Day 1: Solemn Forest North East (team 2)

All the way down the path, Helios was casting furtive glances into the forest, searching the trees for dangers that never come. The unnatural silence creeps him out, and he wants to get out of here as soon as possible.

Once the party reaches the clearing, he finally speaks, turning to Nette. "Hey, uh, tree girl, you're a forest spirit, right? Talk to the trees or something, ask them what the heck is going on here. I don't like this silence."

"I think you two are just too fussy." Olivier interjected, waving his arms. "The lovely singing birds and dangerous murder monsters have to sleep at some point!"

He tapped his hand on his mouth. Well. They might have had just a slight point though. "Rain, rain, go away. Only happy days to stay... The Sage then waved his staff slightly, sending a shimmering array of sparkles into the air.

"A good luck chant! If something should want to be rather mean to us poor travelers, they're going to have a hard time landing a really good hit with that around! Now let's map that lake!"

He grinned. "Nee, just as we practiced. Fairy Lights!"

Nee nodded in confusion at her strange companion who had placed him upon her head. They hadn't practiced anything. The young elf or human thing just sort of prattled on about many things that a Cottonee could never hope to entirely understand.

But. Perhaps she wasn't hopeless. Nee sneezed, sending out a trio of billowing cotton lights about her. Oh. That was new. The strange one had talked about this. Well then. The little Cottonee wiggled her ear leaves vigorously, willing the cotton balls of light to cast themselves out across the waters six meters out.

This wasn't quite enough to completely satisfy her though. Once Olivier got close to the water, Nee dunked one of the lights down beneath the billowy depths. Perhaps there was something down there as well!

The fairy lights light up the small lake revealing nothing within.  The entire area shows no signs of recent pokemon life at all. 


(Kssshh shshh shhhhhh) "Oh hi there team 2.  I'm gett-" (khsh) "-terference." (khsh) "-silence -" (khsh) "- normal in the beginning." (khsh) "didn't get the chance to tell you that before so" (khsh) "careful of-" (khsh) "-try team 1 again."  The rings on your fingers transmit various noises from your guild leader, Farina, along with some weird static noises. 

"Pre-recorder message 1!  By Sariah (best assistant ever) Redwood!" This speech is quite clear to all four of you. "Hi everyone I pre-recorded this message into your rings to activate the first time Farina sends you a message.  Aside from acting as your link back to the guild HQ in an emergency, Farina is able to send you messages through the rings, but you cannot send any back.  That is all.  Oh wait, bring me stuff!"

You may choose to continue searching the area, such as the shiny spot in the corner, or move further in to the forest.

"Uhum." Nette agreed. Puzzling the phrases together could make something really mundane - or a dire warning. But since they didn't really have any way of figuring out which they couldn't really do much about it. "'be careful' she said; I guess we just have to be careful in general!"

Still the water looked tempting after the long walk. And Oliver nor his cottonee friend had been eaten by any lake monster yet so it was probably safe. So Nette joined him at the edge of the lake, sitting down and dipping her toes into the water so her roots could drink. "Should we take a look at that shiny spot next? Might just be a shiny rock - but even a shiny rock can be nice!"

"Doesn't look like there've been any Pokémon around here at all... That's weird. I'd wonder if something lives here except that I don't see any signs of that, either." She's a little apprehensive, but she's actually curious now, too. Good thing her name isn't Catherine.

Bee shakes her head and follows Helios over to check out the shiny thing. "Wonder what that is..." She glances over toward the southwest corner, where another track leads out of the clearing. "That way goes deeper into the forest, let's head that way next!"

"Oho~! What a lovely flower!" Olivier says, wiping the water from his lips. He rises and takes up his wicker-worn staff once more. "If you are all ready, I propose we continue along the beaten path into the forest with vigor. We have much more to keep exploring!"

Helios delicately takes the Ariados Thread and puts it in his bag. Glancing around once more, he doesn't see anything requiring his attention in this area any more.

He falls in behind the group as they head to the path.

It does not take much traversing for the team to find themselves at a fork in the road. The path splits three ways, each of them with a monolithic stone door before them. None of the doors seem to have much suspicious about them, although only the left door and middle doors seem to have been opened recently; the right door is still flooded with dust and vines.

Nette advances and places herself right between all the doors and look around. "The door that is 'locked' feels best. If no-one has been there for a while there might be plenty of things laying around!" She took a steps towards the rightmost door and placed her hand on it. "But we should map the entire area, so which one we start with matters little? Anyway I'm going to see if I can open this ..."

Edit: Nette braced herself against the door and pushed (for athletics 11). Her Mawile companion looked up quizzically then also joined in (for athletics 11). "Let's see if it won't yeild ..."