[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Lord Windos]

Spoiler

Terra hears Nathan respond through the door (Nathan has to speak quite loud to do so, though).  "...come in.  Gallade, could you get the door, please?"

The door unlocks, and then opens.  Gallade's standing there, and politely gestures Terra inside.  Once Terra's in, Gallade closes the door behind him, locks it again, then stands in front of it, placing his arms behind him as he patiently waits and observes.

The room is mostly orderly.  However...the desk isn't.

(...)

Nathan turns to face Terra, and Emolga chitters curiously.  Nathan gestures at a chair/the bed/whatever can be used as a seat in the room.  "...have a seat."  *waits for Terra to take a seat*  "...so...what did you want to talk about?"

Gallade of course gets a smile and a grateful nod for his assistance from the sagely monk, before he wanders over to Nathan's side, glancing over their shoulder to glance at what he's working on, and letting out a *Hmm* of appreciation. From the looks of it, its mostly note about details the boy told him about, but the illustrations of the many Legendary and Mythical Pokemon were something new to him, and found them to be quite captivating. Particularly the sketches of Deoxys, which instantly drew his eyes like a magnet to iron and held it just as firm, before he wrest his gaze away with a shake of his head, appearing somewhat......distracted briefly before he refocused his attention on the scholarly train with a smile.

"Good artwork of Legends, Nathan. Did not know you.....had skill with drawing pictures."

Oh, and when the hybrid Plusle-Zubat ('Plubat?') became interested in him, he shared not only his smile with them, but a couple of marshmallows too, along with a head pat if that is agreeable to them/Nathan. If their anything like the pair of electric rodents found in his homeland, then they'd probably enjoy the sweet treats!

"Here. Marshmallows, a sweet treat. Enjoy."

After a brief pause, he also pull out a small bag holding many marshmallows, and lays it on the boy's desk.

"You too. For Forthright, Orthros, and any other partner of yours that likes sweets."

Looks like he didn't forget the promise he made to the cloud puff!

He takes a seat right besides his intelligent young friend, and goes silent for about a minute after they asked him just what's on his mind, the rugged wanderer staring into his lap with arms cross and appearing pensive. Then, he let out a quiet sigh and let his arms drape across his legs, and calmly looked back to them.

"Three things. First.....I think it is time. Time for my partners.....all of them that can......to learn ROCK SMASH. Feel that.....we all have proved ourselves worthy and........good enough to........handle HM's power wisely. Would like to believe I have......earned everyone's trust too, for this.......responsibility. If you do not agree......*Bows head* I understand, and will wait until me and my partners are ready."

Terra stops speaking at this point, and awaits your decree with stoic acceptance.....and hidden nervousness.

[Iron]

Spoiler

Oh yeah, Chespin is a great Pokemon for finding sacred plants. He comes back with some sandalwood twigs and bark, and shows Heart how to identify the shrubby little plants in their rare habitats.

(1)(4)(2)(1)(1)(4) (1)(6) + (3) from Chespin's help. Your fire doesn't grow very large, and requires a lot of attention to prevent it from spreading. Chespin rolls his eyes a little. Anyway, it's big enough to keep Moltres warm tonight.

Are you leaving Moltres alone out in the wilderness overnight or what? The Egg needs to be inside the pyre for at least four hours, preferably eight, and I'm not sure how you'd bring the bonfire inside the Pokemon Center.

I have should wait to bring the bonefire in the Pokemon Center...Cant I take to a close location of the Pokemon Center, leave Trevenant and Heracross guard the pyre, enter in the Pokemon Center, take Natu, and then teleport the Egg to inside my room? This can be done right since Heart have resistance to fire.

That'll be fine! You can see the bonfire from your window once you move it, and Heracross could climb up there and tap on your window to get your attention.

But if you bring the fire INTO your room, there's gonna be other problems.

[Iron]

Decided the BQB will add one success rather than one dice. The Super Rod doesn't add any dice, it just has its own Encounter List so to speak.

