The Stalkers RPG - Main Action and Team Status Thread [SEASON 3] *SWEET VICTORY!*

[Neo Emolga]

I will clear out Silverdike

You decide to search out the last remaining floors of the Silverdike Manufacturing Plant. Up here, it seems like most of the floors are designated for offices and administration. As you can tell with the older style of the building, it wasn't originally built with computers and office machines in mind, so it seems a little messy in terms of how things are organized and it does feel like certain areas of the floor layouts don't optimize the space simply because there really weren't any truly good spots to put printers and mainframes.

The electronics aren't wired all that well either. The brick walls weren't ideal at all for running wires through, so in many spots, you see wires running along the walls and holes drilled into the floor so those same wires and cords could reach the floors belong. And that's the problem with trying to teach an old building new tricks.

In one of the supply closets, you find the lock has been broken. Normally, it might look like a careless accident to anyone working here, but upon your own closer inspection, you can determine this was intentional. You take a closer look and at first, it doesn't seem like anything is out of the ordinary, but then you feel the slightest trace of Stalker presence. You try to follow it and it takes you to what looks like a metal rod, very similar to the Eye and Mouth rods that were found earlier. You pick it up with your yellow paws, examine it closely, and you find the same eye-mark on the base. It definitely seems very similar to the other one that was found. You definitely decide to take it with you.

Item [Eye Rod] has been added to the Team Inventory.

You search through the rest of the floors, but what you find seems to be the same. Mainly offices and cubicles that are trying to work with an older building, and as a result, have had to tape a lot of the wires down to the floor so everyone doesn't trip on them and in some areas it does get tight, even for a Pikachu like you. You can only wonder what a Pokémon like Snorlax would have to do to walk around in this kind of claustrophobic working environment.

You don't find anything else out of the ordinary, so you decide to head back and make your way to the Emissary base.

Lita the Pikachu (S: Electric)

Health: 4/4
Sanity: 3/4
Perk: Science | Learned Abilities: Investigate
Failed Assassinations: 0/2

[Neo Emolga]

I'll take the newly disarmed heads to (38) The Escapist Bookstore (Abandoned)

I'll head to (25) The Copperplate Hotel (Abandoned) with the [Burning Icicle]
And the [7734 Key]? Is that where that goes?

I take it you'd like to light the Candle of the Departed? That was actually an item that was added to the inventory and that's what you light with the icicle. You don't actually travel anywhere to do this.

Yeah, it's the first time I've implemented using items on items, so I can understand it might be a little confusing. But whenever that colon (:) appears on something, it means something else can be used on it. So I'll just take it as that's what you'd like to do, and I apologize in advance if it's not, but you're still making progress by doing this part of the job!

Also, as a result, you don't use the [7734 Key] because you don't actually go to The Copperplate Hotel tonight.

----

You take the [Unlit Candle of the Departed: Burning Icicle Flame] and examine it. As you'd already tested, no normal flame lights it. Not the [Laboratory Burner], not the [Barbecue Lighter], and not even the [Blessed Ceremonial Blowtorch] can keep a flame on the wick. But when you use the strange purple flame of the [Burning Icicle], only now does the ghostly, purple flame of the candle take hold. In the process, the [Burning Icicle] seems to melt and disintegrate into the flame itself, and suddenly it is no more.

Item [Unlit Candle of the Departed: Burning Icicle Flame] has become [Lit Candle of the Departed]

Item [Burning Icicle] has been removed from the Team Inventory.

As you notice, the [Lit Candle of the Departed] seems like it can burn for eternity and yet the wick is never consumed in the process. It also creates a strange, ghostly light that seems to make the shadows dance upon the walls as though they were alive. You also feel like you can sometimes hear the whispers of the dead, but you can't quite make out what they're saying.

Still, as you gaze upon the strange, purple flame, you can only wonder what the true nature of this thing is...

