AN1: I felt that I should mention that almost every action taken by anyone and/or thing, its outcome will ultimately be decided by a d20.

Lore of Yandor #4

The Tesparia Province has some of the most gorgeous sights to see in Yandor and ironically also has one of the most horrid looking sights to see in Yandor, A.K.A the Neverdying Swamp. A common beauty to come across are the raven trees, which are rather large trees with dark blue leaves and they sprout purple flowers. In the northeastern area of the province there are floating islands that hover above the Surging Sea. On one of the floating islands lies Aera city, where only the Psychic and the Fairy types are allowed to live. Any other types can only visit just to admire the city. Also, the largest floating island is a very dangerous mystery dungeon. Its name is Examere island. The island itself floats over a never ending maelstrom, you'd have to use the other smaller islands to even get up on the island if you can't fly. The capital city, Melennora, is nearly completely surrounded by cliffs. A large waterfall fall, the Golden Cliff Falls, rolls over one of the cliffs and creates a river that circles the city. The largest tree in Yandor, the Aibrent tree, lies in the center of the city. It has deep mahogany wood and light-pink leaves. Many of the pokemon of this province like to look the most beautiful of all, and they take looks seriously. They love visitors that admire them and their province and hate them if they don't. The Rock types are forced to do all the heavy lifting for the other types, they are seen more as slaves rather than citizens by most of the other types. The representative of the province sees anyone whom isn't beautiful or handsome inferior to them and that consensus lies in most of the psychic, fairy, and some fighting types as well. The province may look great to live in, but is the mistreatment and the pretentious citizens you'd have to deal with really worth it?

Age of Zezula: Year 780: Location: Capital city of Tesparia: Melannora city

Niles and Sheila were standing just outside of the COY hall.

They looked up in awe at the Aibrent tree, the moonlight illuminating the leaves.

"Damn… that's a big ass tree." Niles stated.

"And it's stunningly beautiful…" Sheila said. "This is the first time I've seen it in-person, I've only heard others talk about it."

Niles looked over at her. He was surprised that she hadn't been to a place this magnificent. The design of this city differed compared to Jono. Organized in an hexagonal pattern, the buildings were built upon varying levels of height. They started on the lowest point, one level above the courtyard where the aibrant tree lay, and rose upwards, one level at a time. Niles could estimate that it was at least 30 planes, with many buildings occupying each one. The buildings themselves were made of mostly wood that was painted in an array of beige, greens, browns, reds, and yellows. Each was roofed with shingles, some multi-layered others not. Each plane offered more space as they went upwards.

For every corner of the hexagon, Dark wood, wide stairs led to the topmost plane from the courtyard. There were fancy patterns carved into the wooden planks as well. At each crossroads, the visage of the aibrant tree was carved into the center.

"So, you've never actually been in Melannora city?" Niles questioned. "I would think that if something like this tree existed, everyone would come to look at it considering you can just warp to this city at any time."

"Actually, only mercenary bands and COY officials get to warp from one province to another. Everyone else has to go through the borders," Sheila informed Niles. "I've only ever been in the Croudor Province and the Acron Province. The only things I know about the other three provinces is from what I hear from others."

"Huh... I guess the ability to warp to other provinces is just another reason to be a mercenary then," Niles looked back up at the tree. "I never thought that I'd see anything like this."

A florges and an aromatisse walked in front of them, blocking their view. They were wearing matching fur scarves and make-up.

"I see that you are mesmerized by our Aibrant tree," the florges said with a fake smile.

The aromatisse sprouted a similar smile.

"Ah yes, of course you are," the aromatisse stated. "After all… you'll never find anything like this in any other province and there's many more stunning sights that only Tesparia can provide."

Niles crossed his arm and bit his lip, already not liking these two schmucks.

"We can't exactly be mesmerized by the tree if you're blocking our view of said tree," Niles said.

The florges raised her leaf hand and looked at the back of it as if she had nails that were polished to look at.

"That's because we wanted to show you something else to admire," she said with that all too fake smile. "Our beauty."

She looked over at her friend.

"Hmm yes, indeed, for the pokemon of this province are more glamorous than the natural landscape…" the aromatisse flaunted. "Especially us."

She looked over at the florges that was still looking at her and they both had smug looks on their faces. Then they looked at Niles and Sheila expecting them to start fawning over them.

Sheila gritted her teeth trying to hold in her anger. Although, she would love to burn up their flowers and fur.

"Except we didn't come here to admire anyone's beauty," Sheila told them. "And I'm not all that impressed either."

