[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Original Post

Lunapup, too, is Eye-patterned. That is, it's got just a small patch of fur on its forehead shaped like the Eye. However, the edges of all its hairs tingle with a corona, as if the moon lives between them. When it perks up its head upon smelling you, the shifting light forms a secondary afterimage of a mane, with a touch of sunset coloration. It whines and retreats back into its doorway a bit, shuffling on its tummy.

Awww! (≧ε≦)♡ Having gotten a closer look at that doggo now, Shiva not only finds them SUPER-cute but also SUPER-pretty with that special fur!! It reminds her strongly on the moon, and she's loving it. What a curious creature, especially since the moon doesn't shine down here! It must have developed such a pattern in another way. Not so that Eye on their forehead, Shiva believes that this hints that she has a Pokemon that belonged to King Sarimanok in front of her, since Cosh mentioned some could still be around. This would make this pup quite an old fella!

Seeing how they whined however, Shiva keeps some distance and makes sure to not make prolonged eye contact in order to not startle them further. She's just sitting there without any Pokemon out, head tilted and featuring a faint smile, looking like the most innocent human ever. For now, before she'd say a word, she tries to find out as much as she can from this dog solely by reading their feelings - are they scared of her in particular, are they fearful that she'll steal whatever they are guarding, are they emotionally uprised in a way that she could soothe (sadness, anger or such), what does it mean especially if a dog 'shuffles on their tummy'? I don't know, but Shiva would or could find out by observing.

When a dog keeps parts of itself tucked away, that's a sign of fear. They're hiding their scent from other dogs or other foes.

Lunapup would have been scared of any human who came up to its tower in this way. It's definitely treating the minaret as its den, and has amassed a small treasure hoard in there like a dog would bury bones. It does seem lonely, and maybe less of a fighter than most Pokemon down here. Your Almanac alerts you that Lunapup will only fight to defend itself or others, whereas its evolution Herolune enjoys fighting. Herolune can be obtained with a Moon Stone or an Almanac synthetic alternative.

That creature called 'Herolune' sounds and looks familiar, Shiva remembers that she has seen Nathan's Ditto having transformed into such a dog-superhero-cross once. Must have been around the time they were down Mount Sentry if she's not completely wrong.

Huh. Seeing how smol and ...harmless? that puppy is compared to all these hugs and strong Pokemon around, it's not much of a suprise for Shiva that they're fearful. She strongly feels for them, especially for that concealed loneliness. A big BIIIG part of her just wishes to pick that dog up and stroke and pet all their negative feelings away as best as she can, but she solely extending her hand to get a hold of that Lunadoggo would probably give them the startle of the year.

So for now she's just keeping her distance, avoiding any fast or erratic movements while trying to appear calmto that dog, assuring that she's not planing to go offensive. She speaks quietly and softly to them after a little while. "You see, if I'd want to attack or steal your treasures, I would have done so by now. That's not what I want to, though... Say, smol dog of the moon, have you met many humans that had such ill intentions when coming close to you and your den? Have you possibly...seen the King himself??"


Mechanics:
For now Shiva wishes to give that doggo some assurance that she's not here to fight or hug them, slowly breaking the ice. A goal of this Encounter is to trade/obtain some of these treasures, getting this Lunapup to join her comes secondarily. Doesn't mean that I won't try!

[Dragonstrike]

It's all to ready to defend its territory, but since you've avoided eye contact there's still a small chance to talk it out of a fight. It doesn't seem to care about your flattery at all.

"So you're willing to fight, huh?"

Nathan holds out the Sword in front of him, straight up.

"...well, I didn't come here to do that."

Then he turns the Sword around and stabs it into the ground, hopefully showing that he means no harm with the gesture.  He's still careful to avoid eye contact with the dragon to be for obvious reasons.

"Let's talk this out instead, shall we?  Or am I going to have to defend myself instead of explaining why I'm here?  The choice is yours, Seadra."

