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NOVEMBER EVENT LOG

NOVEMBER LOG

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In the aftermath of the rampage, the city of Mango starts to put itself back together, mourning losses of its citizens and Pokemon which would have been much heavier if the calamity hadn't suddenly and mysteriously stopped. The static in the air, which the citizens had gotten so used to to the point of no longer noticing it, is now gone and the silence is almost palpable, so obvious in comparison. Even the sandstorm to the west has started to die down, so that every crunch of heel on gravel can be heard as relief pours from Toran to Mango City, volunteers empathetic and eager to return the favor, however unfortunate that the opportunity had to be this soon.

The ghost Pokemon linger for a while, helping to guide the souls of the dead to the afterlife before they disperse back into the forest, while the cemetery stands still and silent save for those working on restoring the graves and fixing structural damages. Both towers remain closed to the public, the cemetery out of respect and the radio tower due to police investigation, with the staff called in for questioning but each denying knowledge of the radio signals having an adverse effect on the Pokemon. If there is anybody with that knowledge, it would be the company president, who is currently on leave elsewhere in the region and cannot be reached due to the storms and a conspicuously missing radio antenna preventing physical and electronic communication respectively. Maybe you guys will come across him later, maybe not. Maybe he got caught up in that volcano explosion you let happen. Who knows? haha!

Either way... people are welcome to remain in Mango as long as they want, and Toran seems to be fully up and running as well. Those who make the trip back to check up on how things are going will find the island to be warm and sunny, townspeople hard at work sowing the berry gardens and expanding the daycare center, where extra Pokemon will be sent to once the maximum limit of six Pokemon in a team has been met. Several missing children posters remain hung up around the daycare, but the island feels fuller, happier, with sounds of children laughing and yelling as they rush to the game corner to pool their tokens to win the new month's prize Pokemon: Swinub which know the move Rock Smash.

But for those who have decided to push forward, the only way forward is to the west, into the sandstorm towards Melona.

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Even without raging sandstorms, the desert is rough travel and there is no reliable map to get from one place to another, especially with the way the wind naturally and occasionally picks up to start sandstorms, and it's so easy to get turned around by the wind and the cliffs and the way everything is sand for miles and miles and miles around. Little Gale King is eager to go home, looking around for somebody who will act as her guardian so they can travel with a guide straight to Melona. While taking a guide can be a bit expensive, groups up to six people can travel together for the same group price and they are guaranteed safe passage, provided with thick capes to keep the sand from buffeting them, goggles to help them see, and rental Numel to ride upon so they don't have to make the trek on foot.

The trip from Mango to Melona takes several hours, with occasional pit stops during which the guide pitches a large tent for everybody to rest in or to wait out a particularly heavy sandstorm before continuing on, but if they leave early enough in the day, they will eventually come across a huge stone dome in the middle of the desert, spanning several miles in diameter. Around the perimeter of the dome are several gates that can be opened from either side via hand cranks that require two people to operate, the thick stone walls of the dome protecting the desert town from the sun and the sand. At the apex of the dome is an open oculus that allows sunlight to shine down upon the town, and during the day, a constant beam of light illuminates the boba shop located at the very center of Melona. This shop's specialty flavor is Cacnea flower tea and its collectible stamp is a yellow Sandshrew! The boba shop is where the guides make a beeline to once everybody has been dropped off, the employees at the shop glad to hear the news that the sandstorm isn't as bad as it was in the recent month or two, but they also don't seem all that concerned about the outside world, nor were they aware of how bad things really were, with how isolated they are within this dome in the middle of the desert. Tsunamis? Volcanoes? Rampaging Pokemon? The citizens are pretty horrified, actually, and promise to send help to both Mango and Toran when the guides have rested up and are able to make the return journey.

