Sojaveña Wilds Dusty Highway

[Jackie Cat]

Nico beamed happily at Koa's boyish fascination.

"Well, you'll see when we get there~ But, ah, I can tell you that it's no ordinary dungeon. You ever hear folks say that dungeons have minds of their own? Well, for some, that's kinda true."

 

[Shadow Serenity]

Kimiko cocked her head to the side curiously. What she'd heard of dungeons was that they weren't the most hospitable place in the world. Especially not if Powehi thought their being here would spawn more dungeons, and apparently that was a bad thing.

As for herself, she'd only been to a dungeon (to her knowledge) exactly once - the Vanguard battle. It had been... odd, yes. Did it have a mind of its own...? Well, she couldn't recall anything that might have indicated that... but she'd also been unsettled by what she had been sure was ghost voices to be paying attention to anything else. Regardless, it seemed dungeons weren't only dangerous places for wild 'mon, not if more than one faction made their base in one. Or, at least... took advantage of their existence.

Her first thought now, however, was 'anchor for Betel'. Would the Rangers allow that? Would they even need to for Betel to make a connection? ...She vaguely recalled someone at some point mentioning they'd needed to enter the heart of a dungeon and collect something from it to make their existing anchor, so...

She hesitated to mention this to Nico just yet. Without knowing how it worked, or if the Rangers would accept it, she wasn't sure it was smart to start bringing up ulterior motives for their visit, even if it hadn't been the original goal.

Hey, Bee, she thought instead. You think this Ranger HQ might make a suitable anchor point for you?

 

[JFought]

This bird sure does like to talk... Still, Isidora found herself mildly surprised by his reveal. She had thought Forlas mystery dungeons were too volatile to make any kind of permanent base or settlement in. The implication it was sentient was ironically less surprising, and actually made it make more sense to her.

"I think I get it," she said, icy paws on the back of her head. "Back in my world, there's a sentient forest that picks and chooses who's allowed to pass through to the town on the other side. Never actually been, but I'd guess this place is a similar idea."

She lowered an arm to shrug with it. "Though funny thing is, that forest would be considered too mundane to count as a mystery dungeon in this world." Then gave Nico a half deadpan, half joking look. "Not crazy enough."

 

[Jackie Cat]

Hello, Kimiko.

Yes, the Ranger Headquarters could potentially be used as an anchorpoint for my network. I am not yet certain of this, but it could be worthwhile to investigate the possibility!
​

---

Nico banked across to better talk to the Sneasel.

"Eh, dungeons vary as much as 'mon do. The tamest dungeons are just weird rooms, caves, or groves that shift around – like they can't stay fixed in one time and place. It's the big, old, cursed dungeons that get really weird. Ranger HQ's something of an unusual one, not in that it's got a personality, but in that it's a helpful one. It's, aheh, kind of a member of the Union itself, you might say."

The Wattrel sounded like he might mean that literally.

 

[Tetra]

"That's incredible," Koa mused. "How long has the dungeon been around for?" He was beginning to wish he'd had a chance to properly explore more dungeons. They sounded fascinating. Did the Rangers care about their dungeon in the same kind of way they did with Betel? "And... if its like one of you guys, does it have a name?"

 

[Jackie Cat]

"I guess the dungeon has been around longer, but I reckon the rangers have been using it as a base for the better part of a century?"

Nico's expression was hard to read from his aerial position, but his voice sounded odd, as if this was something deeply personal, or difficult to talk about. Clearly the rangers didn't go publicising this information...

"Her name is Sinopa. But most people call her 'Chief'. As far as I can tell, Chief Ayda doesn't seem to mind it."

 

[Shadow Serenity]

A century?? That was a long time to be using the dungeon as a base. And it apparently existed long before that?

And it had a name? Kimiko wasn't sure what to make of that. For all she knew, that was normal. After all, if dungeons could shift and warp their own interiors and had personalities, why not have names, too? Everything else about them seemed unusual anyway. It wasn't like there was someone out there creating them and controlling them, telling them when to change shape. They just randomly, naturally formed and twisted on their own... right?

For some reason, Kimiko couldn't get Powehi's concern out of her mind.

