Session 36, VP2

Ariela and Bronze could already see that what they had feared had occurred: a Space Time Distortion glowed faintly at the base of the escape tunnel. Unlike the previous one they had experienced, this one appear...ragged, untethered somehow. They approached the edge of the crackling energy, unsure how to proceed. 

Suddenly, Ariela's Pokédex began to beep repeatedly: she was receiving a rapid-fire series of messages from Polly Pocket, who had been in Lauren's Pokédex. The contents of the messages seemed to be panicked gibberish, but it was the timestamps that caught their attention. Each of the texts seemed to be coming from vastly disparate dates and times. Some were dated from centuries in the past, while others featured dates yet to come. Without words, the two trainers pieced together what this must mean. Based off of their prior experience, they knew there could be no determining where or when those inside the fields would reappear. If they remained outside they risked "desynchronizing" with the rest of the group. Taking hold of each other's hands, they leapt into the distortion to join their friends. 

Whatever forces typically held these portals was no longer exerting its grip. Our heroes each found themselves occupying eyes not their own, in places both strange and familiar. They were shown slices of time- but past, present, or future? The carnival of swirling energies ceased. 

One by one, the party found themselves "blinking" back into existence in the cavern with the escape tunnel. Thankfully, none of them seemed to have suffered during these strange vision. At least, no suffering that was visible on their person. Upon checking their Pokédexes, they realized that the distortion had returned them roughly 15 minutes before it had been created in the first place. Wary of Solgaleo returning, they collected their bearings and returned to the surface. 

Herleif was seated at the campfire, protected by a pack of Aron, Lairon, and Aggron. He seemed utterly perplexed: from his point of view, rather than seeing the signs of the distortion and heading to investigate, Bronze and Ariela had simply vanished. Something about the distortion seemed to align in a way to prevent someone from existing at two separate points at once. 

Checking Polly Pocket indicated that there were virtually no traces of Solgaleo's energy. With most of the party injured from the last fight with the Legendary, they agreed to rest for the night. Ariela took the final watch, as the sun rose. Oddly, despite her notes indicating it would do so every day, Solgaleo did not surface to "greet the dawn". Given what they had seen- or rather, what they had not seen- it seemed reasonable to assume that Solgaleo had transported itself somewhere else while falling unconscious. How long it would be gone, they couldn't guess. But, for the moment, its thrall on Sol's Bed was fading ever so slightly. 

For now, they had gathered quite a bit of important information regarding the situation. Additionally, Bronze's cast would most likely need to be set or touched up sometime soon to encourage proper healing. As such, our heroes decided to return to Forgerun. 

Before setting out, Sylvie gave both Reinhold and Bronze doses of her temporary antidote to cure their lingering poisoning. Four days later, they re-entered the small smithing town. Some of the buildings on the outskirts of the settlement showed signs of minor damage from the confused Pokémon incursions. On the whole, the town seemed only slightly worse off than last they had seen it. 

Thankful that Brunick had been able to keep a grip on the situation, the party head over to the Pokémon Center. The nurse quickly took stock of their disheveled appearance and Bronze's injury. After asking for information on how it had happened, she examined the impromptu cast Sylvie had created. From her study, she said, the only thing that could have improved the cast would have been to have the medical-grade supplies on hand. For first aid in the field, this was exemplary work. 

While the rest of the group swapped their parties around, the nurse walked Sylvie through her steps as she applied a sturdier cast to Bronze's broken arm. To give the best chance of retaining a full range of motion, she recommended leaving the cast on for 3-5 weeks. With everyone healed and prepped, they made their way to the PokéMart to resupply. 

A short while later, their packs were laden with restoratives. Next, they headed to the north edge of town to visit Brunick. The Gym Leader was found working slowly at his forge. His movements appeared a bit more labored than they had before, and his skin had a slightly sallow sheen: the mass capture of Pokémon was beginning to weigh on him. 

Once they got his attention, Brunick finished the project he was working on to catch up with them. He invited the group inside, where his Kindloof, Terrelk, and Scorntler were lounging around. In-between discussion and preparing tea, he also fetched a large wooden trunk full of Berries collected by the townsfolk over the past few days. 

His own report was brief, and most of their time was spent going over what our heroes had learned at Sol's Bed. Unfortunately, Brunick himself didn't know anything about Solgaleo himself. He suggested the group reach back out to Ivar for more research. Lauren and Ariela sojourned over to the town's temple to find him. 

