The Mystery of Thiva Valley - A Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Game

[WhismurWanders]

The Mystery of Thiva Valley

The Valley has been at an unsteady peace for quite some time. 50 years ago, after the Eastern Clanfolks sacked the City of Thiva, the royal family disappeared without a trace. Presumed dead, the city was passed on to a council of stewards. Without true authority, Thiva has been growing into a slow decline, no longer the bright crown jewel of the valley it was in an age only remembered by the elder generations. Riverspring Village has been thriving in its pseudo-independance, trading with the main city and the clanfolk encampments nearby. Change, however, is on the wind, with strange new threats, and potentially stranger heroes answering the call. Can you band together to unlock the mysteries of Thiva Valley?

---

Fresh springtime air slowly brings down the occasional flower petals from trees and brush. A high, tall waterfall crashes into a lake, known to the locals as Gyarados Leap. However, what has garnered the attention of a small band of pokemon isn't the pool itself, or even the waterfall but what was recently pulled from the water after a thunderous noise and an equally impressive splash. A Skorupi, Munchlax, and Timburr lay on the ground, not quite conscious and wet to the bone, having been rescued from drowning by a Poliwrath stretching his muscles and keeping an eye on the crowd. At the front of the crowd, an excited Zigzagoon chirps and barks with insatiable curiosity, "Are they dead? Did they die? Did they drown? Who are they? Where did they come from? Did they really jump off the top of Gyarados Leap? How did they get up there?" No one from the crowd dares give any kind of authoritative answer, but murmurs run through the group like ripples of anxiety. The Poliwrath only grunts somewhat grumpily, "Whoever they are, that was a pretty stupid stunt to pull." Murmurs of agreement sweep over the crowd.

Sputtering and coughing, it would seem the unconscious trio suddenly start to awaken. Undoubtedly confused, they all can independantly hear a faint whisper as a dream fades from their minds.

Spoiler: Isekai'd Characters

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Before you awaken, you each remember this dream independantly of each other.

You stand in front of a bright blazing white light, which seems to pour down in the form of a firey waterfall. An impossibly deep voice thunders, "Run ... they have almost arrived! Whatever happens, protect the girl!" You see no figures which you can ascribe the voice to, and you feel a splash of water envelop your entire body.

A collective sigh moves through the crowd as it seems there's no question of life or death today. The Zigzagoon, undeterred, scampers almost too closely to the group, and simply says, "Hiya!" before staring intensely amicably at the trio.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Between taking her first breath and opening her eyes, the Timburr picks up a forked log that she somehow knows is hers, rolls to her feet and tries to relay her dream-warning to the puppy-child who approached her.

"Thergh-*COUGH*" She chokes on some river water in her throat as she weakly gets the words out. "They're coming. We need to run..."

She blinks and squints and tries to wipe water from her eyes as she scans the ground hoping for a telltale glint of reflected sunlight. She knows she can't wait long to act on a dream of this urgency, but based on what she can see so far, she really needs to find her glasses.

[CardTrick]

Chet is clearly in a state of bewilderment and confusion, or at least that was his own assessment, which he likewise recognized was probably the greatest understatement of his young life. He remembered having just been in such incredible pain and that Sally had been crying... and then there that light and a voice. Oh no, the car had hit him. He was SO dead. Actually, he was dead, cold, and wet... and now... now a raccoon? Was that a raccoon? A talking raccoon?!

Chet's attempt to roll up to his feet away from the talking animal, did not really help things, as every bit of him felt so heavy and when he did finally manage to get off his back and onto his backside, he couldn't help but realize it felt oddly... big. Of course, this oddity quickly played second fiddle as his eyes finally found purchase on his own... blue paws. Wait? PAWS?!

"Wha... WHAT THE...?!"

However, this shock also immediately played second fiddle to what he saw just beyond his... paws, which was several other creatures, including what looked to him to be a scorpion larger than any he'd ever read about.

"Oh, holy crap!"

