Much Ado About Soaring

(Energy: 22 - 16 (dungeon entry cost) = 6)

Leander took a deep breath, gazing up at the eerie monstrosity before him. The Black Mist Mountain had looked tall in the books, but it was straight up intimidating in real life. Steep ledges, large rock faces and a peak so far up it got swallowed by today's thick blanket of fog... Awful. Absolutely awful.

Granted, any mountain would likely seem that way to the seedot, whom up till this point had been quite content with spending his life down in the safer towns and forests. So he figured he might be exaggerating how bad it was. The foreboding mist hugging it was still not neccessary in his opinion, though. Scaling this thing would however be worth both the effort and the scare, for two reasons: one, he would get to spend some time with Alki, a new friend of his he was still quite excited about having made. And two, this freaky place, believe it or not, was home to a most exquisite birthday gift option for his mother. And with her special day right around the corner, obtaining a gift was starting to become somewhat urgent. What he was looking for was a mushroom species that worked awesome as a base ingredient in most kinds of mushroom sauces, and made this dungeon and a few other remote places its home. This dungeon was surprisingly, when compared to the other locations, his best option. Eleanore loved this stuff, though, so fetching some just this one time would be OK. Especially with the assistance he had managed to get.

"Again, thank you so much for coming out this far. This place gives me the heebie-jeebies, but it's less scary with someone else," he told his fellow thief, while looking for a path or something they could follow up the mountain.

Jobs being taken:

Spoiler:

[Energy: 17 - 16 = 1]
[Important inventory: Oran Berry, Sitrus Berry]

Valen had managed to find not one, but two new jobs that both occurred in the same location and were at a rank he could currently take. So, I have to rescue a Furfrou and give a Wurmple a flying trip. he reminded himself. Not that he entirely needed to, as this time he had made sure to keep the job letters safely with him and not let them fall down, but it still felt good.

He met the Wurmple he had to escort at the base of the Black Mist Mountain. "Hello. You're the one who wants to fly, aren't you? I'm Valen the Pikipek, and I'm here to help you." Valen asked the Bug-type. He noted that the Wurmple was a bit larger than he had expected - about as large as he was, in fact. Will I be able to actually carry this one? Valen wondered to himself. I think I can - I hope I can!

"Yes!" the Wurmple replied to Valen's spoken question. "I'm Kino the Wurmple. Thanks for agreeing to help me fly! Although it might be tiring for you to pick me up now, so you don't need to do it until we get to the top of the mountain. My suction pads will let me climb it easily."

"That's okay then." Valen said. "Let's go! Although, there is one thing - I am also doing another job. I am looking for a Furfrou who is apparently here, so I can get her back to her family. If you see a Furfrou, please tell me."

"Okay. I will." Kino replied.

Valen flew up the mountain, with the black mists that gave the mountain its name swirling around him. He stayed just far enough away from the sides themselves so he wouldn't hit any protruding rocks by accident. And then he heard Kino call "Hey! Wait!"

He looked down and could see the shape of Kino on a part of the mountain that was quite a bit lower in altitude than where he was. "I'm sorry," Valen replied. "I... I'll wait for you here." Didn't know you were so slow? I wanted to say that, but that would be rude to say. Valen thought. Well, at least she'll be faster when she reaches her final evolution - whether Beautifly or Dustox - and able to fly on her own, I think. But even though the Bug-type Pokemon that are like Wurmple evolve the fastest among all Pokemon, I've heard, I don't think she's going to evolve right now. I can certainly understand why she wants to do this.

While Valen waited for Kino to catch up, he looked around. There was the all-pervading mist and the steep rock faces of the mountain - and then he saw two figures. From what he could make out through the mists, they both looked quite...round. Valen had done some more research on Pokemon, and he didn't think Furfrou looked like that. So what were they? Valen wasn't sure whether to approach them, so for the moment he stayed up and observed.

(OOC: I just thought of a name and gender for the Wurmple Valen is escorting - Kino - for convenience in referring to her. Her speech color is #ff0099, her ability is Shield Dust, and her moveset is Tackle, String Shot, and Poison Sting.)