Sam the Deerling (S: Normal/Grass)

Health: 4/4
Sanity: 4/4
Perk: First Aid | Learned Abilities: Investigate
Failed Assassinations: 0/2

[AgloMe Oen]

Man, taking heads was gonna be my job... Oh well. Investigate Zell the Greninja because I don't think a simple conversation would go over well. Plus, he's probably a Repair teacher! Fixing things is always nice NEVERMIND APPARENTLY INSTEAD... (On phone can't cross out worth jack)
Dagnabbit people. Taking the Royal Heads (Nidoking, Nidoqueen) to the Escapist Bookstore!

Guess what? You're doing the hea̷͖ͦͦ͑ͨ͒́ͩds because NEWSFLASH, BUCKAROO, ZELL SLEEPS DURING THE NIGHT CYCLE AND ZOWIE, IT'S NIGHTTIME AND I KNOW YOU FORGET TO CHECK THAT! No really, I could wake you up at 3am if you'd like so you get the full effect of what that feels like! And I usually like to wake silly Lucarios like yourself up with dead things planted on their faces. It's fun, try it sometime. Well, since I don't feel like hea̷͖ͦͦ͑ͨ͒́ͩding all the way to your silly neighborhood at that hour, I'll just do something to your neighbor's annoying little dog so they wake up half the neighborhood on my behalf at that lovely hour. And no, I won't tell you what night I plan on doing it on! Oh, you're welcome, but it's my pleasure.

So you graciously take the heads that your friends disarmed and you skip your way to the Escapist Bookstore. The good thing is Devis is still dead so he doesn't have to deal with the likes of you or the fun stuff that's about to happen. So you take your lovely heads that your friends gouged their eyeballs out and you head to the metallic display. You also give the plaque a read...

#Disturbing Presence# Trap 70% Evasion (20% size + 50% Security) Test: 99 out of 100: Evasion Successful!

And you suddenly stop rea̷͖ͦͦ͑ͨ͒́ͩding it because you realize the thing is rigged and will mind-rot you if you read the whole damnable thing. Looking away, you grab the plaque and decide to rip it right off the mount. Hey, a little vandalism never hurt anyone, right? Well, you just chuck that into a corner and it bounces away with a satisfying little clinging sound. Yippie-yippie-yay!

The #Disturbing Presence# (1 Sanity Damage) trap on the {Head Display: Missing Head of the King, Missing Head of the Queen} has been removed. Well poo.

Well, that certainly ruined someone's fun. So now you get to the g̬͕̥̝̯͈̱̟̥̐̃͒ͥ͆ͦ͋ó̝͉̗̜͕͕̓͛̏ͭ̎̒̉ͅo̖̔̅̇͋̉ͪd̘ͥ ̗̪͇̲̪̫̮̈̿̂ͦ́̚p̺͙̣̥̤͚̫̗̂̿ͨͨ͐ͯ̂̚ȃ͓͓̖̘ͤͥ͌ͅr̘̎ͫ̋͆ͮ̀ͮ̏ ̤̤̹̟̰̩͓̙ṭ͎̝̗͓̝̭̱̪ͮ̔̅̈́̆ͮͦ. You mount the Nidoqueen's head first, and it fits so nicely into place. Boy, does she look marvelous today. No body, no eyes, tongue hanging out, it's just lovely. Then you set up the Nidoking's head and that lovely masterpiece fights right in as well. They're just perfect for each other. See, if they said "yo̶̠̺̹̫̝̮ͭͣ̂̈́̀u look beautiful today" to each other, they've be lying in so many ways at once it would just be hilarious.

Item [Nidoqueen Head] and [Nidoking Head] have been removed from the Inventory. I know, I know, you wanted to keep them for your collection, but nah, I'm not letting you. >;P

Well, here's one mind-screw you weren't expecting. As soo̗̦̘̍̽̉̓͑̔n as they set in, you hear a howling in your head and n̳̓ͮ̓o, buddy, no amount of Security is going to prepare you for this one. It's like a screaming shadow leaps from the mount and jumps into your gawking face!

