[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Original Post

Mr. Finder is waiting in his shelter, near Geodude's makeshift nest. He accepts the Relic Shard gratefully and shuts himself away in a dark corner of the cavern, where occasional flashes of light can be seen.

He rejoins the group as they assemble, takes a look at your supplies and grunts in approval. "My nose is already hard at work detecting the location of a stone like this one near old dusty books, and I am pleased to say I think I can sense one! It's deep, deep underground and near the center of Mt. Sentry, unfortunately. My nose knows direction, but it doesn't necessarily know every obstacle...in fact, I can smell an avalanche or two." He holds up a little card with a rockslide illustrated on it.

"Here is your stone back, but please keep it available to me whenever I ask for it."

He pulls out a notebook. "Here's where I'll keep track of any expenses I incur. You've asked me to keep them low and it looks like you have enough food - assuming nothing delays us. So far, all I had to buy was a backpack for $50 and some better footwear for $50. I'd like to keep some of your rope in my pack should we get separated."

"Oh! On the way here I met a Raticate. It's been following me around; hopefully I can bring it. I've noticed it is able to dig and smell pretty well - both useful."

"Anything else we need to wait for? I am ready to lead the way! Please keep a good fighter at my side."

Ahhhhhhh!~ It was the sweetest melody for a particular fae-enthusiast to hear about Mr. Finder already detecting something, and he has a hard time to hide that from being visible in her expression and body language. Though when he mentioned a freakin' AVALANCHE, that joy somewhat bid farewell to Shiva as fast and gracefully as Nathan moves now. "Are these tarot cards, Mr. Finder? Eh... well, I guess IF there'll be a rockslide though, the Absol in our party will warn us beforehand...." The trust in Calam and Dizzy increases.

It pleases Shiva that he follows her request of keeping the expenses low. Concerning these and the remaining 1000$ to actually pay him for his help, she throws a telling and asking glance over to Nathan and Valder - you people know why, but you never came back to me concerning this. Everyone of us has contributed to the cost except you two, since it's a group thing I still feel it's fair to share the cost between us all.

"I...I mean, from my side we can get going!" To express that, she silently takes Ven's hand in a silent request to stick close to her. Only he will probably notice that deep inside her, she's scared but does a very fine job to hide it. As for the rope, Mr. Finder can have that one Shiva keeps, it's 5meter long - I hope that'll be enough.



Fine, if Nathan desires to scout ahead a little for the sake of being a little away from us others, he can stick to Mr. Finder, Ven's Lucifer the Noibat and Shiva's leader-Furret are asked to scout ahead before this post came from you, Iron, so they'll likely end up staying near Nathan and Mr. Finder.
Shiva doesn't desire to be far away from him, the Infiltrator-Absol sticks close to her as she has asked him to please do so to be among the first ones to realize when he picks up something dangerous ahead.
Calam desires to stick close to Dizzy, means he is close to Shiva as well.
Ventus said he desires to stick to Shiva 'for obvious reasons', so he too is near to the now two Absol.
Where Heart and Valder are, I don't know, probably somewhere though.

[Dragonstrike]

Concerning current lineups...

Okay, so, after the various things that happened, here's what the final team lineups seem to look like from what I can tell:

Nathan

Ralts
Calam
Ditto
Swiftfire
Solomon
Yule (Nathan only has to choose between Yule and Princess due to everyone else's picks, so I'll go with Yule)

Valder

Theo
Haunter
Mamo
Starmie (loaner)
Zippy (loaner)
Empty Slot

Ventus

Raphael
Aspis
Michael
Lucifer
Malphena
Grid (loaner)

Shiva

Cottonee
Lilith (Gothitelle)
Tropius
Azu
Furret
Yena

Heart

Rose
Gustav
Patrat
Viktor
Koa
Abaddon (loaner)

Concerning the Ditto/Loaner Pokemon meeting...

