[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Iron]

@Nylon I presume you are coming too.

You sneak out by night, and Ventus activates the Genesect statue. It slides aside, and you descend into its depths for the first time.

There are strange symbols on the walls. Neither Ventus or Shiva can peg them as magical symbols, and they don't seem to have much to do with Pokemon. They look like interconnected geometric shapes. Now and then, you do see molecular formula interspersed with the symbols.

Shiva spots a pile of broken teeth, leading up to the skull of some quadrupedal Pokemon. She's forced to shiver at the carelessness with which the bones are scattered.

The hidden stairs lead to a tunnel of worked stone, though it looks like it has been weathered for many years by the water dripping and sliding over musty walls.

Inside this tunnel, there's a button that looks like it will slide Genesect back into place.

The tunnel forks quickly. To one side, you hear rustling in the distance. The other side is dead silent, the path flanked by two dragonlike skulls! Nathan thinks they are not Charizard skulls; they also look extremely old and calcified. There are empty torch sockets, but the tunnels are dark aside from a little moonlight and lamplight from the town above.

[Lord Windos]

The tunnel forks quickly. To one side, you hear rustling in the distance. The other side is dead silent, the path flanked by two dragonlike skulls! Nathan thinks they are not Charizard skulls; they also look extremely old and calcified. There are empty torch sockets, but the tunnels are dark aside from a little moonlight and lamplight from the town above.

The underground base's entrance was just as he expected: dark, dank, and latterly with the signs of death. Ventus notices the symbols on the walls, and while they don't look like any magical runes or arcane script, the paranoid researcher is put on guard by the sight of them. He comments them to his memory, and looks to the button by the wall for a moment, before ignoring it. 'I believe that button will concel the entrance once more, but I'm not sure it will open it back up if I push it. Best leave it alone for now,' he though, before he took a few steps forward to the fork in the path.

Holding his chin with one hand for a moment, he turns to his companions with an inquisitive look on his face. "Which way should we all head down, friends? One has the sound of activity further down the way, while the other is flanked by skull straight out of Cheshire's mythical legends, so both options look grim. Oh, and before anyone suggests it, no splitting up. That is always a bad idea when entering dangerous, unknown territory such as this."

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Even if those strange symbols seeimingly had nothing to do with Pokemon directly, Shiva found them VERY interesting and stared at them with awe while walking down the stairs. However, she couldn't read them, if there was anything to read in them at all. They looked like advanced encrypting or mythical content - or both - and reminded her a little on these calculations she did earlier. The Scimitars seemd to know what they are doing...

So it was no wonder that she fell behind just a few steps. Luckily, she stayed concentrated enough not to trip and fall down the stairs. That could have ended bad in the dark for herself and for the mission they were on.

At some point, it was light enough for her to spot something nearby, something that possibly slipped the others view because they were not that drawn to by the symbols and formula on the walls like she was. ...Turned out it were some teeth! From some Pokemon. It was too dark though to securely spot whether it were teeth of a herbivor, omnivore or carnivore. The teeth were not the only remains of a Pokemon, however... It was a mistake to look up and search for the origin of these teeth. Shouldn't have. Ugh...

Her fearlessness received an initiate break, and she made haste to catch up with the others and step closer to Ventus especially after shivering at the sight of these dead remains. She might have seen lots of drawings of the bone frames of several Pokemon in books already, but they were all clean and stuff... That one here was real, dusty, old, scary and placed there rather carelessly like there were no other room for it.

Too bad she hadn't Braixen with her to enlight the tunnel, but he was a Fire Type and counterproductive currently, plus a light from an unknown source would arise unwanted attention of the inhabitants of the base. But even in the dark, it was clear that this base was related to Water.

There was also rustling from one side in the distance, immediately alerting her. Did they noticed already? Had they some sort of warning system? The other path in the silence seemed like the better choice to her, even if there were more skulls on its side.

She wrapped one arm around Ventus' arm, very fond and thankful of the idea of not splitting up. "Eh... The silent one seems more secure to me. That rustling could be all random, or it could lead us into the arms of the enemy."

[Dragonstrike]

While Ventus doesn't want to press the button, Nathan remembers him saying something concerning a ball return like system for the drive.  Suggesting the statue will cover the entrance again anyways.  He hangs back to watch the entrance for a moment while the others take a look at what's ahead.

