[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Lord Windos]

Spoiler

"I would prefer we use Solosis to find, engage, and remove the Scimitar hounding after us or lurking in the shadows, once Nathan gets them to cooperate. If we take them out now, then they won't be a threat later on, we don't have to worry about them engaging us on their own terms and advantages, and we can explore Antheneum unmolested and without fear of them suddenly raiding the place mid-investigation. It's highly risky, but so is letting them choose when and where to fight us and what they desire to do to us, and the risk is one we can minimize with planning and the foresight we have."

Her lovely oddball returning her good-morning by caressing her hand is thankfully noted by her, and silently soothes some real but well-hidden FEAR.

Attentively, she listened to him making his thoughts hurt, the way he phrased things underlined once more what image she got from the usually soft and caring Ventus this morning. The whole time, her expression remained unreadable, but after he finished speaking it became harder for her to keep that up. She sighed a little while looking down to the ground, eventually reached to her side to give her special butterwolfly (who was currently busy trying to break a medium-sized stone with his bite) a few strokes on the back of his head, then went back to face Ventus. "I somewhat foreseen that THIS will be your prefered choice of actions, Ven. To say that I'm.....somewhat against that though would be a lie. You people are the stronger battlers, so naturally that you're probabaly not afraid of approaching 'them' on our own while I.......am not that brave.... Still, I can understand where this decison comes from. But people, we don't know many of 'them' there are, and fighting outnumbered is something I'd rather not like us attempting in our fury and anger. Even if we defeat them NOW... What then? What if they have more spies ahead, what will they do once we defeated them, what if they'll come back afterwards? "

A quiet and calm voice within Shiva told her that they (the group) will have several days in advance in that case, and it eased her nerves by a little. Still, what if...

Another imprecible sigh escaped her, as Yena looked up to her while tilting his head. "But if all of us end up being for that way of dealing with ''em'... Risky.... I've been, well, thinking of heading forward and collapsing the cavern in a controlled manner to end them trailing us or at least massively delay ''em', but......."

The stoic empath couldn't help but frown a little more at the disquieted mood that fell upon his dearest, and the distinct lack of confidence and surplus of fear she had in herself in her feelings and body language spoke volumes about how she was coping with the mounting stress: poorly. An uncomfortable look graced his features as she expressed those dour sentiments of her vocally and the knowing tone she used when commenting on his choice, but that was soon wiped away when she expressed her reservations with a frontal assault and an alternative solution as he fell into quiet thoughtfulness.

Silence lingered for quite awhile as both he and no doubt his love mulled over each other's words and their own, until shift in place to turn and face her and quietly said: "You points have merit Shiva, but they can bode true regardless if it us that confronts them first or the other way around. Its also not for certain they'll be fielding a large number of their wicked cabal with or without Pokémon, and even so between us all we have a vertitable small army of Pokémon to counter them and plenty of resources to draw upon. As for agents ahead of us, that implies they already have an idea of where Antheneum is, in which case it would be unlikely they would resort to subtle tactics like spying on us in linue of brute force. Otherwise, we'll just deal with them as we encounter each other. If they have enough sense, they'll flee topside after we smash past their defenses and subdue them, or will be......ill suited to pursue us any further, both of which will prevent them from molesting us any further for long enough that we should find and secure Antheneum before the can regroup, resupply, and mount a counter attack. Finally, by taking the fight to them first we can decide on how, when, and where we fight , all of which are powerful terms that will make dealing with those vile wizards all the more expedient. Overall, I still say we should use Solosis to track them down and lay those Scimitar low, if only to remove them from the equation of our journey early on so that all we have to deal with are the dangers inherent within Mt. Sentry itself, and whatever guards Antheneum...."

He then holds up his hand to forestall any immediate counter argument from his fae fancy, crossing his arms afterwards as he let out a *Sigh* and looked first towards the tent Nathan had retreated into, and the direction Heart had gone off to scout. "For now, let's end this discussion over our plans and wait for Nathan and Heart to finish up their respective tasks. We need their input in order to make a completely informed and diplomatic decision, and I rather we both not leave them out of our proceedings on the matter and have to catch them up on too much of it."

With that being said, Ventus waited.

Spoiler

Heart after 45 minutes he re-appear from a dark cave and see his friends. "Heya people, I back." Heart slowy join with the others. "First of all, I find another patch of goo, dripping from another hole in the ceiling. There's a tunnel up there, running parallel to yours and ending quite abruptly at the hole. The tunnel goes on quite a long time without more than the occasional drop of goo. No more puddles. I didnt see any danger and I make sure I was not followed. Oh I almost forgot."

Heart search his bag and take the goo sample. "I take few of the goo in this empty potion bottle. I always make sure to clean up to re-use again. Mr. Finder, could you do your thing to make sure its the same goo from where come our little Solosis spy?"

Spoiler

At this point, Nathan's back out, with the Solosis by his side.  And Calam and Ralts.  He's been waiting for Heart to come back before telling everyone his findings.  There's a cold, ANGRY look in his eyes the entire time.  And a good portion of tired sadness, too...