Chiron was travelling to Black Mist Mountain for one simple reason, knowledge. He knew that some students from his new school would be there and he wanted to learn more about them. How did he know about this little school trip? He may have followed a certain Jigglypuff he met earlier around for a little bit and found out she was going to Black Mist Mountain with a friend. Great! I can learn more about a fellow classmate! So, he followed her and her Seedot friend, arriving at Black Mist Mountain. "Okay, now where did those two go?" Chiron asked himself, looking around for a Jigglypuff and Seedot.

"Y-Yeah, it's no big deal..." Alki said, absently looking up at the mountain top. He really didn't have to be thanking her... Going here was just as pleasant for her as it was important to him. She'd met Vesper here, after all! And she was one of the best friends a 'Mon could ask for. She was so confident and awe inspiring and... pretty much the whole package. Just being back here brought back some rather pleasant memories... "T-To be honest, I-I like this place... I-It looks a bit spooky, but I met Vesper around here..." She said absently, her mind still remembering that encounter.

"I-If I can help you out in anyway, j-just... just let me know..." She was quite happy to oblige! It was nice to hang out with her newest friend. He was also a thief, after all, and very nice to boot. Spending time with him would be great! And in a place like this... She just hoped everything would be alright... Alki looked around the mountain, blinking a few times so as to get used to the mist that was so prevalent throughout the place. In the distance, there seemed to be a couple figures. She nudged the Seedot beside her softly and pointed in their direction. "H-Hey, do those l-look like Pokemon to you?"

Vesper, huh?

Leander had yet to meet that one. From what Alki previously had told him, she was a Roselia and a fellow Phantom Thief. But other than that, he had little clue about what she was like. But she, like Alki, must be enjoyable to be around if she could make a place like this part of a fond memory, he reasoned to himself. That much was for sure.

"I told you you're already helping simply by being here, y'know? And that goes for more than morale, actually," he replied as the Jigglypuff offered her help. "Like this, we've got two heads to navigate and look out, twice as many as I'd have otherwise, with me not being a Doduo and all that... and I've got someone to go get help if I trip and fall down this thing, kakaka!" He paused for a little after laughing, before adding a slightly more firm: "Not that I plan to do that, though. And I'll make sure to let you know if I need any more help, don't worry." They were in a dungeon, after all, so some seriousness was due, even if being with Alki had him in a cheerful mood.

As he was prodded, and the shapes in the distance pointed out, the acorn squinted. At first, he saw only a singular red blotch, presumably vibrant enough outside of the fog for its colour to shine through it, situated slightly higher up on the mountain than them. An avian-looking silhouette even further up became apparent to him a few seconds later. Alki's curious classmate remained hidden. "Yeah... they do," he muttered, his voice a tad distant as he focused his attention on the bird. Was it... looking back at them? He was confident that it was. "And I think they've spotted us. One sec, I'll check if they're alright 'mon."

Since they had already been discovered, he saw no point in trying to hide their presence from the two. If they were ferals, they would be coming at them pretty soon anyway, right? In case of that happening, he mentally prepared himself both to activate Bide and take a hit, or several. Fighting did not come naturally to him yet, though, so hopefully that was not going to happen. He drew in breath.

"Heeey! Who goes there?" he called out, not quite as loud as he could, but still very much audible. Didn't want the whole mountain and everything on it to hear him. Just those two. Of course, he was unaware of it likely reaching the guy following them, too.

[Energy: 17 - 16 = 1]

Valen heard one of the figures say "Heeey! Who goes there?" These probably aren't ferals then, if they can talk. Valen thought to himself. Valen flew closer, and made out the figures he had seen more clearly. One of them was a Pokemon he didn't know that looked like an acorn with legs. The other was... Alki! One of Valen's classmates in Peak Academy, whom he had first met while they had been doing some student service in Fallen Leaf Copse.

"Hello, everyone!" Valen replied. "And, um, Alki, I guess you're with a friend now?"

"Hi," said Kino from below.

