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Your group has just arrived at a hill overlooking Camphrier town, your current destination. Unfortunately, a large amount of smoke is filling the air and you spy flames rising from some of the buildings.

Squire Richard hurries the horses as you try to get a better look at the situation. As you approach, you begin to hear the sounds of battle rising from the town. You decide to take a look with aura to see what you’re dealing with.
It seems that the attackers have already gotten past the exterior wall, and the town itself was enveloped in a chaotic struggle. The castle on the north side of town was still secure, though the attackers seemed to be organizing for another offensive. It’s a small force attacking the town, but it seems that they used surprise to their advantage.

The big question was how you wanted to try and help

>Clear the streets of any separated attackers and gather any remaining defenders
>Sneak up on the main force, and try to gather information or sabotage them
>Try and find a way into the castle to help the defenders there
>Other

If you wish to divide your group to take care of different tasks, feel free to specify. In any case, roll me a d20.

Rolled 17

>>33026887
>Clear the streets of any separated attackers and gather any remaining defenders
let's stick together for now

>>33026966
this is good

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Your wagon rolls up to the eastern gate of the town, which seems to have been left open. There doesn't seem to be any signs of fighting near here, so it's likely that the town was attacked from the other side.

You leave the wagon just outside the gate, with Squire Richard unhitching the horses so they can help your group. You all ready your weapons as you head into the town.

Squire Richard takes the lead, flanked by the two horses. You follow closely behind, as Riolu and Froakie stick closer to the walls and roofs, keeping a lookout. Lisa and Lady Shabboneau are in the rear, with Mawile behind them for protection. Lisa is keeping her Pidgey close for now, since she says she spotted some flying monsters in the air earlier.

As you work your way through the streets, you come across a handful of enemy soldiers. They have red uniforms, which would narrow down the countries they could be from, but you don't recognize the style.

One of them seems to have a longbow, while the others have swords. In addition, you notice a red-colored bird monster, as well as two black hounds.

Your group springs from around the corner, charging at the three men. Squire Richard closes with one of the swordsmen, and you engage the other. The bowman prepares to fire at you, though a barrage of arrows from Lisa forces him to dive for cover. Out of the corner of your eye, you spy Froakie heckling one of the hounds from a rooftop, nimbly dodging the fire it keeps spitting. Riolu takes a more direct approach, using his aura augmented strike to take down the other hound.

Moments later, you hear shouting from behind. Positioning yourself to get a better look, it seems that two more enemy soldiers have shown up behind you. Both have melee weaponry, but they only have a single hound between the two of them.

(cont)

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Unfortunately, they're positioned directly near Lisa and Lady Shabboneau, and you're not sure if Molly could take on all 3 of them. What was also troubling is that with Lisa distracted, the enemy archer was freed up to start taking shots.

>Break of your attack to go assist them
>Go after the archer
>Have Riolu target someone (specify)
>Give someone else an order (specify)
>Other

As always, 1d20.

>>33027398
>Break of your attack to go assist them

>Have Riolu target someone (specify)
Tell him to get the other Houndour

Rolled 20

>>33027398
>Break of your attack to go assist them
>Have Riolu target someone (specify)
The archer

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"Riolu! Go after that archer!" you call out, making wide swings as you back away from your foe. Once you've gotten a good distance away, you quickly dash over to the newcomers. They seem rather startled by your sudden change of position, and you manage to sink your glaive into the leg of one. Molly then swings her 'hair' around into him, impacting heavily and knocking him to the ground. He doesn't seem to be getting up either.

While you keep focus on the remaining man and his houndour, you hear a sharp yelping sound from behind you, and a stream of bubbles pours into the hound you're fighting. It seems that Froakie managed to take out the hound he'd been hassling and came over to help you.

Thinking quickly, you lock your blade with the remaining swordsman, giving Molly and Froakie the opportunity they need to take him down. With them finished off, you turn to survey the situation.

Riolu seems to have taken out the archer, and is know fighting the two remaining soldiers alongside Richard. The red bird you saw earlier is currently engaged in aerial combat with Lisa's Pidgey. It doesn't appear to be going very well, and Lisa doesn't seem to be able to line up a shot with the two in close quarters.

As you maneuver back to assist Squire Richard, you keep an eye up at the fight overhead. You watch as pidgey seems to begin a steep climb upwards, with the red bird in pursuit. You wonder what it's doing, but you soon realize as the red bird's flames all miss their mark. Pidgey seems to be flying towards the sun in order to blind his pursuer. You strain your eyes as the brightness of the sun obscures your vision of the fight. You see more flashes of flame and light, then hear a piercing cry as a form drops down from above.

