Session 15, VP1

The Statispine thundered across the sands towards our heroes. With scant seconds to prepare, they released Pokemon, and braced themselves against the oncoming foe. Exploding off the ground in a powerful leap, the Statispine landed heavily in front of the party, showering them all with a hail of heavy rocks. With either grace or luck, some of the group avoided or lessened the impact.

Repeated salvos of powerful elemental attacks volleyed back and forth at a breakneck pace. Despite its bulk, the Statispine moved faster than anything our heroes had encountered before, and seemed able to shrug off most of their attacks. On top of this, it had generated a blinding Sandstorm to harry the group.

Amidst the blitz of strikes, a Critical Hit managed to pierce the Statispine's hide. As it bellowed in pain, its yellow eyes turned bloodshot and red. Surrounding it, a pulsing aura of heat rippled across our heroes. In its fury at the wound, the creature's strength had reached lethal levels.

Seeing that the tide of the battle was quickly veering south, Naivara recalled Pearl to release Flamon. Flapping his wings as hard as he was able, Flamon began creating a Whirlwind. The Statispine hunkered low to the ground, bracing itself. It managed to take a few arduous steps through the gale towards the party, but Flamon's winds were too powerful to defy.

In seconds, the desert landscape rearranged, leaving a series of dunes and valleys between the group and the beast. Realizing the wisdom in a strategic withdrawal, the group ran through the grating Sandstorm. As they finally found themselves clear of the storm, the distant, echoing roars of the Statispine faded into the distance.

The party healed themselves and their Pokemon as best they could. Once they had recuperated, they moved further northeast. A short while later, they came across a small swarm of Trapinch & Vibrava. Three Trapinch were rooting around in the sands for food, while three Vibrava fluttered above them as lookouts. The Pokemon didn't seem hostile, and paid no mind as the party approached a few feet away. Bergie took out some of his trail rations, and sat cross-legged in the sand.

One of the Vibrava drifted towards the rations, alighting on Bergie's outstretched arm. After examining the food, it scooped some up, depositing it in the middle of the scavenging Trapinch. Seeing how well the Pokemon were responding, Gunnar poured out a heaping pile of rations, while Naivara added a crystal on top as a garnish.

While they observed the Pokemon eat, a few members of the party noticed something: the Trapinch & Vibrava all seemed slightly confused. Every few seconds, they would lift their heads up, and look all around themselves, as if searching for something. Curious, the party researched the Pokedex for relevant information.

It seemed that encountering Trapinch & Vibrava in the wild was rather uncommon. As the party continued to read more, they noticed that the buzzing of the Vibravas' wings was oddly soothing, almost like a soft lullaby. It sounded much different to the horrendous, echoing buzzing our heroes had encountered in the caves beneath Drillsberg.

The Pokedex entry was also able to explain that the sound of Vibrava & their evolved forms wings was often described as music. This gave them the nickname "The Desert Spirit" Pokemon, as travelers would frequently hear them in the distance, but be unable to find them.

Seized by a fit of inspiration, Bergie stood up. Closing his eyes, he began to attempt to hum along to the tune of the Vibrava's wings, segueing into an odd form of singing after learning the rhythm. Immediately, the Trapinch and Vibrava fell into a line behind Bergie. Ecstatic with this development, Bergie began to dance around the sands while singing. To our heroes delight, the Pokemon followed every step!

Unwilling to leave the obviously confused Pokemon in the middle of nowhere, the group decided to have them tag along. After several more hours of trekking through the desert, the sun began to sink into the horizon. The group discussed their options for the night, and ended up deciding to approach a rock formation they could see a short while away.

Once they had reached the rocky crag, Naivara sat down with her back against the stone & closed her eyes. Stretching out with her powers, she was able to make contact with the mind of one of the Trapinch.

The Trapinch's mind was disjointed and hard to read, but Naivara was able to determine some important intel; it seemed that the leader of the large swarm had been killed and eaten by the Statispine a few months ago. Without a leader to guide them, the Pokemon had holed up in the caverns below Drillsberg, unsure what to do.

While Naivara was exploring the Trapinch's psyche, Gunnar walked around the base of the crag. Nearly hidden by the desert sands he discovered a small tunnel underneath of the crag. Always up for exploring something new, Gunnar army-crawled his way inside of the tunnel. After a brief moment, it opened into a small hollow beneath the crag, large enough for the group to comfortably sit, crouch, or lay down in.

Another tunnel winded further in and downwards, but Gunnar ignored this for now. He returned to his friends, and let them know he had found a place for them to spend the night in relative safety. Hesitant, but more uneased at the thought of sleeping in the open, the party followed Gunnar inside. As they settled down and prepared their sleeping bags, Gunnar took this opportunity to explore the second tunnel.