"Hey Nico, uh... do you have a guess as to how many dungeons exist here in Forlas? How do you know yours... uh... I mean, Sinopa is unique?"

 

[Jackie Cat]

The bird did a sort of mid-air shrug, his flight stalling for but a moment.

"In the world? Golly. I haven't any idea at all, Kimiko, to tell the truth! I mean, there're a couple dozen or so across the Soja' that the Rangers patrol, depending on if you count the Fool's Dungeons and the like, which I don't tend to, and that's just this part of Luctemar. So..."

Counting only major spacetime rifts – these being mystery dungeons large enough to have a heart – there are currently 1867 active rifts and 762 dormant on Forlas. Of these, 1214 active rifts and 458 dormant rifts are located in populated regions, while 653 active and 304 dormant are located in deep wilderness.
​

"...assuming they're about as common anywhere in the world, and the world's maybe forty, fifty times as big as the Soja', then there could be a thousand or more in all the world, easy."

Correction: 1868 active, and 761 dormant.​

 

[Tetra]

A chill traveled down Koa's spine at Betel's words. '... Do you know how many were active before we arrived?'

 

[Jackie Cat]

...I am not sure. I did not know to track such information at that time.

I am now monitoring the number of active rifts closely.​

 

[Shadow Serenity]

"That's... quite a lot," Kimiko replied hastily to Nico after realizing they'd gone silent while they conversed with Betel. She didn't miss that Nico didn't answer her second prompt, so she tried again. "I'm curious what makes your Sinopa different. You say you... call her chief? Can you, uh... talk to her directly?"

 

[Jackie Cat]

Nico seemed a little distracted by something only he could see. This part of the drylands was fairly hilly, so his vantage point would afford him a much better view of anything approaching.

There was a faint sound of rustling, or scratching...

"Mm? Oh, right, sure. She can appear in any of the dungeons' rooms. As far as I know, she looks pretty much as she did in life! That is, like an Espeon – excepting of course for being all intangible and ethereal and all that. She used to be the Ranger Chief, a long, long time ago."

Nico adjusted his flight goggles mid-swoop, and muttered a mild oath under his breath.

"We might be about to experience a bit of inconvenience," he declared, warily.

The dry, crackling sound grew louder. There was a faint cry along with it, like a soft, distant wailing. Then came the indistinct outlines of small, brown objects, rolling across the ground in front of the party and rapidly taking up the whole width of the highway.

"That's very odd," added Nico, dropping lower in the air. "Bramblin season isn't until the month of Spirits. They're very early."

Excuse me, everyone. I neglected to note that the rift that became active just now...

...is immediately adjacent to your general location.​

 

[Phoenixsong]

The question Leaf had wanted to ask was 'how does a person turn into a dungeon?', but then there were a million bramblin and that idea rolled right out the window alongside them. So the question the wattrel got instead was "Nico, do you know if there used to be any dungeons right around here before? Even if it was a long time ago?"

Was this a dungeon, or related to one? It was nothing like Silver Ravine or like "Sinopa", not that she had any way to tell for sure. (Not yet.) No way Beetle's little footnote there was a coincidence, though.

"Think we could try blowing them away, at least enough to clear a path? I could do a fairy wind, but there're probably too many for that to work on its own."

 

[Tetra]

So they would be able to just speak to a dungeon? And it looked like an Espeon? Excitement sparked through him, and he felt a rush of delight that he'd come out to try and meet the Rangers.

To his dismay, he was cut off by the arrival of looked like... A pack of tumbleweed? Not a pokemon he recognized off the top of his head, although Nico's warning gave the answer he needed. Bramblin.

A lot them too. "Could something have driven them out?"

'Betel are you saying a new dungeon just spawned near us?'

"Maybe we can divert some of them or ask them to move... " He mused.

 

[Shadow Serenity]

"Mm? Oh, right, sure. She can appear in any of the dungeons' rooms. As far as I know, she looks pretty much as she did in life! That is, like an Espeon – excepting of course for being all intangible and ethereal and all that. She used to be the Ranger Chief, a long, long time ago."

