The next day you'd been ready and raring to go. The chili from last night seems to have given you a bit of extra pep in your step (not that you'll admit that to the Prof.) so as soon as you've refilled your canteen and restocked your pack with food you set out.
Before you go though, you release your pokemon. "So, I've got a question. Are you two okay with me giving you nicknames?" Hoppip practically cheered, bounding up and down. You chuckle. "Well that's one yes. How about you?" Porygon considered the question, before giving a single short nod. You smile, scooping up Hoppip before she tires herself out from all the cheering.
"Okay then. So for you little lady, since you've been my sun underground, I wanted to do something connected to the sun. How does Sunny sound?" Hoppip considers, then shakes her head (her whole body really) in the negative. "Okay that's a no for Sunny..." You try a couple of variants before moving on. Eventually though you get a positive response from "Solaris". Not what you'd have expected from the little Grass type, but if she likes it. And she seems fine with you calling her "Sol" for short.
Porygon turns out to be much easier. When you suggest "Ping" because of the sound he makes, along with it being a term for a computer contacting another computer. Ping seems satisfied with the name, his "feet" wiggling as he closes his eyes into an upside down "U" shape denoting their happiness. You'd smiled at their antics even as Sol had cheered for her teammate. With that determined, you'd faced down the four-way inter
You decide today that you'll head to the North first, to see if there's anything to be found there. You find yourself moving through areas that feature more glassy obsidian and other volcanic stones. Which makes sense, the Northwest area of Orre is known for the volcanoes that belch out ash and smoke even now. And the deeper down you go, the more volcanic activity remnants you find. It's not until you're hitting another area of shale that you see an oddly smoothed rock protruding from the layers.
You have Ping and Solaris wait while you begin chipping away carefully. Shale is incredible brittle along the horizontal plane, so you're able to use the tip of your pick to flake away the surrounding stone until you finally are able to pry your prize free from the wall. Flipping it over, you gave a nod of satisfaction seeing the fossilized remnants of grasping legs tucked under the smooth shell.
Gained Dome Fossil - Can be put up for auction for a variable amount, or sold directly to a lab for a guaranteed $10,000.
It was as you were hitting the endpoint for your travels that day that you finally got your first break in looking for living pokemon. You'd entered a cave to find a section of the wall had collapsed, recently. Mixed in with the debris were small leaves, dried out but still flexible. And at the edges of the collapsed area you'd found a few flecks of bright orange crystal. A Sunstone deposit, which was notable because with one singular exception the only mon that had any kind of use for those particular evolution stones were all grass types.
You'd been heading steadily downward today, so you had Ping mark that route as one for further investigation before you'd doggedly stuck to your plan and returned back to the main junction. You could have pushed forward, but risking going too far and running out of food and water was far too much of a danger. Like the Professor had said, you had a week to find something. Rushing recklessly would just get someone hurt, either you or your pokemon and neither was acceptable.
Finding yourself back at the junction you pull out your hammer, pick and shovel and practically attack the cave-in. Clay, stone and scree are all moved out of the way with finesse. No wasted movements as you move the blockage. You get some unexpected and wholly welcomed assistance from Titan as the Aggron assists in removing the loose debris from the tunnel keeping it from getting too cramped.
It's as you're breaking down a small shale boulder with the dark indicators of carrying trace amounts of oil and tar, that you make your second find of the day. You note a stark discoloration poking out of the stone. Setting your hammer aside you get your pick and begin to carefully remove more of the sediment. Eventually you uncover an odd skull with a long, tapered snout. It's small, only a bit bigger than your two fists together, and unfortunately appears to have been separated from the rest of the skeleton at some point so all that you had to go off of is the admittedly unique-looking skull for identification. You carefully stow it in your pack and get back to work; you're about a third of the way through.
As you approach the finish line, your shovel unearths something very odd from the loose rubble you were moving. It looked almost like the shell of a Minior, but not quite. Gently prying it loose, you found that it was a sphere of rock. One that wasn't nearly as heavy as it should have been given its size if it was solid all the way through...
Carefully using the tip of your pick to create a small line of cracks in the stone, you followed that up with some taps from a chisel and small mallet. You grinned as the sphere split perfectly in half. Carefully turning it so that the seam was horizontal in case there was fluid inside (though you hadn't heard any sloshing it was still possible, and then lifted the top half.
Pinkish spikes glinted in the light of Sol's Sunny Day, perfectly geometrically arranged. And while there wasn't fluid, you saw that there were small bits of grit stuck to some of the crystal spikes. Interesting, apparently a geode had formed around some stardust, and turned the sand into crystals. Not entirely unique but certainly worth a bit more than the average pocket of the meteoric sand usually went for. Using a bit of duct tape to hold the halves together, you stored it in your pack and set about finishing the last of the clearing job.
