PlatinumSkink

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

There was a squadron of valkyries bombing them. In their particular faction, Lea clicked her tongue and clapped her hands together, creating a flow of wind to divert the snowballs from hitting her, and beside her Esther raised a couple branches to cover her body from the snowballs. In reply, Lea sent a surge of wind through the snow next to her to send up at the airborne forces, intent on swallowing them up in snow and wind. That probably would be dodged, but still.

In the back was Olivia, who at the sight of the airborne assault screamed and ducked, her spirits crouching over her and taking many a snowball while trying to cover for their commander.

The army of Victorias were far too engaged in engaging the Pennys, having a ton of fun engaging in this physical altercation of metal and ice dancing and throwing snowballs at one another, so when the Sanns descended she was caught unprepared and a bunch of Victorias were blown over by their attack. Still, they’d definitely be trying to throw a couple back, too.

Mayra was still intent on engaging Penny and MDP, even if the lack of posts would suggest otherwise. The dragon-girl wasn’t entirely able to dodge past the snow, but it didn’t bother her at all and she threw a bunch of snowballs back up at them! Jelena was somewhere in there, too.

Meanwhile, in the fort of Josefin and Taihei, Josefin dodged down in their igloo at the sight of the squadron, but Taihei completely missed them. She raised a hand to counter them with a gravity-blast, but something was off with the dimension’s connection with the gravity-flux of a thirty-fifth planet of a distant galaxy’s center star so the gravity-flux failed and Taihei got a facefull of snow from the descending Valkyries. Just because.

Then there was suddenly a satellite floating above them, that discharged a flood of water.

That’s about when Lea had enough. She grabbed Olivia and blasted off into the sky with Olivia crying out in alarm, Esther following after on a tree she just grew that was rooted in the ground beneath, avoiding the water, albeit perhaps she overreacted since most was focused on that fort.

The Victorias blinked in surprise and jumped to dodge the water, quickly freezing some small icy platforms in the ankle-high water, looking in confusion at the sudden watery surroundings.

Mayra looked at the water and grinned determined to evaporate all the water before it got to her, but Jelena grabbed around her and they jumped, floating up in the air by Jelena’s metal-magic on herself making them float, before they landed again on one of the Victoria’s icy platforms.

Josefin and Taihei, meanwhile… just happened to have dug their fort downstreams from Penny’s fort, on a lower altitude, in a pit that was about to have all the excess water from the satellite attack violently fill it up and create a lake within which they’d be in the bottom.

‘Water…! C’mon, Taihei, up a tree…!’ Josefin said in alarm, jumping and trying to grab Taihei’s arm to help her up… but Taihei realized they had no time for that. Besides, she was an aquatic monster-girl, this should be fine. She used her gravity-magic, coincidentally working again, and flung a surprised Josefin up the tree. ‘Wait, TAIHEI!’ Josefin cried out after her, but Taihei wasn’t bothered. She proudly turned and faced the wave…

She didn’t even budge. Like a rock, the water just bounced off her before engulfing her, and Taihei was utterly unbothered as she was swallowed by the water. It wasn’t nearly enough power to do any damage to the most sturdy of all Asengav’s girls. She’d just let this water flow over her, and then she’d swim up to the surface, and-

Taihei suddenly coughed, water going down her mouth. Her eyes widened.

She… couldn’t breathe? Her hand went to…

Ah. There were no gills.

Her Christmas transformation had removed her gills.

What the f-

She coughed underwater, bubbles leaving her throat, her abysmal agility and heavy weight unable to escape the water.

Oh, so this is how she, an aquatic monster-girl, died. By drowning.

How very, very unlucky…

She bent her knees, closed her eyes, prepared to vanish all of a sudden…

Except then a magic bubble showed up around her because Christmas magic wouldn’t let her die in Dan’s dimension. It carried her up to the top of the tree Josefin was standing on, from which Taihei dropped down in fetal position.

‘Taihei! A-are you okay!?’ Josefin asked, very worried.

‘Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuh…’ Taihei mumbled in misery, but hey, she wasn’t dead.

‘… I think that’s enough excitement on my part,’ Lea muttered, carrying Olivia in her arms and with Esther floating next to her on a couple trees.

‘M-me too…’ Olivia breathed out in panic, and with that, Lea took off with her and they went off from the battlefield, Esther following by periodically shooting trees and using them as stilts to follow after Lea at a modestly quick pace for a not-very-agile girl.

‘That thing’s AWESOME! Where did you get one of those…!?’ Mayra cried out, eyes positively shining pointing out where the satellite was.

‘… That aside, I think we’re done fighting for now. Thank you for the gift, Mayra, hah,’ Jelena said, chuckling a little. Mayra just grinned at her.

‘Thanks for fighting me, you’re pretty fun,’ Victoria said to Penny, her various copies waving to her copies.

---

‘… The Wacky Downhill Race?’ Mariette quietly repeated, having been listening to the dolphin just because through an idle portal. It sounded… fun.

Pokémon: Start

@Joshua Tamashii
_{appropriate music}

Drifloon scouted out the area, but didn’t exactly find a Water Stone. This thing looks slightly blue, though, albeit not very rock-like. And these berries sure looked blue.

Drifloon obtained Max Potion!
Drifloon obtained 3 Oran Berries!

‘Oh, sure! I can do that!’ Leila said, turning to the water and sending out her Barboach in the water. Barboach looked up at her curiously. ‘Could you go looking for a Water Stone, Barboach? Water-like rock. That should do nicely.’

Meanwhile, Pumpkaboo and Phantump started looking around the place, which was sorta drenched in water but that wasn’t a particular problem for the ghostly grass-types. They did find some odd things.

Phantump obtained Paralyze Heal!
Phantump obtained Poké Ball!
Pumpkaboo obtained Fresh Water!
Pumpkaboo obtained Rare Candy!

Upon trying to enter the bags, however, they got interrupted.

‘Oh, no, you’re not rummaging around our bags. Fine if your trainer does, but you don’t,’ Annica objected, hurrying over to prevent them going through the bags, and had a Murkrow that could intervene if they were to try again.

Still, that was it for now.

What will Amelia do?

TESTIMONY: Backpacker Leila

‘So, the three of us are friends. We came to Route 2 together.’
‘We came across the Water Stone, but Palpitoad protected it.’
‘I sent Barboach to cause an earthquake, but got too scared to take the stone!’
‘I didn’t dare look back on Annica, in case I looked suspicious!’
‘Any one of her many Pokémon could have been looking at me!’
‘I later checked on the Palpitoad and the Water Stone, but both were gone.’

TESTIMONY: Lass Annica

‘I went to set up camp for us for later, because we were going to spend time here.’
‘I didn't do much else, just watched Leila nearby by the waterside.’
‘So Leila’s Barboach caused the Earthquake. How naughty of her.’
‘Leila eventually left towards the site where we found the Water Stone and Palpitoad.’
‘It was shortly after that Palpitoad started washing over the route with water.’
‘I think Amy’s Staryu can remain a Staryu for now. If it’d evolve, it’d be in the future.’

TESTIMONY: Bug Catcher Eric

‘We healed our Pokémon at the Center in Pureplain City, then came over here.’
‘During the event, I was battling the wild Pokémon of Route 2 the entire time!’
‘There was that earthquake Leila caused, and I saw Palpitoad depart to investigate.’
‘So there was a time there when the Water Stone was unguarded.’
‘… I was tempted. I would have wanted to gift Amy a Water Stone for her Staryu...’
‘But I'm in no rush! I'll find her another one!’

Court Record

• Attorney's Badge. … This is a Sun Stone.
• Earthquake Testimony. An earthquake happened that distracted Palpitoad. Would have been hard to miss.
• Leila's Barboach. A healthy Barboach. Has inherited a bunch of moves from parents.
• Leila's Belongings. Hiking equipment. A fishing rod. A ridiculous amount of peculiar rocks and stones. A diary with a ton of writing about wanting to compete in contests. There’s a Fire and Leaf Stone among them.
• Annica's Murkrow. A healthy Murkrow. Looks pleased with itself.
• Annica's Fletchling. A slightly damaged Fletchling. Looks a bit nervous.
• Annica's Belongings. A couple Pokéballs and Potions. A phone. The wrapped-up-in-a-hurry remains of the tent they were going to camp in. A pair of tickets for a ferry from Pureplain City to Sunyshore City.
• Eric's Surskit. A damaged Surskit. Still pretty peppy.
• Eric's Ledyba. A damaged Ledyba. It's suffered a Burn.
• Eric's Belongings. Bug catcher net and cage. Bunches of Pokéballs and Potions and Repels and anything else a good Pokémon Trainer needs. A photo of a young girl together with Annica.

Or she could leave.

