[PMD BTS] RP: Rumble in the Pumpkin Patch
A Gorgeist has been stealing souls. Grimshaw and Kai take up the job to hunt the ghost down and bring Gene and Emil along for the ride.
Grimshaw walked among the pumpkins, he didn't hate them per say, but he was not a fan of their flavor. He had his normal, neutral sort of expression, his claws sinking into the damp soil as they walked.
Behind him walked Kai and their client the pumpkaboo.
The pumpkaboo said in a frazzled sort of voice, "It's just so horrible. That gorgeist keeps scaring off all of our help, and at this rate we don't be able to cover all of the harvest area at all!"
"Not to worry! Grimmy and I will take care of it no problem!", Kai said loudly looking back and Gene and Emil. He winked, "Take notes."
"Your over confidence does not mask your ignorance as much as you may think it does.", Grimshaw said as he stopped at the beginning of the pumpkin patch. It was already near dusk, so they needed to make quick haste if they where going to surprise this troublesome poltergeisty pumpkin.
"Best of Luck", the pumpkaboo said and offered them a set of three oran berries for their journey.
Gene gave Kai an incredulous look as he was in fact taking notes, his usual ghost journal hovering in front of him and the pen moved on it's own via his Telekinesis.
"Oh I will be," he assured him with an eye roll. "Though if you imagined they would be of you, you're sadly mistaken." He turned back to the Pumpkaboo, asking for more information on how the Gorgeist was sucking souls out of pokemon and eagerly added such information to his journal.
Emil scooped up the berries to bring along. "Uh, thanks," he said unenthusiastically. They'd just gotten a rather large shipment of oran berries in and three more was hardly any difference.
The punpkaboo waved to them as they entered deeper into the dungeon. A heavy fog circled them quickly as they went further, the air having a small chill. Dark shapes around them darted back and forth hiding behind the shapes of the pumpkins around them. Glowing eyes just out of view scurried around. It was eerie to put it mildly.
Kai kept onwards, puffing out his chest, the fire on his back bursting to life was he trudged along. Mumbling how he was not afraid, and such things.
Grimshaw continued to lead, careful as he walked through the patch. His eyes held a low, green glow.
“Be careful not to step on any-“, Grimshaw was mid sentence when Kai stumbled over some vines and smashed a whole cluster of pumpkins.
Grimshaw turned to look at the mess. “Now you seem to have done it”, he said as hissing and buzzing quickly came from the fog!
Gene watched unimpressed as Kai marched on. How odd it felt to not be the newest leader of the group anymore, and to have his own recruit in tow. He smiled to himself, enjoying the feeling of accomplishment. And also thanking Arceus he was not in Grimshaw's shoes at the moment.
Emil's ears perked at the buzzing that rose from the fog. "Sounds like my kinda fight," he said with a toothy grin, small sparks of ember hot on his tongue. He shot out blindly into the smoke, hoping to hit something.
"You stupid foreigners do you know how long it teams for us to grow pumpkins in this weather!", yelled a rattata as it appeared from the mist.
"And right before harvest!? What kind of monsters are you", screamed a patrat as if fluffed it's tail threatening at the explorers.
"How would you like it if we smashed you?!", buzzed a very angry looking Combee.
"Get over it, it was like two pumpkins", Kai huffed.
"No! You smashed my fair pumpkin! I've been caring for it for weeks and the money I won was going to help my family in winter!", yelled the rattata close to tears.
"Perhaps we can talk this out?", Grimshaw offered.
"Oh you're gonna pay alright!", shouted the Patrat as it used Work Up.
"Oh, uh, sorry 'bout that," Emil said awkwardly. He wasn't used to places where danger didn't lurk around every corner and he felt right bad about hurtin' some poor little pokemon just mindin' their own business.
Gene looked up from his notes to see what the commotion was. Two normal types... not good news for him. And between Emil with absolutely no experience and Grimshaw being weighed down by Kai it was probably better to try to defuse the situation.
"Emil," Gene hissed under his breath. "Simmer down and look scary for me would you?"
"Huh?" Emil turned in confusion, but Gene just past him towards the group with a charming smile.
"Our sincerest apologies," he said with an exaggerated bow. "We got word of your struggles with the Gorgeist that has been terrorizing your farm. We are with the guild. And while navigating pumpkin patches may not be our strong suit," he paused to give a pointed glare at Kai. "I assure you we are more than prepared to take on any threat that gets in our way," he said with a smile, though the threat beneath it was clear.