If you ever want to use the Super Rod to catch common Pokemon instead of rare, just let me know - that would be a situation where it would add dice.

Super Rod
Survival + Nature + Bait = 7d6+1

(3)(6)(5)(3)(3)(4)(3) = 4 successes.

You catch an Overgrown Crawdaunt! It looks like it'll probably have 5 Base HP. It's also eating a Staryu! The meal is still alive but on its last legs, quite literally.

[Dragonstrike]

Spoiler

Gallade of course gets a smile and a grateful nod for his assistance from the sagely monk, before he wanders over to Nathan's side, glancing over their shoulder to glance at what he's working on, and letting out a *Hmm* of appreciation. From the looks of it, its mostly note about details the boy told him about, but the illustrations of the many Legendary and Mythical Pokemon were something new to him, and found them to be quite captivating. Particularly the sketches of Deoxys, which instantly drew his eyes like a magnet to iron and held it just as firm, before he wrest his gaze away with a shake of his head, appearing somewhat......distracted briefly before he refocused his attention on the scholarly train with a smile.

"Good artwork of Legends, Nathan. Did not know you.....had skill with drawing pictures."

Oh, and when the hybrid Plusle-Zubat ('Plubat?') became interested in him, he shared not only his smile with them, but a couple of marshmallows too, along with a head pat if that is agreeable to them/Nathan. If their anything like the pair of electric rodents found in his homeland, then they'd probably enjoy the sweet treats!

"Here. Marshmallows, a sweet treat. Enjoy."

After a brief pause, he also pull out a small bag holding many marshmallows, and lays it on the boy's desk.

"You too. For Forthright, Orthros, and any other partner of yours that likes sweets."

Looks like he didn't forget the promise he made to the cloud puff!

He takes a seat right besides his intelligent young friend, and goes silent for about a minute after they asked him just what's on his mind, the rugged wanderer staring into his lap with arms cross and appearing pensive. Then, he let out a quiet sigh and let his arms drape across his legs, and calmly looked back to them.

"Three things. First.....I think it is time. Time for my partners.....all of them that can......to learn ROCK SMASH. Feel that.....we all have proved ourselves worthy and........good enough to........handle HM's power wisely. Would like to believe I have......earned everyone's trust too, for this.......responsibility. If you do not agree......*Bows head* I understand, and will wait until me and my partners are ready."

Terra stops speaking at this point, and awaits your decree with stoic acceptance.....and hidden nervousness.

"...it's not easy to draw these, to be honest.  Takes a lot of time.  And they're not nearly as good as Keni's work by a long shot...and these pictures are mostly for my own reference as well..."  *points to the picture of Juni, which definitely looks a little rougher than the others*  "Only just started that one, to be honest."

Emolga tilts his head curiously when offered a treat.  I'm not quite sure how he'd react to an attempt to pat his head, to be honest...but yeah, he'll take a marshmallow and nibble on it.  Being a park animal, he's not gonna turn down free food, after all!

Terra asking about ROCK SMASH catches Nathan off guard a little, to be honest.  He blinks slowly as he processes that...then startles out of it when he realizes what he's doing.  "...oh, uh...yeah, of course.  Who do you want to teach it to?  It'd be preferable if they won't use it just because they want to, obviously.  We are trying to keep it a secret, after all.  And remember that when it comes to trainer battles, you're really only allowed to use it against skilled, official League trainers that can handle being attacked by such a strong move...or in official League tournaments, such as the Safari Cup...or if the situation is desperate, obviously.  Hopefully the 3rd doesn't come up when it's unexpected."  Nathan's digging through his bag as he says all this.  "...now where did I put...ah, there it is!"

...and when he pulls out the HM, Emolga's jaw drops.  He can't learn the move (the only HMs he can learn are Cut and Flash.  And Defog if we include the Gen 7 Move Tutor giving Emolga access to it), but he doesn't need to be able to learn it to understand what it is.  He chitters a little more, having paused in the middle of nibbling on his marshmallow.  'Why didn't you tell me you had that?!' he almost seems to say.  And Nathan's response is, "...well, I was getting there, Emolga.  But then Terra knocked on the door, so..."  (and there ya go, now Terra knows what the species is called as well!)

