With a blinding flash you and your new partner arrive in the starting area of the new dungeon. You look around nervously, but Spiera the newly named Sparkin girl just stands next to you yawning in the brand-new gear you bought for her.
Natural elemental magic or no, there was no way you were putting your life in the hands of an unarmed slave-girl wearing nothing more than a sack-cloth tunic. So you drew out as much gold as you had, and equipped the Beast-girl the best you were able, which isn’t saying much. But at least now Spiera is dressed in some black Rouge leathers and armed with a mages staff carved from lightning charred wood and tipped with a chunk of fulgurite.
Still, you’re pretty worried about your defence. You’ve been able to see her stats since guild head Oak transferred over the control of her collar to you. She has great speed, and above average physical and magical attack too, but her HP isn’t that good and her physical defence is terrible, in short, she’s a mid to rear guard and much too soon we were going to need a vanguard.
As to where you are, the archway that serves as the dungeon gate is in the middle courtyard of a fenced in area. The perimeter is walled off with giant pikes made from whole trees, reinforced with support beams to protect from the outside. Inside this frontier style fort with is two small building and one large one, all painted the same shade of periwinkle. To the north is a gate leading to wild grass taller than a grown man, to the south is a broken down port, between the fort and the lapping wave stretches a blue barrier of magic.
There, near the barrier, you saw a person.
“IDENTIFY”
NPC#002 lvl N/A Dwarf
“Oh! An NPC.” You say excitedly. Non-combative Phabel Creations are an important source of information in story dungeons like this, they are also a shore sign that you have started in a safe area. NPC are not made by the dungeon, they are created by Phabel to play a part in her story, so they give no Xp or loot, attacking them is also a great way to summon the enforcer.
The Dwarf is fishing through the barrier, you also see an elf girl tending to a small vegetable garden, and you would bet your last thirty silver that there are more NPC’s in the buildings.
“Come on Spiera, we have some people to talk to!”
“What!? NOOOO!” the beast girl starts wailing as you drag her by the hand.
~~POKeMON~~
It’s about an hour later when you finish questioning the two NPC’s outside. Spiera quickly zapped you to get away and has since then been doodling in the dirt with the tip of her staff.
You however have been much more productive, for even though NPC you meet early on in story dungeons don’t typically know a lot, you’ve still been able to learn a few important facts.
First is that you are apparently playing the role of a local, both NPC’s mentioned that the Inn keeper was your mother. You suspect that Phabel may have used a Doppelganger to play that part, so you mentally prepare yourself to meet with shapeshifter pretending to be your mom when you check into the Inn tonight. You’ve also learned that your apparently childhood rivals with the shop keeps (the two NPC’s you’ve been talking too) youngest kid, you have no idea who they will shapeshift into but you suspect they will be another doppelganger.
This brings you to another discovery. It would seem that the restriction of only having female Demi-humans has been applied to the NPC’s as well, the Female Dwarf is playing the part of a male human and the elf his human wife, they have a daughter who runs the shop while they’re out and a younger child they wouldn’t even hint a gender for, your so called rival.
The last thing you’ve learned is that just about everything and everyone is nameable. It was an accident, but when the couple asked where you met the Sparkin girl traveling with you, you told them old man Oak gave her to you. You then felt the name stick, and then the elf said “Oh! Father gave her to you?”
“Speaking of my good lord father-in-law, he said he had an important mission for you.” The Dwarf said pointing towards the largest building in the little port.
That is how you accidently named the Lord of Port Periwinkle after your Guild Master. You re-checked the two with Identify and instead of being named NPC number one and two the couple was now called Mr. and Mrs. Oak.
You thanked them, grabbed Spiera and left. You decided to start off with the manor first and then the item shop and finally the Inn, you’ll spend the night and leave town the next day. So before you lose your nerve, you head out to meet the local lord.
~~POKeMON~~
The front gate is guarded by two elves that registered as NPC five and six, they nod to you and open the door, an elven maid numbered NPC seven meet us.
“If you would please follow me young master, Lord Oak is waiting.”
The manor isn’t all that big, smaller even then the Guild hall the real Oak is head of, so it doesn’t take very long to be escorted to the proper sitting room.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
When the door’s open you enter a room with five others waiting for you. Three monster girls whose species you don’t recognize, a NPC you assume is the local lord who do look remarkable like Master Oak if Master Oak was an elderly female elf dressed like a poor human Nobel man in charge of a failing port town, but it’s the last occupant of the room that gives you the biggest shock.
“Lara?!” you shout as you stumble back. You knock over a side table holding a vase of flowers in your panic.
“Surprised to see me little Ash?” asks your childhood tormenter brought back to life, or as a quick Identify reviles, the Doppelganger pretending to be her. And now Spiera is giggling at you.
“That’s enough you two” Spoke Lord Oak “I know you’ve never had the greatest relationship, I have an important mission for the both of you, and while you don’t have to work together, I expect you not to interfere with each other ether.” She (or should that be he since she’s playing a male character) said looking and Doppel-Lara.
Lara wipes the smug off her face before turning and giving a shallow bow to her elder. “Yes sir.”
