Session 27, VP2

Though the rain continued to pour down, it was clearly lessened from the past few days. The lightening clouds above gave the promise of clear skies coming around the bend. Our heroes moved through the wet grass of the Varfjell Fields at an easy pace, enjoying the slower trek. Their first day of walking passed without incident- humans were not the only beings that didn’t like to travel in the rain. 

As sunset neared on their second day, the rainfall was so light it could barely be felt. After finding a suitable spot to set up camp, the group detected noises coming from a nearby copse of trees. Bronze and Lauren stealthily investigated ahead. 

Three Pokémon could be seen sparring with each other between the trees, but both trainers could feel that there was something else watching the area. Once this information was relayed to the rest of their friends, the party decided to warm up with some combat before bedding down for the night. 

Putting their teamwork to good use, our heroes managed to quickly whittle down their three opponents- which is exactly when those other watchers made themselves known. A Growlithe burst from some nearby scrub, while a Blaziken somersaulted down from atop one of the trees. 

While the Growlithe and the original wild combatants were soon felled or captured, the Blaziken was proving to be a much more difficult challenge. Bronze attempted to capture it but found herself punched up into a tree for her efforts. Seeing that it was at a disadvantage, the Blaziken bent its knees and sprung into the sky. It quickly disappeared, leaving the now confused trainers alone in the small forest. 

They began to discuss their new Pokémon, when a whistling sound began to approach from above. The Blaziken had not fled: it had merely used the move Bounce. With a war cry, it landed directly in front of Ariela. The shockwave from its impact bowled over all those nearby. Though this was a surprising and quite damaging move, the party was able to rally despite it. It was Oli who managed to land the decisive blow, dive-bombing the Blaziken from above with a Peck. 

Having received a bit more combat than they had set out for, the weary crew returned to their campsite. Sylvie used some of her new psychic powers to heal Bronze from the Blaziken’s assault, as Ariela managed to find a Plume Fossil. Soon, they all fell to a well-deserved sleep. 

The rain had stopped sometime overnight, while a few white clouds still filtered out the sun. Since their campsite was closer to the coast than to Forgerun, the group decided to visit Sol’s Bed first. The lush verdant fields slowly transitioned to an ashen landscape. Soot lay across the ground like snow, amidst a skeletal forest of carbonized trees. Within each tree, a dull orange glow could be seen pulsating: evidence of the still-burning fires somewhere below the earth. Thankfully, the inactive volcano wasn’t particularly tall or steep. The light hike up to its peak only took a few hours. At the top, our heroes could see that Sol’s Bed was surprisingly wide and round. The caldera that had replaced its mouth was not filled with water, as expected, but with a massive lake of ash. 

Reinhold and Bronze stood on the “shore” of the lake, while Ariela’s eyes gleamed at the sight of such a mineral-rich area to dig in. Bronze threw a small stone as far into the lake as she could, and the group watched as it sunk out of view. A few seconds later, a large, humped shape became visible on the surface. Lazily, it began moving in their direction. 

Reinhold maintained his position, as the rest of the group took a few steps back. Bronze released Rix to fly overhead as a precautionary measure. With a reverberating yawn, a massive Hippowdon crested the ashen lake. Before it could even close its mouth, Bronze had Rix pepper it with Ice Shards, as Reinhold simultaneously roundhouse-kicked it. The Hippowdon pulled back a bit into the soot as Bronze lost a Pokéball attempting to catch it. The wild Pokémon eyed up the group, seeming to be calculating something. After a few seconds, it submerged into the lake completely, clearly having run away from the trainers. A bit surprised at how easily the hippo was deterred, the group looked around for more Pokémon. 

