[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Dragonstrike]

When Shiva touches a Red Apricorn, all the Zen statues light up mildly. The Apricorn goes semi-transparent when handled, showing a Klefki inside.

When Shiva approaches the statues, thoughts appear in her mind. The Guardians of Atheneum require you to prove your redeeming qualities by answering their riddles. You'll touch a Darmanitan and be offered its riddle via PM. Only you may try to answer the riddle, no discussing with the other party members (Google is fine though). You receive no knowledge as to the consequences of success or failure, but it sounds like some of the riddles will be metaphorical or moral in nature.

You psychically know the topics of the riddles. From left to right:

# 1. Combat! Not really a riddle!
# 2. Elements
# 3. First Steps
# 4. Effort
# 5. Sources of Power
# 6. Rulership

These will be treated like Encounters.

Question: which four have the Apricorns/Klefki near them?

[Spiritmon]

Spoiler

"Wow...." Its all what Heart say when he have entered the room. The statues, the desigh of that place, the trees with apricorns...and that mysteryous gautlet. "Incredible. Simple incredible. Never in my life I would imagined have come to such place. These statues...they are fossil pokemon and other Primal beings! Kabutops, Omanyte, Carracosta...Incredible. Perhaps there is any Tandorian Fossil Pokemon? What kind of Primal pokemon there around here..."

Mechanic: Check the statues to see what kind of Primal and Fossil pokemon is depicture here! I curious to see what we might find here.

There are an awful lot of Slothohm mosaics. A Primal Altaria and Tropius. Suicune. Kyogre and Groudon in their primal form. Giratina in Griseous form. And some new Pokemon you haven't seen: some kind of weird Bisharp, a different Slowking with an extra large crown, a feathered Tyrantrum, and a Genesect with no drive or cannon, but extra limbs instead.

"Fascinating. This Primal Altaria bring back some good memories, heh." Heart then looks in the direction of Kyogre and Groudon in their Primal Forms. See such image brin chills to his spine. "Man, those two must be really scary in the ancient times. Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre the rulers of land and ocean. I hope we never see those things back to our world, because they could destroy the world, literally." Heart looks to the others statues. "Strange...They looks like a Bisharp, Slowking, Tyrantrum and...huh?' Heart look to the other strange pokemon. "What is this thing? It...looks like a big bug. What is this thing?" 

For the first time, the pokemon Rare Collector did not know about that pokemon. He decided to ask anyone for help. "Oi! Ventus! Could you help me here please? I find something strange." Then Heart point to the statue of Genesect (he did not know about that pokemon). "Know anything about that Ventus? I dont know very much about fossil pokemon, so a researcher in pokemon bioligy would be awesome. Know something about that bug Ven?"

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Ahahahahaha! Somehow Shiva knew that there was way more that the physical eye could see. That Klefki inside the Apricorn - how clever.

...M-more thoughts in her mind, ones that seem to be planted there from an outter source! She's sure which of these riddles she'd like to take:

# 2. Elements

She has been interested in the mentioning of elementars within Atheneum after all. (And it's the one I'd intuitively pick, regardless whether it will bring a key or not)

[Iron]

There are an awful lot of Slothohm mosaics. A Primal Altaria and Tropius. Suicune. Kyogre and Groudon in their primal form. Giratina in Griseous form. And some new Pokemon you haven't seen: some kind of weird Bisharp, a different Slowking with an extra large crown, a feathered Tyrantrum, and a Genesect with no drive or cannon, but extra limbs instead.

Oh?  Did someone say Tropius?  Out of curiosity, does this Primal Tropius look flightless?  Does that Genesect look like it might be related to the descriptions of the FTS Genesect?

And would Valder recognize the weird Bisharp?

Yeah it looks flightless. It is displaying its 'feathers' like a peacock or like a shield. 
You think this is older than FTS Genesect!!

Oh yeah, Valder has seen an etching like this Bisharp before. I even drew a picture. 


