Galar's New Heroes! [IC]

[Opsimos]

Syrus had an antidote at hand which he used, but he threw a grateful glance at Nick for his offer. "Should we prepare some food and water for when it wakes up? I think he can continue resting in Kei's hands -- that is, if you don't mind, Kei? Gale, would you please keep watch over our little friend?" Gale opened his eyes from meditation, and his ears perked up. "Thanks, Gale." Syrus nodded toward his partner. "Also, have you guys ever seen this reddish substance? Rookidee had been poisoned by someone."

[Kinro]

"Here," Kei said, tapping his lap as Star stepped off of it. "You can rest here, if you want, for as long as you need to," he added, taking out his grooming kit. "And I'll brush your fur and make you all nice and pretty, alright?"

[JNAProductions]

The Rookidee chirps... Not exactly happily, but at least contentedly.

He's soon asleep in your arms, as you groom the feathers and get all the gunk out. If you touch the red stuff, it stings slightly to the touch.

[Kinro]

As soon as he felt the sting, Kei made sure to put some gloves on and prioritized getting the red gunk all cleaned off, certainly worried that if it stayed, it would poison their new friend all over again. "No cleaning him with your tongue," he warned Star. "At least not for a while. This stuff is bad for you." He kept carefully grooming, first getting all the gunk out, then continuing to brush his feathers, picking out every loose one and making sure that the rest were all nice and straight. Plus checking for parasites and every little thing a good groomer would know to take care of. By the time he woke up, the rookidee would certainly be feeling much refreshed.

[MCerberus]

Nick

"Doesn't look like muk goop or anything. Might be something weird from the wilderness area," Nick comments before getting up. Eevee quickly bounces up to take its place on his shoulder as he makes his way towards the aisle.

There's got to be a vendor or at the very least the bathroom will have a sink they can get water for. Poor little thing probably hasn't had a normal time of things.

[JNAProductions]

There's a meal car, selling bottled water among other things, a few cars down. It's not exactly the BEST bottled water, but it's cheap enough, and it's liquid.

Spoiler: OOC

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$5 for a bottle. Not the Fresh Water item, just normal water.

[MCerberus]

Nick

Nick decides that he can also us a drink and gets himself a bottle as well, in addition to the bottle he set out for and a paper cup. Purchase in hand, he returns to his seat. Before sitting down, he tosses Syrus the bottle.

[TeChameleon]

Ben, satisfied that the little bird was in good hands, took a small amount of the reddish goop and studied it carefully, or at least as carefully as he could without any tools. He let Belle take a sniff, but she just sneezed and shook her head.

Spoiler: OOC

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Science + Clever + Insight roll to determine what the goop is- (6d6)[3][2][4][3][5][6](23)
Clever seems to be the mental stat, Insight because this is an observation challenge sort of deal, and Science because figuring out what a toxin is would be science..?

[JNAProductions]

Spoiler: OOC

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Don't use more than one attribute plus one skill. You can't just add on more and more. :P

I'll use the results as-is for now, but remember that for the future!

Imma give you two questions to ask about the goop-one for each success, but minus one because you rolled too many dice. If you get an answer, it will be a correct one, but if the knowledge isn't something you'd be able to know, you will not get an answer.

The substance, whatever it is, definitely seems toxic. Not immediately deadly or anything like that, but prolonged exposure wouldn't be healthy at all. You lack the knowledge or tools needed, right now, to figure out much more than that.

[TeChameleon]

After a long moment, Ben spoke up.

"I don't think somebody did this to this bird on purpose... it look kinda like it sat in something. And I've heard symptoms like what it was doing have turned up in the power plants."

He hesitated.

"Are there any power plants around here? I'm not sure."

[JNAProductions]

Spoiler: Power Plants

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Motostoke, which you're heading near to now, has at least one.

But currently? You're in the rural areas.

[Kinro]

"That's... this is still wrong!" Kei called out. "If this happened once, it can happen again and again. Maybe it already did. Is there... maybe there's a way we can stop it? Like... this rookidee could lead us, right?"

[MCerberus]

Nick

Power plants... that gets Nick's mind thinking back to the Longest Day. Even though the damage is long since cleaned up, he tries to remember if there were any stories about sickness or toxic waste that could match up.

Spoiler: ooc

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Could this be something that was reported after the longest day wrecked the power plant?
[rollv=Clever+Lore]2d6[/roll]

---

* post roll count doesn't match database

[JNAProductions]

After that day, there was a toxic build-up in Hammerlocke. It was cleaned up pretty quickly, and there were no major incidents reported due to that, but there were reports of hallucinations for close to a month afterwards due to a specific bakery who's ingredients were exposed.

[MCerberus]

Nick

"I was thinking this could be some goop left over from the Longest Day," Nick says unscrewing the top of his water and taking a quick drink. "I don't think it quite matches up, but if our new friend did find some toxic waste the league would want to know about it."

[Kinro]

"Once we get to the next station, let's get off," Kei suggested. "We can ask him to lead us to where he found the stuff. Then, we can get it cleaned up or whatever needs to happen."

[TeChameleon]

"Sounds like a plan." Ben said. "Once we have a location, we can call the professor's lab and either get more instructions or get stuff set in motion, whatever needs to happen."

[Opsimos]

"Thanks, Nick. That sounds exciting! Let's get off at the next station. Great deduction, too. By the way, Kei, you are really talented at grooming. Please teach me in the future."

Spoiler

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I am ready to depart.

[JNAProductions]

The train cruises along. You talk amongst one another, taking turns looking after the Rookidee. He wakes up before you reach the first station, and finds a good spot to sit on Bellerog's back.