"Still, there is still the matter of your lost produce," he said as he looked to the pumpkin Kai had smashed. He did not wish to leave these pokemon in such a state, it was not the Rescuer's way. "We can supply you with 20 oran berries to make up for the damages, to help feed your families. And if we may continue on our way you will have one less Gorgeist to worry about as well. Do we have a deal?" he asked with a wink, throwing in a bit of Captivate for good measure. With such a small team they had far too many berries to eat themselves anyway before they all went bad. Might as well share the bounty.
The rattata looked offended at being offer 20 berries. "How dare you compare my hard work for my pumpkin to some berries! Oran berries can't even hold up for a few weeks let alone winter months! You probably didn't even grow those did you? No. You don't understand or respect how much time goes into these things!"
The patrat had had enough of these pompus intruders. It launched a quick attack right into Grimshaw's chest, sending the poor absol slamming into the ground and smashing several other pumpkins. Which only angered the local pokemon even more.
The combee used a gust attack while the rattata took cover, sending debris and fog all over the battlefield!
Gene and Emil coughed as the air around him filled with debris. He looked over to where the Patrat that attacked Grimshaw had landed and attempted to grab them with Telekinesis and pull them into the air.
"I'll give you one last chance to be civil," he warned. "Compensation is off the table. You can either let us pass or end up like your precious pumpkins. Which will it be?"
Emil looked at the Patrat Gene had targeted, using Leer to back up the threat.
The patrat just seemed to get more angered at them, jumping quickly away from Grimshaw as it raised it's clawed hands into the air. "We'll make sure you never come back here intruders!", it yelled as it launched a shadow ball right at Gene's face striking him head on!
The Combee launched a duel wingbeat at Emil, striking the houndour too.
Kai dodged the rattata as it used bite at him, hitting it back with an tackle attack!
Gene hissed as the Shadow Ball struck him in the face, but really it hardly hurt at all. The usual chill of a ghost type move phased through him and he shook it off, setting his sites on the little rat.
But then he heard Emil's yelp in pain as he was struck by the Combee. He knew Emil had no experience in such fights, but it had been some time since Gene was at such a level and he had forgotten how vulnerable he might be. He couldn't leave his recruit defenseless to try to take another hit like that.
Gene shot a Shadow Ball at the Combee, giving Emil his opening to get back on his feet and shoot them with an Ember.
The Combee was struck with both attacks, hitting it so hard the bee pokemon crumbled to the ground, holding on with just a sliver of health. It quickly decided this fight was to much and fled!
The rattata launched itself at Grimshaw with a flame wheel and the absol narrowly avoided the attack, but he missed his own night slash attack in return.
The patrat huffed and launched itself at Emil, seeing he was the weaker of the two and launched a quick attack at him, but slipped on the ground of broken pumpkins and fell flat on his face right in time for Kai to tackle it!
"Ha! Yeah, you better run!" Emil yelled at the Combee as it fled, he himself still a bit shaky on his feet. He just happened to step out of the way of the Patrat's Quick Attack. He spun and launched an Ember attack at the Patrat.
Gene took hold of the Patrat after Emil's attack and threw it away. He didn't have any moved to fight against it himself so he couldn't do much else to protect his teammate.
The patrat was struck by Emil, and hurled by Gene, but the persistent rat would not be taken down so easily, catching himself among the pumpkins. He hissed at the two of them, launching another shadow ball, this time aiming at Emil, but the pumpkin they where perched on rolled slightly, sending the shadowball high into the sky instead.
Kai continued to tackle the rattata while it hit him in the face with a toxic attack!
Kai stumbled back in a disgusted shriek. Grimshaw used swords dance, blades manifest around him and clashed loudly, building his power.
Gene tried to grab the Patrat with his Telekinesis again but he had thrown it too far and it was out of his reach. Emil did not seem at all perturbed by the damage he had already sustained and rushed back towards the rat and landed a Super Fang, sinking his teeth into the Patrat!
The patrat was snatched up by Emil, letting out a shriek as Emil but down on it, but with them being so close, it's shadow ball blasted Emil right in the face! At such a close range, the poor dog pokemon hardly stood a chance.
Kai felt woosy from being posioned, groaning and being unable to focus an attack. Grimshaw used night slash on the rattata causing a heep of damage to the rat who foolishy tried to use zen headbut on the dark type absol.
