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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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Chimecho tries its best, but unfortunately it can't pinpoint its trainer like that and take the group right to him! It gets them to take it around to each of the five ruins before ruminating quietly to itself and choosing which one it thinks its trainer went into. Probably. Nobody has a better guess, so it might as well be this one.

The ruins in question takes a bit of digging to get to the entrance, the area of which has been caved in and filled with sand, but the large stone slab doesn't appear to have any handles or mechanism for opening it. Of the people here, Dokja, Fai, and Hythlo in particular feel inexplicably drawn to the stone, while Joonghyuk and Sooyoung feel nothing different.

How will they open the door, considering that other investigation has half the ruins collapsing because they're brute forcing everything?

Sooyoung's Marshtomp, Ditto (transformed into a Marshtomp), and Dokja's Larvitar work on clearing the sand and portions of the cave-ins and they try their best to put the debris away from the stone slab (entrance?) when they finally reach it.

Dokja, Fai, and Hythlo feel drawn to the stone and touch it. Does anything happen? Fai, Hythlo, and Joonghyuk big brain together and come up with how the trio have the psychic tattoo on them. This probably tracks with how Chimecho, a psychic pokemon, and a gym leader dealing with psychic types, were probably attracted to these ruins in particular.

Seeing that they can't exactly physically move the stone slab out of the way, Sooyoung sends in her Gastly to see if there's anything to look out for on the other side. She also wonders if she can turn Ditto into a mechanical tool in order to get the stone slab away so that they can enter. A crowbar? A forklift vehicle? She's trying very hard not to just resort to blowing things up. She also has an Alakazam to see if using its psychic powers could work on moving the stone itself?

The Pokemon are able to clear the sand and portions of the cave-in away to leave the stone slab entrance door clear. When Gastly phases through to the other side... it doesn't see anything! There is zero light down there until they get the door open.

Does Ditto even know what a forklift is or has seen one to be able to transform? Either way, it's a very very good thing Sooyoung had her Alakazam use its psychic powers on it because otherwise Dokja, Fai, and Hythlo would have been standing their with their hands on the stone for five minutes with nothing happening and it would have been funny. But when Alakazam uses psychic, the stone does not move, but it something akin to runes start to glow very very faintly on the stone's surface, easy to miss in the sunlight if the three of them weren't standing right there.

Nothing else seems to happen.

Ditto has been training in everything but battling, which includes looking at a bunch of stuff in media and surroundings for useful tools for its Neverending Training. :')

Anyway, everyone wants to take a closer look at the runes, so they do that. Hythlo also gets out Hatenna and Espurr to use some psychic moves on the stone slab too, to see if more will work.

Chimecho pitches in too, and four psychic Pokemon seems to do the trick! When all four use their powers together, the runes shine brightly and remain lit even after they stop using their powers. It looks like some sort of writing, but nobody in the group can read it... aside from Chimecho who bobs up and down excitedly in recognition!

It chimes instructions at the other Pokemon and directs them to use their psychic powers in a specific way, and the stone slap pulls apart, seams appearing where there were none before and splitting the door into four pieces to open up the passageway. Hurry inside quickly! Once they're inside, the stone slap pulls back together and fuses into a single piece again to seal off the doorway.

Do any of them have light? None of these ruins will ever have light inside of them, so hopefully they have light— but maybe it's also okay if they do not. Dokja, Fai, and Hythlo feel very comfortable in this place. Joonghyuk and Sooyoung feel nothing. They walk down this hall and it almost immediately splits left and right. Both paths look the same, and if they have a light source with them, they can see that both paths go a little further before each splits off into two separate paths as well.

How will they proceed?

The group has plenty of light sources in the form of lighter, flashlights, little glowing crystals that can stick on walls, and glow in the dark stickers. The stickers and crystals will be used to guide them back out if they need to and don't get lost.

As for the paths... from left to right:
1-1: Dokja, Sooyoung's avatar
1-2: Joonghyuk, Sooyoung's avatar
2-1: Sooyoung and her avatar
2-2: Fai, Hythlo

Each route with have at least one psychic pokemon with them in case they need to know more incoming vibes. Chimecho follows Hythlo and Fai.

