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QUESTBOARD
⋆✩ quests ✩⋆
One of the core responsibilities of guild members within Bottlecap Bay is to complete quests from the Questboard. Located in the center of the city, the questboard is a physical board where Pokemon can submit requests for help, resources, exploration, and all sorts of things. Each quest rewards characters with points to not only increase their member ranking, but also raise the guild ranking, thereby having a direct effect on the direction of the game!
QUEST TYPES
LIGHT QUESTS
These quests are simpler, RNG-style quests that are far more straightforward and don't require a summary or a thread! Light quests are available every month, but during TDM months, they are the only type of quest available, meaning that nothing plot heavy or significant will be placed into the quests. They also typically reward 50 points to characters, but occasionally reward 100 points.
HEAVY QUESTS
Heavy quests are more intensive, thread-required quests that often hold bits of plot or more intrigue, and are only available every other month. They are also often more dangerous than light quests, and unlike light quests, are not guaranteed to be completed when submitting for them! Depending on the results, these quests can reward anywhere from 200-300 points each depending on success! Characters may only participate in one heavy quest per month.
PLAYER QUESTS
These are quests submitted by other players, available as players come up with them. A player may submit a quest during any month, and may even post the same quest again on a subsequent month, when it makes sense ICly to do so. They are otherwise very similar to Light Quests; more information can be found below, but as a rule, they reward 50 points to characters.
ALL QUESTS
So what do all quests have in common? They must be submitted by the deadline date on the quest itself, and each character may claim points from a given quest only once, though they may repeat the quest with other teams as many times as they like.
Mod quests in particular will have difficulty levels, determined by the filled in stars on a scale of 1-3, with three filled stars being the most difficult. Difficulty can mean anything from physical danger to intensive puzzles, depending on the quest! Mod quests of both types may also sometimes have claim limits, with the number of teams allowed listed per quest.
Lastly, players can feel free to roleplay any of the NPCs that are not listed on the Locations page under the NPC section! If it's not game breaking or contradicting anything in the information available to players, then we generally play by the "do what's most fun!" rules.
AVAILABLE QUESTS
ICE TO SEE YOU
QUEST TYPE: LIGHT
QUEST GIVER: Spheal
CLAIM LIMIT: None
DIFFICULTY: ★✩✩
THREAD REQUIRED?: No
DEADLINE: Must be submitted by MAY 25th 11:59 PM EST.
We were originally just going to continue to our usual shores, but we heard there’s a place covered in ice right here! Please show us!
POINTS REWARDED: 100 points
EXTRA REWARDS?: A Yache Berry
GUARD TO PORT
QUEST TYPE: LIGHT
QUEST GIVER: Raichu
CLAIM LIMIT: None
DIFFICULTY: ★✩✩
THREAD REQUIRED?: No
DEADLINE: Must be submitted by MAY 25th 11:59 PM EST.
Since we’ve largely had to start from scratch with the teleporter project, I need strong Pokemon who can stand watch over the destination points being tested with items. Please be ready to contact back on your pearls to confirm the arrival of our test goods!
POINTS REWARDED: 50 points
EXTRA REWARDS?: None.
FLOWER POWER
QUEST TYPE: LIGHT
QUEST GIVER: Lurantis
CLAIM LIMIT: None
DIFFICULTY: ★✩✩
THREAD REQUIRED?: No
DEADLINE: Must be submitted by MAY 25th 11:59 PM EST.
Lately, there have been swarms of Floette attacking Pokemon in the Heavy Downmoor area! Locals have requested our aid, so please help fight them off!
POINTS REWARDED: 50 points
EXTRA REWARDS?: No.
SIMMER DOWN
QUEST TYPE: LIGHT
QUEST GIVER: Pidgeot
CLAIM LIMIT: None
DIFFICULTY: ★✩✩
THREAD REQUIRED?: No
DEADLINE: Must be submitted by MAY 25th 11:59 PM EST.
We’re at our wits end with the woods! All efforts to perform the burn-off have ended in failure, and we need to ensure that should the worst happen, the canopy doesn’t go up in flames. Help gather and dispose of any dry, dead wood we can find!
POINTS REWARDED: 50 points
EXTRA REWARDS?: No.
PLAYER QUESTS
Player Quests are now open! These are quests ICly posted by your character to any of Bottlecap Bay's quest boards. They may be quests that are meant for the benefit of the city (or outlying outposts, or good relations with local Pokemon), or they may be quests for a character's personal concerns... and even joke quests are very welcome, for CR purposes!
