[Meta Thread] Pokerole Mystery Dungeon: Primal Shadows

[Mikaruge108]

Spoiler

Dragonstrike is the offer for me to continue playing Karen still open? PM me her sheet if so.
Can I get a tl;dr of the story so far

It is!  I'll have to make a separate sheet for her since all I have right now is my condensed GM notes, but I'll send it your way once I'm done with it.

As for the story so far:

Chapter 0

- Kee, Karen, and Kogeki wake up together in a dark cave, suddenly finding themselves turned into pokemon (Kee is a Galarian Zigzagoon with multicolored highlights, Karen is a shiny Ralts with silver and gold coloring, and Kogeki is a Ghost type Delta Riolu).  They also meet Daxter the Midgardian Charmander (a Water type) and Pyra the Devimp.  Pyra is a complete amnesiac, but everybody else remembers the very bare minimum of their past (i.e. they're humans and that they have pokemon partners) at that current time.  As pokemon, they appear to be rather young despite their human ages.

- After exiting the cave, they meet Marcus the Cubone, a craftsmon holding half of a Thick Club who immediately realizes the five strangers are humans turned into pokemon and gives them advice on how to conceal their true natures.  He also offers warnings that the inhabitants of the Sand Continent are distrustful of humans, considering the appearance of one to be a bad omen.

- The group also meet a Chimical and a Solosis in the first Mystrery Dungeon, the Dry Forest.  They are members of Team Artificers, and they're kinda jerks that tease and prod Marcus.  A fight is avoided, but it's not the last time they'll be seen.

- At the end of the forest, the group is attacked by a territorial bunch of Roggenrola lead by a Boldore.  There's a few moral deliberations between members of the group, but it's decided to leave the rock types alone after they back off when defeated.

- Marcus leads everyone to nearby Sahra Town and shows them around.  He offers everyone a temporary place to stay at his workshop and recommends they join the Adventurer's Guild, which has its base of operations primarily in a maze of underground tunnels beneath the town itself.

- While inquiring with Guildmaster Delphox about forming a team, Team OS meets a very powerful looking trio of Roserade, Gallade, and Rhyperior as they are finishing a meeting with the fox mage.  Gallade pauses and very briefly looks in Karen's direction on their way out of the guild hall.

Chapter 1

- As Team Omega Seekers, the five humans turned pokemon begin to settle into their new lives.  There's plenty of interesting individuals at the guild, including the cheery quest receptionist Floette, Guildmaster Delphox, the Guildmaster's seemingly reserved daughter Braixen, second in command Cacturne, as well as some others.  It's also learned that Team Artificers is part of the Guild, and they have a Golett as their third member, and the three of them seem to be under the leadership of a Porygon 2.

- Not wanting to stay in the Guild's basic housing accommodations forever, Team OS pools their initial, mysteriously obtained Nugget based funds together to purchase a service from the local builders, Machamp Construction.  Machamp is very much all smiles and thumbs up (including on the sign out front of his business), and eagerly takes the money.

- Team OS's first job out is at an area called Rough Rock Mountain, with the goal being to rescue a lost Stufful.  It's a simple job at first, but Karen gets separated from the group when they test how the move Teleport works in Mystery Dungeons, and the remaining four split into two groups of two to try and find her.

- Daxter and Pyra run into another team from the Guild, Team Gallop.  The leader of the team of 3, Ponyta, is rather aloof and difficult to persuade to help.  Mudbray seems more relaxed, but isn't able to convince Ponyta to be any less uptight.  Blitzle also seems to be sympathetic and tries to apologize for his team's leader, but has little choice but to follow his group when they get on the move again.  They're also at Rough Rock Mountain to try and save Stufful, as the Adventurer's Guild encourages competition between teams by making the rewards for jobs first come, first served.

- Kee and Kogeki, meanwhile, having found a way to get past some existing obstacles, track down and rescue Karen from a sand pit trap created by some wild Trapinch.

- Everyone reunites after Daxter and Pyra discover Team Gallop cleared a path around a large tree that had been blocking the way, and the rescue of Stufful continues without much of a hitch, though Pyra does break an arm after taking a long fall.

- Back at the guild, Blitzle later approaches Pyra on his own time to apologize for Ponyta and explain that the fire horse is very distrustful due to events in his past.

- Team OS's next job is to capture a messy outlaw Monferno at the request of a Mincinno.  The culprit fled to the Hall of Magic.

- The group is attacked by a group of wild Litwick, and one of them is recruited to the team when she shows a curiosity about the world outside the Mystery Dungeon.  A Klink is also recruited later after some Lethal wounds it sustained from one of Kogeki's weapon attacks are patched up by Karen.  Pyra and Kogeki are rather distrustful of both initially due to being attacked by them.

- After discovering a hidden passageway that Monferno used, Team OS confronts the outlaw and battles him.  Kee is knocked clean out by a Mach Punch, using a precious Tiny Reviver Seed up, but little trouble is had beyond that.  The monkey says mentions something about being part of a larger group, though, which raises concerns when it's brought up to Guildmaster Delphox later.

