[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Lord Windos]

Gem Mine Causeway Description.

You head North. This tunnel branches out a lot more than the others, and a sign warns you to stay only on mapped trails. Branches head off in all directions, even straight up or straight down. Sometimes there are manhole covers over vertical pits - sometimes not. Nathan has to use his light sources constantly. (Starmie is happy to help light the way.)

First you come to the entrance of an oddly shaped tunnel, leading west. You can hear the sound of water in that direction. What's so odd about the tunnel is that the upper half is a typical Furret tunnel, about two Furrets wide, like a double barrel shotgun. But the lower half has been widened by man into a broad wedge shape, intersecting the natural tunnel design above. This wedge shape is about chest high and an armspan broad. According to a nearby plaque, this widening was done by Captain Bridge to allow mine carts in and out. The tracks have been torn up by wild Pokemon, though, and the carts are no longer operational.

Another plaque describes the exploits of Captain Bridge, who quelled a minor violent Royalist rebellion in 1475 (over 150 years after Sarimanok fell). He was the first military man to explore Mt. Sentry after Sarimanok. He intended to use it or tactical warfare, but found the maze of shifting tunnels too unpredictable and complex. Instead, he ended up using it to fill the League treasury from his gem mine.

"This way to the Gem Mines! 500 meters."

-----

The Candlabra!

The Fallen Arches once marked the outer limits of the palace's vast subterranean vaults. Mostly, this palace expanded underground by digging up ancient tunnels and expanding them to meet royal needs.
The Arches, all twenty four of them, were once nice masonry, but now they look a lot like Route 04 - just organized rubble. A plaque explains that all the keystones went missing in the 1600's, leading to the collapse. The rubble is all in different colors and nicely preserved stonecutting - a layer of resin lies over the rocks to preserve their historical placement.

The final arch never fell - instead of a keystone, it has a thick metal Cleanse 'Tag' filling the gap. Pokemon like Ralts can feel an aura of power in that doorway. Haunter actually refuses to pass through it!

Beyond, you can see what must surely be the Candelabra. In a big stone chamber you can see what appear to be cave paintings. In the center of the room is a formation of solid yellowish stone, looking a bit like a fossilized termite mound (sometimes seen at the entrance to Durant burrows). At least the base does. The rest preserves that termite mound texture, but whorls out into six distinct branches at random angles. The shape reminds you of a Malamar, tentacles writhing, though of course they have now gone still. Or perhaps a saguaro cactus.



It's about three man-heights tall, and it's a stone's throw from the final Arch.

You see no other civilized paths on your way here.

These two locations are within shouting distance of each other, if you shout loudly enough.[/b]

Upon arriving into the chamber that hosted the Candelabra with Shiva, who had insisted they explore the surrounding caverns much to his bemusement yet eventual acceptance ('Its not like such diversion will delay us overly in reaching Cress, and its goodness knows she can use always use the good cheer!'), Ventus could help but cast his gaze on the ruined arches and amazemed and a certain sense of melcancoly. Here, where the castle of yor stood, housing the royalty of the land and all sorts of fantastical knowledge they wielded to shape their world however they desired, now gone, forever lost to the marches of time and the machinmation of man and Pokémon alike. Such sights reminded the sociologist distinctly of the Ruins in Unova's Desert and the undersea temple in Undellia Town, and briefly causing him to ponder the connection between them all.

'Cheshire's and my home regions ruins.......one magnificent structures that must have earned them great reclaim and reveration in distant times, now naught but crumbling relics of a bygone era scarcely anyone but historians and loreseekers remember, and even they only know bits and pieces of a greater whole. .......It makes me wonder what could have lead to such catatrosphey, decay, or stagnation that rendered these once epic structures shadows of themselves, and why......'

Such contemplation are soon dispelled, however, for he didn't want to overly distract himself or grow too dreary over the subject matter on display. A little philosophy is good for the soul, but too much can poison you just as readily! The Great Big Metal Cleanse Tag and the other Pokémon's reaction then came as a surprise to Ventus, as now that he could see it he could also feel the tangible protection and warding aura that clocked the camber ahead containing the Cadlabra. "Increadible.......seldom have I perceived such radiant and stalwart auras of protections, and fewer still as powerful as this one! Hmm......." he replied as he stared at the Tag, before he whip out his camera and took several photo with it, all with the zoom and right filters on in order to get the exact design, details, and.....other qualities of the Cleanse Tag! Ven also released Raphael into the room, who quickly looked around its surrounding and hovered over to their father's side to give him a happy if uncertain smile and brushing their wings against his arms in support, as if recalling distant memories of when they carried them as a hatchling. While it certainly love to spend time with his father, doing such in a confined and Rocky space such as Mt. Sentry's bowls was far from what they called ideal!

Being the empath he was and highly in tune with his first Pokémon, Ventus right away knew they didn't exactly want to be out here, almost causing him to recall them with an apology on his behalf before he got ahold of himself and tried his best to become his archangel by lightly petting their head, earning him a croon of peace and their attention as he asked them something.

"Raphael, I'm sorry that I released you in this less than ideal environment for you, but I have something I wish to ask of you. This goes for you too as well Ramiel *Catches the triploid lodestone attention and clinical curiosity*, so please listen. I need you both to explore this room and see if you can detect anything that feels similar to that Cleanse Tag or distinctly different  that stand out to your senses. I'm curious to see if this room has other secrets that are hidden beyond what's apparent, but I'd also like to investigate this warding presence a little more indepth, so either way nothing is lost in this venture! What do you say, my children?"