34. Preparing to Depart

[X] Name Woodmouse: Ana

[X] Armsmistress A (75, 000 SLC)

[X] Dragonqueen B (300, 000 SLC)

Current Budget: 9, 500 SLC

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This morning, you woke up with only two pokegirls to your name. An hour ago, you walked out of the Auction House with double that number. 

You rubbed the newly filled pokeballs on your belt with barely concealed glee. Isadora and Ana were both wonderful, but Witches and Woodmice weren't exactly famed for their power. Now that you had a solid front liner and an experienced trainer, your harem was going to become stronger then ever. 

For now, though, you had a trip to plan. Red's camping out somewhere neat Raymond's Rock, a mining town about fifty miles east of your current position. You'd definitely like to meet up with her again. 

But how are you going to do it? 

[Mind Check: 30 89+5 (Academic Dabbler): 94]

Unfortunately, your depleted wallet means that you won't be able to hire a flier or teleporter to take you there, which means that you'll need to travel the hard way. With so little money, you can't even afford to hire a bike or other land vehicle to take you there faster. However, there are still a few options available...

All Pokecenters have a noticeboard on their lobby where tamers can collect jobs and bounties for the local people. You hadn't paid attention to it before since you were personally too inexperienced and your harem too weak to handle any tasks worth the time. Now that you've filled up your harem a little, you're actually qualified to take on something actually profitable. 

In this case, a pilgrimage group heading to the temple on Mount Lazuli. They're a fairly large group that's willing to pay for tamers to guard them on their way to their destination. The only problem is that they'll be sticking to the main roads and making stops at every town or village along the way, which means that they'll be travelling at a snails pace. At the earliest, it'd take a week for the pilgrims to reach Raymond's Rock, by which time Red would have probably moved on to somewhere else. 

Another option is to join up with a group of tamers heading in that general direction. It's fairly popular nowadays, since having extra eyes and ears makes it safer to travel. In addition, a group of tamers and their assorted harems are able to fight and capture pokegirls that would be far to hazardous for you to tackle alone. Of course, that's assuming that you can get a decent group in the first place. There are always horror stories about unfriendly or incompetent tamers who can make a journey unpleasant or even dangerous for their fellow travelers.  

Of course, you could always choose to go at it alone. Tamers are meant to be rugged survivalists, after all. At least, that's what they always show in the books and movies. A lone tamer, travelling through the wilderness with nothing but her wits and her pokegirls to keep her safe... You have to admit, the idea does appeal to you slightly. 

Still, going at it alone is dangerous. Plenty of tamers vanish into the wilderness without a trace, their final fates rarely uncovered until long after it's far too late. Without a large group around to protect you from ferals, you'll need to be strong, careful and lucky in order to reach your destination safely. 

So, how will you travel to Raymond's Rock?

[] Hire a teleporter 

[] Hire a flier

[] Hire a vehicle 

[] Sign up with the pilgrim group (safest available option, will take the longest time to reach)

[] Look for other tamers who're heading in the same direction and see if any of them are willing to let you join their group (wildcard option)

[] Travel alone

- [] Stick to the main roads (safer, but takes longer)

- [] Cut through the wilderness and head directly towards your destination (faster, but more dangerous)

What do you do before beginning your trip? Pick up to three. You may repeat your choices if you want. 

[] Spend time with one of your pokegirls

- [] Who?

- [] Doing what?

[] Fight stuff!

- [] Ferals (chance to capture ferals)

- [] Battle other tamers (chance to meet people)

[] Make a call!

- [] Red's mum
- [] Your mum
- [] Red
- [] Gold

[] Buy Stuff

- [] What? 

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AN: Fun times ahead! You actually rolled well enough to unlock all the travel options as well as gain hints on what those options can do, but since you wiped out your budget, you can't actually afford any of the best options (teleporting and flying). 

If you'd flubbed the Mind Check, Blue would have been so excited about the chance to start her adventure that she wouldn't have taken the time to think about what other options were available to her and just went straight into the wilderness with her harem in tow. 

Also, if someone can find me a picture for your new Dragonqueen and Armsmistress, that'd be great. Seriously, fuck whoever came up with the Dragonqueen's description in the pokedex. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a picture that fits all those prerequisites?  

And in case you were wondering, the reason I didn't bring up the noticeboard earlier is because the only jobs that you could have done were noob stuff like "Find my pet" or "Chase away these Titmice from my garden". Since you figured out a way to make something like 300, 000 SLC in a day, I decided that Blue was just not going to even bother with any of the low pay mission work that most new tamers are stuck with.