(cont)

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It seems the gambit payed off, since the red bird crashes into the ground unceremoniously. You glance over at Lisa, who seems just as surprised as you. You glance at Pidgey, who seems a bit different. Did he always have those feathers? He also looks a bit bigger.

Putting it out of your mind for now, you continue on your way to help defeat the remaining enemies. Between all of your efforts, you make short work of the two.

After ensuring that the coast is clear, your group sets off through the town once more.

>Roll1d20

Rolled 5

>>33028050
Poke at the new Super Pidgey. Determine what we should name this new undiscovered species.

Rolled 19

>>33028050
Get some pocket sand

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Venturing forth, you don't run into any more groups of enemy soldiers. While there is the occasional loner, they don't pose much of a threat.

What you do come across, however, is a large group of guards from the town. It seems that they've been hunkering down to protect their wounded, since their current numbers wouldn't be able to stand up to the main enemy force.

How would you like to handle this?
>Heal as many of the wounded soldiers as you can along with Riolu (this will deplete some of your HP as energy), then plan an attack on the main force
>Ask if they can lend some guards to help you fight off the stragglers, while leaving Lady Shabboneau here with them.
>Other

>>33028291
>Heal as many of the wounded soldiers as you can along with Riolu (this will deplete some of your HP as energy), then plan an attack on the main force

Rolled 3

>>33028291
>Heal as many of the wounded soldiers as you can along with Riolu (this will deplete some of your HP as energy), then plan an attack on the main force

Hopefully they're numbers can cover our reduced effectiveness

Rolled 16

>>33028291
>Heal as many of the wounded soldiers as you can along with Riolu (this will deplete some of your HP as energy), then plan an attack on the main force

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You and Riolu quickly get to work using your aura abilities to help the wounded soldiers.

>Ceil HP 8/10
>Riolu HP 22/25

While some of the injuries were too severe to heal easily, you manage to get enough soldier on their feet to nearly double the number of guards on your side.

Now it was just a question of how you wanted to approach the enemy. From your use of aura, you could tell that they were most tightly concentrated in a small area near the town square. It was close to the castle, but out of sight of the archers on the wall. It wasn't very heavily fortified however, giving you several options for your approach.

You could take the obvious route and march straight through the town square. This would let the castle know the battle was occurring very quickly, and could potentially support you. However, since you had fewer troops overall, a full scale clash of lines didn't favor your side.

Another option would be marching your troops through the narrow alleys near the enemy base, using the narrow spaces to reduce their advantage of size. This would mean that the castle wouldn't be able to help you much, and it left large escape routes available to the enemies.

The final option, which was the most risky and the most difficult, would be to attempt to position as many of your guards on the rooftops nearby as possible. While you didn't have many archers or crossbowmen among them, the enemies didn't either. You could then attempt to sit above the enemies and pelt them with stones and other projectiles, thinning their numbers until you can force a normal fight. The risk was that if the enemy saw you coming and was able to organize a counter-strategy, your troops would be too spread out to regroup.

Those were your main angles for attack, but you could always improve their effectiveness with clever ideas

>Large formation in the town square
>Small formations in the alleys
>Spread out groups on the rooftops
>Add onto the above (specify)

Once more, 1d20.

Rolled 12

>>33028849
>Small formations in the alleys
Escape routes are mostly irrelevant, we're trying to drive them back and out of the city, not rack up a killcount. This should let us neutralize their number advantage, or at least mitigate it.

Rolled 20

>>33028849
>Small formations in the alleys

We don't have the numbers to rout them completely

>>33029112
>>33028107
>>33027786

Guys it's happening again

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You spend a fair amount of time discussing it, but eventually you settle on approaching using the alleys.

There were only three you needed to worry about. One on the north of the camp, and two on the south. There was only room for 4 or 5 men to fight side by side in each, meaning you wouldn't need to form full battle lines.

You work with the guards to organize the groups as best as you can. You assign 20 men to each group. There were over 100 enemy soldiers, but your positioning would give you a good advantage.

You work quickly to get everyone in position. Lady Shabboneau stays behind with a handful of guards to protect the remaining wounded. Lisa heads to the rooftops with the other marksmen in order to give support to your forces. You and Squire Richard each take a small contingent of guards. You're positioned behind the columns of your forces in order to defend against any soldiers who try to outflank you. You're on the southern lines, while Richard is on the North. Riolu and Froakie are on the rooftops nearby, ready to support you or the guards as necessary.