"...well, that means they're still tracking us, then.  Lovely.  Well, I learned something rather...interesting and completely disturbing.  These Solosis have almost no will of their own.  It's as if they've come in direct contact with Mesprit or Azelf themselves.  They don't feel anything.  Nothing at all.  Their only 'feeling' is a driven, unnatural loyalty to those who command them.  They do still have some sense of self preservation, but only just.  If their master gives them the order to fight, they'll fight, but they won't risk themselves if they aren't commanded to.  They've been turned into practically soulless, uncaring machines with very few drawbacks.  There might be a way to reverse it...but we're likely far away from anything that could...it'd probably take a Legendary power to break that control over them..."

...

"...they're opportunistic.  If they can do something to us without retribution, they will, so long as they're given the order to or it strictly benefits them.  I, Ralts, and Calam are going to be watching this one very carefully.  I'm of the opinion that we need to deal with the Scimitars sooner rather than later.  I don't know if they're aware that we can track them, but we know for certain that they can track us.  And we know they're going to do so all the way to Atheneum.  And they're not going to let any obstacle stand in their way, I'm sure..."

He tightens a fist.

"...if we have a chance to stop them from finding Atheneum, I think we should take it."

As it turned out, the wait was a fairly long one for the sociologist, as a full 45 minutes passed before the rare collector returned from his self imposed scouting and gave his report (which was subsequently confirmed and expanded upon by Mr. Finder, to his approval), which did everything to further amplify his already immensely high paranoid guardedness as he let out a curse.

"Regardless of whether we go after them or not, I agree with Heart that we should vacate this area effective immediately once we have finished packing up camp. Better we keep moving onwards than maintain our position long enough that they decide to send a strike team to ambush us all...."

It was only a few moments later that Nathan exited the tent and was brought up to speed on the pun lover's reports, and the blisteringly frigid RAGE and righteous ingdignation that smothered them like a pillow already made him tense up and his hackles raise in wary concern. Seldom has he seen such anger being exhibited by any man save himself, let alone a stoic boy that was barely over half his age, so whatever information he gleaned from his interrogation of Solosis must have been of the most atrociously taboo kind.

However, even with that grim Insight and the fact that he was extremely hardened and embittered by the tragedy/adversity of his own mockery of a life, he wasn't prepared for what they had to say.

The first reaction he had was pure shock, cutting through his former severe attitude like a hot knife through butter as a look of horrified disbelief marred his complextion as he could only stutter out "W-what in Reshirim holy Truth.....?!" For a natural empath, to which emotions and emotional response were practically an ingrained part of their existence, so seeing, hear and feeling that Solosis felt NOTHING AT ALL but a perverted, warped, and blasphemous sense of loyalty towards those bastarderous archmages ....it had a rather poor impact on him at first.

Once he had time to process that unholy information, that shock was utterly annilated as a swelling tide of pure, icy, and unfettered hatred swept through him, not unlike what Nathan was experiencing. The difference is that it was far more terrible and black than the boy was possibly capable off. The empath's anger was roiling and seething as it coursed through ever fiber of his being, filling him up and threatening to spill over like a glass of water were it not for the tight grip he kept over himself at all times. It emboldened him as its frigid heat, and lended a sharp, crisp clarity to his mind, both effects coelesing into an pitiless candid resolve that firmly afixated itself in his mind, body, and soul:

He wasn't just going to stop the Scimitar. He was going to destroy them.  So utterly and thoroughly, their entire existence will be made null and void by his WRATH. Make them experience unfathomable pain for not only practicing their black sorcerous arts, but for their very crimes upon all living things, until they know of their follies, and then no more.

During this phase, his face was stony and thunderous, his eyes like flinty diamonds, and his were hands clenched so hard around his arms that he was begin to bruise in those areas as he restrained himself both physically and emotionally with supreme effort not to have a much more volatile reaction. It would be no hyperbole to say that Ventus was murderously angry at what the Scimitars had done to Solosis and no doubt countless other Pokémon, and perhaps even human beings. Before, he'd be content with giving them a solid thrashing and wring them for every ounce of information they had. Now, in addition to that he wanted to make them suffer and kill every last one of them, as they deserved no better in the sociologist's opinion. Not even Team Plasma did the terrible things they have done if one were to discount the Shadow Triad's activities entirely and Neo Team Plasma in his opinion, and that was saying something considered his massive distaste for the organizations and his form lo-leader.

After they were finished speaking in their entirety, Ventus closed his eyes and began taking several deep and long breaths in and out as with exact and strenuous care he marshaled his temper to a point it would not threaten to overwhelm him or anyone else for several minutes. 

Eventually he succeeded, and opened his eyes and regarded everyone with a even look that somehow had become even harder than before.

"I agree. We need to hunt down those Scimitars and stop them once and for all, and forevermore. They can go unpunished for their abominable practices for any longer."

His voice was low, toneless, and without inflection, yet an undeniable sense of purpose was carried by it.

The sooner they'd start tracking down those inhuman monsters , the better in his eyes....