[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Dragonstrike]

"...hmmm...I wonder if that Cofagrigus is curating the stuff that was brought here during the Spirit Exchange...or if they organized it in the first place...orichalcum...that's the metal that represents wild pokemon and creation...the king shall show the way...hidden rooms...hmmm..."

Nathan seems a liitle absentminded right now despite his on topic musings to himself, though.

He's definitely got a baaaaad feeling that Cofagrigus is VERY powerful, though.  Maybe not as powerful as a Legend, but...

[Lord Windos]

Spoiler

(...)

Terra, leading the way for the protection of the party, pokes his head through a hole dug by Angie. He reports back about a new room. It had collapsed like the others, but was carefully dug out. In fact, you see Yamask streaming by holding scoops of earth in their dead faces, continuing to excavate. Some also bear crystals or odd stones. All bear a mini key in each hand.


Fossil-bearing ores have been tastefully placed about the room. Some are on crude stone pedestals, really just sandstones piled up in little heaps. Some are stuck directly into the ground. Many have a rainbow of different mosses growing on them, or pebbles arranged around them in Egyptian designs similar to Ratsy's. There's also an Odd Keystone in a place of honor, with a nascent swirl of a young Spiritomb in it. Tended paths lead from one attraction to another.

For some reason, there are also a couple Slowpoke around. The gardener has gardened right around them without disturbing them. Perhaps they water the slow-growing moss.

Really, it seems you've stepped into what appears to be a fossil garden.

There are two Pokemon that stand out.
1. The Geodude who has often followed you around since Ginger Town, sneaking up on one of the fossils in an attempt to excavate it.
2. A fabulously ornate Cofagrigus, using its four hands to rearrange fossils and stones. It's being very selective and careful. The thing exudes power, and is constantly looking around furtively before making a change. Cofagrigus orders the Yamask around and commands the respect of the other, smaller Ghosts. In its shadow are several 2D Gengar, jostling for position. An array of stone Clefable statues might be their homes or hosts or something.

Beyond the Fossil Garden is a downward path, leading to a door carved with hieroglyphics and made of an unknown metal - maybe orichalcum according to Nathan. You can't really see the door well from here.

There are great heaps of earth like compost all over.

Spoiler

[quote pid='63603' dateline='1560101783']
Cosh: "We were told the ghosts had hidden it. They could certainly have placed it behind that door! We need to find a way through. It should also lead downward into other layers of the Ruins."
[/quote]

Initially, Terra had elected to remain silent after his report of the Ghost Fossil Muesuim up ahead, so as to let the the others get a look at it themselves and come up with any plans on how to proceed from there. He was far from an natural 'ideas guy' , so he'd thought leaving that to the collective would be for the best. Seeing that nobody was really doing any brainstorming though (Beyond Shiva's suggesting to just Fight the whole lot of Ghosts and ghouls, but was not exactly the most safe or creatively intensive idea), and only hearing Cosh/Nathan speak/mumble about the place/its contents, the sagely monk closed his eyes, shook his head and let out a small *sigh*, before he got everyone's attention to bring up his own idea.

"We can get past the Ghosts and door by Digging. Go back a little, then start Digging under and past them. Should not take long, or get caught if we Dig deep enough. Saves our Strength and trouble from them too. *Looks at everyone* Well?"

[Iron]

I was going to say Digging is always a noisy endeavor, but you already addressed that by mentioning going back out of range.

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

You haven't seen any keyholes so far, but you're too far away to see if that door or that tunnel have any keyholes.
You think all the Yamask's keys are extremely similar in shape.

Shiva's CERTAIN that the Yamask aren't holding keys just because, they must be usable for something. Even if they don't end up being for that Egyptian Door down the path, they can surely be crucial for somethingelse in this Fossil Garden or for something different later. If they're extrememly similar - are they duplicates of the real thing? Possible. Either way, she wants to obtain an exemplar of these keys, at all cost.

(...) "We can get past the Ghosts and door by Digging. Go back a little, then start Digging under and past them. Should not take long, or get caught if we Dig deep enough. Saves our Strength and trouble from them too. *Looks at everyone* Well?"

As Terra speaks up to voice his thoughts, Shiva brings her full attention to him and almost stares at him with eyes that have a hard time concealing the sparkles and fire behind the lens. It's rare and strange to see her that fierce and determined, but there's no denying that she's itching heavily to do something.

A few moments pass in thick silence between mountain of a man and natural fae-ethusiast, but eventually the latter lets her head hang a little and tries to avoid the former's gaze by observing the super-interesting floor. "That's an idea, Terra... But..... We've already bypassed THAT darkest of all ghosts, we can't do exploit the same strategy forever. What if we dig past and beneath them, end up at that Egyptian Door and find it locked, or if while we're on it these Ghosts notice that we're after their treasure and decide to attack us, seeing us as intruders? I don't want to get caught, don't want them to be the aggressor - I wish to EARN this Artifact, I wish to see what treasures that spectral coffin and their kin has harbored there." She clenches her fist involuntarily, then boldly faces Terra in a sudden gesture. "Even if this means that we'll have to defeat them all."