When you arrive, you're at the start of the wild area, in a small, sheltered area. Motostoke isn't far. One of you makes the call to Professor Sonia, and puts it on speaker.

Ring... Ring... Ring...

"Hello?" her voice answers. "Who is this?"

You explain who you are real quick. "Oh, is everything okay guys? Everyone safe?"

[MCerberus]

Nick

Nick would jump ahead to explain what's going on to the professor without much pause. Must be in his nature.

"We made a friend, professor. It had some goop on it making it sick, so we're going to see where it came from in case it needs to be reported." Eevee at this point has decided to be playful and is currently near Belle and the bird, crouched and wiggling its rear. "Hey none of that..."

Eevee gives an innocent look.

"Oh but hey how long do we have before we need to be in the city for registration?"

[Kinro]

"Absolutely," Kei replied to Syrus, beaming. "It's not that hard, really, you just have to be careful and thorough. And it usually feels good for the pokemon, too. Especially when you're done. Could you imagine having parasites or all that stray hair or feathers? You'd be itchy all the time, right? So it must be a relief for them, too, when that's all cleared up. Plus, well, they look so much cuter when they're all pretty, right?"

"Just like Nick said," Kei added. "We're going to ask our new friend to lead us to the place where he got all that nasty gunk he was covered in. And... well, I was thinking maybe he'd like to join one of us, too, after?"

[JNAProductions]

"New... Gunk friend? Sorry, can you explain in a different way?" she asks.

You add the rather important detail that the new friend is a Pokémon, and you can hear her let out an "Ah," before continuing with "Can you elaborate a bit?"

Eventually, the rest of the story comes out, and there's a few moments of silence. "Interesting," she says, dragging the word out. "Look into that, yeah. Keep me updated-if something's making Pokémon sick, that's something I should know about. Thank you, and good luck."

Spoiler: OOC

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She didn't answer, but you can recall from the paperwork that you've got till the end of the week to get registered in Motostoke. So four days.

The as of yet nameless Rookidee is fluttering around you guys, apparently aimlessly.

[TeChameleon]

Ben made a bit of a face.

"I was really kinda hoping the professor would give us a little more to go on." He shrugged. "Guess we should track down where this goop came from."

He looked at the rookidee for a moment, watching it flutter around, and, when it didn't seem to be inclined to lead anyone anyplace, at least at the moment, bent down and gently shooed Eevee away from Bellerog.

"Sorry bud, but I need Belle's nose right now."

With that, he held out the sample of the reddish goop he had held on to. "Think you can find this, Belle?"

[JNAProductions]

Belle's face wrinkles at the smell, but she gets the message. She starts to sniff around, seeing if she can find the trail.

Spoiler: OOC

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(2d6)[1][4](5)
Insight+Nature, so straight up Insight for Belle.

But... This is pertaining to something she'd be natively good at, so I'll add three dice to this. Dogs and tracking by scent go together well.

(3d6)[4][4][4](12)

Initially, she doesn't find much-but soon, her ears perk up, and she yips excitedly. She dashes into the Wild Area, with you all rushing to keep up. Ben calls her back, and she stands still long enough for you all to catch up. Belle then moves forward at a more measured pace, easier for you to keep up with.

[MCerberus]

Nick

In all the excitement, Nick has to remember to tell their tiny raven-like companion what's going on. He seems friendly enough, so losing him by running off seems like a terrible idea.

"We're going to find the stuff that hurt you; make sure nobody else gets sick." Nick then joins the chase after the houndour, carrying the Rookidee if it's having trouble keeping up.

[Opsimos]

"Yeah, Star seems really comfortable when you groom her. Gale, can I try grooming you later on?" Syrus replied to Kei.

Later, when Belle began to track the gunk to its source, he ran after the Houndour with what little stamina he had but had trouble keeping up (unlike Gale). Fortunately, the Pokémon slowed down after a while. "I'm so curious where Belle will lead us!"

[Kinro]

"Alright, let's go!" Kei said. "Want to come with us?" he asked the rookidee. "I promise we'll keep you safe and you want to help us make sure no one else gets hurt, right?"

[JNAProductions]

The Rookidee chirps assent, perching on Nick's shoulder as you run after Belle.

Ben keeps the front of the pack with Belle, making sure she stays around the tall grass and not entering into it. With a bit of luck, you're able to avoid running into any hostile wild mons, and soon, you arrive at your destination. It's a small crater, with what looks like a small piece of shattered porcelain in the center. The porcelain-like substance is a dull red, and it's positively COATED in the red gunk.

[TeChameleon]

Ben slammed to a halt the second he could see the broken container clearly, and gave the quick combination of whistles and clicks that called Bellerog back to his side.

He patted her and praised her "Good work finding it, Bellerog. Stay well clear of that stuff, though, I don't want you to get sick."

Then he paused and took a closer look at the container, using the zoom function on his Rotom phone.

"Does anyone recognize what kind of container that is? Not sure if I do or not..."

Spoiler: OOC

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Clever + Insight to recognize/remember what kind of reddish porcelain container we're looking at; (5d6)[5][6][4][3][5](23)

[Opsimos]

"Great job leading us here!" Syrus praised Belle. "It seems that this piece of porcelain is the source of the gunk. Remove it and we might be done. Looking at this crater... could the porcelain actually be a meteorite shard?" I wanted to find a space rock since forever!

Turning to the Rookidee he asked, "Were there any dangerous pokémon here when you got hurt, little friend?" I would expect a poison type to have made this their home. Addressing everyone, "Should we or some of us quietly move toward the piece of porcelain? Gale and I volunteer. We're decent at being quiet. But," he turned to his pokémon partner." "be careful not to touch the substance, Gale. Stay safe, friend."