Suggestions to actions

1. Find Pokémon. Can be specified what kind of Pokémon is being searched for, and how you search.
2. Train Pokémon. With this command, we can jump ahead in time and skip posting about grinding.
3. Seek trainers. There should be some here and there. Note, some may challenge you, regardless.
4. Talk. There’s some other travelers around. Maybe seek answers to any burning questions you have.
5. Move along. Move along normally, letting any events that may come happen naturally.
6. Hurry along. Intentionally avoid confrontations and try to get safely to the next destination.
7. Specify. If you specify what you want to do, the GM will take it into account and tell the result.
8. Trigger random event. Force the GM to use his imagination to make a scenario for you.
9. Area Specific: Fishermen Huts. See what the fishermen over there's got going.
10. Current Event: Palpitoad Flooding. Random event.

Connected areas:
Pureplain City. You can get back without complication.
Infested Woods. You’re right next to it.
Wet Caverns. May need to cross a bridge or two to get there.

Route 2, known Pokémon

Common:
#13 Weedle
#16 Pidgey
#161 Sentret
#270 Lotad
#283 Surskit

Uncommon:
#60 Poliwag

Rare:
#158 Totodile
#420 Cherubi
#536 Palpitoad

__________________________

_{Gym battle in progress}

@hatakekuro

Lupin used Scratch to deflect the incoming pebbles! It decently worked, the Sneasel’s swipes hitting the flying rocks out of the way as they descended towards him, but some still got by, doing small bits of super-effective damage at him. The rain of pebbles eventually abated…

‘Rock Slide,’ Lorette commanded, and with some focus from Shuckle the pebbles took form anew, raining down on the battlefield once again, piling up across the wooden platform.

What would Basil and Lupin do?

Pokémon: Start

_{Gym battle in progress}

@hatakekuro

On account of having been waiting for Basil's move, Lorette was at a disadvantage when it came to speed and was taken by surprise by the Sneasel and Taunt. Combine that with that Shuckle's a very slow Pokémon, Lupin managed to make his taunt unopposed.

Shuckle looked mortified, sliding its limbs back into its shell, looking extremely sad. Still, Taunt had the effect it would still have.

‘Oh, that puts me in a bind,’ Lorette remarked, bringing a hand up to her chin. ‘Oh, well. Rock Slide,’ she then commanded. Shuckle tensed up a bit, before a shower of rocks came down from above, pelting down over Lupin's half of the battlefield...!

Calling it a "Rock Slide" was a bit generous, with Shuckle's abysmal attack stats it was more of a "Pebble Slide". Still, there was a lot of the rocks, and could potentially be hard to dodge.

How will Basil and Lupin respond?

Pokémon: Start

@Gardevoiran

Skylar and his new evolved Pokémon headed back across the desert back to Raremine Town! From here, he wandered through a town that was recovering from some recent turmoil, some builders patching up some damaged buildings and scientists helping reconstruct here and there. All that aside, Skylar and his team were heading for one place and one place alone. The Pokémon Gym…

He found a huge gate, an arc held upon two pillars forming a place to walk through, and on the sign it said “Pokémon Gym” in large shiny letters, for those who can read. Except, the gate led straight out into the vast, sandy desert, from where Skylar had just come.

On the side stood a little sign, as proper for a Pokémon Gym, despite the clear lack of actual building.

Raremine Pokémon Gym - Minor League
Leader: Kristy
“The Desert Princess!”

Beside the sign stood a young man in glasses, who stepped forth just in time to greet Skylar as he arrived.

‘Why, hello there, newest champ-to-be! This is about the time most new challengers ask themselves “where’s the gym?”.’ he said, ready to be informative.

This guy

‘Now, first, let me give you an analysis. Kristy is a user of the Ground-type. They’re super-weak to electric types, so bring all your Pikachus! … Er, they’re strong against electric, poison, rock and steel-type Pokémon. They also make short work of water, grass and flying-type Pokémon, so better leave those at home! ... On the contrary, water and grass are pretty good against Ground! That aside, Kristy loves fighting in a sandstorm, so don’t bring goggles, the sand will ruin them! Oh, and rock- and steel-type Pokémon resist the sand, so bring lots of those! … True, but as I said, they’re weak to Ground-type, so, maybe not?’

‘Fuh, what are you even standing around telling trainers this for? Let new trainers figure out themselves what types work against each Gym Leader! That’s part of the fun!’ So said a red-haired woman that stood up from behind the Gym’s sign, smiling brightly, goggles on her head, a brown jacket over an orange suit with lots of equipment stashed into it. She’d been copying the Gym Guy’s voice in the middle of his analysis.

Kristy

‘Just doing my duty, my lady,’ the Gym Guy bowed to her, and then stepped out of the way.

‘Hah,’ the woman made a dismissively amused noise, before looking to Skylar and smiling brightly. ‘Howdy~! I’m Kristy, Leader of Raremine Town Gym! I’m happy to see you’ve come to visit my Gym! Where’s my Gym, you ask? Well, all of Isson’s deserts are my Gym~!’ Kristy boasted as she gestured at the desert through the gate behind her.

‘So, have you come to challenge my gym? Are you prepared?’ Kristy asked.

This is where Skylar would be allowed to ask questions or the like.

Under the assumption that he goes through with this

‘Then come!’ Kristy said excitedly as she spun around, walking out into the desert, expecting Skylar to follow.

Route 7

Route 7

A rocky desert stretches out behind Raremine Town. Route 7 is located in somewhat of a basin, surrounded by giant cliffs that cause all the clouds to empty themselves of water before passing this single area, causing the single most potent desert of Isson, the sun eternally glaring down with heat echoing from the sand beneath. While this desert contains a lot more rocks than a regular vast desert does due to the cliffs sometimes falling down into it and the boulders rolling about, there is somewhat of an influx of air soaring down into the valley, regularly blowing sand up into the skies. Sandstorms are a semi-regular occurrence on Route 7, and one in particular is always covering up the path that is said to lead to the Mystic Oasis, which can only be reliably found through the assistance of a Vivillon, which was found out a while ago by the citizens of Raremine Town. Still, the path to the Desert Mines is usually clear and populated by miners walking back and forth, and those fortunate can pass all the way to the Old Tombs without any issues…

The hot desert spread out all around them. Kristy breathed in the air as if it was the freshest thing she’d ever breathed, and then spun around to Skylar.

‘So… how about we play a little game?’ Kristy said, smiling as she did. ‘I’m going to go hide in the desert. Your job is to come find me. You may use any means available to you and your Pokémon. You start, as soon as the sandstorm sets. When you find me, we battle. Sounds good?’ Kristy asked, but obviously she’d already made up her mind. She took out a Pokéball and let out the contents. A modestly large mammal on four legs and an oversized snout.

Pokédex Entry #449 – Hippopotas, the Hippo Pokémon. It lives in arid places. Instead of perspiration, it expels grainy sand from its body. It shrouds itself in this sand to ward of germs and enemies. It can walk through sand as easily as on ground, though has to shut its nostrils when doing so. They form colonies of around ten.

‘Hippo-pooooooooooo-!’ the Pokémon sounded out as a burst of sand suddenly blasted off it, and the area surrounding it was covered in a sudden sandstorm which covered Kristy but not Skylar. Kristy grinned as she pulled down her goggles from her forehead and placed over her eyes.

‘Good luck, my sweet little challenger~’ she said before being enveloped by the sandstorm and jumping back into it. Being rather close to Skylar, the sandstorm covered much of his field of view… not that he’d have seen a lot, but perhaps his Pokémon had been watching. The sandstorm blew for a while, and then, it eventually settled. There was no trace of where Kristy had gone…

No, wait, that’s not true. In fact, there were a myriad of foot-prints in the sand, left behind despite that there had just been a sandstorm!

The options were as follows…

1. Four-legged Pokémon. These are the tracks of a quadrupedal Pokémon, walking calmly across the sand, out into the desert where the tracks then suddenly end.
2. Tiny line. There’s a miniscule line of something having dragged along the desert. It’s too small to be a wheel. They lead to a rocky pillar randomly standing around.
3. Bike tracks. These are obviously the tracks of a bike, in the desert. It leads off into the desert, towards the eternal sandstorm of the Mythic Oasis.
4. Raised from Digging. Something has been travelling underneath the sand, the tracks obvious because the sand has formed a bump over the tunnel. It leads to a large rock formation.

What will Skylar (and his Pokémon) do?

__________________________

_{Gym battle in progress}

@hatakekuro

‘Oh,’ Lorette blinked a little at the Pokémon that was sent in. ‘Um, Safeguard,’ she quickly commanded with a calm voice with a touch of realization. Shuckle took a bit of a breath, and then a circle of protection emerged around Shuckle…

Lorette resumed smiling happily at Basil. Shuckle looking on as well.

Given what Jigglypuffs are famous for, this was a bit of an obvious choice.

What will Basil and Aria do now?

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

Freya’s current appearance (except not nearly as happy)

Freya was silent for a bit, listening, and then it came to the part where Freya was to talk about anything at all.

‘Uuuuuuuuuuh…’ Freya tilted away a bit as she considered it. It was sort of painful to bring up, but she was supposed to make an effort here. ‘… I was… supposed to try out having friends. The problematic Beacon-boy recommended you for me, of all people…’ Freya said.

She had more she could potentially say, but right as of this moment, she was curious to how Penny would respond to this information.