[Llyarden]

To the assembled Pokemon, the actions of the Skorupi must have seemed very strange indeed, as she carefully adjusted her sunglasses with one stinger before awkwardly trying to wobble upright onto her two rearmost legs - which went round about as well as you might have expected for a quadrupedal creature, and she only got about halfway towards being vertical before she lost her balance and flopped back down again, putting her at more or less a perfect position to watch the Zigzagoon speak to her.

"GYAH!"

She tried to scuttle back, trying to use her stingers as extra legs, and managed to get a good foot or so away from the young Pokemon before actually noticing that it was definitely not arms she was pushing herself backwards with.

For a long few moments she was almost perfectly still. Then she waved one of her stingers in front of her face.

"Wha...what..."

[Zelphas]

Within the crowd, a Bellsprout with an unusually dark head-flower slides her way forward, wondering what the commotion could be. "Gyarados Leap is... the waterfall, maybe," she keeps a running, muttered commentary to herself as she moves, slipping sinuously through the various Pokemon with the practiced ease of a hunter. "Jumping off is... good? Bad? Noticeable, so bad, for me. Or good? I'm not--"

Dancer breaks through the front of the ring of onlookers just as the Skorupi shouts in surprise and fear. Confronted with a Bug Type scrambling quickly, Dancer all-but vanishes from the front of the crowd, appearing huddled down at the opposite side of the ring from the angry... surprised? Skorupi only a few moments later.

[WhismurWanders]

The crowd starts to thin, despite the outbursts of each of the three non-drowned pokemon, until only a handful remain; the grumpy Poliwrath, a giggling Fennekin, the Zigzagoon, a pair of Psyduck who continually whisper to one another quietly, and a Bellsprout keeping a healthy distance from the trio.

At the sudden outbursts, the Poliwrath waves his hands around, shouting, "CALM DOWN! You guys think you're funny scaring us all like that?" The Zigzagoon makes a small jump backward, but quickly wheels around to interrogate Wiebke. "Who's coming? Why do we need to run? Are we in danger? How do you know they're coming? Are you looking for someone? Did someone scare you?" The Psyduck fall over and start irately quacking from the sudden surge in energy around the group, and the Fennekin bounces over to help them back up. The vulpine pokemon asks, "You guys aren't from around here, are you?" The Poliwrath brusquely shrugs the question off, "Of course they're from around here! No one crosses any of the mountains to the Valley, and we'd have heard of any travellers coming up from Thiva." His angry eyebrows furrow a bit more as he squints at the trio. "Though I can't say I've seen them around before ... and I live pretty close by."

[Llyarden]

"Calm down? Calm down?"

Kelly had finally managed to get the hang of standing on all four legs, although she was still kinda waving her stingers and tail (which she hadn't entirely realised she had yet) around for balance, making her look distinctly less imposing than she ever might have. "My designer shoes are gone - I assume they're in your stupid lake over there - I've got giant stingers where my hands should be, and there's a Poliwrath talking to me!!"

"But please, keep yelling at me about how I should BE CALM!"

She paused, taking a breath, adjusting her sunglasses again as she looked over at the Fennekin. "Finally, someone sensible. No, I'm not from around here, so if you would kindly tell me where I can find a phone so I can call the police and..."

She trailed off.

And say what?

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"Who's coming? Why do we need to run? Are we in danger? How do you know they're coming? Are you looking for someone? Did someone scare you?"

The Timburr tries to keep her attention on the puppy child amidst all the waving and shouting. She leans on her wooden beam like a walking stick as she thinks. It would seem that the dream isn't really over yet.

"...I don't remember," she says. "I do seem to recall that we needed to protect a girl. Perhaps it was you?"

As she regards Zigzagoon, she finally spots her tiny glasses jammed in the fork of her stick. A broken string of beads trails from its temples. "Ah!" She picks them up and quickly adjusts them on the bridge of her little mouse nose. "There we go!"