(Let's see...according to my notes, the compatible pokemon that Terra has are Shiranui, Genie, Basteele, Angie, Anubi, Medicham, Bastiodon, and Mawile.  Mawile, Bastiodon, and Anubi have potential Disobedience concerns since they were caught more recently, of course, but if they have Loyalty greater than or equal to half their Disobedience, I personally have no problems with teaching the move to them.  Whether Nathan would be comfortable with teaching Medicham ROCK SMASH is another matter entirely, though...and Angie would also definitely need more space than this tiny room...unless...hmmm...if you want to teach her ROCK SMASH, Windos, I have an idea I can send you in a PM.)

[Iron]

Time for Emolga to gain 1 Happiness!

[Dragonstrike]

Time for Emolga to gain 1 Happiness!

Yay!  Now he's at 3

[Lord Windos]

Spoiler

Decided the BQB will add one success rather than one dice. The Super Rod doesn't add any dice, it just has its own Encounter List so to speak.

If you ever want to use the Super Rod to catch common Pokemon instead of rare, just let me know - that would be a situation where it would add dice.

Super Rod
Survival + Nature + Bait = 7d6+1

(3)(6)(5)(3)(3)(4)(3) = 4 successes.

You catch an Overgrown Crawdaunt! It looks like it'll probably have 5 Base HP. It's also eating a Staryu! The meal is still alive but on its last legs, quite literally.

(Double Gotcha, Iron!)

Hauling in a humongous Crawdaunt dining on some Staryu was not what he expected his first proper catch would be, but to his credit he reacted, summoning Tommy to his side and pointing straight at the bottom dweller, barking out orders with great severity

"Tommy, Fake Out to make Crawduant drop Staryu, then buff up with Nasty Plot and Slash at it! Faint it quickly, NOW!"

Terra was not taking his opponent lightly, as he was familiar with this species notorious reputation for being horrifically violent and brutal predators that culled entire populations of Pokemon if allowed, and his tone/countenance perfectly convey as such to his tom cat. 

Fortunately, he was extremely prompt to obey, brandishing his claws at the red baron and bearing his fangs in savage grin, before leaping on top of them with a yowl! Not only was he eager to face off against snappish shellfish, but it was also seafood that was eating a Staryu, the species that were his former caretakers, and Like HELL he was going to let it get away with THAT! Time to be sliced and diced, piker!!!

Orders: Attempt to rescue Staryu with Tommy's Fake Out, then have them (Tommy) use Nasty Plot to prime himself, before going straight to town on Crawdaunt with 2 Non-Lethal Slashes, with him being careful not to hit the starfish on accident. A Potion will be used on Tommy if he loses 3 HP or more, and he has conditional orders/the good sense to dodge out of the way of any Guillotine's if the red baron tries to OHKO it (Replace one of his Actions with Evasion). The scrappy kitty is raring to go at Crawdaunt, so let's not keep him from the action for too long!

After Crawdaunt is taken down, Terra will immediately rush over and check over Staryu's injuries, before treating them accordingly/rushing them to the Pokemon Center soon. Catching Crawdaunt will take place after its been Paralyzed and Toxiced by Terra's Pokemon, before a Pokeball is thrown at it (Up to two, before a Great Ball is used).

Moves

Fake Out
Accuracy: 11D6 Dice - 4/5/6/7 Actions = 7D6 Base Dice
Damage: STR + 2 + STAB + Technician = 9D6 Base Damage
Effect: Priority 1 and Auto Flinch on Target!

Nasty Plot
Accuracy: 6D6 Base Dice
Effect: + 2 STR

Slash
Accuracy: 5/4D6 Base Dice
Damage: 9-11D6 Base Damage
Effect: High Crit Move 

Note: Tommy's current Held Item is Lucky Egg.

