Current Time of Day: Afternoon​

It's been eight weeks since Dr. Arden Stone's message. After a tedious, three day long ferry ride, you finally make it to Apollo with the other journey-goers. You may have gotten to know them along the way, you may have ignored them the entire time; it's all up to you.

Now that you're on Apollo, you can understand what the stories from your childhood and Dr. Stone meant: dense forests can be seen outside the village and the whole atmosphere of this place just feels a whole lot different from home. Cleaner? Perhaps the urban air is getting to us all much. It matters not at the moment since we've made port at Beachcliffe Village!

Beachcliffe Village

Spoiler:

Yeah, silly name. When the first lot of explorers docked here, there were a lot of arguments over what to call the area since there was never map with names of towns given by Dr. Stone, just a location. The only thing they could agree on was that the place was a cliff on a beach. Hence, Beachcliffe Village.

Being the earliest village of Apollo, houses have already been built around the cliffs, the path from the docks curving up to these houses. The bottom of the cliff has an assortment of tents and stalls with merchants selling all kinds of goods. This marketplace is usually bustling during the day, with explorers selling their goods from the previous day.

At the top of the hill lives the local nurse, running her own PokéCentre and medical clinic. She'll probably have some work for you if you ask nice enough. Other work can be found in the marketplace; you'd be surprised what cowardly merchants would offer in exchange for items found in the routes ahead. There's also a cave at the end of the beach, chipped out of the cliff. Everyone will tell you that place has been cleaned out but who knows, there might be something that somebody missed!

If you want to move on from Beachcliffe Village, theres a route north of here along a dirt path into a light forest, which looks like there could be Pokémon to catch!

If you're thinking of stocking up well before going out, try talking to the merchants at the stalls; they may have more for sale than what they show!

The Marketplace

• Potion - 150P
• PokéBall - 200P
• Repel - 300P
• Fresh Water - 200P
• Rations - 100P
• Stone glyph - 1000P
• Mysterious rock - 800P
• Sol of Tyche - 950P
• Sol of Pyre - 1100P
• TM94 ROCK SMASH - 1500P

Cliffside Cave

ZUBAT - Common

• Leech Life
• Supersonic

DIGLETT - Common

• Scratch
• Sand Attack
• Growl

GEODUDE - Uncommon

• Tackle
• Defense Curl
• Mud Sport

KRABBY - Rare

• Mud Sport
• Bubble

Route 1

CAMP KANGASKAHN​

SOL ENCYCLOPAEDIA

Spoiler:

Tyche Neutral Charge

• Brings the wearer luck
• Increases/decreases catch rates
• Increases/decreases value of items found
• Increases/decreases chances of finding hidden items
• The type of luck depends on the Sols it is linked with

​

"Ah, Sols!" The merchant smiled, his eyes falling on the bead on the girl's bracelet. "Yes, they are a mysterious thing. I don't know much, but I've heard people say they can... kind of give you special abilities. Kind of. Like, some can make you lucky or somehow make people like you better. I even heard a traveller say he saw someone shoot fireballs from his mouth. I'm a bit sceptical, honestly, but you never know. There's apparently an 'appraiser'," the merchant airquoted the word appraiser with a hint of sarcasm added on to it, "in the next town over, so he might tell you what yours can do."

"Oh, and tell me about that glyph and that mysterious rock too if you don't mind."

"Ah yes!" he picked up the glyph and the rock, studying them himself. "A traveller sold me these, he looked like an unseasoned trainer. A bit like you." The man gave a chuckle. "He said that the rock came from the cave in the cliff. It's rather mysterious, isn't it?" He gave Anise a better look at the stone. It was an odd colour, with swirls of blue and red and white. "He said he found it at the dead end near an odd wall but he was attacked so he ran away. Little scaredy cat."

"And the glyph!" He picked that up and showed that to Anise too. "That was from another traveller, a bit greener than the last guy. Found it in the next route over. Not sure what it does though." He gave a shrug. It was an odd symbol. Like a cross with circles on it. "Maybe it gives you magic powers! Imagine that!" He let out another boomy laugh.

"Anything pique your interest then?"

-100P
+1x Rations​

The lady was about to open her mouth to answer the young traveller's question but her partner beside her had already answered the question to another traveller, looking just as fresh and off the boat as he did. It was lovely to see the new ones coming into shore, as they brought potential for new wares and money to buy her others! She smiled and gestured to the merchant beside her.