---

Tullia’s current appearance

Yeah, a simple statue of a magical girl, made without cheating. It didn’t look perfect, Tullia had made it without any magic, after all, but something within her was a bit dissatisfied, given the other creations that were popping up around her.

‘… Okay. Now we cheat,’ Tullia mumbled.

Beside her sculpture she created numerous giant ice-blocks of her own. Then, she spun into a dance. Wielding her own Bifrost Staff and her icy saw, she danced like with ballet between her different icy blocks, waving her staff and her saw, chopping large parts of ice off the different sculptures. Ice fell off as if meant to be, the corners were smoothed, the ground was frozen. Finally, she stopped in the middle, raising her hand, and snapped her fingers.

She’d surrounded herself with sculptures of dancers, made out of her own ice, all of them looking in towards the middle. The ice on them were perfectly smooth, their faces human-like in emotion, looking like they were ready to spring to life any second. And, with the snap of Tullia’s fingers, they started to move. They were perfectly arranged in a circle in different layers, and the three layers started to spin, two clockwise, the middle one counter-clockwise. She’d frozen the ground beneath them, letting some weight cause them to move, sliding them spinning around her, the perfect sculptures creating animations of people dancing around her should one keep looking.

Sighing, Tullia skipped out of the enclosure, somehow leaving behind a perfect icy sculpture of herself in the middle, just exactly where she’d just been standing, dodging her own dancers with perfect dance-moves of her own before she arrived outside the enclosure, how own icy dancers spinning gradually around a sculpture of herself…

‘… Cheated,’ she said by herself. But it sure looked impressive. She sighed a bit and walked off, to see what others had made.


Somewhere some bit away, a spider-girl wrapped some net around an icy block and dragged it away from the field, so that a young, blonde girl and her even tinier daughter could try out some icy sculpting, too, just out of sight of everyone else.

Ronin and Miko could try out some ice-sculpting, too. Just trying to make duplications of each other, just because. With reinforcement to help them, they turned out pretty good.

---

Mayra was a bit upset at her snowball being eaten, but she wouldn’t let that stand and would dodge more snowballs, grab more snow and do her best to return fire, albeit without actual fire.

Victoria’s current appearance (except there’s lots of her)

The Victorias realized that the Pennys were infiltrating her castle, but as the Pennys were gathering up inside, the Victorias smirked something wickedly…

‘Fire support or not, the trap will still work,’ Victoria declared, and placed a hand on the icy wall. The composition of the castle suddenly changed, turning the entire icy wall into-

‘GET SNOWED IN, NUTBALL!’ a somewhat manic-looking Victoria shouted maybe insultingly, as that one Victoria leapt out of the castle while the clone Victorias more focused on keeping the Pennys locked inside, as suddenly the whole castle collapsed into snow intending to bury the infiltrators. This didn’t bother the Victoria clones at all as they had the particular ability to swim through snow on the way out, but they definitely intended the Pennys to get absolutely drenched in snow for daring to infiltrate her base…!

Oh, and Lea, Esther, Olivia, Taihei, Josefin and Jelena are all also still in the snowball fight somewhere until I figure out something better for them to do.

@Shifter_Master

Pokémon: Start

@Pirouette

‘… Tsk,’ Elana made a noise as she quickly returned Slurpuff to a Pokéball and started dashing after Erika, shuffling her great bag into her hands and sticking into her bag looking to get her hands on an appropriate item for this situation, which would be an Escape Rope. Still, she couldn’t use it with just herself…!

‘…!’ Ewan quickly grabbed Duessel and leapt aside, his instincts perhaps faster than those of his companions, and he leapt sideways into the way where they’d come from, to the left. He got into it, but that led to him being split off from the rest of them as the giant drill went past him. He quickly stood up and retrieved a couple Pokéballs…

‘WOA- THAT’S NOT ON THE ENCOUNTER-LIST!’ Joshua laughed, as if unbothered by the suddenly very perilous situation they’d found themselves in, gripping Mudkip and holding her onto his head as he ran with a wide smile along the underground corridor.

The three of them ran on, clearly faster than the giant drill, but hardly safe should any of them coincidentally stumble. However, after a good run the path turned right, and as they turned the giant drill did not. It carried on and slammed into the wall straight ahead. There, it stopped, emitting a loud sigh of smoke shooting out of its varying exhaust-pipes.

Ewan showed up, with a Psyduck, a Swinub, a Treecko and a Spearow all in position to attack the mechanical aggressor. Elana, also not appreciating the visitor, turned and held a Pokéball ready, albeit hadn’t thrown it yet. Joshua also spun around, though looked less startled about all of this.

A hatch suddenly shot open on the top of the machine.

‘Woh. We made it,’ said a surprisingly young boy, crawling out of the top of the giant mechanical machine. He had short brown hair, a giant green coat hanging like a cape around him, numerous mechanical gadgets wrapped onto his left arm, and tired brown eyes. Behind him skipped forth a couple purple-clad seemingly psychics that were helping pick up some very strange looking equipment from out of the machine to on top of it…

Boy

‘Right, let’s begin at once…’ the boy said, directing the device on his left arm in front of him and starting to turn a few screws…

‘Who are you supposed to be?’ Elana asked, a little miffed at being chased like that.

‘Oh, there’s people here…’ the boy said, looking down with tired eyes at them. ‘If you’d just be on your way, I’d very much appreciate it.’

‘You almost ran us over!’ Ewan told him, clearly also pretty upset about that.

‘Hm, the records said people rarely travel through these tunnels. How very unfortunate you must be. Well. Carry on,’ the boy said, turning around towards the machines that the psychics had picked out. Something with a screen. The boy opened a Pokéball, and a small, green-and-white humanoid Pokémon formed on top of the machine…

Pokédex Entry #281 – Kirlia, the Emotion Pokémon. It’s horns amplify its psychokinetic powers, allowing it to see glimpses of the future or distort space to display mirages. It’s highly sensitive to its trainer’s feelings, instinctively dancing in response to happiness. It’s said to grow more beautiful when exposed to positive emotions.

‘Don’t worry, my Pitri. We’ll find your item. Start the scan,’ the boy told his Kirlia.

‘Kirl!’ Pitri replied, holding its arms over its head, closing its eyes to focus Psychic power… and a dot appeared on the screen of the machine underneath.

‘Sir Julian! There’s… a single positive response in the entire mountain!’ one of the Psychics said.

‘Excellent. Then let’s go take it. I didn’t dig all the way from Mt. Edge to return empty-handed. Let’s crush this filthy mountain so I can be back home soon,’ the boy, Julian, told as he started to get down into the machine again.

‘Wait, you just DUG a tunnel from Mt. Edge to Mt. Strength?’ Joshua asked, leaning to peer in the direction the drill had come from. ‘Cool.’

‘Not cool,’ Elana grunted. ‘I got to collapse that tunnel before Psychic-types from Mt. Edge start invading, it’d cause havoc to the ecosystem of Mt. Strength…!’ she mentioned, before taking off towards where the drill had come from.

What does Erika take away from all this?

__________________________

@Joshua Tamashii
_{appropriate music}

‘Oh, that’d make sense,’ Leila said, hitting one hand into the other, thinking that was pretty clever. ‘So maybe it wasn’t any of us, after all. That’s a relief…’

Palpitoad looked curiously at the pictures that Amelia was showing her… but none really stuck. Palpitoad tilted its body to peer at the images, then shook its head at the question. That wasn’t the intended solution of this puzzle. Nice idea, though.

Some of the testimonies have been rewritten to include some of the new information.

What will Amelia do now?

TESTIMONY: Backpacker Leila

‘So, the three of us are friends. We came to Route 2 together.’
‘We came across the Water Stone, but Palpitoad protected it.’
‘I sent Barboach to cause an earthquake, but got too scared to take the stone!’
‘I didn’t dare look back on Annica, in case I looked suspicious!’
‘Any one of her many Pokémon could have been looking at me!’
‘I later checked on the Palpitoad and the Water Stone, but both were gone.’

TESTIMONY: Lass Annica

‘I went to set up camp for us for later, because we were going to spend time here.’
‘I didn't do much else, just watched Leila nearby by the waterside.’
‘So Leila’s Barboach caused the Earthquake. How naughty of her.’
‘Leila eventually left towards the site where we found the Water Stone and Palpitoad.’
‘It was shortly after that Palpitoad started washing over the route with water.’
‘I think Amy’s Staryu can remain a Staryu for now. If it’d evolve, it’d be in the future.’

TESTIMONY: Bug Catcher Eric

‘We healed our Pokémon at the Center in Pureplain City, then came over here.’
‘During the event, I was battling the wild Pokémon of Route 2 the entire time!’
‘There was that earthquake Leila caused, and I saw Palpitoad depart to investigate.’
‘So there was a time there when the Water Stone was unguarded.’
‘… I was tempted. I would have wanted to gift Amy a Water Stone for her Staryu...’
‘But I'm in no rush! I'll find her another one!’

