[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Dragonstrike]

"Fire can only do so much here, Shiva.  It will delay the Tangrowth and the vines, yes, but it will not stop them.  How to stop them is what Dagny and I have been looking into.  If word got out that our only chance of stopping this wasn't in the League's control...well, I wouldn't want that kind of attention, whatever form it would take.  It could cause unneeded worry, create massive obstructions...the fewer who know, the better.  I'm not taking ANY chances with this."

Nathan looks at everyone else in the group, that 'carrying the weight of the world' feeling being especially apparent now. 

"Shiva, we might not be able to help much with fire, but there's something else we can do."

"Ventus, I need your help too.  Your assistance has proved invaluable so far, and I hope it can continue to be so."

"Heart, Valder...I don't know if or how you fit into this.  But you're jut as involved as Shiva and Ventus are now, and it wouldn't be right to exclude you."

And then he does something that's likely surprising (though the significance of this is probably lost on Heart): he recalls Kirlia to the dull Premier Ball.

"Before I can get to the meat of this, there's a short story that needs to be told.  Yes, I know it's history, Shiva, but hear me out on this one."

The Lake Trio

Sarimanok, as most everyone in Creshire knows, had earned the favor of many legendary pokemon.  Among them were three that he would call upon frequently to aid him in matters other than actual battle, be it battle strategy or creating objects of great power (though nobody ever saw any of these).

Uxie, the being of Knowledge.

Azelf, the being of Willpower.

Mesprit, the being of Emotion.

The three of them respected Sarimanok, particularly in his younger years, and were more than happy to assist him in what he required.

But then he fell from grace, and the League overthrew the monarchy and executed him.

Nobody knows what the Lake Trio thought of Sarimanok after he started becoming more ruthless, but we do know that they had mixed reactions to his dethronement.

Uxie almost immediately left the region, heading North, over the mountain ranges and the ocean.

Azelf all but vanished for a time, only to reappear later, looking to be in quite the hurry as it flew to the East, over Chicory Lake.  It vanished again as quickly as it had reappeared, though, which is rather unsettling.  Some say it was running.  Others that it was trying to solve some sort of problem.

Mesprit was found residing in the Safari Zone in Teazal Valley by the League.  Unlike the others, it seemed interested in helping out the new government find its feet (primarily with its justice system)...for a time.  It eventually grew weary of being asked to fulfill selfish questions and requests without receiving anything in return, though.  When it was last seen, its physical body looked tired, though those who could feel its spiritual presence still described it as playful and bright.  Mesprit all but vanished from the history books as well after that.

I have since discovered that Mesprit looked physically tired for a reason...it was preparing for something.  Something that it, and potentially Uxie and Azelf as well, knew was coming.

A Disaster of Stone.  An ancient power with only one goal in mind: to cover the region of Creshire in its entirety in a writhing mass of unnatural vines that originate from the Skull Ruins, the monarchy's former seat of power.  If my suspicions are believable, this primal force might be a cause for why Sarimanok seemed to become the complete opposite of the man he once was with almost no warning.

That power, whatever it is, wants to control this region, by any means.  It will not stop until it does.

Nathan pauses there for a moment...then continues

"That is how grave the situation is right now.  I know you're all wondering how I know this, though...well..."

Nathan pulls out his journal, flips to his notes on Creshire, and continues...

Nathan and Mesprit

...I recently met the Legendary Mesprit in person.  It was slumbering behind a barrier of pure, unbreakable psychic energy, a single crystal of strange make and origin floating just above a pedestal in the middle of its chamber...

...when Kirlia touched that crystal, images of Unown spilled out of it, spelling out a message, a warning.

"The ancient power has been disturbed
It shall cover all in vines
Like the ruin from which it springs"

"Only a sharer of unselfish love
Can stop the mannikin false kings
And end the disaster of stone"

"A journey to the ends of the earth
And the beginning of the land
The only other way."

And when he touched it again, a second message replaced it.  *Nathan flips to the last page of his journal*

The Pokemon of Sentiments have paths to follow
The spirit cannot free itself to flee, to breach the wall of its power
Unless it be convinced by unselfish love.

Two paths appear before the child
Future or present, thither or now
Earth or sky.

(Note: Nathan's deliberately leaving the third paragraph out)

Between the two messages, we were able to determine that there's two ways to free Mesprit so it can do whatever it has planned.

The first involves Kirlia.  That part mentioning 'Pokemon of Sentiments' uses the plural form of pokemon, and Mesprit and the Ralts line have one thing in common: being embodiments of emotion.  Kirlia and Mesprit even share their species name in the National Pokedex.