"It seems my partner here has already answered your question! Was there anything else you needed, deary? Food? Supplies? It can get dangerous out there, even during the day!"​

Benjamin stumbled off the boat once they were allowed to disembark. Three days on a boat had made him rather queasy (though, thankfully, he had managed to hang onto his stomach the entire time) and once he had finally gotten used to the sway of the sea, he was now expected to find his land legs again. He pulled out his journal, trying ever so hard not to throw up onto it.

"Finally made it to shore. Boats are now my least favourite way to travel and I hope when the time comes, there'll be another way to get off Apollo. Perhaps Elenore will be strong enough to take me back."

Elenore, affectionately named Ellie from time to time, was what he had called his new Pokémon companion. She, unlike her trainer, enjoyed the sea air and had spent a great deal of the three days perched on one of the railings. She had a much better time attuning herself to the study ground, perching herself on Benjamin's shoulder and chirping happily. He had taken a few photos of just her, her red feathers complimenting the deep blue of the sea so stunningly!

His first stop? The marketplace. It seemed a few of his fellow travellers had made their way there so he eagerly stumbled his way over there, camera in hand and journal in the other. It seemed they had been curious enough to ask the 'locals' some questions, which Ben wrote the answers to down furiously in his note book. Appraiser in the next town? He would be a great person to interview!

"Excuse me, p-please! Ms. Briar? Mr. Lorantos? Mr. Stern? May I get, may I get a photo of you all with the merchants here?" He held up his camera, smiling at them. Ellie added a small, encouraging squark.​

"Hm." The merchant rubbed his unshaven chin. "Well, I'm selling this one for 800P so... Well, I'm not sure, actually. I wouldn't buy anymore if I didn't know what they did exactly. It could just be a pretty rock. You look like you're in need of an adventure and I'm feeling generous, so I'll tell you what. If you buy this one and go find out what it does and you find more, I'll pay double this," he held up the rock, "for everything. If you don't find out anything, no harm done and I'll give you your money back. How does that sound?"​

"Why yes!" The merchant smiled, disappearing behind her table and reappearing with a thick, bounded book. "I've got one right here! I was going to be an explorer like yourself and write down all the adventures I had in Apollo but I was much too scared to leave this route, especially without a Pokémon." The lady opened her mouth, about to state her price when suddenly she got an idea.

"You seem like a strong trainer? How about you do me a favour? I'll give you this journal for free, plus a bit of compensation if you can go catch a Pokémon for me! Any ol' Pokémon, I don't mind. I'll even give you a PokéBall to catch it with! Would you be able to do that for me?"

-900P
+2x Potion
+2x Fresh Water
+2x Rations
​

Crisp, salty sea air surrounded the well-funded vessel that was shipping the new and renewed adventurers to Apollo. Wingull and the occasional Pelipper flew overhead, and Mantine skimmed the sea's surface alongside the ferry. However, Anselme didn't experience any of it. The reluctant newbie had spent entire journey in his room deep within the ship, only leaving it when he really needed to. It wasn't the same as his flat, but at least here he wasn't troubled with paying for rent or meals. The ship was full of aspiring young start-ups and seasoned travellers alike, 'broke loser grown man with no experience' being the minority. He didn't really care about the other people too much, though. As long as they didn't bug him, it was all good. Unfortunately, there was one dude with a big camera who didn't get the memo that the shut-in who always had his earphones in didn't want to be bothered. He promptly told him to go away.

Besides the people, the boat was also filled with Pokemon. Dr. Jacobi had given everyone their own new Pokemon, so Anselme's music became essential for drowning out the noise from the rampant battles and Pokemon cries. Sure he had gotten his own Pokemon as well, but it hadn't seen the outside of its ball since it was given to him. He figured he wouldn't be able to relax properly with a little superpowered rat or cat or whatever running around. He knew that he would have let it out eventually and start training it, but that was a worry for another time, specifically when they were at the island where he actually needed the Pokemon.

Three days seemed like a long time, but it passed by very quickly in Anselme's state of bliss. Once he felt the boat stop, he reluctantly opened his eyes, then closed them again. Just five more minutes,,,

Passengers, we have arrived on the shore of Apollo. We recommend you depart the ship as quickly as you can onto Beachcliffe Village and begin your expedition. The ship will be departing again soon.