"Oh," Valen said, "Kino, the pink Pokemon here is Alki. She's one of my classmates at Peak Academy, and we went to a class together, which is why I know her. Everyone else, this is Kino. I took a guild mission to escort her to the top of the mountain and then take off with her so that she could experience flying - even before she evolves, I guess."

(OOC: Valen believes that no feral Pokemon can talk. This isn't necessarily true, but Valen hasn't really heard anything against this yet, and he has biases against feral Pokemon, let's just say).

Pickup roll:

Shield carried out 1 launched of one Black Mist Mountain :

Regular roll:

Shield carried out 1 launched of one Black Mist Mountain :

Chiron heard a voice, the same one that he'd heard before from one of the Pokémon he was following. That voice belongs to the Seedot! He followed the voice, making sure to hide behind a few rocks so as to not be seen, staying a little ways away, hoping the fog would make it difficult to see him unless someone was looking for him. He saw the Jigglypuff and the Seedot he was following, along with a few new Pokémon. Two, to be exact. A Wurmple, and a...something, he didn’t know what. He'd have to figure that one out another time as the unknown Pokémon started to talk to the Jigglypuff, Alki. He was pretty sure her name was Alki. And this other Pokémon seemed to know her, too, calling her Alki. They know each other, don’t they? He started looking a bit closer, resting his jaw on a rock as he heard Peak Academy get brought up. How very interesting, fellow classmates. Maybe he’d see this new Pokémon around the school sometime.

Also, the bird was taking a guild mission? He didn’t really understand why a Wurmple wanted to fly, it didn’t have wings or anything. There wasn’t any reason to. So why did this Wurmple want to know? He considered stepping out to introduce himself, but then thought he shouldn’t. Not yet, anyways. He wanted to know more, especially who this new Pokémon was. The fact that he didn’t know upset him, he knew everything! And so he just glared at the winged avian, watching. He kept watching for a few moments before he started to look at the Wurmple. Kino, was it? Maybe she might know who that Pokémon is.

Such a tiny thing...is she scared to look at such a large mountain? Chiron thought about getting her attention, maybe he could get her to come over to him and he could offer her an escort to the peak of Black Mist Mountain in exchange for information. That way he’d be better equipped to socialize with that bird. He'd have to be careful, though, for later when he talks to a specific bird. He wouldn’t want to mix up facts he learned today and bring them up to a Murkrow, so he should probably only ask for a few facts. After all, that bird wasn’t why he came here. He came here because of Alki. He came here to make a friend, to impress her with Jigglypuff facts.

"H-Hi there, Valen." Alki said quietly, waving a hand as she approached him tentatively. It was strange to find a fellow classmate all the way out here, but she supposed at the same time that it wasn't out of the realm of possibility. Well, clearly it wasn't. Obviously... A small Pokemon by his side seemed to greet them as well, and Alki smiled back at her.

"And hello to you too, uh... Um, Kino. Nice to meet you." She deflated a bit, with pleasantries out of the way, Alki didn't really know what to say now. She nodded along as Valen explained his job. She should take a job at some point... that was good money. She needed the money... "C-Cool..." She said softly, and left it at that. Hopefully, Leander would prove to be more talkative than she had...

The acorn relaxed somewhat when the bird flew in closer, as it did not appear to be hostile. The peaceful greeting it uttered moments later assured him that it was safe to relax fully. Well, calling the bird an 'it' now that he knew it was not a feral was wrong. It sounded female, so he wrote the bird down as a "she" in his mind for now.

"Your name's Valen, huh? Nice to meet you. I'm Leander," he said, then listened to the Pikipek explain why her group was there. Apparently she was a guild member, like Alki. They also went to someplace called the Peak Academy together. He had never heard about it before, though. Maybe he'd ask the Jigglypuff about it later.