So... so someone died and... became the dungeon? What... how... huh?

A sudden eerie wail reached her ears and killed any further thought about the Ranger HQ dungeon and it's espeon-themed chief. Along with that, Kimiko felt a sinking sensation in her gut. The sound was... strangely familiar. Similar to...

It didn't take long for a massive swarm of... tumbleweeds to blow across their path. Were... were those the source of that dreadful sound? Nico identified them as some sort of pokemon, but she didn't recognize them. But in some ways, she didn't really need to. She had a pretty strong hunch these things were giving off a ghost-like aura.

Distracted as she was, she nearly missed Betel's warning and the ponyta's follow-up question. Nevermind coming up with solutions. Hers would have been to turn around and go right back to Frontier Town. ...Or at least, look for another path.

'Betel are you saying a new dungeon just spawned near us?'

'Or spawned around us?' Was that a thing that could happen? Nothing looked different, other than these... increasingly creepy tumbleweeds blocking their path. But she couldn't ignore their sound echoing through her head.

 

[JFought]

Their base is a dead 'mon?! Isidora's eyes widened as she put together every piece of information she just learned in her head. And how many dungeons? This world's fucking insa-

Her thoughts died at the wail-like sound, and she stopped moving. She felt her fur stand on end as she stared at the mass of bramblin clogging the road and heard Betel's words in her head. If a dungeon just became 'active' nearby, and these wild pokémon were stampeding away from somewhere...

She shot Betel a question. 'Should we be worried about this?'

 

[Jackie Cat]

"Nico, do you know if there used to be any dungeons right around here before? Even if it was a long time ago?"

"Could something have driven them out?"

The ranger hovered in place, wings flapping steadily. "Uh, maybe? I mean, twenty or thirty years ago there was some mass dungeon outbreak or something, and I know a lot of the MDs at the time either shrank or closed up completely once Ranger Jesse put paid to the guy responsible, something like that. So if one's opened up again... could be it's disturbed the bramblin, maybe?"

"Think we could try blowing them away, at least enough to clear a path? I could do a fairy wind, but there're probably too many for that to work on its own."

"Maybe we can divert some of them or ask them to move... "

"You're getting tougher, but there's like a thousand of those things," said Nico, sounding defeated. "And, uh, wild 'mon of any species are hard to wrangle, let alone these. At least they are moving. Worst case, we have to wait, maybe?"

The horde of tumbling, thistly, wind-blown ghosts continued to pile up on the highway, bramblin thrown against and atop bramblin.

'Betel are you saying a new dungeon just spawned near us?'

'Or spawned around us?'

'Should we be worried about this?'

...In actual fact, a previously dormant dungeon just burst open again, very near your present location.

You are, at least, not inside it. At the moment.​

 

[Shadow Serenity]

...In actual fact, a previously dormant dungeon just burst open again, very near your present location.

What causes that? Kimiko asked, trying to keep her focus off the mass of tumbleweed pokemon that only continued to grow, and the wailing they brought with them. Their howls continued to reverberate through her head, drowning out Betel's responses, making them sound distant, muffled. Is it random? You can't... tell what reactivated this one, can you?

 

[Jackie Cat]

Mystery dungeons do change unpredictably; it is in their nature to be mysterious. However, it is atypical for them to abruptly expand like this...

...

Another just expanded southwest of your location, in the vicinity of the Wayfarer expedition en route to Obstine Abbey. I have not been alive long enough to have a representative impression of mystery dungeon behaviour, but this...

I worry that it is as Powehi said. I have helped to weaken the walls of the world...​

 

[Tetra]

Betel's words weighed heavy in his mind. Powehi was right. Their mere presence was causing problems... 'We'll have to do what we can for now Betel.' The words felt paltry but he wasn't sure what more could be done for now. Powehi's other solution didn't seem like it would solve problems like Cipher for now.

Focusing ahead, he frowned. It hardly looked like the Bramblin were going anywhere either. There had to be some other way through. There were so many... Digging? He didn't think any of their group were great diggers. Going over the top?

"There's nothing we can do then except wait?" he grumbled. It was halfway between a question and a statement.