As she does this, she finds herself looking up at the top of the waterfall. "We fell from up there, right? Logically, that would mean whoever was chasing us would be coming from somewhere upstream. Does that narrow it down?"

[CardTrick]

After having shuffled a bit away from the giant scorpion, Chet tried to calm himself as all the various creatures around him either left or started rambling about this and that. Notable based on its comment about designer shoes and having had hands, Chet draws the conclusion that the scorpion must have been human at some point too. And given that the weird creature with the big stick was mentioning protecting a girl, the same as that weird voice from in the light, they were probably in a similar situation to his too. However, all the other creatures were saying things implied they were local. So, as near as Chet could tell, he had woken up in something like the Berbil Village. That was insane, of course, since that was from a cartoon, but it was the best he could figure at the moment.

Slowly rolling up to his furry feet, Chet decides that since the various creatures weren't acting hostile and this place seemed to be their home, it was probably best to answer their questions. First turning to the raccoon creature, Chet shrugs, "I have no idea about most of that, sorry. A weird voice said some stuff about running from a THEY and protecting a GIRL. That's honestly all I know.", before glancing up at the waterfall the stick-wielding creature referenced and then addressing the fox, "And I don't even know where HERE or UP THERE even is. I'm from Claremont. Which umm...", and finally timidly extending a paw toward the weird circular creature with gloves for hands. "Hello, I'm Chester. And you are?"

[Zelphas]

Dancer listens in on the three strange Pokemon's increasingly strange conversation, uncurling slightly from her crouched position. The Bug Type still elicits an instinctual shying away, but her words and actions don't suggest the same sort of danger that she's seen from Bug Types before. And as for their words.

"Running from them, protecting a girl... huh. How similar," Dancer mutters without realizing she is speaking, squinting up at the top of Gyarados Leap for a moment before shaking her head. "I'm protecting a me, though... or am I? Protecting someone else can be long-term, but protecting yourself is usually short-term... hmm... Voice in the head, voice in the--Psychic Type? Not experienced myself. MAybe?"

[WhismurWanders]

"Calm down? Calm down?"

Kelly had finally managed to get the hang of standing on all four legs, although she was still kinda waving her stingers and tail (which she hadn't entirely realised she had yet) around for balance, making her look distinctly less imposing than she ever might have. "My designer shoes are gone - I assume they're in your stupid lake over there - I've got giant stingers where my hands should be, and there's a Poliwrath talking to me!!"

"But please, keep yelling at me about how I should BE CALM!"

She paused, taking a breath, adjusting her sunglasses again as she looked over at the Fennekin. "Finally, someone sensible. No, I'm not from around here, so if you would kindly tell me where I can find a phone so I can call the police and..."

She trailed off.

And say what?

The Poliwrath narrows his eyes and crosses his arms. "No idea what you're on about, but I pulled all of you and everything I could grab from the lake. You want to go for a swim to find anything else, be my guest."

The Fennekin ***** her head in visible confusion. "A phone?"

The Timburr tries to keep her attention on the puppy child amidst all the waving and shouting. She leans on her wooden beam like a walking stick as she thinks. It would seem that the dream isn't really over yet.

"...I don't remember," she says. "I do seem to recall that we needed to protect a girl. Perhaps it was you?"

As she regards Zigzagoon, she finally spots her tiny glasses jammed in the fork of her stick. A broken string of beads trails from its temples. "Ah!" She picks them up and quickly adjusts them on the bridge of her little mouse nose. "There we go!"

As she does this, she finds herself looking up at the top of the waterfall. "We fell from up there, right? Logically, that would mean whoever was chasing us would be coming from somewhere upstream. Does that narrow it down?"

Slowly rolling up to his furry feet, Chet decides that since the various creatures weren't acting hostile and this place seemed to be their home, it was probably best to answer their questions. First turning to the raccoon creature, Chet shrugs, "I have no idea about most of that, sorry. A weird voice said some stuff about running from a THEY and protecting a GIRL. That's honestly all I know.", before glancing up at the waterfall the stick-wielding creature referenced and then addressing the fox, "And I don't even know where HERE or UP THERE even is. I'm from Claremont. Which umm...", and finally timidly extending a paw toward the weird circular creature with gloves for hands. "Hello, I'm Chester. And you are?"

