POKÉMON MYSTERY DUNGEON: GATES INTO SHADOW

Chapter Fourteen: [untitled]
raw campaign notes edition

the midnight crew prepares for the long journey ahead with a shopping spree, hazy buying up a bunch of supplies for pannacotta and a cart to carry them all. ambur stocks up on granola bars. with all the time they spent waiting for the tide and poking around the tower, the sun's well on its way to setting by the time they finally head out of nori.

they push through into the night, readjusting to their typical semi-nocturnal schedule, passing a few couriers making the trek in the opposite direction. thanks to their cleanup of cola marsh, there's been a lot more traffic, with deliveries and travelers coming into nori from miles and miles away.

a couple hours after midnight they make camp. no need to take watch, since it's a well-trafficked and well-patrolled route. ambur gets very little rest, haunted by nightmares of that otherworldly entity peeling apart the layers of their mind. they jolt awake, seeing two red eyes staring at them, somehow visible through the heavy canvas of the tent.

travel to the cola marsh entrance continues uneventfully. several couriers file in and out of the shadowed gateway. ambur and hazy step through the threshold.

ambur's inventory squirms. something tries to push its way out of their bag. they pop open the flap, and see jolt staring out up at them, very confused and glowing pink. curaçao is still a scarf. they scoop the shinx out, and it turns back into a plushie. the wishing stone broach, pinned against the inside of the bag, right where jolt was just sitting, gleams in the dark.

they put jolt back in the bag and tell him to grab the stone, then scoop him back out. the stone is granting him his body back, though somehow devolved back to how he was before leaving the convoy? and also glowing pink. ambur thinks for a minute, then takes the scarf out, wraps it around jolt's neck, and pins the broach to it instead.

curaçao awakes, glowing pink, curled around a shinx plush, the wishing stone broach pinned to her scarf. hazy hands his wishing stone to jolt instead, bringing him back.

ambur explains the situation to the both of them: something went wrong as they left the dungeon, and not everyone made it back to the other side in the same shape. a lot of pokémon from hope village got turned into... artefacts. the wishing stones seem to reverse this transformation, but they only work while inside a dungeon. jolt doesn't quite get it until ambur has curaçao demonstrate their predicament by momentarily dropping her stone and turning back into a scarf. jolt immediately gets it, and is very scared, and starts crying.

they carry jolt on their back as they start to journey through the dungeon. curaçao is mostly just curious about the new environment. she's never seen a swamp before. she doesn't like trekking through the muck, but appreciates the new experience, and refuses offers to ride in hazy's cart instead.

the star league has been hard at work in the dungeon, setting up wayfinder signs that automatically point to the dungeon's central nexus, the former inn they'd turned into a rest stop and emergency escape gate. ambur realises that they probably don't want to go through a star league checkpoint with two pokémon who are very visibly glowing with wishing stone energy.

they explain to jolt and curaçao that they'll both need to uh. "go back to sleep" as they pass through the checkpoint, so they can hide the stones from star league eyes. curaçao understands and accepts the idea, but jolt is still very scared. ambur asks him what he wants them to do, but he's too shaken up to offer a direct response.

ambur pauses at the next marker, then deliberately turns in the opposite direction. they'll avoid the center entirely. if jolt isn't 100% happy with the plan, they're scrapping it. they take a little break for food and rest.

curaçao asks about the dungeon, about all the spooky dead trees, and ambur tells them about their adventure in here, slightly embellishing the story when they notice it's helping jolt cheer up a little. jolt also gets to experience the wonders of granola bar.

they continue their journey, hazy occasionally spotting a croconaw observing them through the ferns, the same croconaw that's been stalking them for a while. nothing comes of it, though.

they camp out, jolt and curaçao sharing a tent while the midnight crew take turns with the other. hazy takes first watch. the croconaw still drifts by, with some marshtomp also skulking around, but very wisely keeping their distance, seeing as hazy is still very obviously carrying a sword.

ambur's watch is entirely uneventful, but they're paranoid and jumping at shadows the entire time. hazy's stirring awake startles them enough to fire a dark pulse beam in his vague direction, grazing the side of the tent, the fabric slightly singed with shadow.

hazy's notes: The duo realize they have a long trip and figure they need to go get supplies. Hazie remembers that he wanted to buy supplies for the town on their way back and buys 2k worth of needed supplies. And a cart! They wander off towards the marsh, noticing a lot more people on the road from far off lands, like Soda Springs, Vanilla Village, and even Lone Lodge (wherever that is). They go to sleep, glad to finally be back on their midnight to noon schedule.

