Thread: The Arcane Realm - FB Training Zone

I’ll add in a little bit of RP feedback for you all along with these replies, not that you need much, everyone’s got off to an excellent start. I do note that everybody seems to write their replies in the third person which I have no problem with, I tend to update in the first person as you read it (i.e you did xyz) so hope that doesn’t trouble any of you. I can change over if preferred, but if just feels better for me this way.

Silverton Ranges (Please reply in LightSteelBlue)
Fuuten: Deciding to follow the trail of activity, you take the left fork and increase the pace of your walking, hoping to find somewhere a little warmer to shelter from the increasingly bitter conditions outside. Heading towards the light, you are able to see through the snowstorm the outline of a mine entrance, wooden beams coated in snow and dripping with icicles but still holding up the tunnel into the mountain itself. As you get closer, you can see that the mine itself is lit with a number of burning oil lamps, although you cannot see anyone or indeed, anything inside.
When you can see the Mine ahead of you, your pace increases until you are almost sprinting towards it, longing for the shelter it provides. When you finally get just inside the doorway you slump down, putting the bucket on the floor and visibly shaking with relief. It’s not a great deal warmer inside the mine, but merely being shielded from the wind makes it feel almost tropical after an extended period outside. You check your belt to ensure that Grimer’s Pokeball is still there, and indeed it is, although you decide to leave him in the ball just for the moment until you’ve recovered a bit of composure.

After a few minutes, you manage to remove most of the snow from your body, and feel about a stone lighter and far warmer for it, and start to pay more attention the mine shaft itself. The tunnel you are in is a reasonably large one, although a taller man might have to stoop, supported by strong- and more importantly- new looking beams of Oak, presumably from the forests below. A track runs along the centre of the cavern, of the kind that would carry a mine cart full of ore up to the surface, although it doesn’t seem to be in use at the moment. Following the tracks in your eyes, they follow the tunnel downwards into the heart of the mountain and out of sight.

Deciding to follow the tracks downwards, you descend into the mine along a fairly well lit shaft, having picked the bucket back up, looking to see the source of the activity that could be seen outside of the mine. For a while, you trudge on, which seems to be the story of your adventure so far, although now you are going down, so the direction has at least changes. Presently, you become aware of a noise in the distance. As time passes, and the sound approaches, you recognize the unmistakeable sound of metal on metal- something is approaching- most probably a mine cart, and most probably with it will come whoever-or whatever- is in this mine.

Looking to the sides, there is a darkened corner you could easily hide in as one of the oil lamps has burnt its fuel, or alternatively you could stand your ground and investigate. What will you choose?

As for your role-playing feedback, there’s little I can say. Your first few posts have been very impressive and easy to read, you’ve developed a great character both for yourself and Grimer, which is always nice to see that Pokémon aren’t just soulless stat machines. The only thing I could note is the swearing- I have no problem with at all as it adds to your character, and on UPN it’s almost encouraged, but when you progress to zones on Serebii, all that stuff with be filtered out into stars. Just a heads up. Keep up the Good Work.


Ancient Tomb (Please reply in Gold)
Pokemonxd4: Deciding to follow the path directly before you, yourself and Wipeout walk slowly forwards into the room, heading for the opposite door with the Sapphire above it. Chimchar sits in your arms, holding out his tail before him to light the way for both of you. He needn’t have bothered though, as the Sapphire path is well lit compared to the entrance hallway, and as you pass through the door your vision becomes a lot clearer. The pathway begins to slope downwards slightly, into the depths of the tomb, and you follow it, increasing your pace slightly as you can finally see where you are stepping until you come to a corner

Turning the corner as the path twists; you can see a little further still. This corridor seems similar to the last; a slowly descending stone path surrounded by ornately designed walls of marble. Looking at the walls, you can see that some past civilisation is documented on the walls in a series of drawings, portraying people and Pokémon living alongside each. You recognize a few of the Pokémon in the drawings, but many more seem like distant evolutionary cousins of the Pokémon that currently inhabit the known world. The people in the paintings don’t seem to dissimilar though, and you are reminded of how much more adaptable Pokémon seem to be than the people that they live with. This civilisation may have died out long ago, but the creatures that lived with them had, for the most part survived and flourished across the world.

Presently, a noise breaks your concentration. Drip, Drip, Drip. The noise is quiet and regular, and you can see the source at the bottom of the Hallway, a small pool of water has formed from the slow dripping coming from the roof above it. As you head down the pathway to investigate, Wipeout digs his claw into your jacket, not fond of water at the best of times, especially not when trapped inside creepy buildings. The water is only the smallest of pools at the moment, and the dripping doesn’t seem to be fast enough to cause it to grow at any significant rate, however, it does obviously mean that somewhere above you, there must be a source of water.

Carefully stepping over the puddle, you reach the end of the corridor which once more turns into a larger room. This one is a large, square room similar to that you followed down into this corridor, although this only has one other entrance at the far end. The main thing you notice about this room is that the two walls which do not have doors on them, one to either side, are adorned with large murals depicting a single Pokémon, which you recognize from stories told you in your youth: To the left, the Pokémon that watches over the Seas, Kyogre, is pictured swimming through the Ocean. Its eyes are set with another glinting Sapphire, even larger than the last. Unsupringly facing it is its equal and opposite, the legendary Pokémon of the land, Groudon, once more set with a chunky Ruby. The two Pokémon are astonishingly well drawn with amazing attention to detail, and you feel compelled to stare at the murals.

From here, you have choices- either return the way you came, inspect one or both of the murals further or follow the path onwards through the door opposite. Which will you choose?

Role-playing Feedback: I know Tess has already picked you up on a tiny bit of self updating, so I won’t go into that. I know it was only a minor thing, but it’s best to cut these things off early in the Arcane Zone to prevent problems later. This reply was probably a little short, but still well over the minimum standard, but if you want to flesh it out a bit you can document your thoughts and feelings and the reasons for choosing the Sapphire path- perhaps what you think might be behind them even- I wouldn’t consider that leading as I, the updater already know exactly what’s behind each of the three pathways . Similarly, this time, you can obviously RP looking at the murals but also what your thoughts are about where this is leading.


Mediville (Please reply in LemonChiffon)

Kori Gotcha: Having sated your stomachs and then eaten a little more just to be on the safe side, yourself and Torchic leave the Diner, feeling considerably heavier than you did before, and go for a rather sluggish walk to work off the large meal you just had. You have few hours before Kiera will be getting off work, so to kill the time the two of you do a spot of shopping, and it doesn’t take you long to find the local Pokemart. Like all of its kind, the Pokemart is a reasonably large building unmistakeable for its Blue Roof, which is a little out of character in this otherwise fairly quaint and plain town, but it does make it easy to find.

Walking in through the double doors, Torchic jumps in a basket just as you pick it up. Obviously, he’s not intending to walk. In fact, it doesn’t seem that Torchic is intending to do much at all, as by the time you get halfway down the first aisle, the small Fire-type is sleeping like a baby, clearly now being stuffed full of food he fancies a nap, which you are more than happy to let him have as you survey the range of Pokémon merchandise. The shelves are stacked high with Pokémon toys, games and food, which you note with more than a slight feeling of sickness. Perhaps all that food was a little too much after all.

After perusing the wares for a while, you are approached by one the employees, a young man who introduces himself as Arnold, and asks if you would like any help. You politely say that you’re just looking around to pass the time, and he nods his head and turns to your sleeping Torchic.

“Do you think he’d like a ‘loon?” he asks.

“A ‘loon?” you query.

“Yes, a ‘loon, Balloon, whatever you want to call them. It’s kinda my thing, y’know?”

“Er...yeah, why not, he’s very playful.” You reply, accepting the offered ‘loon. It’s in the shape of a Drifloon, and you tie the string to Torchic’s leg, tickling him slightly in the process but not waking him.

With Torchic and his new gift, you leave the Pokemart, with time having flown by amongst the many shelves, and checking your watch, you see that Kiera should be getting off shortly. Sure enough, ten minutes or so pass by and you get a tap on your shoulder, having drifted away into a daydream. It’s Kiera, who has changed out of her work uniform and is now wearing jeans and a plain blue T-Shirt.

“Ready to go?” she asks. You nod, and follow her as she leads on towards the gates you walked through hours before. “It’s probably best to look for Pokémon outside the Town itself, but there’s plenty of choice about where to go. There are quite a few wild Pokémon up on the hills over to the East, they’re not too far away, or the farms at the bottom of the hills occasionally get visitors. If you’d prefer to go the other way out of town, we could head over to the lake and see if there’s anything going on down there, I quite like spending time there when I’m free. What do you think?”