[Lord Windos]

Spoiler

"...it's not easy to draw these, to be honest.  Takes a lot of time.  And they're not nearly as good as Keni's work by a long shot...and these pictures are mostly for my own reference as well..."  *points to the picture of Juni, which definitely looks a little rougher than the others*  "Only just started that one, to be honest."


 

Emolga tilts his head curiously when offered a treat.  I'm not quite sure how he'd react to an attempt to pat his head, to be honest...but yeah, he'll take a marshmallow and nibble on it.  Being a park animal, he's not gonna turn down free food, after all!

Terra asking about ROCK SMASH catches Nathan off guard a little, to be honest.  He blinks slowly as he processes that...then startles out of it when he realizes what he's doing.  "...oh, uh...yeah, of course.  Who do you want to teach it to?  It'd be preferable if they won't use it just because they want to, obviously.  We are trying to keep it a secret, after all.  And remember that when it comes to trainer battles, you're really only allowed to use it against skilled, official League trainers that can handle being attacked by such a strong move...or in official League tournaments, such as the Safari Cup...or if the situation is desperate, obviously.  Hopefully the 3rd doesn't come up when it's unexpected."  Nathan's digging through his bag as he says all this.  "...now where did I put...ah, there it is!"

...and when he pulls out the HM, Emolga's jaw drops.  He can't learn the move (the only HMs he can learn are Cut and Flash.  And Defog if we include the Gen 7 Move Tutor giving Emolga access to it), but he doesn't need to be able to learn it to understand what it is.  He chitters a little more, having paused in the middle of nibbling on his marshmallow.  'Why didn't you tell me you had that?!' he almost seems to say.  And Nathan's response is, "...well, I was getting there, Emolga.  But then Terra knocked on the door, so..."  (and there ya go, now Terra knows what the species is called as well!)

(Let's see...according to my notes, the compatible pokemon that Terra has are Shiranui, Genie, Basteele, Angie, Anubi, Medicham, Bastiodon, and Mawile.  Mawile, Bastiodon, and Anubi have potential Disobedience concerns since they were caught more recently, of course, but if they have Loyalty greater than or equal to half their Disobedience, I personally have no problems with teaching the move to them.  Whether Nathan would be comfortable with teaching Medicham ROCK SMASH is another matter entirely, though...and Angie would also definitely need more space than this tiny room...unless...hmmm...if you want to teach her ROCK SMASH, Windos, I have an idea I can send you in a PM.)

Terra frowns lightly at Nathan disparaging his own artwork, before reaching over to softly bonk them on the head in a admonishing manner.

"No. Do not put own work down, or.....compare it unfairly to Keni's. Your pictures are good in.....their own right. Juni's picture will be nice too. Having high standards not bad, but....let it not control you poorly. Understand?"

Nathan's stunned state to his blunt request was first misinterpreted as them being shocked at him making an outrageous demand, causing the mountain of the man to frown minutely in worry and sag a little in his seat. Did he futz things up between him and his friend by overstepping his boundries, or was he was asking for just stupidfyingly stupid right now? No.......not again....

Thankfully, the boy quickly rectified his misunderstanding before anything developed from it, causing him to be left blinking for bit, before he let out an almost explosively heavy *Siiigh* of relief and smiles back to them.

"Thank you, Nathan. Thank you very much. For giving me and my partners this...... honor. We will handle using ROCK SMASH to the very best of our abilities, and never use it wrongly ever. Promise."

He re-affirms that he wants ALL his Pokemon except for Bastiodon and Mawile to learn the HM ASAP, as he feels all of them are both worthy and responsible enough to use ROCK SMASH ONLY when permitted, and he doesn't want to hurt his partners by excluding them from obtaining such a momentous Move without sufficient reason (Like with his new Steels). In the case Anubi, being allowed and entrusted to learn the HM would probably be a pretty meaningful show of respect, trust, and general good will by his partner (Note to Iron: If it raises his Happiness, remember that Terra will auto cancel the Evo into Lucario), while Shiranui and Yogi would be thrilled and deeply honored to learn it too, given its the ultimate Fighting Move. 

