[Meta thread] Iron's PokeRole Adventure: The Skull Ruins

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

If things can escalate into a battle very easily anyway, wouldn't it be best to take initiative and start a battle ourselves instead of allowing things to go drastically wrong in an attempt to prevent a battle and result in a fight much likely anyway? I....I would rather carefully say so. ._. That, and from our current positon we should have enough time to boost/prepare before approaching closer.

Threathening to cave-in everything, as you said Windos, sounds like an idea, but a Pokemon like Seika would likely take it wrongly and simply attack herself or let her bugs attack, I'd guess. :C

[Dragonstrike]

If things can escalate into a battle very easily anyway, wouldn't it be best to take initiative and start a battle ourselves instead of allowing things to go drastically wrong in an attempt to prevent a battle and result in a fight much likely anyway? I....I would rather carefully say so. ._. That, and from our current positon we should have enough time to boost/prepare before approaching closer.

It might be, yes.  Which is why I suggested the possibility of freeing all of our pokemon preemptively to get them out of danger sooner rather than later.

Or if we can Hypnotize Seika without starting a battle immediately, we can free them and book it while queeny snoozes for a few minutes and can't call for help.  Ralts is potentially in the best position to attempt that.

Solomon's Hidden Power could give us some crucial info potentially as well if we do end up in a battle.

I also don't think Iron would have thrown us under the bus, so to speak.

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

I also don't think Iron would have thrown us under the bus, so to speak.

That I do agree and Corebook emphasized that one shouldn't create a story to win, there's no winning or loosing in this kind of Game. It'll be a HELL of a battle however, indeed the greatest challenge we've faced so far. ヽ(°〇°)ﾉ

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Thanks for delivering the info about Seikamater in-chara, @Spiritmon!~ But don't you mean Tricwe/Smore/Sponee to evolve into Seika? In your post, you accidently stated that Harylect etc. evolve into Seika.

[Spiritmon]

Spoiler

(...) Another option is appeasing her hungry by giving her most if not ALL our supplies to distract her (assuming she doesn't cotton on to our presence and order us for lunch too), then get our Pokémon out while she is busy and high tail it out. Another option is just trying to Recall them and booking it ASAP, but I say its even odds that the webs the Pokémon are on will prevent them from being recalled. (...)

That does sound like a thought. The negative aspect would be that it beraves US of our supplies and we have to continue our way without food + rely on Tropius' fruit and slain wild Pokemon by Apsis and Yena. A normal human can go a few days without food, that's true, and we're having enough Water Types to not dehydrate...

On the matter of a 'fair trade', I've had a thought: Do a Tropius, an oversized Durant and at best a Galvantula count as a fair trade @Iron, meaning we give these two for the other captured Pokemon in return? I'm feeling it might, as a huge Durant would make a good soldier/leader of the other Durant and Tropius can provide fresh fruit everyday for the queen, while a Galvantula can provide something I can't think of at the moment (light, electricity? But why could Seika need electricity...?). I mean this in the way of leaving these with Seika. Of course Shiva would mourn endlessly for her rare grassy sauropode, cry bitterly for it, outta-chara it'd take a useful Pokemon from my hands and kill off any Natural Gift shenanigans.... I don't know how Ven would be fine to part with Turiel and Nathan parting with Grid, Windos, Dragon? If this would save us a fight full of lethal attacks however, I'd be totally for this action.

Random idea!  If we were to use multiple Razor Leafs/Winds simultaneously, we might be able to free all our trapped pokemon simultaneously, which would allow us to recall all of them.

There's two problems with that, though.
1.  We'd have to get close enough to be able to use ranged attacks on the webbing.
2. We'd likely get attacked immediately, and we probably won't be able to flee due to the sheer number of bugs in the caverns alone.

If a distraction is presence, that COULD work and nothing says we can't try to run anyway once having gotten our Pokemon back. The chance that it'll fail is there, and these roughly six Rounds until we're back at the main tunnel sound long. :C

Wait! I have a better idea! We can use Dragonstrike plan and free the pokemon with Razor leaf! But! We could use Fire attacks to put fire in this spider nest, that way it could be a distraction for us to escape.