@-Dark Event Trigger: Hellish Evil Sensations@ (2 Sanity Damage)



It gets worse, Mister O'Toole, because the who̗̦̘̍̽̉̓͑̔le time, it's like a cubic butt-ton of testosterone-infused Zubats are screaming your most-hated country music song in your head and it hurts like the dentist shot you up with Tabasco sauce instead of the Novocain you were expecting right before drilling half your jaw apart.

For a while, you have a s̱̫̤͉̔̔ͭ̓̋l͔͕̩͉̳̗̱̎̅e͉͖̘̦̟͒̏e̤̻̼̮̖̮̽̆̀̓p̠-̗͇̖͎ͅẅ̟́͋̃àͦ̇͐l̻͎͕͖̭͋̐̌ͭ̊̉̓k̓̿̈́̓̚̚ḯ̹̗̹͙͈̼́͆͂̆n̆ͧ ̜̞̘͕͗ͭg̭̲̩̮̮̉ͅ ̲̝̔̈̉ͯ̽n̫̙̻͍̫͙͒̎i̺g͔͔̮̳̳͖̀̃̽ͥ̊h̻̪͍̖̯̦ͤͭͧ̒͊̐͆t͉̺̩̍͋ ̙͎̯m͉͕̻͌̚a̺͆ͣ̐ͤͅr̟ͭ̄ͤ̉ͬ̌ͩe̮̒ͪ͆ ͕̦̲͖͎̙̗̇f̱̭̱͚̏ͭ̿̾̆ͪͫͅr̹̭̱e̎̋aͮ̓͛k̬̳͙͍̼̜̰o͉̤̠̎̔ͯ͆͋͂ ú̻̬̉t̘͎̭͕̜͉̰̑̿ where you imagine you're puking blood. And it gets worse. You suddenly vomit a lung out. Whoa. And then... a kidney, a rib, and then... well damn, that was probably your heart. It's still beating! Or that was your stomach and something inside it is jumping around. Well, b͇̱̱̭͉͎͚͛͒͌ẽ͕̗͕̘͈̳ͥf̩͊o̬̱̦̺̝̦ͤ̆ȑ͋e̜͈̠̅ͯ ̺̔ͥ̋ͨ̍y͔̜̞̮̬̻ͨͬô̪̲͇͔͚͆͐u͚̤̲̎̓ ̟͔̲͎̼̉ͧ̿g̙̩͔̯̺̘̟͂̽̚̚eͭ͊͊̓̚̚ͅt ̮̺̈͌ͯ̄ͤ͌ͅto͑ͩ̏͌ͯ́̌ ͖̰̣̽͊͑d̼̹̂̋ͤ͂̅̆͗ie͇̫̟͕͛̐̽̔ͅ, you watch all those lovely internal organs just go black. It looks horrible. I mean really, it makes gangrene look good. But then, suddenly they all jump back up and force their way back into your throat again!



For a moment, the screaming gets even worse and it hurts so bad that you wonder if just r̆̔ͧi͉̘͖͈̻̦͐ͭp͇̟͛p̗̤̭̎́̓ǐ̯̯͎͉ͯn̗͇͍̣̺̣͓̏̂ͥͧ̋̚g̻̹̜͐ ̰̼ ̖̖̦͖͙y̹̹̬̲̩ͤͥͫͨͪö̠̬̰̱̪̩̿ͨͣ̃ͨ̂u̲ͤ̈́̂̚r͙̞̳̺̓͑̓͆̀ ̦̳̭͈̃ḛa̮̭̘̱̺̤ȑ͓͍̟̽ͬ͋s͙̳̏̇̾̒ ̇ͬ̎̌̊̎o̬͍̖ͧḟ̙̞̰̻̟̲̞̄ͫ̉̓̇̽f͈̖͈̜̹̞̍ might be a good idea right about now. Maybe just ending it all with a big jackhammer to the face would be really cool. For a good solid few minutes, you really begin to wonder just exactly how is Satan supposed to top all this off.