To teach them all, Terra will rotate his partners in and out of his party by making trips to the PC back to Nathan's room learn the HM in the privacy, giving them enough time to react/celebrate acquiring the Move. By the end of the HM acquisition process, his party line up will be as follows for the night: Shiranui, Lapis Lazul, Basteele, Bastiodon, Anubi, and Tommy.

Terra would concede it be infeasible to teach ROCK SMASH to Angie right now, though, so he'd be willing to put off her learning until its possible to do it discretely. Sorry, but your chance to become even more godly will have to wait...

(If your PM idea would allow Angie to learn ROCK SMASH quickly, though, then by all means shoot it to me, and I'll edit my post accordingly!)

Oh, and his face lights up briefly when you mention's Emolga's proper name, as he's happy that he finally has a name to put to the galvanized glider!

As for the other topics.....they can be save PMing, as they are not mechanically important and more.....sensitive in nature.

[Dragonstrike]

Spoiler

Terra frowns lightly at Nathan disparaging his own artwork, before reaching over to softly bonk them on the head in a admonishing manner.

"No. Do not put own work down, or.....compare it unfairly to Keni's. Your pictures are good in.....their own right. Juni's picture will be nice too. Having high standards not bad, but....let it not control you poorly. Understand?"

Nathan's stunned state to his blunt request was first misinterpreted as them being shocked at him making an outrageous demand, causing the mountain of the man to frown minutely in worry and sag a little in his seat. Did he futz things up between him and his friend by overstepping his boundries, or was he was asking for just stupidfyingly stupid right now? No.......not again....

Thankfully, the boy quickly rectified his misunderstanding before anything developed from it, causing him to be left blinking for bit, before he let out an almost explosively heavy *Siiigh* of relief and smiles back to them.

"Thank you, Nathan. Thank you very much. For giving me and my partners this...... honor. We will handle using ROCK SMASH to the very best of our abilities, and never use it wrongly ever. Promise."

He re-affirms that he wants ALL his Pokemon except for Bastiodon and Mawile to learn the HM ASAP, as he feels all of them are both worthy and responsible enough to use ROCK SMASH ONLY when permitted, and he doesn't want to hurt his partners by excluding them from obtaining such a momentous Move without sufficient reason (Like with his new Steels). In the case Anubi, being allowed and entrusted to learn the HM would probably be a pretty meaningful show of respect, trust, and general good will by his partner (Note to Iron: If it raises his Happiness, remember that Terra will auto cancel the Evo into Lucario), while Shiranui and Yogi would be thrilled and deeply honored to learn it too, given its the ultimate Fighting Move. 

To teach them all, Terra will rotate his partners in and out of his party by making trips to the PC back to Nathan's room learn the HM in the privacy, giving them enough time to react/celebrate acquiring the Move. By the end of the HM acquisition process, his party line up will be as follows for the night: Shiranui, Lapis Lazul, Basteele, Bastiodon, Anubi, and Tommy.

Terra would concede it be infeasible to teach ROCK SMASH to Angie right now, though, so he'd be willing to put off her learning until its possible to do it discretely. Sorry, but your chance to become even more godly will have to wait...

(If your PM idea would allow Angie to learn ROCK SMASH quickly, though, then by all means shoot it to me, and I'll edit my post accordingly!)

Oh, and his face lights up briefly when you mention's Emolga's proper name, as he's happy that he finally has a name to put to the galvanized glider!

As for the other topics.....they can be save PMing, as they are not mechanically important and more.....sensitive in nature.

Instead of Nathan seeming down about being admonished for putting himself down, Nathan just chuckles at the irony of the situation.  "...well, look at you, nailing me for the exact same thing I said you shouldn't do...heh..."  Gallade's chuckling as well.  It doesn't seem as bad when you're able to laugh about it together, right?

