Pokemon Tabletop RPG - It's Aliiiive!

Marc feebly attempts to mediate.

"Um. I really don't think anyone is at fault here. At the very least, can we just keep it down and head back to town? Some of our pokemon are pretty badly hurt. Please?"

"We aren't going fucking back! There'll be more ghosts and slime and they'll just get fucking hurt again!" He looks over his shoulder at Raphael. "Hey, Raph, you gonna be alright? We should keep moving."

Tori seethes, slowly pulling Lorin's Pokeball off of her belt and raising it questioningly.

She's got lots of great arguments in her head about the fact these are - technically - wild animals, entrapped in tiny portable capsules, bested in combat and expected by presumptuous masters to loyally fly straight into combat under their command. She'd argue she's not sure what kind of masochist Clifton is, but she'd kind of resent having to change allegiances to someone like that without much say-so, and that maybe he's got a really faulty argument by calling her conscientious and careless in the same fucking spiel. She'd argue that it's not her damn fault some stalker professor dickbag didn't send her off on a fantastic adventure a decade ago so she'd actually know by now all this shit people are expecting her to know.

She's more offended at being accused of mistreating Natalie, being a coward, and being an idiot.

Tori grips Lorin's Pokeball, and fucking decks Clifton in the head with it.

Bastion heals Gastly for 26 HP. It's now looking merely Scratched!

Raphael throws the fried Premier Ball at the device, and it sparks a bit, but dies down immediately.

The fainted Natalie is recalled immediately to her Pokeball.

Calloway is recalled before it suffers more from poisoning.

The device is a bit strange. It looks like it was manufactured professionally, except for a TM Reader welded to it. The main body of the device bears the Silph Co. logo. It looks pretty firmly lodged. It probably can't be removed without a great deal or force, or at the very least, recieving a good shock.

Bastion chucks a rock.
AC7: 1d20= 3
It sails right by Clifton's head.

Gabby tries to stomp the fried Premier Ball
AC12: 1d20=19
It shatters underneath his foot. It was probably done for anyways.

Tori takes her turn.
AC7: 1d20=8
Damage: 1d8+2+1=7
Clifton takes 7 to the face.

"Fucking christ!" Clifton rubs his head, scowling. "Jesus, if I knew Port Town was gonna have psycho bitches and delinquent kids, I would've stayed in Cabernet!"

He storms off towards Spirit Town, grumbling.

Now that his pal is looking better, Bastion has some other stuff to deal with. Now he is not very happy with some of the other dudes and how they've been talkin about each other, but he really doesn't like that Cliffton picking a fight for no reason at all!

But, he elects to not really discuss it and instead deal with the obviously in trouble, EVEN TO A TWELVE YEAR OLD, Tori, rushing up to her.

"Tori, it'll be okay! We've all had our friends banged up a little, but fighting about it doesn't solve anything. This is just wasting time, we need to go get Natalie to a center, now. That is what's important right now."

CHA CHECK FOR BASTION TELLING TORI TO STOP FIGHTING THE DUDE HE IS GRUDGING ON AND TO JUST START GOING

SpoilerShow

14:54Schazer Cyber what did Bastion roll
14:55 RobustLaser hold on i
14:55 RobustLaser wow
14:55 RobustLaser 20
14:55 RobustLaser legitimately 20

Tori just chills the fuck out almost instantaneously. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, I guess you're right."

She clips Lorin's ball back to her belt, and examines Natalie's this time worriedly, glancing back up the misty road. "It's... how many hours up the road again? Shit, we've already travelled a decent distance so going back to Ale Town'll take forever..."

"Eurgh, whatever. She's not going to get any worse if I keep her in her ball, right? We should just keep moving and hope to god it's not another half a day up the road."

NO.

THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.

Bastion's words have inspired Sturm! They can't just give up now! Not while there's still hope! Sturm grabs Bastion by the scruff of his neck, picks him up, and sets him down on Sleipnir.

You have Sturm's horse. Mostly 'cause he's too small for anyone else to ride.

Raphael gathers up Gabby in her arms.

Unnoticed, she begins walking down the road towards Spirit Town. The occasional teardrop marks her footprints in the dirt.

Sleipnir rides off towards Spirit Town at full speed!


...for a while. His paralysis doesn't exactly let him keep it up for too long. Still, he manages a respectable pace for a good amount of time.

The rest of the party continues along the path as well. Injury, the path growing darker, and the occasional argument, however, cause the trip to take nearly twice as long as it did getting to the halfway point in the first place.
Eventually, you arrive.

SPIRIT TOWN
9:49 PM


Now it could be that it's almost 10 PM, but you don't see any people at all as you enter Spirit Town. The residential area is just south of what is visibile on the map, but almost none of the lights are on in any of the houses. For buildings that you CAN see on the map, only the Clinic, the Pokemart, and the Pokemon Center have their lights on.

Places that don't have their lights on include the city's Gym, the Liquor Store, and some weird shop called Strictly Spiritual. As well as a large tower off in the distance, but you're not certain that place has lights anyways.

Bastion and Sleipnir got here earlier, so he already visited the Pokemon Center and Clinic an hour ago. He, Hrothgar, Groop, Sleipnir, and his Gastly friend are already healed up. Natalie is waiting in the Ward area of the Pokemon Center, healthy as ever.

Clifton heads right for the Pokemon Center to get Calloway and Riff patched up. He also informs anyone present (who doesn't look shady) that there was a Muk who had some really fucked up machinery in him and calling the cops might be a good idea.