*click*

No point in leaving the entrance open if it's going to close itself.  Now the next question is: does that chute return deposit the drive replica here or somewhere else?

(Insert Ventus's reaction here? Gotta resolve this first before choosing a path)

[Iron]

Plop! The drive comes in and lands right next to the button. Or so it sounds, in the dark.

Clearly, if the statue closes by itself, the drive goes outside. If the statue uses this button, the drive goes inside.

It's very dark.

[Lord Windos]

Shiva suddenly clinging to him in slight terror surprised him enough that he was unable to realize that Nathan was going to push the button, until it was to late for him to react, as he heard the grinding of the statue above him move over and sealed off the entrance. Snapping his head towards Nathan and seeing the offending finger on the button, Ven could only facepalm with his free hand let out and exasperated growl. "Nate....I'm unsure sure if you are familiar with the this concept/trope, but pushing button you don't quite comprehend it purpose is usually a bad idea. Case in point, you have now sealed us in here with no way obvious way out, unless said button acts as a method of re-opening the entrance-" the researcher said, before the Burn Drive plopped right next to him, startling the poor researcher once more and cutting off his statement.

There is a brief moment of silence as both he and Nathan processed this development, before Ventus just let out a tired sigh and simply said : "Well never mind then. Still, my advice is both practical and sound: please don't start activating random devices or contraptions, at least not until you inform the group to what you are about to do. Unlike you or Shiva, neither I nor Valder have a Pokémon to Teleport out of this place, so if we all have to make a hasty escape for whatever reason, both of us would be trapped here. So please think of how your actions affect others, before carrying them out. And yes, I know that sounds hypocritical coming from me, but that does not devalue the meaning. At least, I don't believe so." Shaking his head is frustration, the empath removed his hand from his face and gave the young trainer a mildy annoyed and disappoint look. "*Sigh* Now with that matter out of the way, all we can do now is choose which way to press forward. Shiva wants to go down the Skull Path, while I am still undecided. What is you opinion on which way we should proceed?"

[Iron]

Shaking his head is frustration, the empath removed his hand from his face and gave the young trainer a mildy annoyed and disappoint look.

Which no one can see happen, of course.

[Lord Windos]

Shaking his head is frustration, the empath removed his hand from his face and gave the young trainer a mildy annoyed and disappoint look.

Which no one can see happen, of course.

Realizing that his recent gesture would be lost in the darkness of the underground tunnel, Ventus elected to let out a *Tsk...* that clearly carried the feelings of mild annoyance and disappointment to Nathan. One must improve when the element plot against your full range of actions...

(@Dragonstrike : Recently changed my post, in response to Iron's interjections. Did not expect him to return so soon, so I had to scramble to change it. Sorry!)

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Nice, it just more dark. Luckily Shiva had one arm wrapped around Ven's anyway, so she'd notice if he/the group continues the path.

Well, if they could see a path, that is. How she longed to not have put Braixen onto PC...

She also shared Ven's thoughts and feels about pressing the buttton and trapping them down here, but didn't voiced them since Ven already did that to a sufficient degree. However... "... No. NoNoNoNoNO. Whatever happens, Ven, we will NOT leave you, nor Valder, nor any of our Pokemon, nor ANYONE BELONGING TO US alone despite not having teleport on hand. We'll find away. Didin't YOU said something about not splitting up?"


(Besides, if I'd call out my Electric rodents and auto-activate Plus-Minus-ability, would the sparks emitted be light enough to see at least something? Side effect, I have battle ready Pokemon already out. They're also loyal enough to keep quiet if I order them so.)

[Lord Windos]

She also shared Ven's thoughts and feels about pressing the buttton and trapping them down here, but didn't voiced them since Ven already did that to a sufficient degree. However... "... No. NoNoNoNoNO. Whatever happens, Ven, we will NOT leave you alone despite you not having teleport on hand. We'll find away. Didin't YOU said something about not splitting up?"

The researcher pauses for a moment at Shiva's outburst, a surge of mixed feeling being conjured up her loyal, kind, and foolish words, before he craned his neck back to the young lass. Hopefully being this close would allow her to see the look of resignation on his face, but his tone did a pretty good job of covering that area just in case. "Shiva....If things go to pot,  theneverybody that can escape should, lest they end up dead, severely injured, or compromised by some other dire method. We need people to be able to carry on the fight or deseminate information on this place just in case of that event, so please, if something bad happen....RUN."