"To fly off a huge mountain like this... Someone's certainly comfortable with heights!" he chuckled. Personally, he did not think he could do that. What if he was dropped by accident? Yikes, that'd be some fall! "I came here to look for some rare mushrooms, myself." After hearing about Kino's quest, his reason suddenly felt... kind of unimpressive, but he tried not to sound embarrassed stating it. "I'm no good in dungeons, so Alki here's being nice and helping me out. But hey, since we're all gonna enter the same dungeon and you knows each other and all, how about we go together? I'm probably gonna have to go far up before I find what I'm looking for, so I think we can go with you guys all the way to the top if you'll have us." Doing that felt considerably more achieveable with the possibility of having not one, but two guild members around to step in if something were to happen. They were supposed to be really good at dungeon stuff, right? So two of them should be sufficient to make a scary place like this safe to traverse. Perhaps he could even learn something from watching all of these guildsmon in action, so that he could be better at this stuff in the future.

"You don't mind some extra company, right?" he asked, stepping a little closer.

Scypho carried out 6 launched of one Black Mist Mountain :

, , , , ,

"Hello, Leander! Nice to meet you," Valen replied. He had not seen Leander yet. "Yeah, you can definitely come with me. I don't think anyone else here is part of the Aileron Guild, so they can't officially take the missions I'm taking - but I'm willing to share my reward with you if you help me. Actually, besides escorting Kino here, I have another mission - I need to find a lost Furfrou." Valen looked around again, to see if there was anything else interesting.

"Huh, I see something right now. Let me quickly check for a moment," Valen said. He flew over to what he had seen a short distance away. Once he could see it more clearly, he saw that it was a few small trees with purplish leaves. Sitrus Berry trees, Valen remembered. So I need to note that those grow here - after all, I could write a report on this place for the Windrose Scouts sometime. Pity I didn't bring anything to write with, so I'll just have to use my memory for now. Valen, however, could only see one Sitrus Berry actually growing on a tree, which he picked.

Seeing the Berry made Valen feel a bit more hungry. It had been a pretty long trip to Black Mist Mountain, after all, and after getting there, he had flown to a somewhat high location. But Valen decided not to eat the Sitrus Berry - after all, they were pretty good at healing, so perhaps it was better to save them if he was actually injured. Valen checked his bag and realized that he hadn't brought any Apples along, unfortunately. He did, however, notice an Oran Berry, which he ate. While it could also heal, it was less powerful at that than a Sitrus Berry, so it was less of a waste to eat it now, at least.

Valen flew back to the others. "Sorry about that. Those were just some berry trees. Absolutely not a Furfrou," he told them.

"Did someone say Furfrou?" Valen suddenly heard a voice say above him.

He looked up and saw a Pokemon standing on a ledge above him. He could tell that the Pokemon had four legs and long white fur, but there was quite a lot of dust on it as well.

"Um... Hi," Valen replied. "Yeah, I'm on a guild mission and I'm looking to rescue a lost Furfrou here..."

"I'm a Furfrou," said the new Pokemon, "but I'm not lost. I went here because I love exploring but my parents wouldn't let me. You're trying to bring me back, right? Well, I don't want it."

"Oh wow," said Kino, who had now reached near where the others were by crawling. "Valen, you found her pretty fast, but... umm... she's an explorer too?"

Now, Valen was feeling pretty conflicted. It was his mission to bring the Furfrou back, but the Furfrou didn't want to come - and Valen could definitely understand why. He had also been frustrated when his parents had told him he was too young to go to dungeons earlier in his life. Should I do this? Valen wondered. Some of this had been implied in the job's wording - but Valen had never really thought of what the Furfrou pup's motivations meant for him until now.

Then Valen thought of something. "Well, I don't think you're a part of the guild, " he told the Furfrou, although it was really meant to answer Kino's statement,  "but I do understand that you like exploring! I definitely do too! But, my parents told me when I was younger that it would be too dangerous for a young Pokemon to go to dungeons - they really can be scary. We love you - we don't want you to get hurt. You can go when you are older, I guess?"

"Ha!" laughed the Furfrou. "Dangerous? I've heard that so many times before. But guess what? I've made friends with Pokemon here. Want to see them?" The Furfrou quickly barked in what seemed to be a pattern...