Role-playing feedback: Your post was mostly just a restatement of what I’d written, but I enjoyed the way you added details to it, that made it from a kinda annoying way to bulk out a reply to an actually very interesting update. Try not to do that with every single reply though, but where you don’t have so much to work with it can be a good thing. This time you should have a bit more to write about hopefully

Originally Posted by Lonely Cubone

Ancient Tomb (Please reply in Gold)
Pokemonxd4: Deciding to follow the path directly before you, yourself and Wipeout walk slowly forwards into the room, heading for the opposite door with the Sapphire above it. Chimchar sits in your arms, holding out his tail before him to light the way for both of you. He needn’t have bothered though, as the Sapphire path is well lit compared to the entrance hallway, and as you pass through the door your vision becomes a lot clearer. The pathway begins to slope downwards slightly, into the depths of the tomb, and you follow it, increasing your pace slightly as you can finally see where you are stepping until you come to a corner

Turning the corner as the path twists; you can see a little further still. This corridor seems similar to the last; a slowly descending stone path surrounded by ornately designed walls of marble. Looking at the walls, you can see that some past civilisation is documented on the walls in a series of drawings, portraying people and Pokémon living alongside each. You recognize a few of the Pokémon in the drawings, but many more seem like distant evolutionary cousins of the Pokémon that currently inhabit the known world. The people in the paintings don’t seem to dissimilar though, and you are reminded of how much more adaptable Pokémon seem to be than the people that they live with. This civilisation may have died out long ago, but the creatures that lived with them had, for the most part survived and flourished across the world.

Presently, a noise breaks your concentration. Drip, Drip, Drip. The noise is quiet and regular, and you can see the source at the bottom of the Hallway, a small pool of water has formed from the slow dripping coming from the roof above it. As you head down the pathway to investigate, Wipeout digs his claw into your jacket, not fond of water at the best of times, especially not when trapped inside creepy buildings. The water is only the smallest of pools at the moment, and the dripping doesn’t seem to be fast enough to cause it to grow at any significant rate, however, it does obviously mean that somewhere above you, there must be a source of water.

Carefully stepping over the puddle, you reach the end of the corridor which once more turns into a larger room. This one is a large, square room similar to that you followed down into this corridor, although this only has one other entrance at the far end. The main thing you notice about this room is that the two walls which do not have doors on them, one to either side, are adorned with large murals depicting a single Pokémon, which you recognize from stories told you in your youth: To the left, the Pokémon that watches over the Seas, Kyogre, is pictured swimming through the Ocean. Its eyes are set with another glinting Sapphire, even larger than the last. Unsupringly facing it is its equal and opposite, the legendary Pokémon of the land, Groudon, once more set with a chunky Ruby. The two Pokémon are astonishingly well drawn with amazing attention to detail, and you feel compelled to stare at the murals.

From here, you have choices- either return the way you came, inspect one or both of the murals further or follow the path onwards through the door opposite. Which will you choose?

Role-playing Feedback: I know Tess has already picked you up on a tiny bit of self updating, so I won’t go into that. I know it was only a minor thing, but it’s best to cut these things off early in the Arcane Zone to prevent problems later. This reply was probably a little short, but still well over the minimum standard, but if you want to flesh it out a bit you can document your thoughts and feelings and the reasons for choosing the Sapphire path- perhaps what you think might be behind them even- I wouldn’t consider that leading as I, the updater already know exactly what’s behind each of the three pathways . Similarly, this time, you can obviously RP looking at the murals but also what your thoughts are about where this is leading.

As Zack trotted down the pathway he notices the pictures of pokemon and people. He finds the pictures an interesting find and looks at them imagining these as looking glasses into the past. He recognizes a few of the pokemon as some of the pokemon the pokemon proffesors give away to starting trainers. He recognized a pokemon that looked like a chimchar in the picture. Wipeout noticed it as well. Wipeout wanted to touch it but Zack stopped him so he wouldn't ruin the drawings.

Zack then heard a noise. He turned and saw a puddle and noticed dripping water. Wipeout noticing the water as well latched on to Zack as if he were a horizontal Life Boat. "Don't worry Wipeout, we won't linger here for very long." Zack stated as he made sure to hurry past and over the puddle. He hoped it wouldn't get too much bigger.

As he entered the square room Zack stared at the two murals with wonder at thier beauty. Both of the looked almost lifelike and Zack was mesmerized at the red and blue pokemon. He couldn't get over their beauty.

Wipeout Jumped off of Zack Mesmerized by Groudon and ignored the Kyogre due to it being a water type. Wipeout put it's hand on the Groudon Mural and did not want to move. Zack respectively did the same with the Kyogre Mural. Then he stopped realizing what he was doing would not help them get anywhere. Then he thought about the last Pokemon in the trio that was not there. Rayquaza.

All of the colours matched. Kyogre for blue, Groudon for red, and Rayquaza for green. He doubted these three legends were actually inside the tomb but he couldn't help but wonder why the colours of these three pokemon would be here. Zack wondered what they meant but noticed Wipeout still focused on the Groudon Mural. Zack pulled him away and started to walk towards the door opposite.

As he approached he wondered if maybe at the end of this pathway there would be a mural of Rayquaza to fit in with the two of Groudon and Kyogre. He then wondered what would be in the center of the tomb if he were to make it there. Would it be a pokemon a special item or just money and treasure Wipeout seemed to be looking back checking to see if the water was getting closer. Zack finally stepped through the doorway.

Forest of Adventure (Please reply in LimeGreen)
According to legend, no trainer can enter this enchanted forest without an adventure befalling them.

“Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas,” spoke a young teenager who, promptly received a facepalm from his little partner. The small Phanpy named Phil was Alex’s only pokemon, yet his closest friend. Having left town yesterday, it was their first official adventure, and a big step in their lives. The taller of the two, Alex, was a little annoyed, and was ignoring the impulse to smack the nearest tree, with his head. “That’s the last time we take advice from a stranger! I doubt we’ll even reach Mediville by tomorrow!” Rubbing beads of perspiration out of his eyes, the new trainer tried to calm himself. Leaning up against the nearby tree, he slid down its base with his back into sitting. “Where are we anyways?!” Observing his surroundings, he saw wild life, though Alex wasn’t sure if that was good news, and about 20 yards north, an uneven dirt path spread through an open strip between the trees. Alex thought, “All roads lead to somewhere,” then speaking, “Come on Phil, we’re finding a way out of here.”

The multitude off plants was unnerving, but Alex wished there were other people here. Arriving at the path with Phil in tow, they looked down to the left, then the right. No trainers. “Phan, anpy!” squeaked Phil. The baby elephant used his trunk to point at a sign when Alex acknowledged him.

“Whatcha found there, buddy?” quizzed its trainer. Playfully rolling over to the sign, Phil bounced up and off of the words, “Forest of Adventure”. “So we’re in the Forest of Adventure?” spoke Alex, with Phil energetically nodding. Turning for a second glance at the forest, Alex thought of Mediville, with its civilization and unlimited stock of food, but The Forest of Adventure sounded a little more challenging, even if it was the clichéd name. “Ok, change of plans, we can start here!”

“Phan..an…,” sadly replied Phil, apparently it was looking forward to the village. Almost agreeing with his pokemon, Alex kneeled down and patted the ground type, trying to be as assuring as possible.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure we’re gunna have the best adventure possible,” soothingly spoke Alex, “I’ll make sure of that.” Unaware of the legend, Alex and Phil set off into their first adventure of Fizzy Bubbles.

Tell me how I did, I know 'tis not the lengthly of things, but once I get an update to RP about, I can make it longer.

Originally Posted by Lonely Cubone

Mediville (Please reply in LemonChiffon)

Kori Gotcha: Having sated your stomachs and then eaten a little more just to be on the safe side, yourself and Torchic leave the Diner, feeling considerably heavier than you did before, and go for a rather sluggish walk to work off the large meal you just had. You have few hours before Kiera will be getting off work, so to kill the time the two of you do a spot of shopping, and it doesn’t take you long to find the local Pokemart. Like all of its kind, the Pokemart is a reasonably large building unmistakeable for its Blue Roof, which is a little out of character in this otherwise fairly quaint and plain town, but it does make it easy to find.

Walking in through the double doors, Torchic jumps in a basket just as you pick it up. Obviously, he’s not intending to walk. In fact, it doesn’t seem that Torchic is intending to do much at all, as by the time you get halfway down the first aisle, the small Fire-type is sleeping like a baby, clearly now being stuffed full of food he fancies a nap, which you are more than happy to let him have as you survey the range of Pokémon merchandise. The shelves are stacked high with Pokémon toys, games and food, which you note with more than a slight feeling of sickness. Perhaps all that food was a little too much after all.

After perusing the wares for a while, you are approached by one the employees, a young man who introduces himself as Arnold, and asks if you would like any help. You politely say that you’re just looking around to pass the time, and he nods his head and turns to your sleeping Torchic.

“Do you think he’d like a ‘loon?” he asks.

“A ‘loon?” you query.

“Yes, a ‘loon, Balloon, whatever you want to call them. It’s kinda my thing, y’know?”

“Er...yeah, why not, he’s very playful.” You reply, accepting the offered ‘loon. It’s in the shape of a Drifloon, and you tie the string to Torchic’s leg, tickling him slightly in the process but not waking him.

With Torchic and his new gift, you leave the Pokemart, with time having flown by amongst the many shelves, and checking your watch, you see that Kiera should be getting off shortly. Sure enough, ten minutes or so pass by and you get a tap on your shoulder, having drifted away into a daydream. It’s Kiera, who has changed out of her work uniform and is now wearing jeans and a plain blue T-Shirt.

