[Challenge] Crazy Clause Challenge

Warrior: must be able to naturally learn lots of sword based slash skills. high base attack stat. Brave nature if possible. must have some sort of blade or large claws
-Scyther
-Zangoose
-Sandslash (Barely makes the cut)
-Gallade

Paladin: High base physical defense stat, must be able to learn protect and a defense boosting move naturally. Must physically look tanky enough to take a hit.
-Blastoise
-Aggron
-Bastiodon
-Cloyster
-Forretress

Rogue: High base speed stat, must be able to learn a move that raise speed/evasion naturally. Must be able to learn Thief TM. Preferably dark in color with a small/sleek appearance
-Yanma/Yanmega
-Sneasel/Weavile
-Ninjask
-Fearow(surprisingly)
-Swellow(only just)

Healer: Must be able to learn buffs and hp restoring moves> preferably ones that affect the party. May only ever have 1 attack move. Gentle nature is a must.
-Chansey/Blissey
-Clefable
-Meganium (barely makes the cut)
-Chimeco

Mage: Must have high base SP Attack/Sp defense(preferable). Can only use special attacks, must have at least one move that causes a status effect. Preferably looks mystical/wizardy.
-Ninetails
-Gardevoir
-Mismagius
-Slowking
-Xatu(just)

Monk: An all-rounder. Must be able to naturally learn a punch/kick move. Using Chi the monk is able to raise stats (focus energy counts) and use ONE special attack. Must look the part.
-Hitmontop
-Lopunny
-Lucario
-Primeape(barely passes)
-Hitmonlee
-Hitmonchan

My father was 'The Hero'. He fought on behalf of everyone to take down the evil being known as 'The Champion'. But he failed and lost his life as a result.

The mantle of Hero has fallen to me now, but i am a complete amateur with no combat skills; my mother had never approved of such actions and since my fathers death her attitude towards it only got harsher. What i did have however was the sharp wits of a tactician and the inherited gold from my father to hire the help i needed in my quest.

My best friend and sidekick, Gavin promised to set me up with a guy who knew a guy looking for work. I was to sneak out the house tonight and meet up with them.
--

I left a note in my room, and with mother none the wiser i was soon off to meet Gavin on the outskirts of town. He was waiting with a Quaqsire, who's bland expression made him hard to read. Upon arrival Gavin introduced us.

The Quagsire was the Middle man who would lead me to the individual looking for work. I felt a bit nervous at the thought of being left alone with such an unreadable guy, but Gavin assured me he was trustworthy and waved us off. Middle man led us the short distance to Sandgem, where we proceeded to enter a seedy looking tavern in a forgotten overgrown part of town. Yeah Gavin, this seems totally trustworthy.

The dimly lit dusty tavern was sparsely populated due to the late hour, but the handful of individuals who were here took no notice of us as we entered. I stuck close to my Middle man, being the only person i knew; even if i didn't trust him.

Middle man appeared to scan the room(or space out, who could tell) before making a bee-line to a Nincada at the bar. At a glance it was obvious to all that he had consumed many glasses of honey. His entire posture screamed of a jumpy Pokemon down on his luck.

It didn't take long to find out why The Rogue Nincada was looking for work. The thieves guild he had grown up in had just been forcefully disbanded by a police raid. Everyone had been arrested or worse and The Rogue himself had only barely gotten away with nothing but the clothes on his back (so to speak). He had lost everything and was in desperate need of cash to pay his tab for all the honey he had drowned his sorrows in. I made my offer to pay his hefty tab in return for his services, he agreed if only because he had nothing better to do.

-The Rogue joined the party.

-Middle man left the party.

We agreed to stay the night in the tiny rooms that the tavern offered, and head off on our quest at dawn. It would most likely be a long trip, as no one actually knew who The Champion was, so the first step would be to gather intel. The Rogue assured me he would be far more useful at stealing things and gathering intel than he would be in a full out fight. Stealth and speed were his specialty, not brute strength. Besides, he apparently bruised easily. Guess i was going to need to hire more help.

We decided to spend some time training to allow me to get to know The Rogue's skills better, (and to allow him to regain his form. Many nights of heavy Honey drinking had dulled his skills and senses it seems) The Rogue wasn't joking about bruising easy, we often had to run from fights when we lost the element of surprise, as many of the aggressive Pokemon we came across could easily overpower him.

--

Finally back into the swing of things, we decided to make our way to the regions first major city in the hopes of discreetly collect intel on The Champion, when we were approached by a Wartortle. He told me he had been looking for me, and handed me a note.