Court Record

• Attorney's Badge. … This is a Sun Stone.
• Earthquake Testimony. An earthquake happened that distracted Palpitoad. Would have been hard to miss.
• Leila's Barboach. A healthy Barboach. Has inherited a bunch of moves from parents.
• Leila's Belongings. Hiking equipment. A fishing rod. A ridiculous amount of peculiar rocks and stones. A diary with a ton of writing about wanting to compete in contests. There’s a Fire and Leaf Stone among them.
• Annica's Murkrow. A healthy Murkrow. Looks pleased with itself.
• Annica's Fletchling. A slightly damaged Fletchling. Looks a bit nervous.
• Annica's Belongings. A couple Pokéballs and Potions. A phone. The wrapped-up-in-a-hurry remains of the tent they were going to camp in. A pair of tickets for a ferry from Pureplain City to Sunyshore City.
• Eric's Surskit. A damaged Surskit. Still pretty peppy.
• Eric's Ledyba. A damaged Ledyba. It's suffered a Burn.
• Eric's Belongings. Bug catcher net and cage. Bunches of Pokéballs and Potions and Repels and anything else a good Pokémon Trainer needs. A photo of a young girl together with Annica.

Or she could leave.

Suggestions to actions

1. Find Pokémon. Can be specified what kind of Pokémon is being searched for, and how you search.
2. Train Pokémon. With this command, we can jump ahead in time and skip posting about grinding.
3. Seek trainers. There should be some here and there. Note, some may challenge you, regardless.
4. Talk. There’s some other travelers around. Maybe seek answers to any burning questions you have.
5. Move along. Move along normally, letting any events that may come happen naturally.
6. Hurry along. Intentionally avoid confrontations and try to get safely to the next destination.
7. Specify. If you specify what you want to do, the GM will take it into account and tell the result.
8. Trigger random event. Force the GM to use his imagination to make a scenario for you.
9. Area Specific: Fishermen Huts. See what the fishermen over there's got going.
10. Current Event: Palpitoad Flooding. Random event.

Connected areas:
Pureplain City. You can get back without complication.
Infested Woods. You’re right next to it.
Wet Caverns. May need to cross a bridge or two to get there.

Route 2, known Pokémon

Common:
#13 Weedle
#16 Pidgey
#161 Sentret
#270 Lotad
#283 Surskit

Uncommon:
#60 Poliwag

Rare:
#158 Totodile
#420 Cherubi
#536 Palpitoad

__________________________

_{Gym battle in progress}

@hatakekuro

Basil returned Crocus, and sent out Cecil. Cecil immediately received the brunt of two giant lances as Escavalier hit against her with Fell Stinger. However, despite the stat-difference, Fell Stinger is a decently weak move and it’s Not Very Effective, meaning Cecil got out of the tussle with relatively little damage. Escavalier bounced a healthy distance back after the impact.

‘Heh, even a weak Bulbasaur is worth keeping around, huh?’ Lorette mused, her own tactic failing. ‘Very well. A fire-type, huh. Too bad Accelgor fainted. It knew Water Shuriken, after all,’ she continued, giggling a bit. ‘Okay, Escavalier! You’re probably going to faint now, but if you don’t, DOUBLE-EDGE!’ she commanded, and the Escavalier took off again! Using its own lances as stilts to lounge itself forward for a tackle…!

Then Basil made his command. ‘… Huh?’ Lorette made a confused sound.

Cecil obeyed the command, and blasted a burst of fire down into the wooden platform! Now, the platform had been constructed with the intention of violent battles taking place on these boards. They’d usually be able to take some heat just fine… but not when the attack was aimed directly at them! Incinerate burst into the wood, and because of what Incinerate does, the wooden plank was thoroughly burned through, creating a hole! Incinerate doesn’t light things on fire, it incinerates them, reducing it to ashes!

Then came Escavalier at full speed, intending to stick its lances into the floor and carry it straight through the smoke of the Fire-type move it had expected to hit it, pushing its lances down to fling itself in a destructive Double-Edge towards-!

SPLASH

-aaaaaaand Escavalier fell through the hole in the platform and into the waters beneath, as the entire wooden platform was situated on the pond inside the Gym. While the water wasn’t deep, Escavalier was a bug and rather heavy, and was flailing desperately beneath the surface. The forward speed had carried it underneath Cecil’s current position, under the wood, and it was having trouble finding its way back to the surface! It wiggled some time more…

… And Lorette stood up, raising a Pokéball and returning her Pokémon to its Pokéball.

‘… Whatever are you doing to my platform? It’ll take some doing replacing those, you know,’ she asked, though looking somewhat amused. ‘Oh, well. Guess that counts as Escavalier being defeated.’

Cecil grew to level 12! Cecil learned Fire Fang!

‘Alright, then. Shuckle! You’re up!’ Lorette called, throwing her next Pokéball onto the field! Out from it came a small, red rock, with a strange yellow tentacle-like bug growing out of its various holes.

Pokédex Entry #213 – Shuckle, the Mold Pokémon. It stores berries inside its shell. It is naturally shy and typically hide under rocks, keeping its body concealed inside its exceedingly hard shell while eating stored berries. The berries mix with its body fluids to become a delicious juice that it secretes through various holes.

Lorette looked happily and expectantly at Basil, and so did Shuckle. Seems like she wasn’t going to give a command until he did.

Pokémon: Start

_{Gym battle in progress}

@hatakekuro

Crocus managed to Growl before Beedrill hit him again, decreasing the power of U-Turn. Once again, with no choice in the matter, Beedrill bounced back towards its trainer… only for the vine to slam it down into the floor again as it couldn't return. The annoyed bee immediately surged in at Crocus again, while Leech Seed drained some health to him…!

Two round-trips later, and standing only due to Growl and Leech Seed, Crocus outlasted the angry giant bee, which now lay fainted at the end of the vine, having slammed its face into the floor repeatedly with the excess power of U-Turn. The Bulbasaur was heavily damaged, however.

Crocus grew to level 13! Crocus learned Poison Powder! Crocus learned Sleep Powder!

‘Nicely done,’ Lorette smiled as she returned Beedrill. ‘Now, let me reintroduce you. Escavalier!’ she called, throwing out a Pokéball, and the knightly, slow but powerful bug with twin lances formed once again.

At this point, Basil should determine what he wants to do beforehand, really.

Have you decided?

Lorette smirked a bit before pointing forward.

‘Escavalier! Es Fell Stinger!’ she commanded. Now, Escavalier didn't have much speed, but it had a phenomenal amount of strength. Strength that came in handy as it vaulted forward, stabbed its stingers into the floor and thrusted with all its might, sending the bug flying at its target with significant speed, twisting in mid-air to point its stingers forward…!

Speed at the cost of accuracy, control and eventual predictability, most likely.

With what he originally intended in mind, how will Basil respond to this threat?

How will Basil react?

__________________________

@Pirouette

Elana peered at her intently from really close when she insisted the two boys were just friends that wanted to join them. After all, Erika was looking really nervous and like someone that may just be hiding something. ‘… Well, okay, then,’ she eventually concluded that it didn’t necessarily matter that much, leaning away from her and focusing on the journey at hand.

They then embarked on their trip and arrived at Mt. Strength. At the mention of needing to send out Pokémon that didn’t look too tough, Joshua and Ewan looked at one another.

‘It’s gotta be Mudkipz!’ Joshua said, sending out his Pokémon and grabbing around her. ‘You’re such a sweet-looking little thing, who’d be scared of you?’ he said, hugging around his Mudkip happily, and the Mudkip looked similarly happy.

Pokédex Entry #258 – Mudkip, the Mud Fish Pokémon. The fin on top of its head is highly sensitive to movements in water and air, allowing it to act like a radar and giving it impressive awareness. It’s known to rest by covering itself with mud at the bottom of a river. It’s known to be very strong for its size.

‘… I suppose Duessel,’ Ewan said, sending out the Psyduck, who immediately looked back at Ewan with a kinda sad-looking expression, while holding onto his head. ‘Don’t worry, you’ll look far tougher after you evolve,’ Ewan assured his Pokémon. Duessel looked sort-of relieved with that.

Pokédex Entry #53 – Psyduck, the Duck Pokémon. It is plagued by headaches from the moment it is born until it evolves. Its vacant look is there to lull its enemies, and by intensifying its headaches it can unleash psychic powers. However, any time it uses these powers will create a lapse in its memory and it won’t remember having done so.

The deal of the stones was agreed upon. Elana nodded, and then held the Shiny Stone in front of Slurpuff. ‘Smell this. Keep in mind that we’re not looking for exactly this stone, just another kind of evolution stone,’ she told. Slurpuff excitedly nodded, smelled it, and… ‘Slurpuff!’ the Pokémon called, and was immediately on its way. Elana nodded to Erika and started to follow already. ‘It does seem like we’re heading down…’ Elana remarked on where Slurpuff was heading.

They headed down through tunnels, leaving behind the underground town of fighting-types to follow relatively normal underground tunnels, snaking in varying direction and leading further down the mountain. Then and again Pokémon headed by, Machops fighting or transporting rocks somewhere or Meditites just sitting on the wayside meditating.