In the meanwhile, Melona is a pretty quiet town, with everything quite scattered and far apart, less streets and more individual buildings with packed dirt paths connecting them. Next to the boba shop near the center of town is the Pokemon center which features a clinic space for people in lieu of an actual hospital, and flanking the Pokemon center on either side is the contest hall and psychic-type Pokemon gym, although the gym leader is currently absent and thus the gym is closed. Apparently it's not uncommon for him to wander off sometimes, but he has never been gone for weeks at a time and the people are getting worried. Is he lost? The last anybody heard, he had set out to find a mythical Pokemon rumored to be in the area, investigating a possible link to the abnormally long and harsh sandstorms that picked up recently, but for as competent a trainer as he is the storm was no joke and the town has never seen anything like it before. The same worry is echoed at the Pokemon school, which takes students of all ages to teach them more about Pokemon, their relationships with humans, and everybody's place in the world; several field trip groups had departed weeks ago but must have gotten caught in the sandstorms as well because they haven't yet returned. Gale is immediately concerned, and, asking around, learns that her little brother Jordan had gone on one of those field trips, and both their parents had gone with him as chaperones.

Hopefully good news will come in time, and the townspeople are patient, going about their daily business with a certain calm. For those who wish to earn some money, there is an abundance of odd jobs hiring both people and Pokemon, especially asking for Pokemon suited to specific tasks such as fire Pokemon to help cook and keep fires going at night for warmth and light, water Pokemon to water the fields and ground Pokemon to help till, flying Pokemon to check the dome for cracks to repair, fast Pokemon to make mail deliveries around town, hardy Pokemon to weather the sandstorms and keep a lookout for anybody approaching, for example. For those who looked at October and went "That was not a break month, what the heck," other places of interest include the museum containing many specimens of ancient Pokemon preserved in fossils and amber found right in the surrounding desert, offering rare items in exchange for more specimens, and... that's it, really. It's a quiet, sleepy town.

The days are hot and the nights are long, but when the sun goes down and the electricity is shut off overnight, the view above is spectacular. Thousands upon thousands of stars can be seen overhead, sparkling like diamonds in the pitch black of the oculus, while candle lit rock salt lamps line the street sides to provide a soft, temptingly lickable, warm glow below.

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But perhaps you're not the sort to just sit around and wait for things to happen. Perhaps you're the sort to dive headfirst into trouble despite the multiple danger warnings. Perhaps you were just foolhardy enough to have ventured into the desert from Mango without a guide, thinking that you could save a few bucks and make an adventure out of finding Melona all on your own. Those leaving Melona may be stopped by townspeople on the outskirts offering to sell them escape ropes, which will allow them to escape the ruins and appear right in front of them again if they're ever caught in a sticky situation, along with other food, water, and camping supplies. One man in particular suggests catching an Abra to teleport you right back to Melona— or if you prefer, he is also offering to trade one of his own.

Those leaving Mango are out of luck.

Either way, even if it takes days (and if you're wandering blindly, it's going to take days), you will eventually come across one of the ruins scattered throughout the desert. Hopefully you came prepared, not only for the travel, but for whatever awaits inside the ruins! The ruins look like this, aka the first thing that pops up in Google Images, but while some of the pillars still stand, most have collapsed and lay buried in the sand, presumably due to the massive sandstorm that raged the entire month prior. The sand is soft and hard to walk on, constantly shifting over uneven ground and quite a bit of digging might be required to locate hidden underground entrances or other secrets. The ancient ruins seem to be a bit unstable, with evidence of cave-ins here and there, the potential for further cave-ins the deeper inside the ruins one ventures, and with the lack of light and constantly branching halls, one could be stuck down here forever exploring the labyrinths underneath the ruins. Maybe you'll never escape. Maybe you'll live and die here, and get to do just that (:

No wild Pokemon can be found without thirty feet of any of the surface ruins. Every few hours, a slight tremor can briefly be felt underfoot, barely noticeable at the start of the month and becoming somewhat concerning as the month progresses. Everything is fine.