-The Paladin joined the party.

We backtracked to The Rogue's earlier training grounds to see just what The Paladin could do. It seems my mother had chosen well as he was exactly the kind of tank we needed to balance The Rogue's set of skills.

While we trained i gave The Paladin an overview of our quest. I had just finished my explanation when a Vulpix stepped out of the treeline with a stern look on his face. My party paused and faced the newcomer, ready for an attack (you never know). Instead of lashing out however, the mystical looking Vulpix warned us in a low and quiet voice to be careful what we say. Even the trees had ears in the domain of The Champion.

The Vulpix also stated (cryptically might i add) that he had a bone to pick with The Champion, and having heard our conversation, he was interested in joining the party. As proof of his alliance he even offered up information on the evil entity.

Apparently eight crystals were needed to access The Champions lair. These eight crystals had originally belonged to Vulpix's clan, but several years ago they had been stolen and the clan's village razed to the ground. Vulpix The Mage had been charged with regaining them, but information was so hard to come by that he had only recently pieced it all together. The Champion had them strategically placed on Earth-pulse points to maximize their latent power, and had stationed one of his generals at each to guard them. The Mage had already attempted to defeat one just yesterday, but had barely escaped with his life.

-The Mage joined the party.

Warrior: must be able to naturally learn lots of sword based slash skills. high base attack stat. Brave nature if possible. must have some sort of blade or large claws
-Scyther
-Zangoose
-Sandslash (Barely makes the cut)
-Gallade

Paladin: High base physical defense stat, must be able to learn protect and a defense boosting move naturally. Must physically look tanky enough to take a hit.
-Blastoise*
-Aggron
-Bastiodon
-Cloyster
-Forretress

Rogue: High base speed stat, must be able to learn a move that raise speed/evasion naturally. Must be able to learn Thief TM. Preferably dark in color with a small/sleek appearance
-Yanma/Yanmega
-Sneasel/Weavile
-Ninjask*
-Fearow(surprisingly)
-Swellow(only just)

Healer: Must be able to learn buffs and hp restoring moves> preferably ones that affect the party. May only ever have 1 attack move. Gentle nature is a must.
-Chansey/Blissey
-Clefable
-Meganium (barely makes the cut)
-Chimeco

Mage: Must have high base SP Attack/Sp defense(preferable). Can only use special attacks, must have at least one move that causes a status effect. Preferably looks mystical/wizardy.
-Ninetails*
-Gardevoir
-Mismagius
-Slowking
-Xatu(just)

Monk: An all-rounder. Must be able to naturally learn a punch/kick move. Using Chi the monk is able to raise stats (focus energy counts) and use ONE special attack. Must look the part.
-Hitmontop
-Lopunny
-Lucario*
-Primeape(barely passes)
-Hitmonlee
-Hitmonchan

My party and i arrived in Jubilife the first major city in the region. The Mage informed me that the first crystal we sought was in an unassuming little mining town called Oreburgh. The general guarding it had a passion for mining coal, and had turned the town into his personal paradise with the use of force and the aid of homeless children as free workers. Taking the crystal from him would put a nice halt to his operations, though i doubted i'd be able to help the children escape. In this world we live in, where would they go? The Champion had a hand in everything corrupt and cruel. If they couldn't figure out how to survive once they were free they had no chance.

[--Key item recieved: HM Rock Smash--]

Oreburgh was a dingy looking place with a seemingly endless thick smog hanging over it. It was hard not to choke on the fumes as we emerged from the tunnel that connected it to the rest of the world. A sniveling disheveled looking kid approached me from the opposite direction, keeping his eyes permanently glued to the floor. He bumped into me lightly as he passed, slipping a crumpled piece of paper into my hand an slipped off without a word. My allies and i scanned the area but apart from a few miserable looking individuals we couldn't see anyone else suspicious. I glanced at the note in my hand

--"Promised land lies beyond the abyss ~ G" --

I smirked to myself as The Mage puzzled over my note before burning it. I explained that Gavin was helping me in his own way. There was likely a way to the crystal down in the mines. That was exactly where we were going. Grabbing some ash from the floor i rubbed some over my face to blend in more.