Joshua and Ewan were momentarily happy to follow. Joshua got into a bit of trouble when he accidentally stepped on a Geodude. The Geodude immediately attacked, but Joshua could take it out with one shot via Mudkip’s Water Gun. However, a couple Machops saw the display, and decided Mudkip was worthy of being challenged! Ewan had to step in to help defeat the wild Pokémon for a bit, there…

Meanwhile, Slurpuff was heading through the tunnel with utmost determination, seeking directly through the tunnels until it found what it was looking for. There! A stone! … A Shiny Stone, just as the one Elana had showed it! … Some time later, it found another stone! Another Shiny Stone, that is. … And then another. Then another. Then…

‘I… did tell you that what we were looking for wasn’t EXACTLY like this?’ Elana asked, frowning a little at her Pokémon as she was holding the fifth Shiny Stone they’d found. Slurpuff tilted its head a little, confused. Elana sighed. ‘Well, guess we can keep looking…’

They’d now been wandering the tunnels for quite an amount of time. Stones were, though, not the only thing they’d found around here. Quite a bit of basic Pokémon Trainer necessities were lying about…

Erika obtained 3 Potions!
Erika obtained 6 Pokéballs!
Erika obtained 3 Repels!

They kept wandering the lower parts of Mt. Strength. Slurpuff was attempting to widen the search-parameters, actually finding a Fire Stone down there, which Elana promptly collected. Joshua and Ewan were discussing what kind of Fighting-type they could imagine capturing, neither of the two had become particularly impressed with any of the Fighting-types they’d seen so far. Still, they continued wandering the dark caves until-

The cave suddenly started shaking! Like there was an earthquake or something going on!

‘Woah-!’ Joshua called, grabbing onto the wall. ‘What’s this-!?’ he asked, clearly excited by the level of power displayed.

‘Huh, that’s odd. The Pokémon down here should be pretty weak…’ Elana commented, crouching to pick up Slurpuff, to prevent the light Pokémon from bouncing off.

‘… It’s coming from that direction,’ Ewan pointed, because indeed, the shaking seemed to be coming from behind that wall. There were even sounds, and the sounds were coming closer…!

‘… There should be no reason to worry, the Pokémon of Mt. Strength isn’t the kind that’d want to hurt you past challenging your Pokémon, and there’s none bigger than a Machamp; they wouldn’t hurt you accidentally,’ Elana tried to comfort, but it was true that something was coming closer, and-

And something burst through the wall.

It wasn’t a Pokémon. It was huge.

It was a gigantic drilling-machine, going through the wall and with no sign of stopping.

machine

There’s two immediate ways out of its way. One would be immediately to the left. Pros include, short distance to get there and guaranteed out of the way. Cons, you have a very limited amount of time before the machine blocks the way and a failed attempt to get there could have dire consequences.

Second option, turn and run further down the cave. Pros; the machine is slow and you should be able to outrun it. Cons; the path is straight and you’ll have the machine pursuing you for a significant distance, don’t stumble. Then, there’s the third option, use whatever possible means to stop the giant drill before it engangers you. Fourth option, escape rope.

Now, each of the others is going to have their own immediate reaction, but to start with, what’s Erika’s?

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

Freya’s current appearance (except not nearly as happy)

Freya’s face darkened as she heard the announcement, from one of the phones of the other girl that somehow heard what was happening in the main room. The other girl sighed, and Freya grunted in anger.

‘Well, that was a ----- waste of time and care, why the hell did I even bother? ---- horror, playing with my ---- emotions, see, this is exactly why-’ Freya grunted in anger, partly noticing that the other girl had stood up and started wandering away. Freya was a bit confused, but just as the girl vanished out of sight Freya heard someone else approaching. Penny.

‘Penny…’ the monster-girl grunted her name, before spinning around to not look at her right now. ‘Darn straight I’m not okay. Why the hell did I dare to hope? ---- this. I want to tear that horror’s darn heart out and squash it beneath my boot. Some ------ Christmas event that turned out to be. Even if I’d somehow gotten my luck, someone else would have been hurt. What a ------’ Freya pronounced a couple profanities her player isn’t comfortable writing before sitting down herself with a sigh.

‘… So, you just happen to be empathetic enough to just head after me just because I looked bothered? Well, uh, thanks. I’m, uh, Freya. Freya Cameron. … What else did you come here for?’ Freya asked, kind of unsure what to say.

---

Tullia’s current appearance

Tullia was engaged in the snowball fight, specifically creating fortifications for Victoria to attack from and just generating snow for Victoria to throw...

When she felt something. A feeling in the air. A disturbance in the snow. A calling from the sky.

She had somewhere to be.

‘Sorry, Victoria. I must go,’ Tullia said, spinning around and leaping off over the fortifications of the icy castle.

‘Wa- TULLIA!?’ ‘Tullia!?’ ‘Where are you going!?’ ‘Tullia…!’ numerous Victorias called out after her as their source of success suddenly leaped away and left the horde of Victorias on their own to fend off the opposition.

Tullia ran through the area, focusing some magic and sending it surging ahead of her, as she leapt and formed ice-skates on her feet. As her feet landed, she glode on frozen snow across the island, driven by a single goal. Finally, she leapt off the last piece of frozen snow, melted the skates and then landed perfectly right in front of a block of ice.

She’d reached the field of ice sculpting. Her home.

‘I… am Tullia Barese, the Cold Sculptor. This is my thing,’ she said, spreading her arms to her sides. A saw of ice manifested in her left hand, and a variety of chisels of ice manifested in her right. ‘_{No cheating this time},’ she muttered to herself.

She glanced around, noticing Kimble and Alicia nearby. That… that would do.

With the precision of a high-agi girl, she walked around the block of ice and drew the contours of a statue. Then, wielding the icy saw, she cleaved off the excess ice, the saw she created easily cleaving through the ice because ice-girl. Did that count as cheating? Hopefully not. Then, with chisel in hand, she went in, time to carve out all the details…

The thing she created was a magnificent magical girl in an elaborate armour, long, flowing hair and wielding a detailed bow. It was somewhat inspired by Alicia, but Tullia changed enough things that it wouldn’t be recognized as her, except for perhaps through the use of a bow. It should be noted the statue wasn’t exactly perfect, for Tullia’s trying to get better without “cheating”, but regardless this was still definitely a work of art she was working on, some distance away from the others at the field.

Pokémon: Start

@Pirouette

‘Of course! That will be 1,900P,’ the woman at the Berry Garden said, and the purchase was done. Erika applied the Damp Mulch and planted the berries in her little patch of soil in the garden, ensuring she didn’t need to water her berries, and then she was on her way. After that, she awaited the return of her companions.

Eventually, from the direction of the Gym came a… positively dancing Joshua, who was followed by a Zubat spinning around him.

‘ERIKA! WE WON!’ Joshua called out so happily, lifting his new sparkling Treetop Badge up high. ‘And it was all thanks to this hero! Who’s the best darling hero Zubat? You are, that’s who! You’re the best, most delightful, beautiful Zubat across the land, and you’re my hero! You’re an absolute charm, Zubat! My hero!’

Erika has never seen a happier Zubat, the bat acting positively abashed in the praise but flying about making happy Zubat-cries.

Behind Joshua, Ewan arrived, nodding appreciatively at Erika.

‘Thank you for the tip about the weather. It made me remember I had found a Hail TM in the Frozen Cavern earlier, and I applied it to great effect. Sven really came through, despite Ground-typing. Just had to switch between him and the rest at steady intervals to keep Hail going, but with that, I won modestly easily. That Bellossom was no joke, though, has to just keep my distance and let the hail do the job. Archie wasn’t very happy with that and had to be coaxed into giving me the badge by his butler…’ Ewan sighed a little, seemingly regretting his strategy but coming out on top nonetheless.

‘In any case. Your tip saved me. Please, have this other TM I found as, er, payback,’ Ewan said, offering something to Erika and looking like he found what he said a bit amusing.

Erika obtained TM66 Payback!

Joshua then proceeded to tell the epic tale about how his Zubat saved the day, but through his flowery descriptions it basically amounted to “Zubat used Confuse Ray and got lucky repeatedly”. Still, Joshua was pretty good at making a dramatic story out of it.

Eventually, a young woman approached them, having found her way towards them. A blonde girl in a tight hat with goggles, wearing a jacket and had way too big a backpack on her back. She found Erika decently quickly, but stopped a bit of a distance as she noticed the other two.

Elana

‘Oooh, you must be the guide Erika spoke about!’ Joshua flew back on his feet, skipped over and bowed ever so gracefully to her. ‘I am Joshua, and it’s a delight to be charmed by your presence. I can feel the weight of your experience already from here, and it has touched my heart. It shall be a gift to be amazed by your enchanting abilities!’

‘… Likewise?’ Elana asked, looking a little confused as she looked between Joshua and Ewan. She then took to walking around Joshua and proceeding directly to Erika, leaning in really close to whisper. ‘You haven’t tricked me into going to a mixer, have you?’ she asked, mildly startled.

Anyway, with that out of the way (and probably with a few Erika lines explaining), they were on the way!

Still, here’s Stillwood Village if she wanted to do anything here.

