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

[azumods]

[Once Rin is a bit further away the Spiritomb will settle a bit, still watching her warily. It doesn't seem injured from being picked up or anything, so at least there's that?]

[heritrix]

[That is a good thing! Maybe it'll be a little more open to communicate. As well as a weird ghost vortex can, at any rate. She'll just keep trying.]

We aren't here to hurt you, or to cause trouble. We're looking for the deity of this lake. We want to protect it from Team Galactic—

[This talisman was a bust, but her doodle still might be useful. She points to the Saturn stick figure, and the crossed out Galactic symbol.]

—from people like this, specifically. They're a group wearing this symbol. Do you know them?

[azumods]

[That actually gets all of the Spiritomb to flash their lights repeatedly. The patterns aren't consistent between the Pokémon, but it's a response they all have (except the one dancing with Aya, that one's a bit distracted).]

[heritrix]

[Is there a pattern to these flashing lights, like morse code? Because if there is, Rin will turn over her talisman to take note of it.]

[azumods]

[It's a bit hard to tell, do you want to try communicating with it like that?]

[heritrix]

[Nahhh, that would be really time-consuming! The others have really good ideas for communication, so she's going to keep it simple; she was just curious.]

Right, I probably should have established a better idea of communication first. [She nods, tapping one fist into an open palm.] Right. How about one blink for yes, and two for no?

[Hm.] And if there's anything else, you can draw too. I have more pens and paper.

[She takes off her backpack and pulls those out for display. They don't have arms, but maybe they can make things float??]

[azumods]

[It doesn't seem to know what to do with the pens and paper. At least it's not consuming them??

Anyway, one blink! Yes.]

[heritrix]

[Okay, cool! She nods, and points to the Galactic Symbol again.]

We heard they were here recently. Did you scare them off?

[azumods]

[No.]

[heritrix]

[—interesting. She thinks of Saturn's self-proclaimed efforts to have Cyrus just mindgoosh him like the rest of the populace and reconsiders.]

Did they come in here at all? It would have been in the last week or two.

[azumods]

[Yes.]

[heritrix]

[—well she should make sure the worst didn't already happen.]

Did they find what they were looking for?

[azumods]

[No.]

[heritrix]

Well, that's good news at least. But then why did they leave...?

[She settles back more heavily on her heels, trying to think of a way to communicate that if they won't use the paper and pens. Of course if she did, she'd have to find something for them to draw on, since the ground is damp—OH.]

Wait! Does it have something to do with why this cave is so damp?

[azumods]

[No.]

[heritrix]

[Another dud. Alright, one more question then before she decides to move on to negotiating with these guys for passage, like the rest.]

So nothing to do with that. [She nods.] Did anything happen to make them leave, or did they just turn around?

[azumods]

[Honestly, they don't seem sure how to answer that. It gets some confused blinking. Sorry, Rin.]

[heritrix]

[Hrmm...]

It bothers me not knowing what happened here, but so long as the Guardian is safe and out of their hands, that's the important thing...

[So she'll let it go for now, though it's another puzzle to think about. Rin sighs, leaning so that her elbows rest on her knees, and she can drop her chin into her cupped palms.]

...Though from the sound of things, its not in the best of shape.

[They've already accepted berries from Camilla, but they seem shakier on the rest, so she's not sure how well this will go, but...]

I heard from the resort staff and a few books that certain berries have special healing effects.

[Rin takes a few berries from her pack, one of each kind she's collected based on what's been available to them. Honestly, ever since reading that she's been curious if she could make her own medicine with them, to sell at towns and the like, but she wants to read up on them more.

For now, though, Rin lines them up a little ways in front of her, so each kind of berry is on display to the Spiritomb.]

Would any of these help the Guardian? You can take whatever might heal it.

[...Monkey is still kind of trembling, but he stills just enough to poke his trainer in the ribs. Um, hey. We're not giving them all the berries, right. Right, Rin? Some of those are his.]

[azumods]

[The Spiritomb aren't going to move from their spots, but after a moment of communicating among themselves, one of them will reach out and grab a few berries. Don't worry, Monkey, they won't take all of them. Anyway, with those berries pulled into its body, it'll move to hop further back into the cave. There isn't enough room to slip by the Spiritomb even with this one missing, but this is probably progress...?]

[heritrix]

[Progress! Rin will go ahead and join Kiryu's little conference over there, but out of curiosity, which kind of berries did the Spiritomb take?]

[azumods]

[The Oran Berry and the Sitrus Berry!]