“Ready to go?” she asks. You nod, and follow her as she leads on towards the gates you walked through hours before. “It’s probably best to look for Pokémon outside the Town itself, but there’s plenty of choice about where to go. There are quite a few wild Pokémon up on the hills over to the East, they’re not too far away, or the farms at the bottom of the hills occasionally get visitors. If you’d prefer to go the other way out of town, we could head over to the lake and see if there’s anything going on down there, I quite like spending time there when I’m free. What do you think?”

Role-playing feedback: Your post was mostly just a restatement of what I’d written, but I enjoyed the way you added details to it, that made it from a kinda annoying way to bulk out a reply to an actually very interesting update. Try not to do that with every single reply though, but where you don’t have so much to work with it can be a good thing. This time you should have a bit more to write about hopefully

The hills, the lake or the farm, the hills, lake, or the farm. Kori bobbed his head whenever he repeated the names.

Kori bobbed his head to the right:The hills, they're not too far away she says so that's good, though the closer to a town a location is, the fewer Pokemon appear since most of them are usually hiding.

Kori bobbed his head to the middle:The farm, once again, it's the same situation with the Pokemon in the hills. Since there's a lot of people there, most of them will be in hiding, plus a good lot of them will be domesticated. I'm sure the people around here are friendly enough but I don't want to get on the wrong side of anyone with a shotgun. Besides, I just came from a farm, I don't feel like going back to another one.

Kori bobbed his head to the left: The lake, this one has the downside of possibly having water type Pokemon and I don't know if my Torchic can handle that yet, but if she has a grass type, then it'll all be good, unfortunately I don't know what kind of Pokemon Kiera has yet. Then again, she did say that she knew the place so she's gotta be prepared for whatever the place has.

Kiera looked at Kori as he continued to bob his head up and down with each thought. The act was a little funny, though a tad disconcerting. Kiera tapped Kori on the shoulder and said "Uh...Kori?" when Kori shot his head up with a smile.

"Alright, I decided, let's go to the lake!" he said. Kiera smiled and nodded in agreement and off they went. Torchic hopped up and down playing with his new "'loon" as the weird store clerk put it as the 3 of them walked toward the lake. Torchic ran around with it, flew up trying to peck at it, and at one point, got it's tiny legs caught in the string. Kori and Kiera laughed at the little birds antics.

"So what's the lake like?" asked Kori.

"I love that place. It's just so cool and beautiful, really relaxing. People like to go there for fishing or picnics even. I did that a lot with my family."

"That's great!" Kori said. Then he looked down at Kiera's belt and saw the little Poke'ball hanging on it. "So, what kind of Pokemon is that? I hope it'll be helpful if we run into something" he said, trying to get a little information out of her. Kiera just winked and said "That's a secret." Kori chuckled and shook his head. That's fine, he thought, I'll see it for sure once we find something.

Originally Posted by enchantress

Desert of Illusion - Please reply in darkorange

handymankg2: Not at all comfortable with the look of these two you're quick to put them off, hurriedly stating that you have other business to tend to first. They give each other a sideways glance at this, before shrugging and nodding in response. "Whatever you say, Jack, but don't be takin' too long," replies the driver. "You know how long it's taken to track down that village, and if we dilly dally they'll be gone before the job is finished." With that he revs the engine before speeding off into the distance leaving you wondering what that conversation was all about. Ponyta seems both relived and anxious that the men have gone and begins to follow, and concerned that it may not yet be strong enough to travel alone you walk beside it with Belle trailing along behind. It's a long trek and even though Ponyta appears weary it doesn't stop, and after a few hours find yourself standing on the outskirts of a village that appears to be under siege. Most of the damage appears to have already been done, the dwellings having already been burned to the ground; there are KOéd Pokémon everywhere, including many Rapidash, Spearow, and other wild Pokémon who had been rushing to this location. As you watch you witness one of the men you'd encountered earlier instructing a Blastoise to attack a Rapidash that is bearing down upon him, the burly water type unleashing a Hydro Cannon that has the fire type crashing to the ground in a crumpled heap. Ponyta neighs, distressed and panicked, racing to the side of its fallen family member and directly into the path of Blastoise who grins widely at it with malicious intent. At that moment its trainer notices you standing there and calls Blastoise off. "It's about time Jack!" he yells, frustrated. "The Mystics got away but judging from all these wild Pokémon fightin' hard to protect the village I'm guessin' they didn't have time to retrieve the artifact before they fled. It's gotta be here, so get searchin'!" Storming off to join a group of other men, he casts a final curious look at Ponyta and Belle before leaving you there to survey the damage. While you have no idea who these men are, or who these "Mystics" may be who supposedly inhabited this village, let alone what this artifact is you're supposed to be looking for, one thing is clear as day and that is these men are serious trouble. They've all but wiped out the wild Pokémon who had rushed to the rescue of the Mystics, and are now turning what's left of the ruins upside down in search of something that must be extremely valuable for them to be causing such mayhem. The question you need to ask yourself is whether or not you should infiltrate this group and try to find out what's going on, or if you should get yourself, Belle, and Ponyta as far away from here as possible before they discover that you're not the person they think you are...

Sighing with relief as the car drove away, Rick decided that he might as well make his way to the town anyway, considering that Ponyta seems dead set on going there, and the Ponytas family must have gone that way also. Rick began to walk onwards as Belle happily trailed behind, heading in the direction of the giant fire with a fairly slow pace in order for Ponyta to keep up. After a few hours pass, Rick and the two Pokemon find themselves entering the village and what can honestly only be described as a living nightmare. Pokemon laying on the ground everywhere, houses burned to the ground and Pokemon attempting to fight back against what appeared to be a group of the tough men Rick had sighted earlier. Watching in horror, Rick observed one of the stampeding Rapidash from earlier face off against one of the men’s Blastoise, the huge water turtle launching torrents of water out of its cannons in a Hydro Cannon attack, one of the Pokemons most powerful moves from what Rick could tell. As the attack slams into the Rapidash, the poor Fire Type is knocked flying to the ground in the pain of a full powered super effective attack. Ricks eyes suddenly flickered to a blur of movement; Ponyta was running to the fallen Rapidash. Rick stopped himself from shouting out as the Blastoise stared at the horse with a evil grin, and prepared itself for attack. Combee winced and prepared for the worse as she watched…

But thankfully, Ricks resemblance to the man known as Jack came in useful, as the man commanding the Blastoise quickly forced it to stop the attack, staring round at Rick as he began to speak. He seemed to be pretty angry with Rick, from what he was saying, and Rick began to ponder what he was talking about. The mystics was the first thing he pondered as he listened to this man talking. From what Rick could remember, mystics are generally some sort of magical fortune teller type people that use fake magic to trick people into doing their will. Then again, that might have just been one of his fathers interpretations of various stereotypes which he passed down onto his son. Second thing that he pondered was artifact. Now, Rick definitely knew what an artifact was, and generally it was some sort of prized or ancient treasure to the person who owns it. Rick was slightly more worried at this point; if all the Pokemon were trying so hard to protect it, it must be a fairly important object to the people of this town, and the people nearby. Rick started to get slightly angry. Who on earth did these people think they were, storming into this village and beating all the local Pokemon. Rick decided not to pursue this anger, however, as he knew that he would not be able to defeat a Pokemon as powerful as that Blastoise with just his little Combee and an injured Ponyta.

Rick sighed in annoyance as he thought his way through. He had to somehow get this artifact away from the thugs, but at the same time he had a large feeling that someone out of this large group of men would recognise that Rick wasn’t Jack at all. And when that happened, Rick would be at the end of a lot of different attacks. As such, Rick decided he would conduct his own search for the artifact, and considering the man had said ‘get searching’, it wouldn’t be weird for Rick to be searching the area for this object. Turning to Ponyta and the crumpled Rapidash, he whispered quietly to Combee. “Try a Sweet Scent on the Rapidash. It probably won’t work as well as it did on Ponyta considering the injuries, but you never know, a miracle might occur.” Belle nodded and got to work. After that, Rick turned quickly to Ponyta and began to speak. “Hey…you where part of the pack coming to defend here, so I was wondering if you had any clue at all where the artifact it? If you do know, and tell me, I’ll be able to get the artifact away from here and back to the mystics before the thugs ever find out.” He smiled encouragingly, hoping the Ponyta would understand and help.

*Serbii swearing duly noted. Thanks LC!

Originally Posted by Lonely Cubone

Silverton Ranges (Please reply in LightSteelBlue)
Fuuten: Deciding to follow the trail of activity, you take the left fork and increase the pace of your walking, hoping to find somewhere a little warmer to shelter from the increasingly bitter conditions outside. Heading towards the light, you are able to see through the snowstorm the outline of a mine entrance, wooden beams coated in snow and dripping with icicles but still holding up the tunnel into the mountain itself. As you get closer, you can see that the mine itself is lit with a number of burning oil lamps, although you cannot see anyone or indeed, anything inside.
When you can see the Mine ahead of you, your pace increases until you are almost sprinting towards it, longing for the shelter it provides. When you finally get just inside the doorway you slump down, putting the bucket on the floor and visibly shaking with relief. It’s not a great deal warmer inside the mine, but merely being shielded from the wind makes it feel almost tropical after an extended period outside. You check your belt to ensure that Grimer’s Pokeball is still there, and indeed it is, although you decide to leave him in the ball just for the moment until you’ve recovered a bit of composure.