- Team OS's third job is a favor for Marcus that the Cubone is calling in for assisting them.  The supply of stone that he normally gets from the Secret Quarry has stopped, and he wants help investigating the cause.

- Before heading out on the job, Karen and Daxter notice something odd in the town square, hidden behind Hawlucha's Slam School.  Hawlucha himself requests that the team keep an eye out for a Link Box that had been stolen from him when the two walk over, but behind the stall is a strange bottle with a telepathic voice.  It contains the mythical pokemon Hoopa, who claims its powers have been sealed by an unknown, vastly powerful force.  It offers to help the team with their forays into Mystery Dungeons in exchange for opportunities to train and regain some of that lost power.  They are warned however that the bottle will return to Sahra Town if Hoopa is fully KOed.

- Pyra is nearly robbed by a suspicious looking Machop while wandering around Sahra Town's streets.

- At the quarry, the group learns from a wild Conkeldurr that Machamp has been attacking strange recently, and has imprisoned all of the other Conkeldurr that call the Mystery Dungeon home.  Marcus finds this very disturbing and completely unlike the construction foremon's usual behavior.  To confront Machamp, though, they have to go deeper into the quarry and reach the Hidden Mine.

- Just before reaching the transition to the Hidden Mine, the group encounters two strange individuals.  The first is a loud, showy Flager wearing a purple mask, claiming to be a well renowned thief called the Amazing Axel!  Nobody's heard of him, but some quick thinking by Pyra allows her to steal back the things he'd swiped off of Kee, and the team causes the thief to beat a hasty retreat.  He drops Hawlucha's Link Box as he flees the scene at Extreme Speed.

- Soon after, a young Salandit appears suddenly and is attacked by an unknown individual.  The lizard is soaked with water and was knocked out instantly.  It is later revealed that the Salandit is the young male that Kee had obtained as a human, Skittles.

- While resting at the Kangaskhan statue at the transition between dungeons, Marcus explains his history with Team Artificers, worried that some of the members of Team OS seem to be exhibiting some overly aggressive tendencies.  He wants to explain some of his own mistakes so that Team OS can learn from them, and hopefully not do something they might regret in the future.  He explains he left Team Artificers after he was forced to participate in essentially mugging another pokemon for unknown reasons, and that Team Artificers's leader is not Porygon 2, but another individual that the craftsmon has never met.  The team was also responsible for breaking his Thick Club in two, claiming it was for the greater good.  Fed up with Team Artificers's practices, Marcus left the Guild and struck out on his own, though Chimical and Solosis seemed to gain a penchant for calling him a traitor afterwards.

- In the Hidden Mine proper, the group runs into a very bossy Carkol that's ordering around a small bunch of Rolycoly.  Hoopa has a string of bad luck when trying to exercise his limited powers, but Team OS creams Carkol's rocky cabal regardless.  Carkol itself flees at high speed thanks to its extreme anger issues triggering its Steam Engine ability.  One of the defeated Rolycoly that was especially hesitant to follow orders is recruited.

- At the stairs to the next floor, Team OS encounters a dark, brooding Vilucard with a black coloration and the appearance of wearing a red cape.  One failed negotiation attempt later, the titular 'Darkula' concludes his objectives differ from those of Team OS, and he sets a Shadow Nohface (a Smogon CAP creation) on the party while he proceeds down the stairs to the next floor.  Nohface is driven back, but the party now has little time to waste.  That Vilucard is giving them especially ominous vibes, and Kogeki finds the Nohface eerily familiar to a pokemon he's heard about in his past...

- Team OS finds a rare pink gemstone in the old coal mine, as well as seeing many curious glowing pink lights at the bottom of a dark abyss.

- Team OS proceeds to the boss room only to find that Darkula has already obtained what he was seeking: the Dread Plate.  He flees with Nohface, leaving the party with a very angry Machamp.  When battle ensues, however, they discover it was a Zoroark and her pack of Zorua all along!  A few JoJo references, the freeing of the real Machamp, and a revelation that the mother fox was losing control due to being a Shadow Pokemon later, the party manages to succeed in their goal of discovering and resolving what was causing the holdup in stone production at the quarry, but is left with many more questions to larger issues than answers.

- Kogeki attempts to siphon some of the aura of the unconscious Zoroark, only to get a bit more than he bargained for and become tainted with Shadow energy himself, automatically increasing his Primal score by 1 but learning the move Shadow Blitz in the process.

- The party is also soon thrown into disarray, as Daxter's disagreements with some of the more extreme moral choices of Kogeki and Pyra have left a bad enough taste in his mouth that he wants to split off from Team Omega Seekers.  Karen, being a Ralts, is especially sensitive to conflicted emotions that are the source of arguments, and elects to join Daxter in splitting off from Team OS as well in an effort to get away from the intense emotions.  Pyra is crushed by the decisions, blaming herself for the division between her friends.

- Delphox and Cacturne are informed about the events that occurred at the quarry and mine, and they seem rather troubled by the report.  Especially that mention of Darkula...