Niles shook his head and held his arms out.

"Whether you're beautiful or not is an opinion not a fact," Niles said.

The florges and aromatisse now had an angered expression on their faces. That was not the answer they were wanting.

"Excuse me! We are the quintessential example of pokemon beauty and that is a fact!" the aromatisse exclaimed.

The florges looked ready to smack the shit out of them. She pointed to a billboard on a building that had a florges and aromatisse on it. They were posing and smiling. "Moonlit Sisters" was printed in magenta underneath the picture of them.

"How dare you! We are the Moonlit Sisters, the most stunning pokemon in all of Yandor and no one can say otherwise and if they do…" The florges gave a sly grin. "They just need some convincing to get them to admit that we are."

Sheila leaned over to whisper in Niles' ear.

"Another thing about this province is that most of the pokemon are a bunch of pretentious and self-righteous bastards," Sheila sighed. "And boy do I hate it when pokemon get up in your face and act like they are all perfect and whatnot."

The florges and aromatisse gave quiet chuckles.

"And you two need some convincing…" the aromatisse stated, also grinning.

Niles and Sheila got into fighting stances. They knew something bad was about to happen.

The florges held out her leaf arm and pointed it at Niles.

"Moonblast!" she shouted as a bright light developed in her hand.

Suddenly a gallade teleported in front of Niles and deflected the moonblast attack using Light Screen. The blast hit the florges directly in the chest, sending her into the Aibrant tree.

The aromatisse stood there completely shocked and frozen still. While Niles and Sheila were just as shocked.

The gallade posed in a herioc fashion grinning. You could imagine a glistening white light shining down upon him and you'd think it was a movie.

"No one will harm the innocent when I, the mighty Havan, guardian of all pokemon, is watching," the gallade known as Havan announced proudly. "Now how about I swiftly defeat you villainous folk and save these two mercenaries."

The aromatisse's eye and mouth twitched.

"Um… no thanks, I think we're done here…" her voice was shaking. "We're fine with them not admiring us and all that."

Havan raised a brow. He expected her to be afraid.

"And you promise to never harm anyone ever again?" he said. "Because if you do, you know that I won't let you off easily."

She gave a nervous laugh.

"Yes, of course. We promise to never harm anyone ever again," she stated.

The gallade stopped posing and put one hand on his hip. He knew she was gonna say those exact words.

"Then off with you!" he exclaimed. "You should run over to your friend because she probably needs some assistance after what I did to her."

She slowly jogged over to the florges that was unconscious beside the tree.

"Thanks for the help… Havan." Niles said as he scratched his head.

Sheila smiled and looked at Havan. Glad that at least one of the citizens of Tesparia gives a damn about other types.

"So… the Tesparia province has a hero in its midst?" she commented.

"Of course! Every place has its hero, me being the mightiest of them all," he said with a confident smirk.

"That's true, you could consider mercenaries as heroes and they're everywhere," Sheila said.

Niles looked up at Havan. "I'm not so sure that you're the mightiest of them all, but I will say that your statement definitely holds merit," Niles told him. "I'm impressed that you just deflected a Moonblast attack like it was a pebble."

Havan chuckled arrogantly. "Any attack towards me is nothing but a pebble," he informed them. "Might I ask… but are you two mercenaries looking for teammates by any chance? I feel that you are in need of a strong ally, one that will be an ever watchful guardian, a vanguard!"

Niles and Sheila looked at each other.

"He wants to join our team!" Sheila exclaimed excitedly. "Man… our first teammate already and they're a strong pokemon! We should totally let him join us, Niles."

Niles nodded in agreement. "Yeah, we could use someone like him." he turned to look at Havan.

Havan looked at Niles and listened.

"Yes, we are a mercenary band, Team Eternity, and we would be glad if you'd join it. We do need more members," Niles told him.

Havan put his hands together. "Absolutely fantastic, I've been waiting for an opportunity to join a mercenary band allowing me to find some rare artifacts in mystery dungeons, plus it gives me a chance to be a greater hero," Havan stated. "Consider it an honor to have me join your team."

"Then I guess we'll go get you signed up," Niles told him. "Oh and by the way, my name is Niles and the salandit's name is Sheila."

"It's a pleasure to meet you two," Havan said.

They all walked into the nearby COY hall to get Havan signed up for Team Eternity.

A short while later they walked back outside again.

Niles walked up in front of Sheila and Havan.

"Now let's head for that damn swamp and help that mienfoo!" he announced.