That sounds like a decent distraction! A rather agressive one for sure that'll enrage Seika and the bugs for sure, but it's an idea at last. One party, for the most part Heart and Nathan, could start a fire on one side of her lair with their respective Pokemon, while we others cut the webs with our Pokemon on hand.
EDIT: Okay, maybe that's actually a bad idea.


One way or the other, I'm scared of any aggressive actions as a fight will cost us everything we have on hand, and Seika has the capabilities to deal Super-Effective-STAB damage on EACH of my Pokemon currently on hand. ._.

One more question please, Iron: Any talking with Seika, will success and failure of it determined by Insight Rolls or will it be done without? If with Rolls, any penalities, and would Helping Hand help in talking?

Spoiler

Whether it's a 'fair trade' in Seika's books is something only the GM can determine. It's not 'just a few more bugs', it's a BIG ( = bigger than the other) steely ant, an electric spider and a grassy sauropode that provides fruit.

People, please think again and don't throw away the ores about this idea of mine right away, that's not fair. Spirit, your desire to not leave anyone behind is noble and understandable but it'd be a needed sacrifice as I don't assume Seika would just give us our Pokemon without something in return; Dragon, the care and training put into Galvantula can't be denied - but I have put not much less care and training into my Tropius and it's a Pokemon that has quite a personal value for Shiva, but how I'm still willing to make a sacrifice for the sake of not battling Seika clearly speaks for itself.

To me a fair trade feels like the easiest and most elegant solution where no battling is involved, and personally I'd rather avoid any aggressive action as I'm still pretty scared of fighting Seika directly or do anything that'll make her attack us. The prize to pay is too high for my assumption.

Four words: No. Chance. In. Hell. As much I understand, Heart will not let such thing to happen. We are not going to sacrifice our Pokemons, our family to a abomination such this Seikamater. He prefer to die fighting to let everyone be subject to that thing. No. No chance in hell. No no no. I rejected this type of approach. I with Nathan in this case.

If these are your last words on this train of thoughts of mine, I'll accept and respect it, but please do me the favour of not coming crying to me when lethal wounds or even chara-death befall Heart. ._.

Indeed putting her asleep with a well-placed Spore or Hypnosis or at best even both for safety/more strength (IF legendary Seika is not immune to sleep for some reason), then free our Pokemon and make haste leaving the lair as fast as possible would be my other call then, and blunt and direct attacking while just hoping for the best as a last resort.

Talking is an option, yes, but somehow I feel that Seika won't respond well to it, why should she? As a distraction it sounds decent however...

Spoiler

Whether it's a 'fair trade' in Seika's books is something only the GM can determine. It's not 'just a few more bugs', it's a BIG ( = bigger than the other) steely ant, an electric spider and a grassy sauropode that provides fruit.

People, please think again and don't throw away the ores about this idea of mine right away, that's not fair. Spirit, your desire to not leave anyone behind is noble and understandable but it'd be a needed sacrifice as I don't assume Seika would just give us our Pokemon without something in return; Dragon, the care and training put into Galvantula can't be denied - but I have put not much less care and training into my Tropius and it's a Pokemon that has quite a personal value for Shiva, but how I'm still willing to make a sacrifice for the sake of not battling Seika clearly speaks for itself.

To me a fair trade feels like the easiest and most elegant solution where no battling is involved, and personally I'd rather avoid any aggressive action as I'm still pretty scared of fighting Seika directly or do anything that'll make her attack us. The prize to pay is too high for my assumption.

I'm not saying throw the idea away.  I'm saying I don't think Tropius's meager snacks (a bunch of bananas by itself is nothing to something as big as Seika) and two bugs Seika already has armies of would be enough.  That's my opinion, feel free to disagree, but any way we handle Seika, the cost is likely going to be steep if we can't grab everyone and run.

Aside from that, all I talked about was Nathan's side of things.  He personally will not sacrifice any of his pokemon to the queen.  That's a no-go for him.  I did not say anything about Shiva.

This can very easily escalate into a battle no matter what we do, so it'd be good to be prepared for that.

If things can escalate into a battle very easily anyway, wouldn't it be best to take initiative and start a battle ourselves instead of allowing things to go drastically wrong in an attempt to prevent a battle and result in a fight much likely anyway? I....I would rather carefully say so. ._. That, and from our current positon we should have enough time to boost/prepare before approaching closer.

