[Game Thread] Pokerole: Mount Coronet Mystery

[Lord Windos]

Spoiler

The group packs up camp and recalls their pokemon, ready to begin the perilous climb to the top of Mt. Coronet and the Spear Pillar.  Ominous thoughts of what may await inside the mountain abound, and the very air seems charged with a nervous tension...

As soon as the group steps outside of the cave, everyone can see that it's fortunately daytime this morning.  Hooray!

Unfortunately, there's still a black shadow clearly darkening the surrounding area.  Those who look up see...



...a dark vortex swirling above the peak of the mountain, blotting out the sunlight.  The surrounding area is eerily silent, as if nature itself is holding its breath in anticipation of what's to come...

"...that doesn't look good.  Last time I saw something like that...well, let's just say things weren't very pretty.  Come on, we should hurry."

Understatement of the year, Lucas.

The group hurries into the mountain, a strange, unexplainable feeling passing over every single person and pokemon as they walk through the opening in the cliffside...

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The Caves of Sinnoh: Cave - Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum

Mt. Coronet 1F

Lucas leads the way into the mountain itself.  As soon as everyone enters though, he holds up a hand to indicate that everyone should stop.  "...wait a second...this isn't right...this entrance is supposed to be a long corridor with a single turn and a side room..."

What everyone sees before them though is far, far different.



A large room with a small body of water in the middle and many paths branching off from it greets the party as they enter the mountain, the entrance they just walked through nowhere to be seen.  A rather unremarkable place at first glance, were it not for the fact that Lucas claims this should look entirely different.

Scizor glances down at his bag, then grabs it in one claw so he can get a closer look at the badge pinned to it, as said badge has begun to glow with a soft light.

Scizor lets his bag hang loosely by his side again and pushes toward the front of the group.  He tries to converse with Lucas, but upon remembering that the humans can't understand him, resorts to pointing at Lucas's pokeballs instead.  Karen nervously takes a step back as Lucas nods in understanding, and Sally is summoned once more.  The Lucario definitely looks a little annoyed at first.  What now?  Seriously, can I not rest for 10 minutes without...*sigh*...fine, I'll act as translator again.  What's going on, Scizor?

Scizor points to the badge, then at the room as he explains to Sally.  She looks thoroughly confused by what she's being told, but she conveys the message anyways.  Ooooookay...Scizor says that we've just wandered into a Mystery Dungeon.  Apparently, we need to find the stairs in order to proceed to the next floor, but there's no telling where they might be.  There's also no telling what we're going to find while we're searching for the stairs...treasure, wild pokemon, traps...anything could be in here.

Lucas scratches his head as he thinks about what that means.  "...soooo...we're stuck in a maze now?  Great...and I thought Mt. Coronet was hard enough to navigate already..."

Karen nervously speaks up to ask a question.  "Do you think this m-might have something to do with the t-temporal distortions?"

"...maybe...can't rule it out, anyways..."

Scizor converses with Sally again.  Are you sure that's a good idea?  Scizor nods, and Sally sighs.  Scizor recommends that we split up if we want to find those stairs more quickly.  And he highly recommends we don't linger for too long, lest...the wind finds us.  I...have no idea what he means by that, but he seemed serious about the danger it poses.

"I'm not sure about splitting up, honestly.  We do that, and we'll be more vulnerable to whatever immediate dangers are in here."

Scizor's confident that we'd be able to handle it in this case.  Parties of Explorers in Scizor's world typically travel in groups of 4-5 pokemon, apparently.  Given that humans can command two pokemon at a time, 2-3 humans per group would be more than adequate for tackling a Mystery Dungeon according to him.  He also claims that things can get...weird if too many explorers are in the same general area in a Mystery Dungeon, and that's primarily why large exploration teams tend to travel in smaller groups.

"I dunno...what do you guys think?  If what Scizor says is true, it's probably going to be risky either way."  Lucas looks to the rest of the group to hear their opinions on the matter.