Age of Zezula: Year 780: Location: Neverdying Swamp entrance

The trio was standing outside the entrance.

"So Naoto the mienfoo is on the fifth floor, hopefully it isn't too hard to get there," Niles said reading the mission request form.

"From what I know, the swamp isn't a problem at all until the 10th floor and we aren't going close to that floor," Havan said. "Plus, I can handle anything this dungeon has to hand out easily."

"That's good to hear, this day has been crazy already," Sheila sighed. "But I can't wait to experience our first mystery dungeon!"

There was a sign with the COY logo on it next to the entrance. Furthermore, a statue of a swanna with glowing blue eyes sat beside it.

Niles pointed at the sign and statue, then looked at Havan and Sheila.

"Does those mean anything important?" he asked. "It better not be a symbol for a paricularly dangerous mystery dungeon or something."

Sheila huffed and smiled.

"It's there to warn you that this entrance leads into a mystery dungeon," she informed him. "The COY opted to have pokemon place signs to indicate that because without them pokemon have waltzed into mystery dungeons without knowing and it has resulted in their deaths. As for the swanna idol, it will automatically connect our badges to allow us to warp to it to escape the dungeon."

"Any specific reasoning for a swanna to represent that? Just curious."

"It's made in the image of Essi, an famed explorer that has discovered many of the mystery dungeons we know of. I don't know if she's still around though..."

"As much as I'd like to talk, I feel that we should go rescue the mienfoo stat. It's my duty as a hero after all," Havan commented as he was entering the swamp.

Niles and Sheila followed him in.

Age of Zezula: Year 780: Location: Neverdying Swamp: A 20 floor mystery dungeon

F1

There was an olive fog that was present in the swamp, the trees were slimy and had vines hanging down from them. There was no stable land, only thick, murky water, deep mud, and clumps of grass covered mud.

Havan was leading the group, Sheila was in the middle, and Niles was hanging in the back.

They were struggling to walk through the mud and water.

Niles was pinching his nose. "Jeez, not only does it look horrid but it smells horrid as well," he commented.

"All this mud and dirty water really makes it hard to walk," Sheila stated as she forcefully pulled her foot from some mud. "It's almost as if this mud is alive and is holding on to our feet. At least Havan seems to be having less trouble walking through this shit."

They looked towards Havan whom was farther ahead trudging along towards the next floor.

"I'm going to have to really scrub down to get all this grime off me," he said to himself. "Ohhhh the price a hero has to pay in order to save the helpless pokemon idiotic enough to get themselves in a troubling circumstance."

He shook his head.

2F

As they arrived at the second floor, a mudkip jumped out of the water to attack Sheila with a water gun attack. Luckily, she was able to lift herself up and jump to the side, dodging it.

"Psycho-cut!" Havan shouted as he slashed at the mudkip with purple blades.

His arms got caught in some vines hanging from the tree to the left of him.

"That didn't happen, the fog blocked my view of the vines," he said shamefully.

"Venoshock!" Sheila announced as she shot out some poisonous liquid at the mudkip.

The mudkip swiftly swam out of the way.

Leave it to me, the human whom has little experience fighting as a pokemon, to defeat a mudkip. Maybe it's just the environment or something, Niles thought.

"Mega drain!" he yelled as yellow energy shot out from his hand, but he lost focus and shifted his foot accidentally which caused him to fall into the murky water and then everyone looked at him.

"I'm new to fighting ok! Ok!" he defended himself as he got up.

"Tackle!" the mudkip then rushed at him. Then, Havan jumped in front of the mudkip.

"Close combat!" he shouted as he swung a fist which collided with the mudkip's face, breaking its skull. It was sent flying through a tree. "Haha! Take that trouble-doer!" He raised a fist.

"I think you overdid it there Havan," Sheila commented.

"I just wanted to end this egregious charade already," Havan stated.

5F

As they took out an oddish, they saw a mienfoo trudging through some deep mud. The mienfoo looked at them with a relieved expression.

Havan gave a heroic pose.

"Do not worry young lady for I, Havan, am here to lead you to safety!" Havan announced rushing towards the mienfoo with his hand out.

The mienfoo upon hearing "young lady" gave an angered look.

"I"M A MAN! Not a lady!" he exclaimed, annoyed at being mistaken as a female.

Havan gave a shocked expression.

"Sorry but you looked like a lady to me, I apologize for the inconvenience," Havan apologized. "Let me do a retake."

He coughed, went back to his starting position, and did a heroic pose.