Threathening to cave-in everything, as you said Windos, sounds like an idea, but a Pokemon like Seika would likely take it wrongly and simply attack herself or let her bugs attack, I'd guess. :C

If things can escalate into a battle very easily anyway, wouldn't it be best to take initiative and start a battle ourselves instead of allowing things to go drastically wrong in an attempt to prevent a battle and result in a fight much likely anyway? I....I would rather carefully say so. ._. That, and from our current positon we should have enough time to boost/prepare before approaching closer.

It might be, yes.  Which is why I suggested the possibility of freeing all of our pokemon preemptively to get them out of danger sooner rather than later.

Or if we can Hypnotize Seika without starting a battle immediately, we can free them and book it while queeny snoozes for a few minutes and can't call for help.  Ralts is potentially in the best position to attempt that.

Solomon's Hidden Power could give us some crucial info potentially as well if we do end up in a battle.

I also don't think Iron would have thrown us under the bus, so to speak.

I also don't think Iron would have thrown us under the bus, so to speak.

That I do agree and Corebook emphasized that one shouldn't create a story to win, there's no winning or loosing in this kind of Game. It'll be a HELL of a battle however, indeed the greatest challenge we've faced so far. ヽ(°〇°)ﾉ

Its because sacrifice one of his pokemons to such thing as Seikamater its go beyond his code. And besides, she will problably going to squash us anyway. Rulers have the bad habit to take whatever they want. And for pokemon thats not different.

Put her to sleep seems a better idea to me. Even more if we use Viktor Confuse Ray.

[Spiritmon]

Thanks for delivering the info about Seikamater in-chara, @Spiritmon!~ But don't you mean Tricwe/Smore/Sponee to evolve into Seika? In your post, you accidently stated that Harylect etc. evolve into Seika.

Sorry. Got confuse myself ^^" Edition made.

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Hmm... Yes, you may be right with that 'bad habit' of a ruler to be honest, sadly.

Confuse Ray additionally to sleep from Victor/Malphena or Flatter from Lilith sounds like a good idea to me though , yes - the latter will even reduce her Strength by 1 while auto-confusing. Just one point, I know, but it could matter!

[Iron]

(...) Another option is appeasing her hungry by giving her most if not ALL our supplies to distract her (assuming she doesn't cotton on to our presence and order us for lunch too), then get our Pokémon out while she is busy and high tail it out. Another option is just trying to Recall them and booking it ASAP, but I say its even odds that the webs the Pokémon are on will prevent them from being recalled. (...)

That does sound like a thought. The negative aspect would be that it beraves US of our supplies and we have to continue our way without food + rely on Tropius' fruit and slain wild Pokemon by Apsis and Yena. A normal human can go a few days without food, that's true, and we're having enough Water Types to not dehydrate...

On the matter of a 'fair trade', I've had a thought: Do a Tropius, an oversized Durant and at best a Galvantula count as a fair trade @Iron, meaning we give these two for the other captured Pokemon in return? I'm feeling it might, as a huge Durant would make a good soldier/leader of the other Durant and Tropius can provide fresh fruit everyday for the queen, while a Galvantula can provide something I can't think of at the moment (light, electricity? But why could Seika need electricity...?). I mean this in the way of leaving these with Seika. Of course Shiva would mourn endlessly for her rare grassy sauropode, cry bitterly for it, outta-chara it'd take a useful Pokemon from my hands and kill off any Natural Gift shenanigans.... I don't know how Ven would be fine to part with Turiel and Nathan parting with Grid, Windos, Dragon? If this would save us a fight full of lethal attacks however, I'd be totally for this action.

Random idea!  If we were to use multiple Razor Leafs/Winds simultaneously, we might be able to free all our trapped pokemon simultaneously, which would allow us to recall all of them.

There's two problems with that, though.
1.  We'd have to get close enough to be able to use ranged attacks on the webbing.
2. We'd likely get attacked immediately, and we probably won't be able to flee due to the sheer number of bugs in the caverns alone.