→ MOD NOTES

⬥ It's November!! Somehow! When I'm at work and am writing dates, sometimes I autopilot 2010 and sometimes it's 2021 and ig I just want everything to be over.
⬥ Ruins investigations are currently capped at two investigations per player to allow your mods space to breathe, but is likely to be lifted as the month progresses and investigations wrap up. As a hint, it would be highly worthwhile to investigate the area and question npcs first, and in particular find the gym leader, before heading into the ruins! If you do decide to run blindly into the ruins, though, we'll have a good time (:
⬥ As a reminder, the gym leader must be located and brought back to the gym before any challenges can take place. The contest hall, on the other hand, is open from the start of the month. For both, please comment on the appropriate toplevel for submissions!
⬥ Please comment to the new Pokemon toplevel for trading with the NPC, making a note of which Pokemon you would like to trade for his Abra. As a reminder, traded Pokemon are able to gain +15 levels a month through bonus activity, and traded Abras are able to evolve into its final evolution, Alakazam.
⬥ As an alternative to the daycare in Toran, Pokemon can also be given jobs around Melona if they aren't in your main party. OOCly, players are allowed to give each of their Pokemon +5 levels (not counting towards the bonus activity level cap) one time only for this month, regardless of the number of jobs the Pokemon takes. ICly, the Pokemon will be unavailable for one week while they're at work, so please be mindful of which Pokemon are available in your threads at what time of month! Please also be aware of the badge/ribbon requirements for higher level Pokemon to continue obeying, applicable to the total number of unique badges/ribbons in the travelling group.

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The rock disappears and the wall collapses. It, uh, might have doubled as structural support, but at least the entire tunnel doesn't fall down over their heads! Once the dust settles, they can enter the unsealed room, which is filled with carvings of a certain Pokemon any of them may or may not recognize from storybooks of legendary Pokemon. The largest stands in the very back of the room and spans the entire wall, with long since burned out candles scattered along the wall in front of it. Here are there are dusty pieces of gold and jewelry, several dolls so old the fabric falls apart when touched, and other personal trinkets.

Nozomi wishes she were here.

[heathen sobbing]

Nozomi is not here :( But Akira is here and has his cell phone, so he thinks the room looks neat and snaps a photo. Sagi vaguely recognises that the carvings look like a storybook he saw before and convinces Akira to take a few more photos from various angles, covering the whole room. They don't touch anything or go inside the room beyond that, since the load-bearing rock suggests the kids couldn't have come in here.

After that, they leave and move further down the hall. They'll try to cross the wide open area and just keep going, ignoring the pit for now because there's no sign of recent blood.

The room is very photogenic and the photos all come out well! Good thing you guys preserved it in some aspect, because the ground tremors again and maybe this place won't be here if you decide to come back later depending on if the tremors continue.

The group ignores my innocent barbecue pit and pushes forth. I'm going to give you guys! a shitty MSPaint map!! because words are hard lately. But anyways, the end of the hall leads to a large circular room with like 20 doors surrounding it instead of the 5 that I had space to draw, and each of those rooms contains a large rectangular slab of rock, occasional carvings on the wall, some sealed pots, rudimentary tables and cabinets made of wood. They get the impression that this is a living space!

At the center of all of this is another pit, but, like. One of those bottomless pits where it's too dark to see down into it if you're just squinting.

It looks like this is where their tunnel otherwise ends! What will they do?

Akira is going to send Raoul to fly over the pit with Sagi's glowing dagger and shine it downward, is it possible for him to see anything then?

Just by holding the dagger over the pit, they won't be able to see anything but the sandy stone walls of the inside of the pit, smooth enough to suggest being carved out by hand like the rest of the ruins rather than having formed naturally.

If Raoul flies inside the pit, which is however large it needs to be to fit Raoul's wingspan, idk, he might be able to make out the slightest bit of movement at the very very very very very bottom of the pit. It's maybe seventy feet down and it'll get cramped if more than one person tries to go down there, but when did that ever stop you?

What will you do? If you say "jump" without the assistance of somebody that flies, I WILL break bones.