The second involves a 'journey to the Ends of the Earth and the Beginning of the Land,' which sounds incredibly daunting and impossible at first glance.

And to tie it all together...is me.  I have to choose one or the other if Mesprit is to be freed.  Either Kirlia convinces Mesprit with 'unselfish love,' or I journey to the specified locations...

And that's where I got stuck for awhile.

But then we reached Stair City, and a few things happened.  We first got attacked by that Claydol and those vines.  I was...alarmed.  Upon questioning the Rangers who responded to the situation, I discovered those vines had only just been first noticed less than a day before that attack, and the Tangrowth had been advancing ever since.  Kirlia's vision of that vine sprouting...it occurred just before the vines were first noticed by Stair City's population.  Those vines had sprouted and completely covered the Skull Ruins and everything around them in a day.

I warned the Rangers of the mannikin kings, that I suspected that Claydol was one of the driving forces behind this attack and that capturing it might delay the vines more than continually KOing a seemingly endless amount of Tangrowth.  But I still wasn't completely comfortable with saying just that.  Someone needed to know what was really going on.

So I came to talk with Dagny.  And with her help, the progress towards unlocking Mesprit's prison has been progressing more rapidly.  Ventus, Solomon has helped massively as well, and you have my deepest thanks for providing that aid, however unintentionally.  He is able to read, but there's an interesting quirk to that trait of his.  He can read Old Unown, a form of the language that predates even Sarimanok's time.  And his Hidden Power has an interesting effect.  When used, it attacks with the images of Unown in the Old form, spelling a message that conveys information about the original target of the attack.  I've been working on translating the language now that someone in this modern era is able to read it and assist me in understanding it.

"So...what have we discovered?  Well, a few things."  

The Solutions?

First of all, the 'Ends of the Earth' is actually a specific location, not the literal interpretation.  An old, wise man with an immense amount of power is apparently said to live there.  Where exactly it is, we do not know.  However, Shiva, you seem to have found some sort of folklore that mentions it, as well as the earth and sky.  It might be the clue we needed to start a more thorough search, so I would like to hear whatever it is you learned in a moment.

Second, there's the matter of Kirlia...I've been trying to figure out what the message means by 'unselfish love' for the better part of a week, now.  It wasn't until last night that I think I got at least a partial answer.

There's one more part to the story of the Lake Trio, something that Dagny turned up in her research.  There were three pokemon species that were deemed worthy of conversing with the Lake Trio back when the League was first established.  For Uxie, it was an Oranguru, one of the wisest pokemon to exist, able to match wits with a Slowking.  For Azelf, it was an Aegislash, the pokemon that represents royalty both here and in Kalos and manipulates any weak willed, unworthy trainers to do its bidding.  That one worries me a little since we don't know what happened to Azelf after it was last seen.  And as for Mesprit...it was a Ralts.  I've already explained that connection.

By itself, that might not mean much.  But let's combine that with what I learned last night and something else I've already stated.  Last night was when I first got a grasp on what Solomon's Hidden Power actually does.  The message it left on Sheldon's Daikatuna translated roughly to 'Sheer Force' and 'Night Slash,' two aspects of that pokemon that were a danger to Solomon in that battle.  For the purposes of gathering more letters to translate, I had Solomon practice his Hidden Power last night...and he decided to try and use it on Kirlia.  Kirlia evaded it of course, but that didn't change the original target of the attack.  The move continued and made contact with the wall, leaving a message concerning Kirlia, which I was able to easily translate to:

To go forward, Kirlia must first go back.

It doesn't make much sense still, but let's consider Mesprit's story again.  Mesprit was tired of the selfish requests and questions by the time it disappeared.  And the message in its chamber says it needs to be convinced by unselfish love...it was...a hard thing to come to terms with, but...it seems to mean Kirlia needs to act more like a Ralts.  It wasn't a Kirlia, a Gardevoir, nor a Gallade that got to speak to Mesprit.  It was a Ralts.

There might be another way to potentially interpret the message, though...I still have that Neverstone.  I don't know if it would satisfy Mesprit enough to free it, but I could devolve Kirlia, turn him back into a Ralts.  I feel that might be...attempting to cheat the system in a way though.  Mesprit might not be happy with that outcome, and I would like to save the Neverstone for later if possible...but to do that, Kirlia would have to...change.

"The short of it is this: I've met the Legendary Mesprit, discovered it's sealed away of its own accord.  It knows how to stop these vines, but to free it, we either have to determine where 'the ends of the earth' and the 'beginning of the land' are and go there, or...we somehow have to convince Kirlia to change."

"Well?  Any questions?"

(Side Note: It seems using apostrophes in the spoiler tags breaks the spoiler's ability to expand in the final post)