"Do not worry young lad for I, Havan, am here to lead you to safety!" he announced, rushing towards the mienfoo holding out his hand.

Niles and Sheila ran towards the mienfoo as well.

"Thanks for taking the mission guys," Naoto stated. "An-" he froze up once he looked at Sheila.

They stood there confused as to why he just randomly froze up.

"Um… are you okay?" Sheila asked. "Did I accidently give you an icy look or something?"

Niles touched Naoto's shoulder. "Tell us something please, is there something behind us?" he questioned with a supporting sounding voice.

Naoto snapped out of it. "S-sorry sir, it's just that I have gynophobia, which is the irrational fear of females," he informed Niles. "Don't worry though, that doesn't mean that I hate your salandit friend there or anything. I would just like to leave this wretched swamp already."

Everyone nodded in agreement

"Yeah, the less I have to stand in this water the better. I don't want the smell to linger even after I take a nice long shower," Niles said, still pinching his nose.

They all took out their badges and Havan grabbed Naoto. They were then transported out of the dungeon.

Age of Zezula: Year 780: Location: Neverdying Swamp entrance

Everyone was wiping off the mud and whatever other stuff was stuck to them.

Naoto looked at Niles' scarf seeing the one star imprinted on it.

"So you're a rank E team…" Naoto discerned. "I assume you perhaps need some assistance? I have some tips and tricks I could teach you guys."

"Yeah we just started, your mission was our first mission in fact," Niles said. "We could use a bit of help starting off. Although, I'm sure Havan might be enough of a help,"

Havan smirked at that comment.

Sheila gave a confident smile and walked up to Naoto. "You could help us by joining our mercenary band," she said. "We still need more teammates as you can see."

Niles sighed upon hearing this. "Sheila, you can't expect everyone to join our team, I mean they barely know us," he stated.

Everyone ignored what he said.

"Sure I'll join if it helps, think of it as a reward for completing my mission," Naoto said.

Never mind then, Niles thought, biting his lower lip.

Havan wasn't satisfied with that reward.

"I feel that, as your savior, we deserve a little more than just extra help," Havan said as he held out his hand expecting Naoto to give him something. "Whilst I respect the possibility that you'll prove worthwhile as a teammate, that isn't a proper reward. Mercenaries should not be expected to give out free labor."

Naoto looked at his hand and thought of something to give him. He pulled out 300 poke and gave it to Havan.

"There you go sir. It's what I feel you deserve along with me joining your team. I hope it's enough for you," he told him with a smile.

Havan clearly wanted something more. "It's fine enough as a rank E reward. I'll have plenty more chances to get some fantastic rewards that only a hero like me deserves," he said as he pocketed the poke.

Sheila put her hands on her hips. "I hope you know that we are sharing what we earn," Sheila told him. "We are a team after all."

Havan nodded in understanding. "Yeah I know, I'm not one to be so selfish to my allies," he said.

"Alright, now we can go get Naoto signed up for our team," Niles announced.

Sheila yawned. "Then we can finally get some sleep, it's been a long day," she commented, looking like he was about to pass out.

Age of Zezula: Year 780: Location: Niles' and Sheila's home: The TE HQ

From the outside, it looked relatively fine and not much different from the other buildings. Albeit, one of the windows was cracked, and the small front yard was clearly not trimmed in years. A home's a home though, Niles and Sheila were happy to have some warmth for the night at the very least.

Inside, the house's blue paint was peeling and appeared faded. It wasn't very big either, there were only 3 rooms; a bedroom, kitchen and living room. It was filled with dust and had few decorations.

When Niles opened the door dust flew everywhere making him cough and wheeze. "Risha wasn't lying when she said there was dust everywhere, we wouldn't be able to breathe if we shut the windows and front door."

Sheila just shuffled her way into the house. "Just leave the windows open or something," she yawned. "I wish to admire the bed before anything else in our new home."

Niles yawned in agreement. "Yeah let's just get some shut eye," he said as they both headed into the bedroom and got in the bed.

The next day

Niles woke up noticing that Sheila was not in the bed. "I guess she's an early lizard," he said as he got up and groggily left the room.

He was greeted by a rather uppity Sheila.

"Guess what!" she said as she looked expectantly at Niles.

"What?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.

"I planned for our team to go and eat in the Eskor Province!"

Niles didn't understand why she was so excited over eating food.

"And why are we eating in the Eskor Province instead of just here in Jono?" he questioned.

