[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Lord Windos]

After a long, hard, and thorough plumbing his often scatterbrained and as of now definitely adrenaline/overemotionally addled mind, Ventus FINALLY managed to scrabble together enough information on Seikamater based on what little data the cursory analysis he did on her yield and what comparisons he can draw on between her and Vespiqueen/Silverfish.

The results were..... none too pleasing to the empath, judging by how blank his face came as he listed off them off in his head:

- Seikamater was firmly a primitive, dictatorial queen, who was used to getting her way and extremely self centered + prideful of her power and status. Negotiation, therefore, was going to be extremely difficult, since traditional barginning or peaceful discussion will likely get the group nowhere but annoy or infuriate her. Getting close enough to catch her attention would also be a problem, since she would then be close enough to attack them should her whims take her down the violent route.

- Her strength and might as a Legendary Pokémon far outstripped that of even his beloved old friend Silverfish, and as such directly engaging them in combat was borderline suicidal at best, and outright destined to fail at worse. Status Moves and the like were going to be either ineffective or vastly depowered, and the only chance to serious harm it would be using Super Effective from their Fire and Flying types. Considering its Elementalist ability as described by Heart, however, she is likely to have counters to all the traditional weakness of a Bug. Add to that the fiery bugs that were guarding her and the entire legions of Bugs that were outside the cave, and any attacks would be meet with heavy to overwhelming resistance.

- The webs that were ensnaring all their friends and family were tough enough to keep their Pokémon in against Capture Beam and not fall apart easily to attacks, and they were close enough to Siekamater that trying to free their Pokémon would undoubtibly draw her attention and ire.

- The entire camber was too large and fortified to be brought down with just Mamo's Earthquakes, and taking down the castle with him would likely cause the queen to signal to her hive to come rescue her/kill them all.

Overall, the researcher's assessment of the situation was bleak: there was very little chance of getting all their Pokémon out safely through either diplomatic means or outright fighting Siekamater . Honestly, the best option for the group in his opinion would be to just turn back and flee, leaving their Pokémon behind and exiting the ill defined 'zone of influence' , then wait for Tanuki to come find them all and lead them out of the mountain. It would mean forfeiting Antheneum to those wretch, vile reddened Scimitars , but at the very least most of the group would be alive and could come up with a new plan or (in Ven's case) outright abandon the region and seek sanctuary elsewhere.

However, Ventus knew with certainty that Nathan would sooner die trying to save his Partner Ralts and his Pokémon then live to see another day, Heart had ideas of martyrdom and would likely sacrifice himself for 'the greater good' if necessary, and Shiva wouldn't wish to leave ANYONE behind if she could possibly help. So running away was not an option.

'What then, in Reshirim's, Zekrom's, and Kyurem's blessed and damned names is an option that can at the very least garentee a chance of saving our Pokémon and ourselves in the process?! A blasted, horrendous situation such as this.....its like all the gods have abandoned us, or specially designed it to torture and damn us all! By all things holy and just, I wish we could just  Sucker Punch the Queen out or smash through her like any other adversary and simply just rescue.....our......Pokémon.....afterwards? Wait a moment........................................................that's it. THAT'S IT!  Eureka! I found a Plan that can save our all Pokémon and ourselves, if we can pull it off successfully  HUZZAH!'

Indeed, his internal ranting and reviewing the facts set before him had invariably lead to him to coming up with a Plan that could possibly lead to the rescue of their Pokémon and escape from perilous danger with minimum casualties! This certainly removed his blank expression and replaced it with a hopeful smile.......briefly, before every single downside and negative quality of his Plan came into sharp relief for the empath, causing his grin to twist itself to into bad ends!

'Still......its an enormously and perhaps even BEYOND risky course of action , with any part of it failing almost certainly forcing us into conflict with Seikamater and/or worse. .......But its the only recourse of action we have bar attempting to parley with her myself that has a chance at success, and if negotiations fall through.....it has roughly the same outcome as the failure of my Plan and gives her the advantage over us in every way. And I don't foresee any form of diplomacy that will end well for us anyway, unless we are willing to make a great many sacrifice on our parts in order to entreat her favor, all of which could leave us worse off than just fighting her.'