Anybody who tries to stick crystals or stickers on the wall, Chimecho lightly whaps them on the face with its tail (': This Pokemon is no fun and seems to be very adamant about not damaging the ruins, even with something small like this. Please let me know if they will continue using the crystals/stickers, or if they will respect Chimecho's wishes.

Either way, the four groups split off into their respective paths! At the end of each of their four respective paths, each one splits into two paths, making a total of eight. Having travelled this far, they might also notice the ground sloping very gently downwards the entire time. What now?

They will respect Chimecho's wishes. No more crystals or stickers.

Anyway, quick question, from Tonake:

Hythlo would suggest to keep choosing the path that like, keeps them on the straightest possible line? so for example: left, then right at next split, right at next, left at next (depending on the degree at which they split)
i was imagining smth like that maybe! so alternating left right left right so they zigzag but ultimately go in a straight line. but really depends on the degree between splits

diagram

Good u_u

It's something like that but the paths won't intersect! The ground slopes at different angles eventually or something so they won't intersect and remerge. Think of it as like a fractal tree.

Alright. Sorry for this being late, but is there a way to retroactively know how big the ruins are? Or is that just not possible with how everything is underground, supposedly.

Several people think there must be something in the heart of the ruins and it's probably at the lowest point. But also, Hythlo wonders if there are some side rooms along the way for more potential lore.
Sooyoung wonders if all this is some sort of psychic mind trick, so do the psychic pokemon sense anything unusual? Also I guess Dokja and Sooyoung's avatar will be splitting paths. And that very avatar will actually run ahead in its own path. Sooyi6ung can share senses with it barring pain so it's mostly there to gather info.

The ruins are all underground, so they don't have a sense of how large the place actually is!

There are no side rooms, it's just hallways and branches and hallways and branches. The walls are made of stone and every time they make a turn it feels like they're going through the same space again with how similar everything looks, although if they pay close attention to like... idk, loose pebbles on the ground or their trudging footprints left behind them in the sand/dust or whatever, it seems as if they're progressing to new halls and it's not a mind trick. If they backtrack, they would eventually be able to meet up again at the entrance.

How long do they keep going? The psychic Pokemon don't seem to sense anything unusual, but Dokja, Fai, and Hythlo feel very comfortable in this place, while Joonghyuk and Sooyoung feel nothing at all.

Does Sooyoung's avatar just ends up keeps running forward forever? :')

If Sooyoung never calls them back, yeah, goodbye forever.

Rip... okay. Sooyoung theorizes that she's not one of the psych trio, so that's why her avatar doesn't find a dead end or something similar. The avatar that split from Joonghyuk will go back to him. The one that kept running forever will attempt to backtrack to meet up with Dokja, though that will take some time. Actual Sooyoung herself doesn't move any further for now.

However, Hythlo and Fai get that the comfortable feeling is something that stands out while they're here. Hythlo calls out to see if there's anyone there. He'll also close his eyes and try to walk around like that to see if he can get a feel of something. Dokja also picks up on the feeling too, and proceeds to walk deeper into the ruins.

Hope Dokja and Joonghyuk left some sort of indication or talked with Sooyoung's avatars about which paths they planned to take, because otherwise good luck finding them after 348094903023 branches!

Y'all are so lost. Dokja keeps going and gets even more lost. Sooyoung's been abandoned standing alone in the ruins. Please tell me there was some plan about regrouping after X number of branches or X amount of time, because otherwise I can't help you.

Nothing answers Hythlo when he calls out, and unless Fai stops him, he's going to run face first into a wall with his eyes closed.

Dokja, Fai, and Hythlo are very comfortable inside the ruins. Maybe one of them will remember the first time they felt this way, and what they did instead of going "oh neat" and moving on.

Escape ropes are handy, so they all eventually meet in the beginning, hopefully before the split happens. If they end up outside, they'll just use the same process again with the psychic pokemon and the stone slab door thing to get in.

After they regroup, Fai does eventually have fond memories because of the comfortable feelings due to the ruin's influence. Hythlo thinks about the people who are close to him. Fuzzy feelings! Does that do anything?