Once your groups are in position, you wait for the signal. Soon enough, you see a speak of light streak towards the sky, a flaming arrow to indicate the north group is in position. You listen as a score of arrows whistle through the air, and you begin hearing the din of battle lines clashing against one another.

You can barely see down the alley, but it appears to be going well. You hadn't planned for it, but it seems as though you'd caught them during dinner. You can see quite a few soldiers get struck by arrows as they scramble for their weapons. However, they gather themselves quickly to organize into proper columns. You start seeing arrows fly towards your archers, though most of the shots fly wide. It seems Pidgey's new size has improved its strength quite a bit. You watch as it flaps its wings to create large whirlwinds, blowing large numbers of enemy arrows off course.

(cont)

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The soldiers clash against your lines, it seems as though they can't find purchase. The guards are standing firm, stalwart in their defense. You've never seen anything quite like it. The first time you see one of your men get downed, you watch as one steps into his place without missing a beat, as the men behind him drag their fallen comrade to the back of the ranks. Riolu then hops down from the roof, using his healing abilities on him. The man seems to breathe steadily, and while he might be out of the fight, he's alive.

>Riolu has gained Aura Healing II

You watch Froakie help out as well. Occasionally a hound attempts to use it's fire and size to help break your ranks, but Froakie is always one step ahead of them, using his water abilities to drive them back.

At this point the enemy soldiers seem to be breaking. You watch as the back ranks are ordered to make a retreat, while the front ranks are left behind to cover their escape. The troops begin progressing towards the town square.

As they do, you notice several volleys of arrows begin raining down from the castle. The orderly retreat in the town square quickly turns into a panic as the soldiers attempt to escape from the shots.

At this point the battle is all but won. The soldiers are fleeing in every direction, and you watch from a distance as a commander on the back of a flaming warhorse attempts to get them to rally. After going unheeded, he also turns his horse to retreat.

After the guards secure the area, they move to close the main gates of the town. A few soldiers are likely still hiding out in the city, but the battle was a solid victory.

You make certain to take care of any guards wounded during the battle before returning to Lady Shabboneau. It's rather late in the day, and it'd be for the best to get her to the castle in case the enemies return.

Would you like to do anything as you head to the castle?
>Ask someone about a thing (specify)
>Other

>>33029622
Talk with Lisa about Pidgey/Pidgeotto's new form.

>>33029834
This

Also ask if she recognized the soldiers

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"So Lisa," you begin, "Do you know what happened to Pidgey back there?"

"Well," she replies, "You already know that monsters grow bigger over time, just like people do. I've seen a few other people with monsters that look like Pidgey does now. I think the name for it was Pidgeotto?"

Pidgey chirps at the mention of the name, you're not sure why though.

"Anyway," she continues, "This is what Pidgey would've looked like eventually. I often hear stories that monsters will sometimes change rapidly during times of duress though. Like if their life is in danger, they start glowing, and then they just grow all of the sudden.

"I've heard that before," you say, "Although I always figured those stories were made up. I guess it's true though."

You glance down at Riolu and Froakie. You wonder if they'll ever transform like that.

"That aside," you start, "Did any of you recognize where those soldiers were from?"

"I overheard them shouting, though I didn't recognize the language," Lisa replies.

"They were from Vallough," Lady Shabboneau adds, "I recognized the uniform. I hear they changed it recently, under the new king's orders."

"The new king?"

"King Gregory the 3rd," she answers, "I can't tell you much about him, and none of it is good. There were a lot of suspicious events surrounding his rise to the throne. I just didn't think he'd be willing to do this."

The rest of your trip is spent in silence, until you reach the interior of the castle. It's rather sparsely decorated, though it was still quite grand. There were less guards than you would expect, though they were likely very busy. In the center of the room is a man with dark hair and rather lavish attire. The material seems to be quite expensive, though the design is at least somewhat practical.

"Welcome home, my dear sister," says the man, identifying himself as Lady Shabboneau's brother.

"A pleasure to see you again, Thomas," she replies, "I see you've had a bit of excitement while I was gone."

(cont)

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"Nothing I'd want to experience again," he laughs, "How was your trip though? Did you find the meteorite I was seeking?"

"Yes," she answers, "Surprisingly one of your tomes was accurate for a change. This is the man who helped me excavate and transport it here, Ceil Millener."

You give a short bow as she says your name.

"Ah, then I must extend my thanks to you as well," he continues, "Tell me, would you and your companions be interested in a tour of my study? I find that most people are quite curious about my topics of research."