(Just keep in mind IC reactions while devising a quest - guild leaders may choose not to reward points for "come perform a handstand for me," and there may be negative consequences for posting "assassinate my annoying guild coworker!")
Some general guidelines:
- To respond to a player quest, other players may use the same submission form as for mod quests; they do not have to provide a thread, but do have to fill out the summary.
- For all quests, quests may reward 50 points! Points track how helpful a character is overall, so they may be awarded for (reasonable, non-joke) personal quests as well!
- For quests for the benefit of Bottlecap Bay, guild leaders will generally also allow for item rewards from guild resources. These rewards should be restricted to a single item or type of item chosen by the quest-writing player, and can be one of: berries, basic stones, basic accessories (with no special effects), or small furniture items. A character may also offer handmade items that they are able to make/obtain the resources for.
- For personal quests, guild leaders will not allow for item rewards from guild resources... but a character may still offer handmade items that they are able to make/obtain the resources for!
- Characters who are ICly posting the quest obviously cannot join their own quest! However, at mod discretion, posting a quest may result in extra points in the next point tally, particularly if the quest is for the benefit of Bottlecap Bay - the guild leaders will reward someone looking out for the success of the city.
- Quests may not have limited entry slots.
- Quest-writing players will decide whether responses pass or fail. (They may choose to respond with a blurb with more flavor details, or just a note saying pass/fail.)
- Posted rewards will be fully awarded regardless of pass/fail. If a quest says the reward is 50 points and a berry, then even failing teams will get those rewards.
- It is fine for personal quests to have a biased pass/fail outcome for CR purposes, such as a designated team being pre-arranged to be the only one who succeeds. However, this must be made clear beforehand OOCly, and the above point must be followed.
- Players may decide whether their quest is worth 50 points or 0 points. We're trusting players to use their best judgement! (ICly, points are always awarded by the guild leaders, but will still be awarded for non-joke personal quests that take effort. For example: "My important item is missing, please help me search the woods" or "I want to make a feast to cheer up my friend but I don't know how to cook, please help.")
- If a player would like to have their character ICly post a problematic quest and receive consequences from their guild leader, please contact the mods on the mod contact beforehand! (This is for quests that would be viewed as actively harmful, rather than silly ones.)
- Players may not have their own characters, even their other character, submit for a quest that they posted.
SUBMISSION FORMAT
Please use the following format to set up a player quest!
If you would like, you may also use the following format when responding with quest results (but this is not required)!
QUEST SIGN-UP
To claim and sign up for a quest, simply fill out the form below and reply to the current month's thread for mod quests, or to the individual quest for player quests. All quests require at least 2 characters to complete, with no maximum unless specified. Keep in mind that for quests requiring threading, 3 is probably a good number. Multiple quests can be signed up for in one comment.
PLAYERS: Players involved.
CHARACTERS: Characters involved. (2 minimum)
QUEST: Name of the quest you're signing up for.
SUMMARY: (Optional for light, required for heavy or player quests.) How will the quest be tackled? Write a short summary of how the characters intend to succeed and include any relevant details (tensions within the team, particular skills or weaknesses, any relevant triggers to avoid, etc.)
After claiming a quest, a mod will reply with confirmation and/or more details, and may request more information on how the team tackles the quest. For quests that are limited in some way, players who manage a sign up one month will be required to wait for 24 hours after quest posting to sign up for a limited quest the following month.
FULL NAVIGATION
QUEST BEGINS
Emporio, Kaiba, and Catrina are one of the first several teams into the teleportation room, where several Psychic Pokemon bustle them into the center of a large crystal-lined circle on the floor - they seem to be trying to cram as many teams as possible into the first batch sent out, though this prototype room is still relatively small. Other Lum Guild members push supplies onto the team, hopping in and out of the circle's boundaries. All in all, it's an efficient if hectic operation, and it's not long before the Lum's group of teleportation specialists are crouched at the edges of the circle, fueling it with Psychic power.
The teleportation itself is uneventful, feeling almost exactly like any other Teleport experience... but when Emporio, Kaiba, and Catrina open their eyes, no other teams are within eyeshot. That's strange. And wasn't Chimecho supposed to be here to meet everyone and show them where to start searching...?
