Hello everypony and welcome again to our (exponentially) popular liveblog! Another night, another travel alonside our two heroes. Since I have nothing special to say in this introduction, let me point you to my other liveblog
, where I explain some of my GM'ing techniques and other good stuff that you might find useful if you try to GM yourself one day. That being said, all aboard the Elonta Express!
When we last left our heroes, they were healing their (psychological) wounds after a crushing defeat in contest. Having not much else to do in the snotty city of snotty guys, they took the train to ADVENTURE! ... Or, more precisely, to Meteor Mount, the big-ass mountain right in the middle of the desert, home of a whole lot of trainer activities. The travel went smoothly (despite one of my players repeated predictions of train pirates attacks along the way), and first thing that hit them when they got out of the train is the heat. Yeah, remember two lines ago, when I said the mountain was standing in a desert? I wasn't joking. They probably had to shed several layers of skin just to keep the temperature to a livable level.
Courtesy of an aerial tramway, they got at the top of the mountain in record time, to find themselves in a Far West city... made of stone! Well, not really, but that's the best description I could give them. A surprisingly busy city, actually: once they got their stuff at the saloon/hotel, a really old guy (who was so old and wrinkly no one can affirm for sure he has eyes at all) told them a big feast is in the works, to celebrate Old Miguel's birthday, the very first League Champion ever and local celebrity. And you know what this calls for? A PARTY!
Dancing, chanting, drinking lemonade and cactus alcohol in the chilled night ensues. They were looking for Bjorn, local Gym Leader and celebrity, but couldn't find it to save their life. Abel tried a little local game himself: jumping over a fire to prove your manliness. Of course, because Rule of Funny, his dices chose this very instant to roll a natural 1. I was gentle enough to not burn him to death, just slightly affecting his haircut (with FIRE!), but he kept trying... and never rolled over 3 on his dice for several throw. People had to forbid him to try for his own safety, while Aelya kept taking pictures of the event. I smell blackmailing!
Night finally come. During the night, Aelya, who had trouble finding sleep, was woken up by a short earthquake that took her by surprise. She went downstairs and asked the (always awake) bartender about it. His said this wasn't uncommon and that he felt those shake since his youth, it even caused the formation of a rift that splits the mountain in two; however, they were slightly more frequent those times around. He also predicted, based on the quake and overall hotness of the previous day, that tomorrow would be a Judgment Sun day: a weather so hot and sun so bright no-one could ever leave their houses without burning. Being no meteorologist, he doesn't know where this comes from, but he can now safely predict it a few days before the event.
And, would you know? He wasn't lying. The sun was so strong the very next day it would give you sunburn within seconds, and probably roast you alive in less than 15 minutes. But locals have their own way to deal with that kind of days... Underground and accessible by most shops, there's a giant corridor full of shops and distractions, safe and sound in the freshness of the stone. It is actually very impressive, much more than the city outside! Our two heroes split their ways here, so I'll talk about what happened to them separately.
Abel, single-minded as always, went straight to the local Gym to get some info on the local champion. He could assist a few high-level duels between the trainees, and asked around about Bjorn's team and habit of fighting. While most people were happy to praise the local champion, they were somewhat reluctant to give away his weaknesses... And that, of course, caught the attention of someone way over his head, who challenged Abel to a dual to prove him weak. I have to be honest here, I didn't got all the RP flavor I should to this challenge, so the dialog went something like this:
- "Man, you are weak, you could never fight Bjorn."
- "Oh yeah?"
- "Yeah!"
- "Oh yeah?"
- "Yeah! Prove me wrong! I challenge you to a duel!"
- "I accept!"
Yu Gi Oh writing at its best, ladies and gentleman!
The duel wasn't uninteresting, though. Two Pokémon each, two healing items (Fox only, Final Destination!), but more important... outside. Yes, in the killing sun, almost at the zenith. It resulted in -3HP every turn for everyone involved! Our challenger was into monkeys and used Aipom and Monferno, Abel stuck to Sheol and Killing Joke (his newly-baptised Poochyena).
And boy, was it hard! Aipom kept running away and taunting Sheol, playing the clock while the sun was burning them slowly. However, it created a very funny scene: Aipom was running on a roof while Sheol kept using Fake Tears on him and tried to catch up, giving the impression he was running after a monkey while bawling like an infant (he probably took his lollipop away!). He was finally took down with a well-placed Snarl. Monferno was another problem: completely unaffected by the burning sun, he kept burning KJ while the poor hyena was trying to lower his attack power. Sheol went finally in the arena again, and would probably have been beaten to a pulp if I hadn't rolling the lowest number possible with every single dice roll. Actually, we were both somewhat pathetic with dices in that battle, and it took way longer than it should. The last turn of battle was epic, though: Monferno fainted Sheol, who used a very final move (thanks to "Not yet!", a feat that allows one last attack before fainting) and took the firey monkey in the grave. Abel won, both get to the center to heal their wounds, the karate boy warned Abel about the trainer card he doesn't have the moment, but who will record every official victory and defeat, just to get the gambling industry some info. And, as per tradition, he gave him some money, that Abel immediately spend on potions.
Let's go back to Aelya. For some reason, she decided to look only for things she deemed "interesting", namely fashion and scientific research. Both of those things aren't exactly common in Meteor Mount; she could look for the space research program, but that's outside, on the other end of the mountain, and there's no way to get out during Judgment Sun. News came in the form of a little boy, who showed her a nice natural balcony with an incredible panorama to the inside of the canyon. She took a few photos of very contrasted light effects on natural rocks, and a few flying Pokémon, when suddenly, something caught her attention. She had to look twice with her camera's zoom, but at the very bottom of the canyon, hidden between a maze of very sharp rocks, a burst of fire erupted twice. She couldn't take a picture unfortunately, but there was no mistake to what she saw.
Asking locals and scientists around, she found out the mountain was not a volcano, and that people think fire Pokémon might live at the bottom of the canyon, but it is very difficult to access, requiring to start from the top with zip-lines and such. In fact, it is so difficult to get there that one of two things happen to those who try: either they can't get in at all... or they never come back. No wonder no one tried for a while! But that didn't stop our hotheaded heroin at all. She did get a piece of information: if she really wants to get down there, digging would be better than just jumping in, so she could look for archaeologists and diggers in Satellite Excavations, or maybe Starlight City.
She also went through... a weird Out of Character moment. While she was busy interrogating people to get more information, she went to a pair of expert trainers, who couldn't help her much. She then said something along the lines of "Well, I'm gonna live you there, you and your incompetence". Rightfully shocked, they asked her to apologize, she refused, then asked her to leave, which she did with a last rude comment. So she got hit in the back by the trainer's Geodude, in retaliation. She tried then to make him feel bad for such an unchivalrous attitude, to which he responds she was the only to insult his skills in the first place. Death Glare battle ensues. She left, but I'm quite sure she's not done with the guy...
With our heroes reunited, we ended up the session. There will probably be some more stuff in Meteor Mount before they leave, but I couldn't get all in one session, so we decided to leave it there rather than spend another all-night session on this city. See you next time for the conclusion!
(°3o)
Comments