We snuck into the dark damp tunnels that made up the mine. Visibility was poor and the air heavy making the task pretty easy. The harder part was figuring out the way to the crystal Gavin said it was through the 'abyss' so i could only guess that the entrance was somewhere in the deepest part of the mines. The Paladin stayed close behind me, his hard shell ready to take the hit of any ambush, The Mage lead the way, her fire magic allowing us to see our footing easier. I had no idea where the Rogue was however, as the shadows were his domain and he had just slipped through them like water out of a hand. We passed wide-eyed children and took out many guards but the mines just kept on twisting and turning without any real sense that we were getting anywhere. Trying to ask for directions yielded no results either as the children refused to speak to us out of fear of punishment. Suddenly The Rogue materialized in front of us, his arrival made The Mage jump and growl at him as a warning.

"Follow me" The Rogue simply said and began to lead the way, explaining that he had been scouting the tunnels and now had a good idea of where to go. "There was a prison area up ahead, did you want to go there too?" I merely shook my head at the notion. There was nothing i could do for anyone down here, not while the General here still had the crystal in his possession. I would return for them later.

After what seemed like hours our party finally emerged into a room that was lit by a soft gentle glow. Unguarded and set in the center of a mural at the back of the room was the crystal, its peaceful aura the source of the rooms lighting. I made towards it, only to be held back by The Paladin. It was then i noticed how on edge the rest of my party were. The Mage's fur bristled, before she cast a spell straight at the crystal. I watched in horror as the spell hit and the beautiful glowing jewel shattered before my eyes....or..had it? The cracks continued to spread along the walls of the room before the image before my eyes shattered completely and plunged us into darkness.

When my eyes had finally adjusted there was a very different scene before us. A man in a hard hat and spotless clothes stood atop a stone dais, idly rolling the crystal in one hand. There were also few assassins scattered around the room, if i had just carelessly wandered up to the illusion i had no doubt that I'd be a member of the body pile by the far wall. I had to be better. The man, who i could only assume to be a General glared down at us with a cold fury, though his gaze seemed somewhat more focused on The Mage. This must be who she had challenged before and lost to and Roark's(as i soon learned) conversation with her was proof of that. He ordered his assassins to attack and my allies met them in battle.

The Paladin managed to fight off Roarks Houndour while keeping me squarely behind him, i felt like a hindrance with my poor fighting abilities and naivety, but on the other hand this is what i was paying them for. The Mage fought a bellsprout with such vengeance in her eyes that i guessed he and his
binding vines had played a huge part in her previous defeat. She dodged moves like she was expecting them, leaving some nasty burns behind as she did so.

The Rogue was left to square off against a granbull 3 times his size, and i could clearly see he was intimidated. He tried to use his cunning as an advantage by throwing sand in granbulls eyes before darting around him landing jabs. Unfortunately his attacks were like pinpricks against the hulking beast and a few blind hits knocked the wind out of him. While The rogue was struggling to catch his breath, Granbull wiped the sand from his eyes and advanced towards the unfortunate nincada. I ordered The Paladin to step in, shielding The Rogue as i helped him escape from the immediate threat and administered first aid.

With his assassins defeated Roark panicked and surrendered. The Mage snatched the crystal away from him and brought it to me where i slipped it into my pouch

[--Key item recieved:'Earth Crystal'--]

Remembering there was a prison somewhere below, i searched Roark for the keys before we all promptly dragged him outside to allow the townspeople to deal with them how they saw fit. I saw murder in the eyes of many of the mines workers now that their evil overlord was powerless, but i wasn't going to dwell on it. We returned to the mine to release the prisoners.

All cells were empty save one. In it sat a lucario, Blindfolded and muzzled with her hands chained to the wall behind her back. As we opened the cell door and approached she lunched at us snarling, using her entire body as a weapon. I grabbed her shoulders as she barreled into me but was uninjured. She felt
surprisingly light and weak and wondered how long she had been down here. I whispered soothing words as we worked on freeing her from her bindings, explaining what events in the world she had missed while we did so. When finally free The Monk told me she had nowhere to go, and for her freedom, she owed me a debt. With our tasks here complete, we fled the town.

-The Monk joined the party-

We ran all the way back to Jubilife, only stopping to rest once we got there. Despite being imprisoned for weeks, The Monk kept up surprisingly well. I decided we could afford one nights rest in a low cost tavern where we would blend in better. No doubt The Champion would hear of the stolen Earth Crystal
soon. Overnight, while The Monk slept, the rest of us planned our next move. The Mage marked the strongest earth-pulse points on my map, assuming that the crystals would most likely be there and we all agreed we would have to head north quite a ways to reach the next one. The only problem was the north road had been blocked by a landslide due to heavy rain. Exhausted, we decided to deal with that when we got there, and went to bed.