'..............*Mental Sighing* I can't keep my Plan to myself, then. The group deserves to know of even a desperate and insanely dangerous option for saving our Pokémon, so I need to share it with everyone and get their opinions on it. If they agree to it or have modification that can improve it, then we put it into motion, damn the consequences of it all. If they disagree or offer alternatives, then we can pursue other lines of thought that can hopefully pan out better. Either way, we all need to act soon or face the reality of losing our Pokémon right before our eyes, and to do that we all need a Plan to rally behind or against. Oh Reshirm, Zekrom, Kyurem, and any other deity that is willing to hear my prayers.......please let this work.'

With that final solumn plea to his gods and any other powerful being that could help capping off his internal debate, Ventus let out a low, quiet, and a long, heavy *Sigh* , pitching it such a way to relieve  some of his stress and catch everyone's attention in the process. He looked each and everyone of them straight in the eyes with his own bleak, serious, yet grimly determined ones, before he quietly uttered just four words:

"I have a plan."

A short stretch of silence followed, as he chewed the corner of his mouth and continued staring at everyone with that uneasy yet resolute expression, before sighing again, shaking his head., and continuing."

".....I will not lie to you: its far from ideal, and failure of any part of it will force us to fight........her in an unfavorable situation, and almost certainly lead us and our capture Pokémon to our doom if we do not flee immediately afterwards. And even if we pull of my plan without a hitch, their is still the chance we may fail if we can not overcome the almost insurmountable challenges that lay within it."

He sighed again, looking far more aged that a man in his mid 20s should appeared, until he regained his vigor and pressed on.

"However, its better than doing nothing at all or trying to negotiate with The Queen herself , as she is.........brutal, primitive, and authoratitive, as you all can guess by now. Trying to bargin for our Pokémon's freedom will either not work or cost us severely in the process, and failure means we either provoke her and enter into combat anyway, or prevents us from rescuing our Pokémon without engaging her with unfavorable odds from the outset. My plan would rescue our Pokémon in short order should all go well, allow us to quickly escape from her, and minimize the dangers of fighting her should we be forced to do so. It is a long shot and a tall order......but if we pull it off, then we shall walk away from this with all our friend, with only memories and some scars lingering with us."

Silence again, as Ventus pauses to let his words since in and regain his breath, until finally he said:

"Let me reveal it to you all now, then."

Ventus then proceeds to lay out his entire plan to the group. I will be quoting my original plan, with modification to it in order to not make this an overly long or too bogged down explaination (Not Likely, but it does give me a template to work off of at least).

The Plan

Part 1: Each Group Members summons these specific Pokémon:

Nathan: Only Calam, and he will take direct control of Lucifer; Dizzy will lend his aid towards Nathan's efforts
Heart: Infernape and Gustav
Shiva: Azumaril and Tropius OR Gothitelle
Valder: Mamo and Haunter
Me: Michael and Raphael

Part 2: Since the Queen doesn't know we are here or doesn't care about us yet, we will use this time to prepare our Pokémon AND ourselves. Azumaril will use Helping Hand on everyone's Pokémon, Raphael will use After You on EVERYONE, Calam and Dizzy will use Sword Dance, and Lucifer will use Tailwind on himself, Calam, Dizzy, and Azumarill. Lucifer will also be smeared with Honey and Hive Gunk to cover his scent, and be instructed to follow Nathan's orders completely on severe penalty to himself and everyone around him. by myself. Valder will make his way with Mamo to the entrance of the cavern, along with Mamo and Haunter, unless he wishes to help in Part 5 of The Plan more directly. Mr. Finder, I would like you to go with Valder, as with him you will be out of direct danger when we take on Siekamater, but if you wish to stay and assist us confronting her, then I will have no objection.