Well, there went his five minutes. Anselme didn't plan on quitting before he even started (he wasn't that much of a loser), so he decided he should probably get off before the boat left Apollo. Sure, it wasn't going to leave immediately, but he knew very well how those five minutes could easily turn into five hours. And so, after a deep sigh, Anselme finally got up from his cot and slinked his way off the boat. He really didn't want to abandon such a wonderful place, but there was nothing he could do about it. Figuring he might as well be doing something he liked, he put one of his cigarettes into his mouth and lit it, taking a long drag of smoke before he stepped out onto the deck and let it all out in the open.

So far, Apollo was exactly what he thought it would be like. Trees everywhere, rickety wooden houses, flimsy stands selling rocks, and all that tropical paradise crap. While he could appreciate the fresh air and natural beauty and all that, honestly he was just glad there was at least a proper pokemon center. The other passengers of the boat rushed into their first Apollonian town excitedly, shopping, taking pictures, and other touristy things. It didn't exactly look like an archaeology expedition right now. He did notice some people get started right away by going directly ahead, past the village. He figured they probably got invited by Jacobi directly rather than second-hand like himself.

After inhaling another lungsful of smoke, he figured that now was as good a time as ever to see what he had gotten as a starter pokemon. Anselme grabbed the pokeball that rested in his pocket and tossed it on the ground in front of him where it opened to reveal a… He swore he had seen the thing before, but he couldn't remember its name. Things like the ever-popular Pikachu or the Espurr that ran all over Lumiose's alleys were easy, but try as he may, he just couldn't recall the name of the pokemon in front of him. He could tell it was a chunk of ice, though, so he deduced that it was probably ice type. Maybe being a trainer wouldn't be so hard after all. Maybe its name was Chunkice? Whatever. The ice chunk pokemon stood in front of him and looked up at him, just staring and waiting. At least it wasn't an Espurr or else he would have been thoroughly creeped out right now. The little guy probably wanted something.

Anselme scoured his pockets for something to give the little guy, but he figured it didn't smoke and that an ice type wouldn't really enjoy a lighter. Nor did it have any ears to enjoy music through earphones with, and no way was he going to blast his music for everyone else to hear. "Sorry Chunky, I've got nothing to give you." However, the pokemon's gaze stayed locked on to him. Is it… is it broken? He tried to walk around it, but the thing just turned to keep watching him. He then tried walking away, but it followed. When he stopped once more, the ice chunk did the same and yet continued to stare. An idea came to mind. "Stay, Chunky." He hadn't really thought of what to call it, but he figured that Chunky was as good a name as any. Once the command had been issued, he tried walking away again, and found, as he suspected, that he did not follow. It appeared that Chunky was quite the docile little creature. The pokemon given to him by the good doctor was not broken. Au contraire, he'd hit the jackpot! Actually, maybe it would have been better to get a feisty one that could take care of itself. No, this was better; the latter would probably bother him too much.

"Alrighty then, c'mon, Chunky," he said, returning the thing to its ball. Now that that was taken care of, he figured he would probably need more pokemon. Obedient as he may be, Chunky didn't exactly look very threatening. He had five pokeballs, so that would be plenty. A brief scan of his surroundings showed that he could either continue past the village like the veterans and reckless, or he could go to that cave off in the distance. Caves were dark and murky and generally no fun, whereas routes tended to be full of annoying people looking for a battle. Boring or annoying? Cave it was.

The walk to the cave wasn't a very long one, just a simple stroll along the beach. It seemed to be one of the lesser chosen destinations for the new arrivals as opposed to the town and the route, and that was just the way he liked it. Along the way, he tried remembering everything he knew about catching pokemon. He never went to trainer school and didn't really talk to trainer kids in regular school, so his knowledge on the matter was minimal. One thing that everyone knew, though, was that you threw pokeballs at pokemon to catch them. Easy enough. Enough normal people owned pokemon to show that you didn't need to be an expert trainer to catch them, meaning there probably wasn't much more to it than that. Now he just had to wander around the cave until he found a pokemon.

The cave seemed silent. Maybe he was wrong and there were no pokemon inside? That would surely explain why so few people were going there. Anselme continued to delve deeper into the cave, the light at the tip of his cigarette appearing brighter and the music coming from his earphones appearing louder as he went on. Thankfully, he was still able to see due to the light from outside streaming into the cave, but that light was slowly fading. Somebody should have told him this place was a bust, but on second thought it was his own fault for making assumptions. It wasn't like he was some ace detective.