The next morning, there was a commotion at the north exit of the city. Some suspicious looking men were hassling an elderly man and a boy i assumed to be his grandson. The Rogue wanted to just ignore it and go on our way, but The Monk insisted we intervene. He recognized the outfits the men wore and claimed they were members of Team Galactic ( and what bad stuff doesn't happen under The Champion's authority these days?). They were probably looking for Intel on us. Helping would probably draw The Champions gaze towards us, but it would turn this way sooner or later. We gave them a beating. With that out of the way we continued north until we reached the landslide. I briefly wondered if we could climb the cliff face or dig our way through, but The Monk stepped forward. For a brief moment she seemed to focus herself before suddenly delivering a powerful drop-kick that blasted the road block clear in two. Useful.


Floaroma town was once filled with beautiful flowers. Now it was overgrown, the town and windworks valley abandoned and in disrepair. We passed through quickly, to avoid any more encounters with Team Galactic.

As we approached Eterna Forest a young timid looking woman approached us. She explained she was a doctor and had been waiting for someone to pass by for days. She had business in the next town over but was scared to enter the forest, when she arrived here she saw men in weird suits enter. She had tried to pass through after them but for some reason the pokemon in the forest had been extremely aggressive and had attacked her in a group. I motioned for her to follow.

- Doctor Cheryl joined as a Guest-

The forest felt eerie and foreboding. I couldn't place my finger on what felt off about it, but something indeed felt very wrong. The Doctor hadn't been lying, we were set upon by a group of savage Pokemon almost as soon as we entered the forest. What had the strange men done to affect the natives this way?

The combat was so fierce that The Rogue evolved into his true form. We finally fought our way through the forest, escorting Cheryl to relative safety. Strangely we found neither Team Galactic or any obvious sign of what was causing the savagery. Unfortunately it wasn't our main concern right now so we left the forest, getting ever closer to the location of the second Crystal.

- Doctor Cheryl left the party -

Eterna city felt just as oppressive as the forest had been, perhaps due to the high amount of Team Galactic members loitering around. The large spiked building towards the back of the city was a complete eyesore and seemed to drain the life out of city just by being there. For safety reasons we decided to camp out on route 205 instead of risking drawing too much attention to ourselves. The last thing we needed was security on the crystal getting tighter. We agreed The Rogue would slip into Eterna during the night and scout the place out, maybe find some clues as to where the Crystal was being kept. Until then we all got some much needed rest, nibbling on some berries from a nearby tree to restore our strength.

The Rogue returned just before dawn looking worn out but otherwise unhurt. He reported that the second crystal was being held by a person named Gardenia. We set off straight away, he led us to a nondescript building on the opposite end of town to the suppressive building. We slipped inside
through a vent and ended up inside what looked to be a forestry storehouse. Piles of fallen logs were stacked high ready to go wherever, we made our way to a simple steel door. This felt suspiciously easy. We approached cautiously.

Upon opening the door the floor below our feet suddenly gave way. I yelped in surprise as The Mage, The Paladin and The Monk fell with me. The Rogue did his best to slow my descent, making use of his new wings but that was just about all he could do. The Monk recovered first, somehow managing to flip herself around and gather The Mage and The Paladin under her arms as she landed. The ground cracking under her feet as she used some of her Chi aura to distribute the weight and take less damage. The Rogue and i landed not long after, having had a bit more time to take in our new surroundings. It was a surprisingly well lit room with what appeared to be a flower shaped clock in the middle. Several people were dotted around all with their eyes on us. One held the crystal. That must have been Gardenia, she seemed disappointed we hadn't gone splat on her floor. There wasn't much time to talk before she and her minions attacked.

The Rogue and The Paladin teamed up to defeat Gardenias Driftblim, The Monk handled her Koffing while The Mage took it upon herself to defeat Swinub. Once all her pokemon had been defeated she made an attempt to run away with the Crystal. My allies didn't allow her the chance. The Monk knocked her down and i tied her up with a rope figuring someone would come by and find her eventually, the police were too corrupt to trust. The Mage took the Crystal off of Gardenia's possession and we left to find the exit.

[-- Key item received: 'Forest Crystal' --]

During our escape we bumped into a tall lady with extremely long blonde hair. She glanced over our ragtag group before smiling and introducing herself as Cynthia. Taken a back by her out of place politeness i dumbly introduced myself and engaged the stranger in idle chatter. The encounter ended with me receiving a free gift for my time and Cynthia promptly walking off in the direction we had came from.

[--Key item received: HM Cut --]