Stillwood Village

Stillwood Village

Inside these calm forest lies a village completely in-tune with nature. The buildings are built around or in the trees of wood and stone, the light shining onto the village stifled by the great trees above. In the air, meeting your nose as soon as you tread into the village, is filled to the brim with the smell of forest and spores. It’s a wild smell, but somehow it is extremely relaxing and any worries seem to be stifled before the calming village ahead where everyone is always so calm and happy, wild Pokémon walking freely on the roads of the place. This is Stillwood Village, the most relaxing place imaginable, it’s people in touch with nature and wishing the best to all those who come to their cozy and ancient little home.

Wild Grass Pokémon freely wander the streets, spreading their spores into the air which the townspeople actively walk through every single day. They are all smiles, very helpful, the entire village and all visitors afflicted by the relaxing sensations brought by the spores during their stay in Stillwood Village. However, these spores are the reason quite a few avoid Stillwood Village, arguing that it messes with one’s mind. It is extremely rare that a member of Stillwood Village moves out of the village, after all. It will also quickly become evident just how little the members of the village care about the world at large, all their worries gone by the relaxing spores and just continue living, no troubles in the slightest.

That’s Stillwood Village for you.

Suggestions to actions, Stillwood Village

1. Find Pokémon. Can still search for Pokémon in cities~
2. Talk. In cities, there are considerably more people one can talk to. Talking can give you info on local rumors and such.
3. Exit. Exit the town to any of the connected areas.
4. Specify. If you specify what you want to do, the GM will take it into account and tell the result.
5. Trigger random event. Force the GM to use his imagination to make a scenario for you.
6. Notable Places. Visit any of the places in the city!
6.1. Pokémon Center. Heal all your Pokémon.
6.2. PokéMart. Go to a store and buy things.
6.3. Pokémon Gym. ???
6.4. Herb Store. Selling bitter medicine that is very good for your Pokémon!
6.5. Flower Shop. For decoration and for pleasant smells, the flower shop has the best selection in Isson!
6.6. Berry Garden. Allows trainers to rent earth to plant their own berries. New trainers gets a kit to start them off!
6.7. Treehouse Arena. Even forest-people want to battle it out sometimes. Lots of berries as prices~
6.8. Ancient Woods. An older part of the forest. Dangerous, but said to hold a link to the past. There are large old rocks here. What more could they hold?
7. Familiar Faces. Joshua and Ewan are at the Gym. Rodger’s also at the gym. Maple and Ellyn can be caught up to.
8. Wait. Wait for Joshua and Ewan to come back, for Elana to arrive, and for all preparations to be made for the departure to Mt. Strength.

Connected areas:
Route 4. Forest route at the base of Mt. Strength leading west to Rainrock City.
Route 5. A grassy incline connecting mountains, forests, plains, Stillwood and Lakewatch.
Route 14. The waters of Dragon Lake are also known as Route 14. It connects Lakewatch Town, Highhill Town and Stillwood Village.
Mountain Valley. A passage between Mt. Strength and Mt. Chill, a shortcut to Worldedge City.

Stillwood Village, known Pokémon

Common:
#44 Oddish
#187 Hoppip
#188 Skiploom
#285 Shroomish
#315 Roselia
#406 Budew

Uncommon:
#45 Gloom

Rare:

Otherwise, they departed westwards. Leaving the village, they’d still find themselves to be in Stillwood Forest, albeit one which wasn’t quite as tight and let sunlight shine down through the trees. This route was the gradual thinning of the Stillwood Forest, until eventually it led somewhere else. Either to the route where it always rained, or to the mountain.

Now Arriving At

Route 4

Route 4 is a pleasant stride through the forest known as Stillwood Forest, in which Stillwood Village dwells. Being at the base of Mt. Strength, the ground is decently uneven and you’re going to be going uphill as well as downhill and the beaten path isn’t even flat. But, it’s a pleasant forest where you’re unlikely to run into many problems. Being where it is, Route 4 has the unique little advantage that it gets a couple wild Pokémon from the surrounding forests AND a couple stray Mt. Strength dwellers that leak down onto Route 4, allowing some trainers that would never dare traverse the mountains at least have a taste of what kind of Pokémon they might expect up there. Maybe.

It should be noted, the inhabitants of Stillwood Village usually don’t tread very far from their village… but Route 4 is very much their route. There are Aroma Ladies aplenty around here, walking about on random walks through the forest just enjoying life, making the route decently populated by odd ladies that look like they might have inhaled a bit too many spores, given their wide smiles. But, otherwise, the route is as much a route as any other.

And here’s a couple of Pokémon. There and there in the ground stick out some plants, and Erika can identify them as Pokémon sleeping during the day using her Pokédex.

Pokédex Entry #43 – Oddish, the Weed Pokémon. During the day, Oddish finds nutrient-rich soil to sleep in and absorbs, specially preferring cold soil. When touched by the moonlight, it then pulls itself up and starts wandering, spreading its pollen and looking for a new place to sleep. If it is pulled up by an aggressor during the day, it shrieks out loudly.

Just lounging around are a couple of living rocks. One can reason that they’re among those that came rolling down Mt. Strength and then decided to stick around.

Pokédex Entry #74 – Geodude, the Rock Pokémon. Found in fields as well as mountains. They commonly rest, half-buried in the ground and indistinguishable from normal rocks. There are always way more Geodude around than a traveler will notice. Stepping on one by accident may trigger their rage.

Here and there are these spore-emitting walking mushroom-Pokémon that seem to be a favourite with the local Aroma Ladies.

Pokédex Entry #285 – Shroomish, the Mushroom Pokémon. It lives deep in dark, damp forest where it eats the composted soil and fallen leaves. By day it remains still in the forest shade, by night it moves to eat. If it detects danger, it can spout highly toxic spores from the top of its head, strong enough to make trees wilt.

Drifting among the trees are small, light Pokémon that are very happy that it is currently spring.

Pokédex Entry #187 – Hoppip, the Cottonweed Pokémon. Known to drift on winds, Hoppip is known to clutch to others of its kind to not be separated or to prevent being blown away. It is so light, even the gentlest breeze can lift it. When Hoppips gather, it is said spring is on the way.

And, lounging by a gate that appears to be leading to Mt. Strength, are a couple humanoid Fighting-types, either resting or practicing lifting rocks or so, just taking a break from otherwise tough Mt. Strength.

Pokédex Entry #66 – Machop, the Superpower Pokémon. A Machop is built up by a special muscle, which despite its size makes it stronger than 100 humans and will never tire no matter how much it strains itself. This combined with their general availability makes them a common choice for helping humans with manual labours.

‘And to get to Mt. Strength, we’re heading up here,’ Elana says, gesturing up a path. Erika’s free to go there, unless there’s anything she wished to do here.

So? Anything here that Erika wants to do or just onwards to Mt. Strength?

Suggestions to actions

1. Find Pokémon. Can be specified what kind of Pokémon is being searched for, and how you search.
2. Train Pokémon. With this command, we can jump ahead in time and skip posting about grinding.
3. Seek trainers. Plenty of Aroma Ladies around, if you so desire.
4. Talk. They can also just be chatted to!
5. Move along. Move along normally, letting any events that may come happen naturally.
6. Hurry along. Intentionally avoid confrontations and try to get safely to the next destination.
7. Specify. If you specify what you want to do, the GM will take it into account and tell the result.
8. Trigger random event. Force the GM to use his imagination to make a scenario for you.

Connected areas:
Route 3. To the west is the soaked forest route on which it always rains.
Mt. Strength. A mighty mountain with perhaps equally mighty inhabitants, just north.
Stillwood Village. East lies a calm village inside Stillwood Forest, many of its inhabitants clueless on the outside world.

Route 4, known Pokémon

Common:
#43 Oddish (nocturnal)
#187 Hoppip
#285 Shroomish

Uncommon:
#66 Machop
#74 Geodude

Rare:

So, assuming she heads on.

Heading up the forest hill towards Mt. Strength. The mountain-range rises above, but after a walk up the cliffside the entrance can be found fairly close to the base. The arc of rock is carved-out with great effort, with patterns and ancient letters and the like, the opening wide enough that a truck could be driven through. With the stories of the wild caves of Mt. Strength going around, one wouldn’t be blamed expecting to be delving into caverns of absolute chaos and roughness. Yet as one descends into the cave and it opens up in its whole honesty, the ground beneath becomes… cobblestone.

Now Entering

Mt. Strength

The caverns of Mt. Strength opens up into multiple corridors, dark depths branching in multiple directions. However, those expecting a typical rocky cave will be surprised. Something is immediately evident as one treads into Mt. Strength and that is that someone once lived here, long-term, and had buildings constructed out of the stones of the cavern. Remnants of whoever lived here are clear as day, as one walks on cobblestone and stairs, see remnant unlit lanterns and banners, old rock buildings standing around in the depths of the mountain. Arcs of stone remain, and here and there bridges remain, although one can question if you should trust them. An abandoned settlement in the mountain, left behind for unknown reasons… except, is it truly abandoned? There are signs of recent if unskilled renovation. Who’s maintaining them?

