[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Lord Windos]

Spoiler

As you're getting ready to break camp, the great telescope suddenly crackles and comes to life! It rotates upward and the roof of the Kadabra chamber slides aside in one panel, revealing a ceiling of one-way glass.

Fields of force are suddenly generated from the spinning ends of the telescope, creating shimmering lenses of pure energy. Nevertheless, planets and celestial bodies are now visible in the sky! The comet dominates, of course, with a light brighter than the moon.

As you (Shiva?) begin gazing, your eye to the eyepiece, the vision is suddenly obscured by a laughing ghostly face! It's a Gastly, at least at first. Then it elongates into a Haunter and finally the grin of a Gengar. Like a creature from a higher plane intersecting the third dimension, different bits of it are revealed at different times.

Heart waves the specialized anti-Gastly Cleanse Tag at it, and it backs off a bit. But not before it pulls an unnoticed lever amid the weeds, causing the floor to shift and tilt and drop you down into another chamber below!

You find yourself in a kingly chamber, unharmed. The stone walls are decorated with gold plating around the edges. Incredibly intricate designs have been carved onto the walls, Pokemon and men and tools, so intertwined that from a distance it looks like a smoothish, slightly stubbly black wall. Nooks hold statues, each surrounded by ghosts, barely held off by your Repels and Cleanse Tags.

Attracted by the noise, several subterranean Pokemon rush in. They are all faintly magical to the senses of Shiva and Heart, as if somewhat transformed by their time so close to the Kadabra Chambers, or the strange events which always occur here.

Due to your Repels and Cleanse Tags, I'm changing the mandatory nature of these Encounters. None are mandatory now, and I'll add some noncombat encounters for free! They could still have traps and things, but no mandatory fighting. Pokemon from the Skull Ruins can be valuable or interesting, though, so just decide how you want to spend your resources.

You're seeing a lot of Bugs, Ghosts, and burrowers.

Upper Chamber Ruins Encounters

(...)

5. Name: Gigalith horde
Cap: 1
Challenge: Tough, a good XP grind.

(...)

I presume this event interrupts any ongoing responses at that time, so Terra would jolt in surprise and sharply look up at where he heard the disturbance coming up with agitated alarm! Oh no, what sort of horrible trickery was the Kadabra Chambers going to inflict on the group?!

Just as he feared, that distorted Ghastly/Haunter/Gengar/Ghost Thing appeared to spook and claim everyone's immortal SOULS, causing his already impressive frown to deepen into a scowl as he started to advance forward to confront and drive the foul spirit off, motioning for Solomon, Angie, and Cosh to join him.......

......Before the floor opened up and sent everyone plummeting to the room bellow it, promptly the normally stoic man to yelp out "AH!!" as he fell like a Rock type until he impacted the ground like pancake with a loud *SMACK!* Ouch, that'll smart!

Fortunately, his immense fortitude prevented him from sustaining any injuries, so the only of his that really suffered was his dignity as he pulled himself up and dusted off his clothes, quickly glancing at the collective/their new surrounding to make sure they were okay too + there was no danger, and then spared a heated glare towards the direction that Ghost Thing was at. From what he could tell, nobody got hurt from the stunt they pulled, and none of the Pokemon in this area was eager to rush forward and capitalize on their vulnerability due to the Max Repel and Cleanse Tag, but could have, and that what's matters most to him. If that Ghost Thing ever showed its face to the group again, he was going to show it what a truly danger is like.....

Afterwards, the sagely monk quickly went around to help everyone else up/check up on them, starting with his partner Cosh ("You okay?" *Offers helping hand [No, not that one!]), then moving on to his group + Marco's collective, then the rest of the Scimitars. In particular, he focused his attention on Shiva and Marco/Luxray, as the former was his principle charge that was right there with that shapeshifting horror, and the later could be suffering more than a little stumble, what with the lighting feline being burdened with Nathan's dad.

Once everything and everyone was carefully inspected and deemed okay, only then did the steely brawler decide to calm down a bit and give the new area a second, more thorough and scrutinizing look over for anything interesting and/or threatening.....

....and spots what looks to be a LARGE gathering of jagged and mean looking group Rock Pokemon ambling off to the group's side, giving everyone foreboding stares as they watched them from a distance. A grim frown set in and his eyes narrowed as he stared back at them, before summoning Mikey and calling over Solomon/Cosh over and marching to them! He couldn't ignore such menacing titans, so he was going to Rock their world!

Orders: Terra's taking on the Gigalith, both to neutralize the threat they pose to the group and to train up Mikey/Solomon (The Wise King still holding his Lucky Egg)! Need to know how many of them their are, before I can start making orders, so let's cast a revealing light on those literal rock monsters!