Adventure Thread - Group A

Focus: ZKtXxTli2d62d6

Unable to shake these new thoughts from his head, Vincent finds himself wandering about what seems to be a rather large, glamorous city; in the middle of a forest. He briefly wonders why people don't know this is here, but shortly thereafter decides its doesn't matter. His wandering feet take him to what appears to be a fanciful palace, whose grounds he has apparently been on the entire time. The odd thing is, for such a large place, there are not a lot of people around. In fact, most of the inhabitants appear to be Pokemon. All of them Fairy Types, or related to Fairies in some way. As he approaches the palace proper, he sees more humans around. An equal assortment of men and women in shining armor stand guard at intervals along the grand staircase leading inside. They don't even acknowledge his presence, however, merely maintaining their vigil.

Once inside, Vincent makes his way through the maze-like hallways as if he's been here before; easily navigating to what seems to be his destination. Some voice in the back of his mind tells him that The Mistress wanted to see him when he awoke. What he doesn't know is why and how he knows these things. It's really quite disconcerting, but he can't seem to make himself stop to consider it. When he knocks politely on the door, it is answered by a young woman in a pale white-gold dress. She seems to recognize you, and calls to someone else in the room.

"Mistress, your newest servant is here."

"Oh good. Welcome, Vincent, to Sildëyuir; Court of the Seelie Fae. I am Lady Ithilmia Tassos, and your new Queen."

Both Queen Tassos and the other servants in the room merely laugh at your 'request'.

"You speak as if you have a choice in the matter. No, your choices are thus: Serve me willingly, and perhaps even begin to enjoy your time here, as my other servants do; or serve me unwillingly, and be forever trapped within the depths of your own mind, powerless to do anything save what I will you to."

After using her newly-obtained good reputation with the police to get them to assign several officers to her, Maxine then begins running to catch up with the others, periodically looking back over her shoulder and yelling at the officers to keep up.

She kicks herself over and over again in her mind. Why didn't she check her messages. She was practically inches away from where Vincent was yesterday and she never even knew it.

Maxine

The police do agree to assign a few officers to follow Maxine for her protection, and to investigate the claims of kidnapping. As there is no proof other than a couple of Trainers being MIA an Vincent's message, they cannot commit more than one or two of their officers in case it turns out that the trainers were merely lost in the woods. The group of Maxine and the officers enter the woods perhaps an hour behind Lia and Floyd.

~~~
Lia and Floyd

Despite her rush, Lia manages to avoid any outstretched roots or tangles of undergrowth that threaten to trip her up. Her mind utterly focused on the task at hand, she seems to either not hear or ignore Floyd's question. Possibly because she does not know where they're going. All she and Floyd know is that Vincent went into the woods around here with the intent to rescue Dan and never returned. There is no telling how far in Vincent went before supposedly disappearing, nor what dangers may await them in the form of Wilds.

As they press further into the woods, Lia and Floyd are forced to slow down to push their way through the trees that have grown ever closer to one another. This far in, even the daylight can't penetrate. If the experiences of Viridian Forest are anything to go by, there are likely dozens of hungry Wilds that may decide these two humans look like a nice meal. Unlike Viridian though, this place isn't well-traveled. It is pure, untamed wilderness; a fact which only serves to make it more dangerous.
~~~~
Vincent

Queen Ithilmia smiles as you bow and agree to serve her (albeit as temporarily as possible). She immediately assigns you duties as a lesser servant. It is your job to be the servant of the servants at this time. Your tasks include such things as manual labor, running messages between certain groups of servants, and just generally being on your feet all day. At some point, you even run into Dan, who seems somewhat different.

"Oh, Vincent. Great to see you again. So you've come to serve our Lady Tassos? Isn't she wonderful? I must say, I really enjoy being here. It's so calm and peaceful. Nothing at all to worry about here, so long as you perform your assigned duties to the absolute best of your ability. I've even become more in tune with my Bug Pokemon. So much so that I can perform some of the amazing feats that they can, if only to a lesser extent."

Vincent

Dan smiles back, seeming to resume his duties quite happily. He heads for what appears to be the city limits. He must be having his Bug Types serve as scouts or something. Throughout your workday, you encounter many other people, most of which seem as perfectly 'normal' as Queen Tassos. Unlike Dan, they don't have that faraway look in their eyes. These folks must be here willingly for one reason or another.

Lia hits the dark forest, and looks around, clearly losing whatever faux track she was on. Scier floats up, huffing to keep up, followed shortly by Floyd. She looks to Floyd, and her anger fades, replaced with genuine concern.

"Honestly Floyd I was hoping two people running with purpose into whatever territory this lady occupies shouting for Vincent would have one of her goons show up to take us out. Then we take them out cause were freakin awesome, and we beat the crap out of them slash it until we know how to get to wherever it is we need to go. But there's no way we can just charge into 'that'."

Lia guestures to the deeper forest.

Not without some help, anyway..."

She releases Flare, Wrona, and Jazda into the field.

"You all can track, right?"

They all nod.

"Well this area doesn't look traveled at 'all' so I think it'll be easy to focus in on a human scent, yeah?"

The Golbat, Woobat, and Girafarig go to work trying to hunt down on a smell.



2d6·3d6+1·5d6+2

Lia and Floyd

Lia's team of trackers do their best, but not even the mighty Jazda can manage to track down the scent of Vincent "Edgelord" Roth. Briefly, Jazda catches a whiff of something that *might* be Vincent's scent, but she loses it just as quickly. All of them, however, pick up the scent of multiple Wild Pokemon in the immediate area, even if they cannot pinpoint a location. Seems you'll have to rely on luck for now.

Flagela heads on up the tree, stays there for a few minutes, then returns to ground level. The Pansage manages to communicate that all it sees are more trees from where they are. Well, that, and the occasional flock of Bird Pokemon.

Lia and Floyd have two options now: Wait to see if Maxine catches up so they can all press on together, or try to continue on their own in  hopes of, if nothing else, getting an "enemy" to appear that they (Lia) can beat answers out of.