After a few minutes, you manage to remove most of the snow from your body, and feel about a stone lighter and far warmer for it, and start to pay more attention the mine shaft itself. The tunnel you are in is a reasonably large one, although a taller man might have to stoop, supported by strong- and more importantly- new looking beams of Oak, presumably from the forests below. A track runs along the centre of the cavern, of the kind that would carry a mine cart full of ore up to the surface, although it doesn’t seem to be in use at the moment. Following the tracks in your eyes, they follow the tunnel downwards into the heart of the mountain and out of sight.

Deciding to follow the tracks downwards, you descend into the mine along a fairly well lit shaft, having picked the bucket back up, looking to see the source of the activity that could be seen outside of the mine. For a while, you trudge on, which seems to be the story of your adventure so far, although now you are going down, so the direction has at least changes. Presently, you become aware of a noise in the distance. As time passes, and the sound approaches, you recognize the unmistakeable sound of metal on metal- something is approaching- most probably a mine cart, and most probably with it will come whoever-or whatever- is in this mine.

Looking to the sides, there is a darkened corner you could easily hide in as one of the oil lamps has burnt its fuel, or alternatively you could stand your ground and investigate. What will you choose?

“It’s about freakin’ time!” Roy muttered, feeling exuberance pulsing within him with each step he took and every breath he expelled as he eyed the sights longingly. His eyes met the light source. Through the swift white flakes of the harsh winter-like storm, a gaping hole appeared on the mountain with light pouring out of the orifice. The light glistened the snow surrounding the mine, including the very support holding it all up, being wooden beams smothered in the frigid storm’s production of ice and snow outlining the entrance. As Roy continued to plod towards the mine’s cozy looking glow, numerous amounts of oil lamps could be seen lining the cavern, their flames dancing seductively in the distance, looking like they could usher warmth unimaginable to Roy in his current hypothermic-like state. Though at this range he couldn't see anyone or anything inside, the fact concerned him little, sprinting hastily further towards the mine’s opening with break neck speed.

Feeling like seconds were taking hours, when his body reached the inner warmth of the mine it began to buckle. Dropping the bucket that had been ringing his hand with cold ever since he started his trek up the mountain, Roy slowly collapsed as he reached the inside, his body sprawled along the mine’s rocky surface.

His eyes closed, his breath heavy and his body shaking from the freedom he was bestowed leaving the icy hell, he stayed there stationary for a few minutes, taking in the new found warmth presented to him. With his strength slowly being restored, sluggish movements were made up to one of the oil lamps. Bringing his hands to hover over the delightfully warm flame, the muscles in them began to loosen from their frozen state as feeling began to return to within seconds. Suddenly, a worry came about...

His fingers ran over his belt. A sigh left Roy’s lips, feeling Grimer’s Pokeball still nestled onto his belt. A smile finally emerged upon Roy’s face ( previously static in pain and discomfort the whole hike up), for the discovery of his gooey friend’s safety. Glad he “burrowed” the belt instead of getting it cheap, thoughts of releasing the sludge ball for celebratory purposes surfaced. Then thoughts of carrying the lazy bastard drowned the others. Maybe later.

Gradually, the rest of Roy’s muscles were relieved of the works of the dreaded snowstorm that once took hold, shaking off the snow that accumulated all over his body. After dumping the slush from his boots and ringing out his socks (which to his surprise, revealed his toes hadn’t turned black), the instinctive drive that was center fold in his mind began to melt away. Putting his socks and boots back on and checking if the product in his greased up hair had stayed, his eyes darted left to right, beginning to examine the interior of the mine.

To his immediate dissatisfaction, no ore was in sight, though metal track ran along the centre of the mine, farther into the mountain and out of sight. Most likely for carrying ore to his current location and beyond, Roy hypothesized the source of it all must be down below... Without a thought, Roy rubbed is hands together as the nippiness of the mine set in (though nothing compared to the raging storm outside), picked up the bucket that has burdened him since its existence and quickly left the large cavern entrance to his descent to the tracks below.

***



“Who the hell is down here?” Roy whispered with annoyance, continuing to stroll down the tracks, finding the quiet atmosphere unnerving. Especially knowing someone, if not more, might currently still reside in the mine. Both the shaft and the cavern he was previously in are both well lit with oil lamps and supported by wooden pillars that looked rather new, so the fact that other people are currently here came easy to Roy. Though it still struck a cord with him. Walking down the tracks with no end in sight, Roy had been here for a while. But not hearing any activity yet... Who would create a mine and abandon it completely? Maybe it was out of ore or had none at all... Roy tried to avoid that thought completely, thinking paranoia must be setting in... A noise stopped his train of thought and his footsteps.

A noise that grew louder and louder as Roy stood silently and listened tentatively. A noise... A noise... Suddenly it struck him. A cart was coming his way. And sure as shit, he could feel the tracks vibrate, pressing a foot against one for a moment. Panic brewed in his gut, looking for a way to get out of sight. Knowing from experience that if he was caught on someone’s “turf” he could get the boot. Or worse...

The clash of metal hitting metal echoed through the shaft, growing louder with each second, caused Roy to become more antsy and fidgety. Now frantic, his head swayed in all directions, but nothing looked like it could hide him. Until he saw it. “It” being a dark corner, where a lamp went out luckily enough.

Practically throwing himself into the corner, he crouched and tried to become as silent and still as humanly possible. His left hand clenching the bucket handle and his right holding Grimer’s Pokeball just incase shit went down, Roy’s eyes gazed wide in front of him (almost to the point of not blinking), and he crouched there. Silent. His back against the wall.

Really sorry guys, I'm going on holiday tonight until Friday (21st) and was hoping to get your updates done tonight so that you had a while to reply, but I've hit upon the bad ship Writer's Block, so it probably won't be until next weekend now. Massive apologies.

Forest of Adventure - Please reply in limegreen

OrangeDonphan: You did fine. The intro is of decent length, you've RP'd a little between yourself and your Pokémon, and you've not dictated the beginning of your adventure. Can't ask for more than that ^-^. The only thing I'd like to see if you're not going to post a signature including team stats is at the very least a link to your members post at the end of your reply so that I'm able to look up your team stats when necessary.

Setting out on your first Pokémon adventure you arrive in a mysterious land known only as the 'Arcane Realm'. Very little is known about the continent itself, or the regions within it, as few travellers ever stay long enough to really explore it properly, and those who do live here aren't really all that keen on sharing its secrets. Though your destination is the farming village of Mediville, it appears you've taken a wrong turn somewhere and have ended up in the Forest of Mystery instead. Deciding to make the most of your time here you set out into the forest with Phil, the little Phanpy thoroughly enjoying trampling through the leaves littering the soft forest floor. A short while later you notice a trail, and figuring it must lead somewhere decide to follow it. It's not long before you hear the sound of drums and, curiosity perked, head in the direction from which the sound is coming. Several minutes later, with the sound of a vast array of musical instruments filling your ears, you find yourself on the outskirts of a forest clearing where a festival appears to be in progress. An Aipom is wildly beating the tummies of two Snorlax who are laying down basking in the sun, several Kricketot and Kricketune are playing sweet music, Spinarak are strumming their tightly spun webs to help pump up the lively beat, Chatot are chirping in the trees, and a Ludicolo is dancing around shaking a couple of maracas made of hollowed out coconuts. Many forest creatures are partying it up, including some Sunkern, Paras, Wurmple, Seedot, Tangela, Pineco, and Ledyba, while some Pidgey, Swablu, Taillow, and Starly are swooping about in the sky above, singing along to the tune. Phil becomes extremely excited and runs into the clearing to join in, none of the forest creatures minding in the least that a total stranger has entered their midst. A couple of Seedot notice you standing there and hurry over, nudging your legs until you're forced to walk into the clearing, and although you're not quite sure to make of all of this you're not afraid as the Pokémon all appear to be quite welcoming. You've barely had the opportunity to process all of this, however, before chaos breaks loose as the clearing comes under attack. Poochyena, Mightyena, and Cacnea burst through the foliage while several Murkrow dive from the sky. You dive for cover as the forest Pokémon engage in full-force battle against the Dark types, watching in horror as they try in vain to defeat them. One of the Murkrow, flanked by three others, dives for a shrine you'd not noticed earlier, atop which sits a single faintly glowing seed resting upon a golden pedestal. It grabs the seed and speeds off into the distance, the Murkrow accompanying it screeching their victory after which the remainder of the attackers turn and flee back into the forest. Over as quickly as it began, you stand up, shaking, looking around the clearing that was only minutes ago filled with music and dancing. Now the forest Pokémon are crying, distraught at the loss of their sacred treasure...


