[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Iron]

The Princess isn't sure which way to go, out of these two choices. Her mother must not lie directly in either direction, but in some roundabout path.

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

"For you, darling Shiva, I can spare the time to make one for free. Who is your favorite Pokemon? That would be a great keychain! Or how about a Ditto, or Mew? Then you could claim it was every Pokemon. Might tie in with your family history as Pokemon breeders!"

This was just adorable! These words brought up a smile of uncommonly delight to Shiva...

"Oh, really...!? My, thank you!!" ... "Eh, which Pokemon... Dunno... Mew surely would be great... On the other hand, maybe a Miltank? Or a fluffy Eevee, nope, rather a Sylveon... Or another Snivy to go with the plushie? ... ... Ah, I guess it's up to you, just make any kind you like! I'd love it to be connected with the Breeding of Pokemon!"


(It's indeed up to you to pick a Pokemon for the charm. I gladly take anything but a Ditto!)

[Iron]

"How about a Talonflame, for hatching eggs? That would make a graceful charm."

[Dragonstrike]

Before the Princess revealed the path

The small combee seems to be eager to go other to the female, so Nathan turns around to head over there...and sees she's been captured.  By Ventus.  The small combee zips over, though, and seems to be worried about her.  The princess is soaking wet and there's poison needles sticking out of her, plus she's moving sluggishly from the effects of paralysis.  If they didn't fix that, Vespiqueen would probably be FURIOUS with them.

"Alright, alright, I'm coming..."  Nathan sprints over to the middle of the room to join the group there, and immediately turns to Ventus when he gets there, with a hint of disapproval in his look.   "Ventus, you caught her, so she's your responsibility now.  And if you have any items to heal her with, I'd recommend you do so.  Immediately.  Don't need her mom bringing down the wrath of the hive on us because she's not only captured, but beaten.  It'll be hard enough to reason with Vespiqueen about moving the hive and let her take the princess with us as is, and the princess won't be inclined to help us if we leave her that way either." And the prime reason he didn't say anything about capturing the combee princess to Ventus...

Nathan turns to Larry next.  "Larry, battling and attempting to capture this combee in her home was INCREDIBLY reckless.  And look where it got you.  You're 3 pokemon down with a 4th injured, deep in hostile territory.  If you want to live up to the expectations people who know your background have, you'll have to think more carefully about the decisions you make.  For example, we could have tried to convince her to join without sending pokemon into battle or specifically telling them to back off.  Battle isn't the only solution to every problem.  Oh, and you should REALLY try to avoid letting your pokemon faint.  They don't like it when that happens, and if it's repeatedly...well, they won't like you for it, to put it bluntly."  Swiftfire snorts in response.  "Yeah, yeah, I know...that wasn't my fault though, I'll have you know.  You're the one who charged in flames blazing."

Swiftfire snorts again.

Nathan then turns to the female combee.  "Princess, I am very sorry the actions of our group have caused much...inconvenience to you.  We need to talk with your mom, Vespiqueen, though.  Could you lead us to her?  I'm sure my companion here won't leave you in your current state for long."

After the Princess revealed the path

Nathan looks at the damage Zamboni has likely caused.  "Oh no no no no...not good, not good at ALL.  This is REALLY bad.  If the combee are attacking Zamboni's group and they're fighting back, we'll never get the queen to listen...we need to find Zamboni's group.  NOW.  We should go down the path with the ice and see if we can find them."  Nathan turns to the female combee.  "Princess, with all due respect, should we encounter our companions in there, could you tell any combee fighting them to stop attacking?  We're not here to drive you away with brute force, just negotiate, after all.  I'm sure they're only fighting back if they need to defend themselves."

[Lord Windos]

Before the Princess revealed the Path

When Nathan approached him, he almost flitched, afraid that he had 'overstepped' his boundries again. 'I don't want to get in another argument with him, as we'll just explode on each other in outrage if the trend we set continues. Oh Reshirem, please let thing be calm and alright,' Ventus thought, worried about the very real possibility of driving his friend off. He meant what he said earlier; he'd just hope that message sunk in.

To both his relief and that of his skyhigh stress levels, Nathan just politely (if rather firmly) asked him to heal up the Princess Combee. The researcher smiled as heard this request, beginning to relax a little bit again in the young trainer's presence. "I believe I have everything I need to fully restore her to peek condition, my friend. I'll get right one it," Ventus replied, before pulling everything needed out of his bag and carefully treat the royal Combee wounds. It let out a few bzzzes at the sting of the medication, but soon enough it was flying around without hinderance, a happy smile gracing her regal face. He couldn't help but smile at the Princess' antic. 'Even though she's royalty, that Combee is still just a kid. If there is one good thing about being captured by us, its that she doesn't have to chaff under such responsibility, unless she desires,' Ventus thought to himself, watching her interact with the rest of the colony

As she did so, though, he couldn't help but glance at Nathan. He grimanced a bit, feeling guilty (well, more guilty, really) about the way he handled the Combee Feast. 'I shouldn't have brushed off his concerns like that, even though he did so with my. I lost my temper with they boy, when I should have been calm and completely in control. At least I stop him from...going off alone. ...I'll have to apologize later, but not now. The conflict is still fresh to him, so I'll wait until this mission is over. I hope I don't have to wait too long,' he thought, not happy with the way things turned out. Even though he gained a great understanding of Nathan and his stance of Pokémon life, it almost costed them theirs. He couldn't cause another pointless death; not again.