If a distraction is presence, that COULD work and nothing says we can't try to run anyway once having gotten our Pokemon back. The chance that it'll fail is there, and these roughly six Rounds until we're back at the main tunnel sound long. :C

Wait! I have a better idea! We can use Dragonstrike plan and free the pokemon with Razor leaf! But! We could use Fire attacks to put fire in this spider nest, that way it could be a distraction for us to escape.

That sounds like a decent distraction! A rather agressive one for sure that'll enrage Seika and the bugs for sure, but it's an idea at last. One party, for the most part Heart and Nathan, could start a fire on one side of her lair with their respective Pokemon, while we others cut the webs with our Pokemon on hand.
EDIT: Okay, maybe that's actually a bad idea.


One way or the other, I'm scared of any aggressive actions as a fight will cost us everything we have on hand, and Seika has the capabilities to deal Super-Effective-STAB damage on EACH of my Pokemon currently on hand. ._.

One more question please, Iron: Any talking with Seika, will success and failure of it determined by Insight Rolls or will it be done without? If with Rolls, any penalities, and would Helping Hand help in talking?

Seikamater already has Turiel and Zippy (and maybe Grid, I never decided. She can easily get him for sure). So She won't consider those a trade. Tropius She'd probably value, but She's unlikely to give you any kind of good bargain while She holds all the power. She'll be looking to serve Herself.


Most talking will depend on what you say, with a Legend. Not on rolls. Helping Hand won't add anything to mental rolls anyway. I have some thoughts on Seikamater's motivations and personality already in mind, and if you think of something I didn't consider, why, I'll make a decision on it.

[Iron]

I also don't think Iron would have thrown us under the bus, so to speak.

That I do agree and Corebook emphasized that one shouldn't create a story to win, there's no winning or loosing in this kind of Game. It'll be a HELL of a battle however, indeed the greatest challenge we've faced so far. ヽ(°〇°)ﾉ

There's definitely at least one path to victory, but that doesn't mean I'm not open to out-of-the-box thinking! 


This is a place where it's definitely possible for a character to die, though. Suitably dramatic and meaningful!

[Lord Windos]

Hmm... Yes, you may be right with that 'bad habit' of a ruler to be honest, sadly.

Confuse Ray additionally to sleep from Victor/Malphena or Flatter from Lilith sounds like a good idea to me though , yes - the latter will even reduce her Strength by 1 while auto-confusing. Just one point, I know, but it could matter!

Sleep won't work on Seika unless we literally have dozens of Pokémon casting those Moves to overcome her, as I asked Iron about this very thing in PM. Negotiation with Seika will pretty much be one sided or VERY 'generous' on our parts since she's basically a dictator that has always gotten what she wants, and that you have to speak in simple, direct, and blunt terms in order for her to best understand our intent.

Additionally, bringing down the cave is impossible (So Earthquake is actually safe to use here), but we CAN topple her castle within a few Rounds with Mamo's helping. Problem with burying Seika alive is that we also burry our Pokémon as well AND that she'll basically summon her entire hive to kill us all if we go that route and don't skedaddle ASAP, so that's a last resort to end all last resorts.

Fighting her would basically be like fighter any other Legend: We need to target her Weakness, and any one of her Attacks would most likely instantly or near instantly Faint our Pokémon, and cause the nearby Firoke to start targeting us as well to compound our woes. Attacking the minions first will alert Seika, though, since all bugs are in a hivemind, so we can't pick off her support without her getting hostile/summoning more to swamp us.

Right now I'm trying to find out if we could use Raphael to stealthly cut the webs so that we can recall EVERYONE ASAP and that we could just turn tail and run. If that's not possible, the second best course of action is diplomacy/distraction while somebody tries to free our Pokémon, before we get out, followed by then fighting if that fails, then bringing down the castle if a slug fest goes PARTICULARLY HORRIBLY.

Overall, we have several options before us, but all of them will screw us over to some extent if we are not careful and lucky. This is, to put it blunty, not exactly an Encounter we can expect a happy resolution to.....

If Ralts or Solomon were not caught up, I'd suggest we all just leave the Pokémon to die and avoid confronting Seika at all, but seeing as nobody but maybe Ventus would go for the coward's option, that's a non-starter unless he simply abandons ship entirely.