Desert of Illusion - Please reply in darkorange

handymankg2: While you can only guess as to the identity of the Mystics, you're certainly aware of the value of an artifact, especially considering the lengths these people have gone to in order to obtain the one hidden somewhere in this village. The barbaric manner in which they have gone about retrieving it is disturbing, however, and even though your blood is boiling at the destruction they are causing you wisely choose to keep these feelings to yourself. The only way to get out of this safely is to blend in for the time being, and as long as they believe you're one of them then you should have enough time to locate the item yourself and get it safely away from here. Well aware of the risk of one of them being on the ball enough to reveal you as an imposter, you decide to conduct your own search and enlist Ponyta's help. Relaying your plan to the little fire horse while Belle is trying to rouse the fallen Rapidash with her Sweet Scent, Ponyta simply nods and begins to walk toward a sandstone structure that appears to be some kind of temple. The thick door appears to have been blown right in, large pieces of debris littering the inner corridor, and just as Ponyta steps inside one of the group of men walks out with a satchel slung over his shoulder. "Ain't nothin'left in there, Jackie, but we sure gone and gathered ourselves a nice haul to barter," he grins, shaking his satchel with a wicked gleam in his eye. "You can search her if you want, but you'll be wastin' yer time." After he's gone you look at Ponyta whose eyes relay the message that there is indeed something in here and the fact they haven't yet found it is a relief. Figuring it's only a matter of time before they come up empty-handed and renew their search of the temple you follow Ponyta inside with Belle rushing to catch up before she loses you. Several minutes and many twists and turns later, with only the glow of Ponyta's fiery mane and tail illuminating the dark corridors, you enter a large chamber that appears to be empty with the exception of four large golden urns, one in each corner. Ponyta walks directly over to the one in the north-east corner, and without hesitation nudges it with its nose before looking up at you. Intrigued, you step closer and peer inside seeing nothing. Ponyta nudges it again, though, telling you it wants you to move the urn and so you do so, hearing a click the moment you slide the heavy object out onto the floor. It appears a release mechanism has been triggered, and within seconds you hear a scraping sound, looking up to see a hidden doorway sliding open. Just as you're about to investigate you hear the sound of voices approaching, and not wanting this secret chamber to be discovered quickly drag the urn back into position. The door swings shut just as three men enter the room, startled to find you here already. "Ah, it appears Jack beat us to it! You're not gonna try carrying that by yourself are you?" laughs one of the them. With your heart pounding you watch as they each lift one of the other three urns, the burliest of them swinging the heavy object under his arm like it's nothing. "Let me help you with that," he says, bending down to lift up the urn sitting atop the release mechanism...

Originally Posted by enchantress

Desert of Illusion - Please reply in darkorange

handymankg2: While you can only guess as to the identity of the Mystics, you're certainly aware of the value of an artifact, especially considering the lengths these people have gone to in order to obtain the one hidden somewhere in this village. The barbaric manner in which they have gone about retrieving it is disturbing, however, and even though your blood is boiling at the destruction they are causing you wisely choose to keep these feelings to yourself. The only way to get out of this safely is to blend in for the time being, and as long as they believe you're one of them then you should have enough time to locate the item yourself and get it safely away from here. Well aware of the risk of one of them being on the ball enough to reveal you as an imposter, you decide to conduct your own search and enlist Ponyta's help. Relaying your plan to the little fire horse while Belle is trying to rouse the fallen Rapidash with her Sweet Scent, Ponyta simply nods and begins to walk toward a sandstone structure that appears to be some kind of temple. The thick door appears to have been blown right in, large pieces of debris littering the inner corridor, and just as Ponyta steps inside one of the group of men walks out with a satchel slung over his shoulder. "Ain't nothin'left in there, Jackie, but we sure gone and gathered ourselves a nice haul to barter," he grins, shaking his satchel with a wicked gleam in his eye. "You can search her if you want, but you'll be wastin' yer time." After he's gone you look at Ponyta whose eyes relay the message that there is indeed something in here and the fact they haven't yet found it is a relief. Figuring it's only a matter of time before they come up empty-handed and renew their search of the temple you follow Ponyta inside with Belle rushing to catch up before she loses you. Several minutes and many twists and turns later, with only the glow of Ponyta's fiery mane and tail illuminating the dark corridors, you enter a large chamber that appears to be empty with the exception of four large golden urns, one in each corner. Ponyta walks directly over to the one in the north-east corner, and without hesitation nudges it with its nose before looking up at you. Intrigued, you step closer and peer inside seeing nothing. Ponyta nudges it again, though, telling you it wants you to move the urn and so you do so, hearing a click the moment you slide the heavy object out onto the floor. It appears a release mechanism has been triggered, and within seconds you hear a scraping sound, looking up to see a hidden doorway sliding open. Just as you're about to investigate you hear the sound of voices approaching, and not wanting this secret chamber to be discovered quickly drag the urn back into position. The door swings shut just as three men enter the room, startled to find you here already. "Ah, it appears Jack beat us to it! You're not gonna try carrying that by yourself are you?" laughs one of the them. With your heart pounding you watch as they each lift one of the other three urns, the burliest of them swinging the heavy object under his arm like it's nothing. "Let me help you with that," he says, bending down to lift up the urn sitting atop the release mechanism...

Rick smiled slowly as Ponyta nodded in response to his asking, and began to trot over to a temple which appeared to be made out of some sort of sandstone. Staring at the structure, Rick began to admire the way it was built, the design and ways that the villagers had managed to build such nice structures out of the limited deserts resources…and now this group had come in and began to destroy all of the effort these people had put in thus far. He felt a bit of anger rise in the back of his throat, but didn’t want to draw any attention to himself, so kept his anger under wraps and fully in control. Rick stared at the door, or what would have been the door prior to this barbaric assault. The whole door had been blown literally to pieces, the debris from this event scattered all over the show. He once again was forced to control his anger as one of the men walked out of the temple with the satchel on his back, containing what could only have been more treasure from the inside of the building. Trying to hide the disgust in Ricks eyes, he glanced around him as he listened to the man talk about the building, taking in every word he could understand.

He seemed to express the fact that there was nothing left inside the temple, and that they had everything worthwhile. Considering the lack of worthwhile things in the mans satchel, he assumed that he hadn’t really got all there was to find. Unless, of course, there were more men inside. Or it was an extremely poor temple, something that could be equally likely considering the state of this town. Rick just thought, he’d never actually seen the town in its full glory, and likely never would considering the damage had already been done to this place. Sighing, he went into the temple, Ponyta seeming to imply that there was indeed something in the interior after all. He sighed in relief; they can’t have found it yet if Ponyta was beckoning him and his Pokemon in. Rick was at least glad that things were starting to go his way a bit more than before. Walking inside, Rick follows Ponyta through several twists and turns throughout the temple, heading towards whatever and wherever this Ponyta was going to.

Ponyta walked directly over to the north-east corner of the room, in which sat a urn, and began to nudge it Rick wondered what the flaming pony was doing. Rick stepped closer towards the urn, and began to see that the Ponyta was most likely trying to tell Rick something, nudging it once again with its nose. Rick decided he might as well do what his guide wanted him too, and slid the urn carefully onto the ground. As he did, his eyes widened in wonder, the urn being moved had revealed the location of a hidden doorway, one which Rick highly suspected the others didn’t have a clue about. Just as Rick was about to investigate, however, he heard voices coming from nearby as what could only be the men were approaching. Rick quickly slid the urn back onto the stand it was on, and sighed with relief as the door closed in time, the men coming through only seconds after. Ricks heart began to pound as he watched the group head to the other three urns and lift them away, while one of the men walked towards Rick, wanting to help with the moving of the urn.

Eyes widened, Rick slowly murmured to his partner. “We need a distraction. Use a gust to knock one of the other urns out of the mens hands, and smash it on the floor. Try to be discreet about it, and hopefully the ‘accident’ will be able to distract their attention long enough for me to sneak through this door. If it isn’t, we’ll have to rethink our strategy.”

Sorry for horrible reply once again, I'm not particulary good at this adventure lark.

Well, seeing no one chose this, I figured I'd go for it. I like silver anyway. =P

Originally Posted by enchantress

The Graveyard (Please reply in Silver)
A haunting graveyard where the spirits of Pokémon have been put to rest. At night a thick fog hangs in the air while the restless spirits of those Pokémon with unfinished business rise from the grave, looking for closure that often never comes.

"Where..... where are we?" Shou asked Cantare the Chatot, while at the same time trembling at the chilly temperature and surroundings. It was all dark and gloomy, so dark that Shou could hardly see the path he was walking. If I were home, it's past bedtime, He thought. And he was right. Sun has already set long ago. And he has only himself to blame as it was him that chose to take that path less traveled. That and not finding a place to settle down when sun is clearly setting.

Shou left his hometown that morning. He took with him some clothes to change, some food to eat in case they weren't able to find food, and nothing else. They reached a forkpath where there were three paths to choose from. While Cantare the Chatot is enjoying the fun of mimicking Shou's sentences, Shou decided that he doesn't want to follow other people's footstep and chose the overgrown undergrowth path, believe somewhere in that path lies a house of some famous singer who had decided to become a hermit.

"What do we do now?" He asked Cantare, who repeats what he said verbatim with added movements that makes it look funny, as if oblivious to their surroundings. Shou sighed. He should have brought the Newbies' Guide to Adventure with him. But then again, he wouldn't have enough light to read it now. As Shou was losing hope of finding a shelter for the night, he thought of something.