Why, the Pokémon, of course. There are Pokémon hard at work maintaining, reconstructing and living inside these supposed ruins. At some point humans no longer needed the fortifications of the cave, went outside, and the Pokémon took it over. They live here, creating their own society of strong Fighting-types with their own hierarchy with the strongest at the top, you’ve wandered into a whole different world, here, a world of brawling fighters, of dojos and rock-breaking competitions, of king-of-the-hill matches, thrones held my mountains of muscle, of Pokémon reconstructing the old buildings here before they inevitably are torn down again in another destructive scuttle. Here the Fighting-Pokémon are king, and humans are the guests. Will you earn their respect, or face their might?

So, with the exception of the building straight ahead, there were multiple tunnels around, going in different directions. One could move in the rough directions of down-left, straight forward and up-right. Forward would lead through the settlement, in which… there’s already a bit of a brawl going on. A Timburr and a Mienfoo was squaring of in the square, while there others of their kinds as well as Machops and Meditites watching. Based on the amount of damaged Pokémon were lying about, clearly they had some form of arrangement where two who wanted to fight stepped forth and then they had a match. It would be simple to join in.

Other Pokémon were simply training themselves by lifting or breaking rocks or arms-wrestling or similar. Others, primarily Meditites, were meditating or resting.

Pokédex Entry #66 – Machop, the Superpower Pokémon. A Machop is built up by a special muscle, which despite its size makes it stronger than 100 humans and will never tire no matter how much it strains itself. This combined with their general availability makes them a common choice for helping humans with manual labours.

Pokédex Entry #307 – Meditite, the Meditate Pokémon. It is found deep in mountains, meditating for hours on end and surviving on a berry a day. It trains its spirit, and by heightening its inner strength it somehow achieved levitation. It also enjoys daily yoga workouts.

Pokédex Entry #532 – Timburr, the Muscular Pokémon. They make habits of training themselves by carrying square logs and wielding them as weapons. They’re know to appear at construction sites and helping with the carrying. They pick bigger logs as they get stronger, and when they can handle any log without problem, they’re close to evolving.

Pokédex Entry #619 – Mienfoo, the Martial Arts Pokémon. While not very strong, it’s very fast and has mastered the art of elegant combos using claws to increase damage. As it concentrates, it grows in speed and efficiency. They have a tendency to start acting like their trainer’s personal bodyguards.

A Machoke stood, arms crossed, like overlooking the conflict, though he looked kinda bored.

Pokédex Entry #67 – Machoke, the Superpower Pokémon. It is known to help people with extremely tough labour in order to toughen up. It’s muscles is as hard as steel, yet it still needs to wear a belt which holds back its energy in order to not tear itself apart with its own strength. It can pick up a truck with one hand, and will never get tired.

‘The rules of Mt. Strength are pretty simple. The higher you go, the higher the level of the Pokémon you face,’ Elana said, stepping forward and lobbing a Pokéball up into the air.

‘The Pokémon are modestly friendly, but if you walk around with a strong-looking Pokémon out, they’ll come flocking to challenge you. Going without Pokémon at all can also be dangerous, as these wild Pokémon know trainers usually come with Pokémon to defend themselves. To show that you’re not worth challenging, the solution to not being attacked in Mt. Strength is therefore…’ she said, catching the Pokéball and throwing it into the ground, and with a flash something showed up.

Something pink. Something fat with a cherry on top, a tongue sticking out and an incredibly derpy expression.

‘… Walk with your most lame-looking Pokémon at your side,’ Elana finished. ‘Slurpuuuuuff!’ the Pokémon excitedly called.

Pokédex Entry #685 – Slurpuff, the Meringue Pokémon. Combining a Swirlix with a Whipped Dream makes it evolve into this sweet Pokémon. Its sense of smell is 100 million times better than a human’s, even a faintest smell tells it everything about an area. Its fur contain a lot of air, making it soft and much lighter than it looks.

‘Still, I didn’t bring Slurpuff just to look silly. Its nose. It’s the best nose in the Pokémon world. If anything can find your Dawn Stone,’ Elana said, lifting up an evolutionary stone and flipping into the air before catching it again, ‘it’s this guy. Just, any stones he finds that aren’t Dawn Stones, I’ll keep as part of my fee. Deal?’ Elana asked, looking directly at Erika. The stone in Elana’s hand was a Shiny Stone, so not exactly a Dawn Stone, but possibly smelled similarly, maybe.

‘That aside. You have the map. Anywhere in particular you want to go?’

If Erika inspects the map…

Map

By and large, the caverns of Mt. Strength could be divided into four floors.

B1 - Lowest floor. It’s just a vast array of tunnels, but a single, massive room stands out. It’s marked “Mountain Castle”. Otherwise, it’s just a bunch of tunnels looping back into one another in frankly impossible-looking ways. Hm, actually, doesn’t the map look edited here?

1F - The first floor. It’s has this massive chamber in the middle where the Pokemon town ahead of the entrance is located. Elsewhere arrays of tunnels go in varying directions but not leading anywhere in specific. The two possible exits to Route 4 and to Route 12 are marked, on both sides, as are places to go higher… or lower.

2F - The floor above. Several large chambers are interlinked, and even goes outside the mountain here and there for outside mountainous paths. There’s a lot of marked rooms here. The Dojo. The Throne Room. The Mountainside Arena. The Rock-Breaker’s Room. Bridge of Challenge. Town of Champions… And more.

.3F - The top floor is significantly smaller than the other floors, but also features what appears to be a very, very long climb. Along the way is an exit to the Magnetic Platform, and far, far above those… is a split path, one leading west, and the other east. There, clearly marked, is the West Pillars, and East Pillars.

So. What does Erika feel like doing here?

Mt. Strength things

Suggestions to actions

1. Find Pokémon. Can be specified what kind of Pokémon is being searched for, and how you search.
2. Train Pokémon. With this command, we can jump ahead in time and skip posting about grinding.
3. Move. The act of putting one foot in front of the other repeatedly to generate movement.
3.1. Out. Route 4 is right behind you.
3.2. Forward. Focus on getting to the other side of Mt. Strength.
3.3. Up. Brave the greater heights of Mt. Strength.
3.4. Down. What might dwell in the depths of this mountain?
3.5. Roam. Who cares where you end up? Pick a cave and go with the flow!
5. Specify. If you specify what you want to do, the GM will take it into account and tell the result.
6. Trigger random event. Force the GM to use his imagination to make a scenario for you.
7. Search. The abandoned settlements seem looted already, but maybe something lies around?
8. Challenge! Find a suitable fighting-circle and prove yourself superior! Tougher the higher you are in the mountain!

Mt. Strength, known Pokémon

Common:
#66 Machop
#74 Geodude
#307 Meditite
#532 Timburr
#619 Mienfoo

Uncommon:
#67 Machoke (more common the higher you go)

Rare:

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

The icy island was teeming with Snowbuns, bouncing and bounding here and there, as if the place had been overrun with the fluffy creatures. Mariette saw from her high vantage point that they seemed to cover the island from end to end. However, when she activated Absolute Direction, she was met with a straining result; hundreds upon hundreds of signals popped, each dragging her to a different location simultaneously. Before her headache could develop further, she turned it off, having decided to save it for when it was necessary.

But as she looked, she noticed something peculiar; in an open field to the north, she saw a stack of Snowbuns; like a totem pole, they each sat on top of one another. And at the bottom of the stack was a different-looking Snowbun; it had shiny, copper-colored fur, and seemed to enjoy carrying the stack as it bounced, moving in a circle around the field, with the stack of Snowbuns swaying above it but not falling.

Mariette was lying in a pile.

She’d found the easiest way to gather the friendly animals had been to open portals for them and let them come to her. There were Snowbuns everywhere. She was petting them, patting them, they were so fluffy. They were inspecting her and she was inspecting them back. She really didn’t need more. Her happiness-receptors had exploded. This was already heaven.

Yet, when she opened another portal to let more through, one of them refused. Curious about this development, Mariette peeked sideways. That one… that one was different. Hm. Mariette got up on her knees, petted a couple dozen Snowbuns, before stepping through a portal to face the different Snowbun. She walked closer, and squatted to peek at it if she got close enough.

What was this one? Was this one of those Dan had…?

The moment Mariette stepped into the snow field upon leaving the portal, she dropped; the powder snow was piled deceptively high over what must have been a pit, and hid the surface under it, causing Mariette to sink into it, up to her head. As a result, the snow happened to cave in around her, causing her legs and arms to become momentarily stuck.
Then, Mariette heard the sound of mischievous giggling mixed with the chittering of a lagomorph, and saw as the Harebringer approached, a smug smile on its face. It bounced on top of the same snow Mariette fell through as if the copper Snowbun was as light as a feather. Then, as it came close, it jumped on top of Mariette’s head to mock her, weighing incredibly light, and then off her before she had time to dig herself out of the snow. It then continued bouncing around the field as the other Snowbuns on top of its head also giggled.