Rusty O'Toole has suffered 2 Damage to Sanity! Lovely!

Eventually it settles down, unfortunately. All good things have to come to an e̟͍̗͙̟͈ͧ̍ͫͧ͐͂̈́̈nd, but when it's all done, you look back to the head mount and you discover everything just totally blew up while you were having your wonderland fiesta. There's pie̟͍̗͙̟͈ͧ̍ͧ͐͂̈́̈ces of this metallic mess everywhere. Even the heads blew up. So for a min̳̓ͮ̓ute, you really think you and your buddies were totally shamed but you do find something in the pieces and debris.

Why, it's an adorable Cleffa figure! Aww! She smiling and looks s̘̜̜̱̹̘̰͛ͮͯ̽̋͂͋o̎ͯ́̊̍͌ ̼̳̮͓̦ͨ̈̈͒c̼̋̍̑̌ḥ̪͉ͯ̊͊e̬̻͑͂ͬḙ͎̠̙̎̀ͩ̋͊̈r̍f̙̦͌ͦͪ̈̅ͅ u͚̳̝̩̹̮͆̅̀̓ͅl̗͌̒ while you're just standing there like someone bashed your head in with a gravedigger's shovel that they tied with razor wire and then set on fire. Surely it's not so bad, right? Nahhh!

Item [Cleffa Figurine] has been added to the Team Inventory. She thinks you're funny! Funny looking that is!

Mister O'Toole, your te̟͍̗͙̟͈ͧ̍ͫͧ͐͂̈́̈am thanks you for your service and volunteering to be the Mareep to the slaughterhouse. They all got to watch and enjoy your misery from a safe distance, but I'm sorry to say, the reviews on your performance were mixed. Personally, I give it... eh, one and a half stars. See, I t͑ͬ̏ȯ̓̊̑̈t̹a͍͓̫̝͓͖̬̔̑ͧ̾͗lͧ̊l̙̺̬̙͉̓͑ÿ̻̜͚ understand this is a barrel of fun for you and trust me, there's plenty more to come! You'll get plenty of more chances to impress me!

Now off you go, Mister O'Toole! Go tell all your friends about the wonderful time you just had! >:D

Rusty O'Toole the Lucario (M: Fighting/Steel)

Health: 5/5
Sanity: 2/4
Perk: Security | Learned Abilities: Rescue/Escape
Failed Assassinations: 0/2

[KingWinna]

Oops sorry about that. Deen the timburr

[Neo Emolga]

I'm rather behind the times, so I'll just stick to random searching again. I'll try "(36) The Law Offices of Veckly, Jeb, and Grenner" this time.

You head over to the northwestern side of town and find the small office building that's used as a law firm. However, you can tell the Stalkers have had a pretty negative effect on the law firm. Both Veckly the Oranguru and Grenner the Cutifly were murdered by the Stalkers and now Jeb the Mawile is the only one keeping the law firm from the brink of collapse. You really wonder why he hasn't run for the hills, but you figure he has his reasons.

You search around the outside of the building and thankfully, it's a small property so it doesn't take too long. It seems like the general area around here is quiet and lonely, save for the rowdy noises coming from the Another Round tavern across the street.

On the south side of the building, you find what looks like a white shred of something. It almost feels organic, leading you to believe it might be from a Pokémon. You decide it might be worth taking with you anyway. You figure it's at least worth it for Tashy to give it a try to see what happens and if it could be connected to a Stalker. You never know.

Pokémon Sample [White Shred] has been added to the Team Inventory.

You then head inside and it's downright eerie how quiet and empty things are here. It seems like this law firm was hit the hardest considering there are now several empty desks here and both Veckly and Grenner have had their offices emptied out. It almost seems like a dead ghost town, and it's even worse at night. Meanwhile, you find that Jeb and Pyra are the only one still working here. Everyone else is either dead or left town and didn't care about their personal belongings here. It seems sad, as the law office looks to be quite nice inside and the desks they provided for their employees were better and nicer-looking than what most Pokémon have to work with.