What did your Pokemon do! instead of going "oh neat"! and moving on!!

they used psychic abilities on rocks, so maybe they can try that on one of the hallways or corridors moving in? or the foyer area at the first split path or is it that it's digging... do they have to dig at the ground to see if past the loose pebbles there is actually a stone floor

aside from trying those things, people were wondering if their tattoos change at all while in the ruins? does chimecho notice anything or is it the same as the rest of the psychic pokemon, doesn't sense anything unusual.

If one of them tells their Pokemon to dig in these ruins, Chimecho is going to murder them.

Chimecho, like the rest of the psychic Pokemon, didn't notice anything unusual while down there in the ruins! The tattoos also do not change while inside. But when the psychic Pokemon use their psychic abilities, etchings of runes begin to light up on some of the walls just like it did on the entrance, highlighting one specific path deep into the ruins. You guys solved the entrance immediately so I had faith, and then idk what happened.

Anyways follow this path and don't do anything that'll make Chimecho mad and I'll be back with what they find later when I have time to sit down again.

what if joonghyuk knocks the chimecho out—I’m kidding he won’t.

Okay they follow the path and we will wait for the text when you have time to sit with us again!

Be nice to my Pokemon!!

When the group follows the path, they find that the ground doesn't slope at all the entire time they're walking. The lefts and rights don't seem to follow any particular pattern, but strangely, the group comes across signs of travel: footprints, an empty potions bottle here and there, small nicks on the ground that Sooyoung would recognize— but the footprints start and stop and don't always point in the right direction, and Sooyoung's markings also appear where they shouldn't, because this isn't the exact same path as the one she'd walked and marked. Each hallway seems to be shorter and shorter than the last, though they still have to walk almost a hundred forks before finally it's a large circular room that opens up, fifty feet in diameter and surrounded by dozens of other tunnels.

Once the first person steps into the room, the psychic markings on the walls fade away and will not appear even when psychic moves are used. At the center of this room is a large rock, black and pockmarked, warm to the touch if any of them thinks to place their hand upon it. Dokja, Fai, and Hythlo feel drawn to this rock, but 1) Chimecho will whack them on the faces if any of them try to use psychic moves on the rock, and 2) if they do it anyways, nothing in particular seems to happen with the rock or the surrounding area.

The space around the rock seems to be a mess of turned over dust and dirt, but a little further away from it, they'll be able to notice footprints. Of the dozens of tunnels (maybe they should mark the one they came out of) the one across from them seems to have a single set of footprints leading away from the room; one to their left seems to have several sets of footprints leading into the room towards the rock before being lost in the mess of dust and dirt covering the stone floor; and one to their right seems to have a single set of footprints entering the room and then abruptly turning back around halfway to the rock.

What will they do? ]

we are assembling out actions and stuff, but there are some questions!

1) does the rock look like it's lying on the ground OR more like growing out of the ground, so that it might be possibly plugging a hole
2) is it only our tunnel that we cant turn on the psychic marks in, or ALL tunnels
3) do the footprints fit anyone of the group (assuming the footprints are human)

1) The rock looks like it's lying on the ground, and is not plugging a hole
2) If they're just poking their heads into random tunnels and testing it out (eg not committing to any one tunnel), none of them will react to psychic abilities at this time
3) The footprints are human (eg made by shoes/boots/etc) but do not fit anybody in the group

another question just for clarification:

- does it look as though someone was trying to dig around the rock? is it just that it looks like someone shuffled around the rock or is it that it looks like they were trying to turn over the rock?
- are the multiple sets of footprints in the path to their left actually different? or are they the same sized foot

in terms of actions though:
sooyoung

- will make a small mark on the floor with her knife to indicate which tunnel they came out of, similar to the ones everyone saw on the way (those were the ones her avatar made, i'm assuming)

hythlo

- touches the rock
- uses his magic sight to check for any clues
- plain asks chimecho what next

dokja

- as sooyoung asks, he will take pictures of the paths and footprints named 1, 2, and 3 as reference

joonghyuk

- will... see about turning the rock a bit, examining it some more, also the room. is this rock meant to be here?

for paths:
joonghyuk & dokja

- will follow the path that leads away from the room, aka the middle path
- dokja wants to see if he feels anything different from comfortable

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