[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Iron]

When those runes are etched onto the stone, the tunnel becomes even more silent. A Vigoroth and a Slowbro waddle up behind the party and act like they're standing in a queue, waiting. Geodude comes too. The air becomes thick with power, and the runes age right before your eyes. Little flecks of lichen grow on them, they erode noticeably, a few chips appear. A cylindrical depression sinks into the top of the pillar.

Calam looks pleased, so Dizzy looks pleased too. Gothitelle has her arms thrown back - soaking in the feeling of immense power. Kirlia is grim. The other sensitive Pokemon just look excited.

In complete silence, the pillar begins sinking into the ground, widening as it goes. It forms a staircase of black stone, spiralling into nothingness. The Vigoroth gestures you forward, and you all descend into the pit. Your feet don't even make a sound on the stone steps.

At some point in your timeless descent, you realize you are looking DOWN toward the tunnel of Mt. Sentry. Above you, the direction you now climb, you see a featureless sky. You step up out of the pit, and the staircase folds itself into another patio.

To the west, the patio becomes a beautiful stone plaza, surrounded by a Barrier of psychic force. Designs of fossil and Primal Pokemon are worked into the floor, much like the puzzles in the Ruins of Alph. Each stone glitters with a smooth polish. Thrusting up from the center of the plaza is a structure that can only be the Gauntlet. It's shaped like a clenched fist on the end of a thick arm, knotted with muscles. Runes cover it, in the same style as the Relic Stone, and it's the same obsidian material. The fist is plated with steel.

North of the plaza is a dilapidated shack. It's literally falling apart, with planks, nails, and guttering frozen in midair where they've begun to fall. Apricorn bushes grow around it, partially obscuring it from view. A lake glimmers all around it, trickling out into the grouting of the plaza.

You're unable to go that way due to the forcefield.

The force field seems to emanate from a low wall running east-west. At its eastmost point, it rises to be a grandiose stone staircase, the envy of any courthouse or capital building on the planet. White marble pillars follow the stairs in geometric precision, and more at the landing. Set into each pillar of the landing pillars, in a little nook, is one of these:

There are six in all.

Four of the pillars contain red Apricorns.

Behind the landing is a huge white door. Living Unown hang out above it, recessed into the marble archway.


The door is locked with four keyholes. A bunch more Carbink are hanging out above the doorway, smiling.