If Seadra is going to continue being aggressive, Nathan will be ready to send out Servine.

[Lord Windos]

Escavalier: (1) + 4 Dex + 5 = 10
Mikey: (2) + 8 = 10

(Huh, so the armored snail ends up faster than a Kung Foo Mushroom. Good thing I have ways around that! But wait....Terra has 5 Survival and *4 DEX, so shouldn't he be faster than Escavalier?)

Both Terra and Mikey were a little surprised at how promptly the knightly insect reacted to their challenge, but they adjusted and accounted for it accordingly soon enough, with the mushroom of champeons gearing up and the mountain of a man calmly intoning his orders.

"Mikey, non-stop Mach Punches. Take armored Bug quickly."

Orders: If Escavalier is actually faster than Mikey, then he's comitting to 5 Mach Punches in order to subvert the Initaitive Order into his favor. If Mikey ends up the fastest one, however, he'll be ROCK SMASHING their cold steel caraprise 5 times instead, until they lose 3 HP, after which they'll switch up to Drain Punch. If the Escavalier has some for of guard that would render normal Moves ineffective against it, switch to ROCK SMASH after its been made known. Time to knock some sense outa them!

Moves:

Mach Punch/Drain Punch/ROCK SMASH
Accuracy: 14D6 Base - 5/6/7/8/9 Actions = 9/8/7/6/5D6 Dice
Damage: STR (5) + 2/3/4 (M.P., D.P., and R.S. Base Powers, respectively) + STAB = 8/9/10D6 Base Damage Dice
Effect: *Priority 1* (Mach Punch), Restore 1/2 Damage as HP to user [Min 1] (Drain Punch), *Lower Defense 5 [- 1]* , Semi-Plot Device Move(ROCK SMASH)

[Iron]

I guess I'll let the Orchids work on a sleep-to-come status.

Also, using Phantom Force counts as one action to charge, one action to attack, so all your pools need to be accordingly lower (which I will adjust). Just FYI.

I also forgot possible but unlikely burn damage. (4)(3)(5)(5)(5)(1) No damage.

Giant Chimecho Round 2

Phantom Force 1
(3)(4)(2)(6)(4)(3) (4)(5) Crit!
(1)(2)(5)(3)(4) Chimecho takes 3 dmg 4/18hp -2 pain

Astonish 1
(4)(1)(2)(4)(1)(4)(2)(3)
(5) Noire takes 2 dmg 3/9hp -2 pain
CD: (3)(1)(6) Noire flinches!

Astonish 2
(4)(2)(3)(3)(1)(4) (5)
(3) Noire takes 1 dmg 2/9hp -2 pain
CD: (1)(5)(1)

Hex 3
(6)(6)(3)(5)(5)(2)
(2)(4)(6)(5) Chimecho faints!

16XP to Noire, 8 to Spira.

The Grip Claw is yours! Also, in the minaret it was guarding, you find a trapdoor quite a ways down. It looks like it might lead to the next layer down, but you can't move it, it seems impervious to attacks, and there's seemingly no mechanism such as a handle or keyhole to even open it. Even your Scimitar partner's Strength or Rock Smash can't budge it.

Clearing away the dust, however, it does have an insignia on it: the Eye, with a crown, a tree, and a sword beneath it. The Eye makes your birthmark tingle.

[Iron]

Lunapup shakes its head nervously. It's actually never seen a human being before. It doesn't seem reassured that you'd have taken the treasures if you wanted to, since in Lunapup's mind, it has faithfully guarded those treasures and they aren't so easily stolen.

[Iron]

The fact that you (easily!) sunk the Sword into the ground and left it there is a perfect gesture to show you don't mean to fight. Seadra can feel the power of that Artifact, which sank into rock as if it were a hot knife into butter. It meets no resistance at all for as long as your hand is on it. Oh, and you can feel its location even with your back turned.

You aren't sure Seadra cares why you're here, though.

