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Private/Closed Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Depths

OOC Note: The discussion thread for this rp can be found here: https://forums.pokecharms.com/threads/pmd-explorers-of-the-depths-discussion.30436/ (Private/Closed - PMD: Explorers of the Depths Discussion)



The trail between Deeproot and the northern cave entrance was well trodden. It was made of a mixture of gravel and large, pearlescent stones and maintained by workers from the guild. The trail itself took several days to traverse in its entirety, though where this story begins is only a day out of town. One would not be remiss to think it was a normal day. The sun shone brightly overhead and the fresh spring air was full of the smell of blossoms. Pidgey soared through the air and called out to each other. The last clumps of snow were disturbed by the occasional hunting pokemon. Things were peaceful.

Peaceful until the sudden frantic caw of Starly filled the air. It is often said that flying types have a keen sense of danger. While it may be an overgeneralization, that saying is not entirely wrong. When a flock of Starly takes to the air, it is rarely for any other reason than to flee. Only seconds later, the ground began to rumble. A wave of panic swept through the pines. Pokemon darted from bushes and dashed between trees. They scattered in all directions. Many were too slow to beat the coming force.

A Mystery Dungeon had begun to open.

It began as a small crack in the ground. One that would have been noticeable to any running by. Then that crack spread. It widened at a rapid space and swallowed up trees and bushes. Grounded pokemon were sent spiraling into the darkness. Airborne pokemon felt the sudden drag of air that sucked them into the growing canyon. A large chunk of the road was consumed by the gorge. It swallowed merchants and travelers alike. By the time it had finished, the forest was silent.

For those that had been swallowed, they found themselves in a labyrinth of rooms and tunnels. There was no roof, though one would be unable to see the world above. A thick veil of fog hung about fifteen feet in the air, swallowing any form of light from the outside world. The walls were made of clay and dirt and stretched up into the veil. Glowing, blue crystals lit up the floor and walls. They gave the labyrinth a dim, cold light that would send a chill up the spine of even the toughest pokemon. Most found themselves alone, though a lucky few managed to stick with anyone directly beside them when they fell.



Soren had left his father’s place a few days ago after a long, annoying visit. He loved Cinnamon dearly but his father had an unfortunate knack for guilt tripping him about his job. Soren was only a few hours out from Deeproot when he decided to stop for lunch. The sunlight was perfect on his scales and his belly was quickly filled with the sweet taste of a pecha berry. After that, he laid down on a stump and drifted off into a nap.

When Soren woke up, it was the crashing of a tree that snapped him awake. The rumbling earth had caused several old trunks to come tumbling down. Soren sat up, then snatched his bag. The call of Starly rang in his ears. He leapt up into the air, where he hovered about one foot above it. Some levitating ghost pokemon could use that power to fly, but Soren was not one of those. He rarely made it more than a foot or two off the ground. He looked around in a panic.

Soren had heard of these signs before. Silver University had a whole class on dungeon safety. That did not mean Soren expected to find himself where one was opening. He darted in the direction the Starly were going, but it did him little good. The rumbling grew louder. More violent. The ground tore open below Soren. Levitation did little to save the Dreepy from his fate. He was dragged downwards into the thick, dark fog. A cry of shock escaped him as he fell.

What levitation did aid Soren in was not face planting into the dirt. He gazed up and around at the towering walls. His heart sank and he took a deep breath. Okay… there had to be a way out of here. Most dungeons had several exits across every couple of floors. He just had to calm down and start searching.

Calm down was the hard part. Anxiety made Soren’s blood rush. He fiddled with his bag. When he had been on his apprenticeship, he had entered a few low level dungeons. Soren had also had several stronger pokemon to keep him safe. It was not helping that Cinnamon had put several paranoid thoughts of danger into Soren’s head. The Dreepy swallowed hard and forced himself to take a deep breath. Then he headed through a northern tunnel, or at least what he presumed was north.
 
A lone Frigibax had left the safety of Deeproot Town. The Dragon/Ice-Type had taken some part of the day to train. First was his light jog and walk through town, then there was the push-ups, the planks, and then a relaxing jog through the woods to help clear his mind and help him refocus. However, he normally jogged around the perimeter of the town.

No, his sister told him of a rumor she heard. She heard someone said they swore they spotted a Dragonite-like figure darting through the forest. The sweet Frigibax known as Baxter figured it might've been a case of mistaken identity. As much as he wanted to believe he would see his father again, Baxter knew that things wouldn't pan out so easily for them.

That didn't stop him from jogging into the forest to see if this rumor was true.

It must have been an hour before he realized he had gone too far into the forest. He was starting to get lost, and he was about to turn to a Starly for help, only to hold his ears when they made an ear-piercing shrill cry. The noise hurt, and he glared up at them, only to realize they were flying away.