This one has a body though, which is extremely heavily armored and looks slow-but-strong.

[Lord Windos]

Spoiler

"Fascinating. This Primal Altaria bring back some good memories, heh." Heart then looks in the direction of Kyogre and Groudon in their Primal Forms. See such image brin chills to his spine. "Man, those two must be really scary in the ancient times. Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre the rulers of land and ocean. I hope we never see those things back to our world, because they could destroy the world, literally." Heart looks to the others statues. "Strange...They looks like a Bisharp, Slowking, Tyrantrum and...huh?' Heart look to the other strange pokemon. "What is this thing? It...looks like a big bug. What is this thing?" 

For the first time, the pokemon Rare Collector did not know about that pokemon. He decided to ask anyone for help. "Oi! Ventus! Could you help me here please? I find something strange." Then Heart point to the statue of Genesect (he did not know about that pokemon). "Know anything about that Ventus? I dont know very much about fossil pokemon, so a researcher in pokemon bioligy would be awesome. Know something about that bug Ven?"

Ventus honestly didn't desire any sort of small talk or conversation with the group now, but never the less he only let out a slight sigh of protest before he went to investigate what had Heart bamboozled. He only had to take one good look at it to figure just what it was, causing the researcher to momentarily freeze at the all too familiar sight as a keening, longing feeling arose from the depths of his heart before he slammed down on and bottled it up back where it belonged. Silence was the rare collecter's answer for a moment as the frown deepened on his face, before quietly saying: "That is a Genesect, Heart, and that is all I am willing to discuss right now. Focus on opening the gate into Antheneum, not on the architecture."

He then turned away from them a resolutely ignored the mural/statue. Now wasn't the time for distractions or a trip down memory lane....

[Iron]

Added a clarifying picture to the Encounters post, @Dragonstrike.

[Dragonstrike]

Added a clarifying picture to the Encounters post, @Dragonstrike.

Ah, okay.  That makes a lot more sense now.  Well then, guess that means we'll have to solve all 6...

...so Nathan will start with #6: Rulership (after taking a picture of that primal Tropius, Primal Genesect, and all the other pictures of fossils and primals for later reference).  That riddle oughta be right up his alley.  And Solomon's, too.

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Shiva will stick with #2 Elements as the first riddle to take in her case.
If later down the line another one remains unsolved, #4 Effort shall be it, but one after the other.

[Lord Windos]

Insightful and intelligent as he was, Ventus' Knowledge base was mostly academic, hands on work experience in the field/lab, and concerning reading/interpreting emotions, so solving riddles and the like was completely out of his depth, especially ancient, foreign, and arcane ones. So, after getting over the unpleasant shock of those guardians psychic intrusion, choose Trail/Riddle #1 (Combat) with a small but noticeable frown on his face. Lucifer and Malphena were still by his side up until now, so his first choose of Pokémon to battle would be one of those two, or both, depending on what type of 'challenge' this 'statue' had.....

[Spiritmon]

Spoiler

When Shiva touches a Red Apricorn, all the Zen statues light up mildly. The Apricorn goes semi-transparent when handled, showing a Klefki inside.

When Shiva approaches the statues, thoughts appear in her mind. The Guardians of Atheneum require you to prove your redeeming qualities by answering their riddles. You'll touch a Darmanitan and be offered its riddle via PM. Only you may try to answer the riddle, no discussing with the other party members (Google is fine though). You receive no knowledge as to the consequences of success or failure, but it sounds like some of the riddles will be metaphorical or moral in nature. You get one guess (synonyms count).

You psychically know the topics of the riddles. From left to right:

# 1. Combat! Not really a riddle!
# 2. Elements
# 3. First Steps
# 4. Effort
# 5. Sources of Power
# 6. Rulership

These will be treated like Encounters.

Heart after hear what Ventus explain he make a curious see. "Gensect huh? I might need make a research about that Pokemon later."

After that Heart return and see the group making a research about the riddles. He decided to help and take...riddle #3 First Steps.