Well, since he offered...
>Go on the tour, you want to find out more about this rock
>Politely refuse, you're not that curious
>Other

>>33030415
>Go on the tour, you want to find out more about this rock
No harm in accepting his offer.

>>33030415
>Go on the tour, you want to find out more about this rock

>>33030415
>Go on the tour, you want to find out more about this rock

Knowledge Get

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"Thank you," you reply, "We would be honored."

"No need to be so formal," he chuckles, "You did help out my dear sister after all."

The five of you progress through the castle, eventually arriving at a large room on the upper floor. Many books fill the shelves, and many more lay scattered about the room on tables and other surfaces. Various paintings, scrolls, tablets, and stones line the walls and sit upon pedestals. Its quite a lot to take in.

"I apologize for the mess," he states, ''I haven't found a good chance to organize today. Please, feel free to look around the room. I do ask that you take care to not break anything."

With that, he takes the meteorite and heads of to find a place for it in the room.

>Try looking through some books (1d20)
>Take a look at the paintings
>Take a look at the scrolls
>Take a look at the tablets
>Take a look at the stones
>Other

Rolled 1

>>33030658
>With that, he takes the meteorite and heads of to find a place for it in the room
Wait what? Why are we just giving him Jirachi's crystal? I thought we decided to keep it, since it totally presented itself to us.

>>33030721
Well, I will point out that you did sort of just find it in a wall.

Other than that, I wasn't aware of any plans to keep it, so I suppose for now we'll leave it as is, and put it to a vote if needed.

>>33030658
>Try looking through some books (1d20)

Rolled 8

>>33030793
Why didn't my dice work?

>>33030784
Hrm, I could have sworn we were going to keep it because you said that her brother would just stick it on a shelf.
But I can only find one post to that effect.

Still would have been nice to have you ask before giving away important plot items though.

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Well, since you have the run of the place, you suppose you could try looking through some books.

You grab one off of the shelf and flip open it's pages. You don't recognize the lettering, so you thumb through. It seems as though this book doesn't even have any pictures, so you replace it on the shelf.

The next one you pick up is actually in your language, which you're glad to see. It seems to detail legends surrounding the Wings of Death. Said to take the form of a large bird of prey, and bring demise to all those who pass underneath its shadow. When it dies, it revives itself a thousand years latter to spread peril once again.

Sometimes you're glad these things are just legends.

>Keep looking through the books (1d20)
>Take a look at the paintings
>Take a look at the scrolls
>Take a look at the tablets
>Take a look at the stones
>Ask Thomas where to find something in particular
>Other
>>33030952
I'll alter things to that effect. I'll handle looking through the library, then once that's done you can decide if you want to give it to him. It was a bit hasty to brush over that.

Rolled 3

>>33031133
>Keep looking through the books (1d20)

Rolled 10

>>33031133
>Keep looking through the books (1d20)

Rolled 4

>>33031133
>Keep looking through the books (1d20)

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You continue sifting through books, this time going over those lying around the room.

One catches your eye immediately, as it has a rather intricate depiction of a legend on its pages. Thumbing through, it seems that it is the patron of volcanoes and volcanic eruptions, and that it causes them when it roars. You're not quite sure how to pronounce it's name.

The book underneath that one is illegible. While the letters all look normal, save for strange eyeballs drawn on all of them, the words themselves seem to be in another language.

You glance around the room once more, and you spy a book on a rather cluttered desk. Flipping through it, you quickly realize it concerns the legend of the meteorite you recovered.

It goes into more detail of what you've heard. In addition to only coming down from the heavens once every thousand years, it also only stays for a week after it awakens. The last time this occurred, was in a land far to the east, where it was taken from the pure-hearted one who freed it and abused by a conqueror to make himself king.

It also goes into more detail about how it's ability to grant wishes works. While it has the ability to grant minor requests endlessly, larger wishes require one to inscribe the wish on one of three tags which adorn its crown. Once all three have been used, the wishmaker will return once again to its slumber amidst the stars.

You still needed to make your decision about what to do with that rock. On the one hand, Thomas did put a lot of effort and research into finding it. On the other, he didn't have any real claim to it, and it's not like he was going to use it as anything other than a paperweight. Then again, it's not like you've met anyone who the stone considers to be pure of heart. Otherwise it would have awakened by now.