Raoul calls out while floating just inside the pit, asking if anybody is down there. If he doesn't get a response, Akira will send him further down the pit with the glowing dagger, stopping as soon as he can get a better view of whatever is at the bottom. If it looks like a Pokemon, he's noping the fuck out and flying back up to the top.

There is no immediate response when Raoul calls down into the pit. Seventy feet is a long way down. When he descends, though, before he can get a good look at whatever's down there, there's that movement again and something... meows? at him.

Will he still nope the fuck out and abandon mission, or will he continue to approach?

Akira tells Raoul to keep going, what if it's a poor trapped baby kitten :((( so Raoul keeps cautiously descending until he can see better!

Normal baby cats don't even exist in the world, please.

Raoul gets close enough to see a ball of something grey and fuzzy, but that puts him in the range to get suddenly whacked across the face— not hard, but hard enough that ...coins?... fall out and clink against the stone walls in their descent, the shiny gold catching the light in Raoul's hands.

There's a pause, and then a pitiful wailing meow resumes.

The group up top is able to tentatively identify "meow + throwing money = maybe some kind of Meowth", but it being a Pokemon cat doesn't change the approach: Raoul stays put and talks soothingly/flirtingly?? to the furball, hoping to calm it so he can get a better look and maybe coax it into his arms.

I

okay

I can absolutely believe Raoul being soothing and flirty enough towards this Pokemon, which turns out to be a Galarian Meowth! Rather than approaching Raoul, however, it gathers up a bunch of coins in its arms and tosses it up at Raoul's face- not mean spiritedly, but with a certain desperation, before turning around and meowing and pawing at something at its feet.

It's a person! That person is not moving. Meowth has seen plenty of times its human going to the hospital and giving money to somebody else and them being fixed up right away, so the same concept works here, right? Raoul, take all the money you want, just make its human better again ):

Raoul doesn't get the connection between tossing money and fixing the person, but he moves closer anyway, using the dagger to cast a light over the human. What do they look like? Are they breathing?

Who knows! Because Meowth sees Raoul approach its human with a dagger and it puffs up and makes distressed Meowth sounds and doesn't let him get any closer! This is the opposite of fixing its human!!

Hmm. You know what? That's valid.

Raoul backs off holding the glowy dagger. He moves to the other side of the... hole, I guess, and sets the dagger down, such that it's still providing light but isn't like in his hands and also moving towards the human. Then he tries again. Do you like this better, kitty?

Kitty likes this better, yes. ...Kitty also shuffles over and snatches up the dagger, because kitty likes shiny things. While it's holding onto it, though, Raoul will be able to see the person more clearly without the Pokemon covering the body up.

It appears to be a man in his 30's, with a large backpack strapped to his back and a smaller one in front resting over his stomach. He lies curled up on his side, seems to be breathing, albeit shallowly and his face is rather pale. There are scratches visible on his face and hands, but no apparent blood. His left leg seems to be bent at an odd angle.

When Meowth returns to his side with the dagger and paws the man on the face, his eyes flutter open and he mumbles something imperceptible and fumbles to pat the Pokemon on the head— and then sees Raoul there and gives a cry of surprise and tries to pull his Meowth behind him as if he can bodily shield it from whatever monster this is. He absolutely reaches into his bag and haphazardly tosses a cute little Shroomish doll at Raoul's face in hopes of avoiding a battle, but his aim is off and it bounces off the wall and rolls sadly to a stop in the dirt.

There it goes... there it goes... hope those dolls are multi-use.

Anyway. Raoul sits there crouching very patiently while the man freaks out a little, and then turns on the charm. (Not as much the flirting, just because that leg is kind of a more pressing matter.) He introduces himself as Raoul d'Enneris and says he is not here to fight, but rather, that there are some humans up top who can help him.

He's also like mentally telling Akira what he sees, who is then conveying it to the gang, ftr.

The man picks the doll back up and gently places it back into the bag on his front because it is in fact one of his student's dolls, he will apologize to them later for being so impulsive.

