[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Iron]

Snivy is excited to move on. You're almost to...something.

The amount of hairy roots holds steady, as does the temperature.

Mr. Finder smells something unusual up ahead. Lots of plant life, and several Pokemon he doesn't recognize. "More Chingling up ahead, though." He breathes deeply. "Feel that air! Feels incredible for something so far underground." Slurpuff is incredibly invigorated by all the scents, and is running around excitedly like a puppy.

The tunnel descends, widening as it goes. The ceiling starts out within reach, then slowly ascends in contrast to the floor, until soon it is high above your heads and you are all able to walk abreast.

On the level below you, where your ramp is headed, you behold a wondrous cavern! Almost all of it is covered in the hairy roots, and the roots are frosted with ice. A light snow is falling in the cavern, and beautiful argent/aquamarine light shines off it. The source of that light is a thousand tiny phosphorescent ferns poking up through the accumulated rime.

Central to the cavern, bigger than any oak, is an enormous treelike fern. The outermost leaves brush the frost from the ceiling, creating the snow. Roots spread wide to split protruding rocks, to dive into rusty clay, and shepherd the snow into drifts. Lower leaves are hung with Chingling and Chimecho, all silent - but not asleep. In fact, there being not the slightest breeze in the cavern, no part of the great fern moves. It's completely stationary.

Behind it, Elder Unown sleep - living ones.


Though the scene is Christmassy, you don't get that warm and jolly feeling. No, you feel...watched. Warded. Protection, protection. Raphael actually looks a little bigger than normal, soaking in that protective aura. You find yourself glancing about to discover just who is watching you, from what dark corner.

Shadows wreathe the leaves and palmlike trunk of the fern tree, though all its tips glow with phosphorescent light. There is much hidden to your eyes here, though you sense little is hidden to the great tree. What that means, you cannot say.

Pokemon move about in the cavern. You see Torterra, modeled after the cavern, with tiny ferns at the foot of healthy hardwood saplings on their backs. They care for the mighty fern - pruning roots with their beaks, bringing in new soil, and exhaling frosty clouds of carbon dioxide. Members of the Bulbasaur line climb everywhere - these seem to have sticky feet that even allows them to hang upside down, until they reach Venusaur size and become too big. The Bulbasauri are planting spores. A ring of Snover stand around the room like little sentry trees, partially explaining the snow. Patrat hide in their branches.

*rolls*
Heart spots two Sudowoodo among the ferny plant life. They stand stock still. What their purpose is, you're not sure.

One more step forward - in a blur of darkness, three Weavile appear before you, claws unsheathed. Each has dark brown eye shadow and facepaint in an unusual pattern:

, with additional stripes running horizontally.

They block your path, blades crossed. All three are growling low.