The group of Lana Town trainers continue toward the abandoned power plant. They plan to go around it and find the upper entrance to the Copper Mines, a common but dangerous shortcut to the capital city: Sessuh. There, they believe they can get medicine to save the diseased town.

After another long day on the road, Tracy sees fire moving toward them. It is a Pokemon trainer riding a Ponyta. He introduces himself as Vince and challenges them to some Pokemon battles before nightfall. Iaacog takes the first one-on-one battle and his Level 1 Mudkip narrowly defeats Vince’s Level 2 Ponyta (with the use of a potion). Tracy accepts the match with his second Pokemon and also uses a potion to bring her Level 1 Pikachu to victory against Vince’s Level 1 Growlithe.

Vince is impressed with their skill and invites them to share a camp with him. Over the camp fire, he tells them that he is here trying to wrangle Mareep to bring back to his father’s ranch. He says he has seen a wild Electrike herding wild Mareep and tells them he would be willing to trade his Growlithe for that Electrike.

Near dawn, on Jessa Bell’s watch, Mareep wander near and around the camp, grazing. She quietly wakes the others and they ambush three Mareep away from the others. With 5 Pokemon against 3, they quickly damage the Mareep and Jessa Bell catches one. The Mareep start to run, but Pavrick throws a Pokeball as well, catching a second. Iaacog throws a Pokeball at the last and catches it as well. While they all celebrate their captures, they hear growling from a nearby hill and look up to see an angry Electrike.

This campaign (using the Pokemon 5e rules by Joe The DM) is going to be something like a once a month thing. My daughters are helping me DM it as an alternative to Hero Kids. They and I control Banana, my wife’s character is Jessa Bell, Uncle N is playing Pavrick, Uncle A is playing Iaacog, and Aunt A is playing Tracy.

This session was much more satisfying. We still haven’t had a Pokemon level up, and that feels slower than I would like, given how rarely we play. I might make a change to how much XP is awarded.