Session 43, VP1

The morning brought a gentle rain to the farmlands. Saffa appeared eager to put this whole event behind her, so she was packed before our heroes had finished breakfast. Gunnar & Bergie thanked Vern for all of his help. With a cheerful smile, he expressed that he wished he had been able to do more to repay them for their help in Seeder Grove. He watched them set out into the Varfjell Fields as he waved goodbye to the trainers.

It didn't take long for the group's spirits to rise. When was the last time that their dance card wasn't full? It felt like months...As they rode through the tall grass, the trainers discussed where their path could lead them. Harbinger Valley had been a planned goal a while ago; with nothing weighing them down, they decided to finally check that town off their travel list.

Apart from spotting some Pokemon in the distance here & there, the day passed in relative calm. So when they bedded down for the night, it came as a shock when an immense rumbling sound caused the very earth to tremble beneath them. Whatever it was, it seemed distant-for now.

Shortly after setting out the next morning, the party came across a Pokemon play-date. A few wilds frolicked through the grass in a game of tag. Bergie let out a soft "awwww" at the sight. He approached the group by crawling, so as not to loom over them. A few introductory sniffs later, our heroes' Pokemon had been released to join in the fun.

Still, something was bugging Bergie in the back of his mind. His Pokedex had registered one of the Pokemon as a Sylveon.  Why did that seem odd...? Ah! An Eevee can only evolve into a Sylveon through an intense bond of love with its trainer. Unless it had been released, this wasn't a wild after all!

Once the Pokemon had retired for a well-earned lunch, the group began gently questioning the pink fox. Though it could do little to communicate its own thoughts, it was more than smart enough to respond to yes or no questions. Apparently, it had been separated from its trainer a day or so ago. The scared Pokemon had been found by the wilds, who helped it calm down.

Always ready to help someone in need, Gunnar suggested the Sylveon ride along with the group. If it worked in tandem with some of their own trackers, perhaps they could retrace its steps! The trail was found in short order. Our heroes followed it North-East until the sun set. 

Once again, that unbelievably loud sound  interrupted their sleep. Bergie & Gunnar both noticed how the sound seemed to upset the Sylveon. And, of course, they could tell it was coming from the direction they were now headed in.

Around noon the next day, a large mass of people became visible in the distance. Their maps didn't show any towns in this location. Unsure of what they were walking into, the party took some solace in the fact that the Sylveon was clearly happy at the sight.

They dismounted from their Pokemon to walk in the rest of the way. Tents littered the area, interspersed between a variety of food & merchandise stalls. Though the people were friendly, they all looked extremely tired. Gunnar began questioning one of the nearby attendees for more information.

Apparently, this was an annual contest held to determine who could raise the loudest Toxaurus. Bergie frowned at the fires suddenly alight in his friend's eyes. The attendee explained that the festival was meant to have wrapped up days ago- but something had gone wrong. Before he was called away back to his friends, he suggested the party head towards the judge's tents.

At the far end of the festival grounds, they found a small wooden platform set before a long table. None of the seats were occupied currently. The Sylveon suddenly let out a cry of joy before bounding off behind them. When they turned, it was to see a young woman sweep up the Pokemon in a grateful embrace.

Once she & the Sylveon had dried their tears, the woman introduced herself as Erika. She was one of the final four contestants for this year. Her Sylveon had been startled the other night from the screaming, & had ran away in fright. Seeing that Erika seemed to think that sentence made sense, our heroes waited a beat before asking her to elaborate.

Erika shook her head in embarrassment. Blushing, she lead the party into the largest of the nearby tents. Inside were the other three finalists, as well as the two contest officials. Their new friend conducted introductions between all present.

Olsen, a middle-aged, confident man, introduced himself as the sure winner of the competition. Next to him sat Olva, a pleasant young woman slightly older than Erika. The last contestant was a bearded, shaggy hulk of man, named Fiske. An older man, Holger, acted as the announcer & host of the contests. Finally, a middle-aged woman named Solvi was the actual organizer of the event.

Tea & snacks were offered up as Solvi began to explain the situation. She'd been holding this contest for a few years now without incident. Whether it was simply bad luck or a change in environmental factors, this year's contest accidentally coincided with a Pokemon migration through the area. To make matters worse, the migratory creatures were all well-known for their abilities to make loud sounds.

The wild Pokemon had passed by close enough to hear the screaming contests taking place. This drew them all onto the fairgrounds to show off their own skills. Having even more "competition" enter the fray made all of the contestants' Pokemon get wrapped up in professional pride: the owned Pokemon joined the wilds to debate who amongst them was the true winner.

All of the creatures were so invested that they were both refusing attempts to recall them, & refusing to leave the area. Every day- & night- since, the swarms let out incredibly loud screams at once. At least the group knew what had been keeping them up now.

Seeing the trainer's gym runes, Solvi tentatively asked if our heroes could help. All of the people here were hoping they could resolve this peacefully somehow; no one wanted to cause any harm to the Pokemon who were only following their natural instincts. Bergie & Gunnar readily agreed.

The organizers explained that they couldn't give the the group much as payment, but would put something together. At this, Gunnar eyed up a blanket-covered birdcage at the back of the tent. Solvi chuckled a bit, & removed the draping fabric. Inside was a birdcage, occupied by...a Shiny Chatot!

This, the woman explained, was the grand prize for the winner. She had found the poor thing alone in the wild, scared speechless. Bergie recalled that Shiny Pokemon can sometimes be ostracized from their kin due to their mutation. This must be why the Pokemon was so quiet & withdrawn. Since finding the parrot, Solvi had never heard it make even the slightest noise. She cooed to the bird as she gently replaced its cover.