As suddenly as she faced Terra however, as suddenly she averts her gaze again to peek once more at what's lying behind that Cofagrigus. "But these 2D Gengar and the Clefable Statues worry me, these poisonous shadowy ghosts - if we could dig beneath them and destroy them by a controled cave-in or well-placed RockSmash, we could minimize the amount of foes we'd have to face." There's still that Odd Keystone that's giving her a headache however, she feels if she would bring up her fairies to deal with IT fast, these Gengar would deal with them just as fast. "We... we should try avoiding direct contact with these Yamask as well, you know... their curse, their infamous Ability called 'Mummy'."


----------------------------
Mechanics:
Is that possible/doable? I kinda want to have a dramatic boss-like battle to obtain this Artifact and perhaps one or two of the things Cofagrigus and Co. have harbored there, too curious to let things pass. BUT I don't want to leap head-first into a fight either, would rather do so with a plan. Iron, can you tell how many foes we'd have to face if it comes to a fight?

[Mikaruge108]

Spira looks around at the ghosts and when Shiva clings to his shoulder at the sight of the keystone, he mutters, "Did this guy have a thing for the Forbidden Pokemon, or something?"
When Cosh mentions that the artifact might be behind the door, Spira asks him, "D'ya think that those Yamask," he points at the key-holders, "are somehow related to the door?"

[Iron]

You'd have to fight a TON of foes, but most of them would be the servile Yamask. Still, even a single dice of damage from a ton of foes at once can add up very quickly.

Sizing up the Cofagrigus, you see a pattern of hexagonal jewels on its cover filling in a hexagonal grid which blankets its entire sarcophagus. The gems fill in the cells in a pattern resembling an ankh.

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

That'd be a pretty nice pattern on its coffin'body' if a Cofagrigus wouldn't be a super-scary Pokemon on it's own already, but from looking at it Shiva feels like she begins to understand: 
An ankhcan be translated to 'life', it is in most cases used as a symbol for the afterlife that follows after death, the Egyptian Kin strongly believed that dying is not the end, by far not. Shiva shares this belief with them. This must mean this Pokemon here must be a real and valid proof for this, even if it lives on as a Pokemon. These Yamask weren't as lucky. Could it be that this Cofagrigus is not as agressive as science warns? It's having something endearingly how mindfully and accurately it cares for this place. Maybe it is searching for valid stones, gems and fossils down here than doing so to sustain itself?

Thinking of gems, that Geodude that followed them all around - in the first place Shiva's delighted that he's STILL there ('Such a brave lil' one, coming with us into the Ruins!~'), on the second look it is strange what he's doing: But he must have reasons to be drawn to one fossil in particular. If Shiva is able to help excavating the fossil he's interested in WITHOUT arising attention of all Ghosts, she'll do so; if not she'll wait until he's done then waves kindly him to her: "What have you found there, Geodude? Come one, please show us..."

[Iron]

Hm, I suppose you could Telekinesis the fossil at + 1 dice because of its silence.

Stealth: (5)(4)(3)(2)(3)(5) (3)(3) (3) = 3 successes
Cofagrigus' Alert: (5)(4)(1)(6)(3)(5) (4)(1)(4)

Lilith gestures and the fossil comes flying over to her. Geodude perks up and follows. But when he arrives at the party, a leering face comes looming up behind him out of the shadows, four dark hands outstretched in a hideous gesture!

Red eyes, a blue helmet, and sparkling orange gems make up the eerie grimace. Cofagrigus has found you.

The less insightful among you are instantly stricken with fear, but Shiva instead picks up an intense feeling of loneliness, of trying to fill a void by any means possible.

And in those grasping hands, looped over one finger apiece, you see four golden keys.

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

(...) Cofagrigus has found you.(...)

ashdajkldspsmdfdgasadfssasnmklsadjosafdsOHDEARNOPLEASEDON'TthisishowInowfeel: (cue cool and creepy artwork [not mine])

Shiva becomes white like the sky in December and clenches to Spirasenpai's shoulder even more in pure fear, but the moment she makes out this immense loneliness from this spectral coffin, a good portion of that fear is replaced with compassion. In a very bold (foolish?) attempt she adresses this Cofagrigus in a suprisingly soft voice: "You're lonely, aren't you? You're missing something, aren't you? Is this the reason why you are caring for this place, are you hoping to find what you're looking for by doing so? But....."

"....what is it what you're longing for so badly?"

[Iron]

When you don't retreat before Cofagrigus, it seems a little surprised. But your innate terror increases by great leaps and bounds as a portion of the coffin's headpiece slides open, expelling a burst of musky air and briefly revealing a dull light. A shadowy hand withdraws a mouldering ancient crown and briefly shows it to Shiva before hiding the treasure away again.

What does this mean? It can only mean Cofagrigus misses his kingdom.