[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Dragonstrike]

Spoiler

Tanuki smiles. "You've come to the right person. Tips for navigating Mt. Sentry? Well, you know that trick where you put your hand on the left wall and just follow it, even through dead ends, and it leads you through every path? It would take weeks and weeks to explore all of the maze as it exists now, but it could help you get out of a tricky dead end. However, there are two things to be aware of with that trick: sometimes Mt. Sentry has nested loops, and that trick won't get you out of there. And of course, Mt. Sentry is shifting all the time."

"Bring digging gear or a Pokemon with Dig. A few balls of kite string wouldn't go amiss. Buy climbing gear. Pitons are useful - those are little metal pins you can hammer into stone. Not only can you climb them, you can leave them to mark a trail you've already gone down. The Pokemart in town sells these metal nets designed to work with pitons to hold back rockslides. Gear up!"

"I know of Mr. Finder but I couldn't tell you anything about him you don't already know. However, if he operates based on smell..."

She calls Zigzagoon over and palms his held item. Then she gives him another item, which he delivers to Nathan. "One of my other Zigzagoon once picked up this little shard of pure black rock. No runes or anything, but I immediately recognized that it was no ordinary rock. I warn you, I don't know for certain it's a Relic Stone, but it's something you could investigate by finding the larger stone this pebble chipped off of."

Nathan can't sense anything supernatural about the stone, but it does match the color of the Relic Stones in other regions. And it has a slight smooth curve to it on one side.

"I'd like that back when you're done with it. Zigzagoon likes to hold it, and he has a keen eye for that kind of thing. We found it quite deep within the mountain, west of center. There are cave paintings and Old Unown writings all over the place in Mt. Sentry, but I didn't see any relating to books or Genesect or gauntlets. This little stone was near an FTS painting of a forest, I think, filled with some kind of giant hairy Pokemon. By the looks of it, anyway."

"If you're gone too long, I'll come in looking for you next time I'm training in there. But it could take weeks or months for you guys to find that Library, so bring plenty of food. A good tip is to store it in Pokeballs. Pokemon that can summon food or water are handy. I know of Tropius, Snover, Grotle, Shuckle, Paras, Combee, and of course Miltank and Chansey, my rare Normal type friends."

"Oh! Another thing to note if you look for the source of my black rock. I saw a lot of Slakoth and Slowpoke there. Hope some of that helps!"

Nathan smiles and nods, carefully packing the stone away.  "Thanks.  I'll keep that all in mind and make sure the rock gets back to you once we're done with it.  Shiva has a Tropius, I have a couple Combee...and a male Skiddo, but he doesn't know Milk Drink yet, unfortunately...I'll tell everyone to stock up on supplies and prepare for the journey ahead.  Hopefully we find Atheneum relatively quickly...I hope we don't need you to come fetch us, but we'll all be very grateful if you do show up and we happen to be lost, I'm sure."

Nathan trails off, thinking for a moment...

"...there is...one other thing.  I'm almost certain the Scimitars are in Cress City too.  They might be hiding their gauntlets.  Some of them don't even have gauntlets at all.  The ones that do though rely more on their gauntlets than their pokemon.  And..."

...he hesitates another moment...

"...*sigh*...well, this next part is a little...grim, to say the least.  I and my pokemon were threatened by a trainer a couple weeks ago.  As in, he threatened to kill us.  The trainer escaped, but his Pinsir didn't.  His Pinsir was sent to the Shelter for Disobedient Pokemon in Stair, and then returned to his PC when they discovered the bug was still registered under that trainer's OT.  I don't know if the Wineberry authorities released it or not, ufortunately.  All the shelter staff would tell me is the trainer lives in Cress City."

"...what bothers me about that are two things.  One, when the trainer escaped, it was through a hidden door at the bottom of a pond.  A door which I'm reasonably certain leads into a Water Scimitar base, based on some sort of locking mechanism found on it and another entrance I know of.  Two...his Pinsir was a Mega-Pinsir.  He had a Key Stone somehow.  He also said something about needing a pokemon with the right move, and mentioned Cress City to his Pinsir as well.  Cnsidering he wanted the Honey my combee were gathering, he might have been looking for a Heracross or something...anyways..."

"...I asked Dagny about who has League approved Key Stones in Cress.  She got me two names and their addresses:  Fernando Marlfox and Jerry Sensen.  Happen to know them?  Have you seen anyone using a Mega Pinsir lately? Or maybe even just a normal Pinsir that is rather...zealous about battling. I got the impression that Pinsir likes combat a lot, regardless of how 'safe' that combat is."