[Game Thread] Pokerole: Mount Coronet Mystery

[Dragonstrike]

Once the encounter with Milotic is resolved, the badge that Scizor gave Kee begins to glow brighter!  Seems like Randolph and company found the stairs to the next floor!

...though it's at this moment that Kee realizes that Scizor didn't explain how the badge works.  Uuuuhhhh...pick it up and focus on it?  Squeeze it?  Touch the circle in the middle?  There has to be some way to trigger this damn thing to take them to the next floor...

Nothing Kee seems to do looks like it works, but the badge eventually starts glowing brighter all on its own!  It gets brighter and brighter and brighter...until it's almost too bright to see anything, and a beam of light Teleports Team K and the newly befriended Milotic to the next floor!

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Meanwhile...

   

Randolph's group has just ascended the stairs, and at the top, they see that they're no longer in the caves of Mt. Coronet.  Now they're on the sometimes frozen, sometimes lush and green slopes of Mt. Coronet's exterior.  Lucas seems surprised.  "...huh...that didn't take as long as I was expecting...I thought we still had another half day's worth of travel to go in the caves before we reached the snow covered peaks...not that I'm going to complain about this going more quickly than I thought it would."

Suddenly, a beam of light manifests in front of Randolph's group!  And when it disappears, Karen, Kogeki, and Kee are standing there!  "...huh.  So that's how the Explorer Badge works...cool."  Karen looks around curiously, shivers a little, but then asks, "So...based on the snow, I assume we're at the upper levels of the mountain now?"

"Yup, that's right.  We're getting close to Spear Pillar.  We seem to be making good time.  We keep this up, and we might be able to be there by tomorrow."

Karen's eyes light up once Lucas confirms that they've reached upper Mt. Coronet.  "Really?  Yeeeessss!!!"  She seems super excited for some reason.

Then she sees the new person that Randolph's group picked up earlier.  "...so, who's your new friend?"

Rui waves timidly.  "...uh, yeah, hi.  I'm Rui...apparently..."  Espeon's pacing around Rui's legs, surveying the area with keen eyes.

"We picked her up on the previous floor.  Ooh boy, do we have a story for you guys.  You'll want to hear this."

Lucas proceeds to explain to Team K what happened, from the Tyrantrum to finding Rui and Espeon to the Shadow Gyarados.  Karen looks a little spooked by all of that, but she puts on a brave face, smiles, and excitedly tells everyone what they found on the previous floor.  This happens to launch a rather long string of comments from her as she tries her best to lighten the mood, even if only a little.

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Karen's Lightheartedness: Pond Friend Area (Remastered by TGH) - Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red/Blue Rescue Team

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"Well, we found some cool stuff too!  There was so much water on that floor, and we even encountered a talking Milotic!  Kogeki even convinced them to help us!"

"A talking Milotic?  Well, that's certainly something."

"You said that Rui doesn't have any pokemon with her, though?"

"...er...yeah, I don't...aside from Espeon here.  They've been a huge comfort.  We've been lost in these tunnels for ages, and then I got attacked by those Shadow Gyarados..."

Karen looks thoughtful for a moment, then smiles at Rui.  "Maybe Milotic will be able to help you more than they can help me, then.  If you don't have any pokemon of your own...well, then how are you going to defend yourself?  And even if you only have a few, a Milotic is worth, like, three pokemon on its own, right?  You should totally hang on to them!  I'm sure they'll get along great with you!"

"...uh...I guess?  This sounds like a powerful pokemon, though, are you sure you..."  "Go on, take them!  They said they don't mind helping out!  I have plenty of pokemon to ask for help, so it's no big deal!"  "...uh...okay...sure..."  "Just make sure you say hi to them later, alright?"  "...yeah...got it..."

Karen gives Milotic's pokeball to Rui.

Well, Karen certainly seems perky, doesn't she?  Rui can barely seem to get a word in!

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"...so, do you want...Brigid?...back, Randolph?  That was her name, right?"

"Oh, right!  I have something for you too, Randolph!  Milotic had a bunch of treasure, and she let us take some it because it might help us!"

Karen hands Randolph some items, one of which is a Mega Stone that Randolph doesn't recognize right away:
 

...and the others being a Soothe Bell and a (standard) TM for Swagger!


"Milotic picked out that Mega Stone out for you.  I'm not sure why, but I guess she had a gut feeling that it might be useful?  Swagger also seemed like a cool move for one of your pokemon, and I know you have a lot of pokemon you're still bonding with, so maybe this Soothe Bell will help!"

Karen also excitedly shows off one of the items she grabbed for herself: a Rainbow Colored TM for the move Return. (which is strange to see at first since mass produced TMs are generally only one color based on their type)


"Oh, and she also says that these rainbow colored TMs can be used as many times as you want, similar to an HM!  Pretty cool, right?  And I also got a TM for Drill Run for my Nidoqueen.  I think she's going to like it!"

Lucas speaks up at this point, trying to get everyone refocused on the situation at hand.

"...*ahem*...alright, well, I think that's enough story sharing for now, so how about we get going?  Looks like there's only one path currently, so this should be a straightforward decision."

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Mt. Coronet 2F

The Shadowed Mountain: Mt. Coronet Remix by GlitchxCity - Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum

*pulls card out of hat*

   

The first room of this floor is steeped in cliffsides and covered in snow.  Except instead of the cliffs going up this time, they're going down.  A long, long ways down.  Nobody can even see the bottom, as a thick layer of white mist obscures whatever lays below.  By contrast, dark black clouds obscure the skies above Mt. Coronet, and what looks like a rain made of shadows pours down from them.  Espeon hisses at those clouds, intimately familiar with the effects of this Shadow Sky.  The mountain is eerily quiet right now...

Rui nervously looks over the side.  "...that's a long fall...stay close, Espeon."  Which Espeon was doing anyways, but he acknowledges the order regardless.

Lucas is almost all business right now, focusing intently on the goal.  He keeps glancing up at where the mountain's peak is located way above the clouds.

As a stark contrast to Rui and Lucas, Karen has quite a spring in her step still.  She's still careful to not fall off the side of a cliff, of course, but she's incredibly eager and energetic now, and that doesn't seem like it's going to change soon.  Not even the Shadow Sky seems to be bothering her.

There are three paths out of this room, and all of them look like dangerous fall hazards.  The path straight across would have once been easy to traverse, but has collapsed due to an avalanche, so there's a large gap in the otherwise straight path.  There are also two other cliffs to the left and right that lead to other parts of the mountain's exterior, but reaching them likely requires a pokemon that's able to fly or is really good at jumping.  Or maybe you can think of some other creative way to get across!  There are a handful of snow covered trees dotted around the frigid terrain on all sides as well.  Which is weird, because this area's supposed to be above the tree line...

Who's going where?  Is the group splitting up to speed up the search again, and if so, is it going to be the same groups or different ones?

A Note concerning Rui: She may not be a pokemon trainer, and isn't really confident enough to try fielding more than one pokemon at a time currently, but the three pokemon accompanying her (Wes's Espeon, Explorer Scizor, and Telepathic Milotic) can basically all act independently without the need for orders from a trainer.  Rui and those three pokemon all count as a single character for the purposes of encounter caps.

Another Note: Both Rui and Lucas have powerful rosters of pokemon, so it may be beneficial to put them in separate groups if the party splits up on this floor.

In addition, if you wish to make any changes to your party of pokemon (which includes learning new moves from items that the group has in their possession), this would be a good time to do so.  Even in a Mystery Dungeon, Bebe's PC Science laughs in the face of time and space!