When the trainers had exhausted their list of questions, it was time to visit the Pokemon horde.  By Odin's beard- there had to be at least 700 Pokemon gathered here! A few scans helped the group learn more about what they were dealing with.

Curaurus & Toxaurus were expected, of course. Milling about near them was a large flock of Whismur, Loudred, & Exploud. Overhead, a colony of Noibat & Noivern circled on calm winds.

Our heroes' first attempts to communicate with the wilds went...less than well. Yelling to get their attention simply set off all the monsters. It didn't take many sonic assaults for Gunnar & Bergie to realize this wasn't enjoyable. 

Next, Gunnar released his own Curaurus, Saffa, to see if she could talk some sense into her cousins. She trundled off into the crowd on his instruction. Several minutes later, it became apparent that she had been swept up into the competition. Gunnar managed to extricate her, & the trainers decided to retreat for some planning.

Before bed, they purchased several sets of earplugs from an enterprising merchant. It didn't quite block out the nocturnal cacophony, but it helped. A new dawn brought new ideas to try. Bergie & Gunnar worked together to devise a way to objectively measure volume: marking off several meters along the ground, they would set a sewn together fabric ball at the zero marker. Each Pokemon could scream directly at the ball to move it. Whoever moved it furthest would be the winner!

Saffa the Pokemon & Erika's Sylveon managed to convey this to the gathered dinosaurs. Amazingly, all of the Curaurus & Toxaurus agreed to this ranking system. One by one, they shook their frills & yelled their hardest. Their neck flaps acted like a cone to funnel the sound forwards with precision. After a hew hours, one from each species was marked down as the final representative of their group.

Two more groups to go! The Whismur, Loudred, & Exploud didn't appear to have any interest in the ball pushing. Unsure of how to entice them, they pored over the Pokedex entries for these species. While the dinosaurs were known for being generally noisy, it looked like the Whismur line loved making music.

Saffa the human was consulted for her opinion on the matter. Could her lyrical expertise help at all? The jester gave it some thought in silence. What if, she suggested, she played a tune with her Ragglewaithe? If the Pokemon joined her in song, she could then single each one out for a solo.

Though our heroes knew Saffa's musical talents were less than stellar, they figured the idea was worth a shot. They unscrewed a few of the miscellaneous instruments on her one-man-band machine to use standalone. One groovy jam session later, they had successfully identified the loudest member of these three species!

Now only the bats remained. These Pokemon were known for using echolocation to both move & attack. Echolocation depended on sound bouncing back to the one who caused it. An open field offered little in the way of acoustics- what if they could make some kind of wall for the sound to reflect off of? working together, our heroes were able to dig out a sort of amphitheater in the ground. The only problem with that was that soil wasn't a great conductor for sound...

Bergie scratched his chin idly as he stared into the sky. The cold winds didn't affect the burly man in body, but they jump-started his mind. He quickly released Froza. Hefting the wintry fox like a firearm, the breeder asked her to let loose a powerful Ice attack. The pair swept back & forth across the "stage wall" of the amphitheater. 

Soon, they had a strong wall of frost that reflected sound with crystal-clear quality. Then it was simply a matter of using their own Flying Pokemon to convey the idea to the bats. The colony took to the set-up swimmingly, narrowing down the final contestants to a manageable 7 Pokemon by nightfall.

Returning to the judge's quarters, the party explained what they had accomplished so far. If they could get the audience to all join them in the amphitheater  the next day, everyone could cheer & vote for the loudest Pokemon. Establishing a winner would most likely get the crowds to leave in peace. Solvi & the others enthusiastically began flitting about the fairgrounds to spread the message.

The Pokemon had quelled enough that everyone was able to get the first uninterrupted nights' sleep in several days. Refreshed attendees moved to the new contest arena, excitedly debating who would reign supreme. Holger opened up the floor for the competitors to make their final performances.

Toxaurus started the show off strong, intimidating the Curaurus that followed. The Noibat & Noivern were surprisingly close in power. Finally, the Exploud's booming bass obliterated the rest of the competition- even Gunnar!

It was evident to all that the Exploud had won by a landslide. Solvi walked on-stage with the covered birdcage, ready to present the winning trainer with their price...only to find out that the Exploud was a wild Pokemon. With a shrug, she removed the blanket from the cage. The Loud Noise Pokemon reached a stubby finger through the bars to pet his brand-new Chatot.

The birds' eyes narrowed as it leaned back from the intruder. A feeling of intense pressure began building up as the the air started to vibrate. Exploud's finger was inches, centimeters away from touching the Chatot, when its gleaming beak began to crack op-

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Hours passed when our heroes came to. All around them, people were groggily getting to their feet. Solvi & the Exploud had been laid flat out on the stage. Bits of the shattered cage glittered in the rays of the setting sun. 

A quick check of the Pokedex confirmed what the trainers already suspected: Chatot was known to be an incredible mimic, able to reproduce anything it had ever heard. This particular Chatot had been listening to days worth of the loudest Pokemon alive screaming in unison. When it was finally pushed into "speaking" for the first time, it repeated all of those roars simultaneously.

The Chatot must have flown off while everyone was knocked out. Thankfully, no one was hurt by its lovely song. When the ringing in their ears had subsided, the contestants & organizers presented our heroes with a small gift basket of various goods in thanks.

All those in attendance helped to clean up the impromptu amphitheater. With that finished, everyone laughed & traded stories around campfires beneath the autumn moon. Bergie & Gunnar packed their ear plugs away, & laid down with pleasantly full stomachs. 

Harbinger Valley lay only a short way away now. What they hoped to find there, the trainers still weren't quite sure. Regardless, at least it should be a quiet place to rest after the past few days...