[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Shiva already is eager to have as much distance between the statues and herself as possible, she doesn't really feel it was necessary for Nathan to wave her away from them. Still, she opts to only take it as a safety measure, means she won't think too much about that. Though when he reveals that the single big eye is indeed the eye or more of a symbol for Sarimanok, Shiva and Lilith both turn their gaze to stare at it once more, now visibly shivering due to them. She...doesn't like this symbol at all - she feels it gazes into her soul or something along the lines.

"...That matches with what I have believed we're landed at, Nathan, thanks for confirming this to me." However, the opening that in this time women are less independant than men causes Shiva to cross her arms in displeasure and even huff about that, her icy-cold attitude threathens to break through in her voice. "Not as indedependant as... That's sexist towards me. I'm having my Ranger's Cloak on anyway, if I do THIS-" She throws back all her long hair, ties it together and hides it via the hood of the cloak which is pulled deeply over her face to conceal as much of it as possible, "They might not even notice right away that I'm female. I can also just change my clothes. And if they notice, like I care...  I'll be careful though, thank you for the hint. I should be fine with this cloak, but some attire of the time is a fine idea."

With that said, Shiva turns to the campers and the Conkeldurr again. Mechanics what she'll do or intends to do are stated here.

[Dragonstrike]

On hearing this Spira stops what he's doing, he doesn't want to find out the sentence, either. He calls out to Nubi, "Calm down, and back to your ball." Nubi complies, going back to his pokeball. "So just how long will we have to wait?"

Spoiler

Shiva already is eager to have as much distance between the statues and herself as possible, she doesn't really feel it was necessary for Nathan to wave her away from them. Still, she opts to only take it as a safety measure, means she won't think too much about that. Though when he reveals that the single big eye is indeed the eye or more of a symbol for Sarimanok, Shiva and Lilith both turn their gaze to stare at it once more, now visibly shivering due to them. She...doesn't like this symbol at all - she feels it gazes into her soul or something along the lines.

"...That matches with what I have believed we're landed at, Nathan, thanks for confirming this to me." However, the opening that in this time women are less independant than men causes Shiva to cross her arms in displeasure and even huff about that, her icy-cold attitude threathens to break through in her voice. "Not as indedependant as... That's sexist towards me. I'm having my Ranger's Cloak on anyway, if I do THIS-" She throws back all her long hair, ties it together and hides it via the hood of the cloak which is pulled deeply over her face to conceal as much of it as possible, "They might not even notice right away that I'm female. I can also just change my clothes. And if they notice, like I care...  I'll be careful though, thank you for the hint. I should be fine with this cloak, but some attire of the time is a fine idea."

With that said, Shiva turns to the campers and the Conkeldurr again. Mechanics what she'll do or intends to do are stated here.

Nathan just lets Shiva walk away.  He knew she wasn't going to like that statement.  But there's nothing he can do to change that fact, make it any less true.  He hadn't meant any ill with his own words.  And yet it felt like Shiva was angry with him anyways...

Queitly, Nathan says to himself, "...just be careful, Shiva...we're not in modern times any more..."

He sighs, then turns back to Spira.  "I'm not sure how long it might take Bill to send us some attire, or if he'll be able to find some that'll do the job in the first place.  Hopefully he'll send a response back to me soon, along with my Snivy.  Until then, I'm going to make sure to stay away from those statues and that camp and think about what the heck I'm going to do while we wait for those time lurches to start happening again.  If we're here, we're probably here for a reason, but...I'm not sure what that reason is yet. Be careful with how and when you battle with pokemon, by the way. Healing Machines aren't yet as commonplace as we're familiar with. They exist, but...they've not been reverse engineered to death yet, and won't be for a long time, so not every town and city on the map has one available."

[Iron]

...What is Spira doing...

Slight flashback!
Spira is busy interacting with Noire and Nubi to increase their loyalty. "So guys what do you think of Creshire so far?" Nubi looks listlessly around, as if slightly bored, and Noire seems more than happy to be here. "I know, it has been crazy hasn't it, first all those Electabuzz and that Chupacho, then that huge Rhydon, what next?"

Your ghost Pokemon are actually pretty excited about this era they've found themselves in. They're looking around at all the fighting types and the campfires, at the weird statues, at the fierce-eyed men who radiate tasty vitality.

