PTTA-the lost king and the Cult of Arceus

[Eshkigal]

The ynma looks confused and wiggles around until put on Zon's head. It looks down, and settles in as if to say that this pleases it.
(Assume your team is healed to full as well)

[Major]

Kara quickly gathers up her friends, "Alright guys, out of the middle and off to the sides!" She says quickly moving them before the Koffings and other boom-booms can get in position.

[Eshkigal]

You book it, and manage to barely make it out before the pokemon begin blowing up. Rubble streaks into the sky, and dangerous looking fumes spread from the sites of explosion.
Make a perception check.

[Major]

Kara looks around eyes wide at the giant explosion.

(1d20-4)[0]

[Eshkigal]

You're practically blinded by the explosions.
Until you feel someone lift you physically.
"Kid, you could have killed me. You did kill a few of those pokemon in that. Do you know how reckless that was?"
This voice does not sound happy. Your pokemon startle except for your spinarak, and you come face to face with an old man who looks very angry at you, and seems to be armed.

[Esprit15]

Seeing that he can't find any Ace Trainers, Zachariah heads to the Pokémart to see if they even have the TMs he's looking for.

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TMs in order of preference
Toxic
Bulldoze
Thunderbolt
Charge Beam
Energy Ball

[Eshkigal]

(Kantolin was talking to you, Esprit. Though give me 1d20+your highest score to see if you can find all of them or only some of them.)

[Esprit15]

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Oh, sorry.

Before half way to the store, Zachariah realizes that someone was talking to him. He makes a somewhat awkward trek back to the Center.

"Hehe, yeah. Sorry, I sometimes don't even notice people talking. It's a bad habit. We tried the gym challenge and Era just couldn't seem to focus. Might have been a bit shaken up by seeing Nox knocked out in one solid hit. And you?" He's clearly sweatig a bit after realizing how rude he had been to just wander off.

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For future reference: (1d20+6)[26] CON, because that makes sense (though fighting someone for the last TM, maybe)

[Eshkigal]

(Or drink the last guy under the table for an HM off of that list with that roll.)
As you're headed to the stores, you hear a guy shouting about how he'll challenge anyone to a drinking competition for an HM version of one of the moves on your list, and the TMs on it. It's a bit mangled from here, but he has it held up above his head. Guess he just likes drink more.

[Major]

"Wait...they can't die. Boom boom was their attack! I thought it just knocked them out?" Kara said eyes wide as she shoved the guy and tried to look around at the pokemon, "I don't care about you, move. You're fine, I can heal, I can help the pokemon!"

[Esprit15]

As he walks back, he yells to the guy (friendlilly [is that even a word?]): "Hey, just give me a moment and I'll take you up on that!"

[Eshkigal]

Major: The man holds on as he lifts you up, and he pulls out a phone and makes a call.
"Hello? Yes. Prep the medics for departure immediately. No, not the girl. The koffings had a chain reaction again."
Hanging up, he regards you, Kara.
"It does knock them out. However, this tends to be right next to more pokemon blowing themselves up, so it can get fatal. At least it feeds their next generation."

Esprit: (Generally, you say "in a friendly manner")
The drunk roars approval in an appreciative, slurred, and above all else incoherent manner.

[Kantolin]

"Ha, it's okay." Douglas shook his head. "Sorry to hear about the gym challenge, though, but hopefully you learned a lot from it. We just had a relaxing time at the beach and boardwalk." He lied, about the beach anyway.

"I don't think I've seen a drinking contest... well, ever. Let me not interrupt you, but hope you don't mind if I watch. Hopefully I'm not needed as a medic, though."

[Esprit15]

"Hey, I'm from a backwoods town in Unova. I can handle it." He laughs and heads off to the clearly inebreated guy. "For an HM? I'm interested. What for, might I ask? The HM, that is."

[Eshkigal]

He slurs more incoherent gibberish. Something about garden gnomes, you're not sure.
(Translation: pick your favorite off the list, because you got that lucky. Otherwise it goes to the dice.)

[Esprit15]

Zachariah rolls his eyes and tries to get a good look at the HM. Thunderbolt. F*** YES. "Alright, I'm in."

[Major]

Kara kicked and tried to pull away, "No! No! No! No! I didn't kill them! They are fine! I can help them! Let me go!" She said trying to squirm free as she started flipping out and panicking.

[Eshkigal]

"Most of them, maybe. The densest groups, though..."
He looks saddened for a minute.
"I hate it when people try to exterminate them this way. I hear them, what they tell me, you know that? These were new finds in the field, getting taught how to be safe as soon as we could get them farther away from each other."
His features harden again as he growls the next sentence out.
"Of course, then trainers without the brains to understand cause and effect get in while I'm tending to them and mess things up. What did you think was going to happen? What did you think the consequences of convincing pokemon close together to blow up would be?!?"
He looks ready to toss you, before sighing and dropping you to the ground unceremoniously. Several throwing daggers end up in his hands.
"Sit there until the medical staff gets here to disarm the rest. I will force the issue if I need to, kid."

[Major]

"I can heal with my touch!" She says seeing the daggers. "I can help them, waiting for the medics will hurt more!" She says her eyes tearing up as she starts to have a hard time breathing from an anxiety attack.

[Eshkigal]

"And healing them up so they can explode around their unconscious companions would lessen the death toll? You'd make things worse. Just like the guy who tried potions. The medics know how to stop them from doing more damage. You don't."
He begins juggling absentmindedly, still looking pretty upset and thinking things out.

[Esprit15]

Looking at the man, Zachariah starts to wonder if he could just pull the HM out of his grasp telekinetically, as a joke if nothing else. He tries to lightly pull at the HM in as gentle a fashion as possible, checking for a protest from the man. He also pours himself a drink at the same time.