Emil dropped the Patrat in shock as he was struck with the Shadow Ball and Gene took the opportunity to grab the Patrat with his Telekinesis and hold it in place.
"Emil, this one is ripe for the biting," he called, signalling that the Patrat was all his.
Emil growled at the Patrat, helpless and suspended in space, and landed another Ember!
Grimshaw took the chance as well, launching another night slash, this time at the patrat, it was better for them all to defeat the opponents as quickly as possible. The patrat was close to being defeated! The rat pokemon panted heavily, thrashing in the air but being unable to do much more due to Gene's telekensis.
Kai continued to rumble with the rattata, missing his own tackle but being zen headbutted right in the face!
As Grimshaw and Emil seemed to be doing a number on the Patrat now that it was trapped, Gene decided to take this opportunity to help out Kai as much as he could. He floated around the group admiring their work. "Well, well, well, one on the run, one on the ropes, and one to go. You lot certainly know how to show us a good time," he said with a wink, using Captivate in an effort to weaken the remaining enemies attacks. And it seems he got their attention.
Emil took aim at the Patrat once again, launching an Ember into the air. The Patrat was helpless to escape.
scurried off into the fog. Rattata, seeing the four on one fight and deciding that it wasn't worth it just hissed at Gene. "You outsiders are all the saem! You'll be sorry soon enough!", it swore as it also fled into the fog.
Kai panted, shriving lightly from the poison and feeling very woozy.
"Well- seems the locals certainly know how to welcome us.", Grimshaw mumbled. He felt the surge of strength from his swordsdance fade.
Emil shook himself off with a rowdy grin. "I'll said they do. Haven't had a right and good welcome like that in some time," he said and he took a bite of one of the oran berries the pumpkaboo at the start had gifted them. He'd knocked the thought at first, but now they definitely hit the spot.
Gene shook his head in frustration. Of all the ungrateful... don't they realize they are here to help them? The crazed little pumpkin patch gremlins. He floated back over to rejoin the party. "How is everyone? Any major damages?" he asked, looking to Emil most out of the bunch. He'd certainly took a beating and Gene was surprised he was still standing at all.
"Nah, barely left a scratch," he shrugged. He was accustomed to much worse.
Grimshaw had very little damage, despite his lower level these days, his experience came in handy. Kai wheezed, "Right as rain over the ocean", the cyndaquil said. He had never been poisoned before, and it was not a feeling he would soon forget.
Grimshaw looked deeper into the fog. "We should keep going, we need to surprise the gorgeist before it has a chance to cause more trouble."
"Agreed, let's press on," Gene said. He hung back a bit to float alongside Emil. He wondered if perhaps he had been too hasty to bring his newest recruit along. Sure he had exceeded expectations against the rats, but they would be nothing compared to the Gorgeist they would be facing. And Emil still knew nothing of Gene's status or reborn ghosts which could potentially make this whole situation with a soul-eating ghost rather... precarious.
"This mission may be more dangerous than I had anticipated," he whispered to him. "It may be in your best interest to keep out of the fray as much as possible."
Emil was stunned but what his leader was saying. He thought he'd done a right good job in that last fight, despite his inexperience above ground. "Hey now, I'm not about this cheerleadin' jazz," he said, clearly insulted. He put his nose to the ground, trying to stiff out this ghost they were after. But it was hard to tell possessed pumpkin from everyday pumpkin so he wasn't all that much help.
Gene watched as Emil went on ahead. He'd have to keep an eye out for him, whether Emil wanted him to or not.
Grimshaw turned and faced Emil. "You should not disrespect your leader in such a way. You agreed to join his team, which means you accept your place within his team. He speaks only form concern for you. Your disrespect and defiance is disappointing and reflects poorly on you Emil. You should have more respect for yourself, and for Gene.", the absol then went on.
Kai walked up beside Emil. "Peachy right? Imagining having to live with this guy", he grumbled.
Emil's ears reflexively pulled back in a submissive fashion. It had been some time since he'd been reprimanded by someone above him, or at least someone he respected. He'd grown rather accustomed to butting heads with the leaders of his last pack. But this was different. As pathetic as his other leader may be, he did respect Gene and did not want to act in a way that reflected badly on them both.
He glanced to Kai who was trying to be supportive or something. "Nah, he's right. It aint my place to talk that way," he said, then added more loudly for Gene to hear. "I'll sit the next one out Boss, if that's what ya want."