‘Ah-!?’ Mariette cried out in surprise as she plunged into the snow, blinking in surprise as she got herself down all the way to her neck. That, uh. That was unexpected. Then the strange hare jumped closer, and- uh, jumped on her head. Mariette wasn’t entirely sure how to process that before it jumped off through the field, somehow still balancing multiple Snowbuns on its head. Mariette was confused.

Though, it wasn’t like her current situation was a predicament. Her tentacles burst forth under the surface of the snow, and Mariette pulled herself down under the surface. Using her tentacles to dig and feel ahead, she made herself into an undersnow predator, manifesting a portal over her nose to breathe and another over her eyes to navigate from above, Absolute Direction helping her keep track of herself after her target from underneath the snow, her tentacles ready to shoot out from under the snow to try to snatch the hare…!

The Harebringer seemed oblivious to Mariette as she tunnelled through the snow like a many-tongued worm, using her small size and magical prowess to her advantage. The copper bun sniffed the air, wiggling it's adorable little nose just as the tentacles burst out, kicking up snow everywhere and obscuring her vision of what exactly had happened. She noticed something wriggling in the grasp of her tendrils. When the snow had settled again, she saw that she managed to catch one of the Snowbuns that had ridden on the Harebringer's head. The real one kept bouncing around, blowing a raspberry at Mariette; it now had a reduced stack of two Snowbuns instead of three.

… Hm. Were those Snowbuns on its head get-out-of-jail cards, and she had to catch him three more times to actually catch him? Now he’d be more wary of attacks from below. Perhaps Mariette should have saved such an attack for later. No matter. She gently brought the Snowbun in her tentacles grip to her hands, where she gently petted it and smiled, before turning her attention to the Harebringer.

It was time for some good old-fashioned tentacle hunting.

Portals opened around Mariette, and portals opened around the Harebringer. Tentacles reached out to attempt to catch him again. She used her Awareness to try to predict where he’d jump to, and would attempt to open a portal there ahead of time so another tentacle would catch it there. Even if he escaped from that enclosure, a new array of portals would open in his new position. Mariette was a relentless predator when on a hunt, and getting away from her just didn’t work very well. Let’s test this little soul’s agility, endurance and perseverance. Mariette could do this for a long time…!

The Harebringer, now knowing to expect tentacles to burst out in an attempt to catch it, expertly dodged the first few tentacles that lashed out from portals. However, new portals opened fast in the locations he dodged to. Eventually, the copper Snowbun was forced to eject one of the Snowbuns on its head to escape. Now reduced to only one Snowbun on its head, it was visibly angry, with cute furrowed eyebrows. Now it was no longer hopping as fast as before, bouncing around at the speed of a regular Snowbun, seemingly easily catchable by regular means. However, the trick was revealed when Mariette sent more tentacles after it; the tentacles suddenly slammed to the ground around the Harebringer, and turned slow and lethargic. The Harebringer used a spell to create a gravity well centered on itself, causing the tentacles to be burdened to the point of being too slow to catch the Harebringer, no matter how many Mariette would summon. Curiously, both the Harebringer and the Snowbun on its head were immune to the effects. Snowbuns also began to gather around the edges of the field in droves, seemingly curious about the magical hunt that was taking place.
The Harebringer spotted the girl in the distance, and turned to wiggle its fluffy tail at her with a “Hmph!”

Mariette stared curiously at the creature from a distance. A gravity-spell? Impressive. That would make trying to capture the hare an insurmountable challenge for most girls. The challenge was to catch, not harm, the hare, so shooting magic into the field wasn't an option. However…

A large portal manifested over the hare. You know that snow deep enough to burrow through? A enormous quantity of snow suddenly fell like an avalanche down with the enhanced gravity right on top of the hare’s head. It wasn’t the only snow, though. Throughout the landscape, sinkholes in the snow formed as portals took the snow and avalaunched it at the hare from various directions, intent on using the hare’s gravity to create its own compact prison. Even if the hare managed to escape, Mariette just had to move the portals, trying to create a whirlpool of snow from varying directions to center at the elusive hare.

The portal girl absently stroked the Snowbun in her arms as she watched the snowy trial of the Harebringer.

The Harebringer blinked as it looked up at the portal that opened before it, and then chittered in surprise as snow dropped heavily over the creature. The Harebringer ejected his last Snowbun and managed to jump out of the way, only to be caught by snow that circled around it. Caught in a white vortex, the Harebringer fell back to the field, and ended up buried by a big pile of snow. Though Mariette no longer saw the Harebringer, she could tell with her magic that the magical Snowbun was still in the pile.

With that, it was time to do something else that was in her magical arsenal that she’d never done before. She knew she had the ability to manifest weapons of light, but she’d never had any use of it, until now. Focusing her magic power, she manifested a Lasso of Light, and then let one of her tentacles grip the hilt because her own arms wouldn’t have been strong enough. The tentacle lashed out towards where Absolute Direction pointed her, sending the top of the lasso spinning, piercing through the snow with light-energy, before aiming to tie tightly around the Harebringer’s torso, so she may restrain it on a distance without the need to enter the gravity-field herself.

Mariette threw the golden lasso of truth, and like Wonder Woman, successfully caught the Harebringer through the snow. However, as Mariette began to pull, she heard a loud chitter, followed by an explosion of snow, as the Harebringer unleashed it’s most powerful magic; it cast a spell of reverse gravity that quickly spread to the entire field, catching Mariette in it as well; she was now forced to hold on to the golden lasso as she now began to fly up alongside the huge quantity of snow that rested on the field, as well as a few Snowbuns who didn’t hop away fast enough. But there, Mariette saw her quarry; the Harebringer, with no hands to remove the lasso, wiggled and struggled, it’s copper fur standing on end from being agitated, doing everything it can to avoid being petted. The gravity then began to turn around the field in various directions, and Mariette began to spin with the Harebringer at the axis, the golden lasso the only thing keeping her steady as a snowstorm practically raged around her.

Mariette positively vaulted as the gravity explosion took place, its power far exceeding her previous estimates. Her tentacles gripped around both her and her lasso of light, keeping her from being completely blown away. This… this was bad. Even if she opened a portal directly to the hare, she couldn't oppose the gravitational force to reach through it. She needed… some form… of push…!

---

@Ponn@Shifter_Master

‘MAGICAL DREAM PRINCESSSS…!’ Mayra excitedly called out at the appearance of her new friend at the snowball-fight. ‘I see! You seek towards Penny, the strongest Magical Girl here, thinking it would give you safety in battle. I see, I see,’ the draconic girl nodded sagely, regardless if this was the case or not.

‘But, your judgment is misplaced! For I have created the ultimate weapon to breach the walls of her fort! HERE!’ Mayra excitedly lifted… A positively gigantic snowball she'd taken a temporary leave from the battle to create. ‘With the Mega Snowball, I will bring down the entire fort in a single swoop!’

‘MEGA…’ Mayra held the gigantic snowball with both hands behind her, comically undersized in comparison.

‘… ULTRA…’ Mayra shot a burst of fire magic through her, glowing red, smoking and grinning with a sound like revving an engine.

‘… DRAGON…’ Mayra started her swing, fire bursting from her elbows and legs as she started spinning like a blur with the giant snowball!

‘… THROOOW…!’ she finally called, letting go of her giant snowball that was sent surging with intense destructive force towards Penny's fort…!

Then a portal manifested and ate the snowball before winking out of existence.

‘… Whuh?’ Mayra made a confused sound at the end of her throw pose.

---

The snowball slammed into Mariette's awaiting tentacles and sent her flying at the Harebringer. With panic in her heart she used the force of the escaping snowball that came out of the portal behind her to propel her through the gravitational field, crying from the intense force on her relatively weak body, desperately holding her arms forward in order to catch the Harebringer mid-flight…!

Propelled by Mayra’s Mega Ultra Dragon Throw, the snowball unleashed an explosive force as it went through the portal and struck the tentacles; like a trampoline, the tentacles in turn bounced Mariette, sending her flying just far enough for her to grab the Harebringer with her remaining strength; the creature’s eyes were wide as Mariette managed to push through the insurmountable odds, and it chittered in a fit of despair before finally succumbing to its defeat as Mariette’s hand finally landed on its head.


The Harebringer...was petted.

And the moment it was petted, the Harebringer turned docile; it ended the spell, and gently lowered Mariette down to the snow field, as it now rested in her embrace, clearly tired.

Mariette gasped as her hand reached the head of the hare, felt as if a magic blast went through her at the impact… and then everything went calm. She gently held around the Harebringer, breathing heavily as she drifted down into the snow. The girl calmed down slowly, gently petting the hare, her eyes wide from the alarming experience she’d just gone through. But… she’d gotten her price.

On staggering feet, she slowly stood up, ensuring to have her tentacles test for a stable foothold. She then opened a portal, wandering through it to the grove where she’d stacked the mountain of Snowbuns she’d collected before facing off with the Harebringer. There, surrounded by all her Snowbuns, Mariette simply sat down with her back against a tree, abscently petting the Harebringer in her lap while all her Snowbuns gathered around her to keep her warm in this frozen environment.

There, at least for now, she’d relax. For just tonight, she was the Princess of Bunnies, with nary a worry in the world. There, for now, she’d rest.