You know what's really freaky, though? When a demon starts speaking to you and refers to other people as "some humans" and you're sort of already located at the pits of hell and how could it get any worse!! He's still rather wary of Raoul, but takes courage in his Meowth who is happy with its shiny new dagger (why is it carrying a dagger? he will unpack this later) and says that he would be very grateful for any sort of assistance.

But also.

What does Raoul want in exchange /: his soul?

Raoul suggests that, instead of taking his soul, he allow Raoul to carry him and Meowth out of this seventy foot hole instead.

This sounds suspiciously like a win-win situation for the man, but he will let Raoul carry him and Meowth out of this seventy foot hole. He smooths down his hair and dusts off his shirt in an effort to look a little more presentable, then hobbles up onto one leg to get on Raoul's back or in his arms or however we're doing this. Meowth gets returned into its Pokeball and safely tucked away into the small backpack the man carries in front of him.

Up they go! Assuming Raoul does not drop him halfway up, the man makes it safely to the very top of the hole and looks somewhat sheepish to have been saved by such young people. He thanks them and introduces himself as Tristen King and asks if they've come across his wife or any of their students and if so,are they okay? Also if they have something long and straight he can maybe tie to his leg for the time being, because ow ):

did Meowth go in the Pokeball with the dagger :'(

yeah Meowth's dagger now
Maybe Sagi will get it back later, idk

OK! This is how it goes unless something interrupts them between steps:

1) Akira and Sagi go :o when Mr. King introduces himself because that sounds like Gale's missing dad! They tell him they've met her and she's waiting safe with neighbours in Melona; they can't tell him where his wife or the other students are yet, but the other half of their little rescue party is out looking for them elsewhere in the ruins.
2) Sagi notices Raoul lost his dagger :( but Raoul tells him Tristen's Pokemon took it, so he politely asks Tristen if he can drop by the Kings' residence later to get it back... If not then welp, Meowth's dagger now
3) Nobody in this group has a usable splint on hand because the radio antenna from Mango is too large, but they have several spare Escape Ropes that they were told would warp them back outside, so they give one to Tristen and will instead ask the hired guide outside if he can assist a man with a broken leg.
4) They use their Escape Ropes, returning to the surface at roughly the same time as Team Right Side, Mrs. King and her group of students is emerging. Happy ending???? (except the Kings' son who is in another ruin)

1) Mr. King goes O:!! back at them and is ...honestly a little concerned at first, because what is she doing in Melona, she's supposed to be in a hospital in Toran! He will go "oh" once they explain about the tsunamis, etc. he's just been stuck in a cave for so long, he doesn't know what's going on outside. He hopes the other group managed to find his wife and students.
2) Also, Sagi... please... He says that Sagi doesn't need to go all the way to his house just to pick up the knife?? His Meowth is right here and gets released from the Pokeball and is asked to return Sagi's knife. It looks sulky, but does so.
3) Could've snapped off the very very tip of the antenna, but instead Mr. King will just suffer. He Escape Ropes out without a problem and the guide helps him with his leg.
4) Everybody else Escape Ropes out without a problem as well, and both the left and right groups are reunited along with the Kings, the students, and a very grateful guide who is eager to get everybody home. Once everybody is returned to the school, the school committee there thanks the group with a King's Rock, Prism Scale, Razor Fang, Razor Claw, Dusk Stone, and Leaf Stone to share amongst themselves as they see fit.

Since there are no other ruins investigations going on, players can take on a new investigation searching for Gale's brother Jordan even if they've already taken 2 investigations this month. Please give priority to those who have only done one investigation! There is no upper limit of how many people can investigate. For this investigation, please comment to the toplevel for a new thread o7

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NOVEMBER EVENT LOG

premise ⬥ taken ⬥ faq ⬥ navigation

→ THIS IS A HEADER!

→ ICHI WE MISS YOU AND LOVE YOU

→ ICHI WRITES ALL THESE HEADERS

→ MOD NOTES

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