The Poliwrath eyes Chet warily, but offers a gloved hand in response before answering the other posed question. "That's the thing, no one knows what's up there. The waterfall shoots out of a small opening in the rocks. No one has ever made it up there, or at least lived to come back and tell anyone about it."

[Llyarden]

"The lake..."

Kelly had no intention of going for a swim, but the Poliwrath did raise a useful point. Water was reflective.

So the Skorupi awkwardly scuttled her way over to the water and looked down. After a moment, she raised one stinger, and lowered it again. Then she did a little turn on the spot, keeping her eyes on the water as best as she could, examining the custom-made jacket she'd appeared with, adjusting her sunglasses again.

Then she paused again, scuttled closer to the water still until her front two legs were actually under the water, peering at her reflection - and then whirled around to face the others, an accusing look in her eyes.

"Why did no-one tell me I have a tail?!"

After a few moments she realised the absurdity of her question and sighed, scuttling back to the group.

"Okay, so...just...to reassure me that I'm not going completely insane, raise your hands - or, you know, whatever pass for hands," she corrected herself, with a glance at her stingers "- if you were human until five minutes ago?" There was definitely something of a pleading edge to her tone.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"Claremont?"

Of course, there are a bunch of Claremonts in the human world, even if the timburr's never been to one as far as her fuzzy memory can tell her. At first, she thinks that Chester is just a down-to-earth sort of monster, but Scorpion Girl introduces a far more interesting idea.

The pink-veined grey marsupial with the big orange stick and small orange glasses raises her little paw of a hand. "I guess I qualify, too," she says. "Though, for the record, I don't think any of this means we've lost what made us human, necessarily... My name is Alberta! Do you remember yours?"

She waits for Kelly to give her name. Of course, as the group establishes who they are, the other monsters will probably start feeling left out. "Ah, thank you for rescuing us," she finally says to Frog Bouncer. "I think we might be suffering some kind of... trauma-induced dissociation? Whatever we've been through, the whole world is unrecognizable now, at least to me. Could one of you point us to somewhere we could go?"

Al tries to read the room, not that she's very good at that on her best day. Kelly is still in nervous breakdown mode, but Chester looks like he's already on the same page. Frog Bouncer looks skeptical, Yellow Fox and Raccoon look intrigued, and... who's that over there muttering to themself?

"Excuse me," she says to Shy Bell Flower. "Are you lost, too?"

[Zelphas]

Dancer watches the three odd Pokemon with growing confusion. Had no one explained to them about evolution when they were young? But, no, that can't be right; at least, she thought so. She never was very good about knowing all the different Types and things. "Hyu-mannn," she says experimentally, rolling the word around to gauge its weight. She doesn't know that Pokemon.

The larger one with the stick approaches her, and she considers her question for a moment. "I hope so," she finally responds with a confident air. After all, lost means not yet found, she adds silently in her head.

[CardTrick]

Somewhat more at ease once the large round creature accepted his handshake, Chet raises his free hand at Kelly's inquiry, "Yeah, I was not a... whatever THIS is this morning... but...", before squinting at what appeared to be a pile of some of his stuff. And on closer inspection it actually WAS his stuff, even the little baggy with his half eaten PB&J from lunch. Why was he a big blue... whatever he was, but his sandwich was still exactly the same PB&J it was before? And the lighter wasn't even his. That was Sally's. She was always getting in trouble for smoking in-between classes. So why had it come with him to this bizarre place? Setting that aside for the moment, Chet turns back to the round creature and nods politely as he takes back his hand, "but... umm, anyway...thank you for fishing us out. Very cool of you. And that's not a bad idea."

