Travel Encounter: Murkrow

Travel Encounter from PTU
The following is a combat encounter I have thrown at my players, feel free to use it as writing exercise or in your own games. Keep in mind, turns in combat take 10 seconds of in-game time to complete.

This is an optional fight that could score the players a new friend, a band of foes, and/or some secret third thing only a player could come up with.

A Murder of Mining Mobsters
Intended level of Player Trainers: 2-5
Intended level of Player Pokemon: 5-10
Location: In or around Mount Mortar
Time: Late afternoon/evening
Pokémon: 3-5 Murkrow (level 15), 1 big Murkrow (level 20) 1 Machop (level 10), 2 Sandshrew/Dunsparce (level 5), 1 Paras/Gligar (level 5), 1 Gligar/Mankey (level 5),
Opposing Trainers: no
Environment: dark cave/late evening lighting, clear weather
Stage 2: If a fight breaks out, the instant one or two Murkrow go down the Machop (depending on whether this takes place in a cave or mountain setting) will start to help the players fight off the Murkrow

A group of Murkrow, that nest just outside of Mount Mortar, has lost their big Honchkrow leader. After a mourning period, a new leader among their ranks must be evolved. They have selected the biggest amongst them to be the replacement; the only problem is, they don't have a dusk stone. The Honchkrow-elect has ordered a search party to find a usable dusk stone, and so the Pokémon in and around the mountain have been bullied into a mining operation. Gligar/Mankey have been stealing a weird number of hammers for smashing rocks, food and water to bring workers, whatever else the Murkrow might need while the rest of the Pokémon dig. Machop works for the Murkrow, but is not loyal to them. It wants the Mountain and its surrounding areas free from their clutches, and will turn on them if given a chance. Until that chance arrives, it does what it can to keep the weaker Pokémon working.

The players can come across this situation in a variety of ways, They can witness a Mankey or Gligar stealing something, hear rumors about the thefts, have something stolen from them, or just stumble upon it while exploring. Mining is a noisy process, so don't bother with a perception check for players to find it. Simply tell the players they hear loud clanging noises coming from wherever you have placed the encounter. If you want, a skill check could be made to determine what the noise is. For this, allow whatever makes sense (Survival, General Education, Intuition, etc.) and make the DC 10 or lower. Once the players have uncovered the mining operation, It's ultimately up to them how to approach this situation. It could be ignored outright if they wanted to so have something else for them to do just in case.

SKILL CHECKS
Allow the players to figure out what's going on through Pokémon/General Education or Intuition. As always, if they can reasonably make a different skill check let them but at a slightly higher DC.

The DC to figure out what is going on here is 5, but the higher the roll the more information you can divulge.

COMBAT
If a fight does break out, The Murkrow will stay out of the fight unless forced to engage, preferring instead to have their minions fight for them. Minion Pokémon will attack the closest threat until they are Fainted. The Murkrow will focus their attacks on the most dangerous or first person to hit a Murkrow. Allow the Big Murkrow to have an Egg Move: Mirror Move, Perish Song, Screech, and Confuse Ray are all good options.

END OF THE ENCOUNTER
What the players have decided to do here can change what happens later!
-If the players defeat the Murkrow and do not capture it, they will have earned an enemy that will never forget them. It will eventually find a way to evolve into a Honchkrow and return later for revenge.
-If the players helps the Murkrow evolve and don't catch it, they will have a loyal group of corvids to help out when they need it.
-If a player captures the big Murkrow the whole group disbands.