't expect them to necessarily have the same outcomes as before.
Voting
Most votes will be open for around one or two days. Block/plan voting will be in place for votes with multiple choices, although most votes will only have one thing to vote on. Approval voting is in effect: each player can vote for as many different options or plans as they wish, and the one with the plurality of votes at the end is the winner. For relatively unimportant decisions, voting ties will be decided by a roll of the die, but important choices may have their voting period extended. Write-ins are not allowed unless explicitly requested, although if you feel that there's an obvious option being overlooked, you can make a case for it and I may add it to the slate of choices.
Game Mechanics
What is this?
Guildmaster, Guildmaster! is a fast-paced, mechanics-light quest where the players control the leader of a dungeon exploration guild in a fantasy world inhabited by Pokemon. The primary inspiration is Haspen's 'Spam Kingdom' series on the Bay 12 Games forum, but you may be more familiar with the video game 'Reigns', which is also sorta like this (the main differences being an increased variety of options for each choice and more complicated mechanics deciding the outcome of decisions).
What's 'Pokemon Mystery Dungeon'?
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is a roguelike spin-off of the Pokemon games, set in a fantasy world inhabited only by sapient, talking Pokemon. Although details of the setting vary from game to game, one constant is the existence of "Mystery Dungeons" - strange pocket dimensions full of feral Pokemon, traps, and treasure. Each game features some sort of organization of adventurers dedicated to exploring these dungeons and saving Pokemon who've become trapped in them, known as "Exploration Guilds" in the second and most popular game of the franchise.
Guildmaster, Guildmaster! shares the broad premise of the PMD games, but takes place in an original world separate from the setting of the games. In particular, Mystery Dungeons work fairly differently than how they do in the official PMD games, as explained in the "Mystery Dungeon" tab of the Setting Information post.
Do I need to be familiar with Pokemon Mystery Dungeon or Pokemon to participate in this quest?
Although knowledge of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon may be helpful, it is by no means required to be able to make informed decisions in this quest! I've endeavored to explain most of the relevant setting details in the Setting Information post, and the rest should be able to be picked up as you go. Similarly, although I'll be making use of Pokemon and mechanics from all the different mainline Pokemon games, in-depth understanding of Pokemon minutia will not be required. Knowing the basics of Pokemon (type relations, moves, etc.) should be all that's needed for the quest.
Wait, haven't I seen this quest before?
This quest is a reboot of a quest of the same name that was running on the SpaceBattles forum. Some events may be re-used, but don't expect them to necessarily have the same outcomes as before.
Voting
Most votes will be open for around one or two days. Block/plan voting will be in place for votes with multiple choices, although most votes will only have one thing to vote on. Approval voting is in effect: each player can vote for as many different options or plans as they wish, and the one with the plurality of votes at the end is the winner. For relatively unimportant decisions, voting ties will be decided by a roll of the die, but important choices may have their voting period extended. Write-ins are not allowed unless explicitly requested, although if you feel that there's an obvious option being overlooked, you can make a case for it and I may add it to the slate of choices.
Game Mechanics
After a choice is made, if there is an element of uncertainty in how the chosen option plays out (there usually will be!), I will roll a ten-sided die to determine how well things went. (Yes, an actual, physical d10.) Positive or negative modifiers may be applied to the result of the roll based on situational factors; the most common of these will likely be from character traits, which are aspects of your character that give you a bonus (or possibly, a penalty) to rolls aligned with the trait. Ex: The 'Charismatic' trait will give you a bonus on rolls to persuade people to give you a better deal when negotiating, while the 'Abrasive' trait would give a penalty to that roll.
The final results of the d10 roll + modifiers will be interpreted as such:
1 or lower: Critical Failure! Your decision has gone wrong in some unexpected way, with possibly disastrous results.
2 to 3: Failure. Your plan didn't work, or at least not nearly as well as you hoped it would.
4 to 5: Partial Failure. Although it wasn't a total loss, your choice had a distinctly sub-par outcome.
6 to 7: Partial Success. Your plan mostly worked out, although there are ways in which it could've gone better.
8 to 9: Success. Your decision worked about as well as could be hoped for.
10 or higher: Critical Success! Your plan went even better than you imagined it would.
Note that although luck plays a large role in determining outcomes, the choices you make still have a significant impact. A 'Success' result for a bad plan might be worse than a 'Failure' result for a good plan!
The final results of the d10 roll + modifiers will be interpreted as such:
1 or lower: Critical Failure! Your decision has gone wrong in some unexpected way, with possibly disastrous results.
2 to 3: Failure. Your plan didn't work, or at least not nearly as well as you hoped it would.
4 to 5: Partial Failure. Although it wasn't a total loss, your choice had a distinctly sub-par outcome.
6 to 7: Partial Success. Your plan mostly worked out, although there are ways in which it could've gone better.
8 to 9: Success. Your decision worked about as well as could be hoped for.
10 or higher: Critical Success! Your plan went even better than you imagined it would.
Note that although luck plays a large role in determining outcomes, the choices you make still have a significant impact. A 'Success' result for a bad plan might be worse than a 'Failure' result for a good plan!
Your exploration guild has four main statistics representing how well it's doing in different areas. At the beginning of each year, the guild's record-keeper will present you with a scroll giving a zero to ten rating for each statistic. Higher ratings are better, with '5' being the rating for an average guild, '8' being an excellent rating, '3' being a poor rating, and so on. The statistics are as follows:
Morale: This represents the overall mood of your guild's members; both how happy they are in general, and how satisfied they are with your leadership. It can be increased by providing better amenities for your guild members and taking care of their personal needs. Making too many unpopular decisions can decrease morale, as can tragedy or misfortune befalling the guild.
Reputation: This represents how well-renowned and respected your guild is by everyone outside of it. It increases when your guild members do great deeds (or manage to take credit for them) and help out the community, and decreases when scandals become attached to your guild or guild members take the blame for notable public failures.
Strength: A measure of the overall quantity and quality of your guild's exploration teams. It increases when you expand the membership of your guild or your teams become more experienced, and decreases when teams leave the guild or suffer lasting decreases to their capabilities for whatever reason. Acquiring better equipment for your teams can also improve Strength.
Wealth: A general measure of your guild's available fiscal resources. Increases and decreases to this stat typically come about due to gaining or losing substantial amounts of money. Note that Wealth is separate from net profits; it's possible for a guild to be losing money every month but still have a high Wealth stat due to having accumulated a lot of savings. Unlike the other stats, wealth is given as Budget Points rather than a 1-10 measure; 100 budget points can be considered equal to 1 point on a 1-10 scale, and is enough to employ 5 low-level city clerks for a year.
Any stat being at 1 or 2 represents a serious problem for your guild, and a stat being at zero (or less!) means your guild is in dire crisis. If any stat is at zero or lower for two consecutive yearly reports, then your guild is forced to shut down, and it's Game Over.
Morale: This represents the overall mood of your guild's members; both how happy they are in general, and how satisfied they are with your leadership. It can be increased by providing better amenities for your guild members and taking care of their personal needs. Making too many unpopular decisions can decrease morale, as can tragedy or misfortune befalling the guild.
Reputation: This represents how well-renowned and respected your guild is by everyone outside of it. It increases when your guild members do great deeds (or manage to take credit for them) and help out the community, and decreases when scandals become attached to your guild or guild members take the blame for notable public failures.
Strength: A measure of the overall quantity and quality of your guild's exploration teams. It increases when you expand the membership of your guild or your teams become more experienced, and decreases when teams leave the guild or suffer lasting decreases to their capabilities for whatever reason. Acquiring better equipment for your teams can also improve Strength.
Wealth: A general measure of your guild's available fiscal resources. Increases and decreases to this stat typically come about due to gaining or losing substantial amounts of money. Note that Wealth is separate from net profits; it's possible for a guild to be losing money every month but still have a high Wealth stat due to having accumulated a lot of savings. Unlike the other stats, wealth is given as Budget Points rather than a 1-10 measure; 100 budget points can be considered equal to 1 point on a 1-10 scale, and is enough to employ 5 low-level city clerks for a year.
Any stat being at 1 or 2 represents a serious problem for your guild, and a stat being at zero (or less!) means your guild is in dire crisis. If any stat is at zero or lower for two consecutive yearly reports, then your guild is forced to shut down, and it's Game Over.
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Current Status
Current Status
Guild Name: The Starlight Guild
Current Headquarters: An aged stonework mansion in Windhaven's upper-class residential district. Notable for having a dormant mystery dungeon entrance sealed up in the basement. Could perhaps do with some remodeling.
Guildmaster: Will Lampent
Guildmaster's Traits:
Sly - Grants a +2 bonus to all rolls involving espionage, forgery, larceny, or other forms of skullduggery. This applies equally to actions taken personally or by a directly-managed agent. Also, an appreciation of underhanded solutions may sometimes open up additional options for choices.
Stats as of most recent report:
Morale: 5
Reputation: 4
Strength: 4
Wealth: 167 Budget Points
Guild Name: The Starlight Guild
Current Headquarters: An aged stonework mansion in Windhaven's upper-class residential district. Notable for having a dormant mystery dungeon entrance sealed up in the basement. Could perhaps do with some remodeling.
Guildmaster: Will Lampent
Guildmaster's Traits:
Sly - Grants a +2 bonus to all rolls involving espionage, forgery, larceny, or other forms of skullduggery. This applies equally to actions taken personally or by a directly-managed agent. Also, an appreciation of underhanded solutions may sometimes open up additional options for choices.
Stats as of most recent report:
Morale: 5
Reputation: 4
Strength: 4
Wealth: 167 Budget Points
Deputy: Liam Granbull. An experienced guild veteran, who also served as deputy under Guildmaster Xute Mismagius. Although a genuinely caring Pokemon, he's developed a sour and abrasive personality following the death of most of his friends in the disaster that ended Xute's term. Nevertheless, he's a highly capable, if slightly uncreative, administrator who knows how to get things done.
Record-Keeper: Oranguru. A diligent and taciturn Pokemon who became guild record-keeper during its first founder's administration, and who has remained in the position ever since. You have no idea what his given name is, or exactly how old he is, but he's been a reliable provider of common-sense advice and perspective for generations, and replacing him would be almost unthinkable.
Treasurer: Tessa Drapion. A frugal Pokemon who always seems to be worried about something or other. Can be quite creative when it comes to finding new ways to save money. Appointed during the administration of Xute Mismagius, removed by Lud Exploud, and re-appointed when you came to power.
Record-Keeper: Oranguru. A diligent and taciturn Pokemon who became guild record-keeper during its first founder's administration, and who has remained in the position ever since. You have no idea what his given name is, or exactly how old he is, but he's been a reliable provider of common-sense advice and perspective for generations, and replacing him would be almost unthinkable.
Treasurer: Tessa Drapion. A frugal Pokemon who always seems to be worried about something or other. Can be quite creative when it comes to finding new ways to save money. Appointed during the administration of Xute Mismagius, removed by Lud Exploud, and re-appointed when you came to power.
Team leaders are marked with an asterisk after their name. Note that not all teams have a specified leader. 'Mission Types' indicates what kind of missions a team usually takes, and is listed in rough descending order of preference. Keep in mind that some kinds of missions are much more common than others, so a team which has 'Rescue' listed as higher-preference than 'Escort' probably still does substantially more Escort missions than they do Rescues; what the ranking indicates is that they have a disproportionately high ratio of Rescue : Escort missions relative to the 'standard' team. For descriptions of mission types, see the 'What a Guild does' section of the 'Setting Information' threadmark.
Team Skyguard
Members: Joan Corviknight*, Wynna Flygon, Flinn Inteleon
Mission Types: Bounty, Scouting, Rescue, Escort, Tapping
Description: An elite team capable of taking on the most dangerous missions. Joan is a highly skilled fighter and good at making decisions under pressure. Since the recent death of her closest friend and former team leader Jess Talonflame, she's been prone to dark moods and spending long periods of time alone, brooding. This has interfered with her administrative work, but Flinn Inteleon has taken up the slack without complaint. An extremely competent Pokemon in many areas, Flinn is especially skilled at using items to their fullest potential, and is probably the best in the guild when it comes to armed combat. He's somewhat introverted and emotionally reserved, and it's often difficult to tell what he's thinking. Rounding out the team, Wynna is an energetic and outgoing Flygon who handles negotiations and other social tasks. Perhaps a bit reckless, and, after Jess' death, has developed a concerning sadistic streak when fighting leks. Nevertheless, her raw talent and skill at improvising have been able to get her out of any bad spot she's gotten herself into. So far, at least...