I'll assume Ditto was only shown Delta Onix from the rest of the group's stock for the purposes of memory Transformations (speak up now or forever hold your peace!  Shiva exempted, since she's definitely not there.) and that Ventus somehow manages to convince Nathan to (grudgingly) loan him Grid during this time after Nathan refuses to loan Ditto, because it's not going to be Nathan's first thought to loan Ventus a pokemon by a long shot.  (I don't think it's worth actually RPing out.  Nor do I want to RP it out.)

Concerning the young Absol...

@PhantomUnderYourDesk

Calam's a bit cautious about letting Shiva touch him. Even Nathan only rarely gets to do so. He's proud of the condition he keeps his white coat of fur in. Even just looking, though, Dizzy's is clearly softer, even if only by a little bit.

"Well, out of curiosity, does he have a nickname?"  Shiva doesn't have to say any more about why he's there.  If the League sent him, then there's obviously some special permissions in place.  And Nathan doesn't need more than one guess concerning why.

Back to the future!

Nathan's ready to go and play escort for Mr. Finder!  Nathan has Swiftfire and Yule out for some dim lighting to see by and deterrence against Rock/Ground/Water types respectively. Ralts is riding atop Yule for the time being.  He doesn't mind that Calam wants to hang with Dizzy (though whether he knows that name is yet to be determined).  He's sure Calam will come running to the front to help him out if something's about to go wrong.

And what's a Pokemon adventure without a little music, right?

Mt. Sentry Labyrinth: Ice Path - Pokemon Heartgold/Soulsilver

[Iron]

Mr. Finder hobbles over to the proper entrance to Mt. Sentry. "Let us begin!" He tosses a Pokeball, and a Slurpuff appears. Tongue hanging out, it goes waddling along the path at high speed. Mr. Finder stays hot on its heels, sometimes sniffing the air himself.

"Ah, where would we be without Pokemon?" he says. "If there's anything with a nose to rival my own, it's Slurpuff! Slurpuff says we'll have to continue down the main route for a bit, then drop into some sort of tunnel."

Indeed, you walk for about two hours without meeting any Pokemon at all, other than shy Zubat, having cleared this path just a few days ago. You're still feeling fresh when you come to a little side tunnel, half-blocked by a scree of slate. It looks like it slopes downward into darkness, though even Slurpuff doesn't quite fit inside at the moment.

Geodude floats forward, ready to dig. Any other preparations? Last chance for any important flashbacks!

[Spiritmon]

Flashback!

When Heart and Nathan was still in the Pokemon Center out, he show the pokeball and bring Delta Onix and give Nathan a quick glance. "Quick. Use your Ditto to copy Delta Onix form. Since I have other pokemon to bring with me. We need your Ditto to copy Delta Onix to let him memorize his form. Better be prepare than sorry."

(Feel to react this flash back @Dragonstrike!)

[Dragonstrike]

Flashback!

When Heart and Nathan was still in the Pokemon Center out, he show the pokeball and bring Delta Onix and give Nathan a quick glance. "Quick. Use your Ditto to copy Delta Onix form. Since I have other pokemon to bring with me. We need your Ditto to copy Delta Onix to let him memorize his form. Better be prepare than sorry."

(Eh, I guess.  Doesn't have to be anything fancy, though.)

Nathan sends out Grid and Starmie (since he's not loaned them out yet at this point in time) as a precaution as soon as Heart brings out Delta Onix.  And once things have settled down, he sends out Ditto.

...kind of.

As stated previously, Ditto starts out as a Keen Eye Sableye today.  Nathan's faint surprise is followed by a quiet "...really?  Again?  ...*sigh*..."

Nothing fancier needs to be done (though Nathan wasn't expecting Delta Onix to be so...small. Maybe it's a young one that's not fully grown yet?).  Ditto has now met Delta Onix, so now it can attempt to Transform into it on memory alone.  No actual Transforming required to do so.