Gene held his tongue. He did not much like another leader stepping in and leading his own recruits for him. But he had to admit his prior experience when it came to leading was severely lacking. And between the two very stubborn recruits they had recently picked up he was at a loss for how to control either. Butt-hurt as he was over not being able to elicit that reaction from Emil himself, he made a note to keep a better eye on Grimshaw's methods. He certainly seemed to know what he was doing.
"Not that. What I mean to say is use caution. Should we face any more normal types there is little I can do against them, and you've proven yourself a valuable asset. You are much more useful to us on your feet than fainted, so do what you can to keep it that way. Heal when you can, and do not charge in when your health is low. This isn't some masochistic flexing game, we are on a mission."
Emil didn't really understand. His tactics before had always been fight first and worry about yourself later. Hearing his leader tell him to take his own health into account cause it served his team best was... confusion.
"Ight," he said anyway in agreement. He wasn't about to argue.
"Grimshaw has no personal skills, he's just scary because he has a knife on his head.", Kai huffed as he continued to walk. The fog around them was starting to get really thick and it was getting harder to hard to see through it. Kai's flames acted like a torch, but the cyndaquil was starting to have some issues of his own as he was still poisoned and unfortunately they had nothing to give him it seemed.
"Kekekekekke look at them. Lost in the fog. Kekekke", cackled a voice.
"Oh ho ho. Some for you and some for me!", laughed a second voice. One was in front of them, and one was behind them.
Grimshaw's fur stood on end. "Prepare for an attack", he warned the others.
Without an opponent in sight there wasn't much Gene nor Emil could do. Given that they were surrounded Gene moved so that Emil was in the center of their group and Gene was between him and one of the unknown enemies. Emil's ears drooped but he did not object, preparing to launch an Ember at anything that came too close.
The sound of heavy wings filled the air as a murkrow appeared and started to rain down black feathers onto Gene! The murkrow was uisng feather dance to harshly lower Gene's physical attacks.
Grimshaw braced himself and began to use swords dance again. Massive swords surrounded him and clacked back and forth loudly as he built his power.
Kai growled into the fog, but without a real target it didn't do much.
Gene watched as the feathers surrounded him, taking in their dampening effect. Not ideal, but perhaps he could try and do the same. "Hey there, be careful. I'm ticklish," he teased with a wink up at the bird, using Captivate. It seemed he successfully caught their attention, which would in turn harshly lower their special attack.
Emil shot Ember up at the Murkrow. The flames singed it's feathers but not enough to cause a burn.
The fire may not have done enough, but it was enough to terrify the murkrow. Being pokemon used to living in the grassy patch, the mere idea of the patch being set ablaze was enough to send the cocky birds flying off into the fog.
"Kekekeke Gorgeist will take care of you anyways!", shouted one of the murkrow as if fled, flying awkwardly with it's singed flight feathers.
Grimshaw gave a huge sigh of relief. "Thank goodness. Fighting off who knows how many krows would threaten to weaken us when fighting our final opponent."
Kai agreed, he sniffed around looking for something to help his poisoning, but found nothing. He would have to deal with it for now.
Emil briefly considered using Pursuit on the Murkrow seeing as it seemed to know something about the Gorgeist they were after, but Gene had specifically warned him about diving in head first into trouble. So he kept his paws firmly on the ground.
"Surely they cannot be much farther," Gene said as they pressed on. "The Murkrow seemed to hit as much anyway."
Kai walked along beside Emil, "Nice shot, I'm glad we didn't have to fight those birds. Only Gene can fly but I'm sure they had some sort of dark type attack to knock him back down...", he paused looking into the pumpkins around them.
Grimshaw's blade vibrated lightly, he stopped walking. He could sense a disturbance in the area around them. "Be alert."
"Be Alert INDEEEED!!!", came a voice from beyond the fog. Bright lights burst forward blinding them all for a moment as the fog cleared. And before them stood gorgeist, and it was BIG! It was far bigger than the biggest gorgeist Grimshaw had ever seen, it looked like it towered over them!!
"Ah, thanks," Emil said with a toothy grin. "Not use to fightin' off birds, aint had 'em much back home."
They stopped as Grimshaw had instructed, Emil's ears perking at the sound of the new enemy. "That's ah... that's a mighty big pumpkin," he said, watching as the ghost loomed over them.
Gene acted first, attempting to hold the Gorgeist in his Telekinesis but he couldn't seem to hold them. Emil shot an Ember at the ghost, the flames cutting through it's plant-based body.