Team Sensation
Members: Tristram Slurpuff*, Chrysa Noivern, Jan Noctowl, Yves Indeedee
Mission Types: Rescue, Bounty, Escort, Tapping
Description: A veteran team where each member focuses on a different sense. Tristram, the group's leader, can track down almost anyone with his incredible olfaction, be they the subject of a rescue mission or the target of a bounty. Chrysa has sensitive hearing, and can echolocate to navigate in complete darkness. Jan covers vision, although her ears are almost as acute as her eyes. Lastly, Yves can detect emotions and packs a surprising amount of punch with his psychic moves.
Team Nighthowl
Members: Nora Lycanroc (midnight form), Otto Houndoom, Terry Noctowl, Iri Zubat
Mission Types: Escort, Tapping, Rescue
Description: A team specialized in handling nocturnal missions. The team was founded by Nora, an experienced midnight form Lycanroc with a fondness for cheesy jokes and terrible puns, and Otto Houndoom, a skilled tracker who seems to be the only other Pokemon who appreciates Nora's sense of humor. Other members include Terry Noctowl, an honestly somewhat-mediocre explorer who you're convinced Nora added to the team solely for the pun value, and Iri Zubat, a young apprentice who you don't know much about, although she seems friendly.
Team Tenacious
Members: Sheila Donphan, Trevin Sawk
Mission Types: Tapping, Escort, Rescue
Description: An extremely 'hardcore' team that fights to their utmost capacity to complete missions at any cost. Although they do have a high rate of mission success, this often comes at the cost of sustaining injuries which cause them to miss out on future missions for a week. It's a minor miracle they haven't gotten themselves killed yet, really. Sheila Donphan seems to be the more reckless of the duo, relying on her tough hide to keep her safe as she careens around with rollout. Trevin Sawk is slightly more cautious, and has a philosophy that it's better to practice one move a thousand times than a thousand moves once (metaphorically speaking, of course, as it's impossible for any 'mon to learn anything close to a thousand moves). Although true to an extent, you feel he takes it way too far, knowing only a paltry four moves and often wasting entire days doing nothing but practicing the same move over and over.
Team Hodgepodge
Members: Gilliver Mothim*, Sargas Darmanitan, Martin Crabrawler
Mission Types: Escort, Tapping, Rescue
Description: An experienced team that lacks any clear theme. Gilliver Mothim is an incorrigible romantic who seems to spend almost as much time pursuing his (constantly-shifting) crushes as he does on his guild duties. Sargas Darmanitan is one of the most popular Pokemon in the guild, due to his comedic wit, charm, and fun-loving attitude. He can't handle dealing with pressure very well, which isn't a good trait for dungeoneer. Lastly, Martin Crabrawler is a young and enthusiastic dungeoneer who never backs down from a fight. Even when he really, really should. And yet, despite everything, Team Hodgepodge almost always pulls through in the end, one way or another.
Team Bloom
Members: Nell Lilligant*, Grover Cacnea, Trent Skiploom, Calla Steenee
Mission Types: Tapping, Escort
Description: A team intended to help train Guild apprentices. Apparently the name got taken too literally, and now they're all grass-types. Nell is a seasoned dungeoneer who's somewhat past her prime, determined to pass her knowledge on to as many Pokemon as possible before retiring. Grover is a cautious and pragmatic explorer, and the anchor of the team in combat. Trent is enthusiastic, but still seems to make a lot of beginner mistakes. Calla has a fair amount of innate talent, but seems on the fence about whether she wants to continue in the guild.
Team Long Shot
Members: Fiona Furret, Fierra Furret, Percie Ekans
Mission Types: Tapping, Escort
Description: A fairly new team founded by Furret sisters Fiona and Fierra. The two are nearly inseparable and have a lovey-dovey attitude, although they sometimes like to play little pranks on each other. Percie joined the team soon after it formed, and seems melancholy and somber a lot of the time. You wonder if she feels like a third wheel.
Team Nap Attack
Members: Rin Jigglypuff, Chester Snorlax
Mission Types: Tapping?
Description: Rin and Chester can frequently be seen lying around the base, snoozing in odd locations. They claim to practice an obscure form of martial art based on fighting while asleep, which they say 'unlocks the power of the subconscious' and allows them to fight unburdened by fear or conscious delay. You suspect it's just an excuse for them to laze around a lot.
Team Skyguard
Members: Joan Corviknight*, Wynna Flygon, Flinn Inteleon
Mission Types: Bounty, Scouting, Rescue, Escort, Tapping
Description: An elite team capable of taking on the most dangerous missions. Joan is a highly skilled fighter and good at making decisions under pressure. Since the recent death of her closest friend and former team leader Jess Talonflame, she's been prone to dark moods and spending long periods of time alone, brooding. This has interfered with her administrative work, but Flinn Inteleon has taken up the slack without complaint. An extremely competent Pokemon in many areas, Flinn is especially skilled at using items to their fullest potential, and is probably the best in the guild when it comes to armed combat. He's somewhat introverted and emotionally reserved, and it's often difficult to tell what he's thinking. Rounding out the team, Wynna is an energetic and outgoing Flygon who handles negotiations and other social tasks. Perhaps a bit reckless, and, after Jess' death, has developed a concerning sadistic streak when fighting leks. Nevertheless, her raw talent and skill at improvising have been able to get her out of any bad spot she's gotten herself into. So far, at least...
Team Sensation
Members: Tristram Slurpuff*, Chrysa Noivern, Jan Noctowl, Yves Indeedee
Mission Types: Rescue, Bounty, Escort, Tapping
Description: A veteran team where each member focuses on a different sense. Tristram, the group's leader, can track down almost anyone with his incredible olfaction, be they the subject of a rescue mission or the target of a bounty. Chrysa has sensitive hearing, and can echolocate to navigate in complete darkness. Jan covers vision, although her ears are almost as acute as her eyes. Lastly, Yves can detect emotions and packs a surprising amount of punch with his psychic moves.
Team Nighthowl
Members: Nora Lycanroc (midnight form), Otto Houndoom, Terry Noctowl, Iri Zubat
Mission Types: Escort, Tapping, Rescue
Description: A team specialized in handling nocturnal missions. The team was founded by Nora, an experienced midnight form Lycanroc with a fondness for cheesy jokes and terrible puns, and Otto Houndoom, a skilled tracker who seems to be the only other Pokemon who appreciates Nora's sense of humor. Other members include Terry Noctowl, an honestly somewhat-mediocre explorer who you're convinced Nora added to the team solely for the pun value, and Iri Zubat, a young apprentice who you don't know much about, although she seems friendly.
Team Tenacious
Members: Sheila Donphan, Trevin Sawk
Mission Types: Tapping, Escort, Rescue
Description: An extremely 'hardcore' team that fights to their utmost capacity to complete missions at any cost. Although they do have a high rate of mission success, this often comes at the cost of sustaining injuries which cause them to miss out on future missions for a week. It's a minor miracle they haven't gotten themselves killed yet, really. Sheila Donphan seems to be the more reckless of the duo, relying on her tough hide to keep her safe as she careens around with rollout. Trevin Sawk is slightly more cautious, and has a philosophy that it's better to practice one move a thousand times than a thousand moves once (metaphorically speaking, of course, as it's impossible for any 'mon to learn anything close to a thousand moves). Although true to an extent, you feel he takes it way too far, knowing only a paltry four moves and often wasting entire days doing nothing but practicing the same move over and over.
Team Hodgepodge
Members: Gilliver Mothim*, Sargas Darmanitan, Martin Crabrawler
Mission Types: Escort, Tapping, Rescue
Description: An experienced team that lacks any clear theme. Gilliver Mothim is an incorrigible romantic who seems to spend almost as much time pursuing his (constantly-shifting) crushes as he does on his guild duties. Sargas Darmanitan is one of the most popular Pokemon in the guild, due to his comedic wit, charm, and fun-loving attitude. He can't handle dealing with pressure very well, which isn't a good trait for dungeoneer. Lastly, Martin Crabrawler is a young and enthusiastic dungeoneer who never backs down from a fight. Even when he really, really should. And yet, despite everything, Team Hodgepodge almost always pulls through in the end, one way or another.
Team Bloom
Members: Nell Lilligant*, Grover Cacnea, Trent Skiploom, Calla Steenee
Mission Types: Tapping, Escort
Description: A team intended to help train Guild apprentices. Apparently the name got taken too literally, and now they're all grass-types. Nell is a seasoned dungeoneer who's somewhat past her prime, determined to pass her knowledge on to as many Pokemon as possible before retiring. Grover is a cautious and pragmatic explorer, and the anchor of the team in combat. Trent is enthusiastic, but still seems to make a lot of beginner mistakes. Calla has a fair amount of innate talent, but seems on the fence about whether she wants to continue in the guild.
Team Long Shot
Members: Fiona Furret, Fierra Furret, Percie Ekans
Mission Types: Tapping, Escort
Description: A fairly new team founded by Furret sisters Fiona and Fierra. The two are nearly inseparable and have a lovey-dovey attitude, although they sometimes like to play little pranks on each other. Percie joined the team soon after it formed, and seems melancholy and somber a lot of the time. You wonder if she feels like a third wheel.
Team Nap Attack
Members: Rin Jigglypuff, Chester Snorlax
Mission Types: Tapping?
Description: Rin and Chester can frequently be seen lying around the base, snoozing in odd locations. They claim to practice an obscure form of martial art based on fighting while asleep, which they say 'unlocks the power of the subconscious' and allows them to fight unburdened by fear or conscious delay. You suspect it's just an excuse for them to laze around a lot.
Medical Team
Members: Dr. Antoine Aromatisse*, Venn Chimecho
Description: Antoine is a well-learned doctor from a distant land, who uses a variety of strange but apparently effective treatments. He has a tendency to get agitated and go on rants about the low quality of the city's medical supplies whenever his ideas don't work out. Venn Chimecho is much more chill – perhaps too chill for a medic – and provides 'aural healing' to back up Antoine's aromatherapy.
Kitchen Staff
Members: Yvonne Meganium*, Sal Teddiursa, Tybalt Numel,
Description: Yvonne is a cheerful old chef with an extensive knowledge of recipes, considered one of the best in the region. Hired in Lud's time, she draws a salary that's perhaps more than you should really be paying, however much the guild members may appreciate her cooking. Sal acts as her assistant and official taste tester, while Tybalt maintains the oven fires.
Members: Dr. Antoine Aromatisse*, Venn Chimecho
Description: Antoine is a well-learned doctor from a distant land, who uses a variety of strange but apparently effective treatments. He has a tendency to get agitated and go on rants about the low quality of the city's medical supplies whenever his ideas don't work out. Venn Chimecho is much more chill – perhaps too chill for a medic – and provides 'aural healing' to back up Antoine's aromatherapy.
Kitchen Staff
Members: Yvonne Meganium*, Sal Teddiursa, Tybalt Numel,
Description: Yvonne is a cheerful old chef with an extensive knowledge of recipes, considered one of the best in the region. Hired in Lud's time, she draws a salary that's perhaps more than you should really be paying, however much the guild members may appreciate her cooking. Sal acts as her assistant and official taste tester, while Tybalt maintains the oven fires.
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Setting Information
Setting Information
The world the game takes place on is called Novis. It's a fairly typical Earth-like planet - a few large continents surrounded by oceans, an axial tilt creating seasons, a moon, orbiting a mid-sequence star, etc. Direct technological comparisons are kind of spotty, but in general the tech level is somewhere around the mid-sixteenth century of Earth. The printing press has been invented, but there's no firearms.
In addition to Pokemon, 'natural' animals exist – nothing much larger than deer, though, at least on land. Carnivorous Pokemon mostly eat farm-raised giant rabbits or the like.
In addition to Pokemon, 'natural' animals exist – nothing much larger than deer, though, at least on land. Carnivorous Pokemon mostly eat farm-raised giant rabbits or the like.
Windhaven is a mid-sized settlement with an air-breathing population of about 20,000, situated in a natural harbor on the northern coast of Sommer, the world's third-largest continent. It is an industrial hub, turning raw materials shipped to it by river or sea into fine furniture, sailing ships, bronze-work, musical instruments, carts, barrels, and other items. The only materials collected locally are fish, tin from nearby mines, and whatever is pulled out of the mystery dungeons. Most food is imported, as the surrounding terrain is hilly, rocky, and generally unsuitable for growing crops.