You search around the office, but you don't find anything out of the ordinary besides a lot of aftermath from these Stalker attacks. You decide to head back and let the others know what you've found tonight after searching here.

Hope the Alolan Vulpix (S: Ice)

Health: 4/4
Sanity: 3/4
Perk: First Aid | Learned Abilities: Rescue/Escape
Failed Assassinations: 0/2

[Neo Emolga]

Oops sorry about that. Deen the timburr

Interview Rapport: POSITIVE
+1 Shared Evolution Stage

You find Deen working as a server at the Another Round Tavern, where things are loud, rowdy, and boisterous as usual. Even though he's constantly going from one end of the tavern to the other with drink orders, he still seems to keep a cool head and not stress out about it.

You ask him for a moment of his time and to get his feedback on the situation with the Stalkers. It seems you've found him at a good moment to speak.

"Yeah, I overhear quite a lot working here," Deen nods and tells you as he puts his serving tray aside for a moment. "Stalkers, stuff about Shala getting killed, and what the police are doing. That stuff has started quite a few bar fights around here. Not pretty stuff."

"I've been told by Jaxie not to let Jeddi in here," Deen tells you. "Yeah, and here I was thinking I was going to get a great tip from all the drinks she was ordering and then she left without paying. She's known to piss off a lot of Pokémon and I really think she's digging for trouble. How she gets away with a lot of it amazes me."

"Then there's Yandil," Deen recalls. "I can't say I've really met with him personally, but he's not blacklisted like Jeddi is. Still, Yandil never comes to this bar anyway, even though for him, it would be the perfect place to get away from Jeddi for a while. A lot of Pokémon around here are suspicious about him. Thanks to all those warnings, I keep my distance whenever I see him, and he's usually doing the oddest things at the oddest hours. Like seriously, when does he ever get his sleep? I think most Pokémon would burnout and get sick if they did what he does."

"And yeah, I heard about what happened with Kanja," Deen tells you. "Britera the Braixen was here this morning and she couldn't stop talking about it even when we weren't open. She seriously felt betrayed and it sounds like to her, a lot of her hard work went down the gutter thanks to Kanja working against the Southwarren police. You know, I'd really recommend talking to Britera. She was really working hard on this whole thing and it just seems like she's the only cop that really gets it and Kanja was undermining everything she was doing. Plus I think she could really use someone to talk to. Maybe she knows something that the other cops keep shooting down even though she's totally right."

You then hear Jaxie call out to Deen, and he turns and nods as he picks up his serving tray.

"Sounds like I got to get back in there," Deen tells you. "Good luck with this stuff."

He then heads back through the crowd to continue his work, and you head back to base after getting your information.

Xean the Golett (M: Ground/Ghost)

Health: 5/5
Sanity: 4/4
Perk: Repair | Learned Abilities: Restrain
Failed Assassinations: 0/2

[Neo Emolga]

#39 Pashay the Igglybuff has been murdered by the Stalkers.

Location: Behind Overland Metalworks
Cause of Death: Viciously stabbed to death

Standing over Pashay's body, Britera sighed. It was one thing to see an old Pokémon get murdered, because at least they got to live out a long life. But Pashay was young. Too young. The young Igglybuff had been brutally stabbed far more times than she needed to be in order to die, but that didn't stop the Stalker from doing what they wanted to do. The small pink puffball-like Pokémon was now nothing more than just a bloody mess that was just barely recognizable.

"Damn it, Bloodwish, you haven't done enough damage?" Britera growled.

"Are you certain it's Bloodwish?" Lexin asked the Braixen. "We haven't ruled out that there is another Stalker that could be mimicking the others."

