"Be careful," cautioned Seymour. The trainer was still trying to puzzle out what exactly had been broken, and why it was significant.

Getting through the grass, you find the pole was a sort of memorial, bearing the symbol of Arceus. It looks like there were some flowers around it before, but they must have been eaten by passing pokemon. There's also a weird ring of broken stones, with red drawings on them, looking rather old.

More recent, though, are scattered bottles of alcohol and other trash. And judging by the boot print on the broken pole, it seems like it got kicked down by some people having a party here.

Seymour frowned at the sight of the broken memorial. "Why would someone do this? Even if you are out her partying, why would you think destroying a site like this is a good idea? Some people have no respect..." The trainer shook his head disappointedly, then began cleaning up the place a little. "Think you might be able to fix that pole, Falkner? I will see if I can get these rocks back in order. Phoebe, think you could collect the trash? I know this isn't our responsibility, but I would still like to leave this site better than the state we found it in."

Jake shrugged and picked up one of the bottles of booze with disgust on his face,
"Not my kind of party."

He wasn't sure why people would go so far from the city to party and bash stuff up. He didn't care too much about cleaning up after others, but he didn't mind helping out Seymour,
"Yeah, let me see what I can do. Not really equipped for this though."

After inspecting the pole for a moment, he reached for a pokeball and released Fetcher,
"Hey there fetcher, can you find a nice big stick to replace this pole? You seem to know what kind of sticks are stiff enough to whack things with at least."

"Sure." Pheobe starts picking up the trash, starting closer to the road. While Jake and Fetcher examines the pole, Seymour picks up the first stone.

You realize these 'rock' are actually pieces of clay tablets... and they look pretty old. A red drawing, appearing to be part of a snake, is engraved on it. After a closer look, you notice something black hanging from the bottom. But as you reach for it, you realize it's a shadow. A shadow that's not cast by anything...

"Ah!" Pheobe shouts, pointing at the broken stones. Now flying around you, the one in Seymour hands hovering up to eye level. And as you watch, shadows leak out of them, taking an unusual form.

"Umm..." Seymour said, not quite sure how to react. Should he be worried? He felt like he should be worried. The trainer stepped back and pulled out his Pokedex to see if these guys were typically friendly or not. Regardless, he figured they probably weren't too pleased about what had happened to this site recently.

Jake wasn't sure how to handle the situation either. Despite there being several, he wasn't too worried. He doubted these pokemon smashed up the site in a drunken stupor. He didn't even think these ghost rockers could drink,
"Hey, you here to help clean up too?"

Yamask, the Spirit pokemon
Type: Ground/Ghost
 It's said that this Pokémon was formed when an ancient clay tablet was drawn to a vengeful spirit.  The clay slab is said to bear cursed engravings, and to be absorbing the Yamask's dark power.

The circle of Yamask slowly close in on you, it's spite filled glare making your legs weak. You realize you've just fell victim to a Mean Look, and those guys don't seem happy.

"That's the last time I do a nice thing!" Jake cried as their hostile intent was made clear. He still hadn't completely figured out the situation. Maybe if they just gave up, the yamasks would be appeased? Or maybe the Yamasks were out for blood. He couldn't tell and didn't want to risk injury. He left Fetcher on the field, but pulled out bandy's pokeball as well.
"Fetcher, defend us!  Bandy, use feint attack on the ones that get too close!"

Maybe they would need to knock them all out, but Jake wanted to start by showing they were a force to be reckoned with... and avoided.

"We mean you no harm!" added Seymour. He released a pokemon as well. Locke, his Lapimage. "Locke, protect us with a calming Mist."

Locke give you some cover with his mist, but that only makes the shadow pokemon seem more menacing, especially with the spectral glare of their eyes. Bandy glares back at the ghosts, before jumping to attack the closest one.

The glow almost seems to float toward your pokemon, but it fades before reaching them. Although Locke shivers as another Mean Looks targets him.

Jake turns to Seymour,
"I can't tell if they are really attacking or just trying to scare us... but we can't get away... like, I guess I am scared. Maybe we just try to bust out and make a run for it?"

Jake then readied to give fetcher and bandy the order to concentrate their dark-type attacks in one direction if Seymour agrees they should try to break out from being surrounded.

"It seems that they aren't leaving us any other option," agreed Seymour. Despite his growing fears, he gave orders to his Lapimage and the Gogoat he was still riding. "Locke, use Powder Snow. Glade, use Razor Leaf. Let's bust out of this circle!"

