Pokémon Universe > Quests & Plots

Just one quest? Thinking bigger: The pokémon courier service.

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Jerry:
This is turning out really good, besides the insignificant spelling issues :)

Annafu:
You sir, seem like an amazing quest writer. I would gladly do any of these quests.

Kalika_Had`ke:
I'm back..well I never really left..I just got smacked around by real life a bit. Regardless I've finished one of the quest chains in my notes from when this thread was last updated. Pardon the threadomancy but I don't see the point of a new thread when this one will do.

As a side note...I broke the character limit with this one. So please wait for the second post to go through before replying.

It makes sense, to me at least, that some quest chains should be started by the post office/courier service, but not actually use it as a hub. Especially if that quest chain has an exceptional reward and is meant to take an exceptionally large amount of time or have an incredibly high difficulty.

What constitutes an exceptional reward in a pokémon MMO though? The first thing that comes to mind is starters, consistently good for their generations, hard to obtain at best, and having more than one is a well known mark of dedicated and/or strong trainers. Even considering the re-balance that's going on the shear cool factor of having a few on your team is worth it to many. Having a chance at even random starters would make an exceptional reward for a dedicated trainer who has gone through the ranks of a PO and earned the privilege to do such a job.

This chain is a good example of that, it should probably be the last quest chain available through a PO (excluding player quests of course), reputation should likely have to be earned with the PO, and maybe even a number of player quests completed through a PO requirement would be a good idea.



'To the plantation'

"You're lucky (player), you've been noticed as one of the best of us and got lucky enough to be selected to work with the plantation for a while. Emerald Plantation is in one of the deepest parts of {something something jungle}. You'd never find your way there without this map, which I might add is an office secret. Also, the jungle is too dense to fly in or out of, you're going to be stuck there for a while. I would heavily stock up on supplies if I were you."

"Initially you'll be going out with this shipment of antidotes, full heals, max potions, revives, and in case of emergency full restores. However while you're working for the plantation the shipment is for the more permanent staff there, not to bail out an over-eager courier. Don't expect their help even though you'll be working closely with them for a while."

"On the other hand the area around the plantation is a treasure trove of natural cures, rare plants, and even rarer pokémon. The pokémon that live in that area of jungle though are as powerful as they are rare. Always be on your guard, take nothing for granted, and watch your partners backs. They're all that's keeping you from becoming part of that jungle, if you catch my drift."

"If you want some free advice (player), here it is. You'll definitely need the ability to cut down obstacles in your path out in the jungle, strength to move boulders out of your path is a good idea, the ability to navigate the river could also be considered a necessity, and a way to navigate rapids and waterfalls would certainly be a plus. A fire type would be damn handy out there if only for the multitude of grass and bug types that are to be expected in the jungle, and if navigating the river frequently something to deal with the water types found there in would be a good idea. OH! And if you have a pokémon that knows the move thief it might be a good idea to take it along to take the berries from the jungle pokémon before they use them."

"Keep your eyes open, do what they need you to do, and take advantage of the opportunity while it lasts. Good luck (player), don't die out there."


A simple, if not long, introduction to the quest chain that lets the player know exactly what they're getting into. The lack of ability to fly in or out of the plantation both explains the need for couriers to get supplies in and out, and accentuates the remoteness of the location. This quest can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it. Personally I'd opt for hellishly complicated with a heavy dose of screw-you added for good measure. The scale of the effort should match the scale of the reward after all. A fallen tree on the marked path forcing the player to go through several patches of grass no matter which way they go and a maze of one sort or another would be a good start. A mob of uncatchable grovyle (aka several back to back battles) would be a good follow-up and a hint of what can be had at the end of this quest line.

And of course the map shouldn't have everything marked on it from the get-go, that would just be too easy.

This section of jungle should be an 'instanced' area that is only accessible with a 'key', in this case the map. For those unfamiliar with the term an instanced area is unique to the player  or group that is in it and can change depending on the completed quests in the area. No PvP should be possible in this area, nor should there be any actual trainers, the wild pokémon and obstacles on top of the size of the area should be bad enough.


One thing I'd do if I were designing the area is that every few quests part of the main path is un-blocked by the camp workers, making it easier to get in and out, but that's me. Upon (finally) reaching the campsite and making their delivery they should be put to work by the camps inhabitants. The camp will function as quest hub for the duration of their stay.


