Session 16, VP1

Our heroes marched back into the sprawling desert with Eplina at their side. Recalling the rock structures they had seen in the distance the former day, they set their course towards them. In a few hours, they reached a relatively short formation, which the party scaled. From their vantage point, they could get a wider view of their surroundings. No caves could be seen in the nearby area.

Gunnar concentrated his will, and activated the Resonance ability of his runic tattoo. It indicated to him that one or more Rock types were in the nearby area. With this knowledge, Gunnar descended the rock, and began rooting around for any Pokemon. Sure enough, he saw some sort of large lump moving beneath the desert sands. He leapt on top of the lump, trying to pin it in place, only to be rocketed off by a burst of fire and smoke.

A Torkoal rose from its underground nest, ready to do battle. In short order, Lux managed to take the aggroed Pokemon down with a powerful water attack. With his tattoo still glowing, Gunnar knew that there must be some more Pokemon nearby. Seeing that the only nearby hiding places were on top of the rock formations, he climbed up another one.

When he reached the top, he found a strange, reptilian Pokemon with two large sails on its back. The Basktrodon had its eyes closed, and was calmly absorbing solar energy. After failed attempts at attracting the Basktrodon's attention, Gunnar & Skeldr engaged it in a shoving match, knocking it down to the sand below.

Before the Pokemon could even get its bearings, Lux spun forward in a blur, lodging herself between its two sails. Aiming herself downwards, she loosed a lethally-powerful water attack. When the mist from the popped bubbles cleared, our heroes could see that Lux had bored a hole straight through the Basktrodon's torso, killing it instantly.

Everyone in the group was stunned and horrified, shocked completely silent. Unsettled, the group decided to camp a bit aways for the night. In the morning, the party noticed a strange figure making its way towards them from over a nearby sand dune.

Clearly humanoid, the person had a strange, wobbling gait. On their face, they wore something that gave them the appearance of having bulbous bug eyes, and they leaned heavily on a bladed staff. Paying the group no heed at first, the man plopped himself down next to the Basktrodon's corpse.

With gusto, he began pulling it apart, examining bits and pieces. Our heroes got the man's attention, and he stopped his scavenging to take stock of them. At close range, it was clear that the "bulbous eyes" on his face were actually two halves of a Pokeball made into a makeshift sand visor. Lifting these up, the man bowed deeply, introducing himself as Gribb.

Introductions were made all around, and Gribb explained that he had lived in the desert for years beyond count. On the rare occasions that he encountered other travelers, he acted as a guide, or "desert ferryman", leading them to points of interest for a price. Surprisingly, when Bergie tried to introduce Stompy to Gribb, Stompy refused to go anywhere near the man's rings for an unknown reason.

The party explained that they were searching for a Gible, and Gribb danced with glee; he held out his arms, showing off two Gible-skin bracers. Claiming to know how to find Gible, Gribb collected payment in the form of trinkets from the group. Once hired, his right hand, covered in bone rings, began to pull his body around as if possessed. After a brief moment, he fell to his knees, pointing to the Northeast.

With no better leads to go on, our heroes decided to follow Gribb's lead for the moment. After a few more hours walking the sands, they came across a larger rock structure, with a cave entrance visible underneath. Gunnar took the lead as the group descended into the dark.

The cavern was relatively small, consisting only of a single, round chamber. Nothing could be seen by the dim sunlight filtering through the entrance. Bergie asked if he should light his shoulder flames, and the dark suddenly burst into motion.

From the ceiling, dozens of flying Sigilyph began pelting Bergie. Naivara & Gunnar managed to avoid taking any damage, but the group was unsure how to proceed. A discordant rattling sound began to ring out from the entrance, and our heroes saw Gribb shaking a leather sack filled with odds and ends. Whatever the sack contained, the Sigilpyh clearly didn't like the sound of it. With Gribb covering their escape, the group made their way back to the surface, where Eplina waited for them.

The Trainers were nonplussed with this misstep, but Gribb let out a cry of triumph when he saw Bergie in the sunlight; it seemed that one of the Sigilpyh had left an imprint of its wing on Bergie's face. Gribb quickly coated the imprint in a fine dusting of charcoal. Muttering to himself, he studied the portents found within the bruise. Clapping his hands, Gribb said that the new "map" would aid his dowsing rings in tracking down Gible.

Gribb set out due East with the party on his tail. The edge of the canyon they had spotted in the distance the day before grew closer, until they found themselves standing atop its cliff face. The canyon was several hundred feet deep, and littered with rocky towers.

As Gunnar prepared to attempt a rappel down the cliff, Gribb shared that the canyon was also a valley; approaching the canyon from the North or South would allow much easier entry. Although he was put out a bit by this, Gunnar agreed to follow his friends to this safer route.

Near the Northern entrance, the group spotted a large, circular stone half-embedded in the sand. Gribb began to rub and lick it all over, explaining that he liked to "thank the desert" for its gifts. Gunnar, Skeldr, & Naivara joined him in his ritual, as Bergie & Eplina looked on in confusion. Once Gribb had finished his ritual, he began to lead the heroes down into the canyon.

Very shortly after entering the canyon, they found a cave entrance that had clearly been carved out by something. Creeping quietly through the winding cave, the party found that it terminated at four small chambers. From the sound of breathing echoing around, two of the alcoves were clearly inhabited by something.

Naivara & Gunnar investigating the right-most chamber, as Bergie took the next one over. With the help of their Pokedex, Gunnar & Naivara identified the sleeping Pokemon as a Sandslash. At the same time, Bergie reached the same conclusion in the other chamber.