As you prepare to rush one side, some of the Yamask make a mystical protection, blocking Statues moves from affecting their group.

At your signal, Bandy knocks out the one she attacked before, moments before it had a chance to slam her with it's stone, while Fetcher hits a second one.

Glade tries to help, but his leaves just bounce off the stones, or fly through the shadows. In return, he also gets a Mean Look, causing her to hesitate.

Locke summons a wave of snow, only for the Yamask to dodge the attack and reply with a dark red glow, Disabling his attack.

"Keep it up!" Jake encouraged. He didn't have any additional orders, they just had to keep whacking and thwacking until there was an opening. It definitely was not an ideal situation.

The yamasks seemed determined to stop them from leaving, shooting mean looks left and right. Mustering his courage, Jake tried to break out even if there was not a clear opening. He hoped they would just try to stop him with a mean look. That would be a minor win, after all, the more the Yamask's attention was divided, the more luck their pokemon would have in knocking out enough to scatter the rest.

Seymour urged on his pokemon as well. "Keep trying guys! Let's switch it up a bit. Locke, try some Hypnosis. And Glade, use Seed Bomb!" Meanwhile, Seymour himself pulled out a PokeBall and tossed it at whichever ghost looked most distracted. A ghost in a PokeBall was one fewer ghost attacking them.

Locke's Hypnosis doesn't seem to work. Instead, he seems to struggle to stay on his feet, holding his head in pain. You see one of the Yamask seems to scream as well, even though it didn't get attacked. Still, sensing a weakness, Glade bombs it, further injuring the ghost.

Working together, Bandy and Fetcher manages to knock out a second Yamask, but before Jake can run through, his legs starts feeling weak, as he struggles to even reach the circle of ghost.

And the ghost keep glowing, causing Bandy to stumble as her attack is disabled.

Things were starting to get even worse. And his Lapimage seemed to be struggling, so Seymour returned Locke to his pokeball and sent out his Shroomish, Glumpy, instead. "Glumpy, Stun Spore every opponent. We need to get ourselves an edge. Glade, keep up those seed bombs. They seem to be working." The trainer was starting to worry about Jakey's physical state as well. "You okay, Falkner?"

---

Did my pokeball in my last post have any effect?

You manage to catch the wounded Yamask. But when you try to recall Locke, it seems like the pokeball's beam isn't working right.

Since you couldn't recall him, Locke uses another Hypnosis, causing one of the Yamask to fall asleep. It seems like the two remaining Yamask realized they're now outnumbered, and start floating around erratically, avoiding the rest of your attacks. At least they didn't attack... although Locke is still suffering under his Curse.

Seymour was worried at first when he couldn't recall his Lapimage, but then realized why and felt like an idiot. Of course he couldn't flee the battle. That is what Mean Look does. Instead, he addressed the ghost pokemon. "Release us, or we'll have no choice but to continue our attack!" He couldn't just sit by and let Locke suffer from the curse.

"If they don't stop immediately, Locke, Flumpy, Glade, continue your attacks!"

Jake hadn't known what mean look did and still didn't. He looked to Seymour, then to the Yamasks still floating around. He was not sure why they hadn't done much in the way of attacking. He signaled his pokemon to stop fighting when Seymour suggested a ceasefire. It felt a bit weird to be tromping through the wilderness leaving countless pokemon KO'd on the road... so he was more liable to have mercy on the remaining yamasks. He echoed Seymour's offer,
"I didn't want to fight, so lets just call it here. I don't know what you want, but we had nothing to do with this."

He then glanced to the boy who had inadverantly lured them into the yamask trap and Pheobe. How had they held up?

There's still some of Locke's mist lingering about, shrouding your view of the road. You can make out Pheobe not far away, but just barely, standing next to Trio.

The remaining Yamask glare at you for a moment... before backing into the mist, and vanishing from sight. You wait a few moment, but it doesn't look like they're coming back.

Jake breathed a sigh of relief. Whatever the yamasks were up to, they were gone now. He took a moment to check himself and his pokemon for anything awry. He then did his best to casually stick his hands in his pockets and waddle over to Pheobe,
"That usually doesn't happen. I wonder why the spookers were so riled. Anyway, hopefully the rest of the road is K."

"Are you alright?" Pheobe asks, before turning back toward the road. "That was scary... did you know those pokemons were there? Hey, where did he go!?"

Looking around, you don't see anyone else around. The boy you saw on the side of the road is gone, and despite being in a very open area, you can't see where he could have gone.