(OOC: Feel free to have your characters talk to the Furfrou in your posts. The barks were a signal to call the Pokemon whom she befriended. Any Pokemon I roll in this post will be her friends, which you can encounter right after this in your own posts if you want. And if I somehow don't roll any... well, that will be an epic fail on the Furfrou's part, as none of her friends were close enough to hear her. But if you want to, you can also make any Pokemon you roll her friends as well.)
[Energy: 1-1 = 0, then Oran Berry eaten so 0 + 10 = 10]

Shield carried out 9 launched of one Black Mist Mountain :

, , , , , , , ,

Russell: 35 - 16 for entry = 19 Energy

Russell fluttered gently along as he slowly but surely climbed Black Mist Mountain. He was keeping a leisurely pace, his antennae twitching and eyes flicking around with both caution and interest at this new environment. The Mothim had heard a lot about the mountain range, but had yet to visit this area himself. The trip he was taking now was an attempt to rectify this. After all, the Black Spear mountain range was a very well known location. He couldn't be caught slacking on knowledge of it as the leader and founder of the Windrose Scouts!

So far the trip had been relatively peaceful. He'd seen a few pokemon here and there from a distance, but as he'd been travelling alone he'd been able to avoid them in the air, only pausing to make notes on the types of pokemon that appeared to prefer making their homes in this area and environment. Russell was aware of various voices and quiet cries echoing around the rocky face of the mountain, but none had seemed particularly relevant to him until a peculiar pattern of barking. Soon enough, his peaceful trip was interrupted by an odd assortment of pokemon all scrambling to head towards the direction of the barks.

Curiosity suitably piqued, Russell decided to follow them.

Alki listened quietly as she took in everything the more talkative members of the group had to say. She herself didn’t have much more to contribute. Her ears wiggled absently as she soon lost interest. The missions themselves seemed rather straightforward to understand, if not actually perform… Her gaze wandered off towards a patch of shrubbery and plants nearby, and the girl missed her name being mentioned by her companion and teammate. Instead, she wandered off into said shrubbery, searching for the mushrooms that she’d set out to find in the first place.

This conversation didn’t really concern her, she decided. She didn’t have much to say, and there wasn’t much she could do to help the guild member… well, technically, her guildmate, in their mission. So instead, the jigglypuff quietly ambled off towards the shrubbery and investigated the ground, hoping that the mushrooms that her and Leander had wanted to find would be there.

She wasn’t too far away, if they wanted something from her, they could certainly ask… She’d be back in just a moment, for sure!

(Energy = 0. Using a reviver seed, so: 0 + 22 = 22)

Friends? Did she meet other explorers or something?

A high-pitched, snarly screech rung through the air shortly after the bark signal had sounded, as if the one who had made it had wanted to reply to the pooch. Leander froze, feeling a chill run through him as a large shadow passed through the airspace a mere meter or so above him. The figure beat its wide, draconic wingspan, and an arrow-headed tail trailed after it as it flew. With confidence and a wide grin, the beast landed beside the Furfrou. It was an Aerodactyl, and it was quickly joined by an Archeops on her other side. Had it not been for their raggedy appearance, the Seedot could have assumed them to be just what he had believed at first - explorers. But there was no doubt, from both their looks and how plausible it seemed for their species to live in this dungeon, that these two were feral. Just how she had managed to befriend them, though, the acorn had no idea. Several other pokémon milled in after the initial two had landed - a Rhyhorn that stomped down from a few ledges up, not bothered by tumbling and falling a little as he rushed to his new friend's side, two Cubone who shyly snuck out from behind a bush, and a Duskull that suddenly came into view. Perhaps it had been there all along. It sounded like there was more of them, but Leander could not see them all at the moment. The appearance of so many ferals at once had him assuming a more defensive stance, even if they did not seem overtly hostile.

"Look! Look how many strong friends I've got! Are you gonna tell them you're taking me home?" the Furfrou asked, cocking her head as the corners of her mouth rose into a confident smirk. "'Cause I doubt they'd like that, and I'm just fine in here as long as I've got them. So you don't have to take me home, really!"

Leander squinted at her face, processing her expression and tone as he took a step back. "You're not... threatening us over this, are you? This is for your safety, you know. Dungeons aren't playgrounds." Although he was nervous, he managed to keep his voice reasonably steady as he spoke. Could ferals smell fear? Someone had told him that once, but... to be honest, he knew less about them than he should. Hopefully they could not.