At the end of it you were tired, filthy and sweaty. You'd gone to the showers immediately and spent a good half-hour allowing the warm water to soothe your sore muscles. Emerging feeling at least somewhat human again, you took your pack to the kitchen, where the Prof. was once again working on dinner. Curry from the smell of it this time, and you could see a small secondary pot off to the side, the steam wafting from it carried the pungent smell of peppers and spice.
"So how'd everything go today?" The Professor looked up from where he was dishing up rice. You gave a smile and placed your pack on the table, letting it thump solidly. "Ah, it went well then?" You nod.
"Found evidence of Grass types to the North, looks like there was a small seam of Sunstones that they excavated. The leaves were brown but they hadn't dried out yet; so it was relatively fresh. I'll probably follow up with that tomorrow. But I was hitting the limits of my trip for the day so I turned back. But not before finding this." You pull out the Dome fossil and set it down.
The professor lets out a whistle, examining it carefully, before going and retrieving the gene-reader pad. After attaching small probes to the fossil, he activated it. There was a brief humming and then a short beep followed by a pleasant-sounding ding sound. The Prof. smiled toothily. "Looks like you got a solid one. 98.7% viable genetic strand. Well within revival tolerances." You nod, before reaching into the bag again and pulling out the oddly shaped skull, dyed black from its surroundings for millennia.
"Well now, that's certainly not something you see everyday. May I?" You nod, handing him the skull. He spends several minutes examining it minutely before gently setting it down. "Well congratulations, you appear to have found the skull of an ancient Cyndaquil." You rocked back on your heels, a find like that was incredibly rare! And it also indicated that at one point Cyndaquil had apparently been native to Orre.
"Now then, let's see..." Logging and then clearing the results from the gene-reader, the professor proceeded to attach the probes to the new fossil. After another scan taking about a minute, the device once again let out a beep and a cheerful "ding". The Professor whistled. "By the Four Treasures! 98% viable genetic strand! You could clone a perfectly healthy pokemon from this!"
You consider that carefully even as you pull out the last find. Compared to the first two it's almost something of a letdown, but the interesting formations of crystals inside the geode, especially made from Stardust, means that it'll be at least worth a bit more than the standard pockets of the stuff are worth to artisans.
Items added to the Inventory:
Dome Fossil: Can be put up for auction for a variable amount (Base $8,000), or sold directly to a lab for a guaranteed $10,000. Or keep for revival.
Aberrant fossil: 98 - Starter, 3 Fire type. Snout Fossil = Cyndaquil: Can be kept for later revival, or sold to a research laboratory for $25,000. May also put it up for auction due to its rarity, baseline price would be $15,000 at a minimum; maximum is luck-based.
Stardust geode: worth $2,500 a geode formed during a meteorite impact, the interior is filled with crystallized spikes of Stardust.
The question of course is, what to do with the items you found. Aside from the geode of course. That was getting sold, no question, and added to the war chest for the expedition funds.
[ ][Dome Fossil]Keep it
[ ][Dome Fossil]Sell it to a lab.
[ ][Dome Fossil]Auction it
[ ][Snout Fossil]Keep it
[ ][Snout Fossil]Sell it to a lab.
[ ][Snout Fossil]Auction it
Dinner that night was good, the lead you'd found buoying your spirits as much as the lovely curry fueled your body. You spent that night in a dreamless sleep, and woke refreshed in the morning. Today is the day. You just know it.
---
You have 3 Free AP. You can attempt to either Explore an excavated tunnel, looking for a specific type of treasure, (Here it'll be whatever you decide to focus on, later you can make choices on what to spend each AP on looking for); attempting to find new passages, or attempting to open up collapsed passages. Some passages will not be able to be cleared without improved equipment.
1 AP locked in for following the hints of living pokemon further North.
Your available actions are:
[ ]Follow an open shaft to the (North, South, East, West)
Pick a cardinal direction. When you get deeper you will also need to choose if you are going up or down. North, South East and West are all available. Picking a direction does not cost AP.
[ ]Check a wall for buried treasures.
[ ]Try to track down a trace of living pokemon.
[X]Try to track down a trace of living pokemon.
-[X]Going North and Down
[ ]Lay out bait and try to bring in pokemon to you
You will need to use berries or other specialized baits. Currently not available.
[ ]Try to clear a collapsed passage.
Add "x1" etc for how many AP are being applied. With better gear you'll be able to assess how much AP a blockage will take to remove. Not available.
Your opening pokemon and the pokemon you acquire over the course of this quest will give access to new options past the opening sequence, as will new or upgraded gear. Currently not available.
Please vote by plan for spending your AP. Everything else is freeform votes.