It is governed by an eighteen-member city council, who are responsible for writing laws, deciding on the yearly budget, and managing the (fairly limited) bureaucracy. Councilmon serve for non-consecutive 3-year terms, and each is elected by a single type of Pokemon. (Pokemon with two types are considered to have a 'primary' type which decides who they vote for). In theory, this ensures that all kinds of Pokemon are represented, although some complain that this gives types with a relatively small population, such as dragons, disproportionate power. Partly counterbalancing this is that laws cannot be passed until approved by a direct vote of the citizenry, although Pokemon rarely attend these votes unless a bill is particularly contentious, turning the process into something of a rubber stamp. Ties in the council are broken by the City Champion, who is the winner of a yearly unarmed fighting tournament. The Champion is also considered to be the city's chief religious official, and presides over certain ceremonies. Some Pokemon worry that the tournament's emphasis on unarmed fights has made the populace unprepared for modern combat, which relies heavily on the use of magic items.
Nine city judges serve as the city's judicial system. Cases are heard by a randomly-selected panel of three to nine judges, depending on the importance of the case, who decide on the result by majority vote after a period of argument and investigation. There is a written code of laws, although it is not extensive and most cases are decided by precedent. Generally, only serious matters are brought before the city court, and smaller issues are usually settled by independent mediators.
In times of crisis, the city council can elect a Governor General for a half-year period, who serves as supreme commander of the army and has broad executive powers. This is something of an unusual occurrence, typically only happening once every 36 years or so. It is expected that the Governor General will lay down their command as soon as the crisis ends, and only doing so at the expiration of their term is seen as a sign of failure.
The city doesn't quite have a standing army, although about 500 Pokemon train semi-regularly as part of the city militia. This militia is overseen by a permanent officer corps of around 50 Pokemon, most of whom have other jobs besides serving as officers. Up to a quarter of the city's population could theoretically be mobilized to fight for brief periods.
It is governed by an eighteen-member city council, who are responsible for writing laws, deciding on the yearly budget, and managing the (fairly limited) bureaucracy. Councilmon serve for non-consecutive 3-year terms, and each is elected by a single type of Pokemon. (Pokemon with two types are considered to have a 'primary' type which decides who they vote for). In theory, this ensures that all kinds of Pokemon are represented, although some complain that this gives types with a relatively small population, such as dragons, disproportionate power. Partly counterbalancing this is that laws cannot be passed until approved by a direct vote of the citizenry, although Pokemon rarely attend these votes unless a bill is particularly contentious, turning the process into something of a rubber stamp. Ties in the council are broken by the City Champion, who is the winner of a yearly unarmed fighting tournament. The Champion is also considered to be the city's chief religious official, and presides over certain ceremonies. Some Pokemon worry that the tournament's emphasis on unarmed fights has made the populace unprepared for modern combat, which relies heavily on the use of magic items.
Nine city judges serve as the city's judicial system. Cases are heard by a randomly-selected panel of three to nine judges, depending on the importance of the case, who decide on the result by majority vote after a period of argument and investigation. There is a written code of laws, although it is not extensive and most cases are decided by precedent. Generally, only serious matters are brought before the city court, and smaller issues are usually settled by independent mediators.
In times of crisis, the city council can elect a Governor General for a half-year period, who serves as supreme commander of the army and has broad executive powers. This is something of an unusual occurrence, typically only happening once every 36 years or so. It is expected that the Governor General will lay down their command as soon as the crisis ends, and only doing so at the expiration of their term is seen as a sign of failure.
The city doesn't quite have a standing army, although about 500 Pokemon train semi-regularly as part of the city militia. This militia is overseen by a permanent officer corps of around 50 Pokemon, most of whom have other jobs besides serving as officers. Up to a quarter of the city's population could theoretically be mobilized to fight for brief periods.
The first mystery dungeon appeared a little over 200 years ago. A Mienfoo poked his head into a little crack in a stone cliff, and instead of a damp cave, discovered a sunlit, labyrinthine garden. Pokemon nowadays find it hard to believe, but at the time, its appearance was seen as a positive development – it was dangerous, yes, but it was also novel, magical, wondrous. It was an age where mon were dedicated to investigating and explaining all the phenomena of nature, and if the dungeon appeared to be inexplicable, that just made the challenge more exciting.
Here are the key facts about Mystery Dungeons:
-Mystery dungeons are pocket dimensions which can be accessed by traveling through their threshold. The threshold can appear as any sort of gateway in the world – a cave mouth, a gap between trees, a door. There usually appears to be nothing unusual about the entrance itself – there's usually a 'buffer' zone right after the entrance that blends into the surrounding area.
- They appear randomly at varying intervals. Once spawned, they can last several years before going away. Blockading an entrance to a dungeon will cause one or two new entrances to spring up nearby. It's like cutting off hydra heads. Nevertheless, this is sometimes necessary when a dungeon threshold appears in a very inconvenient location, such as the front door of your house.
-They emit 'calls' targeting random Pokemon in the area. Called Pokemon feel a compulsion to enter the dungeon and travel into it up to a certain depth. If ignored, the urge to answer the call grows stronger over time. Most Pokemon are completely unable to resist it after a day or two, and need to be physically restrained from entering the dungeon after that point. If the call remains unanswered, the afflicted Pokemon will eventually enter a psychotic state where they delusionally believe themselves to be inside the dungeon, soon followed by a permanent coma. There is no known cure for a call other than for the Pokemon to descend into the dungeon as far as required.
-Mystery dungeons have themes based on natural or artificial locations. For instance, a mystery dungeon could have a hospital theme, and be filled with the sort of rooms you might find in a modern hospital – waiting rooms, operating rooms, MRI rooms, trauma centers, etc. Often, any single room will look normal – or almost normal – but the relative positioning of the rooms will be a chaotic jumble. Note that themes are often based off places and technology that don't exist yet in the world of Novis. Tech taken out of the dungeons usually stops working – when dissected, the components are found to be arranged in a nonsensical manner.
-Dungeons have traps and magical items hidden throughout them. These are not scattered around the floor randomly – traps usually guard important areas, and magical treasures are usually secreted away in caches or storerooms. Traps tend to have at least a vague relation to the dungeon's theme – opening a door to the 'burn injury ward' in that hospital dungeon might set off flamethrowers.
-There are no 'feral Pokemon' in this setting. Instead, dungeons are inhabited by Pokemon-like entities named 'leks'. Leks appear as a normal species of Pokemon, and possess all the usual powers and weaknesses for a member of that species. However, they don't feel pain and will ignore most injuries that aren't immediately fatal. After receiving critical damage – or if dragged outside the dungeon – they dissolve into an inert substance called 'lek goo'. They never seem to talk, but can act with intelligence.
Each of them takes on a role in the dungeon according to the theme – in that hospital dungeon, there could be 'doctor' leks who go around examining and performing operations on 'patient' leks, as well as 'secretary' leks who demand that the proper paperwork be filled out. They have little real understanding of the professions they're imitating, and instead perform crude, twisted caricatures of those roles. You wouldn't want one of those 'doctor' leks performing surgery on you.
When a Pokemon gets called into a dungeon, the leks assign them a role as well. The called Pokemon is not informed of this role, and feels no compulsion to act it out, but the leks will get upset if the called Pokemon deviates from how they feel they should be acting. For Pokemon who entered the dungeon without being called, it's a bit different – the leks are often somewhat confused by such Pokemon, and usually end up assuming they're in some sort of passive role. Leks are not by default hostile to these explorers, but can quickly become hostile if the explorers disrupt their routines or are observed undertaking suspicious actions.
-Every few hours to days, the dungeon refreshes itself, generating a new random layout that adheres to the same theme as before. This is preceded by an increasingly strong wind that blows through the dungeon at intervals, in addition to tremors in the ground. The exact moment of change is called "the crunch" - the walls of the dungeon close in on themselves, crushing everything inside. (In outdoor dungeons, the ground folds over on itself.) For a few minutes after the crunch, the dungeon cannot be entered, and when the walls open back up again, it has a new configuration, filled with fresh leks, traps, and treasures.
-There's a limit to how many explorers can enter a dungeon at once safely. If more than about four enter at once, the leks will seem to realize something's up, get agitated, and swarm the group of intruders. (Called Pokemon don't count against this limit, though, as the leks treat them as expected, so a team of four won't have problems if they're escorting a called client.) For this reason, dungeon exploration teams are rarely larger than four members.
-Dungeons don't have floors like they do in the games. The only way out of a dungeon is through the same way you came in – or, rarely, through an alternate entrance. (Teleportation doesn't work across the threshold of a dungeon.) However, they do have 'layers'. Everything described previously holds true for "layer one" of the dungeon. Layer two is a lot like layer one – it still has a theme – but it's a lot more jumbled up. In the hospital dungeon's layer two, there might be X-ray machines right in the middle of a cafeteria area. Traps are scattered about more haphazardly, and the lek's understanding of their roles is even less coherent than on layer one. Deeper layers get increasingly surreal. The deepest anyone's ever gone is layer five (in plausible accounts, at least).
-In addition to leks, more powerful creatures called 'guards' can be found on the lower layers. Sufficient disturbances can cause them to ascend to higher layers, but they suffer from a phenomenon known as 'layer sickness' while doing so, limiting the amount of time they can spend outside their 'base depth'.
Here are the key facts about Mystery Dungeons:
-Mystery dungeons are pocket dimensions which can be accessed by traveling through their threshold. The threshold can appear as any sort of gateway in the world – a cave mouth, a gap between trees, a door. There usually appears to be nothing unusual about the entrance itself – there's usually a 'buffer' zone right after the entrance that blends into the surrounding area.
- They appear randomly at varying intervals. Once spawned, they can last several years before going away. Blockading an entrance to a dungeon will cause one or two new entrances to spring up nearby. It's like cutting off hydra heads. Nevertheless, this is sometimes necessary when a dungeon threshold appears in a very inconvenient location, such as the front door of your house.
-They emit 'calls' targeting random Pokemon in the area. Called Pokemon feel a compulsion to enter the dungeon and travel into it up to a certain depth. If ignored, the urge to answer the call grows stronger over time. Most Pokemon are completely unable to resist it after a day or two, and need to be physically restrained from entering the dungeon after that point. If the call remains unanswered, the afflicted Pokemon will eventually enter a psychotic state where they delusionally believe themselves to be inside the dungeon, soon followed by a permanent coma. There is no known cure for a call other than for the Pokemon to descend into the dungeon as far as required.
-Mystery dungeons have themes based on natural or artificial locations. For instance, a mystery dungeon could have a hospital theme, and be filled with the sort of rooms you might find in a modern hospital – waiting rooms, operating rooms, MRI rooms, trauma centers, etc. Often, any single room will look normal – or almost normal – but the relative positioning of the rooms will be a chaotic jumble. Note that themes are often based off places and technology that don't exist yet in the world of Novis. Tech taken out of the dungeons usually stops working – when dissected, the components are found to be arranged in a nonsensical manner.
-Dungeons have traps and magical items hidden throughout them. These are not scattered around the floor randomly – traps usually guard important areas, and magical treasures are usually secreted away in caches or storerooms. Traps tend to have at least a vague relation to the dungeon's theme – opening a door to the 'burn injury ward' in that hospital dungeon might set off flamethrowers.
-There are no 'feral Pokemon' in this setting. Instead, dungeons are inhabited by Pokemon-like entities named 'leks'. Leks appear as a normal species of Pokemon, and possess all the usual powers and weaknesses for a member of that species. However, they don't feel pain and will ignore most injuries that aren't immediately fatal. After receiving critical damage – or if dragged outside the dungeon – they dissolve into an inert substance called 'lek goo'. They never seem to talk, but can act with intelligence.
Each of them takes on a role in the dungeon according to the theme – in that hospital dungeon, there could be 'doctor' leks who go around examining and performing operations on 'patient' leks, as well as 'secretary' leks who demand that the proper paperwork be filled out. They have little real understanding of the professions they're imitating, and instead perform crude, twisted caricatures of those roles. You wouldn't want one of those 'doctor' leks performing surgery on you.
When a Pokemon gets called into a dungeon, the leks assign them a role as well. The called Pokemon is not informed of this role, and feels no compulsion to act it out, but the leks will get upset if the called Pokemon deviates from how they feel they should be acting. For Pokemon who entered the dungeon without being called, it's a bit different – the leks are often somewhat confused by such Pokemon, and usually end up assuming they're in some sort of passive role. Leks are not by default hostile to these explorers, but can quickly become hostile if the explorers disrupt their routines or are observed undertaking suspicious actions.
