[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Iron]

Spoiler

Cosh: "We've been keeping an eye on the Kadabra Chamber since the very beginning. Follow me!"

"OK, here's the situation. The best entrance is right over there, beneath the biggest Barrow around. Won't be too many ghosts around in daylight, and the five of us can banish any that do crop up. You'll need Rock Smash or Cut or something to get inside - there are many doors in the Barrow, all locked and warded. If we pick our way through the Barrow Downs, knock down at least one door, jet inside through the maze of tunnels... we'll be ready for the Kadabra Chambers. Sonar reveals a big chamber right beneath that Barrow, full of some crystalline substance and itself networked with tunnels. The Kadabra Chambers are sort of transitional between the Barrow Down layer and the Upper Palace ruins layer."


You're all going to pick your way through the old graves, mass burial sites, uprooted artifacts, and earthen tombs. You aren't sure which paths lead onward safely.

Everyone is required to pick exactly one Encounter to solve with your Scimitar partner. No overlap or sharing - they all have a Cap of 1. Scimitars may want to make a capture, in which case we'll have to work that out somehow (not traditional XP bidding as the Scims don't have full char sheets).

This will count as Encounter 2 for the day.

You can tell me how you begin to address the problem as soon as you choose the Encounter, then you can react as I reveal more info.

Skull Ruins Barrow Downs Encounter List

5. Name: Stone Puzzle
This path is blocked by a sliding stone puzzle like the ones you found in Mt. Sentry.

The Skull Ruins Barrow Downs: Ancient Barrow - Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon

Nathan pulls out his own map of the old castle, the one that Bill sent him, to compare it to what Cosh is saying about the structure of the place.  Is it going to be the same?  Probably not.  But call Nathan curious at the very least.  Even if the map doesn't end up being very directly useful, seeing the general layout and comparing 'now' to 'before' might be handy.

When Nathan sees one of those Stone Puzzles similar to the ones in Mt. Sentry, his immediate thought is to investigate it.  He walks up with Gallade and Emolga and gives it a good look before touching anything.  Figure out how it works, if it's trapped like the one Shiva solved was, what kind of picture it might depict, asking Gallade if he can sense anything on the other side of it...

Nathan also glances over at Kelda briefly during the process.  "Any good at puzzles, out of curiosity?  Because we're looking at one right now.  Didn't fully expect to see one here, though, if I'm being honest...hmmm..."

Oh, and if Kelda has any questions for Nathan, he probably won't mind answering them.

I didn't even know the word "Barrow" had been used in a Pokemon game.

Nathan's map barely correlates to the Barrow Downs at all, naturally. But you can actually see a few things that are correlated - old rooms that became the boundaries of a section of graveyard.

The Kadabra Chambers, if Cosh is right, would be three old rooms combined: the astronomy tower, the Pokemon training/capturing room, and the conservatory. 


*roll*
The puzzle doesn't look to be trapped. In fact, it's just been drilled into some old pillars, so there's not much chance of a mechanical trigger.
Kelda: "Oh, no, I'm not great at puzzles. But I think this one was brought up here more recently. Our research says many ghosts came up to raid the surface, and brought things from below up with them as pranks or like, decorations almost."

Nathan has probably heard briefly of this event, called the "Spirit Exchange." Little is known about it since no one wants to go near the ruins.