Once Nathan and Gallade stop chuckling, he makes one more comment.  "...I'm not really the professional artist type, and that's fine by me.  I'm not trying to put my own work down, though I guess I could have worded that a bit better...drawing is more of a hobby for me than a passion, let's just say that.  History, though...oh, the wonders of history...you wouldn't believe some of the things I could tell you about the past...well, maybe you would, actually, given what we all just experienced...what's important is what we learn from it, though.  I'm getting off track though.  You're right, Terra.  I shouldn't directly compare my art to Keni's.  It's kinda hard to compare most art to his work, after all, given that he's dedicated his whole life to it..."

--------------------------

Now then, on to teaching ROCK SMASH to various pokemon!

Teaching ROCK SMASH to Shiranui, Basteele, Anubi, and Genie should be a fairly straightforward affair.  Gallade's a bit more stoic and distant than usual while Basteele's out (though he does his best to hide any outward reactions), but he's definitely more than happy to see the two Fighting types learn the move.  He thinks they're trustworthy enough.  And Genie...well, let's just say Nathan partially hopes teaching her the HM helps act as an apology for what transpired in the introductory battle...

As far as Yogi the Medicham goes...well, Gallade tenses up immediately, ready in case the Medicham decides to cause any trouble.  Nathan eyes Yogi a little warily the entire time, but provided Yogi is willing to keep the move a secret and has no problems with learning the move from Nathan (nor causes any trouble), that'll probably be fairly straightforward too.  Given that Terra trusts that Yogi will use ROCK SMASH responsibly, Nathan will do so with few complaints despite his own (or rather, Gallade's) biases.  Gallade won't object either simply to be polite about it, but mostly because he doesn't want to be the one who starts any kind of fight here.  That'd be rather rude of him if he did.

As for Angie...well...Nathan coughs, then says, "...so, uh, about Angie...I kinda took the liberty of already teaching her the move ahead of time...ya know, when ya borrowed Gallade to go to Stair and loaned her to me so we could talk...*ahem*...figured that'd be a good time to do it, considering nobody else was around at the time..."  Nathan doesn't outright say it, but he definitely already trusted that Terra would use the HM responsibly at that point, and Nathan also likes Angie, so...(if ya need me to, @Iron, I can forward the PMs involving that part of the private scene as evidence to ya)

[Iron]

Tommy: (5)
Crawdaunt: (3)

Tommy immediately gains 1 Loyalty upon being asked to save a Staryu.

Crawdaunt Round 1

Fake Out 1
(6)(5)(1)(3)(4)(6) (4) Critical hit.
(6)(4)(5)(3)(6)(6) Crawdaunt takes 5 dmg and flinches 1! 5/10hp -2 pain.
As hoped, the flinching makes Crawdaunt drop his meal, since he was sorta Grappling it each round and not using it as a held item.

Nasty Plot 2
(2)(6)(6)(2)(6)(4)
+2 Str for Meowth

As Meowth stalks closer, Crawdaunt body slams him with his sharp shell. It's a surprise move, as Dark types are wont to do.

Razor Shell 2
(6)(5)(2)(4)(2)(6) (5) Critical hit.
5 Str + 3 power +2 crit +1 stab -6 vit = 5d6
(2)(4)(6)(6)(1) Tommy takes 3 dmg

Slash 3
(2)(5)(1)(3)(5)
(4)(6)(6)(6)(1)(4) Crawdaunt faints. Soon, he is Toxic'd and Paralyzed.

Pokeball: (3)(5) vs (1)

Gotcha! Crawdaunt was caught!
Overgrown, 5 base HP.
Hyper Cutter
0/0/4
Harden, Vice Grip, Leer, Protect, Double Hit, Knock Off, Taunt, Night Slash, Crabhammer, Razor Shell, Swords Dance, Crunch, Superpower

Great moveset, but a very hard Pokemon to raise.

Tommy gets 8 XP, Terra gets 6 XP including a bonus for doing a good deed.