[Iron]

The real deal however came as she came across that big eye drawn on the wagons, this time Shiva could not hold back a high-pitched "Eeeeeeeeeekkkkkk!". She moved closer to Gothy, accepted her help on getting up. "Lilith.... This eye... We know that one, don't we? It's the same one from your visions, Helix Nebula is taking this form, the single big eye w-watching all over Chreshire, isn't it?" (Does Lilith recognize this Eye as well, Iron? And does it 'fill one with rage' this time, or anythingelse that might be notable?)

Yes! Lilith gives that Eye a thoughtful look. It's definitely related to the One she foretold, but she doesn't react as if threatened by these mere images. 

With Shiva's massive Insight stat, she can feel something of that rage in all the soldiers around the camps. They don't display it outwardly - they are calm, collected, and polite. But in their own eyes Shiva can feel it, and a part of her responds to it like a command... a command to battle and compete! The vitality of these noble men and women of a bygone era is very strong and it makes all of you want to do whatever they say. (Yep, gender is not a final factor in deciding a military career in Creshire. There's one female for every three males.)

With Terra already heading off to look around, Nathan keeping Spira busy and Heart heading off to look for a Honedge or Doublade, Shiva herself felt a little lost and left alone/on her own. She shudders again, holds Lilith's hand firmly in her trembling own hand.


Only when she feels it'd be safe to approach these campers, especially those wearing tunicas and the Conkeldurr themselves as their displayed wisdom catches her attention (she also feels like being able to understand what it may try to tell), she'll do so. She mostly wishes to find out more about these campers, listen to a few stories, no way she wants to battle here. Perhaps afterwards she'll go off to search for items or berries or wild Pokemon to keep herself distracted.

[Iron]

"Well Nate, thanks for telling me all this, I'm going to check on some things." Spira goes back and looks at rhe ghost pokemon in the pillars that he soon identifies as Misdreavus. "Hey Nubi, look." Spira lets Nubi out of his pokeball to see all this. Nubi definitely looks happy to see all these fellow Misdreavus, but sad that they are being held captive like this. While that happens Spira takes a closer look at the gems in the pillars.

The gems are well-cut and seem designed to be flashy. From what you know of superstition, the fact that they are placed in a variety of statue body parts probably means they don't have a specific function. Nah, they're probably decorative.

A warding gem might always be in the eye sockets, for example. A gem to trap a Pokemon might be in the heart.

[Dragonstrike]

A Night by the Fire: Campfire & Nighttime Sounds by Relaxing Soundzzz

Welp, time for Nathan's response to Bill!  He sent this message back (Iron sent it to me in a PM):

"You're pullin' my leg!! Sarimanok's time?"

Accompanying it were Snivy (obviously), a map of the castle that's been reconstructed from what's known about the Skull Ruins via sonar in the present day, and a roll of dull colored canvas; a needle; and a thread.  Guess Bill didn't have much else easily accessible.  Or maybe it was because he didn't know everyone's clothing sizes?  Hmmm...

Sending one pokemon back and then getting it right back so his current party remains unchanged, Nathan sends this response to Bill:

I don't usually joke about this kinda stuff.  I'm looking at a large group of people right now that's about three eighths men, one eighth women, and half Conkeldurr, and they're all minor nobles of some variety.  Sarimanok's banner with the purple eye is prominent in every single section of the camp.  The road where Route 13 will eventually be is wider, well maintained, and statues with gemstones in them run alongside it.  As is fitting for the path that eventually heads toward the castle.  Rare and common wild pokemon alike are all around us.  It's also the dead of night, which is...rather jarring, to be honest.  It was morning when the lurch happened.  It sent us all the way back to around 500 AD from the look of things.  Don't know the exact year, not sure I really want to risk asking on account of potentially drawing unneeded attention from someone higher ranked.  Or Sarimanok's attention, for that matter.  He'd probably be rather...curious about time travelers, to say the least.

Everyone's split off to explore, and I think they'll all be okay...I'm going to stay away from the camp for now...and those statues, which Sarimanok has apparently put Ghost types in...it's giving me the creeps, to be honest...

Different topic: how much time has passed on your end so far since we first vanished?

Welp, message sent.  Now to wait for the return message, if any...

In the meantime, Nathan gets down to work for his first encounter!  Doing what, you might ask?

Sewing.

No, I'm not kidding.