-Every few hours to days, the dungeon refreshes itself, generating a new random layout that adheres to the same theme as before. This is preceded by an increasingly strong wind that blows through the dungeon at intervals, in addition to tremors in the ground. The exact moment of change is called "the crunch" - the walls of the dungeon close in on themselves, crushing everything inside. (In outdoor dungeons, the ground folds over on itself.) For a few minutes after the crunch, the dungeon cannot be entered, and when the walls open back up again, it has a new configuration, filled with fresh leks, traps, and treasures.
-There's a limit to how many explorers can enter a dungeon at once safely. If more than about four enter at once, the leks will seem to realize something's up, get agitated, and swarm the group of intruders. (Called Pokemon don't count against this limit, though, as the leks treat them as expected, so a team of four won't have problems if they're escorting a called client.) For this reason, dungeon exploration teams are rarely larger than four members.
-Dungeons don't have floors like they do in the games. The only way out of a dungeon is through the same way you came in – or, rarely, through an alternate entrance. (Teleportation doesn't work across the threshold of a dungeon.) However, they do have 'layers'. Everything described previously holds true for "layer one" of the dungeon. Layer two is a lot like layer one – it still has a theme – but it's a lot more jumbled up. In the hospital dungeon's layer two, there might be X-ray machines right in the middle of a cafeteria area. Traps are scattered about more haphazardly, and the lek's understanding of their roles is even less coherent than on layer one. Deeper layers get increasingly surreal. The deepest anyone's ever gone is layer five (in plausible accounts, at least).
-In addition to leks, more powerful creatures called 'guards' can be found on the lower layers. Sufficient disturbances can cause them to ascend to higher layers, but they suffer from a phenomenon known as 'layer sickness' while doing so, limiting the amount of time they can spend outside their 'base depth'.
There are a wide variety of different types of magical items in the world. These items can only be found inside Mystery Dungeons, and, despite significant efforts, cannot be created outside them.
Wonder Orbs: Plum-sized glass spheres that release a magical effect when broken. Pokemon can touch the orb and 'attune' to it to be included or excluded from its effect, depending on the kind of orb. Effects can include making all non-attuned creatures in the vicinity fall asleep, teleporting all attuned Pokemon to the location the orb was broken at, instantly killing whatever the orb breaks against, and other things. No more than four Pokemon can be attuned to an orb at once – if a fifth Pokemon tries to attune to it, the attunement of the first Pokemon to attune to it will be broken.
Wands: Short wooden or metal rods that can be made to release a certain magical effect if held and willed to activate. Each wand only has one effect, and has a limited number of charges, usually not more than ten or so. They can't be recharged.
Seeds: Magical seeds which have beneficial or deleterious affects when consumed. Of particular note are the blast seed, which detonates in a grenade-like blast when the seed's shell is broken, and the reviver seed, which will resurrect the Pokemon carrying it if they die, consuming itself in the process.
Permanent Items: These are magical items with a passive effect, usually taking the form of a scarf, band, or ribbon. A Pokemon must touch and attune to an item in this class to gain its effect, and can only be attuned to one permanent item at once. Switching which item one's attuned to only takes a few seconds with practice, so skilled Pokemon can quickly swap between them in battle.
Wonder Orbs: Plum-sized glass spheres that release a magical effect when broken. Pokemon can touch the orb and 'attune' to it to be included or excluded from its effect, depending on the kind of orb. Effects can include making all non-attuned creatures in the vicinity fall asleep, teleporting all attuned Pokemon to the location the orb was broken at, instantly killing whatever the orb breaks against, and other things. No more than four Pokemon can be attuned to an orb at once – if a fifth Pokemon tries to attune to it, the attunement of the first Pokemon to attune to it will be broken.
Wands: Short wooden or metal rods that can be made to release a certain magical effect if held and willed to activate. Each wand only has one effect, and has a limited number of charges, usually not more than ten or so. They can't be recharged.
Seeds: Magical seeds which have beneficial or deleterious affects when consumed. Of particular note are the blast seed, which detonates in a grenade-like blast when the seed's shell is broken, and the reviver seed, which will resurrect the Pokemon carrying it if they die, consuming itself in the process.
Permanent Items: These are magical items with a passive effect, usually taking the form of a scarf, band, or ribbon. A Pokemon must touch and attune to an item in this class to gain its effect, and can only be attuned to one permanent item at once. Switching which item one's attuned to only takes a few seconds with practice, so skilled Pokemon can quickly swap between them in battle.
The primary job of an exploration guild is to combat the phenomenon known as Mystery Dungeons, malevolent sub-dimensions which started appearing across the land over 200 years ago. These are the kinds of missions guild teams usually participate in:
Escort: Mystery Dungeons emit 'calls' to random Pokemon in the vicinity – an overpowering compulsion to enter the dungeon and descend to a certain depth. Ignoring the call – or being forcibly restrained from pursuing it – eventually leads to delirium, followed by permanent coma. There's no known way of getting rid of a call other than 'completing' it by entering the dungeon and going as deep as necessary. Therefore, called Pokemon usually hire an exploration team to escort them into – and more importantly, out of – the dungeon. Although often viewed as unglamorous work by experienced teams, escort missions are an exploration guild's bread and butter, and provide the majority of their income.
Rescue: Sometimes, a call will be so overpowering that a Pokemon will find themselves drawn into a mystery dungeon before they have a chance to hire an escort team. Other times, Pokemon may wander into dungeons by sheer chance, as their entrances typically appear completely unremarkable, blending into the surrounding terrain. When this occurs, a rescue mission must be launched to recover the Pokemon from the dungeon before the next 'crunch' occurs – a phenomenon where the dungeon's walls collapse inwards as it re-configures its layout, killing almost everything inside. These are dangerous missions that are reserved for the most skilled teams, and are quite lucrative. Fortunately, they are substantially rarer than escort missions.
Tapping: Prevention is said to be the best form of medicine, and this is also true with mystery dungeons. When Pokemon enter a dungeon and plumb its depths of their own will, this reduces the number of calls the dungeon sends out. If done enough times, a dungeon will eventually become 'tapped out' and stop emitting calls altogether, or at a greatly reduced rate, and may disappear entirely. Going into a dungeon with the intent to produce this effect is known as a 'tapping mission'. This mission is a common task for new teams who need to get used to exploring dungeons without the life of a client on the line. As useful a service as tapping is, it generates no direct revenue for the guild, aside from that derived from any treasure recovered on the mission.
Scouting: A mystery dungeon is at its most dangerous right after it first appears, when its hazards and peculiarities are yet unknown. As such, a new dungeon formation requires an elite team to venture in and uncover its properties. The government of Windhaven pays a bounty for detailed written reports of new dungeons, but the main draw for explorers is the prestige associated with being the first to enter and 'scout' one.
Bounty: When a Pokemon refuses to abide by the ruling of a court – or repeatedly avoids showing up to trial when charged with a case – they are declared an 'outlaw', a Pokemon who has shown contempt for the law and is therefore no longer under its protection. There are also certain crimes which are immediate grounds for outlawing, typically murder – defined as knowingly killing another Pokemon and then failing to inform the court in a timely fashion – or civic treason. Declaring a Pokemon an outlaw is viewed as a measure of last resort, and (in theory) only occurs for the most obstinate or heinous of Pokemon. The consequence of being decreed an outlaw varies - usually it only amounts to exile, but sufficiently angered victims may post a bounty for the outlaw's death or capture. A few exploration teams reason that the tracking skills they use to find Pokemon lost in a dungeon, and the combat skills they use to fight off said dungeon's inhabitants, make them naturally suited to collecting on these bounties. Sometimes, they're even right! Even so, opportunities for these bounties are rare enough that there are really no teams who specialize in it. Many cases end up handled by private vigilantes unassociated with any guild.
Escort: Mystery Dungeons emit 'calls' to random Pokemon in the vicinity – an overpowering compulsion to enter the dungeon and descend to a certain depth. Ignoring the call – or being forcibly restrained from pursuing it – eventually leads to delirium, followed by permanent coma. There's no known way of getting rid of a call other than 'completing' it by entering the dungeon and going as deep as necessary. Therefore, called Pokemon usually hire an exploration team to escort them into – and more importantly, out of – the dungeon. Although often viewed as unglamorous work by experienced teams, escort missions are an exploration guild's bread and butter, and provide the majority of their income.
Rescue: Sometimes, a call will be so overpowering that a Pokemon will find themselves drawn into a mystery dungeon before they have a chance to hire an escort team. Other times, Pokemon may wander into dungeons by sheer chance, as their entrances typically appear completely unremarkable, blending into the surrounding terrain. When this occurs, a rescue mission must be launched to recover the Pokemon from the dungeon before the next 'crunch' occurs – a phenomenon where the dungeon's walls collapse inwards as it re-configures its layout, killing almost everything inside. These are dangerous missions that are reserved for the most skilled teams, and are quite lucrative. Fortunately, they are substantially rarer than escort missions.
Tapping: Prevention is said to be the best form of medicine, and this is also true with mystery dungeons. When Pokemon enter a dungeon and plumb its depths of their own will, this reduces the number of calls the dungeon sends out. If done enough times, a dungeon will eventually become 'tapped out' and stop emitting calls altogether, or at a greatly reduced rate, and may disappear entirely. Going into a dungeon with the intent to produce this effect is known as a 'tapping mission'. This mission is a common task for new teams who need to get used to exploring dungeons without the life of a client on the line. As useful a service as tapping is, it generates no direct revenue for the guild, aside from that derived from any treasure recovered on the mission.
Scouting: A mystery dungeon is at its most dangerous right after it first appears, when its hazards and peculiarities are yet unknown. As such, a new dungeon formation requires an elite team to venture in and uncover its properties. The government of Windhaven pays a bounty for detailed written reports of new dungeons, but the main draw for explorers is the prestige associated with being the first to enter and 'scout' one.
Bounty: When a Pokemon refuses to abide by the ruling of a court – or repeatedly avoids showing up to trial when charged with a case – they are declared an 'outlaw', a Pokemon who has shown contempt for the law and is therefore no longer under its protection. There are also certain crimes which are immediate grounds for outlawing, typically murder – defined as knowingly killing another Pokemon and then failing to inform the court in a timely fashion – or civic treason. Declaring a Pokemon an outlaw is viewed as a measure of last resort, and (in theory) only occurs for the most obstinate or heinous of Pokemon. The consequence of being decreed an outlaw varies - usually it only amounts to exile, but sufficiently angered victims may post a bounty for the outlaw's death or capture. A few exploration teams reason that the tracking skills they use to find Pokemon lost in a dungeon, and the combat skills they use to fight off said dungeon's inhabitants, make them naturally suited to collecting on these bounties. Sometimes, they're even right! Even so, opportunities for these bounties are rare enough that there are really no teams who specialize in it. Many cases end up handled by private vigilantes unassociated with any guild.
Most exploration guilds – including the Starlight Guild – take a certain percentage of the reward money paid for rescue, escort, and scouting missions, typically between 10 to 30 percent. Additionally, guilds which officially sanction their teams going on bounty collection missions may take a cut from those as well. Guild explorers get to keep 100% of any treasure found in the dungeon on their missions, although many choose to sell unneeded items directly to the guild, rather than negotiate with potential buyers themselves. As guilds usually maintain agreements with merchant associations which allow them to get good deals on resold items, they can effectively charge a "middlemon's fee" for this service.
In exchange for the money taken, guilds provide explorers with food, housing, medical care, access to training facilities, and useful equipment (This typically means renting out tools, armor, weapons, and permanent magic items. Teams are usually expected to provide their own consumables). Also, they provide a centralized place for people to post mission requests, which is also convenient for teams looking for a steady supply of missions to take.
In exchange for the money taken, guilds provide explorers with food, housing, medical care, access to training facilities, and useful equipment (This typically means renting out tools, armor, weapons, and permanent magic items. Teams are usually expected to provide their own consumables). Also, they provide a centralized place for people to post mission requests, which is also convenient for teams looking for a steady supply of missions to take.