"But there's no motive for that!" Britera replied. "Lexin, this second-guessing everything is getting us nowhere! We can't keep stalling like this! And that's something stupid Kanja believed! What proof is there that some stupid Stalker called 'Switchback' even exists?"

Meanwhile, Sten was taking pictures and taking notes on his notepad, but he wasn't pleased in the slightest.

"Lexin, hate to say it, but she's right," Sten nodded, wearing a frustrated frown. "Bet you were surprised to discover our own little miss Kanja was a god-forsaken Stalker herself. Do you realize how badly that screwed us up? I'm beginning to think she's the reason why my last two batches of photographs were ruined and why we lost that whole damn hard drive worth of investigation stuff. And all those times she had us digging around the wrong conclusions for hours. Seriously, why the hell did we believe her that Edder might be a Stalker!? And that stupid theory about Switchback wasted day after day of investigations. She was working against us the whole rotten time."

"I know, god dammit, I know," Lexin growled in frustration. "I didn't think she was one that fell under the influence. Everything she worked on now has to be reexamined and by god, I don't have the time to do that. I can barely keep the rest of this town under control."

"Look, we still have the three of us," Sten told him. "Trust Britera's judgment. This crap right here is something Bloodwish would do, right? We know Bloodwish is one of them and we know the method of operation. There's no such Stalker thing as 'Switchback.' That's a dumb theory Kanja insisted on and she never provided anything to support it even though she had us believing it up until she got bloody exorcised."

Lexin nodded, but it was hard for him as well. The whole time he thought they were making good progress. They were coming up with strong leads, Kanja made it seem like they were going in the right direction, and they felt like they had a handle on what could be a strong conclusion. Now, he had to admit it could be all wrong. Every last bit of it. It was like being caught in a maze and just when he thought he could see the exit from his position, things took a totally wrong direction and now he had to decide if starting completely over was really the best thing to do. But he made up his mind.

"We have to start with a clean slate," Lexin sighed. "It's the only way. Everything Kanja touched, provided, collected, and put work into has to be completely looked over again to see if there's any real truth to it, because she could have compromised anything and everything we know. And if we think it's wrong, we have to admit it's wrong and toss it. It's the only way. If there's any doubt about it, it has to go, or it's going to continue to burn us and waste time that we just don't have."

For a moment, Lexin thought both Britera and Sten might think he was crazy for suggesting to toss away so much investigation information, but instead, it seemed like there was a complete agreement on that.

"It's not your fault she led us on so many wild chases and dead ends," Britera told the Flygon police chief. "But everything she did has to be destroyed. We work only with what the three of us have gathered and this time, none of her damn theories or misguiding beliefs are going to screw us up again. She made us question ourselves when we were right the whole time, and who knows how many wrong turns we made because of it."

"We'll start picking up the pieces tomorrow morning," Lexin told the Braixen and the Bellossom. "For now, let's get Pashay's body out of here."

Sten took one last photograph of the heavily-stabbed Igglybuff and then nodded.

"We'll find them, kid," Sten spoke softly to Pashay's body. "They won't get away with this."

Doom Tracker:
4/20

[Neo Emolga]

The sun has risen in Southwarren
Submit your Day 6: Day Cycle Actions now!



Time Remaining:

@EmeraldSky @Noblejanobii @Bulbasaur @Scytherwolf @LKWayvern @Caite-chan @Pokemon Trainer Sarah @sammy0295 @Shruikan @Morzone @ARandomTool @The Nonexistent Tazz @Ladybugclue @Arrow-Jolteon @KingWinna

[Tashy the Furret]

New day, fresh start, let's get to it!

I'm going to put some blessing action into this [Pewter Bowl] and I'll check to see how this [Light Green Scale] turns out.

And then I think I'll try that potato pot pie recipe I've been meaning to test out. Mmm, just thinking about it makes my mouth water! c;

[The Nonexistent Tazz]

I think I still need to rest, sorry.

Resting for the day.