Seizing the moment, Gunnar smacked a rune down on the sleeping Sandslash before him. Unfortunately, it managed to avoid being caught. The commotion woke it, and it cried out to wake its fellows. The Pokemon all fled from the intruders as quickly as possible. With the cave now deserted, our heroes checked the remaining chambers. Naivara could sense that, at one point, those rooms had been inhabited, but not for some time. A lingering sadness was palpable to her mystical senses.

Gribb pushed himself to the front of the group, examining scratchmarks left on the cave walls. After smearing blood on them, he once again performed his dowsing dance. Undeterred by his failures thus far, Gribb insisted that this time, they would find Gible.

A short way from the Sandslash den, Gribb showed the party a narrow tunnel. The small size and shape of the cave meant the party had to crawl along it single-file. The tunnel was fairly straightforward, and ended in a small chamber with two alcoves. The group couldn't seem to see any signs of life with their flashlights. Suddenly, Bergie noticed that Gunnar's pack was moving on its own.

After alerting his friends, Bergie took Gunnar's pack to examine it. Whatever had been inside had already fled, but Bergie pointed out black, tar-like footprints on Gunnar's back; clearly, some Pokemon had robbed him. The footprints continued on the ceiling back towards the entrance.

Once they exited the cave, our heroes saw Eplina and Jokull looking slightly frazzled. She explained that four Salandit had come running out, two of which were carrying items. Jokull had managed to snag one of the Salandits and knock it out, but the other three sped off. Gunnar considered hunting them down, but wanted to put the mission first.

Seeing that the sun was getting ready to set, Gribb suggested that the group bed down in another nearby cave for the night. Following his lead once more, the party found themselves entering a much larger cave, with a small, shallow pool of water in its center.

Gribb immediately set himself down to sleep as the others prepared their tents. Gunnar noticed that some tarry footprints made their way up one of the cavern walls. After a moment hunting, he spotted a Salandit on the ceiling, nestled between two stalactites. Bjargulf helped him attack the Pokemon, startling it into dropping the Revive that it had stolen.

With this settled, Gunnar asked Bjargulf to take first watch, and to wake Bergie whenever Bjargulf got tired. Halfway through the night, Bjargulf licked Bergie's face to wake him, before curling up next to Gunnar to sleep. While keeping watch, Bergie crept closer to Gribb, intently studying his rings.

Each ring was engraved with runes, and seemed to be crafted out of pieces of vertebrae. A chill of recognition ran down Bergie's spine as he recognized the bones: they had come from a Kindloof. Angered & increasingly suspicious, Bergie copied down the runes in a notebook.

When morning came, he pulled Gunnar over, asking him to translate the runes. Gunnar reacted with confusion at the request; the runes on the rings seemed to be gibberish. They didn't spell any words, and didn't have any special significance Gunnar could recognize.

The group packed their things, and made ready to set out. Gribb, awake and in his usual overbearing mode, insisted that the group must wash their face in the pool before continuing onwards. Gunnar leaned over the pool, and idly splashed some onto his face. With no warning, the cavern began to shake, as something rose from beneath the rocky floor.

A Hippowdon, smaller than the one they had encountered at Sol's Rest, had been slumbering underground. The shallow pool of water had formed in one of the crater-like holes along its back. Disturbed from its rest, the Pokemon began lashing out at the party.

After quelling the beast, Eplina rushed forward to help heal some of the injuries our heroes and their Pokemon had taken. As one, they all noticed that Gribb was nowhere to be seen in the cave. Gunnar had Bjargulf catch Gribb's scent to track him. With eager yips, Bjargulf took off into the canyon, with the group right behind. As the wolf reached the Southern slope of the canyon, he skidded to a halt.

Head down, teeth bared, Soltinnmunnr was charging across the desert straight towards them. A laugh echoed out from high above them. From atop one of the tall rock pillars, Gribb leered down, cackling.

The party's suspicions of him had been correct: Gribb was no "desert ferryman". Instead, he would lead travelers to their death, then steal their belongings. In his madness, he worshipped the might of Soltinnmunnr, and had deliberately weakened the party, then led them directly into its path.

Soltinnmunnr let out a rattling bellow as it launched a tidal wave of rock at our heroes. The sudden assault heavily wounded both Trainers & Pokemon; Bergie, Perrypuss, & Flamon fell to the ground, knocked out.

Gunnar & Naivara did their best to fend the enraged Pokemon off, as Eplina helped them with Jokull. Gunnar leapt into the fray himself, landing a heavy blow on the monster's leg. Roaring in pain, Soltinnmunnr slammed its tail bodily into Gunnar, sending him hurtling into the rock pillar behind the Trainers. Eplina used her healing skills to rouse Bergie to consciousness as the others did their best to weather the force of nature arrayed against them.

As things began to look ever bleaker, the damage they had caused to Soltinnmunnr started to weaken it. With a snort, it lowered its head, charging forward in a Head Smash attack. The party managed to dodge out of the way of the powerful assault, leaving Soltinnmunnr to crash straight into the rock pillar Gribb was perched upon.

The stone exploded and collapsed, as Gribb's form fell over a hundred feet to the canyon floor. The sickening crunch and splatter as he hit the ground echoed through our heroes’ bones.

Soltinnmunnr raised its head, shaking off rock and dust. It eyed the group for one tense moment, before turning to Gribb's corpse to feed and regain strength. Taking advantage of the distraction, our heroes limped their way Northwards back into the canyon. Wounded as they were, they needed to find somewhere to hide and recover.

They had now been gone from Drillsberg for three days.

With the dual threats of the environment & Soltinnmunnr, the truth of their situation began to dawn on the trainers: there was no guarantee they would be able to find a Gible. There was no guarantee they would be able to return to Drillsberg in time to make a difference. And now, with the wet rending noises echoing behind them, they realized......there was no guarantee they would be able to escape the desert alive.