"Cantare, you don't happen to see anything that can shelter for us tonight, do you?" As expected, Cantare shook its quaver-like head. Sighing yet again, Shou moved on heading right to his current facing. Shou immediately, well, not before he walked a few steps, felt a sudden tug on his hood. He yelped and stumbled forward, and landed on his bottom. It was no one other than his oblivious Chatot, who was flipping about jokingly and joyfully. "Cantare!" Shou warned. "Canta-re." Cantare replied while trying to imitate Shou's facial expression, which failed epically. He flew around until Shou managed to get himself up, and sped toward the other direction. "Wait!" Shou exclaimed, and frantically trying to keep up with Cantare.

Cantare flew for a good 5 minutes before he finally stopped and waited for Shou. "Where do you think you're going?" Shou asked. "You're go-ing. You're go-ing." Cantare repeated his words with gusto, seemingly excited about something Shou couldn't comprehend. Cantare tugged Shou to the side, pushing him until Shou hit something hard and cold. "Owww!" Shou rubbed his head, feeling a little disoriented from the hit, and sat down. Cantare was still overhead mimicking his earlier speeches, and he danced around so happily that Shou later suspected Cantare had accidentally swallowed some of the psilocybin mushrooms they found earlier.

Anyway, having recovered from disorientation, Shou pulled himself up against and thing he had hit, and found that it was a tree. At least one of us found himself a shelter tonight, Shou thought. Seeing Cantare flipping about joyfully, he complained, "Cantare!" Of course, the reply is a predictable "Canta-re." Shou sighed and sat down again. This is going to be such a long night.

I have a feeling that I've self updated but not sure where. If possible please shed some light to me? Thanks.

The Graveyard - Please reply in silver

Tenorphin: The main bit of self-updating there is determining that it's night time. The description says that there is a fog at night, but it doesn't say at what time you arrive. Also the tree. Different people have different views of what an area looks like which is why description is necessary. Both are pretty superficial though, I'm not bothered by them especially since the area description lacks a lot of description :p Welcome to FB, and I hope you enjoy your updates ^-^.

Arriving at the graveyard on the outskirts of Mediville, you glance across the rows upon rows of headstones lining the neatly cropped lawn. The sun is setting, a slight chill creeping in as pretty colours streak the sky at what is the end of yet another long day of travelling. Cantare's antics are starting to grate on your nerves as weariness settles in, and although this seems an unlikely place to find shelter for the night you have a feeling you're doing well considering all of the travels you have ahead of you. Noticing a line of crypts along the eastern edge of the cemetery, you hope to find at least one of them open so that you're able to to stave off the elements for the night and begin to walk toward them. You've only taken several steps, however, when you suddenly feel the ground give way beneath your feet. Cantare starts squawking up a storm, but his panic is nothing compared to yours as grotesque visions of falling into the grave of a human or Pokémon fill your head. Though it seems like an eternity, a moment later you hit solid ground, relief flowing through you when you realise you've not fallen into a grave but into what appears to be an underground tunnel. It must be at least twelve feet deep, and thanking your lucky stars that you've not broken any bones call for Cantare to come join you since you have no hope of climbing back out again. A few minutes later, with Cantare sitting nervously on your shoulder, you're mulling over which direction to take as the tunnel you're standing in appears to lead into pitch darkness at both ends. The sun finally sets above ground, the little light you did have all but vanishing as it's replaced with the very faint glow of moonlight. Not at all liking the choices you have you can't help but wonder why on earth you'd chosen to visit a creepy old cemetary when you should have been searching for a Pokémon Centre that could at least offer you a warm bed for the night. With only three apparent options available you mull over them quickly. One, stay put and scream your lungs out hoping someone will hear and come to your rescue. Two, take the tunnel to your left which leads into pitch black silence. Or three, take the tunnel to your right which also leads into darkness, but from which is emitting a faint humming sound. Hmm, curious...


Desert of Illusion - Please reply in darkorange

handymankg2: Reacting instinctively as the last thing you want is any of these men finding the hidden chamber, you instruct Belle to create a distraction. With two of the men already walking out of the room she only has one left to target, and as he reaches down to lift the urn covering the spring mechanism she whips up a Gust of wind that has his grip on the urn he's already carrying slip. He curses loudly as he fumbles the object, completely forgetting about the one he was about to lift in his haste to retain his grip on the one he's fumbling. While he's juggling the urn Belle returns to your side, appearing innocent as ever, and by the time the man has managed to secure his grasp on his prize, he has absolutely no idea that he'd just been played. "On second thought, I'd better get this one out first. These winds comin' outta nowhere, it's kinda creepy," he mutters, glancing around the room uneasily. "You sure you can manage that on your own?" he asks, and after receiving a nod in return he grunts and leaves the room, leaving you standing there with Belle and Ponyta, all of you relieved to see the back of him. After waiting a few minutes to ensure all three men are gone you once again move the golden urn away from its position in the corner, once again watching as the hidden doorway opens to reveal a chamber beyond. Slipping inside you find yourself standing in front of a pedestal upon which lays a maroon cushion. Stepping closer you see that a golden flute embedded with sapphires has been placed upon the cushion, and having absolutely no doubt in your mind that this is the artifact the men are looking for, waste no time in reaching out and taking it, placing it in your backpack for safekeeping. Realising the men may become suspicious if you return without the urn you weigh up your options. You can leave the urn and hope one of them doesn't return to collect it which will lead to them discovering the chamber, or you can take the urn so they don't return for it and in the meantime hope that nobody else decides to search the temple. There isn't anything in sight with which you can replace the urn's weight upon the spring mechanism, so it seems that no matter what you do you're going to have to hope they stay away. Feeling that taking it with you is safer than leaving it here, you lift it up and carry it out of the chamber, heading back to the entrance.

Some time later, out of breath and sweating from the strain of lugging the heavy golden relic, you emerge from the temple only to find that more time has passed than you'd thought. It's night time, the darkness lit only by the moon above and the flames leaping from a campfire in the centre of the village. Unfortunately you're also greeted with the unwelcome company of those who have not yet finished pillaging this village, and while a couple of them eye you strangely with others avoiding eye contact, you feel an instant state of dread fall upon you. Something in their actions is telling you they've discovered you're not the real Jack, but none say anything to lead you to conclusively believe this is the case. Any hopes you had of escaping into the desert have been crushed for the time being, and as the man you recognise as being the driver of the jeep you'd passed in the desert earlier approaches, you wonder if you'll get out of this at all. "C'mon Jackie, we're campin' here for the night!" he says jovially, grabbing you by the arm and leading you toward the campfire. "We only have one more day left to find the artifact so we're gunna resume our search at first light. But now, we're gunna celebrate trackin' down these Mystics and the power we'll have when the ritual is performed tomorrow night." He leads you to a fallen tree beside the campfire, ensuring you sit down before he plants himself firmly beside you. "It's here Jackie, I can feel it," he says, eyeing you closely. "Perhaps closer than we think." While Belle huddles close to you on the log you can feel Ponyta nudging you in the back. You can sense its urgency to get as far away from here as possible, but for now you know you're stuck right where you are. The only positive that can possibly come out of this is finding out what this lot is up to, and looking for an opening to escape, but for now you'll listen and learn because really, what other choice do you have?

Silverton Ranges (Please reply in LightSteelBlue)
Fuuten: Making the split-second decision to hide and observe the passing of the cart, you dive into the darkened corner, pushing yourself right up against the wall and trying to moderate your breathing at the same time. The click-click of the metal wheels against the tracks draw ever closer and your grip tightens on Grimer’s Pokéball, a degree of fear creeping into your throat- the fear of the unknown. Crouching, you try to angle your head to see a little further down the hall, and you see the top of the cart emerging into your eye line. It seems a pretty simple design, wooden slats nailed together neatly, although it looks like it’s somewhat less than brand new.

As the cart passes you, you are able to see that it is around three-quarters full of a thick, black powder which looks not unlike crushed coal or carbon. There is a sheet partially over the top of it, but it doesn’t cover the powder fully as you get a good view. Not exactly the treasures and gems that you had in mind, but it’s something and a sign that the mine is still in use. Distracted by the contents of the cart, it takes you a few moments to realise the strangest thing about the Cart, but when you do it is so blindingly obvious you have to steel yourself not to thump your own forehead for your stupidity.

The Cart is driving itself...

Or at least, nobody seems visibly to be pushing it, in fact there is nobody in sight at all. The Cart is simply moving uphill of its own accord, despite showing no signs of being motorized. While you sit, contemplating the strange event you’ve just witnessed, the cart rolls on past, out of sight, back upwards from whence you came earlier on.

Sitting in the darkened corner, you sit for a short while, considering your next move, before standing up and dusting yourself off- the floor of a mine is not the cleanest of places to stay for too long, and your trousers now seem to be covered in soot and grime, as it the bucket- you lean around the corner to look down the pathway. The sound of the cart is distant behind you now, and there doesn’t seem to be another following it as far as you can hear. From here then, you face another decision- to head on down into the mine to see where the Cart came from or to chase after it back from where you came shortly before and try and investigate what was going on. What do you think would be best?

