Test 1.

[azumods]

VALOR Your arrival at Lake Valor is met with no fanfare at all, nor are there any obstructions; it seems that Team Galactic has moved on from here, the area devoid of activity and strangely-dressed people for the time being. The area is also largely devoid of water. There's some, in the area that presumably was the lake once; however, it can hardly be called a proper lake now. There's a massive crater in the middle of the clearing that that now-unobstructed path through the woods takes you to; it's refilled some since whatever incident caused it, but the water is only about knee-high at the deepest and generally incapable of impeding you much if you should choose to wade into it. Whatever you choose to do, there's a massive, raised area in the middle of what's left of the lake, a rock formation of some sort; it's capable of being scaled with reasonably little difficulty. An opening is visible in the rock face, large and gaping, leading inwards and downwards into a cavern system of some sort. Your exploration starts now; time to see if there really is nothing worth reporting in the area.

Comments

[anythingforyou]

[...Arion is not very good at this emotion business, so it kind of. Results in him basically biting at Camilla's pantleg and trying to tug her back. Away from the scary place.

Of course, seeing Flora react too...]

...This place doesn't seem to be giving our Pokemon good feelings, does it?

[Camilla kind of just crouches down to try and pet Arion a bit to calm him down, but lord.]

We need to be careful.

[semistableman]

Doesn't seem like a good sign, that's for sure.

[Maybe that's why Saturn decided to bail?]

[anythingforyou]

[God, that makes sense.]

I hope this doesn't mean they'll begin to run away...

[takestheblame]

...if it's affecting those who hadn't shown any improvement until now then we may be getting into a lot of trouble.

[Daigo doesn't seem that affected, but Bito is slowing down a lot, looking around himself as if he expects something to spring up and attack him. Kiryu talks quietly to him, telling him he'll stay close]

[radiantflame]

At the same time, it would be foolish to enter without their aid.

[She sighs, and returns Gible to his pokeball. Torchic, meanwhile, scrambles up onto her shoulder.]

[anythingforyou]

...Mòrag is correct. If worst should come to worst, we will need to rely on their strength in order to come out unscathed.

[Her partner really doesn't like this, but they need to press on, don't they? They have their orders to follow, if nothing else.]

[radiantflame]

This will certainly be a test of our skills as their handlers.

[anythingforyou]

Wait, even the captured ones...?

[what the actual hell lies in this cave]

This must be something dangerous, then, if even they react.

[enjoymyatelier]

I don't think it'd be wise to turn back, because we could be on to something, but... well. For all we know it could be reverence if the Lake Deity returned after Team Galactic left.

Does anyone have anything we could use as an offering?

[...please ignore the Frillish trying desperately to hide behind him, thanks. as well as the Murkrow kind of huddling just a little bit closer to his face.]

[eudaimonikos]

They don't take blood sacrifice, I asked. Could give it some berries or something?

[enjoymyatelier]

Well, I do make sure to have some extra berries on me in case I need a distraction or a snack. I think they'll probably work in this situation.

[heritrix]

If it's something as ritualistic as that, we're not close enough for it to work. [Rin waves her hand.] Shouldn't there be an alter or something?

[Turning, she makes to go inside. Monkey follows her but nowhere near as quick as he would normally be about it, steps staggering. Abbey doesn't come forward at all, so reluctantly Rin puts her back into her pokeball.]

If there's anything like that around here, it's going to be deeper inside. Camilla has the right idea. We should keep moving forward.

[enjoymyatelier]

Oh, I was simply trying to be prepared for if there is an altar or something of that sort. I'm not going to just dump a bunch of berries on the ground and expect a local deity to eat them off the floor like an animal, after all.

[hyruglyphics]

-Oh, blast, I should have asked those lovely people about their prayer practices.

[ . . . She's a holy maiden technically what do you expect. ]