No need to tell Nathan to be prepared, either.  That's why he arranged the meetings in the first place.  He doesn't say that out loud, though. In fact, he doesn't say much of anything unless spoken to. Just doesn't really have anything he wants to say.

(*Insert loaning of Starmie, Grid, and Zippy here*)

[Spiritmon]

Spoiler

Flashback!

When Heart and Nathan was still in the Pokemon Center out, he show the pokeball and bring Delta Onix and give Nathan a quick glance. "Quick. Use your Ditto to copy Delta Onix form. Since I have other pokemon to bring with me. We need your Ditto to copy Delta Onix to let him memorize his form. Better be prepare than sorry."

(Eh, I guess.  Doesn't have to be anything fancy, though.)

Nathan sends out Grid and Starmie (since he's not loaned them out yet at this point in time) as a precaution as soon as Heart brings out Delta Onix.  And once things have settled down, he sends out Ditto.

...kind of.

As stated previously, Ditto starts out as a Keen Eye Sableye today.  Nathan's faint surprise is followed by a quiet "...really?  Again?  ...*sigh*..."

Nothing fancier needs to be done.  Ditto has now met Delta Onix, so now it can attempt to Transform into it on memory alone.  No actual Transforming required to do so.

No need to tell Nathan to be prepared, either.  That's why he arranged the meetings in the first place.  He doesn't say that out loud, though.

(*Insert loaning of Starmie, Grid, amd Zippy here*)

"So? It is done? Is Ditto memorized the form of Delta Onix? Also cool transformation. Sabbleye have some style."

[Dragonstrike]

"So? It is done? Is Ditto memorized the form of Delta Onix? Also cool transformation. Sabbleye have some style."

"It's done.  Though how Ditto keeps Transforming into pokemon it hasn't seen yet is beyond my understanding..."

[Spiritmon]

Spoiler

"So? It is done? Is Ditto memorized the form of Delta Onix? Also cool transformation. Sabbleye have some style."

"It's done.  Though how Ditto keeps Transforming into pokemon it hasn't seen yet is beyond my understanding..."

Heart quick return Delta Onix back to the pokeball. "And you sir shall in the PC until we return. Could you wait a bit Nathan? I just making a few preparations." Then Heart make a few changes in his team putting Delta Onix in the PC and putting Koa there and leaving a space for Abbadon (could you give some info about your brother Lord Windos?).

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Calam's a bit cautious about letting Shiva touch him.  Even Nathan only rarely gets to do so.  He's proud of the condition he keeps his white coat of fur in.  Even just looking, though, Dizzy's is clearly softer, even if only by a little bit.

"Well, out of curiosity, does he have a nickname?"  Shiva doesn't have to say any more about why he's there.  If the League sent him, then there's obviously some special permissions in place.  And Nathan doesn't need more than one guess concerning why.

"...League named him 'Dizzy', short for 'Disaster'." She slowly withdraws her hand again now after having petted these two elusive felines enough for now, then makes attempts to move on along the path speaking further as she walks, motioning for the young Absol to please follow her and stick by her side.

"They've also warned me that we're having a high chance to meet these.......Scimitars along the way, somewhere and sometime." Nothing visibly changes about Shiva's expression and body language when saying that, but from how she almost spitted out that one word in coldness, it's relatively easy to get that she has not forgotten her grudge one these people, caused by her run-in with these guards when infiltrating their base in Wineberry Town.


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Original Post

Mr. Finder hobbles over to the proper entrance to Mt. Sentry. "Let us begin!" He tosses a Pokeball, and a Slurpuff appears. Tongue hanging out, it goes waddling along the path at high speed. Mr. Finder stays hot on its heels, sometimes sniffing the air himself.

"Ah, where would we be without Pokemon?" he says. "If there's anything with a nose to rival my own, it's Slurpuff! Slurpuff says we'll have to continue down the main route for a bit, then drop into some sort of tunnel."