Part 3: Pokeballs of all the Pokémon strung up in the web will be evenly distributed between all humans, so that 2 will be in each character's hands so that when Lucifer, Calam, and Dizzy frees our Pokemon, so that everyone can instantly recall them without delay. Calam and Dizzy can speedily escape without being recalled along with Lucifer, and the rest can escape with us on foot or on our mounts, and my brother can use Tailwind to assist us.


Part 4: Once ready, Nathan will send Lucifer out to Stealthly use Air Cutter to break the webs holding our Pokémon, with Calam and Dizzy charging up Razor Winds to assist him directly afterwards. Those three will be responsible for freeing our Pokémon, and their protection will be our utmost priority beyond keeping ourselves alive, for Seikamater will become aggressive after stealing her 'food'.


Part 5: Azumarill and Gustav will focus fire Bubble on all those Fiery Bugs that guard Siekamater in order to eliminate them quickly, while
Infenape, Tropius/Gothitelle, Raphael, and Michael will focus on breaking the Pillars that make up her castle and forcing them to crash right
on her once our Pokémon have been freed. After the Fiery Bugs are defeated, Azu and Gustav will assist in bringing down to castle or freeing our friend. The several tons of Rock should deal immense damage to her, and leave her incapacitated or worse. If Gothitelle is used, she can use Telekinesis to slow down Siekamater and Heal Block to prevent her from healing, as if she is anything remotely related to a Vespiqueen she could have Heal Order or some form of HP Recovery. Using HB would prevent us from healing our Pokémon, but since Siekamater is so strong that any one attack from her would most likely KO or near KO our Pokémon, that will likely not be an issue worth considering.

Part 6A: Assuming we succeed and recall all our Pokémon, we have Lucifer cast Tailwind on all our mounts, hop on them, and we can simply high tale it out of here. Calam and Dizzy can charge up Razor Winds to slice and dice any bugs that try to stop us, Grid can use Electric Webs, Mamo can shake things up....what have you.

Part 6B: Valder, you will cave in the entrance to this cavern and guard it with Mamo and Haunter IF NECESSARY if the Queen summons the rest of her hive to swamp us, with the later launching Shadow balls through the debree to thin down any reinforcement and disrupt them from digging out the entrance. With the size/stability of this cavern and how far away you'll be from us, Mamo can safely spam Earthquake to keep the tunnel sealed until we can defeat Seikamater and rescue our Pokémon. We can then clear the tunnel later once we are certain danger has passed with Turiel's and all our Rock Smashing Pokémon aid, and exit. Alternatively, Mamo and Theo can help Rock Smash the Pillars and take down the Queen all the swifter, so the choice is up to you in the end (Its at this point he'll be made aware of Theo being KOed, and ask a group member to use a Hurtloam to Revive him along with a Potion + Oran Berries/Berries to bring him back to Full HP).

This will, however, force us in a death match with Seikamater, so we should only resort to this alternative if we have no recourse for escape or she calls for help ASAP.

Part 7: Once we get out of that Tunnel/Part of the Caves, we have Mamo collapse that tunnel to cut them off and buy us more time so that we can simply run down the other path that Valder dug up.

Part 8: We escape down and seal off the Red Tunnel to buy us even MORE time, and continue running away until we are safely out of her zone of influence.

Part 0: Suggestions and Additions to the overall plan (IE: This is the point that Shiva can bring up her boats of ba, and anything else that would help us succeed against Seika)

When Ventus finishes, he looked winded, worried, and overall a little weaker for his divulging his Plan, but overall their was a certain 'gallow's confidence' in him, as if he expected things to go to pot but is still willing to risk it all anyway, for the slim hopes of sweet, sweet success.

"That is the Plan. If you have any comments, suggestions, or alternatives to it you would like to bring up, speak them now and quickly. If we all agree to enact my plan, we begin it effective immediately. If not, we shall try other options. Make no mistake, this plan is uncertain as this cavern is vacuous, so if you do not wish to support it, you will have my full understanding and support of your decision. It is, however, a chance better than anything else than giving up and fleeing, which is.....unthinkable for anyone of us now."

"With that said, let me hear you all speak of this Plan of mine, my comrades....."