It's quickly clear that something has gone very wrong, and the team is stranded in a mystery location. No longer is this a question of starting a search for missing researchers - you're probably not even near where they went missing! This has now become a survival scenario.
When the team takes stock, they'll discover that - aside from staying together - they are, at least, well supplied. Before being teleported, they were given enough to cover both themselves and the missing researchers; with just the three of them, they have enough for multiple days. Hopefully, they're not too far from Bottlecap Bay... though the way their grumpearls are acting may not leave them feeling hopeful. It's only occasionally that a couple words or a flicker of a mental image comes through; they can't even talk to each other! Are they seriously so far that they're out of range, or is it just all this fog?
Before Emporio, Kaiba, and Catrina decide whether they want to try and find their way back home, or if they want to stay in place and trust that they're waiting for a rescue that's coming, it may be wise to take a look around...
Emporio, Kaiba, and Catrina have found themselves with their paws wet, amidst the waving fronds of a wide marsh. Pools are calm and placid - at least for the moment - and fog drifts across the horizon, blocking off the view in all directions. It makes it feel like this location stretches out endlessly. But if the team wants to move, there's no choice but to pick a direction and start slogging. Truly an unfortunate location for two Pokemon weak to water to end up!
Some of the pools of water are easy to wade through, even for short Pokemon; others look deceptively much shallower than they actually are, and it will be quickly evident that the safest option here is for Kaiba to carry Emporio and Catrina. Yet other pools are a thin layer of water over a deep pit of sticky tar, and the trio must think fast to extract each other without sinking - particularly if the heavier Kaiba is caught! Fortunately, Emporio quickly picks up the knack of detecting these, and his Secret Power can give them a break as necessary. The marsh having no landmarks makes staying on track hellishly difficult, and that's without even taking the fog into account.
Almost no landmarks. At one point, the team stumbles over a massive pile of rocks sunk partway into the bog. If they clamber onto it, they don't get any better of a view of the fens around them, but they do find a gap in the stones that lets them descend inward if they so choose. The interior is damp and dripping and spirals confusingly - it's only Catrina's light that lets them continue at all. Did Pokemon build this, or dig it out somehow? But the fog pervades even here, and the team will find a pressure bearing down on them. They need to turn back. They shouldn't be here! Eventually, even the most strongly-willed Pokemon has no choice but to retreat. Perhaps something more could be done here, but not when you've been stranded, unprepared...
And speaking of the fog: the longer Emporio, Kaiba, and Catrina are here, the more disoriented they'll start feeling. It's easy to get turned around and find yourself having backtracked to where you were an hour ago... but sometimes you'll also wake up from having zoned out, standing with your paws starting to dip into sticky tar, like you were about to submerse yourself. Emporio, Kaiba, and Catrina will find it unusually common to mishear what others are saying too, as if the fog is twisting their words. As time goes on, sometimes you'll hear each other saying things and turn around to find the others confused, claiming not to have been talking at all. Paranoia starts building, compulsively. Are your team members plotting to betray you, here out in the middle of nowhere? Have they been replaced with a doppelganger? They can't be trusted, can they?
There are wild Pokemon here as well, darting and slithering through the grass or swimming fluidly through the water with barely a ripple. Some flee the team outright, but others watch them with gleaming eyes. If the team asks for directions, the answers they get are unclear, sometimes contradictory - are they being told the truth? And even when they move onward, Emporio, Kaiba, and Catrina will quickly start getting the feeling that they're being followed...
Hang in there. There must still be a way back home!
Please fill out the unique form below sometime by the April 25th deadline so that your quest can be considered completed. Please note that you have flexibility and freedom in threading this quest and any related NPCs (aggressive Pokemon, layout and terrain hazards, etc). Resolution details for players (including whether you encountered any other teams) will come with the quest conclusion; threads need only have one or more comments from each participant to qualify for submission.