'Securing the camp'

"So you ran into the Grovyle did you? Now you see why we only request that only very strong trainers deliver our supplies."

"The pokémon in this jungle act rather differently than your average pokémon. They work in groups, not just hunting in packs like canine-like pokémon do, but accosting trainers in groups as well. The Grovyle are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. We need to secure the camp against them, but securing anything from a Grovyle is difficult at best, let alone against a pack of them."

"You'll likely be attacked several times by them while you're helping out the scientists stationed here. Driving back 5 consecutive groups before coming back to camp should make the point that the humans here aren't to be trifled with."


'Collecting Samples'

"The Bulbasaur, Ivysaur, and Venusaur in this area weave a peculiar white vine with green leaves into their leaves and around their bulbs. The Grovyle have also been observed wearing some of it as bracelets, the more bracelets a Grovyle has the higher its standing in its immediate group seems to be. Adornment behavior is extremely peculiar in wild pokémon to say the least. We haven't been able to find the source of this vine as of yet, but need samples of it to determine if it has any purpose or peculiar properties."

"The Grovyles bracelets seem to be dried out for the most part, but the 'saurs vines are usually quite fresh. Find and battle enough 'saurs to get at least 6 samples of this vine. I know you're not a botanist but try to document your interaction with the 'saurs and collection of the vines as best you can with this digital camera."


'Rare Nuts'

"The local Turtwig and Bulbasaur lines seem to have some sort of tribal organization, beyond anything we've ever seen in populations of wild pokémon. We've even observed them trading food and known medicinal herbs and berries for a strange sort of nut we can't identify. Here's an image of one such trade, enhanced so that we can see the details of the nut in question. It seems ordinary enough, despite being an unknown species. We have never seen either line eating these nuts, and are puzzled as to why they use them as barter."

"Procuring samples of these nuts will be difficult, like many things in this dense jungle we haven't found the source of these either. The best way to go about this may actually be to trade with either the Bulbasaur or the Turtwig. As young members of their tribes they may be more inclined to trade with a human that observes their method of trading. To trade with a Bulbasaur or Turtwig go down to one of the sandy parts of the riverside, draw a circle in the sand, and place a natural medicinal item inside it. If you wait long enough a pokémon should come to trade with you. I would suggest trading for whatever they offer to garner some goodwill with them and learn the values of different items in their barter system."


Some fun bits that could be added these quests. Sometimes after fighting a grovyle mob you may find a fresh sample of the white vine, and sometimes the bulbasaur will trade for them as part of the rare nuts quest. Also the mechanics of the rare nuts quest never have to go away, even after the quest is complete, so you can trade with the bulbasaur and the turtwig to your hearts content. They may even have some rare items like elemental stones or rare berries if you offer the right things in the right amounts. This means that 'collecting samples' can be completed without ever battling a 'saur. This could be important later. And yes the camera (I wouldn't even list it as an item) is a Chekhov's gun that will show up again and again throughout the quests.

Another pair of quests sheds even more light on the culture of the grass starters.


'Preserving the greenhouse'

"Hindsight is 20-20 as they say. We've been having problems with raids on our greenhouse, samples we've been growing to research and foodstuffs we grow on site have been going missing for some time now. We've never been able to find tracks of whatever was raiding us, nor were we able to catch it on video, until now. And it makes sense that we couldn't find tracks, a serperior doesn't make any."

"If you hide out in the upper level of the greenhouse during nighttime you should be able to ambush it. That'll help both the scientists and the cooks, two groups I don't think anyone wants to annoy in a place like this."


'Meganium, and their place between the tribes.'

"The few times we've observed a Meganium in these jungles it has always been in the company of other species or at one of the beaches bartering. Your insights into the barter system however seem to make Meganiums behavior more confusing, not less. The one individual we've seen from a distance seems to draw a circle around itself, or accepts circles seemingly without any trade."

"We would like to examine this behavior further, try to trade with Meganium and find out what they offer."


Serperior will show up, and will try to raid the greenhouse. But will leave as soon as it spots you. A simple dialogue box of 'Serperior moves carefully away from you. But something seems odd about it, so you take a few pictures to see if anyone knows what's going on.' Taking these photos to a scientist will reveal that Serperior is one female, and two very, very gravid. Tell this to the site administrator and they'll decide to set out what they can for her as a goodwill gesture.