>Give Thomas the meteorite
>Keep it for yourself

Well, whatever your decision, it's not like you had to tell him immediately. You could continue to use his study for a little longer.
>(specify)

>>33031883
>Ask him about the stone, it's importance and other things like that.
I want to know if he really only wants the thing as a paperweight, or if it's some plot mcguffin and not just an evolutionary stone.

>>33032017
I'll second this. All we know is that he wants to put it on his desk like a paperweight. Let's talk to him about it, especially since it's legend says it grants wishes.
There has to be a reason he's looking for a wish granting rock.

Rolled 15

>>33031883
>it's not like you've met anyone who the stone considers to be pure of heart
So you're telling me Lisa isn't pure?

Continue to look around.

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You resolve to speak with Thomas about this directly. After all, the only indication you had of what he wanted to do with it was from his sister.

"Excuse me," you start, "I was wondering if I could speak with you about the stone I found."

"Ah, Ceil," he says, looking up from his book, "Certainly, was there something in particular you wanted to know about the legend? I've done quite a bit of reading on it. Utterly fascinating."

"I mainly wanted to know what you were planning on doing with it. Were you wanting to wish for something in particular?"

"Wish for...hmm...now that you ask me I don't really know what I'd wish for. I suppose I'd use it to try and see more legends. That would be most exciting. Although I suppose it'd be my responsibility to use at least one of those wishes to try and stop these invasions against our country."

"So you don't just want to put it on display?"

"Well, I do. After all, the stone will only awaken when it comes into contact with someone pure of heart. I'm certainly no saint, so I don't suppose I'll ever get a chance to see it in it's true glory. I figure though, if I have it with me, then I'll have the best chance of seeing it for myself."

"I see."

So it seems that his motivation for keeping it is to see a legend in real life. The question now was what to do with it.
>Give him the stone
>Tell him you'll be keeping the stone
>Other

>>33032332
I am indifferent on this matter...

On one hand I'd like to keep it to see if we can find someone who can turn it on. But it would be kind of a dick move to be like "You've been searching for this for year? Too bad it's mine now."

>>33032332
Alternative: We're likely going to be traveling around, and therefore have a higher chance of encountering someone of pure heart. We could keep the stone with us and send him notification if it behaves oddly in reaction to anyone we encounter on our journey.
I doubt he'd find many of pure heart amongst noble circles, and who else would he be showing it off to?

>>33032332
Personally, I think it'd be a Dick move to keep it. Though what
>>33032739
suggests is pretty reasonable.

>>33032739
I like this, it's an agreeable compromise.
Let's bring this up and see what he thinks.

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An idea comes to you that you think could be a reasonable compromise.

"How about this," you start, "Since my group is going to be traveling around, we'd have a better chance of encountering someone of pure heart. We could keep the stone with us and send you a missive if it reacts to anyone."

"Hmm...I suppose that would improve the odds," he ponders, "I'll tell you what. You can take the stone with you, on the condition that if the legend awakens, you make certain that I get a chance to see it."

"You've got a deal."

The two of you shake hands, cementing your agreement.

-------------------

I think I'm going to call it a night here. It seems like a good stopping point for now. Thank you for participating. As usual, I'll be sticking around for questions or comments.

I would also like to apologize once again for how delayed this thread was.

>>33033075
Just curious, but is it possible to train our Aura to work like the HUDs in the game? Where we can determine exact HP, level and an idea of how strong monsters are in certain areas (Stats)?

Also, how does Evolving work? Does it just happen? Are there signals? Can we mash B?

>>33033183
I'm trying to avoid using specific game mechanics. Right now you can already use auras to gauge how strong monsters are.

As for evolution, its a process that's either similar to growing up if you let it happen normally, or it involves the creature itself evolving as a defensive mechanism in a life or death situation. However, fighting more often does increase the likelihood of one evolving, since they get into more situations that would trigger it, and become strong enough to handle the stress of it. Cancelling evolution is a function of the pokedex from what I recall, which hasn't been invented.

>>33033075
Thanks for the thread OP.
Are those weird gourd things really just magic pokeballs, or are they a secret evil plot to allow the group distributing them to mind control all monsters that get put in them?

Any idea when you'll run next?

>>33033501
The weird gourds are just specially crafted apricorns. No mind control involved, and they don't have a lot of the same functions as pokeballs. The main use is being able to carry a monster around in a small container.

As for next time, I'll try to run again next Wednesday.

>>33033601
>No mind control involved
Evil mind control devices, got it.

>>33033075
thanks for running!
btw, thread archived, don't forget to vote, guys

>>33034551
Thanks for catching that. It'd slipped my mind.