RP Feedback: Again, really good work from you, I’m impressed, considering you didn’t have much to work with. Can’t really say much more.



Ancient Tomb (Please reply in Gold)

Pokemonxd4: Having inspected the murals of Groudon, legendary Pokémon of the Earth, and Kyogre, legendary Pokémon of the seas, you decide to follow the doorway opposite to the one you came in, expecting to see a similarly detailed and beautiful mural of the legendary Pokémon of the skies and the final member of this trilogy, Rayquaza. As you go through the door though, no such mural is immediately apparent and you instead come to a spiral staircase of marble, which, like much of the tomb, is inlaid with gems and gold which tempt you and Wipeout in the manner of all forbidden treasures.

As there seems to be no other option, you step onto the Spiral staircase and begin to ascend, Wipeout jumping onto your back and holding on to save himself the effort. You continue to plod upwards around and around the spiral staircase. After a while, you look up to try and see if there is a clear end to the ascent, and it is then that you notice for the first time that running along the bottom of the staircase you’re walking up is the mural of Rayquaza, uncurled, long tail twisting around and up into the air above you. Following the staircase for one more revolution, you reach a dead end in mid air, the stairs ceasing and leaving you suspended about 50 feet up in the air on the penultimate step.

At the end of the staircase is the end of the mural, Rayquaza’s head painted on a stone slab with a beautiful attention to detail which you and Wipeout cannot help but admire, running your hands along the cold stone of the great Leviathan’s head. Wipeout is admiring the eyes of the Legendary dragon, which are set with chunky Emeralds which shine even brighter than those seen in the legendary duo before. Bounding forwards, Wipeout cannot help but grab hold of the Gem despite orders to the contrary earlier on, small hands grasped around the gem, which does not move but begins to glow a brilliant white.

Clunk

You gulp at the ominous noise as the gem is twisted and look around to see what has been triggered- nothing is immediately apparent until you look directly down and realise that the staircase you’re standing on is slowly rising up into the air, leaving the ground behind it. The gem flashes as the ascent speeds up, taking you upwards and coming to rest with the stairs leading into a darker room a good hundred feet above the floor you were until recently attached too. Trying to gaze into the room ahead, you cannot see a great deal at all, and Wipeout isn’t helping in hiding himself and his tail flame in your arms.

What now?


RP Feedback: This update was a marked improvement on your last, in quality as well as length. I particularly like the fact that you RP your own thoughts and actions separately to those of your Pokemon, showing the separate personalities. Keep it up.



Mediville (Please reply in LemonChiffon)

Kori Gotcha: Heading down towards the lake with Kiera and Torchic, you stroll along the path looking into the sky. It’s mid afternoon now, but the temperature is pleasant and the wind is a cool occasional breeze. In short, it’s a beautiful early summer’s day and what better way to spend it than down by a lake with some friends. The lake in question approaches fast and you note that it is a reasonably large, clean freshwater lake, surrounded by a good amount of greenery, shrubs and grass neatly kept by the locals who frequent the lake on pleasant days such as this.

Kiera turns to you as your trio stop on the lakefront. “Well then, if we’re hunting Pokémon, we’d better go round the other side of the lake. This side tends to be too busy with people, the bustle means that the Pokémon tend to stay on the far bank or in the bushes behind the water. I reckon that would be our best bet.” She says to you, and you nod, her local knowledge proving invaluable as the two of you walk round the lake clockwise, giving you plenty of time to observe the activity around the league. Pokémon are clearly thriving around the lake, and you can see a few bird and bug Pokémon in the undergrowth around the banks, hiding from each other and from people.

After a good while walking, you reach the far side of the bank. On this side, the bushes and plants are a little thicker, although still reasonably tidy, and the water is a little deeper on this side, with the tell tale darker patches in the water betraying the location of a school of fish Pokémon to a Wingull, which you can see circling a way out into the lake. Moments later, you get a rather grim reminder of the circle of life when the Wingull swoops down and plucks a Finneon from the surface of the water, flying off over the trees and towards the horizon with its prize.

Turning back to the party, you notice that Kiera was not watching that spectacle and instead was untucking something from her belt. “Now that we’re out of the way, it’s time I got it out really isn’t it?” she says softly.
“Er...what?” you ask, confused.
“My Pokémon, silly. I thought you were curious to see her?” and with that Kiera removes the Pokéball from her belt, presses the button in the centre and drops the ball, which explodes on the ground.

“Chiiiiic!” comes the cry from Torchic as he dashes over to greet the new arrival, which forms up from the light as a small rodent-like Pokemon with a long nose.
“Cyyyyyndaquil!” Kiera’s Pokemon replies, leaping forwards to play with her fellow fire type. The two of them bound around, sniffing each other and firing small embers at one another playfully as the two of you watch on.
“I think they get on” says Kiera
“Fire attracts fire” you reply as they continue to roll around.
“Still, we’d better have a look for a wild Pokemon or two, there’ll be plenty around.”

RP Feedback: Again, not much I can say, some very good work from all three updates. Just to apologize for the time it took me, I hope it will be considerably less next time.

Originally Posted by enchantress

Forest of Adventure - Please reply in limegreen

OrangeDonphan: You did fine. The intro is of decent length, you've RP'd a little between yourself and your Pokémon, and you've not dictated the beginning of your adventure. Can't ask for more than that ^-^. The only thing I'd like to see if you're not going to post a signature including team stats is at the very least a link to your members post at the end of your reply so that I'm able to look up your team stats when necessary.

Setting out on your first Pokémon adventure you arrive in a mysterious land known only as the 'Arcane Realm'. Very little is known about the continent itself, or the regions within it, as few travellers ever stay long enough to really explore it properly, and those who do live here aren't really all that keen on sharing its secrets. Though your destination is the farming village of Mediville, it appears you've taken a wrong turn somewhere and have ended up in the Forest of Mystery instead. Deciding to make the most of your time here you set out into the forest with Phil, the little Phanpy thoroughly enjoying trampling through the leaves littering the soft forest floor. A short while later you notice a trail, and figuring it must lead somewhere decide to follow it. It's not long before you hear the sound of drums and, curiosity perked, head in the direction from which the sound is coming. Several minutes later, with the sound of a vast array of musical instruments filling your ears, you find yourself on the outskirts of a forest clearing where a festival appears to be in progress. An Aipom is wildly beating the tummies of two Snorlax who are laying down basking in the sun, several Kricketot and Kricketune are playing sweet music, Spinarak are strumming their tightly spun webs to help pump up the lively beat, Chatot are chirping in the trees, and a Ludicolo is dancing around shaking a couple of maracas made of hollowed out coconuts. Many forest creatures are partying it up, including some Sunkern, Paras, Wurmple, Seedot, Tangela, Pineco, and Ledyba, while some Pidgey, Swablu, Taillow, and Starly are swooping about in the sky above, singing along to the tune. Phil becomes extremely excited and runs into the clearing to join in, none of the forest creatures minding in the least that a total stranger has entered their midst. A couple of Seedot notice you standing there and hurry over, nudging your legs until you're forced to walk into the clearing, and although you're not quite sure to make of all of this you're not afraid as the Pokémon all appear to be quite welcoming. You've barely had the opportunity to process all of this, however, before chaos breaks loose as the clearing comes under attack. Poochyena, Mightyena, and Cacnea burst through the foliage while several Murkrow dive from the sky. You dive for cover as the forest Pokémon engage in full-force battle against the Dark types, watching in horror as they try in vain to defeat them. One of the Murkrow, flanked by three others, dives for a shrine you'd not noticed earlier, atop which sits a single faintly glowing seed resting upon a golden pedestal. It grabs the seed and speeds off into the distance, the Murkrow accompanying it screeching their victory after which the remainder of the attackers turn and flee back into the forest. Over as quickly as it began, you stand up, shaking, looking around the clearing that was only minutes ago filled with music and dancing. Now the forest Pokémon are crying, distraught at the loss of their sacred treasure...

Yay, unexpected visitors that stop me from the computer...

Choosing to continue onward down the discovered trail, Alex casually walked behind his Phanpy. The baby elephant had succumbed to being lost and started to enjoy the area. The leaves made light crunching noises as Phil stepped onto each one, but a deeper beating seamed to be coming from the clearing ahead. Intrigued by the signs of some life, the group raced off towards the noise. Almost tripping himself, Alex skidded to a halt, realizing who were making the noise.

“Oh… my… gosh…,” sputtered Alex, blankly staring into the open area filled with a multitude of pokemon. It appeared as if they were holding a festival. The main focus, two large Snorlax’s lay with an excited purple monkey beating their stomach’s with its tail. A bunch of singing was coming from musical parrots, the Chatots harmonious with a few Kricketot and Kricketune scattered around the forest floor. A weird looking spider pokemon that Alex didn’t recognize, was strumming its web like a harp. Suddenly, a dancing Mexican pineapple, scratch that, a Ludicolo, madly waved some homemade maracas in the pair’s faces. Phil, gave in, and jumped into the midst, dancing along with all the party goers. “Um…heh, heh…?” mumbled Alex, unsure of what to do. Feeling a tingling on his legs, he looked down, only to see a couple of Seedot nudging at his ankles. “Fine…,” spoke Alex, letting himself be taken into the celebration.