[Dragonstrike]

The fact that you (easily!) sunk the Sword into the ground and left it there is a perfect gesture to show you don't mean to fight. Seadra can feel the power of that Artifact, which sank into rock as if it were a hot knife into butter. It meets no resistance at all for as long as your hand is on it. Oh, and you can feel its location even with your back turned.

You aren't sure Seadra cares why you're here, though.

Nathan chuckles.  "Just meeting us to make sure we don't cause you any trouble, and chase us off if we do, huh?  Fair enough, fair enough.  Well then, you can rest assured I don't mean to purposely cause you any.  Mostly came here looking for a Helm of some significance.  I'm not objecting to finding other surprises along the way, though, so long as they don't mean to cause me or those accompanying me any harm.  It's quite refreshing to have a break from the fighting, to be honest."

Question time!

"So, out of curiosity, Seadra, do you want to evolve?"

[Iron]

You're actually faster, sorry about that. Takes a lot longer to open those char sheets on this work computer and I thought I had those stats memorized.

Escavalier Round 1

Rock Smash 1
(1)(1)(5)(3)(1)(1) (4) Barely hits, as it is difficult to smash through this especially thick carapace.
(3)(2)(1) The knightly bug has an incredible 7* Defense, but Mikey is gonna see if he can fix that.
(2)(6)(3)(3)(5) Yep, he puts a nice dent in the armor. 11/11hp, down to 6 Def

Twin Needle 1&2
(2)(5)(5)(6)(6)(5) Crit
(2)(2)(3)(3)(1)
(3)(5)(6)
(5)

That's 3 dmg for Mikey.

Drain Punch 2
(1)(5)(2)(1)(3)(2)(6)
(6)(4)(2) Escavalier takes 2 dmg 9/11hp -1 pain
Mikey is down 2 dmg now

Rock Smash 3
(4)(3)(4)(5)(5)(5) Crit
(3)(4)(5)(3)(4)(3) Escavalier takes 3 dmg 6/11hp -1 pain


Twinneedle 3&4
(3)(2)(5)
(4)(5)
(5)
(3) Mikey takes 1 dmg -3 hp

Rock Smash 4
(6)(1)(1)(6)(6)
(2)(4)(3)(5) Escavalier takes 2 dmg 4/11hp -2 pain

Rock Smash 5
(4)(6)(2)(1)
(1)(3)(4)(4) Escavalier takes 2 dmg 2/11hp -2 pain

With that, Escavalier bows before you and tosses a plate of its "shield" to you in surrender. It has the Eye on it, and it will also function as a Shed Shell, making a character immune to trapping moves and abilities.

And that's 12XP for Mikey, 6 for Terra.

[Iron]

No hesitation. It nods. Then it actually does hesitate, fearing a trap.

[Dragonstrike]

No hesitation. It nods. Then it actually does hesitate, fearing a trap.

"I thought so.  Don't worry, no trap.  The Sword is still in the ground, as you can see.  What if I said I knew where I could reliably get a Dragon Scale?  They're a rare item normally, but on the surface, there's a place where I can get them rather easily (Cress City's violet tent).  And woe be me if I lie about my knowledge of Dragons, given my lineage.  I'd be willing to help you evolve if you come along with me.  It wouldn't be the first time I've made such a promise to a Dragon.  This Dratini you see curled around my arm?  They are but one of them."

"Of course, words without proof are questionable at best, so how about I show you another item I obtained in the very same place where I can get a Dragon Scale from?"

Nathan pulls out the Dragon Fang to show it to Seadra.  "A genuine Dragon Fang, and my own pokemon can attest that it is indeed authentic.  It is an item I purchased some time ago, being offered alongside the rare Dragon Scales, as both are parts of a Dragon that have been left behind for one reason or another.  While a Dragon Scale is nice, though, it's not of much use unless one has a Seadra to give it to, unfortunately.  I would be more than happy to procure a Dragon Scale for you if you join me, though.  Unless you know of some other way that you can evolve?"

I wonder if that offer caught Seadra's attention at all...