His musings were interrupted by a sudden ringing in his ears that felt like someone was screaming loudly past his loud music, straight into the ears, but he couldn't quite hear anything. "Ngh!" Anselme clutched his ears in pain. His senses became jumbled, the room felt like it was spinning. Karma seemed to be getting a refund for all the luck with Chunky, because immediately afterward he felt something crash right into him. HIs dizziness coupled with the impact knocked him to the ground.

Anselme groaned before slowly getting to his feet, his fallen earphones still loudly playing music. The first thing he searched for was his also-fallen cigarette. Fortunately, it was still lit, so he picked it up, dusted it off lightly, and put it back into his mouth. He took a puff as he searched for his mystery assailant, only to find a little Zubat on the ground nearby. "So this is all your fault, huh?" He said threateningly and stepped up to the bat as it rose. Perhaps sensing hostile intent, the Zubat quickly turned and fled deeper into the cave. Unfortunately for it, Anselme had managed to lock on to it with his eyes. Just throw the pokeball at it, right? Anselme chased after it and reached his left hand into his pocket, pulling out an empty pokeball. "You're mine, now!" he shouted as he launched the ball toward its target.
​

The merchant turned around, giving the traveller a smile as he stocked up the wares on his table.

"Fresh off the boat, are we?" he chuckled. "Well, the only way outta Beachcliffe is to follow the path to the next route," he gestured to the dirt path that made its way up the cliff, past the houses and through into a light forest, "or back the way you came. Unless you wanna know what actually is in the next route. Because in that case, can't help you, pal. Not the adventurin' type. I prefer the money-makin' kind of career." He gestured to his wares, looking awfully proud of them. "Anything speakin' to ya?"
​

The ball hit the Zubat, capturing it, and fell to the ground. The ball shakes once... twice... three times... ding! Yes! It's caught! Nice catch. It seems the odds really were on your side today.
If you lift your head, you may notice that you've reached the end of the cave. It's a dead end but there's something mysterious about the wall at the end. It looks like a mural of sorts, with a circle of 5 blue, white and red swirled mysterious looking stones with an indent in the middle, looking like it would fit another one of these stones. There's nothing on the floor or in the cave anywhere... so where is this last key?

Suddenly, a Diglett pops out of the ground beneath the wall. If there's enough light, you can see it doesn't look very happy. More unhappy looking Diglett suddenly pop out of the ground and begin crying out angrily. It's probably a very good time to run, because it looks like they're about to charge (... or dig. Whatever)!

-1x PokéBall​

It didn't take a genius to know that the ding meant success! Anselme walked over to the ball on the ground and picked it up, still breathing hard from the excitement and the (brief) chase. My first capture, huh… if it was this easy all along then I definitely should have gone on an 'adventure' seventeen years ago. He figured he should probably get a better look at his new pokemon; see if it was anything like Chunky. He'd heard that once a pokemon had been caught it wouldn't try escaping anymore. While that sounded pretty optimistic, he figured it wouldn't be too much trouble to catch another Zubat if this one ran away, although his still-ringing ears disagreed with him about that last part. "Alright, let's take a look." He tossed the ball forward, but to his surprise, it hit something and bounced right back at him, hitting his face yet again. "Agh, what the hell!" When the ball fell to the ground, it let out the Zubat, but now he was more concerned about the thing that caused him to be hit again.

After picking up the ball, he took a few steps forward into the dark cave to find a suspiciously flat wall. He didn't realize he had followed the Zubat this far into the cave. I really should have brought a flashlight… He stared at the wall a few moments and waited for his eyes to adjust so he could see it properly, also sliding his hands along it. There were...engravings? No…round, set in stones of some sort. Moving his fingers along the edges of the stones revealed that they were detachable, so he took one. They made a circle around an indent where another stone probably went. Not even half an hour as a trainer and he had already caught a pokemon and made a discovery. Either he was a natural or this 'pokemon journey' thing was way too easy.

Alright, I'm done with this cave. He felt confident that he qualified for the title of 'amateur archaeologist' or something by now. He figured that he could probably get a picture of the wall, though, so he began to shuffle through his pockets in search of his phone only to find that it wasn't there. Where could it…oh...nevermind. He suddenly recalled a memory of himself packing lazily for the trip, looking at his phone, then thinking. I don't even call anyone on the thing so it'll just waste space. Besides, I don't even think there's signal in this 'untouched land'. Whatever though, it wasn't like a picture was that important anyway. Maybe he could get that nerdy looking camera guy (not the annoying one from the boat) to let him borrow his.