Sheila gasped. "I know you aren't from here and all, but the Eskor Province has the best food out of everywhere else," she informed him. "I've always wanted to eat their food, and as a mercenary I can easily do just that. Also, I felt that it was a good way to celebrate our first successful mission."

"Sounds good to me, I can't imagine what kind of food pokemon can cook," Niles said, still waking up.

Sheila blinked rapidly. "I'm sure that you would at least know what most pokemon cook even from where you are from," she was now suspicious of Niles' true origins. "Unless…"

Niles became nervous real quick.

"I'm just tired that's all, people say stupid things when they're tired," he tried to play it off.

Sheila did not believe it. People huh? It's time to settle this suspicion I have.

"Niles you don't happen to be a… human do you?" she gave him a stern look. "If you are, I wouldn't be surprised. I kept thinking about how nervous you get every time someone asks where you are from and/or why you don't know something, and I know a human has been to our world before. My mother told me about them."

How did she just predict that I was a human so quickly? Niles thought.

He gave a sigh of defeat.

"Yes I'm a human at soul," Niles frowned and sagged his shoulders. "You don't think anything bad of it do you?"

Sheila smiled warmly and put her hand on his shoulder.

"No of course not, why would I after what we've been through," she said. "I know I can trust you."

Niles' spirits lifted and he was glad he could get that off his chest.

"Just don't tell anyone about it please," he told her.

"I won't, Niles," she nodded. "Now let's go outside, meet with the others, and then go eat, I'm starving."

AN2: Havan was submitted by St Elmo's Fire, thanks St Elmo's Fire! Naoto was submitted by Ridin Valon, thanks Ridin Valon.

AN3: So at the moment I encourage you people to submit female OCs (I would like to keep the male to female ratio relatively even on Team Eternity).

OC Rules

1. The classic. No Mary or Gary Stues. You can submit some very skilled and/or powerful OCs, but you must give them at least 2 or 3 weaknesses.

2. There's a bar of quality that you must pass in order for your OC to be accepted. This is because I get some OCs here and there that lack any substance at all, and boy is it hard to work with that. Luckily for you guys, the bar isn't that high and you have unlimited attempts anyways (please no spam though).

3. No human turned pokemon OCs.

4. I will not accept incomplete OCs or OCs that just do not fit into the world of Yandor.

5. No main villains/antagonists. I'm very iffy about them in general, as they're hard to fit into the story.

6. PM your OCs please. I'd much rather see reviews in the review section over them. I know this hurts the guests, but it's really not that difficult to set up an account. If you do end up sending one in the reviews for whatever reason, the only way I'll accept them is if you clearly put time and effort into it.

7. Fair warning, no character is safe from death. Since, I roll dice to determine battle and choice outcomes. However, I may overrule the dice on certain occasions. In short, I'll try to do what is best for the story.

OC Form!

Name:

Nickname/alias (If applicable):

Species and gender (You can submit any species including legendaries, besides Arceus. And for genderless pokemon, just tell me what they prefer to be considered):

Estimated Age (Pokemon don't age the same as humans, so I just need you to tell me if they're a child, teen, young adult, adult, or elder):

Role (Teammate to the main character, recurring villain, just some random shopkeeper, another mercenary band leader/teammate, or maybe a pokemon that I can just kill as an example of how shit Yandor can be):

Province (tell me what province they live in, just know that certain types usually live in a certain province, but they can be in any province really (very unlikely). Read the Lore of Yandor in the introductory chapter for info on that. You can ask any question about the provinces if needed and if I can answer it):

Personality (I need decent enough description that'll allow me to get your OC right):

Character Alignment (You can look up the alignments on google or just ask me about it):

Backstory (I won't ask for much here, just give me a backstory that really shows why they are the way they are):

Relationship? (No, this doesn't mean sex scenes are planned. I'm asking whether or not you're fine with your OC having a relationship develop, and their sexuality):

Ability:

Move-set (give me 6 moves):

Fighting Style (Can be as descriptive as you feel it should be):

Quotes (This is so you can give me a general idea of how they act, talk, and how you'd see them being written. A minimum of 4 is required.):

Other things that you must tell me (like if they have anything unique about their appearance, or if they can mega-evolve, stuff like that):

And the form for mercenary bands (Just put this form above the OCs that are in the team)

Name of team:

Scarf color:

Rank (E, D, C, B, A, S, H, W, Royal):

Members:

Why created:

What they've done:

Forms will be on my profile so you can copy it from there.

And that's all, thanks for reading guys, hope you'll be here for the rest of it. ^:^