There are three dungeon exploration guilds in the city of Windhaven. The Metagross Guild is the oldest and most prestigious of these, established in the year 730, about forty years after the beginning of the Age of Dungeons. Technically named 'The Windhaven Society for Investigation and Management of Mystery Dungeons', everyone just calls it the 'Metagross Guild' after its founder and current guildmaster, Arcan Metagross. Its headquarters are dug into the side of a small hill just outside of town, which is one of the city's most recognizable landmarks. The guild has served Windhaven and its surrounding settlements faithfully for over a hundred years, although it's become increasingly rigid and bureaucratic as time has passed, and some say that its members are starting to focus more on jockeying for position within the guild and gaining personal glory rather than assisting the community. In the year 843, disillusioned by conditions within the guild, Pym Reuniclus formed the Starlight Guild to provide the citizens of Windhaven with an alternative, and the two guilds have been rivals ever since. A third guild exists on the seafloor just beyond the harbor – the Coral Guild, founded in 772 to handle underwater dungeons. It is composed almost exclusively of ocean-dwellers, although it maintains a small above-water office near Windhaven's docks.
The Starlight Guild was founded by Pym Reuniclus in 843 CC to provide an alternative to the increasingly sclerotic Metagross Guild. Its name was taken from the old observatory that served as the guild's first base, famed for its giant telescope, although it soon became too cramped and was abandoned four years later. Under Pym's leadership, the guild experienced rapid growth, hitting its peak membership and activity shortly before their death of old age in 866.
As planned, the position of guildmaster passed to Pym's deputy, Xute Mismagius. Although not as ambitious or charismatic as her predecessor, Xute nevertheless proved a competent leader, and managed to maintain the size and status of the guild until 890, when she departed on an expedition to find the Cave of The First Sculpture. The Namer's recently uncovered and translated diaries – which prompted the expedition – state that the cave was the site of the Shaper's numerous failed attempts at carving a form for the first Pokemon, before finally succeeding in creating the Rhydon later known as The Namer. Unfortunately, the ship carrying the expedition got sucked into a suddenly-forming whirlpool that served as the entrance to an underwater mystery dungeon, and most members of the expedition were lost and presumed dead. Even the majority of the ship's complement of fliers received calls from the dungeon, and were unable to escape. Only Jess Talonflame managed to fly back to the guild, weeks later, and inform everyone of what happened. As Xute's deputy, Liam Granbull, had also been lost on the expedition, who would succeed her was unclear.
Following a long series of arguments and campaigning, Lud Exploud, the charismatic and well-connected leader of Team Discovery, became the next guildmaster. This led to an awkward moment when Liam Granbull turned up at the guild several months later. It turned out he had managed to escape the mystery dungeon which had doomed everyone else on the expedition, but had been delayed from returning to the guild – almost on the opposite side of the world – through a series of misadventures. Lud managed to maintained his position, but turned out to be a deeply corrupt leader, using the guild as a tool to enrich himself and further his political aims. He was ousted in 895 after one of his schemes was finally uncovered. Lud had been billing himself and his old Team Discovery as expert thief-catchers, who were responsible for recovering a large number of stolen items and returning them to their rightful owners – for a certain "finder's fee", of course. However, it was discovered that Lud had been working directly with the gang of burglars contributing to the city's recent crime wave, effectively acting as their fence.
Ever crafty, Lud managed to flee the region – along with a significant portion of the guild's treasury – before the evidence against him solidified, leaving behind a much-diminished guild mired in scandal and bad feelings.
As planned, the position of guildmaster passed to Pym's deputy, Xute Mismagius. Although not as ambitious or charismatic as her predecessor, Xute nevertheless proved a competent leader, and managed to maintain the size and status of the guild until 890, when she departed on an expedition to find the Cave of The First Sculpture. The Namer's recently uncovered and translated diaries – which prompted the expedition – state that the cave was the site of the Shaper's numerous failed attempts at carving a form for the first Pokemon, before finally succeeding in creating the Rhydon later known as The Namer. Unfortunately, the ship carrying the expedition got sucked into a suddenly-forming whirlpool that served as the entrance to an underwater mystery dungeon, and most members of the expedition were lost and presumed dead. Even the majority of the ship's complement of fliers received calls from the dungeon, and were unable to escape. Only Jess Talonflame managed to fly back to the guild, weeks later, and inform everyone of what happened. As Xute's deputy, Liam Granbull, had also been lost on the expedition, who would succeed her was unclear.
Following a long series of arguments and campaigning, Lud Exploud, the charismatic and well-connected leader of Team Discovery, became the next guildmaster. This led to an awkward moment when Liam Granbull turned up at the guild several months later. It turned out he had managed to escape the mystery dungeon which had doomed everyone else on the expedition, but had been delayed from returning to the guild – almost on the opposite side of the world – through a series of misadventures. Lud managed to maintained his position, but turned out to be a deeply corrupt leader, using the guild as a tool to enrich himself and further his political aims. He was ousted in 895 after one of his schemes was finally uncovered. Lud had been billing himself and his old Team Discovery as expert thief-catchers, who were responsible for recovering a large number of stolen items and returning them to their rightful owners – for a certain "finder's fee", of course. However, it was discovered that Lud had been working directly with the gang of burglars contributing to the city's recent crime wave, effectively acting as their fence.
Ever crafty, Lud managed to flee the region – along with a significant portion of the guild's treasury – before the evidence against him solidified, leaving behind a much-diminished guild mired in scandal and bad feelings.
Early Spring, 895 CC - Consequences Of A Close Election
Ah, that's right! You're Will Lampent, and you're a Sly, crafty fellow. Your days of petty – and sometimes, not so petty – crime are long behind you, but you still maintained enough contacts with the city's shadier elements to catch wind of Lud's scheme. After that, some careful eavesdropping and letter-intercepting gave you enough information to catch one of Lud's thieves in the act, and their confession was the loose thread that began to unravel Lud Exploud's criminal yarn ball.
The subsequent election for a new guildmaster ended up being very close. Your central role in uncovering the conspiracy, your overall competence, and your dedication to the guild – proven when you stayed on as the sole member of your team after everyone else quit in disgust at Lud's changes to the guild culture – were strong points in your favor, although many Pokemon would've preferred someone with a less checkered past to represent the guild. A mon of virtue, who'd clearly signal that the Starlight Guild had moved past the time of Lud's corruption. Xute's old deputy Liam Granbull seemed to fit the bill, having opposed Lud from the beginning, but his acerbic nature and contemptuous "I told you so! You idiots should have listened to me!" attitude won him few friends. Flinn Inteleon was well respected and had a spotless record, but he had seemed a little too close to Lud for most mon's liking, only publicly opposing him once it had become obvious which way the wind was blowing.
In the end, you had the sense that you only won because you were the candidate everyone disliked the least, rather than out of any great faith in your ability. If a more popular Pokemon like Joan Corviknight had been running - as several Pokemon urged her to do - you have no doubt you'd have lost. Luckily for your ambitions, Joan refused, saying she preferred to be out fighting in the dungeons rather than doing paperwork behind a guildmaster's desk. Even so, you ended up having to make a serious compromise in order to win the election, one which is sure to haunt you in the days to come...
[] You promised to keep the guild's take of rewards at 15% for the next 5 years. During Lud's regime, the guild's cut of mission rewards had slowly crept up to a full 30%. Both Flinn and Liam proposed cutting it back to the 21% rate it had been in Xute's time, but you went further than that, proposing to slash it all the way to 15% for five years to give guild members a chance to 'recover' from the period of higher taxes. Liam criticized your plan heavily, saying it was unrealistic to expect the guild to get by on just that much after so many of the highest-earning teams had left and Lud had escaped with so much of the treasury, and frankly, he was right. You'll be facing some serious financial difficulties in the upcoming years, and may have to end up going back on your promise, which is certain to upset people.
[] You slung mud at the other two candidates. You focused your campaign on smearing the reputations of your competitors, criticizing Flinn for how he'd been cozying up to Lud in the past few years, and Liam for just sitting around complaining about Lud rather than actually doing anything, in addition to blaming him for contributing to the stagnation the guild was experiencing during the Xute years, when Liam was deputy. Naturally, the two responded in turn, drawing a lot of attention to your criminal background. Although Pokemon ultimately found your own attacks more credible, your tactics left everyone in a very bitter mood after the election, in addition to earning Liam and Flinn's lasting enmity.
[] You destroyed documents incriminating two of Lud's cronies in exchange for their votes. At the trial of Team Discovery, both of the team's apprentices, Tom Drilbur and Ell Pachirisu, argued rather unconvincingly that they were totally unaware of the criminal activities the more senior members of their team were getting up to. Due to your strategic destruction of some of the old mission reports Lud kept where the apprentices had claimed credit for 'recovering' stolen property, the prosecution didn't have enough evidence to convict them, and the two Pokemon remained members of the Starlight Guild in the hastily renamed 'Team Teamwork'. Although you were largely able to convince your fellow guild Pokemon that the pair were indeed innocent, in the eyes of the public they're definitely guilty, and the fact that they weren't expelled is a serious stain on the guild's already-quite-troubled reputation.
The subsequent election for a new guildmaster ended up being very close. Your central role in uncovering the conspiracy, your overall competence, and your dedication to the guild – proven when you stayed on as the sole member of your team after everyone else quit in disgust at Lud's changes to the guild culture – were strong points in your favor, although many Pokemon would've preferred someone with a less checkered past to represent the guild. A mon of virtue, who'd clearly signal that the Starlight Guild had moved past the time of Lud's corruption. Xute's old deputy Liam Granbull seemed to fit the bill, having opposed Lud from the beginning, but his acerbic nature and contemptuous "I told you so! You idiots should have listened to me!" attitude won him few friends. Flinn Inteleon was well respected and had a spotless record, but he had seemed a little too close to Lud for most mon's liking, only publicly opposing him once it had become obvious which way the wind was blowing.
In the end, you had the sense that you only won because you were the candidate everyone disliked the least, rather than out of any great faith in your ability. If a more popular Pokemon like Joan Corviknight had been running - as several Pokemon urged her to do - you have no doubt you'd have lost. Luckily for your ambitions, Joan refused, saying she preferred to be out fighting in the dungeons rather than doing paperwork behind a guildmaster's desk. Even so, you ended up having to make a serious compromise in order to win the election, one which is sure to haunt you in the days to come...
[] You promised to keep the guild's take of rewards at 15% for the next 5 years. During Lud's regime, the guild's cut of mission rewards had slowly crept up to a full 30%. Both Flinn and Liam proposed cutting it back to the 21% rate it had been in Xute's time, but you went further than that, proposing to slash it all the way to 15% for five years to give guild members a chance to 'recover' from the period of higher taxes. Liam criticized your plan heavily, saying it was unrealistic to expect the guild to get by on just that much after so many of the highest-earning teams had left and Lud had escaped with so much of the treasury, and frankly, he was right. You'll be facing some serious financial difficulties in the upcoming years, and may have to end up going back on your promise, which is certain to upset people.
[] You slung mud at the other two candidates. You focused your campaign on smearing the reputations of your competitors, criticizing Flinn for how he'd been cozying up to Lud in the past few years, and Liam for just sitting around complaining about Lud rather than actually doing anything, in addition to blaming him for contributing to the stagnation the guild was experiencing during the Xute years, when Liam was deputy. Naturally, the two responded in turn, drawing a lot of attention to your criminal background. Although Pokemon ultimately found your own attacks more credible, your tactics left everyone in a very bitter mood after the election, in addition to earning Liam and Flinn's lasting enmity.
[] You destroyed documents incriminating two of Lud's cronies in exchange for their votes. At the trial of Team Discovery, both of the team's apprentices, Tom Drilbur and Ell Pachirisu, argued rather unconvincingly that they were totally unaware of the criminal activities the more senior members of their team were getting up to. Due to your strategic destruction of some of the old mission reports Lud kept where the apprentices had claimed credit for 'recovering' stolen property, the prosecution didn't have enough evidence to convict them, and the two Pokemon remained members of the Starlight Guild in the hastily renamed 'Team Teamwork'. Although you were largely able to convince your fellow guild Pokemon that the pair were indeed innocent, in the eyes of the public they're definitely guilty, and the fact that they weren't expelled is a serious stain on the guild's already-quite-troubled reputation.
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Early Spring, 895 CC - Deputy Selection
[] You promised to keep the guild's take of rewards at 15% for the next 5 years.
It's your first day as guildmaster, and you're hovering above the circular desk you've had installed in your office. Unlike many Pokemon, you can swivel around in an instant, so it doesn't make much sense to limit your work surface to only a single facing. As you finish organizing the assortment of odd knickknacks and dungeon keepsakes it is apparently mandatory for every guildmaster to clutter their desk with, Record-Keeper Oranguru walks through the door.
"Greetings, Guildmaster. As is tradition, I've come bearing the yearly Scroll of Guild Status." Oranguru unfurls a sheet of papyrus onto your desk. It reads as follows:
Morale: 4
Reputation: 3
Wealth: 3
Strength: 3
Your light slightly dims as you take in the numbers. They aren't very good, but you could hardly expect them to be better, given recent happenings.