Glancing over to Alberta and the talking scorpion, "I'm actually a pretty good swimmer. If it's okay with you guys, I'm going to take a look and make sure we didn't lose something... or even someone... important in there before we head out anywhere."

[WhismurWanders]

At the word human, the Poliwrath continues to look impassively at the group, while the Zigzagoon and Fennekin become excited. "Humans!" They hope around in circles around each other. "That's silly! Everyone knows humans are just made-up! Like the Tooth Fairy, or the Golems who made the valley!" The Zigzagoon chuckles, "You know who you should see if you need a problem fixed?" Without waiting for an answer, the pup nudges the fox pokemon. "Braixen! She knows everything about everyone!" The Fennekin growns, "My sister? C'mon, I don't wanna go see her..." She frowns, but Poliwrath interrupts any further grumbling. "Braixen is supposedly helping out at Pangoro's Homestead. Dunno if she can help you with your particular problem ... but it's not a bad idea, and not too far away." He shades his eyes and looks up into the sky. "If you head out soon, you should be able to make it before dark."

Fennekin sighs, "I guess that means we'll be heading out there? Whenever you're ready, I guess..." The, until now, cheerful pokemon seems quite deflated at the mention of their sister, and sits down, waiting for the group.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Al nods and lets Chester go for his swim while she says on the shore to talk. Frog Bouncer sounds like he already searched pretty thoroughly, and he also had the advantage of being an amphibian, but one more quick look won't hurt.

"Interesting!" Alberta says to the kids, suddenly excited. "Then I guess you don't interact much with the Human world. Perhaps they live on a different plane of existence entirely!" She takes a breath of the idyllic springtime atmosphere. "That might be for the best. Humans can be dangerous, you know?"

Al suddenly becomes self-conscious about how weird she's being. She shakes her head and tries to recover her train of thought.

"Um, right. If you think Miss Braixen would be willing to help, that sounds like our best bet." She looks at the dejected fox. "...I guess it's not fair that I learned your sister's name before I learned yours, huh? Come to think of it, I don't think I caught any of your names..."

[Llyarden]

Kelly gave a small sigh of relief as it turned out she wasn't the only former human there. The Munchlax and Timburr were both human too, and...maybe the Bellsprout? Or maybe she was just lost. "Kelly," she answered Alberta's question. "I'd shake hands, but...y'know."

After a few moments, she looked over to Chester. "You mean you were a good swimmer as a human, or you're a good swimmer as a Munchlax?" she asked. "'Cos I think our friend over there would get pretty mad if you sink like a stone just after he dragged you out." She seemed to have conveniently forgotten that the Poliwrath had dragged her out of the water too.

So humans were a made-up story here. Well, at least they'd found that out now. Which meant that she would definitely have to learn how to use these stupid stingers to do anything useful. Unless...she swished her tail back and forth. After a few attempts, she figured out which muscles controlled her tail-claw and made little pinching motions in the air.

"Right, yeah, Braixen's Homestead or whatever," she agreed, distracted by the discovery that she actually did have something resembling a hand. "So, uh...are we just gonna walk there? That's...like, that's safe?"

She didn't ask the question that was actually on her mind aloud, which was What about the wild Pokemon that live outside cities?

[CardTrick]

Chet returns Alberta's nod as he notes that Kelly seemed to know what he was, *Munchlax? Great, so I'm a weird cat panda hybrid with a name that sounds like a chewable laxative.*, and come to think of it, had also seemed to know what that round creature was too. She'd called it Poly-something-or-another.

Glancing in Kelly's direction, Chet walks over to the water, "I mean... I'm obviously kind of pudgy now but the new arms and legs feel pretty strong...", pauses to do an abrupt deep breathing exercise, "... and the lungs work alright too. So, I think I should be okay.", and wades in to make sure they weren't leaving something important behind.

[WhismurWanders]

It would seem that Chet isn‘t used to controlling his new form, as it doesn‘t take long for him to resurface, sputtering and coughing. However, the effort wasn‘t totally fruitless, as Chet is certain he saw four small shimmering objects on the bottom of the lake.

