Welp, I should've randomized this rom, because I can't evolve this Haunter at all now when it eventually evolves. rip me.
Episode 2 - A New Ghostly Friend
Current Curses
Fridge Horror - No STAB moves for anything that doesn't have a Fire move or resists Ice.
Ghostly Adventure - Catch a Gastly (because it's the only Ghost type available), it's locked into the team.
Cursed Ground - No more Ground, Rock, or Fighting types.
Well, this could be a thing. I didn't put this rom through the randomizer, so unless I redo the entire game until this point, I can't evolve the eventual Haunter into a Gengar. A shame, but I guess we have to deal with it. Anyway, now I have to go back to Sprout Tower and toss Poke Balls at a Gastly until I catch it. Luckily, I managed to find one first encounter, and after three Poke Balls, I got it. It was Level 5 too. Welcome Stalker to the team. She will need to be switch trained for a while, though.
With that aside, I had to go heal because Blaze got paralyzed during the capture mission so I went and grabbed the egg. With the egg in hand, it's off towards Union Cave, destroying trainers along the way. While fighting trainers, it made me realize how few moves this thing learns in this generation. So far, Lick is Stalker's only offensive move, and after the first Union Cave trainer, she's Level 13. This is going to be painful, especially with Whitney coming later and no Rock types.
Speaking of which, Union Cave...it's a cave. Not anything too special. Stalker got a lot of action since most of the encounters in there are things Blaze can't handle on her own and Stalker got Curse. That's about all the eventful things that happened in Union Cave. Anyway, time for Azalea Town!
So that one trainer on the way to Azalea Town gave me a harsh demonstration of how weak to Rock my team is. Stalker can't take a hit and Blaze is weak to Rock. We need to get a Water type soon. Either that or a Grass type, but we'll have to wait and see. For now, after a visit to Kurt, it's time for Slowpoke Well. Because Blaze will get all the gym action, I mainly used Stalker on anything that wasn't named Rattata because I couldn't touch it with anything but Curse, and I'd rather not waste items. With that aside, Blaze set fire to Bugsy's gym. Nothing survived.
Once again, though, after beating the gym, all the ashen remains started moving on their own and the shape of the room changed. Unlike before, there's a bunch of berries on the floor. Onward and forward to Room 15 with one green berry in hand.
The Team
Blaze (Quilava) Lv. 20 @ Nothing
Moves: Tackle, Leer, Smokescreen, Ember (she learned no new moves)
Stalker (Gastly) Lv. 18 @ Nothing
Moves: Hypnosis, Lick, Curse, Mean Look
(I realize now that I can't have a STAB move, but I have no way of teaching a move to replace Lick right now. Thinking about it now, it's much worse. Until I get Thief, and if I'm not allowed to use Lick, then Stalker actually cannot attack outside of Curse. Gengar is the only member of the line that can learn elemental punches and almost every TM for Gastly/Haunter is locked behind postgame aside from Nightmare, Thunder, and few others. Out of all of them, only three are offensive moves and two are only able to be gotten on Sunday. Either I have to farm for Thunder or Stalker's a dead slot outside a move that'll pretty much get her killed 100% of the time because bad defenses. Well, this could be...bad. For me. Looks like a Typhlosion solo run featuring a Ghost type is in my future.)