Likewise trading with Meganium won't necessarily go as planned. Trying to trade with Meganium will cause a short over-world cut-scene where Meganium seems confused at your trade and you'll get an option to send out one of your pokémon to talk with it. If the pokémon you send out doesn't meat the requirements for the quest you'll get a short cut-scene that suggests you should send out a different pokémon and an option to do so. The 'trick' to completing this quest is to send out a member of your party at 75% or less HP, or for them to have a status condition. This will trigger a short scene of Meganium using Heal Pulse or Aromatherapy on your teammate as needed then 'charging' you an appropriate amount of 'rare nuts' (you were using rare nuts to barter with right?), 5 for heal pulse, 10 for aromatherapy. The point is that the Meganium are healers for the other tribes, so can travel freely between them.



This would be the place to insert more quests dealing with the structures of the starter tribes, odd plant life (maybe berries that can't be gotten or easily gotten anywhere else?), barter quests for interesting things like unknown useful plants or even pokémon crafted tools, other rare grass and jungle pokémon, maybe even put a Moss Covered Rock to evolve eevee into leafeon somewhere in the area. OOH! Hidden cavern behind the waterfall, that's a classic. As this post is passing massive and getting into ridiculous I'm going to cut to the good bit in the next post.

Kalika_Had`ke:
Post 2 starts with a completely evil quest that is required to move the story ahead. After turning in the last chunk of quests you get the next major quest in the chain.


'Scientific Babysitting'

"I swear. Scientists are all bloody insane. I get that to find new things you have to range farther out from camp. Do they get that the further they range the more likely it is that they don't come back? Scientist Lara wants to go to the top of the waterfall, see what is there, and potentially get a better survey of the area. I think she's nuts for wanting to range that far. But what can I do? It's really her expedition, not mine."

"Take Scientist Lara to the top of the waterfall, you'll be responsible for her and her team while she's with you. Lara's Lapras knows surf and waterfall so can get both of you to the top if needed."


Yes, it's an escort quest. Once you get to the top of the waterfall Lara will occasionally say she wants to go look at something and wander off to go look at something, take samples, etcetera. And all battles either you or she gets into will be double battles. As if that wasn't bad enough, several times during this quest you'll be ambushed by either groups of ivysaur or grotle along with a venusaur or torterra leader respectively.

Yes I'm a jerk. They're all scripted events, so uncatchable. Just like every other scripted event in this place.

After a few groups, getting well into the upper area of the jungle, finding the hot spring that feeds the river, and crossing a living vine bridge over a canyon which Lara comments on (some of those cool bits of scenery every area should have), you come to what looks like a conflict with the serperior and venusaur on one side and the sceptile and torterra on the other, with meganium playing mediator.

Observing this for a while, you come to the conclusion that the camp has landed itself in the middle of a giant starter turf war.

Lara will want to get back to the camp before you're discovered. More mob encounters are entirely up to how evil or ambitious the quest coder feels while writing it.

After turning in the babysitting quest you can take Lara into the jungles with you anytime, as well as have her help in getting back to the top of the waterfall.


'Root causes'

"OK, we know what's going on now. But not why. Our behavior expert thinks that there may be more information at the site you found above the waterfall. One would think the gathering would be over by now. Take Lara with you if you want, she'll take any excuse to get out of the camp for a while."


This one's simple, go out and go to the gathering site. Immediately behind it and out of sight of your vantage point from before you'll find a wilted flower garden. If you're alone it'll strike you as strange to find anything wilted in a jungle this lush so you'll document, take samples for the scientists, and head back to camp. If Laura is with you she'll do much the same thing but comment on the initial findings now.

Regardless you'll find out either right then or when you get back that those flowers aren't just any ordinary flowers. They're gracidea flowers. And here you thought this quest line would just be a commentary on how pokémon tribes could work. I think the payoff is big enough that I can justify the legendary card here.

The equipment at the camp isn't good enough to find the reason for the wilting of the gracidea. And regardless the scientists here only have a minimal understanding of it and Shamin's biology. Hence..


'Priority package to (starting lab town)!'

"Alright, with this turf war going on we're in over our depth here. The gracidea being wilted  means that shaymin can't safely come here without risking not being able to leave, there may even be one or several shaymin trapped here without any reasonable way to get to the next flower patch. I think it's safe enough to say that if we restore the gracidea then the shaymin can take care of the war that's on."

