Chapter 1: The Tower on the Cliff

Robin smirks at the affect and speaks in what she likes to think is a slightly better Southern Unovan accent, just to see how he'd react to thinking someone actually had the accent he was faking. "Thinkin' 'bout it, Pops, but right now, we was hopin' to take li'l trip down the mines. Thought it'd be neat to see a good ol' hole in the ground and since we can't make it to Orre, figured this'd be the next best thing." He gives the man a smirk and a quick, excited raise of the eyebrows.

Oh, so it's an arms race of cartoon accents, is it? Robin grins at the challenge, unintentional as it might be.

"L'il bitta both, I'd reckon," she chirps, keeping the accent relatively consistent but putting a little more emphasis on the altered words. "Y'got any tips on tusslin' with the li'l varmints."

She gives a small smirk to her companions and tilts her head slightly towards the man, silently letting them know they can step in at any time, otherwise she'd happy to keep going.

The man grins at Robin, ready to retort when Jean-Marie pipes up. Focusing his attention to her, he smiles kindly, and drops most of the accent, only a slight twang remaining. "You lot are new to the whole training business then, I reckon? No need to worry your head too much, we've got a whole section of the mines, nearer to the surface, set up for starting trainers and the like. We try to keep the bigger threats lower down the mines."

He takes out a map and lays it out on the counter for all of you to see. "The mines are divided in three sections. The parts meant for trainers and such, least. The upper reaches y'all can get in for free, and nothing there should be too big a problem, provided you don't go wandering in too deep." He gestures to the left arm of the mines, which seems to be sectioned off in three distinct pathways from a starting room, each pathway splitting off in its own system of tunnels. "Depending on when you lot started trainin', you'll wanna stick to the areas marked in green, yellow, orange, or red." - you notice that the left side of the map has a variety of coloured markings, the colour going from green near the entrance, to yellow, orange, and red deeper into the mines - "The other two areas y'all are gonna have to pay for, and they're a mite more difficult than the upper reaches, so best to leave that be for the moment, I reckon."

"Feel free to take a picture of the upper reaches. We do sell maps of the mines, but the paths in the upper parts are pretty straightforward, 'specially in the early parts that y'all'll wanna stick to, so I wouldn't worry too much about getting your own map for now. Mind, the critters milling about have a tendency to mess with some of the smaller tunnels, so the maps are rarely fully correct. Main paths should be fine though, but keep a look out for some unmarked side paths. Who knows, might find yourself something int'restin'. Mines are connected to a whole bunch of caves in the area, and plenty of mon find themselves wanderin' in through nooks and crannies. Never know what y'all might run into."

Orianne sighed and shook her head slightly as Robin just had to antagonize and banter. It had only been a day and already the inefficiency of his conversation was draining. The dour expression changed slightly when Benji redirected the man toward providing useful information. Of course, the moment of being impressed was snuffed when he began tripping all over himself in an effort to over-prepare.

She reached down and released the frosty meowth from the ball. There really wasn't any point to keeping her hidden, especially since the man had mentioned there would be surprise dangers. "I'm ready."

"Happy huntin' you lot! Remember, be careful and keep an eye out!" the man says as you five leave the museum and continue following the path into the mines.

The path to the mines is easy enough to follow, and soon you find yourself at the entrance to the Pyrite Gold Mines, a wide mouth hewn into the mountainside, about as tall as it is wide. After a few moments of deliberation, you five go through the entrance. A short, mostly straight tunnel follows, going downwards at a slight angle, connecting to a spacious room, that in the past might have served as a staging area for the mining operations. To your left there is an open tunnel, well lit, with a sign identifying it as 'The Upper Reaches'. There are two heavy iron doors installed in the cave walls, one straight ahead and one to your right, signs identifying these as 'The Deep Caves' and 'The Lower Reaches' respectively.

A small number of Pokémon, easily recognisable as Geodude and Roggenrolla, have situated themselves in front of the entrance to the upper reaches, and are giving you guys ugly looks (at least, you're assuming the Roggenrolla are, to match the Geodude. Hard to tell, really). As you move closer to the entrance, they grow more agitated, and seem unwilling to back off an let you pass.

Jean-Marie smiles and releases Cheri, returning the ball to her bag without a word. The Vullaby squawks in surprise at being effectively underground, but quickly adjusts to the task at hand.

"I think I have had my fill of talking our way through things today."

The feral scratch-cat had already begun moving forward as Ori had paused to retrieve her Pokedex. She wasn't completely competent in it's use, but really wanted to try to scan one of the Pokemon. Much better to practice on easy targets than trying to figure out how it worked when there was a real threat.

Blades of ice form midair, as if condensed and frozen from the damp of the cave, and sent flying toward one of the geodudes. Ori pondered Sapphire's choice of target. She hadn't commanding that attack, but it seemed the best choice considering the rock could easily flank the yungoos.

---

Ori uses Pokedex to scan Geodude 3.

Sapphire uses Ice Shard on Geodude 2.

Ice Shard!
Attack: _IK0sv_X1d20+1 vs. AC 2
Damage: 2d6+22 Ice, Physical damage.1d20+1·2d6+22

Jean-Marie steps towards the pair of Geodude near the left wall menacingly, and her shadow seems to double in length. She lets out an almost inaudible growl toward the Rock Pokemon, but they seem shaken by the approach.

Actions:
1d20·2d6+14