As it always seemed to happen, his thoughts were again interrupted, this time by an unfamiliar sound, but one he could actually hear properly. He had turned down his music a little to avoid being ambushed, like with the damn Zubat. Speaking of, he still had to take a look at his new pokemon, but first comes mystery noise. Anselme turned around to see a little round thing sticking out of the ground. Lucky, lucky, lucky. Time for yet another addition to his team. He reached for an empty pokeball, but as he did he saw another little pokemon sprout from the ground. That one was followed by yet another! He was going to need some more pokeballs! As even more little things rose from the ground, his grin began to fade. The back of the cave started becoming filled with loud, high pitched cries. He now realized he was facing the wrath of the land.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Anselme screamed at the top of his lungs as he fled the cave, followed promptly by the Zubat, then by the mob of angry ground things. He had dropped his cigarette once more, but no way in hell was he going back for it. Screw the 'discovery' too! And you know what? Screw this whole 'expedition'! He burst out of the cave, past the beach, up the hill, and finally into the sanctuary of the modern, sturdy pokemon center. Of course, the diglett never followed him past the cave, but Anselme couldn't have known that, and even if he did he would have been too panicked to care.

Inside the pokemon center, various trainers, residents, and other miscellaneous visitors all stared at Anselme like he was crazy. "Shut up, there were like a thousand of them," he said defensively despite the fact that nobody had said anything. Apparently he was surprisingly fast when he was terrified, because it took the Zubat a little bit to catch up. Anselme sighed and sat down on the soft couch in the pokecenter lobby. "I need a drink," he muttered to himself, still panting from so much running. He had his doubts that this place had any bars, though.

The Zubat flew nearby for a little while before it lowered itself onto the couch beside him. Finally getting the chance to look at it up close, he saw that it was quite small and no fiercer than Chunky, but it definitely seemed to have more individuality than the chunk of ice. Although the fangs and the lack of eyes did make it substantially scarier than Chunky. Still not creepier than an Espurr, though. Or his brother's damn Charizard. The little legless and eyeless bat seemed to be just as tired as he was, so he returned it to its pokeball. Oh, right. It needed a name. He could think of one later.

Still reflecting on the cave, Anselme held up the stone he had taken from it. Definitely not worth the trouble. Maybe he could sell it, though. He could probably say it was a magic relic from the island's past or something, like the sols. They had all been given one and they supposedly had magical powers, but he didn't believe it. Even if there were such a thing, why would there be so many to the point that they would all just be handed one? It all sounded pretty irresponsible if they were so powerful. To him, all the bead on his wrist was was a bead on his wrist. Looking at the cave stone in proper light, he could now see that it was colored blue, red, and white. They reminded him of the colors of Kalos. What he wouldn't give to be back in Lumiose right now. He had to do this, though. He needed to turn his life around. One discovery was enough for that, wasn't it?

Anselme groaned, then sighed, then just laid back on the couch and did nothing. He deserved a break.
​

Barry barely paid attention as the merchant boringly explained something about a Sol "appraiser" in the next town. He knew next to nothing about the mysterious glyph. And then came the stone.

Actually, the stone came before the glyph, but whatever.

The merchant explained that a traveler sold it to him. It was strange, an odd color with swirls of red, blue and white. It gave Barry a feel of mystery.

The merchant continued, explaining that the traveler found it near an odd wall at Beachcliffe Cave. Something about it told Barry that he had to buy that rock. It could be they key to something behind the wall.
His ideas were interrupted when Benjamin Whistler, another person who had ben sent to Apollo, came in.

"Excuse me, p-please!" he said. "Ms. Briar? Mr. Lorantos? Mr. Stern? May I get, may I get a photo of you with all the merchants here?"

The group began to answer.
"I don't really have any problem with taking a picture, can't speak for the rest of the people here," Anise said.
"I have to go," Timmothy said, then left.
Now it was Barry's turn to answer. "Hold on," he said, then turned to the merchant. "I'd like to order that mysterious stone, please," he ordered. He put down the necessary money and the merchant, smiling, handed him the rock. Barry was just dying to find out what it did.

He turned back to Benjamin and Anise. "Uhh, sorry if you wanted that," he said to Anise. Facing Benjamin now, he said, "I'm ready for the picture."

Lost: 800P
Gained: ×1 Mysterious Stone
​