no subject
How do they ultimately deal with surviving the region's challenges, including the mental effects caused by the fog?: While all three manage to resist the fog to an extent, none of them can throw it off entirely; Kaiba initially assumes that his hidden ability might apply to this situation, but eventually catches on to the fact that something is affecting his mind once he comes around in a different place than he initially thought he was. Was that a hallucination? WHATEVER! It’s not the first time, so he probably stays objective for quite a while. The more his patience is worn on however, the more snappy he's going to become, and he might even retort to things people haven’t even said to him. Since he’s the biggest of all of them (for now), the other two are going to have to get through to him at least once or twice during his crappy moods. Emporio meanwhile finds himself applying direct logic whenever he hears or sees something that doesn't seem right. Would Kaiba or Catrina really say that? Would they really do that? Paranoia is a difficult feeling to beat back, but fortunately, having experienced the unique mental side effects of other regions, he's at least had some practice...which is good, since actaully dragging someone out of their delusions may well end up his job. While Catrina can't say she has as much experience with that herself, she does have the unique...advantage of being on a fairly different level of perception and sanity. Unfortunately, that also means disorientation is as likely to fail to affect her as it is to inspire her to either attempt to eat the 'chocolate pudding' (tar) around them, or even hallucinate Pokemon that aren't there. ...That or assume a wild Pokemon is there to sing them a lovely lullaby...
Fortunately, type disadvantages aside, Catrina and Emporio have also brought some experience with swamps to the table- and while Kaiba hasn’t ever really been to a swamp or a tar pit, he’s also the largest of the group, and likely the most well studied (derogatory); he'll have an easier time carting the smaller Pokemon around, even when the water gets deep. He won’t panic if he gets caught in any tar, and will do his level best to get out of it without incurring any harm, because he’s not prone to the foolish moves that would only sink him further...and that means actually getting out of the tar is statistically very likely! Teamwork will prevail, and he’ll have to deal. Emporio of course is limited to book experience on all of this in the meantime, so he certainly doesn't expect any tar encounters that happen initially- though he adapts quickly enough to begin suggesting methods to avoid or at least escape such boggy situations (which is good for Kaiba). Catrina is in a similar situation, but more direct; she grew up in a tropical swamp! And while that's not quite the swamp they're in, it's enough to understand how some of the terrain functions.
Being as stranded as they are, Emporio is fairly quick to suggest finding shelter, followed by travelling in one direction and no other if they can help it. Kaiba will agree, but suggest using landmarks or marking the environment in order to ensure they aren’t going in circles- and while Emporio will warn against fully relying on them, he won't stop them from at least trying to leave such marks behind. The initial hope is that the fog will eventually clear enough that they can perhaps use the night sky as a navigation tool- as Emporio's checked in on the astronomy club a few times- but when the fog doesn't ultimately do that, they just have to deal with shelter and travel. The former is certainly made much easier when Emporio figures out Secret Power's bonus skill (namely, granting them a small clearing of safe ground for a time), but the latter hinges entirely on how well they can maintain focus...
...But on the upside, Kaiba will be carrying the two for much of this trip, making separation a little easier to avoid. The name of the game is...Get the hell outta here!
Though there's work to be done to survive in that regard; Catrina, being more physically familiar with this environment as noted, will suggest and aid in scavenging food for and with the group (and while her definition of food is eclectic at best, that food will still often have a use- if not as food, then at least as shelter materials, or fire starting materials). As well, she's willing to act as a necessary heat source...especially if bribed with future goods. Kid skeletons are not fun skeletons to have, and she wants to make sure that doesn't happen...even with the delusions of the fog.
Ultimately, Kaiba and Catrina are likely to butt heads given her wildcard nature and his down-to-earth businesslike attitude. Emporio will probably have to smooth things out between them, or at the least iron Kaiba’s attitude out with logical statements. Ultimately, Kaiba will behave dependably, because he considers himself the adult in the room, and needs to be sure these children (“children” in Catrina’s case) don’t end up dead on his watch. He came out here to make sure no one got hurt, and he will put himself in the line of fire to prove that very point. After all, his scales are pretty sturdy, and if they get ripped off, who cares, they grow back stronger!
And speaking of scales, Kaiba will have at least one or two shed scales from his arms that will double as heating vessels, since Hakamo-o scales are heat-conductive and good for cooking. They can also double as shields, if necessary. See?? He’s already the most useful in the party, as he expected.
Notably, if something in this trip triggers evolution, Emporio will actually gain a small advantage against the terrain though- aside from adding more fire power (literally) to the lights, Alolan Marowak Flames don't go out under water- Emporio's size would also become such that he could actually carry Kaiba if necessary, and perhaps most vitally, he may end up with a new move that could temporarily clear that fog! ....Assuming any weather creating moves can do that, at least. If Emporio does evolve, Kaiba will be a GRUMPY GUS about being carried, but also: he’s likely to be worn out after carrying the others, size notwithstanding, so he’ll likely tolerate it…a little.