"It's not a threat. I'm just letting you know, she replied, none the less smug. "And I said I'd be just fine!" The two winged pokémon at her side eyed the group suspiciously, waiting to see what these explorers would do.

Now, Valen could see the Pokemon the Furfrou had called coming. There were a lot of them, actually, and he was a bit worried. How did the Furfrou befriend these Pokemon? She wouldn't command them to attack, would she?

Leander seemed to have similar thoughts as he talked to the Furfrou. At least then she said that she wasn't making a threat - Valen hoped that she was telling the truth. Nevertheless, he flew to a somewhat greater height. From his point of view, he could now see all of the Pokemon. He could recognize the Aerodactyl, Archeops, and two Cubone. Somewhat like Saturn, Valen thought of the Cubone, but obviously not the same. These all seem to be feral, so again, how can this Furfrou command them like that? And also that Vullaby - one of those poor bird Pokemon that can't fly until they evolve, Valen thought - and, come to think of it, another Pokemon that wears bones. Why had I forgotten about them before?

There were two quadrupedal, apparently landbound Pokemon Valen could not recognize - one seemingly covered in some metal, another seemingly made of rock. And then there was that odd gray thing that he saw briefly but then... it moved somewhere else and Valen lost sight of it?

Valen kept looking at the Furfrou. "Just wondering, how did you get these friends?"

"Oh, I helped some of them out when they were hurt, gave them food, stuff like that," she replied.

Really? Valen wondered. He wasn't sure why she would lie about this, honestly, but... was that really all it took to become friends with feral Pokemon? Valen found that somewhat difficult to believe.

And then Valen heard loud shouts, and a gray thing like the one he had seen before rushed at him - right out of the solid rock of the mountain behind. Valen was quite surprised, but unhurt from the Astonish, as he was immune to it. He could now recognize the Pokemon - a Duskull. They weren't Flying-type, but they could fly, and Valen had actually seen some before in the Floating Islands.

"Hey! Stop!" the Furfrou cried. "I did not ask you to attack them!" But the Duskull just cackled.

"You know, what if your friends maybe aren't..." Valen said.

"No! This one just likes startling others. He won't actually hurt anyone. I've been with these Pokemon for a while and I know they will not hurt me!" the Furfrou said.

"Umm..." Valen thought out loud, and then he felt something small hit him. He looked back, and saw the Duskull having jabbed him with a seed. But now Valen was feeling very tired, so much so that he couldn't exactly recognize it as a Sleep Seed anymore. All he could do was spread his wings and glide downwards, until he landed on the mountain, fast asleep...

Russell followed the odd group of pokemon to an area in the forest with even more pokemon. Although, this time the Mothim recognised a couple of them. Below him and now nearly surrounded by this odd group of natives were Alki and Valen. He didn't recognise any of the other pokemon around, but was curious what sort of situation these two had gotten themselves into. If he remembered correctly both Alki and Valen were guild members, so perhaps they were here for some sort of work?

Keeping his distance for the moment, Russell decided that he wanted the element of surprise if things got sour. He couldn't quite hear everything from his position, although after a few moments of conversation the Furfrou in the clearing seemed to get louder, yelling at a Duskull to stop.

Said Duskull seemed not to listen, jabbing Valen with a seed of some sort. Russell couldn't tell what type of seed from where he hovered, but it became clear shortly after as the Pikipek began to falter in the air. As Valen toppled downwards, gliding towards the ground, Russell flew over to catch him, his small grey appendages clinging under Valen's wings to stop him from falling. Soon the Pikipek was fast asleep in his arms, but Russell felt more confident that the Woodpecker Pokemon would be safe here with him than he would have if he'd let him be alone and asleep on the rocky mountainside.

Valen was a member of the Windrose Scouts after all, and Russell couldn't help but feel protective of his scouts.

"This is quite the gathering! If I may enquire, what on earth is going on here?" He asked the rest of the assembled Pokemon, not willing to jump to any conclusions immediately as none of the others seemed to have made any moves to attack.