[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Lord Windos]

Spoiler

Route 12 and 13 travel together for a time, just after the Route Gate.. It's still drizzling, though the rain has backed off enough that an umbrella or hat can protect you. At this eastern end, the route's bricks are often replaced with little murals or pieces of mural, or sometimes even just pretty glass bricks. Much like Cress City. 

Quite a few of the bricks are missing, and Grass types sometimes grow up through them.

The Pokemon on this route are fairly tame. Tanuki's influence still shows in a preoponderance of Normal types, but the ones out here are usually derived from escapees several generations ago.

Oh yeah, Geodude is here again. He seems happy that his "friends" are traveling a Route once more!

You know Bill's house is just a few miles NW of here. Nathan knows that Route 12 goes up to Liverwort in that direction, passing over a low spur of the Great Divide. It is steep, but there are maintained campsites along the way, and a few famous tarns and streams with excellent fishing.

Route 13 to Teazel Valley is SW of this junction. That road passes under/through the Great Divide's spur, dropping elevation constantly to reach the lows of the valley.

West of the junction is a big cliff face with many huge iron cubes set into it. It wasn't there several years ago when Nathan last passed this way. It is apparently a private Almanac research station, very tightly secured. Barbed wire, alarms, fences, and the famous Almanac Braviary and Decidueye flying distantly overhead. (Both are etched on the back of Shiva's copy.) It's way outside of city limits.

It looks foreboding. But worst of all is Gallade's reaction. He stiffens and his emotions turn drastically inward. Pain flows through the empathic link between him to Nathan. Gallade leaps up on a boulder, narrows his eyes, and points a dramatic challenge at the research facility.



Route 12+13 East Encounters

(…)

3. Name: Tall Grass
Challenge: ???
Cap: 1 per patch, but there's plenty of patches.
Notes: You never know what you'll find!

(…)

Being the rugged wanderer that he is, Terra is completely unphased about getting soaked by the rain as he journeyed onwards with the group, taking in the blend of rustic and wild scenery with a wide smile of appreciation while he also kept watch for any sort of danger (His vigilance shall never wain!). To him, it felt like untold ages since he had truly traveled and explored the (to him) unknown frontier that was Cheshire - bar the brief incursions into the Skull Ruins/Great Divide/Ancestor Cave - so he was satisfied and pleased to stretch his legs with a good long treck through the Routes! Add in the lingering joy off Keni Morgusi of crafting one of his masterwork cards for him, and of Latios no less , and the simple monk was almost radiate in his positivity. Given how normally stoic he was, it was made all the more novel and fascinating.

Geodue was given a friendly wave by him when spotted, both returning their eagerness and inviting them over to him + the group. More good company is the merrier, obviously!

The research facility and its impressive fortification garnered the mountain of a man's curiosity for moment, before he shrugged it off and choose to ignore it, and instead focused on looking for interesting/tough Wild Pokémon to challenge. Unlike the rest of the group, he was relatively unaware of Almanac's existence outside what he's been told by Ven, so he wouldn't recognize the place as being there's without being clued in.

However, before he could move on, Gallade's reaction to the foreboding place easily catches his attention, causing him to stop in his track's and stare at them with a mix of surprise and concern. Just as was about to approach them and ask what's the matter, Nathan..... (And I'll return to this scene after Dragonstrike continues it himself!)

After that's resolved, Terra decides to sweep the Tall Grass for a bit. He felt that he could take some time to do a little Pokémon hunting without feeling he was jeopardizing the group's safety, so off into the bush he goes!

Order: Terra's going to interact with Gallade/Nathan after they both give their own full reactions to the Almanac Research Facility, and then go hunt in a big enough patch of Tall Grass for the chance of finding a rare enough critter to catch/fight since Spiritmon is interested in investigating the *Sandshrew himself! He's also keeping a close eye on his Egg, as he senses something going to happen with it soon....

At long last, its time for regular Encounters to take center stage once more, and I'm all for it!

Also, shouldn't everyone get a Berry Roll as they leave Cress/explore the Route? Just checking!