If the team is confronted by wild Pokemon, seemingly with hostile or threatening intent, how do they respond?: While Emporio's usual first instinct is to gauge what's happening before attacking, he'll be visibly tense whenever a threatening Pokemon seems to appear. In fact, he may well start stacking up buffing moves such as 'Focus Energy', visibly preparing a bone club for the worst. He'll be attempting to follow Kaiba and Catrina's lead regardless...which, could be interesting, as those two are taking very different approaches!
Alongside this, if a battle breaks out and things grow especially dire, Emporio may well evolve! ...If that happens, his typing will not only change, but also his ability; where right now, his ability prevents critical hits from connecting, his new one would remove all recoil damage from his attacks. So that's great.
On Catrina's end of matters, even while paranoid and deluded, her first instinct doesn't seem to necessarily be attacking. While she's likely to use Night Shade if she thinks a Pokemon is attacking, her default will be to attempt communication...even if communication probably looks like a candle shouting the following- "Oh great and wretchedly smelly Gnarly Charlie of the Marshy Swamp, please I beg of thee to Fuck the right hell off along with the horse yah came on!"
Kaiba is straight up made for fighting, and his Hakamo-o instincts encourage it. He’ll run point on any fights for as long as he’s the larger target, and his Dragon Tail, Headbutt, and Reversal moves will do pretty good cleanup unless there’s ghosts, in which case Dragon Tail is his only chance aside from…well…Outrage. No one wants him to use Outrage, because after a few traded blows, he will become a liability that is just as likely to hurt himself as the enemy, or even one of his allies! Kaiba, no!
Except Kaiba YES if it’s a big one, he’s not losing a
duelbattle!Ultimately, if Catrina's already decided that they're going to try diplomacy first, Emporio's going to possibly be stuck holding Kaiba back from otherwise...especially if Catrina's 'diplomatic relations' don't end in combat. Kaiba, they need to find a way out!
RESCUED
Initially the combination of Kaiba, Emporio, and Catrina does reasonably well despite the dire straits they're in - with Kaiba keeping the two more vulnerable Pokemon out of the water, and the other two cooperating to help him avoid hazards or free him in the worst case scenario.
However, they have less luck with avoiding fights with wild Pokemon. Catrina's yelling, as well intentioned as it's meant to be, is not very reassuring! In some cases it scares wild Pokemon off, but just as much of the time it draws them in, spreading limbs and appendages aggressively. At which point Kaiba, of course, jumps on the defensive!
As the fog increasingly gets to all members of the team, they bicker more and more - even Emporio, trying to keep the peace, starts to feel it. Perhaps it's the in-fighting, or perhaps it's Kaiba's use of Outrage, or maybe it's even the fog making everyone imagine actions and not just words… but someone ends up hitting another team member instead of a wild Pokemon. From there it's all downhill; the wild Pokemon, invigorated, charge in on the group fighting amongst themselves.
It's all the trio can do to keep their heads above the swarm. Perhaps (optionally) Emporio evolves in the chaos, and is able to hold Kaiba back or be more effective against their wild attackers. But by this point it's too little, too late. Only - just as they're about to be overwhelmed, members of the team may notice that their grumpearls… seem to be working again? They can't tell who they're contacting - it's certainly not reaching the town - but one or more of them call for help, desperately. Someone on the other end can hear them, right? They have no choice but to trust that whoever it is will pull them out of this, as one by one Kaiba, Catrina, and Emporio go down…
Though they won't feel it until they wake, it is then that the fog begins to clear. As if a weight is physically lifted from everyone's minds, as the air brightens so too do everyone's thoughts. The Pokemon you were so certain had come to bring your end... the words and taunts, the lies that you were hearing… nearly every aspect of it was never real. It seems that at least initially, the Pokemon in these regions were actually trying to help, and later they were trying to drive what they perceived as a hostile party out of their territory. Now one can only wonder how your responses will have affected relations in the area...
The team is carried in one by one over the cliffs, each victim transported to the clinic with care. By the time they wake up, they're probably pretty sure that whatever happened, they would have come out of this mission with a 'Failure' - and the fact remains, getting stranded by the teleporter and requiring rescue means none of the guilds can justify a full reward regardless. Even so, it was hardly their fault, and they did volunteer for a rescue to start with! So with that in mind, each member is awarded with 200 points for their efforts. It's better than nothing after all!