Eyes widening, he looked around, adrenaline pumping in his veins and dulling the ache of his morning work out. He felt the ground shift, and his knowledge on the emergence of a Mystery Dungeon - fleeing in particular - didn't quite help him here. He was too far into the forest, and he can feel the earth give way under his feet. He went to grab a hold of something, anything. He cursed himself for not bringing much of anything with him besides some food and water.

He quickly grabbed a hold of a tree, which fell with him. He tried to climb up it, using his tiny claws to reach a branch above as his stomach plummeted along with their descent, but the tree hit something hard, and the Frigibax was knocked off the tree and onto the ground. Landing on his dorsal fin, he gasped and rolled over, groaning in agony. He was glad the dorsal fin was hard and couldn't break easily, but the pain spreading through his body from that point still didn't ease his worries on what happened to his back.

He was sure it was fine - or at least he kept telling himself. In actuality, his dorsal fin didn't break nor did it bend, but the tip did flatten slightly from the impact. He was hoping it didn't impact his ability to absorb heat.

In fact... Now that he got a clear look of his surroundings, he was starting to realize that it was pretty temperate in here. The fog covering what would have been the ceiling kept the heat in, but it wasn't warm enough for him to absorb any heat to boost his ice powers.

Sighing, he slowly got up, his muscles aching from his earlier routine. He went down one way, unsure of where he was going, but he at least had good memory.

That was when he saw someone. His body stiffened and he stared warily down the hallway. It was floating... and had quite a large bag of books, he guessed. But he was taught that Pokemon down here went insane, but he forgot how long it would have taken for them to do so. Was it immediate? Or did it take days? Hours? Minutes?

Still, he had to hold on to hope that maybe this Pokemon was a friend. He called out hesitantly. "H-hello? Who are you and... a-are you alright?" Maybe they would respond better to a more concerned question? He wasn't so sure, he just didn't want to antagonize a potential ally or an enemy, yet his adrenaline still spiked as he prepared to protect himself.
 
A small Tinkatink was walking through the forest north of town. She was carrying a collection of sticks meant to become fire starting material for the smithery her mother ran. She carried her metallic club with one hand and the sticks in the other with some difficulty due to the amount of them. A stick fell from her grasp as she started her trek home and with a sigh she placed her club down to retrieve the branch. It might not be an important job on it's own, but Tilda did her best to help her mother where she could, mostly with tasks requiring someone to leave their shop and home as the Tinkaton had four young Impidimps to look after on top of the work in the smithery.

Just as Tilda had the full heap of sticks in her arms again, she heard the screeches of Starlies and probably other bird pokemon too. She looked up at the sky as she took hold of her club and saw a flock of them fly off. Shortly after the ground began to rumble. The little fairy-steel type's heart started to pound. It couldn't be, could it? A Mystery dungeon opening here? She had memories of her father telling her about them and had only once before felt the rumble of a dungeon opening before. The Tinkatink started to run as fast as her little feet could carry her, but she was no match to the dungeon's maw that ruptured the ground and eventually swallowed her whole. As she felt the ground suddenly crumble beneath her feet Tilda screamed as loudly as she could, but amongst the chaos of trees falling and the rumbling, her scream too got swallowed by the dungeon. She let go of the sticks and tried to grab a hold of anything, but it was too late. All she could do was hold her club as tight as possible and close her eyes.

The Tinkatink fell deep into the dungeon's depths. Until she landed with a substantial thud. Mostly due to the heavy club she was holding, but the fairy type let out a pained groan as the wind got knocked out of her. She pushed her weapon off of her and after getting some air back in her and calming her breath, she got up. Rubbing the back of her head, her eyes finally adjusted to the dimly lit cave. Blue crystals both from the walls and floor somewhat illuminating her surroundings. She didn't know if it was her adrenalin, anxiousness, the drop she just endured or the air itself, but the air felt thick as she saw the fog that settled in. Looking up she saw that the walls stretched endlessly above her, almost as if she had fallen through an abyss.

Tilda looked around, now gripping at her club once more to see if there were any others that had fallen with her. Well, there were none in this room at least and all she could see on the ground were the sticks she collected earlier. With her head still pounding and her body aching, she did her best to recall the little nuggets of information on dungeons her father had told her. On each floor there was at least one exit, either leading deeper into the dungeon or an escape. She just had to find the way out.. And hopefully stay away from any confused or mad pokemon that could be found here too.

Using her metallic club as a crutch to help her up she then looked around, trying to assess where to go. Eventually, she had to find her way out, right? She heard echoes and dubious sounds from the cave that made the Tinkatink all too alert as she started to walk, holding on to her club for dear life and ready to attack at the slightest movement or noise. Walking along a hallway, she came across another bigger room and stiffened as she heard someone call out "H-hello? Who are you and... a-are you alright?". Peeking behind the corner with her tuft of hair spilling a little past her, she spotted two figures. One Dreepy with a bag as big as them filled to the brim with something, then the other was further away, slightly obscured by the fog for Tilda. Well at least there was another pokemon of sound mind here. She just had to hope that the third one was too.