"I'm afraid the Starlight Guild is currently deficient in every area. The scandal surrounding our former guildmaster has done great damage to our reputation, only partly alleviated by the fact that it was uncovered by Pokemon within the guild. Our treasury is running low due to years of Lud's irresponsible spending, followed by his parting act of embezzlement. Membership has still never recovered from the losses of Xute's expedition, and several more Pokemon quit out of dissatisfaction with Lud's regime in the past few years. On the positive side, most Pokemon are relieved that the affair with Lud is behind us, and are hopeful that you'll be able to turn things around."
You bob up and down thoughtfully, then ask Oranguru what he projects those numbers will look like by next year. Surely everything's going to get better now that you're in charge, right?
"Mmm..." Oranguru mmms, pausing to think. "Unless any disasters occur, I expect everyone's spirits will continue to improve, as their memories of Lud's rule fade into the past. Unfortunately, I don't expect the public will be as quick to forget his misdoings, and our reputation likely won't recover until we become the top news story for a positive reason. And as long as our reputation is poor, we'll have trouble finding new recruits, although our favorable taxation rate on guild members may partly alleviate that.
As for our financial future, that largely depends on if any of the old teams who quit during Lud's administration return now that he's left. Two of the more experienced ones would be enough to put us in the black. Without that, our paltry 15% cut of rewards combined with our low number of teams will mean bankruptcy within three years, I'd estimate. Adding inexperienced teams would do little to change that calculus, given how little they typically earn in their first few years."
It seems your work is cut out for you, then. You dismiss Oranguru and ponder your next move, your fire flickering gently.
After some thought, you decide your first order of business should be to choose a new deputy. Deputies act as second in command of the guild, and typically become the new guildmaster when the old one dies or retires. They help handle some of the guild's administrative and logistical work – reviewing mission reports, maintaining relationships with merchants, ensuring that the base is kept clean and orderly, evaluating potential new guild members, and other things of that nature. There are three viable candidates:
First, there's Liam Granbull. During his time as deputy in Xute's term, he proved himself to be a competent – if somewhat unimaginative – leader and administrator. Although always a bit gruff, he fell into a deep bitterness after making an arduous journey home from the ruins of Xute's fatal expedition only to discover he'd been replaced. He was not sparing in his criticism of the guild's decisions following the news of that disaster, and his sour attitude steadily decreased his popularity in the subsequent years. Nevertheless, he's continued to prove a reliable leader in his role at the head of Team Hodgepodge, and although it certainly helps for a deputy to be well-liked, it's not essential.
Next, there's the other candidate you ran against in the election, Flinn Inteleon. He's respected as highly competent in a wide range of skills, and he almost practically was the guild's deputy during Lud's administration. As Lud's appointee – an apathetic son of a city councilor given the role for purely political reasons – did very little real work around the guild, Flinn took up the slack, organizing efforts to maintain the base and striking deals with traders in dungeon items. This work was done in addition to his missions as part of the elite Team Skyguard, leaving him with very little free time. As for his downsides, he's rather introverted, and comes across as stiff and overly formal whenever he's talking about anything besides official business. There's also the fact that he seemed to have a pretty warm relationship with Lud, who appreciated the cover Flinn's double-duty work gave to his sham deputy. Although he was never implicated in any of Lud's illegal schemes, it still looks pretty bad in retrospect, Flinn's last-minute denunciation of Lud notwithstanding.
Finally, there's Chrsya Noivern. She was instrumental in helping you uncover Lud's scheme, and was your biggest supporter during the election. Afterwards, she asked you to consider appointing her as deputy – and alarmingly, appears to be strongly expecting that you'll do so, despite you certainly never having promised her anything of the sort! As she's never been a team leader before, her leadership and administrative skills are untested, but she's very passionate about everything she does, and a talented explorer. In contrast to the other two candidates, she has a natural charisma which has made her quite popular. She's more of a big-picture person and tends not to care about little details – there's a rumor going around that the only reason she isn't already the leader of Team Sensation is that she has no taste for the paperwork associated with the position. It would certainly be a bad sign if true, given the amount of boring office work the job involves.
Each of the three believes themselves to be the most deserving – Liam because he was the previous deputy and was 'unfairly deposed', Flinn because he had been doing most of a deputy's duties in the past few years, and Chrsya because she actually helped bring about Lud's downfall while Liam just complained and Flinn cozied up to him (and she may also feel that she deserves something in return for supporting you in the election, though you aren't sure how much that's a factor). You worry that whoever you appoint, the other two will view it as some sort of personal slight against them.
Or perhaps you could simply contrive some excuse to put the decision off 'till next year? Maybe say that you need some time to get acclimated to the role of guildmaster before you can decide who would make the best successor? You feel that this option would displease everyone, but at least everyone would be displeased equally.
[] Appoint Liam Granbull as deputy.
[] Appoint Flinn Inteleon as deputy.
[] Appoint Chrsya Noivern as deputy.
[] Put the decision off until next year.
Voting will be open until . As the quest uses approval voting, you can vote for as many different options as you wish.
Mid-Spring, 895 CC - The Thunderbolt River Race
[] Appoint Liam Granbull as deputy.
You decide that the guild needs an experienced administrator to guide it through these difficult times, and appoint Liam Granbull as your deputy. Reactions are mixed - most of the younger Pokemon seem lukewarm on the concept, only knowing Liam as a grumpy old 'mon who's constantly complaining about the state of the guild (or sometimes even the institution of exploring in general). However, the guild's veterans still recall the old Liam of Xute's time, a gruff but caring individual who helped guide the guild through many challenges, and are more approving.
Although Chrysa and Flinn aren't as upset as you feared, they both take jabs at your decision. Flinn says that he'll be glad to finally get a break from all the hard work he'd put in as pseudo-deputy during Lud's administration – work which went entirely without any sort of compensation, mind you. Chrysa then remarks that although she doesn't agree with Flinn often, she concurs that good deeds often go unrewarded, and tells Liam that she hopes he'll be more "forward-thinking" than last time.
Liam gives a short acceptance speech, stating that he's honored for such an old 'mon as him to once again be granted the position of deputy, and thanks you for your work correcting the 'injustices' of Lud's reign. He says that, contrary to what some may believe, he doesn't think the guild should be run exactly as it was during Guildmaster Xute's administration, which he admits had some flaws. Rather, he wants to restore the Starlight Guild to the peak of power and glory it achieved during the last years of founder Pym Reuniclus' time.
You barely manage to hear Chrysa muttering that of course Liam's idea of 'progress' would be to look even further backwards, and feel a sudden pang of emotion for the old Granbull. He joined the guild as a Snubbull during the penultimate year of Pym's rule, lying about his age to get in – an antic of his "eager and reckless youth". In the following years, he watched the guild slowly sink into stagnation as all the Pokemon he used to know gradually died or retired, until finally Liam was the only explorer who even half-remembered Pym's time. You can understand why he'd want to return to the old days.
Mid-Spring, 895 CC
Liam's experience has proven invaluable for your first month as guildmaster, helping you negotiate merchant contracts to keep the guild supplied, advising you on how to resolve disputes with clients, efficiently processing stacks of mission reports, and generally keeping the wheels from falling off. Despite Liam's promise to not just replicate the conditions of Xute's time, that's essentially what you've done, at least for the present – with the notable exception of taking a lower cut of mission rewards, of course. Both of you agreed that you should hold off on making any major changes until you've had at least a year of experience running the guild.
You're hovering above some paperwork in your office as a strong breeze blows through the windows. Lud Exploud broke the old glass panes during a particularly heated shouting fit, and you haven't bothered to change the creaky wooden shutters he replaced them with. Wind doesn't really bother you since you evolved into a Lampent, although you wonder if it'll do so again when you become a Chandelure.
Wynna Flygon strides into your office, large fangs visible in her grin. "Team Skyguard's decided to enter the Thunderbolt River Race!" she announces proudly.
The Thunderbolt River Race has been a Windhaven tradition for centuries, historically taking place once every three years. It's a thousand-mile race starting at the mouth of the Thunderbolt River (colloquially, the 'Bolt) in Windhaven harbor, and ending at its source in the Rounded Mountains. Different Pokemon species are divided into various "speed groups" so that everyone theoretically has a fair chance within their bracket, and the run isn't dominated by the few species with the best speed/stamina trade-off.
Of course, in recent years, much of the lands through which the 'Bolt runs are now abandoned Dungeon Wastes, and so the race is only run during periods of relatively low dungeon activity along the route, the last instance being twelve years ago. Explorers across the continent have worked together to scout the river and officially declare it "safe enough" to run this year, although you worry Pokemon might just be getting antsy for another race after it's been skipped three times in a row.
As you recall these facts, Wynna closes your door, then leans over your desk and speaks to you in a conspiratorial hush. "I know the guild's been going through a bit of a rough spot financially, so I've got a great way for you to make some quick money. Bet on us! We're almost certainly going to win this year. See, we've discovered that if you go down to the fourth layer of Misty Puzzlebox, there's an exit to a dungeon near the Rounded Mountains, saving about nine-hundred miles."
Most mystery dungeons are interconnected if you go deep enough, allowing intrepid explorers to cross great distances quickly. However, even seasoned dungeoneers rarely venture beyond just the second layer of a dungeon. Team Skyguard ranks among the most elite explorers, but they'd still entail serious risk on a fourth layer run. Moreover, would skipping nine-tenths of the race through a dungeon shortcut even be legal?
"Nah, it's totally legit! The only real rules of the Thunderbolt River Race are that you can't interfere with other racers, or be assisted by Pokemon outside your team. Otherwise, you're allowed to use any means possible to get from point A to point B. Most Pokemon just follow the course of the river because that's safest and it's almost a straight line anyways, but you don't have to."
Hmm. You're uncertain how other Pokemon would view Team Skyguard winning that way. Perhaps some would see it as a brilliant and daring feat, but no doubt many Pokemon – particularly the ones that lost their bets – would just view it as a dirty trick. Not very good for Skyguard's – and by extension, the guild's – reputation. Maybe it would be better for Skyguard to devote themselves to rescuing Pokemon who get called into mystery dungeons over the course of the race, instead.
However, you do need some money, though… You ask Wynna what the current betting rate on their team is.
She smirks and flicks her tail. "Two to one odds against us. It started at four to one, but went down after we put a bunch of money on us. Guess people figure we must have something planned."
Shadows dance across the walls of your office as your fire flickers uncertainly. There's certainly a lot of risk involved in a fourth-layer run, but Skyguard does know what they're doing, usually. And even if the race officials do declare their methods invalid, probably that'd just mean all bets were off, costing you nothing. You tell Wynna that you'll consider her offer, and spend the rest of the afternoon pondering on what to do, thoughts of paperwork forgotten.
Advice to Team Skyguard
[] Convince Team Skyguard to quit the race, and instead focus on helping racers with mystery dungeon problems.
[] Don't tell Skyguard to quit the race, but discourage them from their dangerous fourth-layer run plan.
[] Do nothing to discourage Skyguard's plan.
[] Join Skyguard's team for the race so you can help them get through the dungeon safely! (This won't directly increase their odds of success since you don't have the Fighter or Explorer traits, but will give you a chance to influence the outcome if something goes wrong. However, this will also put the guildmaster at direct risk, and will make it obvious that you endorsed Skyguard's plan, potentially increasing reputational consequences for the guild.)
Betting on Team Skyguard (conditional on you not successfully discouraging them from the fourth-layer run)
[] Bet nothing.
[] Bet a relatively small amount. (Gain 0.5 points of wealth if Skyguard wins, lose 0.25 points of wealth otherwise.)
[] Bet a moderate amount. (Gain 1 point of wealth if Skyguard wins, lose 0.5 points of wealth otherwise.)
[] Bet a large amount. (Gain 2 points of wealth if Skyguard wins, lose 1 point of wealth otherwise.)
Voting is by plan, although keep in mind that you can vote for multiple plans if you wish. You can choose to bet money on Skyguard even if you select an option to convince them to abandon their plan, in which case you'll only place a bet if they decide to go through with it anyways despite your urging. Voting will be open until .
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Early Summer, 895 CC - Runaway Vulpix
I rolled randomly to decide which plan won, since I wanted to keep the quest moving:
Luckily it was the choice that seemed like it would've won post vote-closing! If anyone has preferences for how I should handle future vote-ties, please let me know.