Do you want to split the party into two groups to search for the stairs more quickly, or travel as one big group?
Notes:
- The difficulty of encounters will be adjusted accordingly for whichever decision is made.
- If the party splits, only one group needs to find the stairs for everyone to be able to advance

Yeap, Ran would gaze upward almost immediately, and only had this to say, his expression grim as a overworked Dusknoir.

"Ihr Götter, ich hasse es, wenn ich recht habe. Bah ..."

Translation: Ye gods, I HATE it when I'm right.

Seeing the boy hero's confusion about the layout of this section of Mt. Coronet conjures up a dreadful suspicion within him, and it's soon proven correct when Scizor 'tells' everyone what they've just strolled into. Which prompts the bristly blacksmith to drag his hand over his face and let out a most aggravated *SIGH....*

"Goddamn it. Thought I'd get to put the other half of my skill set to good use getting us through this mountain easy as Bulk Berry Pie, but that cosmic disaster never fails to make or jobs all the more interesting and consequential. Outstanding. "

Lucas's complaint is meet with a sympathetic enough sounding sigh, followed by what he hopes is a reassuring pat on the leg. 

"I have ample experience navigating caves and tunnels, so this Mystery Dungeon shouldn't trip us too much. That, and all else fails I can get Sekhmet or my Excadrill to Dig around this Floor for the Stairs."

The wee lass's question is meet with only a frown and a solemn nod of his head. If the interior of Mt. Coronet being altered into a Mystery Dungeon ain't proof of that meddlesome Tauros shit supernatural mystery force, then he's a tall and extremely charismatic man!

The universal Explorer's suggestion to split the party almost instantly causes a huge frown to appear on his face, and he looked geared up to bite the head of the metallic insect for 'saying' such a stupid thing. Splitting the group is NEVER a good idea, ESPECIALLY in HIGHLY paranormal and dangerous situations like the one everyone is in right now! If they ever read or heard a adventure story, they should know that!

Fortunately for them (and perhaps everyone else), Ran remembered where exactly everyone was else, and bit his tongue before he could spew any vitriol at the ironclad insect. No....he shouldn't get mad at them for sharing their suggestion, 'cause no matter how asinine it sound to him he knew[i] they were speaking from experience. Like it or not, the group was in a Mystery Dungeon now, an completely [i]unknown phenomena to him and everyone else, but not to Scizor, a seasoned Explorer from a universe where they were commonplace and that had been delving into them for who knows how long. If they dividing their forces to search for this 'Floor's Stair's' is the right idea, it probably was.

Of course, that alone probably wouldn't have stopped him from gripping/complain about their proposed course of action a little, but logic was not the only thing making him hold his peace. What it is, however, is anyone's guess at this point.

So Randolph takes his time to deliberate Scizor's advise, not immediately giving Lucas or the rest of the group an answer for about a minute or so, before he heaved a mighty big *SIGH* and unhappily but calmly looked at them.

"I don't like the idea of us scattering off to the four winds trying to get through this Dungeon, as that sounds like a great way for us to be blindsided by whatever thrilling events this place and that arcane force will almost inevitably railroad us into. Plus, if something happens to one of our groups and none of us makes it to the Stairs in time....well, they probably won't be cashing in their paycheck by the end. *Sighs* ....But if Scizors says its a good idea to do things their way, I'm inclined to agree with him, no matter my reservations with it. They're the expert on Mystery Dungeons and how to get through them, not us, so I'll defer to their judgement on this, no matter how much it seems like a terrible idea to me. That, and the small merits of splitting our group is we cover ground more, so we should be able to find the Stairs faster and more useful things than if we'd stay together. Before we decide all make our decision, though...."

The dwarven craftsman switches a couple of his Pokemon out for Catherine and Amethyst and summons them, and give them a quick run down of the situation before asking them "Girls, ya think you can find these Stairs, or at least give a general idea of what's on this Floor? If ya can do the former, then we don't have to split the group yet, something I'd be very happy putting off long as possible."[/i][/i]