As it was afternoon, the townsfolk working on the building were currently taking a brief break. The duo approached Ivar gently. It wasn't until Ariela showed him her Pokédex’s picture of Solgaleo that he began to have a panic attack. Closing his eyes, the man did his level best to ride the emotions out. 

When he had recovered enough to speak, the trainers asked if he would want to meet with them and Brunick to discuss the situation. Though it was something that stirred pain in his breast, Ivar quickly agreed: he had sought these answers for most of his life and could not turn away from them now. 

Meanwhile, the rest of the group brought the trunk of Berries to the Pokémon Center. In a role reversal from their earlier encounter, Sylvie taught the nurse how to make the antidote. She was once again impressed by Sylvie's skill and said that she would set to making doses of the antidote right away. Finally, the party reconvened at Ivar's home. He arrived shortly after them and welcomed them inside. His place was still in that state of disarray that is only found in the estates of a researcher. Embarrassed, he hurriedly cleared away enough books and scrolls to make sitting room for everyone. 

After getting everyone onto the same page, the group began to discuss what had been learned, and what could be done with that information. Now that the identities of the Legendaries involved had been discovered, they could use Ivar's collected library to look for more specific information. Recalling that one of Ivar's notes mentioned a "strange, bandaged man", Ariela and Lauren pointed out that this must be referencing Perthro. The rest of the group aided Ivar in gathering relevant books and scrolls, while Lauren called their mummified mentor. 

Between these avenues, several helpful things were learned. (Though, as per usual, Perthro's wisdom had needed to be filtered through.) Ariela was able to find an old folktale detailing a "ritual" that could be undertaken to force Solgaleo to leave: if it were challenged to combat while greeting the dawn, and defeated three days in a row, it would leave to sulk elsewhere. 

Sylvie had discovered some old pictographs that gave an idea of what Solgaleo's counterpart might look like. The texts named it Lunala, the bat-like patron of the moon. 

From Perthro, they learned that both Solgaleo and Lunala hailed from a land most likely inaccessible. He had heard rumors of Lunala sightings in Vanachrom ages past but had no clue to their veracity. The peddler of the odd also suggested thinking on what a "lure" is to a fisherman. His last piece of advice was harder to parse but mentioned that it seemed Solgaleo was not playing nice or fair. "Bear in mind that when approaching the sun,", he said, "it is best not to do so directly, but from a different angle." 

All of their newly-learned data opened up several possible ways to move forwards. While musing on the sad lack of a nearby aquatic lake monster to trick Solgaleo into fighting, Reinhold recalled something else of note: near Cursestone, where he had spent most of his time growing up, there was a lake called Mani's Bed. To those who worshipped the old gods, Mani was another name for the moon itself. 

The next few hours were spent with the team putting forth suggestions for plans of action. Reinhold's Infinity could serve as a lure with the pictographs as a reference for what Lunala looked like. Additionally, Brunick and the townsfolk created all sorts of pageantry for their annual Fire Festival- it wouldn't be difficult for them to also make some sort of false Lunala as a lure. Ariela suggested that, with the help of the Aggron's pack, they might be able to plant different flavors of Berries beneath Sol's Bed. If their diet was more balanced, the Gulpin and Swalot would likely sweat at their normal rates, potentially ending the poison mist. There was a chance, no matter how small, that they may be able to find traces of Lunala at Mani's Bed. The length of that trip was daunting, but could prove fruitful, in the end. 

Chief among their remaining questions was what to do with Solgaleo himself. The thought of fighting it in direct combat once, let alone multiple times seemed daunting: especially since they would lack access to a Pokémon Center, as the challenges needed to occur in a consecutive string of three days. Then again...there was nothing in the tale stating that these challenges must be single combat- and Perthro seemed to indicate "fair play" might hold less weight in such a situation as this. 

On the other hand, if they chose to instead trick the beast into leaving...where could they lead it, without wreaking yet more havoc? No one could levy a suggestion that seemed without risk or harm. Our heroes didn't want to solve the problem here, only to cause one elsewhere. Not again. For now, they had much to mull over. They had no way of knowing when Solgaleo would return to Sol's Bed from its sleep-induced travels, but they had at least found a stopgap to deal with the poison, via Sylvie's antidote. If nothing else, they had bought some respite and time to set themselves on a path. If they could but choose one......