Indeed, you walk for about two hours without meeting any Pokemon at all, other than shy Zubat, having cleared this path just a few days ago. You're still feeling fresh when you come to a little side tunnel, half-blocked by a scree of slate. It looks like it slopes downward into darkness, though even Slurpuff doesn't quite fit inside at the moment.

Geodude floats forward, ready to dig. Any other preparations? Last chance for any important flashbacks!

No particular preparations from my side, but Shiva's visibly fascinated and charmed by that Slurpuff Mr. Finder sends out! Awww <3 Such a cute Pokemon, and barely one could fit him better that this fairy-dog with a sense of smell 100 million times better than a standard humans!~

When they encounter that little side tunnel leading into darkness, she does take a shy look into it, already shivering from the thought of heading down there, before she catches her again quickly due to the fact that she's not alone here as well as that they all prepared sufficiently for this trip. Seeing how Geodude ('How delightful to see him again, and even willing to help us~', she thought to herself) floated forward to start digging, Shiva summons her familiar waterly fae rabbit, wo blinked at the current surrounding before concentrating on her beloved Master. "Azu, dear one," she adressed her Azumarill calmly, "please lend Geodude your Helping Hand to dig, and continue helping to widen the entrance of this side tunnel with your Huge Power when he gets tired."

If an Accuracy Roll is needed, it consists of 7d6. My Furret is missing 2xp to learn Helping Hand, so he has to watch the scene instead of helping as well. This gives Shiva the chance to watch him however: Does he give any signs of recognizing this tunnel?

[Dragonstrike]

Spoiler

"...League named him 'Dizzy', short for 'Disaster'." She slowly withdraws her hand again now after having petted these two elusive felines enough for now now, then makes attempts to move on along the path speaking further as she walks, motioning for the young Absol to please follow her and stick by her side.

"They've also warned me that we're having a high chance to meet these.......Scimitars along the way, somewhere and sometime." Nothing visibly changes about Shiva's expression and body language when saying that, but from how she almost spitted out that one word in coldness, it's relatively easy to get that she has not forgotten her grudge one these people, caused by her run-in with these guards when infiltrating their base in Wineberry Town.


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No particular preparations from my side, but Shiva's visibly fascinated and charmed by that Slurpuff Mr. Finder sends out! Awww <3 Such a cute Pokemon, and barely one could fit him better that this fairy-dog with a sense of smell 100 million times better than a standard humans!~

When they encounter that little side tunnel leading into darkness, she does take a shy look into it, already shivering from the thought of heading down there, before she catches her again quickly due to the fact that she's not alone here as well as that they all prepared sufficiently for this trip. Seeing how Geodude ('How delightful to see him again, and even willing to help us~', she thought to herself) floated forward to start digging, Shiva summons her familiar waterly fae rabbit, wo blinked at the current surrounding before concentrating on her beloved Master. "Azu, dear one," she adressed her Azumarill calmly, "please lend Geodude your Helping Hand to dig, and continue helping to widen the entrance of this side tunnel with your Huge Power when he gets tired."

If an Accuracy Roll is needed, it consists of 7d6. My Furret is missing 2xp to learn Helping Hand, so he has to watch the scene instead of helping as well.

Nathan likes the sound of that nickname.  He makes no further comments, but he's far from surprised that Scimitars might be down there.

There's also a noticeable difference in how the two Absol move and carry themselves.  While Dizzy tends to stick closer to darker corners, Calam stands confidently in the open, looking every bit like the experienced, swift, battle hardened survivalist that he is.  Calam still tries to stay relatively close to Dizzy, though.

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Nathan brings out Ditto!  ...er, Sableye Ditto, that is.  Sableye are pretty good at digging too.  Gotta get those gemstones somehow!  Keen Eye and being able to see in the dark should help a lot, too. (I believe this is Shiva's first time seeing Ditto's random transformations)

"Ditto, help out Geodude with the digging, please."