So Ventus avoid Nathan, keeping mostly to himself and close to Valder, though he spoke when spoken to by the boy. He wasn't going to be obtuse, even if he was fearful of widening the gap between them.

After the Pricess revealed the Path

Hearing Nathan join in on Larry's side, Ventus wanted to let out a sigh, but stopped himself. While he wanted to argue that fanning out would most likely lead to them tracking the queen down faster, he didn't want to set Nathan off anymore than he already has. "Nathan, you bring up an excellent view of the situation. I didn't think of the possible effects of Zamboni's assault of the Combee, only trying to cover as much ground as possible. Let us make post haste to him and there group!"

[Iron]

You catch up to Zamboni and his group. They look tired but unhurt. Zamboni is working on making a map of the Combee maze.

"Strange place," he mutters.

"That's an understatement," says one of the other trainers.

"Ah, it's those young trainers! How goes your search for Vespiqueen? No luck for us yet. But we were just about to enter this odd room - the Combee have actually excavated new burrowspace. Quite odd. This is all so much bigger than I expected. There must be something going on behind the scenes that we never expected. Since this is taking longer, why don't you all take one of my PokeBalls and one of my specialty Net Balls - I use them for water Pokemon, but they actually work just fine on Bug types!"

You follow the bee trail as a large group, follow it all the way to a point where it widens out. Six Combee drones are hard at work trying to expand the chamber even more in the loam of Ginger Town. They seem to have a plan. In the center of the room is a box shape, also made of Combee. It's only two Combee large on each face.

"Cover me," says Zamboni. He goes and tries to slide the box's top off, but the Combee don't want to budge. "I thought this was supposed to be a treasure chest, but I guess it must be something else?" He bravely peers through a small gap.
"Six blobs of honey in there, each a beautiful, perfect amber! The Combee have organized them into lovely spheres. I guess this is like their trophy case?"

He continues, though you are free to investigate more of any of this if you wish.

At the rear of the chamber is a Combee-hewn shelf of dirt, about a meter off the ground. There you behold a strange sight: a Drowzee stands there, wearing a crown-shaped lump of rock, flecked with many purple stones that glare out like violet eyes. She is waving her fingers as if directing all the action, and her eyes are closed as if she's in concentrated, silent communication with something. She doesn't even seem to notice your group. Mud and honey cover her lower half.

Zamboni cocks an eyebrow and puts a hand on his Pokeball.

[Super_trainer_Larry]

Larry receives a net ball from zamboni "oh thanks I'll need this for later!" Larry said as he looked towards Nathan and vetus and asked "where to now?" Larry asked

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

"Talonflame! The blasted falcon... I'd love it to be that one! It would work so perfectly with an Oval Carm... Thanks again! Lots!" Oh well, if Belle would not be behind the counter of their stall, she'd get a hug now.

"Eh, one last thing, am I right that you originate from Alola? Did you came here to Ginger just for the Festival?"

[Dragonstrike]

"Thank goodness we found you, Zamboni.  The last thing we need is these combee to get angry because we're fighting them.  Ventus here managed to...acquire this hive's princess, and we managed to convince her it's a good idea to help us, thanks to the help of this tiny combee.  The last thing we need is the entire swarm coming down on us because we harmed members of the hive and kidnapped their royalty.  Anyways, we'll have to talk with the queen about bringing her with us now since one of us is set on trying to obtain a vespiqueen for themselves."

When the group enters the strange room, Nathan looks at it in awe.  It looks much more carefully crafted than the other rooms.  When Nathan sees the Drowzee wearing a crown, sitting on a mound of dirt, it suddenly clicks for him.  "Princess, is your mom supposed to be here?  Is this supposed to be the throne room?"  Nathan looks around again.  If there's honey in that box, and a special seat, and that Drowzee is wearing a crown...does this hive even have a Vespiqueen?  Nathan palms the premier ball.  "Ralts, you can come back out now."  As Ralts pops out next to Nathan, he's quick to move right next to him.  He doesn't like this hive, and they're in its very heart now.  "Ralts, see if you can get a read on what that Drowzee is doing, please, though I have a strange feeling I know what it is already...Swiftfire, stand at the ready in case it calls for help."

[Iron]

"Talonflame! The blasted falcon... I'd love it to be that one! It would work so perfectly with an Oval Carm... Thanks again! Lots!" Oh well, if Belle would not be behind the counter of their stall, she'd get a hug now.

"Eh, one last thing, am I right that you originate from Alola? Did you came here to Ginger just for the Festival?"

"Tramp just wears Alolan shirts as a fashion statement. Thinks they look casual. We're from Botanville originally but we've been driving back and forth across Creshire for years."