Sylvie could spot a small group of Pokémon on the opposite rim of the caldera, roughly an hour or more of a hike away. Before heading in that direction, Reinhold had an idea. If Pokémon were treating this as a lake… After a few moments, he had his fishing rod prepped and cast it out into the soot. Sure enough, he felt a bite in just a few seconds. He turned his head, to tell Donner how this was a type of fishing without the risk of getting wet—which is when the group noticed Donner was not present. Sylvie and Lauren both seemed a bit worried, as they walked over to peer back down the trail they had taken up the volcano. Donner was nowhere to be seen. As Sylvie began calling out his name, Lauren tried sending a few texts through their Pokédex: both received no responses. 

Meanwhile, the Pokémon Reinhold had hooked suddenly launched out of the lake to attack. Its head ratcheted towards Reinhold on a ridiculously long neck, before it tried to bite him. Between the two of them, Reinhold and Bronze were able to weaken, then capture the Drednaw. A short distance away, Ariela seemed to have found something of interest half-buried by the “shallows” of the lake. 

The psychics in the group were growing anxious now. Closing their eyes, they attempted to locate their missing friend with their extra senses. Lauren physically flinched as they could feel a very familiar mental shield in place around Donner’s psyche. Sylvie was able to determine that he was somewhere to the northwest, in the Varfjell Fields. It seemed he had set out from camp in the opposite direction of the group this morning. 

With dawning embarrassment, they realized that, aside from small exchanges about setting up camp and eating, no one had spoken to Donner since leaving Ohmslo. Still, they weren’t sure what would have caused him to leave so suddenly. The two friends held each other’s hands and attempted to pierce the mental shield to see what was wrong. 

Seeing that their pet psychics were doing their “thing”, Ariela, Bronze, and Reinhold made sandwiches for the party. As they ate, they began to share more of their histories to each other. Reinhold spoke a bit about growing up in Cursestone, while Ariela talked about her parents. By the time the food was done, the three of them noticed Lauren suddenly collapse to his knees. 

The combined force brought to bear on Donner’s shield caused the slightest crack in his defenses, allowing a glimpse within. Simply looking at the images playing through his mind felt painful, so they could only imagine what he was feeling as he was re-living them. Images and colors flickered past nearly too quickly to discern, but there was one constant: flame and blood. Thrumming like a heartbeat beneath it all, they could feel blind, all-encompassing terror. 

Difficult though it was to parse, the duo were able to understand enough: Donner was in the midst of an intensely painful panic attack. What brought Lauren to their knees was the realization of what had caused their friend such pain. As Donner had told them, he’d had a traumatic, near-death experience far to the North amidst an ashen field surrounding a volcano. An area exactly like the one the group stood in now. 

Donner must have been doing his best to follow them without complaint, until the reality of the location shattered him. Both psychics found themselves dazed by this turn of events. Almost as if it echoed something in each of their pasts. The rest of the group convinced them to sit and eat to recover. Seeing how affected they appeared to be, Ariela asked both of them if they liked Donner. 

This set off a series of questions and discussion, mostly from the other three, allowing Sylvie and Lauren to answer noncommittally. When they suggested the group go after Donner, Bronze and Reinhold disagreed. Donner was his own man, after all: if he needed to leave, he had his reasons. He’d proven himself capable of taking care of himself, so while they would hope to see him soon, they weren’t afraid for him. 

Ariela suggested a compromise. The group would continue on for the moment and decide what to do tomorrow. Still a bit shaken, Lauren and Sylvie agreed. 

As the group discussed if they should go check out the Pokémon on the other side of the caldera, Ariela let her friends know that she had been searching for evidence of a legendary Pokémon in the area. She had first found strange clues about it between Drillsberg and Ohmslo, which she followed up with research while in town. Now, she had found a footprint matching the fossilized one she had found a week ago- a footprint that was no more than a week or so old. From its position, it appeared to be heading into the lake of ash. Even stranger, Ariela’s Porygon, Polly Pocket, appeared to resonate with traces of the legendary’s strange energies. If that held true, then she could help the party track the legend down. 

A legendary Pokémon was a rare, and strange thing to behold. Should they investigate this further? Or continue with their original plan, and head to Forgerun? Our heroes began to discuss their options, as Sylvie and Lauren looked wistfully northwest……