"Hello? Did you fall down here too?" she called out to either or both pokemon as she wearily stepped out from the hallway she came, still holding tightly onto her club just in case.
 
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Debt collecting was never a fun activity, but it was a necessity to keep the business afloat. Nyx, a Duskull was on their way to collect debt from an old widow who borrowed money to repair her roof after the wooden beams had rotten away. Their dad would have collected it himself, but he needed to balance the books and did not trust anyone else to do it.

The silence of the forest was rudely interrupted by the screeches of Starly and the tearing of the earth. Nyx' eye widened as they felt an overwhelming urge to get out of there. Collecting debt was a lot harder when you are dead after all, even for a Ghost type Pokémon. The tearing of the ground got closer and closer to Nyx before swallowing the earth above which they floated, sucking them inside of the dungeon as the Requiem Pokémon reached for their Amulet Coin, clutching it closely to their body as they fell down.

Nyx landed and looked around, happy to see that their Amulet Coin was not even scuffed by the fall. Breathing a sigh of relief, the Duskull looked around and noticed the crystals lighting the room. If they weren't in this situation, they would wonder about the value of the crystals. Matters of money could wait though, as they heard voices nearby. They weren't alone in this dungeon? Skulking around the corner, the Duskull saw two figures in a room with a third one speaking up. Intruiging, to say the least. Perhaps they were sound of mind enough to reason with and help Nyx get out of this place.
 
A bundle of voices caused the little Dreepy to jump. Soren looked around with wide eyes, his ghostly tail flicking back and forth. Talking calmly and not immediately attacking was a good sign. A sign that the pokemon talking to him were not about to try to eat him. Soren squinted as he gazed into the fog.

“Hello! U-Uhm… I did, actually.” Soren set his bag down and settled on top of it, trying to seem small and non-threatening. “I’m alright! I landed safely.”

Soren locked eyes with the Tinkatink. He stiffened when he saw the threatening club, but it seemed an act of self defense. The Dreepy lowered his head. “Are you okay? That was a long fall for someone who can’t float.”
 
Tilda's eyes darted around the cave and flinched a little as she saw an ominous red orb floating in the fog. She pulled her club tighter to her body until realizing that this too, was just a pokemon. They had not spoken up yet, but at least they didn't rush in to attack any of the others in the room either.

The Tinkatink's eyes then snapped to the Dreepy as she relaxed a little. Good, she found some sane pokemon to hopefully get out of this cave with. She lowered her weapon and flicked her tuft of hair back. As for the ghost-dragon pokemon's remark on the fall, he was right. It hurt to walk and rotating her body a lot sure hurt too, but it wasn't severe enough to worry about right now, or that's what Tilda hoped at least. Most likely, the pain would go away with resting once they got out.

"I can manage. I'm sure the pain will fade soon enough," the fairy type finally said before she turned to the other two figures and stepped further into the room, "How about you two? You with the red eye and you..." Tilda paused as she finally could make out the other figure in the room. It was a Frigibax, "Dragon," her eyes remained on the Ice Fin Pokemon since the pokemon with the red floating orb was a ghost pokemon by Tilda's assumption and thus most likely not too affected by the long fall from the surface.
 
Nyx knew they were called out, so there was no point in hiding. Thankfully the Tinkatink seemed to be sound of mind, and the Dreepy was almost pathetic with how they portrayed themselves. "Heh..heh..heh.." They laughed, slowly leaving the fog and coming into view. "A fall like that cannot hurt me, pink one." The Duskull said, staring at Tilda and the Dreepy. "I doubt that I can say the same about you, with that heavy metal club you carry around."

"Such a shame all of us got stuck in this place, I have more important places to be than this dungeon." The Ghost type said, looking around the room as their red eye had yet to blink. "How do we get out of here, so we can all go about our daily lives again?"
 
The Frigibax stood, body tense as he awaited for the Dreepy to do something, but other than jumping... Baxter realized this Dreepy wasn't evil. Good. Someone else spoke and Baxter turned to them, noticing they were a Tinkatink. Baxter nodded to her question, feeling a bit better now that she also seemed of sound mind.

He noticed someone watching them from the dark, but didn't comment on it. Not yet at least. The Dreepy spoke, and Baxter sighed in relief. "Well, glad you seem okay." He looked over at the Tinkatink, giving her a sympathetic expression. "Yeah, I didn't fall very gracefully either. Fell on my fin, but I should be fine." For some reason, there was something about this Tinkatink that had him feeling a little... scared? Threatened?

The Duskull finally revealed themselves, and Baxter looked over and noticed how... Creepy he was being. Still, he desired to get out. Still, there was something familiar about him. Was he related to that banker...?

He wasn't so sure, but he wanted to get introductions out of the way.

"I'm Baxter, by the way. Let's go together while we talk, so we can find the exit sooner. Um..." He then paused, looking at the hallways they came from. "So, where did we each come from? I came from that hallway, and that room was a dead end."
 
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