“The reason I called you here is that need people I trust to act as an escort to one of these girls, and to safely transport them to the Indigo Castle. The plan is to have Ash take one, Lara take another, and the third stay with me for the time being. The journey may be dangerous, but these girls, while inexperienced, are of strong bloodlines and will quickly grow to be trusted comrades in arms.”
Quest: The Princess
You have been tasked with helping one of three girl's claim the empty throne of Indigo Castle.
But first you have to pick which one.
Reward: The Princess you choose joins your party, you gain the ability to leave though the north gate of Port Periwinkle, ????? Failure: ?????
This sounds like the start of an important quest line, something particularly important in story dungeons. Phebal tends to use a main quest to tell her stories, other quest tend to be optional. The question marks for the last reward and the failure have you nerves however. But one of the rewards being the ability to leave town has really left you with no choice whether you would except or not.
Spiera went silent at the beginning of Oak’s speech, and was now giving the three monster girls the stink-eye. All three girls were wearing colorful expensive looking dresses, each had a choker which on closer inspection was a gilded version of the slave collar Spiera wore, and lastly, each one was armed with an ornate piece of equipment that could be used to fill our emerging teams missing vanguard position.
The first girl looked to be some version of lizard girl, with orange scales, a tan underbelly and green eyes. The most notable feature about her was the live flame dancing on the end of her long tail. She was tall, skinny and a short haired blond with a pixie cut, dressed in red and gold in a loose, airy style of the desert countries of the south-east, made of dyed silks and many bangles. She was armed with a short sword with a carved blade and jewelled golden guard. An Identify called her ‘Unnamed lvl 5 Unknown Monster#004'.
The next was a blue scaled girl with a round face and burgundy eyes. It’s a bit hard to tell but your think that her dress was ballooning out in the torso due to her having a turtle shell hidden under there. Her tail was a large squirrel like mass of light blue fur that matched her shoulder length curls. Her style of outfit is very in keeping with the dress of the nobility of your homeland, being modeled after a volumes ballroom gown in blue with white trim and silver accents. Her weapon of choice seems to be a large iron shield with a turtle shell design painted red. She was identified as ‘Unnamed lvl 5 Unknown Monster#007'.
The last was an Orkish looking girl with bluish green skin with darker green splotches and red eyes, her dress was backless to expose the massive flower bulb growing from her back. She was the most physically developed of the three, with notable bulges in the muscles of her arms and legs. Her hair was black and pulled into a tight bun with many beads and accessories woven in, and her dress was all earth tones and looked to mostly incorporate many furs and pelts in the make. She held a carved wooden scepter that looked like it could be use both as a severable club in the girls’ strong hands as well as a great focus for spell casting. She was marked ‘Unnamed lvl 5 Unknown Monster#001' in your skills eyes.
Whelp, this is a decision you have no idea how to make.
“Lord Oak, I thank you for this honor, but if you would kindly allow me the uses of your weighting desk” you gesture to said piece of furniture “I would like to deliberate before coming to my final decision.”
“Take the time that you need, but please try to make up your mind quickly.” Oak then turned to the Doppelganger “Would you like to choose first Lara?”
“No thanks, I don’t mind letting Lil’Ash have first choice.” She said in the exact tone of voice the real Lara always had when she knew something that you didn’t. She then proceeded to flop down in an empty siting chair and wait.
“LOG”
You wave Spiera over as you begin fill in the first, fourth and seventh page of your logbook.
“Anything you can tell me about these three Spiara?”
Your new partner looks over her shoulder at the girls on the couch, a slight look of offence on her face “They’re not s’post to be princesses, they’re not even s’post to be female. But the bad men changed things, and then Queen Phebal changed MORE things.”
“I meant which ones stronger, or something.”
She just shrugs “those three are about even I think, the plant has a lot of health and is good at magic, but won’t learn any spell for a few levels, the salamander is strong and fast, though not as fast as me, but she is weak in the first boss fight, and the turtle is slow and has a weak attack with her shield, but her defence is really high.”
You add that info into the Log, and then you make a copy of all three pages, you then begin on a note to the Guild Master explaining the choice you have to make.
“To the desk of Guild Head Oak of the Kanto Mountain branch of the Adventures Guild
This is Chronicler Ash, upon me and my partners crossing of the dungeon gate we found ourselves in a safe area I have named Port Periwinkle. In the short time we’ve been here, I have come to know of no less than nine to twelve NPC’s in the area, three I have accidently named or partly named and two who are doppelgangers playing the parts of “Mother” and “Rival” to the adventure in the instance.
The story so far seem to have the adventure be the son or daughter of the local Inn keeper who is summoned by the local lord to escort his or her choice of one of three warrior “Princesses” safely to a castle some ware else in the dungeon. I hypothesise this is a way to give the ‘Hero’ of the story a companion early on, for those unlike me who didn’t have the chance to partner up with a local before entering the dungeon.
Enclosed is all the information I have been able to glean on my personal three choices with help of skill and Spiera. I request assistance in naming of these three, both personal and race, and strategic add in choosing which one should join my team."