Chapter 2

- One week later, Daxter, Karen, and Rolycoly have formed Team Night Wardens and begun their own operations separate from Team OS.  During that time period, Team OS recruited one of the Zorua at Zoroark's insistence, while Team NW recruited a Snom and a Rowlet to bolster their numbers.  Machamp, as thanks for saving him, finishes construction on separate housing for both teams on the outskirts of Sahra Town, using the funds that Zoroark had greedily 'collected' from them while disguised as the foremon.  A depressed Pyra leaves Team OS and takes up residence at Marcus's place, not trusting herself to do a good job with the team if all she managed to do was split them in two.  (Pyra is now effectively an NPC, and Windos has created a new character that should hopefully be less divisive).  Both Team NW and OS have been promoted to Bronze Rank and are now able to accept tougher jobs than before.  The two teams' humans are also beginning to remember parts of their original mission and primary reason for becoming pokemon: to gather the Plates of this world for Arceus and restore its power.  Details beyond that are still a bit fuzzy, though.

- Two commotions occur that morning in town.  The first is Delphox calls a mandatory meeting for all of the Guild's Teams.  The second is two of the village children, Sandshrew and Hippopotas, finding a very shiny, gaudy, metallic bird washed up on the beach near Sahra Town.  The bird pokemon is brought to the guild for treatment by the local doctor, Audino.

- Delphox announces that there are two issues.  The first is that the Master Rank Team Raiders, comprised of a Roserade; a Gallade; and a Rhyperior, has vanished while on a top secret investigation of strange storms in the area.  The second is that Braixen, her daughter, has run away, dissastisfied with being cooped up in the Guild instead of being able to go on Adventures in the wider world.  Having gathered many pokemon from many organizations across the world, Delphox asks four of her Guild's most skilled teams to partner up with well known groups to find both Team Raiders and Braixen and solve the mystery of the strange weather patterns.  More veteran teams and Cacturne are shocked when Delphox picks out both Team Night Wardens and Team Omega Seekers along with Team Stripes (a Silver ranked team featuring an Arcanine, a Barbaracle, and a Lurantis) and Team Artificers (who were recently promoted to Silver rank as well), though she seems confident and unwavering in her decision despite the two teams being so new to the guild.

- The shiny birdie that washed up on shore is a Steel type Delta Volchik known as Platina, though she claims to be a Rookidee.  After the guild meeting concludes, Delphox briefly meets with Platina to inquire if she knows anything about the cause of these strange storms.  Despite not having any notable new information regarding that, Delphox invites Platina to stay at the Guild for now and join one of their teams to earn her keep.  Platina, not one to turn down an opportunity like this when she has nowhere else to go, joins Team Omega Seekers.  She hopes they can help her find Ray, a pokemon that she had been traveling with before they'd gotten separated in last night's sudden thunderstorm.

Where we are now

- Team Artificers is accompanying representatives of the Rescue Organization's Team Go-Getters to the Air Continent, where they'll be heading to Mt. Thunder to question a pokemon about the sudden storms.

- Team Stripes is joining Wigglytuff Guild on the Grass Continent.  What exactly they've been up to hasn't been revealed yet.

- Team Omega Seekers has joined forces with Team Paradise from the Mist Continent, looking into an overabundance of snow that has been falling in the area around Post Town.  Using the power of Entercards and Magnagates, Platina; Kee; and Kogeki made their way to Paradise, where they have discovered that the human responsible for defeating the Bittercold, Sue the Raichu, has vanished.  They have not found any signs of Team Raiders or Braixen there, but Platina discovered her new friends are actually humans thanks to the local Hydreigon, emissary of the Voice of Life, and soon had a revelation that Sue may have gone to the Great Glacier to go meet with Kyurem, a legendary pokemon that's able to predict the future's most likely outcome...but it's not all bad, though, because Hoopa has also arrived to help, having regained some of his power since the Shadow Zoroark's defeat!  Hehehe~!

- Team Night Wardens has joined forces with the Expedition Society from the Water Continent.  Daxter has taken Rowlet and Snom with him and learned that Team Raiders stopped in Lively Town to prepare for an expedition to an unknown location.  Braixen was also seen with a group of Normal type pokemon that were on what appears to be an outlaw capture request of a yellow feline-like pokemon that's appeared in the recently discovered Thunder Forest.

- As Daxter could only bring two of his team's other members with him to the Water Continent, Karen and Rolycoly have been instructed to stay behind at the Adventurer's Guild to assist with searching the Sand Continent for further information about the whereabouts of both Team Raiders and Braixen.  What they've been up to exactly is unknown for now since it's been happening off screen, but now I guess I'll have to shed some light on that.

Welcome back   The pacing has been a bit all over the place, but we've been getting back into the swing of things slowly but surely lately.  I am going to need a little time to prepare some stuff for Karen's reintroduction as a player character rather than a GM controlled one, but I'll try and get that up as soon as I can.  It's great to hear back from ya and that you're doing relatively okay.

If you're familiar at all with the casts of the PMD games and each game's respective plot, you might recognize some of the references I've been making and the characters everyone's been interacting with recently

Awesome! Take all the time you need. It'll give me time to get back in Karen's skull.
Its been awhile, but I am mostly familiar with Time and Sky, the 3DS ones and the remake of Red and Blue on NSW.
*goes back to playing DDLC*