We have once again entered the cola marsh dungeon. It is still a swamp. And oh hell that's a Jolt in the dogs bag. What. Oh now their a plush again. And now they're real again. Oh it's the wishing stone? Neat. Now we have Jolt and Curaçao with us. They do not take the news well that they are now items. Well, Curaçao is fine with it but Jolt cries a lot. We start moving again, discussing things and trying to convince the two (mostly just Jolt) that they will need to be a plush again if we go through checkpoint. They are reluctant and so Ambur decides we detour. The dog talks of adventures we have gone through while we travel, and Jolt gets to experience foods they've never had before. Eventually we settle in for the night. Hazie takes the first watch, noting that that damn croc is still following us. Probably should hyper beam that. Rest of the night is fine, but Ambur gets so spooked at shadows the dog gets no rest despite the sleep. They set off again in the morning.

midnight crew keeps moving. they start to hear scuffling combat sounds in the near distance, and cautiously approach. it's syr bela! she's waist-deep in mud, wildly swinging a water-aspect RKS sword around, trying to swat away a volley of projectile attacks from a trio of venonat. the poltchageist is hovering around behind her.

ambur spots another three bugs in a tree, watching and waiting to fling muck at any rescue attempts -- so they fire a blinker seed at the tree while hazy runs in to blast the attacking bugs with ghostfire. curaçao also runs in to help, but jolt stays back with ambur for a second, not understanding that the umbreon is intentionally keeping their distance. when ambur says they don't do well with bugs, jolt runs in toward the fight.

the three standby venonat swipe at ambur, one blindly missing but the other two hitting them pretty hard and managing to poison them. they grit their teeth and use the pain, channeling it into a more powerful dark pulse to blast one of the venonat away.

the venonat around bela slink back to hide in one of the trees, but hazy just picks up the tree and fucking tosses it over the dungeon walls. the two remaining bugs hovering around ambur take the hint and skitter away.

bela thanks them for the assist, but ambur tells her not to mention them being here -- her boss's boss is after them, and it's best not to have his attention on them when their friends are literally glowing in the dark.

the poltchageist explains that she got really bored and annoyed hanging around the guild, and especially hanging around giri, and thought she could find the midnight crew in this dungeon. she was hanging around the checkpoint for a while, but then thought she'd head towards the other exit and hope to run into them along the way -- and bela had to go run after her and make sure she didn't get in too much trouble. the dungeon's safer since clearing out all the ghosts, but the increased traffic leads to more mundane dangers, like bandits.

they thank bela for her help, and encourage her on her way back to the checkpoint, then get moving on out. a day's travel passes without incident, and they make camp at the dungeon's exit, and discuss what happens next with jolt and curaçao.

the wishing stones only work inside dungeons. once they step through the threshold, it's likely that they'll go back to being items. they can either step through while they're awake, in which case they'll just regain consciousness once they reach the next dungeon; or they can pass through while they're asleep, in which case they'll wake up again once the midnight crew make camp inside the next dungeon, as if no time had passed.

jolt's still very scared at the prospect of becoming a plushie again, but curaçao doesn't seem to care that much. ambur suggests doing both -- they'll all get some rest here, and while jolt's asleep, they'll take his wishing stone away, and let him rest until the next dungeon. jolt agrees.

ambur hesitates for just a moment in taking the stone from jolt -- and it's totally just because that's technically hazy's stone, and no other reason. they ask hazy to do it instead, then stuff the unconscious plushie back into their bag before curaçao can poke at it too much. they tell the nidorina to get some sleep, and take first watch.

the only movement during the night is a passing caravan.

hazy's notes: We got in a fight! Belle and our friend the Polteageist, who we totally did not forget about and just couldn't find back in town, were being attacked by three- no wait, six Venonat. They're hiding up in big trees. Ambur starts off the fight using their blowgun and a blinker seed. Got one, which is good. It even fell out of the tree. Hazie and Curaçao run forward, but Hazie stops short to pepper the tree with Infernal Parade, while Curaçao keeps going and throws some earth powers at them. The Venonat return fire at Hazie, but he just redoubles his efforts and one of them falls. Then he gets to the tree and... well, he grabs it. And then rips it out of the ground, and yeets it away. With the Venonats still onboard. Jolt runs in and does zappies at the other ones, and they decide to book it. Belle is frustrated that we've been missing, and the dog immediately threatens her about not telling anyone she saw us. With a bit more explaining, that's smoothed out. We once again have the Polteageist with us on our way home. We travel for another day, setting up camp in front of the exit and have a... difficult conversation about how things will go outside the dungeon with Jolt and Curaçao going back to being an item. Curaçao is okay, but Jolt doesn't like it. Eventually Jolt is convinced, and wants to go to sleep so that he just wakes up in the next dungeon, while Curaçao is totally fine with it. In fact, we're going to experiment and see if she can just walk out with us. Should be interesting to find out. The dog takes the first watch, and other than a caravan, nothing happens. Hazie's watch passes uneventful.