Luckily it was the choice that seemed like it would've won post vote-closing! If anyone has preferences for how I should handle future vote-ties, please let me know.
Deciding that a little (or even a lot) of extra money isn't worth the risking the lives of your best team, you locate Joan Corviknight and try to convince her to abandon the fourth-layer run plan.
Roll: 1d10 + 2 (reasonable request) = 7 (Partial Success)Luckily, Joan was already rather lukewarm on the scheme, which had mainly been Wynna Flygon's idea. You and her successfully talk the rest of Team Skyguard out of going through with the plan, although Wynna seems a bit cross at you for ruining her fun.
Team Skyguard announces their withdrawal from the race soon afterwards. Apparently the chance of making a lot of money betting on themselves winning through their daring scheme had been their sole motivation for joining.
The Thunderbolt River Race runs without any major disasters this year, although two teams of highly-favored racers received urgent calls while passing through stretches of dungeon wastes, and had to be rescued by local explorers. For several days afterwards, Pokemon complain of the medical room smelling like burnt cabbage, which rather baffles you until you learn that Dr. Antoine Aromatisse had placed serious bets on one of those teams to win, and was unable to control his outburst of emotion and odor on hearing the results.
Late Spring, 895 CC
Excellent news! Team Nighthowl, who quit during the last year of Lud's administration, has rejoined the guild! The team was founded by Nora, an experienced midnight-form Lycanroc with a fondness for cheesy jokes and terrible puns, and Otto Houndoom, a skilled tracker who seems to be the only other Pokemon who appreciates Nora's sense of humor. Other members include Terry Noctowl, an honestly somewhat-mediocre explorer who you're convinced Nora added to the team solely for the pun value, and Iri Zubat, a young apprentice who you don't know much about, although she seems friendly.
Nighthowl specializes in handling nocturnal missions, and mostly focuses on escorting Pokemon who received urgent calls from dungeons in the middle of the night. They're only an average-level team in your estimation, but will be a welcome addition to the guild nevertheless.
Early Summer, 895 CC
Another Pokemon joins the guild! This time it's someone new, a young Vulpix named Pyra. She just barely managed to pass the physical portion of the entrance exam, but did well on the knowledge portion. Unfortunately, she seems to be very immature, complaining profusely about every question she missed on the knowledge exam being 'unfair', and demanding that she be allowed to form a team of her own instead of joining an existing team as an apprentice.
(When Liam pointed out that a one-'mon team is something of an oxymoron, Pyra assumed Liam was insulting her and immediately shot back that he was a moron because obviously she was immediately going to recruit a bunch more Pokemon who'd join her team because of how cool and awesome she was. Of course, even if she did somehow find several more Pokemon willing to join a team under the leadership of a whiny nine-year-old, you have a policy that teams can only be founded by Pokemon with at least a year of experience.)
Given Pyra's immaturity, you'd have assumed she was lying about being nine years old, the minimum age to join the guild, except for the fact that she's a Vulpix with five tails. Vulpix are born with one tail, and grow a new one every nine seasons exactly (up to six) – with no exceptions to your knowledge – meaning she has to be at least nine years old.
Although Pyra reluctantly gives up on forming her own team after some persuasion, that leaves the question of which team she will join. Traditionally, teams are limited to four Pokemon, as larger teams seem to draw more attention and hostility from dungeon inhabitants. For reasons which scholars still don't understand, there's a critical threshold at five Pokemon – teams of that size or larger will almost immediately attract the enmity and notice of every single creature in a dungeon.
That means Teams Sensation, Bloom, and Nighthowl are out, already having four Pokemon each. Team Skyguard's also out – their time's too valuable to be spent on training apprentices, not to mention that Vulpix can't fly (Flinn Inteleon can at least glide). This leaves Hodgepodge, Long Shot, and Nap Attack...
***
"Mmm. I'm afraid we already have our feet and hands full dealing with just one apprentice," Hodgepodge leader Gilliver Mothim says. "Maybe after Martin evolves we could take on another. Shouldn't be too long now, given how he gets into fights at every possible opportunity, including ones he created for himself."
"Eh, I think we could take her," says Sargas Darmanitan, who invited himself to join the conference with Gilliver in your office. "Nobody on Long Shot or Nap Attack would know how to help her learn fire moves."
"I've never met a fire-type who needed help learning to use their attacks," Gilliver counters, glaring at his teammate. "In my experience, what they need to learn is how and when to not use fire-type moves. Er, present company excepted, Guildmaster," he adds quickly.
Sargas groans. "C'mon, I said I was sorry for the fire punch incident!"
"Don't forget the incinerate incident, either. My left antenna still hasn't fully grown back yet."
Despite Gilliver's impression, you know that fire-type Pokemon do usually need help learning their attacks, just like every other type does, although Sargas might not be the best at teaching a Vulpix – Darmanitan typically use melee-based moves like fire punch or fire fang, while Vulpix and Ninetales tend to use ranged moves like ember or flamethrower. Gilliver does have a point that it'd be very irregular for a team to take on two apprentices at once, though (if it isn't a dedicated apprentice training team like Team Bloom).
***
"Um, you want us to consider taking on Pyra?" Fiona Furret asks.
"Isn't she um, not very, um, long?" Fierra Furret says.
You tilt back and forth sideways in exasperation, and say that you thought naming themselves Team Long Shot was just a joke, and not that they were actually trying to form a team themed around Pokemon with elongated bodies.
Fiona nervously grabs the tip of her tail with both front paws in a feat of flexibility. "Um, that was kind of our idea..."
Well, if you include the tails, and don't include the top hair, Vulpix are at least longer than they are tall or wide, right? And you're pretty sure that Pyra could fit into any tunnel that a Furret could fit into, so she wouldn't be restricting the mobility of the team.
"Well, maybe until she evolves..." Fierra mutters.
"I mean, if you really want us to, I guess we could take her on," Fiona allows at last.
Hmm. Team Long Shot isn't the most experienced team – the Furret sisters have only been exploring for three years, and the third member of the team, Percie Ekans, is just barely not an apprentice herself, with two years of experience. They might not be the best at mentoring someone new. Still, perhaps Pyra would appreciate being on a team of Pokemon closer to her own age – Long Shot's the youngest team in your guild, Fiona and Fierra being 13 while Percie is 12.
***
"Sure, we'd love to have a new member!" Rin Jigglypuff exclaims. Beside him, Chester Snorlax nods, although his eyes are closed and you expect he might actually be taking a nap right in the middle of your conversation.
"But you guys are totally boring!" Pyra exclaims, having barged into your office when she overheard someone saying her name. "Everyone says all you do is just eat and sleep all day!"
"That's not true at all! We go on missions all the time!" Rin protests. "And sleeping can be very exciting! We've developed all kinds of cool lucid dreaming techniques that allow us to simulate fighting life-threatening battles while we're napping!"
If Team Nap Attack does go on missions all the time, they certainly must've been forgetting to turn in quite a lot of mission reports, then (and the guild's share of the rewards, too). And you suppose a lot of the times you've see them lazing around the guild must've really just been you seeing their fake duplicates created by the substitute move, as well.
Honestly, you're a bit worried that Pyra will end up becoming as much a slacker as Rin and Chester are if she joins their team. Although you suppose there is a chance the influence could go the other way and Pyra might inspire them to start being more active…
***
A few days later, Record-Keeper Oranguru brings your notice to a missing Pokemon report filed with the guild. It's for a five-tailed Vulpix named Rara who recently went missing from a monastery in the city of Greentemple dedicated to raising new-souled Pokemon.
Most Pokemon hatch already knowing how to speak a basic vocabulary and have some general knowledge about the world, although with significant gaps. It's believed that this knowledge comes from previous lives. However, occasionally a Pokemon hatches without any understanding at all, and needs to be taught how to speak and other extremely basic things. It's assumed that this is because that Pokemon's soul is freshly created, and the hatched Pokemon is living life for the first time rather than being the reincarnation of an older Pokemon.
New-souled Pokemon have, for whatever reason, become increasingly rare since the Age of Dungeons began. Many Pokemon have started to treat them as being almost holy, and many believe that their first life should be spent in meditation and spiritual training, so that they have the best possible chance to reach the end of the Path Of Reincarnation and achieve godhood when they die. (Clerics are generally divided into two camps on this subject; one believing that Pokemon's odds of attaining godhood decrease with each successive incarnation as the world slowly corrupts them, the other believing that the odds increase with each incarnation from gradually accumulated experience and wisdom.)
You conjecture that Pyra's parents must've been in the former camp, or possibly were simply unprepared for the challenges of raising a new-souled Pokemon, and gave her to be raised by priests and priestesses at the monastery in Greentemple. Assuming that she's the same as the 'Rara Vulpix' in the notice, of course – it would certainly explain why she's so immature. You arrange a meeting with Pyra and ask her if that's true.
Pyra freezes, then uncharacteristically takes several moments to think of how she should respond. "Guildmaster, you can't make me go back there!" she finally wails. "It's so boring! Everyone just wants me to sit around and meditate and read stupid old scrolls all day! I'd die of boredom if I had to go back, and then I'd become a ghost and the ghost would also die of boredom!"
Hmm. Legally speaking, once a Pokemon reaches nine years of age (with certain exceptions for especially short-lived species), they're considered an adult by common custom, and have the right to choose their own path in life. However, new-souled Pokemon are effectively about four or five years younger in maturity than other Pokemon, and historically courts have ruled inconsistently about them, sometimes treating them as adults at age nine and other times as children until they reach thirteen.
Publicly refusing to send Pyra/Rara Vulpix back to Greentemple would obviously upset the clerical class there, and likely in your own city as well. (Although the general populace wouldn't care as much, they still might take issue with you allowing a Pokemon to join a dangerous profession while arguably being below the age minimum.) It also might not be the right thing to do, spiritually speaking, although you'd assume someone who hates spiritual training enough to run away to a different city probably has little chance of achieving godhood in their next run through the Path of Reincarnation anyways. This option would likely result in a legal battle between your guild and the monastery, and you're uncertain who would win.
Another option would obviously be to just not report Pyra – she's hardly the only Vulpix in Windhaven, and the city is fairly far away from Greentemple. Probably the only people who could expose her secret would be the Metagross Guild, who would've also received a copy of the missing Pokemon notice. You're not sure if they'd raise a fuss about it – you've heard a rumor that Guildmaster Metagross actually doesn't even believe the Path Of Reincarnation is real, for some reason, but they've taken chances to undermine the Starlight Guild's reputation in the past.
If they do raise a stink, it would look bad if you knowingly kept Pyra in your guild, but said nothing about it. (You could lie about not having received the notice – messengers only deliver that sort of thing to the Metagross Guild and not the Starlight Guild with distressing frequency, in fact – but they could simply ask the messenger Pokemon which guilds they delivered it to.) It would be easiest for Pyra to lay low if she left your guild – you could plausibly say she quit the guild seemingly on a whim and vanished into the streets of Windhaven the same day you received the notice.
When you point this out to Pyra, she immediately protests. "But I really do want to become an explorer and go on adventures and help people! I didn't come here just to hide – I'm not a coward! And also, where would I even go if I wasn't here? How would I make money? My whole life's been wasted reading musty scrolls, I don't have any other skills!"
Hmm. You're certainly a quite skilled Pokemon in some ways, and could help Pyra find a place to lie low for a while, and maybe even a job. But you'd be expending a significant amount of resources to do so – and for what gain, exactly?
You've certainly got a difficult decision to make, this time…
Should you alert the monastery in Greentemple?
[] Send the monastery a letter telling them you located Pyra in Windhaven.
[] Send the monastery an anonymous letter telling them that Pyra is safe and hadn't just gotten called into a dungeon and killed, but without revealing where she is.
[] Don't alert the monastery.
What should you do about Pyra Vulpix?
[] Escort Pyra back to the monastery she ran away from in Greentemple.
[] Expel Pyra from the guild on the grounds of her being too young since she's new-souled.
[] Privately tell Pyra she has to leave the guild. If anyone asks later, she left on her own before you received the notice.
[] Privately tell Pyra she has to leave the guild, and devote resources to helping her find a place to lie low and get settled in the city. (Estimated cost: 0.25 points of wealth)
[] Let Pyra remain in the guild.
What team should Pyra join, if she stays at the Starlight Guild?
[] Team Hodgepodge
[] Team Long Shot
[] Team Nap Attack
Voting is by plan again. The vote will close at . Approval voting is still in effect. Also, feel free to ask questions if you want clarification on something or want to know more about the world, and I'll do my best to answer!
