[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Dragonstrike]

Nathan is startled when he hears his pokedex beep several times, as he wasn't expecting the sound. "What the, was that...oh! That was the pokedex!" He quickly pulls it out, hoping it means somebody saw Ponyta.

As he reads the message from Vincent, he frowns. "Gosh darn it...well, guess it at least narrows down the search a bit..."

He quickly types out a message in reply. "Currently looking for more metal parts in the bushes. Only found a few pokeballs so far. Might need them though, so it's not a total loss. Will meet up with you when I'm done." He puts the pokedex away after sending the message and continues digging through the bushes for a little longer.

Ralts is still watching Moran scuttle around as he enjoys the wilderness without a trainer ordering him to do this, that, and the other thing. There's a lot of bird pokemon around, though...

[Lord Windos]

Ventus noticed that the Poliwag was attempting to escape into deeper water, and decided to curtail its retreat. "Aspis, cut ahead of the Poliwag and drive it closer to shore, and use Poison Sting once more. If it gets into the deeper water, get ahead of the Poliwag by quickly covering ground on shore, then diving in front of it and use Poison sting. Don't let your prey get away." Ventus commanded, already moving towards where Poliwag was heading. He doesn't want it escaping before so easily, if he can. Raphael, meanwhile, waddled near Shiva and decided to go up and cuddle with her, chirping happily at their friend.

[Dies Irae]

"Noted. Let me know when you're done." He taps back.

"Well done, little guy." He reaches down and ruffles the growlithe's fur, only to withdraw his hand with a grimace. Staring at the black layer of ash from the fire pit on his palm, he sighs. "And you're a mess."

Winston whines.

"Look, doggo. We're going to get you cleaned up. No Pokemon of mine is going to walk around looking like he crawled through a chimney."

The look returned loosely translated could be summed up as a slightly profane version of That was your idea.

"Regardless." Vincent reaches into his backpack and unwraps the grooming kit he picked up in town earlier. "Let's get you brushed down."

It takes a couple of minutes, with Winston whining, whimpering, squirming and generally making a scene the entire way. Vincent didn't quite care. He'd known the Puppy Pokemon long enough to realize that while Winston actually enjoyed the grooming sessions, it didn't stop him from acting like an utter diva each and every time the subject of grooming came up.

"Not so bad now, is it?"

Winston lets out a short bark. I hate you, Boss. 

"You're such a brat." The Puppy Pokemon licks his trainer's face. 

Turning to the Paras, with an expression of 'what am I going to do about you', he lowers himself to one leg, using his cane to stabilize himself.

"Moran. You didn't get to fight, but I'd be happy to groom you as well." He proffers the hairbrush which he's topped with a tiny layer of moisturizer for the Paras' dry skin, placing it on the ground in front of the bug as it peeks out from under it's food dish and letting the mushroom Pokemon examine the brush for itself.

"Thing is, I really can't do it without touching you. Your call really. Won't force you."

He waits patiently to see Moran's reaction to the offer.

[Iron]

Moran comes up and nibbles on the brush, then extends one dirty claw from beneath the helmet. He wants to try it.

[Dies Irae]

"Good call. Lets see what we can get done for you."

Careful to minimize contact with his skittish companion, Vincent neatly dusts down the Paras' extended claw with the grooming brush. Then, soaking a spare rag with a spritz of water from his canteen, he adds a dash of moisturizer from a small bottle, before giving the bug's pincer an gentle wipe down.

"Verdict?"

Moran chitters for a bit, but does not appear displeased at the outcome. When Vincent gingerly reaches out with the brush again, however the bug drops to the ground, pulling in it's limbs and disappearing back underneath the bowl it has taken to wearing like a helmet. 

"You know I can't reach you underneath that, right?"

There is more chittering, then silence as the other claw is cautiously poked out from beneath the bowl. Vincent stifles a laugh, as he deftly repeats the process with the Paras' other claw.

"And the rest of you?"

The bowl drops back to the ground. A muffled chittering noise emanates from beneath the bowl.

"Still not up for that, huh, Moran?" He gently taps the top of the bowl. "Well... you let me know when you're ready, little guy."

Packing away the grooming kit, he sits down on the grass to wait for Nathan to finish his scavenger hunt expedition. Padding over to his trainer, Winston plonks down on the grass beside him as... well... an upturned food bowl.... slides around on the ground near his feet.

All things considered, he's having a good day.

