POKÉMON MYSTERY DUNGEON: GATES INTO SHADOW

Chapter One: Welcome to Pannacotta

The relatively small town of Pannacotta has been experiencing some pretty strange phenomena recently, with unstable Mystery Dungeons appearing and disappearing, and even seeming to scoop some Pokémon up into them! With only two Teams registered in the town’s Guild, resources are stretched a little thin, so two unusual heroes step up to take on the mantle of an Exploration Team.

One of them is Ambur, a perpetually sleepy, somewhat grumpy and antisocial Umbreon, relatively new to Pannacotta town, wishing to be a little more socially active but having to break their nocturnal schedule to do so. They’re fascinated by Mystery Dungeons, wishing to research exactly what makes them tick, and finding themself pretty talented in their navigation and cartography.

The other, Hazy, is an odd-looking, purple-tinted Typhlosion with a permanent dopey smile and relaxed aura. A man out of time, Hazy spent a couple hundred years trapped inside a Mystery Dungeon, rescued by one of the two currently registered Teams. As a result of this experience, he's got a strange sixth sense around Dungeons. He’s very friendly and social, and spends a lot of time tending to his garden, growing mysterious and highly flammable herbs.

On their ways down the dirt path from Pannacotta to the local hot springs, wanting to speak with the same Team that rescued Hazy, they’re swept up by a series of pillars of light bursting from the ground, ending up in a slightly unstable and new-feeling Mystery Dungeon. After some wandering they find Rigatoni, a Snivy and one half of the Rescue Team they’d planned to meet with, strung up in a tree being held for ransom by a pair of Joltik, working for a Breloom claiming to be in debt to some shopkeeper.

Hazy roasts his mushroom ass while Ambur, having tanked a Mach Punch directly to the face, grabs a stick off the ground and gets to whacking.

They get Rigatoni out of the tree and start trying to find the exit, Ambur doing their cartography thing and finding it easily. The Dungeon drops them at the top of the hot springs and promptly collapses behind them, with their sudden appearance surprising Cinnamin, Rigatoni’s Raichu partner in Rescuing.

They spend a few hours talking and relaxing there, going over everything they might need to form their own Exploration Team and learning some more about what’s going on around town – including learning about a shadowy Lugia that burst out of a Mystery Dungeon some time ago and is now wandering the airspace between Pannacotta and the next closest town – they all make their way back to town, with Ambur and Hazy stopping by the Guild to submit their Team application on the way home.

The next day Ambur spends some time in the town’s library, trying to research the wandering Dungeon entrance phenomena and finding very few references to it, all tying back to a mysterious book written by a mysterious Umbreon. They send out a letter to their Mystery Dungeon researcher mailing list asking about said book. Their first proper mission as an Exploration Team later that day sees them wandering a steep rocky cave in Streusel Hills, aiming to retrieve a lost Defense Scarf, and to collect some Escape Orbs for the town’s shopkeepers Mike and Ike. They meet a friendly Gligar and a giant Onix and a cranky Drilbur, they learn of a big scary Gigalith somewhere nearby, and they encounter a Trapinch pit that only makes Ambur’s fear of bugs and bug-like Pokémon even worse.

That fear becomes a real problem on their next mission, with Hazy’s old partner Carson mailing them a special request: the Sneasler needs more Spinarak nest-silk to weave into his special Defense Scarves. Ambur and Hazy set out for the Black Forest, having a close encounter with the Shadow Lugia as it bursts out of the dungeon. It’s a long journey with a lot of distractions, including a familiar Breloom running a robbery scheme with their Shroomish partner in crime, and a tree full of angry Nincada.

They eventually make it to the central nest, finding a Beedrill trapped in the webbing of the Spinarak’s security system – she calls herself Crash, she’s part of a Rescue Team, looking for her partner, a Galvantula. She offers to join the Team and help out with gathering silk in exchange for their help in finding her partner, but Ambur’s entomophobia drives her off.

The nest itself is a dead white tree covered in thick, strong webs, which they collect with the help of Hazy’s gardening shears. They also find a Cubone club on the ground (with a matching skull in the nest itself), with Hazy using it to fight off the Spinarak and Ariados that quickly start to swarm them. From behind the nest, a giant Ariados leg reaches around, its first joint longer than Hazy is tall. Blinded by a String Shot, Hazy tries and fails to retrieve an escape orb, with Ambur diving into his bag themself to activate it.

By the time they’re out and walking back to town, they’re watching the next morning’s sunrise. After stopping by the Guild to warn them of the heavy Spinarak infestation, the giant Ariados, and the Beedrill’s missing partner, Ambur crashes in bed.