A few minutes down the tunnel, he began to hear an odd "vrrt" sound ringing out every few seconds. After turning off his flashlight, he continued until he reached the opening of another small chamber. Cautiously, Gunnar shined his light on the ceiling. The pale light allowed him to see at least 5 shapes huddled together, sleeping. Not seeing this as cause for concern, Gunnar returned the the party and told them they were completely safe.

The Trapinch & Vibrava huddled in a corner to sleep, as Bergie curled protectively around them. Stressed from their recent endeavors, the group fell into a tumultuous sleep.

Early in the morning, they were awakened by a series of odd sounds. They opened their eyes to see a line of large lumps under the sand slowly moving their way across the chamber. Letting his curiosity get the better of him, Bergie stuck his hand into the sand and began shaking it around. The shapes stopped moving. As Bergie repeated the sound, one of the lumps made its way towards him. Bergie excitedly made the sound a third time, and the Pokemon suddenly struck out.

The other lumps began to buzz their way towards different members of the party. Lus was able to blast the sand off of one of the creatures, revealing them to be Dunsparce. Although the Dunsparce proved surprisingly hale, each member of the party managed to catch one, with the others lying defeated in the sand. While Naivara & Bergie recovered from this rude start to their day, Gunnar crawled back outside the crag. Donning his climbing spikes, he made his way up the side of the crag.

Shielding his eyes against the burning sun, he looked across the horizon for any landmarks. To the north, he could see the sand slowly give way to rockier terrain. In the east, a great canyon could just be seen. To the northeast were several more rock formations. Just as he finished his survey, Bergie, Naivara, and the wild Pokemon exited the hollow under the crag. Gunnar leaned over to yell a hello, but something caught his eye.

What Gunnar had at first taken to be natural rock formations in the desert were actually the dorsal spikes of the Statispine. It had Tracked them through the night, burying itself in the sand for an ambush. Now, electricity began to spark between the spikes, as the dorsal sail sped towards his friends below.

Gunnar yelled out a warning to look behind them, and released Skeldr.

Bergie & Naivara turned to see what Gunnar had pointed out, and their eyes widened in shock. Acting on instinct, they dove away from the crag. Luckily, the Statispine was unable to correct its course, and slammed into the crag beneath the sands.

Before anyone could react, it surged upwards in a mighty leap, swallowing two of the Vibrava whole. Knocked off-balance by the collision, Gunnar fell off of the crag, and onto the creature's neck, narrowly missing landing between its dorsal spikes.

With cries of anger, the party released Pokemon and began to fight the creature once more. Naivara once more threw out Flamon, and had him Trap the Statispine in place with Fire Spin. A cruel glint of recognition glinted in the beast's eye as it let out a blood-chilling roar, forcibly returning Flamon to his Pokeball. It seemed the creature was much more intelligent than our heroes had surmised.

Despite its immense strength and mighty reach, it was unable to break free of the Fire Spin. Gunnar had Skeldr launch a Rock Tomb down from the top of the crag to aid in pinning the Statispine down. Bergie's shoulder-flames erupted as he sped towards the monster in a Flame Wheel.

Under the unending onslaught of attacks, the Statispine was visibly growing weary. With one final guttural roar, it leapt straight into the air before diving beneath the sands once more. The party could feel the vibrations of its movement fade into the distance; it seemed that they had damaged the Pokemon enough to deter it temporarily.

Rattled by the realization that the creature had been stalking them, the group quickly had a discussion on which way to head. So far, they had seen no signs of a Gible, nor any clue as to what kind of Pokemon it might even be. (edited)

It was quickly decided to travel due north, to where the sand gave way to rocky terrain. Hopefully, the Statispine would be unable to "swim" through rock, protecting them from further ambush.

By the time the sun had reached the center of the sky, our heroes had found themselves on the rocky edge of Frigga's Womb. Ahead of them loomed ruined stone structures, clearly remnants of an old settlement.

The party split up to explore the interiors of the different buildings. Gunnar encountered an odd, rocky orb. His Pokedex revealed this to be a Pokemon known as Minior. While playfully interacting with it, Gunnar discovered that the Pokemon seemed to like circular motion, and began to "orbit" around it as it floated around. Although the Pokemon was enamored by this, Gunnar was unable to successfully catch it, so the Minior slowly floated away into the sky.

As Bergie approached one of the houses, he could hear the quiet murmuring of a voice from within. He & Stompy leaned around the doorframe to peer inside. Crouched in a corner, with her back to the door, was a woman cradling a Pokemon in her lap.

Taking a wary step inside, Bergie cleared his throat to announce his presence, before asking if the woman needed help. Startled by the intrusion, her head turned in his direction. The woman's clothing had small bloodstains across the front of it. She assessed Bergie for a second, deemed his not a threat, and motioned for him to keep his voice low.

