Episode 1: The Trial

(OOC: Lavrence, that roll does seem blank on my end too. I can allow a reroll to get a visible number. Aslo, Coolcroc, you're looking at the Northwestern passage. There is no Northeastern one.)

Keno, when you speak to the creature, it turns toward you and flicks out its forked tongue while shaking its drill rapidly. Your intuition tells you that it's surprised and frightened of your presence. Looking into your first aid kit, you can't find much in the way of making it warmer, other than using one of your rolls of bandages to make a makeshift scarf.

Isabella, the creature takes notice of you as well. It begins to slither backward toward the rock wall before boring into the rock with its drill.

Jason, your eyes haven't yet adjusted to the darkness of the cave and you can't see anything beyond the boundaries of light your flashlight produces as you point it around. However, what is hard to miss is the strange sound echoing through the blackness ahead. It sounded like a throaty chant that was made louder by the walls, like it was a megaphone. Fortunately, you have enough focus to not turn away from this.

John, when you point your light down the south passage, you see the light reflecting off of a wall several meters down, indicating that the way winds a little. The sound of trickling water echoes from it. You can see some irregularities on the wall that appear to be various fossils that are attached to the rock.

Jakar, you also hear the sound of water.

Isabella shift her stance slightly and pushes down a bit of panic. Yes, she'd had experience venturing into the territories of wild Pokémon, but that had always been with fully licensed Trainers. Now even her fellow Applicants had inexplicably decided to split us and she was still relatively near the elevator.

Moving near Keno, she asks, "Could I perhaps borrow your rope for a little while?" She keeps an eye on the nearby Pokémon, her voice holding a slightly more soothing note to it as she asks for the item.

If she does get more rope, she carefully ties the two ends together, giving them a experimental tug to ensure they won't slip free of each other, and then carries on.

If she doesn't get more rope, she doesn't move beyond the end of it as she checks the area along the wall, looking and listening for any clues to the "prizes" the Professor had mentioned while seeking to disturb the locals as little as possible.

***
Charm to not alarm the wild Pokémon nyHaxm9h3d6
Perception 2d6
And so she might avoid likely Pokémon hiding places, so as not to disturb them: Pokémon Education 3d63d6·2d6·3d6

Isabella frowns thoughtfully and flicks her eyes to Keno as she rests her fingers just ahead of the two images. "They're both looking this way, do you think that's a clue?" she asks before giving the Pokémon a slight smile and slowly going from her standing position to a crouch.

"Don't worry, little one, the excitement shouldn't last too much longer, we hope."

Isabella smiles and nods as Keno signals for her to leave the wild Pokémon to him. Remaning crouched,she mouths a 'thank you' to the boy, still mindful not to disturb the nearby Pokémon. She then carefully works on tying the two ropes together, the top of her tongue appearing at the left side of her mouth, clearly somehow helping her concentration since it slips back into her mouth again as soon as she's given the ropes a slight, experimental tug to ensure they won't separate themselves.

Collecting the coil of rope once more, she continues along the wall in the direction the carved images were looking, seeking more potential clues.

***
Perception IescmNc62d62d6

Keno, you notice the petroglyphs as well and they seem to be facing toward the two northern passages. Closer inspection shows that the wrap around the wall to the northwestern passage, where Jason walked down. Meanwhile, you decide to tend to the cold pokemon. It still seems nervous, but curious enough for you to get close to give it the bandages. The way its tongue flicks on your hands, indicates that it was distracted by your scent and didn't seem to care about what you were wrapping around it.

Isabella, you follow the petroglyphs as far as the north passage, but overlook the ones pointing to the northwest passage.

Jason, you push yourself forward toward the chanting and come upon a large, circular room. The floor looks like its made up of large red clay blocks that form a circle around a hole in the center. Without having to look to hard, you can see more petroglyphs on the surrounding walls with different pokemon of every shape and size. One of the walls looks exactly like the one in the exhibits above. The glyphs all seem to form a spiral that leads up to the ceiling, which is shaped as a dome. In the center were several petroglyphs, depicting various humanoid shapes in ponchos, dancing a round a spiraling serpentine creature, coiling itself within what looked like the sun. The chanting is at its loudest in here. It really does sound like somebody was in there with you. It seems to say, "Ha-mana...." in long drones. As you enter, it suddenly stops. A voice whispers from the deep hole in the floor. "Warrior...."

Isabella, you move down the passageway until you feel the tug of the rope. You find yourself in a massive chamber but with not so much ground to move forward on. Ahead, the path ends at the shore of an underground lake. By the water that ripples from the drops from the ceiling are what appear to be three brown shells with grooves on their surfaces. Small bubbles float from the holes. Beyond that, you can see sunlight shining down on a raised platform in the far side of the lake.

Tugging the bandages into place, Keno gives a final reassuring pat and he rises. "OK, that's it, best of luck to you."

In response Isabella's questions on the glyphs he followed the glyphs, when Izzy wondered past them he quickly moved to study the next on she seemed to miss. Proud to call attention to it and show that he was capable, he called back to Izzy, "I do think there are leading somewhere, but they seem to be headed this way."

In a confident voice he spoke to no one in particular, "I found something interesting over here." He didn't want to raise his voice and disturb the environment, he assumed his voice would carry enough to reach the otheres had they not strayed too far.

He would wait for Izzy to proceed since she was on the same trail, but it was too exciting to wait and see if the others might also show up.

"Jeeze!" Jason jumps back at the sound of the voice, his heart sliding back down his throat. He turns a quick circle around himself and sees that he is, still, alone in the cavern. Jason tightens his hands into fists to steady himself to get closer to the hole, hoping to take a peak inside without letting the unknown speaker see him.

Jason gets about a meter from the hole before his senses fear gets the better of him and he turns back to the tunnel that led into the dome. "Hey yall!" he calls while walking back, "I found somethin' down here I think you'd wanna see."

Jason waits at the mouth of the northwestern tunnel to look for his allies, looking over his shoulder at any unregistered noise.

Izzy shakes her head slightly and sighs as she explains to Keno about the Squirtles. "I wonder if we'll be able to return her after the Trial, if we accept the terms of the Internship and become Trainers," she offers softly. "I've worked with two or three Squirtles over the years, and Water Types are rather handy to have around to deal with a few of the more troublesome other Types."

She jumps a bit an visibly flinches as Jason calls down from where he went. She's clearly zoned out slightly at the thought of getting a Squirtle of her own.

"We'd have to get them looked over for any possible illness, of course," she adds to Keno before turning towards the direction Jason was heard from.

"Oh, and I left out ropes on the path to the lake. Would you like me to get the, Keno?"