Raphael silently shuffles off to the Center.

Tori marches up to Bastion as soon as she spots him, pointedly ignoring Clifton.

"Where is she?"

As soon as he rolled into town, Bastion rushed into the Pokemon Center and told the nurse about the situation. She was very nice as she went to help Natalie and after that was set in motion, the rest of the Pokemon he had. He was told to wait in the lobby for them to do their thing.

"She's in the ward, the nurse was nice, she said to stay here while they healed her, but I'm sure they'll let you by. I think they said it would take them something like an hour, so she should almost be ready!"

Bastion gives Sturm back Slepnir. "Slepnir, Hrothgar, and Groop are all healed too." He smiles at the large man, "Thanks for letting me ride him, it was cool! I think that we should leave Tori alone for a bit though, let's go to the clinic!"

Bastion then attempts to take Sturm to the Clinic for healings.

"Thanks. Uh, you as well," she adds to Sturm, sort-of nervously reaching to pat Sleipnir on his flank.

She heads into the centre, glances around, then hands over Gyps' Pokeball to the nurse at the counter.

"Hey, my friend came ahead with my Murkrow. Is she going to be ok?"

Raphael wipes her face on her sleeve, then attempts to dry off a slightly soggy Gabby. She gives him a huggle, and recalls him to his Pokeball, placing it on the counter. She sits down at some of the ubiquitous Pokecenter seats and takes a look around.

On the way to the Pokemon Center, Clifton sees nobody. There isn't even anybody in the Pokemon Center, other than a couple of Nurse Joys, and another, less identical nurse. After handing over his pokemon to be healed, he informs the employee of what happened.

"That's weird. Uh, there isn't a Rangers station in this town. I often think that they need one but the mystics and psychics here can usually handle things around here. I fly in from Bitter City on my Pidgeot, but I'll be heading back tomorrow. I can stop by Ale Town and tell the Rangers there about it.
Speaking of psychics and mystics, did you see where everybody is on your way here? It's been absolutely dead today, and I've no idea why."


Tori asks about her Murkrow, and yet another Nurse Joy comes through the Ward doors, carrying Tori's pokeball, with Natalie following along. Natalie sees Tori and excitedly runs up to greet her. She's perfectly healthy again and apparently pretty damn happy.


Raphael hands Gabby over to be healed and looks around. Aside from the robots or clones or whatever they are, and the one actual proper employee, the place is empty.


The Clinic is also mostly empty, with just the bare minimum amount of employees. They do assure you that despite being short staffed at the time, they'll be able to get you healed efficiently.

Raphael smiles for the first time since cryfest as she sees Tori and Natalie together. But then her eyes travel to the three other pokeballs sitting on the older trainer's belt, and the smile fades. She swallows a lump, and a paragraph of words, in her throat, and receives Gabby's ball silently.

Tori, despite herself, sags with relief when Natalie reappears. She probably just stands there, rubbing her eyes feeling frigging exhausted, looking down at a bird that's apparently no worse for the wear for being violently electrocuted.

"Aw, jeez," growls Tori. "Can we agree not to have you and electricity mix again? I appreciate you doing a great job at saving my ass, but you scared the shit out of me."

She takes Natalie's Pokeball from the nurse, but when she retrieves Gyps' from the front counter she stops and thinks before reattaching it to her belt.

"Actually, Nat, follow me."

Tori glances around for anyone who's going to get annoyed at her, then heads up to the trading floor in the hopes she'll have some privacy there.

She's got an asshole Chatot to introduce to the team.

Huh.

Come to think of it, she's got a team. Sort of.

SpoilerShow

Because angry immature prove-Clifton-wrong spite is the best character motivation.

Clifton laughs nervously at the nurse. "Well, uh, there were a lot of ghosts out there, so maybe they all..."

He just sort of trails off and clears his throat. "Um, I'm sure they're fine. So can you tell me anything about the gym or that weird tower place?"

"Oooh... a Gym! And also a dark tower thingy! Man, I can't wait to explore them but I'm tired."

Marc goes to the Pokemon Center and heals up his pokemon.

Bastion talks up the clinic people.
"So what's Spirit Town usually like? Is it always this... empty? I mean, yea, it's ten but..."

Lorin upon being released from his pokeball, hops around a bit, sizing up each of Tori's other Pokemon, before going right up to Tori and examining her.

After a few moments of contemplation, he seems to decide that he's at least somewhat satisfied with his team. For now, anyways.


"Well the Gym is run by a guy called Wisp! He's really nice, and he knows, like, everything about the town. You'd almost think he was there when it was founded, he knows so much. I think his dad actually was one of the founders, though.
The tower is called Dead Tower. It's a cemetary. I've never been, because I don't know anybody buried there. Still not sure whether or not the locals are being literal when they say they're going to talk to their loved ones. Psychics and mystics, after all."


Marc gets his pogeymans healed.


"Not usually. We have an Empath that works here, and normally she's available to help heal, but she said she's got something important to do. I assume most of the spiritual population is there, too."

"So is this important place that weird tower over there? It looks spooky..." Bastion then remembers that stuff about that guy from the one time, "Hey, have you seen any shady dudes around, maybe wearing a uniform with a D on it?"

Marc sends both Owei and Sleim out, to get introduced to each other. They just kinda greet each other calmly. Due to their natures and all. Yeah.

Exploration of the town will have to begin in the morning. Not because it's scary, no way, but because everything's closed.

Marc sees about getting a room for tonight.