"Take these samples to (starting lab town) and tell (professor insert name here) to call anyone they can think of that can help us figure out how to make the gracidea bloom again."


You heard 'em. Get going! Oh wait, you can't fly into or out of here. *trollface*

Regardless, this quest is simple enough. It's just going to take a while to get where you're going. Once there the samples are evaluated, and you get the next quest.


'Ingredients of hope'

"The samples you've brought back are...odd to say the least. There's definitely something wrong with the soil that the gracidea are growing in, but we've never seen the likes of it before. Gracidea flowers dislike being transplanted or I'd suggest moving the flower patch, however the soil seems plenty fertile enough to support the gracidea most adequately even when taking their abnormally high requirements for many nutrients into account. More testing will be required before we understand the problem, let alone have a solution."

"Regardless we have to do something, and quickly if the research outpost is to stay in place for any length of time. The camp being caught up in a pokémon civil war would cut the expectancy of getting anyone back out dramatically. My..contact in the Sinnoh region has suggested a potential solution, even if scientifically it makes little sence...but then most researchers that study mythology and local lores rarely make any sence..."

"Anyway. She suggested a purification ritual that in sinnoh lore is supposed to revive wilted plants, including a 'documented account', and I use the term loosely in this case, of reviving a patch of gracidea."

"Regardless of my thoughts on the matter, she thinks it's worth trying at the very least. I can't argue with her. More often than not such rituals hold a grain of science in them, even if we don't understand it yet. Here is a list of ingredients and notes on how the ritual is performed. I wish you luck in the endeavor."


Yup, epic fetch quest. I kept the list of ingredients ambiguous on purpose, the intent is to drag the player all over the region gathering random bits and bobs from various places, talking to NPC's that were assumed to be in the game solely for flavor, and generally dragging them around high level areas by the nose. This is another great place to insert random quests of various levels of absurdity with rewards of quest items needed for this quest. One chunk of ingredients that come to mind is "Combine the sweetest honey available with a seed indigenous to the area into an incense to burn over the flower patch." Requiring sweet honey (as in the item normally slathered on trees), rare nuts (like I'd ignore an excuse to use them for something else), and an old incense shop located in an out of the way old-timey town. If it's not a Fly point all the better. An incense burner blessed by a Slowking shaman/priest/guardian (ala the second movie) would be a nice touch. Standard ritual stuff, bells, salt, candles, little totem statues, run with the theme.

Head back to the flower patch and perform the ritual. No you still can't fly into the jungle, shaymin are small and can maneuver like hummingbirds. One on map cut scene later the gracidea are revived. Quest complete.

Oh wait, how do I get my starter reward you ask? Well first you have to get a bit of wrap-up data from the major parties. The shaymin that will show up (and consequently shift into sky form now that it is able to) will agree to make peace between the tribes before leaving to find its kin. Talking to the various scientists and such around the camp will reveal some interesting bits relating to the quests you've gone on, including that the rare nuts are almost valueless, they have little nutritional value, don't help with status conditions, nothing. Talking to the behavior expert from before (you'll find him at his desk in one of the tents frantically writing) reveals that they weren't using the nuts as barter, they were using them as _coinage_ due to their slow growing cycle. They have no intrinsic worth, only perceived worth (consequently he's busy writing a paper on the subject). When you next hit the lab the professor will muse at you about the effectiveness of the ritual and the potential applications once the mechanism behind it is discovered. All that good flavor that lore-nerds like me love. The important bit is from the camps manager who tells you that since the attacks have stopped they've been able to get on good terms with the tribes and trade with them, and that the more they've traded in goods and services the more fascinating things that they've found in this jungle.

And that's the kicker. All those quests were a prerequisite to trading your way into being considered an honorary member of one of the tribes. As part of that ceremony you'll be offered an egg containing one of the tribes newest generation in it. It's carries the same importance as getting your first pokémon and starting your journey. Once you're part of one tribe you can't becomes part of the others, so choose wisely. Also, every once in a while depending on how much time you spend in the jungle and how much you trade with the tribes you'll be offered more eggs to take care of. Your addition to the tribe brings them prestige and prosperity the more you're around, but every population has its limits. They're trusting you to find good homes for their children so their kind can continue to grow elsewhere.


In conclusion. Not only am I an evil quest writer, but I'm a sappy, evil quest writer as well.

St. Jimmy:
Good show! Good show!  I simply love this idea and hope to see some of your quest in the game!

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