Quote Originally Posted by LKWayvern View Post
I'd like to poke around Murky Pond.
As the sun rises, you head south, away from the more active areas of Salvage Keep. It seems strange to you, but it seems things have gotten colder and you notice the sun doesn't seem to be shining quite as brightly as it usually does. A chilling wind blows through the landscape, raking across your black fur and batters your ears and tail a bit. At times, you think you hear whispers in the wind, like fragments of a warning.

Upon arriving at Murky Pond, you notice a lot of the runoff from the junk piles seeps into here, and as a result, the water is filthy and you definitely wouldn't want to drink out of it. There's plenty of litter and what appears to be a greasy film covers the surface of the water. In fact, never mind drinking this water, you wouldn't even want to go swimming in it.

There doesn't seem to be much growing here either, and while you wonder if there might be something hidden or lurking in the water itself, you try to use your insight and senses to detect if anything like a nefarious Stalker presence resides within it. Thankfully, nothing of the sort seems to be there.

As you circle around the pond, you find the small monument for Shilamora, though it doesn't seem like anyone has been trying to keep it clean. As a result, the years of neglect have coated it with a greasy, black film that you don't want to touch either.

You get close toward the end, starting to wonder if there's just nothing of value to find here, but then something starts to feel unsettling as you see a stone slab in the distance. It seems like it was put here recently, which doesn't coincide with the murky state of everything else in this area.

When you approach and turn around the other side, it seems a carving is here, and it's an unsettling depiction of several Pokémon, notably an Eevee, a Piplup, a Growlithe, and a handful of others, suddenly flushed with a complete look of dread upon them. Shadows seem to creep and surround them, and it immediately reminds you of the nefarious shadows that gather around the Corruption's Eyes.

But there seem to be missing pieces of this macabre carving. You put your paw on it, and you feel an indentation where a crown-shaped object is supposed to fit into this. On the otherwise, a forked, branch-like attachment seemed to have been ripped out.

There also seems to be a strange, grease-like trail forming a some kind of bizarre trail around the carving, forming some kind of shape. You can't see it in its entirety, but you think it might be trying to form an insignia or infernal sigil. Using your heightened sense of smell, the scent hints that it's some sort of flammable liquid or oil. You imagine a fire type Pokémon might be able to spark and ignite this substance to burn whatever symbol this is supposed to be forming.

You follow this scented trail to the bottom of the ground, and there you see something unsettling craved into the stone:

Like a leaf blown away by the breeze. Like a branch washed downstream. Like smoke taken by the wind. I, too, will be swept away and forgotten.

{Carving of Trepidation: Crown Indent, Branch Indent, +Fire-type+} has been noted in the Team Records.

You can't figure out what it's all supposed to mean, but you decide to leave it alone for now, not having the necessary components that seem to be missing from it. But as you walk away, something still feels eerie about it. You can't help but take a passing glance back at it as you walk away back toward base.

Daniel the Umbreon (M: Dark)
Health: 9/10| Sanity: 8/8 | Purity: 12/10
Battle Stance: Flee
Perk: Seinaru
Trait: Charming