The woman explained that she had come across a wounded Pokemon. Bergie eagerly walked forward, offering to help with healing it. To his dismay, he saw that the Pokemon, a wild Trapinch, had been bitten nearly in half.

Amazingly, it was still clinging to life, but only just so. The woman explained that with wounds this severe, there was nothing that could be done but to make it comfortable. She had been cradling and gently talking to the Trapinch in hopes of easing its passing.

he wild Trapinch & Vibrava that were following Bergie scuttled over to their dying sibling. The injured Trapinch saw members of his swarm, and a small gleam of happiness lit in his eyes, before they went dark forever.

The woman sniffled, but remained composed. After gently placing the Trapinch on the ground, she dusted herself off and began to question Bergie a bit. Unusually for him, Bergie found himself quickly enamored to the woman, leading him to be quite flustered.

Meanwhile, Naivara & Gunnar had met up back in-between some of the houses, but couldn't see Bergie. After a brief search, they came across Bergie exiting a house with the woman.

Questions and introductions were spoken back and forth. The woman introduced herself as Eplina Hjarta, a travelling Medic. After a recent trip to Seeder Grove & Harbinger Valley to study healing skills more, she had heard disturbing news.

The vicious apex predator in Frigga's Womb, a Statispine nicknamed Soltinmunnr, had begun to widen its terrain. Over the past few weeks, it had begun to journey beyond the edges of the desert, leaving a trail of carnage in its wake.

Eplina had been following this trail, trying to lend aid to the Pokemon she came across. Although she was a very reserved person, it was clear that Eplina cared deeply about her calling. As a look of professionalism took over her, she put their discussion on hold to heal the party and their Pokemon.

Once everyone was recovered, the party explained the issues they had seen with the Trapinch & Vibrava near Drillsberg. Eplina seemed very perplexed by this; according to what she knew, each swarm had a Flygon that they followed.

Part of why they were known as rare Pokemon was due to the Flygons keeping the swarms on a nomadic circuit around the desert. These leaders would never roost near any human settlements, to protect the younger members of their flock. With this knowledge, the sequence of events became clear to our heroes. Soltinmunnr had killed the Flygon that previously led this swarm. Lacking guidance, they had found the safest place they could, a vast cavern, and nested down to wait for their leader to return.

Gunnar excused himself to call Saffa Bynne. He explained a bit about the Trapinch situation, mentioning how they needed a "great musician" to help lead the Trapinch to somewhere they couldn't cause more damage.

Successfully goading Saffa by admitting that he was unable to do this himself, Gunnar convinced her to pay a visit to Drillsberg. Gunnar quickly told her not to go directly to Drillsberg, and explained how she could take the underground river route to the Trapinch cavern.

Now that this mystery was as settled as it could be for the moment, the party asked if Eplina knew anything about Gible. As she responded with confusion, the group reluctantly told her a bit of what had been happening in Drillsberg.

When they mentioned Gudbrund & his unique sword, Eplina let out a small gasp of surprise. She explained that when she grew up, the children in her hometown had sung a small playground story about an ancient warrior who wielded a "Sableye sword".

Although this was a lot to take in, she chose to believe that the party wasn't lying, and that the rhyme had once been a history. Eplina realized why Gible may be helpful in this situation: in the wild, one of the only Pokemon capable of breaking a Sableye's defensive gems are those of the Gible evolutionary line. If Gudbrund's sword truly were crafted from Sableye gems, perhaps a Gible's jaws could break it.

A lull crept into the conversation. Naivara & Gunnar asked Eplina if she might be able to accompany them on their journey back to Drillsberg. Many people had been injured already, so every hand capable of healing would be valuable. She mulled this over, but eventually decided to join the group. Eplina excused herself to pack up her medicinal supplies. While the party readied themselves to re-enter the desert, Gunnar & Naivara ribbed Bergie over his obvious infatuation with Eplina.

A few moments later, she emerged from the house she had been staying in with her supplies packed up. Beside her, a small, blue, feline Pokemon padded along with a small backpack of its own. Eplina introduced the group to her Rivukutt, Jokull. The Pokemon had a very similar personality to Eplina, and allowed the heroes to pet it briefly, before once-more becoming "all-business."

The party conferred on where to head next. During the discussion, Eplina mentioned that, as far as she knew, Gible were typically only found in caves or underground. Hearing that, our heroes decided they would aim for the rock formations they had seen to the northeast. Hopefully, they would find some more caverns or hollows by them, and their search could come to an end.

Steeling themselves to once more trespass on Soltinmunnr's terrain, the group set out with trepidation. What would they find as they continued to wander the sandy wastes? Would they be able to find this legendary Gible? And even if they did, if it took them too long......would there even be a Drillsberg to return to?