[CardTrick]

Chet paddles in place along the lake's surface, more tired than he'd expected to be. Coach Schriver would give him a earful if he could see him right now, well, he'd probably freak out over the whole talking cat panda thing first, but still. "Cuoogh... cuoogh, cuoogh... okay... so turns out a coat of wet fur is REALLY heavy. Ha ha. Cuoogh... going to need to get used to that. Cuoogh."

After steadying himself into simply free floating and getting control of his breathing, Chet adds, "OKAY. So, there REALLY IS something down here. Like four somethings, actually. But I'm going to need a minute to get them if the big guy doesn't want to help. You know... wet fur and all."

[Llyarden]

"Told you so," Kelly said, smugly. She was, however, very quickly distracted by the mention of shiny things. "Four of them?"

I do have four feet now...maybe whatever changed my sunglasses to make them fit made some extra shoes for me too!

Thus excited by the prospect, she cast an eye over the group. The Poliwrath had already been down and managed to miss something that was apparently shiny, so clearly he wasn't going to be any use. Fennekin and Zigzagoon didn't seem very useful, so that left...

"Hey, uh..." She paused for a moment, trying to figure out how to address someone. All the others had used their species as though they were names, so she stuck with that. "Bellsprout. Bellsprouts have long vines, right? You think you could reach the bottom of the lake from the surface?" Why she'd assumed the Bellsprout was just going to drop everything to help them was anyone's guess.

[Zelphas]

Dancer has been waiting with dreamlike patience while everyone converses and figures out what to do. It occurs to her that if she connects herself to these other "lost" Pokemon, she might learn a lot more about the world around her without seeming so conspicuous herself, which would be very useful. So, while they all debate and question, she simply waits, hoping to blend into their group without much bother.

The mention of "somethings" at the bottom of the pool intrigues her, and Dancer edges closer to the water. There really isn't much in the water that can scare her; it was a common hunting ground growing up, so she isn't really worried about it, and that might be a quick way to endear herself to the larger one without a stick. Bending her roots, Dancer prepares to leap--

Only to jump a solid five feet straight up (seriously; Dancer has a pretty great High Jump range) when the one she was trying to forget about addresses her directly. Hiding almost instantly behidn the one without a stick, Dancer slowly pokes her head back out to look at the Bug Type, beady black eyes wide. Just as slowly, she turns to look at the pool. her dark orange bell colors slightly with red as she realizes how much simpler it would be to reach for the somethings rather than dive in herself. Squinting into the pool, Dancer pushes out a long, whip-like feeler of vine, searching for the somethings to nab.

Spoiler: OOC

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Perception to see the somethings: (2d6)[4]

Dancer has Precise Threading, which gives her vine-threads a range of 6 meters. If needed, here's an Accuracy Roll to find a shiny thing and pull it in (AC 3): (1d20)[13]

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Alberta watches carefully as the bell sprout tries to reel in Chet's mysterious treasure.

"Alright, to be clear: Poliwrath, Zigzagoon, Fennekin," she says, pointing to the three native pokemon in turn, "do you three really not mind us calling you that? If nothing else, it sounds like it will get confusing eventually..."

[WhismurWanders]

Between Chet knowing where the things are, and Dancer being able to reach them, it doesn't take much time to coordinate the vines to haul up the treasures from the depths of the lake. Within the grasp of Dancer's vines are four small stones. Upon further inspection, they are smooth and carved, each of them displaying the face of the pokemon species of each of our protagonists (Skorupi, Bellsprout, Munchlax, and Timburr). They are each the size of marbles, and Poliwrath raises an eyebrow when his eyes pass over them. "Prayer stones? Odd thing to find down there, but they'll do more good up here I guess." Fennekin looks up and appears slightly confused, "Why were they down there? I don't know anyone who doesn't bury them."