It's nothing fancy, but Nathan IS able to sew that canvas into suitable looking garb for the era (mostly because he knows his history so well) for himself, Heart, and Spira to wear.  Terra's doing fine with his simple garb, and Shiva's Ranger Cloak is also passable from the look of things, so he doesn't have to worry about making anything for those two.  It'll take some time, but he might as well get started on it now instead of putting it off until later... (and odds are that Bill sent enough cloth to make cloaks for 5 people at least, so Nathan likely has plenty of extra material if he screws a cloak up, thankfully)

In the meantime, Nathan has Charmeleon out to provide a little firelight for him to see by since he's staying away from the camp for the time being, and Gallade's keeping watch as well.  It's a little risky, given that the Charmander line is typically used by those of noble blood in this time, but he needs to be able to see what he's doing, and Charmeleon is one of the more...discreet options that doesn't look as out of place and/or definitely draws a lot of attention from everything in the nearby area.

Oh, and Ditto's also out of its pokeball.  And as Iron said earlier, it's currently a Herolune.  A big, bad, scruffy looking, do-gooder super hero doggo that isn't afraid of no ghost!  This'll work out great for Gallade later, thinking about it...

[Iron]

Another thing I sent in that PM is that Sarimanok's culture didn't really consider women as less independent, and Nathan would know that and probably wouldn't have said that to Shiva earlier. In the early industrial era that was a much more common viewpoint, but to Sarimanok it's all about the ability to control Pokemon.

Yeah, Bill sent almost enough canvas to make a tent. He sent as much as a traded Pokemon can hold, which is a full bolt. It would also have included some gaudily colored and metallic threads for simple line patterns.

[Iron]

With Terra already heading off to look around, Nathan keeping Spira busy and Heart heading off to look for a Honedge or Doublade, Shiva herself felt a little lost and left alone/on her own. She shudders again, holds Lilith's hand firmly in her trembling own hand.


Only when she feels it'd be safe to approach these campers, especially those wearing tunicas and the Conkeldurr themselves as their displayed wisdom catches her attention (she also feels like being able to understand what it may try to tell), she'll do so. She mostly wishes to find out more about these campers, listen to a few stories, no way she wants to battle here. Perhaps afterwards she'll go off to search for items or berries or wild Pokemon to keep herself distracted.

The Conkeldurr you find are working together with a cloth map. They're placing dowels made of concrete on the map of west Creshire, clearly planning a construction project like a road or something long and linear. Interestingly, the humans are paying intent attention, as if they respect the Conkeldurr's opinion immensely.

Other Conkeldurr are experimenting with mud, clay, straw, water, gravel, and powders of different colors. They're doing some kind of alchemy, perhaps their namesake concrete. (Well, concrete was named for them, not the other way around). Again, humans of every rank are trying to learn from them, with the utmost respect.

The stories being told are almost always about Pokemon battles, including arena-style matchups, actual violent conquests, and lots of personal grudge matches. They seem to also have the traditional sport style you are used to. Fighting types are definitely in vogue. Steel types like Aron's line are much desired. Fire type is one of the most dramatic. The very common types like grass, bug, poison, flying, normal, ground, rock don't receive any discussion at all. Psychic is mentioned with much reverence but no trainers seem to use it. The big mount Pokemon pulling the carts don't see much battle.

You garner that their battles are probably very intense. In game terms, they will commonly use five actions even if that means just one dice remaining. Or they might use high crit moves/abilities.

[Mikaruge108]

After checking the statues Spira goes back to Nathan. "From what I gather most of the gems probably don't serve a purpose. But that still doesn't change the fact that the statues are still weird." "So how are things here, did you get what you needed to help us blend in?" "I'm going over there to look for some Pokemon." he points toward a darker area.
Mechanics: look for rare Ghost Pokemon.

[Mikaruge108]

...What is Spira doing...

Slight flashback!
Spira is busy interacting with Noire and Nubi to increase their loyalty. "So guys what do you think of Creshire so far?" Nubi looks listlessly around, as if slightly bored, and Noire seems more than happy to be here. "I know, it has been crazy hasn't it, first all those Electabuzz and that Chupacho, then that huge Rhydon, what next?"

Your ghost Pokemon are actually pretty excited about this era they've found themselves in. They're looking around at all the fighting types and the campfires, at the weird statues, at the fierce-eyed men who radiate tasty vitality.

this interaction was at the camping spot in 1925, Iron.