The gorgeist let out a loud roar, Emil's fire had singed some of the flora around it too, but overall the huge pumpkin seemed not to care much. It retaliated by waving the hair like leaves on it's head. Rocks appeared over them all and rained down, striking Grim, Gene, and Emil. Kai dove for cover under some squashes and managed to avoid the huge avalanche of rocks from the Rock Slide attack!
Grimshaw summoned the swords once more and prepared a swords dance knowing this was about to be one big battle!
Emil didn't know what hit him. One second he was shooting flames at the giant pumpkin and the next he was being pelted with rocks. They struck his back painfully until one knocked him in the head and he was out cold.
"Emil!" Gene yelled watching helplessly as his recruit went down. This was not according to plan at all. He'd been relying on Emil's typing to aid them in this final fight.
Frustrated and not willing to risk another Telekinesis missing Gene launched a Shadow Ball at the Gorgeist. But his anger threw off his aim and it went wide, flying past the ghost.
Kai launched a tackle at the pumplin, completing forgetting about typing and he rolled right through it! Grimshaw struck at it with a night slash, and it retaliated with a shadow ball. But neither really did much damage to one another.
Gene launched another Shadow Ball but it flew off past the Gorgeist, missing again.
The Grimshaw slashed again with a night slash, but the goregeist would not be fooled twice! It ducked and launched a shadow ball, but Grimshaw jumped up into the pumpkins and avoided it.
Kai let off a leer at the goregeist, who shuttered for a moment!
Gene continued throwing Shadow Balls until eventually one of them hit, striking the ghost with it's own brand of undead power.
The gorgeist let out a huge roar, as it and Grimshaw exchanged blows once more. Grimshe and jumped right up onto the huge goregeist's body, digging his claws into the pumpkin it inhabited as he hit it with another night slash. It hit him with a shadow ball, and Kai leered it again!
Gene launched another Shadow Ball at the Gorgeist, doing a fair bit of damage thanks to Kai's Leers. They seemed to be doing a number on the ghost. Hopefully this could be over soon and he could tend to Emil.
The gorgeist unleashed another round of rock slides, but the adventuers avoided any serious damage, even Kai managed to get just a scrape from it. Kai jumped up trying to hit it with a extrasensery, but he missed the ghost entirely, but Grimshaw's night slash continued to hit it's mark on the pesky pokemon!
Gene used Shadow Ball again, as it seemed his most effective move against the ghost. Between the three of them it's health was steadily dropping. He hoped there would be no big surprised.
The goregeist was getting desperate summoning another rockslide and hurting the rocks at the explorers. But it's strength was fading so fast, that once again they all got away without to much trouble.
Kai was exhausted, finding himself a the end of his rope, but with still more fight to give. He tried to hit an extra censery, but his double vision and weakness from the posioning made him unable to focus for it. Grimshaw landed another devastating night slash to the gorgeist.
"I WILL NOT BE DEFEATEDDD", it shrieked.
Gene readied another Shadow Ball, taking note of Kai's struggling. They needed to end this soon, and if the Gorgeist's cried were anything to go off of they didn't have much left. Gene hurled the Shadow Ball at them.
The goregeist was to weak to avoid Gene, and Grimshaw finished it off with a night slash attack! The pumpkin pokemon let out a loud, horrible scream as it was defeated. It faded quickly into the patch, but it would not soon forget the lesson it learned today about picking on pokemon it's own size!
Gene let out a sigh of relief as the Gorgeist went down and floated over to Emil to inspect his injuries. He had some oran berries on him which Gene floated over to his face. His injuries did not seem too severe, but definitely enough to do some damage.
Grimshaw walked over with Gene to look at Emil. He leaned down, grabbing the houndour and pushing the wounded dog pokemon up onto his back so he could carry him out. "Mission accomplished, I'm sure he learned a lot from this dungeon. Let us go home."
Kai limped up beside Grimshaw. "Can I get a ride too?", he said all but begging. The absol rolled his eyes, but let the cydnaquil climb up as well. Grim looked at Gene. "Ready to leave?"
Gene looked back at the Gorgeist curiously. Overall the fight went rather smoothly in the end, even with losing Emil early on. He wanted to know more about this soul-eating business and had hoped to catch a glimpse first hand. But perhaps it was better this way.
"Yes, of course," he said, turning back to Grimshaw and following them out of the dungeon.