Spoiler

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Can lift 60 lbs, don't remember what the rule was for how many objects it was that can be controlled but I know it's more than three.

[Eshkigal]

He feels the pull as the bartender begins pouring drinks, grinning at the effectiveness of his best customer of the night. On the side are four people who are already passed out drunk. He grabs the HM and begins pulling against it.
"Durn fairies! Gimme back meh thingy!"
Meanwhile, another trainer just facepalms at the drunken antics.

[Esprit15]

Zachariah releases it almost immediatly. Hm, seems quite likely that he could be an angry drunk. Might be best to avoid angering him intentionally. He calmly takes a drink. He could feel his braincells protest, but he ignored their complaints. He was young; his metabolism would take care of the ethanol quickly. Maybe if there was a bit too much in his system he could burn it off with some firebreathing antics for the crowd of people. In fact... He sets the fumes from the drink on fire before continuing and finishing it. A small ring of pale blue flame sits at the top of the glass as he finishes, disappearing with the drink.

[Eshkigal]

He nods happily as he gets the HM back, before stumbling over.
"Right then! Ouddrink me an' you get tha shiiiineee I wan fra dat one."
He points at one of the unconscious ones.
"Oh god do. He has like eight of that one already."
(You have the advantage, and the first drink is soaked up by your Con. Make 5 rolls, and I'll tell you how many you go and if you beat him. This guy can't take more than that.)

[Esprit15]

Cheers

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(1d20+6)[25]
(1d20+6)[14]
(1d20+6)[17]
(1d20+6)[25]
(1d20+6)[11]

[Eshkigal]

You're barely feeling it, but still going strong by the third drink where your new friend slumps over and begins snoring.

[Esprit15]

Zachariah takes another drink after the third, plucks the HM from the man's hands, and plops himself into a chair. The logical part of his brain was already lecturing him on how stupid it was to do that for just an HM. What if that guy had been sober at the start? Well he wouldn't have done it. High risk. The guy was already drunk. This was low risk. Might as well clear out his lungs somewhat so that it isn't apparentl that I've had more than a drink. He lets out a belch, the gas catching fire in his throat, spitting a noticable flame. "Okay, that was bad. Won't do that again... So, Douglas, you ever been out of the region before?" He keeps an eye out for a bartender asking for money for the drinks.

[Major]

Kara frowns as the man talks and looks down still having a hard time breathing from anxiety and guilt, but no longer trying to fight or rush to help them. In time she calms down a bit more and has an easier time breathing, though with the ability to breath comes the ability to sob and she sits down hugging her knees crying.

[Kantolin]

At some point on the trek over, Douglas returned the majority of his pokemon. He left out Truse, since he always did, and Zon, since there was still a yanma on his head. The machoke was swinging his arms from side to side as he jogwalked along with the others, but Douglas noticed that the added responsibility of not-having-the-yanma-fall-off was giving him pause.

A good sign.

He then wasn't sure he liked the drinking contest itself, but he didn't think he would, and Zachariah seemed to have had a good time.

"Not much, no. I've been to other locations briefly, but usually just for brief breeding information. I guess I'm still a Johto boy."

He paused. "Is Unova where you learned... uh. Well, breath fire?" He thumbed to Zon. "You certainly have his interest with the action."

And a pause. "Hm. I want to say you've actually told me this before. I suppose the last few days have been pretty hectic, so I apologize if so."

[Esprit15]

It just occurred to Zachariah that much of his team was outside still. He tells Douglas to wait one second and goes out to his team. "I can't bring a small army in or I would. Anyone just want to be recalled?" Nobody has a problem, and he recalls everyone but Ambrule and Bullet, who follow him back in. "Sorry, I'm so used to letting them roam free that I forget that there is little for them to do in such a big city.

Nah, I don't think I have said, actually. Well, seeing as I was born there, I suppose you could say 'Yes' to that." He laughs. "I guess you could also say I learned Unovan there as well. I lived in Mistralton my whole life, for the most part. My family is predominantly psychics for a ways back, and there's a tradition of taking up Hexing. They were and are somewhat reclusive. Hexing helps them remain so. Of course as I improved my powers, I did not really take an interest in the family practice. I was actually more social than anyone in my family, if you can believe that... I remember the first time I did it, manipulating flame. I tried to lift a candle flame above the wick. I failed of course. Didn't know that you had to actually manipulate the fuel of it. That's what a lot of people seem to forget. Fire is the result of burning a fuel source. If you move the fuel, you move the flame. It's merdique difficult to do, but it's quite fun when you get good at it. Also has the risk of getting a bit drunk on power if you're not careful. If I was as drunk as the guy I won this HM from, I wouldn't have been playing drinking games; I'd have been either picking fights or accidentally burn the place down with some sort of trick." He pauses, seeing a look of horror on a passing eavesdropper's face. "Not that I would ever let that happen. I'm way more careful than most other psychics. Practically stabbing yourself to do more than just lift something will make one a bit...crazy. But yeah, Ambrule here is probably why I chose to start specializing in flame. Then I got good at manipulating simple light. Very interesting to do, not as easily explainable." Ambrule gets a little smug look after he mentioned her.
"In other words I was so awesome he wanted to imitate me."
"Hardly. More likely you were the first thing that was different and he clung to you."
"Actua-"
"Hey, the day you win a fight against me you get to mouth off."
"I have. Thrice."
"I was tired! Zachariah was the only living thing we saw for three days the first time, and you know I can't feed off him!"
"Tiens! Easy you two. We're in a public area. Bicker elsewhere." He turns to Douglas. "They fight like a brother and sister."