“Phanpy! Phan an an py!” shouted Phil. Alex turned toward him and saw hyper ground type jumping between the Snorlax’s as if they were trampolines. The Aipom laughing as Alex’s pokemon shifted from a ball into an elephant between jumps, only to fall on his face.

“Ha, you ok buddy?” asked Alex. Phil, nodding his head glaringly, gave Alex a picture of, ‘Yeah, it’s not like I just fell or anything’. Enjoying himself, Alex thought he must have been lucky to have been a part of this.

Suddenly, a deep, bellowing howl was heard, as three needles flew between the trees, landing just short of Alex. “Is this part of the ceremony?” thought Alex. Leaping between the foliage, a pack of Mightyenas and Poochyenas growled menacingly at the crowd. Following the “welcoming committee” a few Cacnea waddled into the clearing while staring at everyone. One of the Cacneas fired another Pin Missle, and Alex jumped and grabbed Phil, landing behind the Snorlax. The Hyena Pokemon proceeded, Howling and Roaring to scare everyone, then fighting broke loose. Dark Types were beating on the forest pokemon, when through the chaotic brawling, a few caws were heard. Swooping in over the horizon, a squad of four Murkrows flew downward, directly towards a large monument near the edge of the clearing. Helpless, Alex watches as one of the birds grabs a shiny seed with its talons. It caws into the sky, and speeds off. The Dark Pokemon, claiming what they set out for, retreat back into the forest.

Now basically destroyed, Alex looked upon the party. The mere five minute raid had destroyed many pokemon, young and old alike. Even the almost always happy Ludicolo was crying. “Hmm, this could be a good adventure opportunity, but, I’m not sure if this is safe,” thought Alex, “But, that artifact must be pretty special to ruin a celebration of this caliber.”

“Phan?” quizzed Phil. Alex who had almost forgotten about him, noticed the solemn look on the elephant’s face; it was obvious it was holding back tears.

“That settles it!” thought Alex, “I’m going to get that artifact back!” Turning towards the direction that the pokemon had fled to, the naïve trainer recklessly ran into the forest while carrying his partner.

Umm, once again, feedback, please. I feel pretty good about RPing now.

Forest of Adventure - Please reply in limegreen

OrangeDonphan: Happens to me all the time :p As for the feedback, if I see a problem I'll let you know but for now you're doing fine ^-^.

Concerned that helping these forest Pokémon may be too big a task considering your inexperience, Phil's expression makes up your mind in an instant. Without even stopping to try and find out exactly what the precious leaf is for, or why it is so dear to the Pokémon of the forest, you take off into the trees at high speed before you can lose the trail of the dark types that have stolen it. Phil is hot on your heels, and while you occasionally lose sight of the Murkrow flying ahead of you as the thick canopy blocks your view, you soon catch sight of them again, altering your course to match theirs until you eventually enter an area of the forest that seems darker than the rest. The trees are old and withered, and even though there is a sparse canopy above there doesn't seem to be as much light here. It's been close to an hour since you began this reckless chase, and just as you're beginning to think you'll collapse from exhaustion and lose sight of the Murkrow altogether you see them descend next to what appears to be the tallest tree in the forest not too far away. Thankful that you can finally take a break you stop to catch your breath, both you and Phil taking a drink from your water bottle before moving on. Knowing that you're close now and that you'll more than likely have a welcome party awaiting you, you take it slowly and carefully, not wanting to alert any of the dark types to the fact you're approaching. Finally coming across an enormous tree in the forest you can only stand and stare at it, for it's so out of context with anything you'd expect to find in a place like this that you're not sure what to make of it. This tree has to be ancient if its size is anything to go by. It's at least twenty metres wide and hundreds of metres tall, but it's not so much the age of the tree that is an issue, but the fact there is a face staring back at you from its trunk. Your stomach feels as though it's doing backflips as you stare at it, for the image doesn't appear to have been carved into the tree, it's as though it's a part of it, but the most disturbing aspect of it all is that it bears a striking resemblance to the legendary Pokémon, Darkrai. Its mouth is gaping open creating an opening for you to enter the tree itself, its eyes seeming to be boring right into you. Not a single leaf lives on this tree, all of its branches long dead, much like the area of forest surrounding it. You look down at Phil to see that he's giving it the same horrified look you were, the little Phanpy shivering with fear. You can both feel an evil presence here, and while you're wondering if you should continue on with your quest to help the forest Pokémon, or turn and run pretending you'd never seen anything at all happening in the forest today, you hear a voice say, "I wouldn't do that if I were you." Startled, both you and Phil jump, spinning around to notice an aged Chatot sitting on a dead tree branch behind you. Its expression is filled with deep sadness and you find you can't help feeling sorry for the poor little thing...

Originally Posted by Lonely Cubone

Ancient Tomb (Please reply in Gold)

Pokemonxd4: Having inspected the murals of Groudon, legendary Pokémon of the Earth, and Kyogre, legendary Pokémon of the seas, you decide to follow the doorway opposite to the one you came in, expecting to see a similarly detailed and beautiful mural of the legendary Pokémon of the skies and the final member of this trilogy, Rayquaza. As you go through the door though, no such mural is immediately apparent and you instead come to a spiral staircase of marble, which, like much of the tomb, is inlaid with gems and gold which tempt you and Wipeout in the manner of all forbidden treasures.

As there seems to be no other option, you step onto the Spiral staircase and begin to ascend, Wipeout jumping onto your back and holding on to save himself the effort. You continue to plod upwards around and around the spiral staircase. After a while, you look up to try and see if there is a clear end to the ascent, and it is then that you notice for the first time that running along the bottom of the staircase you’re walking up is the mural of Rayquaza, uncurled, long tail twisting around and up into the air above you. Following the staircase for one more revolution, you reach a dead end in mid air, the stairs ceasing and leaving you suspended about 50 feet up in the air on the penultimate step.

At the end of the staircase is the end of the mural, Rayquaza’s head painted on a stone slab with a beautiful attention to detail which you and Wipeout cannot help but admire, running your hands along the cold stone of the great Leviathan’s head. Wipeout is admiring the eyes of the Legendary dragon, which are set with chunky Emeralds which shine even brighter than those seen in the legendary duo before. Bounding forwards, Wipeout cannot help but grab hold of the Gem despite orders to the contrary earlier on, small hands grasped around the gem, which does not move but begins to glow a brilliant white.

Clunk

You gulp at the ominous noise as the gem is twisted and look around to see what has been triggered- nothing is immediately apparent until you look directly down and realise that the staircase you’re standing on is slowly rising up into the air, leaving the ground behind it. The gem flashes as the ascent speeds up, taking you upwards and coming to rest with the stairs leading into a darker room a good hundred feet above the floor you were until recently attached too. Trying to gaze into the room ahead, you cannot see a great deal at all, and Wipeout isn’t helping in hiding himself and his tail flame in your arms.

What now?


RP Feedback: This update was a marked improvement on your last, in quality as well as length. I particularly like the fact that you RP your own thoughts and actions separately to those of your Pokemon, showing the separate personalities. Keep it up.

As Zack walked up the staircase he saw that the stairs looked like Rayquaza and jumped thinking it an actual pokemon. After he realized it was just a long mural he started thinking *How would these people have made such detailed murals? These titans wouldn't have just sat down and posed for this. This one would've taken months or even years. the other two would've taken weeks. It's a complete mystery to me.*

As Zack thought about this Wipeout was looking at the mural too. Wipeout seemed to think that this mural would come to life and attack them so he hid his face behind Zack. ack noticed this and said "Don't worry Wipeout it's just a mural. It won't do anything." However Zack was dead wrong. When they reached the top they stopped as they saw Rayquaza's head as the end of the mural.

It was more beautiful and amazing than the other two combined. It was detailed to the last scale. He got down and marvelled at it. Wipeout couldn't help but get over it's fear and look too. Zack was now even more puzzled. *How would they have gotten this much detail unlesss they were right up against Rayquaza when they did this?* He was even tempted to take some of the Emeralds with him but knew that that could ruin the mural and decided against it. He looked around and saw no other way to go so he wondered what he was supposed to do. Maybe the emeralds were the treasure.

As he wondered Wipeout got closer to the mural. He was completely hypnotized into staying there by the Mural's brilliance. He was so hypnotized he forgot about what Zack said and grabbed the Emeralds of the eyes that shone brighter than the other murals. Zack saw Wipeout about to grab them and shouted "Wipeout, wait!" but Wipeout had already grabbed it. When Wipeout grabbed it though it didn't come out but it started to glow white.

Zack jumped up and gulped as he looked down and noticed the stairway was rising. Wipeout noticed this as well and grabbed on to Zack. Zack sighed and thought *I know Wipeout trusts me a lot but he is getting way too clingy.* When the stairway stopped moving Zack saw a dark room in front of him and Wipeout. He pulled Wipeout from his arms and put his tail in front of him to light the way and entered the doorway to see what was inside.