In response to Alberta's question, Zigzagoon giggles and jumps around the fighting-type. "What's so confusing about that? It only gets weird when there's lots of us in the same place, and even then we find ways to make it work." Poliwrath nods, adding, "Ain't too often you see too much of you're own type anyways. Not too many prolific families I know of, and folks around here tend to not stay too close to each other anyways."

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"I suppose that's true," Alberta accedes. After all, who is she to question the naming conventions of renowned mythical beings?

She looks over Fennekin's shoulder to check out the prayer stones. "Interesting! I don't remember carrying them, but they do seem like they would be ours..."

Alberta hesitates for a second and looks up at Bellsprout expectantly, but it looks like Dancer doesn't really want to be the center of attention right now. She returns her attention to Fennekin. "You say they're meant to be buried?"

[CardTrick]

Chet's eyes go wide as the skittish plant creature shoots out vines in his general direction, retrieving the odd stones from beneath him. Then, as everyone else starts talking over the stones, his mind naturally shifts to this apparent display of a superpower. Not wanting to embarrass himself, as everyone else seems more familiar with what he is, Chet makes a couple of attempts at extending his legs down beneath him, but nothing happens, *Okay, no Stretch Armstrong powers for me... lame.*

Casually paddling back to shore, when the young former human gets to dry ground, Chet reflexively and vigorously shakes about like a wet dog, flinging water particles everywhere from his fur coat, before approaching the group, "So, I guess we're good to go now. If there's anything else down there, I couldn't find it. Also, umm.. am... am I supposed to take the stone with my face on it?"

[Zelphas]

Dancer absently hands the rocks with their pictures towards the other members of the group, stretching almost the maximum distance of her vines to gingerly hold out the Bug Type's. She looks down at the Bellsprout formed from the rock that seems connected to her. As far as she knew, her old family didn't use prayer stones for anything, but it might've been something she was too young to learn.

"Dancer," she says somewhat distractedly, catching the tail end of the conversation going on around her. "I live-- lived... around a lot of Bellsprout. I was called Dancer." It probably hadn't been a nice name, she reflects to herself, but she liked it then and now, so it is hers.

[WhismurWanders]

Alberta hesitates for a second and looks up at Bellsprout expectantly, but it looks like Dancer doesn't really want to be the center of attention right now. She returns her attention to Fennekin. "You say they're meant to be buried?"

Fennekin nods. "Yup! When you feel you need the most strength to continue, or whenever you want to make a wish, or if you want to have a safe journey, you dig up a hole, whisper a prayer into the hole so only you and the stone can hear it, and then bury it. People say the prayers get collected by the golems under the Valley, but that's just fairy-tale stuff."

Casually paddling back to shore, when the young former human gets to dry ground, Chet reflexively and vigorously shakes about like a wet dog, flinging water particles everywhere from his fur coat, before approaching the group, "So, I guess we're good to go now. If there's anything else down there, I couldn't find it. Also, umm.. am... am I supposed to take the stone with my face on it?"

Fennekin stands up and shakes herself once over. "Yeah, we can go. And I'd definitely take the stone with your face on it. It's rare to find carved ones like that." Zigzagoon also bounces over to Fennekin. "We're gonna go see Braixen, we're gonna go see Braaaixen", he sings, as Fennekin rolls her eyes. "We can make good time, and the woods around here have been pretty quiet."

Unless anyone objects, the six of you depart, Poliwrath staying behind and waving to send you off. "Just watch out for Clanfolk, or any wild pokemon!" he calls after you before diving back into the lake.

[Llyarden]

Kelly took the odd little stone in her tail, tucking it away into a pocket of her jacket - at least that had come with her, even if it seemed her shoes were lost to whatever weirdness had happened. She wasn't exactly sure why the Bellsprout was so excited to be talking to her, but she wasn't going to complain. At least it meant she had one friend.

And judging from what the Poliwrath just said, having friends seemed like a very good thing indeed.

"Wait, there are wild Pokemon? How does that work?!"