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Early Autumn, 895 CC - Tin Rush
You send the monastery a letter reporting Pyra's location and asking if they'd prefer for you to escort her back. The next day, you receive a reply saying that they'll send some people to get her, and two days after that, a Medicham and Stantler arrive at your guild.
After the Medicham introduces herself as Priestess Yyn of the Monastery of Gainful Initiation, she thanks you for looking after Rara Vulpix and keeping her safe, and you quietly fail to correct her assumption that you hadn't been planning on training her for entrance into a very dangerous profession. As recompense, she insists you take a sum of money carefully calculated to be the exact amount it would've cost to feed Rara and hire someone to hatchling-sit her for the amount of time she was at your guild, plus a tiny amount of interest on it, which she explains is necessary to both discharge her own 'burden of unrepaid favor' and prevent you from taking on a burden yourself by getting more than what you're owed.
Before the pair leaves with Vulpix in extremely-reluctant tow, you mention to Rara (apparently this is the name she prefers, 'Pyra' being a poorly thought out fake name chosen in haste) that she's welcome to join your guild when she comes of age, although given how she's viewing this as some sort of personal betrayal, you feel that's unlikely.
Most Pokemon at the guild are relieved to be free of Rara's whiny presence, although Chrysa Noivern criticizes you for not standing up for the Vulpix's "right of self-determination".
Mid-Summer, 895 CC
Hmm. Looking through Team Hodgepodge's mission reports, they don't seem to be quite as capable as you remembered them being before you became guildmaster. You suppose that's only to be expected given that their veteran leader left the team to become your deputy, although it's still a bit disappointing.
Late Summer, 895 CC
A new fad is fizzing up in Windhaven! An enterprising Alcremie uncovered a musty tome dating back to the Age of Curiosity, which described a process for generating 'fixed air' from acid and chalk, and infusing it into water. Unlike many such devices from old Curiosity-era books, this one actually worked, and the resultant "fizz water" has proven to be a huge hit in the city!
You idly wonder if you'd have liked fizz water in your previous life as a Bewear. Apparently it has a tart taste to it which takes some getting used to, but you do vaguely recall having been a rather adventurous fellow.
Early Autumn, 895 CC
Thar's tin in them hills! Hopefully. Windhaven's largest tin mine is starting to run dry, so the city council has announced large prizes will be given to whoever can find new sources of tin. Prospectors have swarmed out into the hills, hoping to strike it rich. Of course, a lot of Pokemon heading out into the wilderness means lots of mystery dungeon calls…
You meet with Liam Granbull to talk about an idea you had: What if you set up a temporary base camp in the hills south of Windhaven, to make it more convenient for prospectors to access your services? If you were able to capture all the business from them, most of which would usually go to the Metagross Guild, you'd stand to make a lot of money, and maybe even win their appreciation!
Liam ponders this notion, rubbing one of his protruding fangs. "I think that's a fine idea. The only drawback would be how everyone'd complain about having to rough it in the hills instead of living a posh mansion. But if we raise our rates like everyone else who's been selling to the prospectors has, they'd get over it, although doubtlessly they'd still whine."
Your deputy has a fair point, though it wouldn't just be a little rough living your guild members would have to put up with - they'd also be at risk of receiving mystery dungeon calls like everyone else tromping about in the wilderness. And although exploration guild Pokemon are certainly no strangers to dealing with mystery dungeons, they prefer to face them on their own terms, rather than from the compulsion of a call.
However, you're not sure about raising the rates you charge for escort or rescue services. That could well open up accusations of being greedy or money-grubbing, especially given your current reputation. In fact, maybe you should even be decreasing your regular rates – call it a special service for Windhaven – to try to earn back some favor!
Liam grunts. "Don't think people would be happy about getting less money for putting up with harsher work... though if you're doing this for goodwill instead of funds, perhaps the guild could forgo its cut of the rewards for missions to help the prospectors. A month or two without revenue wouldn't ruin us, though that's not something we can do too often, mind..."
It seems that if you want to go through with this plan, you'll either have to risk the ire of the Windhaven miners for raising the rates, risk the ire of your own guild members for asking them to put up with uncomfortable conditions without recompense, or take a hit to the guild's purse. You still think the plan has potential, but you'll have to consider the trade-offs carefully…
[] Drop the idea of setting up a temporary base camp in the hills.
[] Set up a base camp and charge 15% higher rates than normal.
[] Set up a base camp and charge regular rates.
[] Set up a base camp and charge regular rates, but forgo the guild's cut of rewards.
[] Set up a base camp and charge 15% lower rates than normal.
[] Set up a base camp and charge 15% lower rates than normal, but forgo the guild's cut of rewards.
Note: Opportunities to improve your position without taking any risks or expending any resources will be few and far between. To succeed in this quest, you'll have to carefully decide which risks are worth taking and which stats can be sacrificed to boost others.
Voting will close .
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Mid-Winter, 895 CC - Friend Bow Sale Offer
[] Set up a base camp and charge regular rates.
You decide to set up the base camp and simply charge regular rates for guild services. No need to overthink things. As Liam predicted, Pokemon do grumble somewhat at being asked to go rough it out in the wilderness, but go along with your plan nevertheless. Within a few days, you've set up a tent pavilion at the epicenter of the prospecting, and advertise that the Starlight Guild is available to provide quick and convenient rescue and escort services.
Roll: 1d10 = 2 (Failure)Great news! Due to the sheer quantity of prospectors combing the hills, new veins of tin are discovered after only seven days! Well, great news for the city of Windhaven, that is. Not so much for your guild. Although you did see substantially increased business during that time, guild Pokemon are annoyed that they went through the trouble of setting up the base camp only to have to pack it up so soon. You guess it was worth a shot, at least…
Early Winter, 895 CC
Team Tenacious has returned to the Starlight Guild! Despite their name, they were the first team to quit during Lud's administration, disgusted by his increasingly apparent cronyism and use of guild money to throw huge parties (ostensibly celebrating guild achievements or milestones) where he schmoozed with city officials.
After leaving, they had a huge argument about what to do next. Their leader, Ean Magneton – who was by far the most experienced member of the team – eventually ended up joining the Metagross Guild, where they still are today. The other two members, Sheila Donphan and Trevin Sawk, decided to travel south to work as independent explorers in the city of Riverfort.
Having recently become fed up with the poor governance of Riverfort, Sheila and Trevin decided to once again rejoin your guild, your nine months of leadership apparently enough to satisfy them that you at least aren't as terrible as Lud was.
Trevin and Sheila are, as they call themselves, extremely 'hardcore' Pokemon who will fight to their utmost capacity to complete missions at any cost. Although they do have a high rate of mission success, this often comes at the cost of sustaining injuries which cause them to miss out on future missions for a week. It's a minor miracle they haven't gotten themselves killed yet, really.
Sheila Donphan seems to be the more reckless of the duo, relying on her tough hide to keep her safe as she careens around with rollout. Trevin Sawk is slightly more cautious, and has a philosophy that it's better to practice one move a thousand times than a thousand moves once (metaphorically speaking, of course, as it's impossible for any 'mon to learn anything close to a thousand moves). Although true to an extent, you feel he takes it way too far, knowing only a paltry four moves and often wasting entire days doing nothing but practicing the same move over and over.
Mid-Winter, 895 CC
A new magic item merchant by the name of Arthur Delibird has come to Windhaven, and a lot of Pokemon in your guild are speaking quite favorably of him and his deals. Having nothing better to do one morning, you decide you may as well check out his wares.
"Welcome, welcome! Ah, pardon me, but you wouldn't happen to be Will Lampent, would you? Guildmaster of the Starlight Guild?" the Delibird says as you float through the entrance of the tent he's set up. You confirm that you are indeed that Lampent. "Ah, wonderful! I'm honored that a guildmaster wishes to see my humble wares! You know, I've heard quite a lot of stories about you from the locals… only good things, I assure you!" he quickly adds after you shudder involuntarily.
Despite Arthur's assurance, he drops several subtle hints in the conversation that follows letting on that he's aware of your criminal background. After a while spent discussing trivialities about the state of the magic item market and what the local mystery dungeons are like, he carefully closes the front flaps of his tent "to stop the wind from disturbing us as we talk", then leans in closely.
"You know, I happen to have a special collector's piece you might be interested in," he says in a hush. He proceeds to reach into his bag-like tail and extract a power band. Then, he carefully removes a pink ribbon threaded through loops affixed to the interior of the band – a method of making an item difficult to detect even to someone using Luxray Specs.
"It's a one-of-a-kind coral-pink aura bow. Why don't you try attuning to it so you can see that it's the genuine article?" Hmm. Aura bows are fairly weak items that slightly increase the efficiency of a Pokemon's aura channels, which makes their moves (and resistance to other moves) marginally more potent. A beginner's item to be traded away as soon as you find something better, even if it is of an unusual color.
Nevertheless, you attune to the bow anyways to humor the 'mon, and – that's not what an aura bow feels like! It's a friend bow, a powerful magic item that magically enhances the user's charisma. It's a subtle effect – your enemies won't suddenly turn into fawning admirers – but it does make Pokemon find you more likable, potentially giving a critical edge in close negotiations. You recognize the item's attunement signature from a time when your mentor Quen Solrock discovered one in a dungeon while you were an apprentice on the long-gone Team Shine. Quen insisted you attune to it before destroying it so you could recognize it in the future.
Although just owning a friend bow isn't illegal, strictly speaking, courts take a dim view of Pokemon using any kind of magical means to influence others, as does the general populace. You'd certainly be in some trouble if Pokemon discovered you had one, although that'd honestly be quite unlikely if you took the right precautions…
Taking the sudden flare-up of your fire upon attuning to the item as evidence that you recognized its true nature, Arthur gives you a beaky smile. "Ah, I knew a Pokemon of your stature would appreciate the bow's unique properties." He proceeds to quote a price to you that'd be truly outrageous for an aura bow, but actually fairly cheap for a friend bow. You suspect he must be getting nervous about holding onto it for some reason.
As your thoughts swirl, you take a few moments to visibly hem and haw, then tell Arthur that you'll consider the offer. While making your goodbyes, he informs you that he's planning on leaving the city later that day, so don't take too long.
Once outside the Delibird's tent, you stop and consider your options. A friend bow would surely be a huge boon to your endeavors, leaving aside the morality of magically altering Pokemon's opinions of you. The price tag is definitely steep, though, given the guild's ongoing financial difficulties...
It strikes you that you could simply steal the item, if you wanted to. Reporting its theft to the authorities would certainly be a bit awkward, considering the nature of it. Still a substantial risk to do it personally, of course – it would be safer to hire someone to steal it for you – you still know a few 'mon – but they'd charge a hefty price, no doubt aware that guildmasters don't hire theives to steal trifles.
Or, perhaps you could report him to the authorities, and file a lawsuit on behalf of your guild Pokemon who traded with him recently, on the grounds that they may have been magically influenced into making deals they shouldn't have? You return to your guild and casually strike up a few conversations about everyone's experiences with Arthur, and find that many Pokemon describe him as having been likable in a way that was hard to describe exactly, suggesting that he was using the friend bow when bargaining with them.
If the courts find Arthur guilty, which they very likely would if you could prove he had the bow, they'd likely order him to offer full refunds to anyone who wanted to return their purchases, on top of paying a hefty fee to them. Doubtlessly some Pokemon would share those fees with you out of gratitude, and you'd look like a hero for exposing a crook. The tricky part would be proving that Arthur had the bow – you suppose you could ask a court official to observe Arthur's tent with Luxray Specs while you make the transaction to purchase it, but you suspect Arthur may have thought of that possibility, and readied some countermeasure against it. If so, it'd certainly look bad for you to be seen as hassling some innocent merchant, and Arthur may even choose to counter-sue.
...although, is there really any countermeasure a Pokemon as clever as you couldn't figure out? You return to the marketplace Arthur set up tent at and look around. Sure enough, there's a Swellow perched on a roof, watching everyone going into and out of the tent. A hired guard, no doubt, who'd alert Arthur if they saw anything suspicious. You guess you could get Team Skyguard to occupy them while your plan was underway, although Arthur might still have something else prepared you overlooked.
[] Do nothing.
[] Buy the friend bow. (Cost of 1 point of wealth.)
[] Steal the friend bow yourself.
[] Hire someone to steal the friend bow for you. (Cost of 0.5 points of wealth.)
[] Report Arthur to the courts and sue him on behalf of your guild Pokemon.
Voting will close .
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