[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Dragonstrike]

Spoiler

Spurred on by the competitive power of the Eye, you sprint for the fortress. Nathan recognizes this from some subtle clues of architecture. This is the place where Sarimanok was holed up right before he faced the new League.


It's made of the same indestructible material as the minarets, and covered with spikes and barred windows. If he'd stayed here, he could have held out for weeks.

Cosh strides confidently through the wyrms coiled around the ancient fortress and with a severe popping noise from his gauntlet, Strengths the door open.


With the power of his Legendaries, Sarimanok was able to make this place "bigger on the inside." It's the size of a big house, but the central part is filled with a huge glowing orb marked with sigils.

Looks a little something like this.


It's about ten feet in diameter and gives you a weird feeling whenever you look at it. Spira and Heart are both drawn toward it.

There's another trapdoor in here, with the same symbols on it as the one Spira found. The room is decorated like a taste of the Throne Room, appointed with every luxury and probably a ton of gold worked into the decorations. It's entirely undisturbed by any humans or bigger Pokemon, and none of the fine furnishings have decayed. The stone floor is soft to walk on, somehow. The room stays well-lit despite the lack of proper windows or indeed a sun. Every chair is soft, supportive, and beautifully upholstered. There are even casks of wine and golden goblets.

The rest of the space is packed with items, but also a lot of Pokemon bones. Actually, looking at that... Terra sees the partial exoskeleton of a Genesect, including a purple orb behind its eye sockets, and two strong limbs connected to a rigid steel backbone.

Heart spots a strange cone at the base of the orb. It looks partially ethereal, bits and pieces of it shifting in and out of existence. By contrast, it seems to be made of a metal, which you might ID as mithril.

There are twenty fitted colorless Apricorns (akin to red Pokeballs) scattered around the room. Some look used, but all are empty now.
There's a robe made of articulated steel, looks like it could function as a Metal Coat.

There's a bookshelf of mahogany and gold, filled with old school TMs. And a chest, filled to the brim with smooth Mega Stones (but no keystones sadly). Two each of Delta Steelixite, Alakazamite, Aggronite, Metagrossite, Lucarionite, Mawilite, and many more for experimental Sarimanok Pokemon that don't exist any more.

Cosh runs forward and pries up a loose floor tile, his back to you. Kelda follows and bends down beside him. When she straightens up, she's wearing the Helm and her form is wreathed in two colors of fire. Every time she swivels her head, she seems to be moving almost faster than the eye can see, like Sid.

"We're done here," say the two armed Scimitars in unison, made cohesive by the bond of the Hauberk. "Finish up and let's go. We have a world to save."

Well then, this certainly quite interesting.  How many unidentified mega stones are there?  Nathan would also want to collect them all up for possible reuse/research later (as well as any others that the rest of the group doesn't pick up).  @Lord Windos, we might have to discuss this a bit.

Concerning the identified Mega Stones, the only one Nathan needs to take is one of the Metagrossites.  The other one is probably going to go to Heart since he also has a Metang.

Concerning the colorless apricorns, I'm fine with an even split between the party of 4 per person.

Nathan spends a decent amount of time digging through the TM box as well until he comes up with two particular ones that he was looking for:
- A TM for Hidden Power, which is immediately getting taught to Calam.  That effect was so cool, and I want to use it some more!
- A TM for Acrobatics.  Nathan knows who he's going to teach it to later.

So...Kelda is the one who'll wear the Helm...creepy synchronized talking aside, Nathan doesn't particularly mind that too much, but...well, he just hopes they don't end up regretting this in the long run...

Concerning the card...even if the Scims are bugging him about it, this is actually something he agrees with the Scims on, so they don't have to do so at all.  He's also tapping his foot impatiently as the rest of the group wastes time unnecessarily.  It's not like any of this is going anywhere, after all.  They can always just come back.

However, there is ONE thing Nathan wants done before they leave: Heart (hopefully) restoring Marco Warren back to his normal self.  The sooner he's restored, the sooner his family can help him with recovery.  And if he's restored before they return to the surface, that saves explaining to the general public about what's going on.  Oh, and Gallade will help out by using a Lucky Chant to hopefully increase the odds of success.

And one more thing that Nathan wants to do before leaving is tell Kelda something privately (assuming she'll hear him out at all).  Yup, he's just gonna suck it up and say it. 

And he says...

"...look, there's one thing I want to say about this.  No offense to you personally, but...what I'm fighting for is different from what the Scimitars and Almanac are doing this for.  It'll put us at odds with each other.  It can't be helped.  If you're going to continue supporting your current job...fine.  But know you'll be in front of the firing line if you do.  If pokemon are employees, then what workers' rights do they have?  If they're going to continue to suffer like Sceptile was, then I have to do my best to change that for the better.  It's what I promised I would do to those concerned about it, and what I believe in.  So...yeah..."