[Super_trainer_Larry]

"ok weedle come on out" Larry said as Larry exams the weedle he sees its fairly happy with him "hey there buddy come here" the weedle crawls on to Larry and Larry tells the weedle "you like siting here on my shoulder?" The weedle response happily "ok then you can stay here, but you need a name how about.... I know David! No abeja!(bee in Spanish) weedle seemed happy with the name

"ok then abeja lets go, hey ekans come on out! Ekans I want you to find some stuff for me bring back what every food and human items you can ok?" And ekans slithers off "abeja follow him so he doesn't find a ponyta, if he does stop him and get me as soon as you can.

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Just as she moved her gaze casually to the sky, Shiva saw them - those Hoppip again! They just flew there, like nothing! Cottonee noticed them as well, and joined watching them for a few moments, before it focused on the ongoing battle again - that one it doesn't have to participate. Thanks to Master. Maybe living with humans wasn't that bad at all. Free food, a safe place to back down if wished or tired (meaning the Pokeball) and cuddles!

Just as she intuitively and more in the heat of passion got up to pursuit those Hoppip - they drifted away towards west! - Togepi approached her and forced her attention.

"Ah, don't you feel like battling anymore...? Well, me neither~" Within those few moments of abstraction though, the swarm of Hoppip escaped... It was nowhere to be seen anymore.

Just a tiny little bit disappointed that she lost them out of sight, she picked up Ventus' Togepi. It seemed relaitively unharmed, although it had to endure a hit. Cottonee seemingly did not mind as Topepi leaned a little into its fluffy body. Looks like it is fine with other Pokemon as long as they don't pose a threat, but still somehow suspicious of other people (except Master, of course) approaching it too quickly too closely.


ACTION: Stay with Ventus, and taking care of his Togepi until he's finished battling that Poliwag. Those Hoppip got away. (TヘT )
NOTE, she doesn't actually aim to battle/fight/catch one, but rather encounter and approach them in their natural habitat. She originates from the city, plus has a liking for Grass-Types, so they flying around freely somehow struck her eye.

[Dragonstrike]

A little after Vincent finishes with the brushing, Nathan finishes with his search in the bushes. He's found nothing but pokeballs and the one metal finger, and is a bit disappointed to be honest. "Shoot, I really thought there'd be more metal pieces than that...at least I'll have enough pokeballs for Ponyta, I guess, but still..." He turns around, and sees Ralts is staring out across the fields in the direction of Vincent. "No fire horses, little buddy?" Ralts shakes his head. "Well, let's go talk with Vincent then. Get a better idea of where we need to go..."

Nathan pulls out his pokedex and types out a message to Vincent once again. "Done digging. Just a few pokeballs and that metal finger. Headed over to your location." As Nathan puts his pokedex away again, he sighs. "I really hope Ponyta hasn't gotten herself into too much trouble..." He then begins walking in the direction of Vincent's location, still keeping an eye and an ear out for the rogue horse.

[Super_trainer_Larry]

As Larry waited for ekans and weedle to return from hunting for berries and what not larry found a nice shady oak tree and sat under it "ok oshawott come on out" as Larry lets the oshawott out "today is such a great day its almost like everything I hoped for today is gonna happen, since I heard that Nathan found some pokeballs and a berry I think ekans and weedle should find more berries, pokeballs and potions" Larry told oshawott. Larry looked in the distance and saw Shiva with vetus and then saw Nathan with Vincent "at least I got you oshawott" and hugged him Larry looks again and sees ekans and weedle come out of the bushes and slither to a different set of bushes near the Nathan "oh no I got the feeling no body is gonna like me when they hear my story about those two being loose on purpose." So Larry gets up and follows ekans and weedle hoping the only thing they ask is "why are you walking you Pokemon?"

[Iron]

Poliwag Round 4

Water gun
(5)(3)(3)(1) - hit
(6)(4)(2) - 2 success. Ekans takes 2 more damage. He's missing 4 hp, so he's at half health.
I actually should have done this round 3 but I forgot. When you have a pain penalization, it can reduce your fighting ability so low that you can't fight effectively. Ekans is at this point - he can only succeed with a Luck Dice roll of 6. If the Luck Dice is not a 6, something bad could happen. (pg 45, 24)

Or you can spend a Will Point to automatically succeed.

To speed up combat, I think I'll gave newly-pained Pokemon a disaster-proof Luck Dice on the turn they take damage that brings them to a dice pool of 0. We'll try that for a bit and see what you guys think.
So for example if Ekans has 1 accuracy dice, and he takes 2 damage before he acts in a round, he OUGHT to have 0 accuracy dice, but instead he will temporarily be able to hit if he rolls a 6 on a luck dice. And nothing bad will happen. But in the round after that, he'll have to abide by the rules for luck dice/pain penalizations. I hope this makes sense.

Poison Sting
Acc: 0 dice
Luck dice:
(6) - wow, with a little luck, Ekans succeeds!
Dmg:
(5)(6) - Poliwag faints.