Author Topic: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)  (Read 47925 times)

(Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« on: June 21, 2011, 02:06:30 AM »
>You are Nazrin, a newly inducted member of the Seeker's Guild. It's your third day on the job and you've already had a few misadventures.

>You found and retrieved a cat for a witch named Ellen, and were rewarded handsomely for your efforts. You found two stay cats for a group of fairies to adopt as pets. You got into a fight with an oni who was attacking a man outside a restaurant, and assisted Orange in arresting her. You found and delivered a lost fruit shipment to the Melon Bowl in Braston, retrieving it from Cirno, a self-styled swordsman who had driven its rightful owner off in the name of defending her fellows from harm. In the process, you met another fairy named Honeysuckle Dewdrop and adopted her as a sidekick of sorts, with the promise that some day she might be experienced enough to be a sidekick to Cirno. You left her the tutelage of Marisa, who promised to at least try and teach her a few things.

>You've now returned to Easthaven to investigate a series of cattle disappearances there. You are currently in pasture land north of the village, questioning Takashi, the farmer most recently hit by these disappearances.

>"Alright, that will be fine."

>"It was out towards the hills over there." He points to some of the ones in the distance to the northeast. "You can't really see the spot from here. The ground kinda rises up in-between. There's a little stream down there on the other side of one of the slopes. I was driving the lot of them towards it from further north and one of them was gone by the time we got there. I don't know how I could have missed it."

Hello Purvis

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Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #1 on: June 21, 2011, 02:12:16 AM »
>"Is that ground that others often use?"
>Look where he is pointing, can we see what he's talking about?

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #2 on: June 21, 2011, 02:21:49 AM »
>"Is that ground that others often use?"
>Look where he is pointing, can we see what he's talking about?

>"A few do, yeah," he says. "Although that's not the only place they've disappeared from, either."
>You look where he's pointing. There are large hills in the distance, towards the forested area beyond the grasslands. There are also some much more gentle ones on the way there which could be potentially hiding a stream on their other side. You wouldn't be able to tell from here.

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #3 on: June 21, 2011, 02:37:07 AM »
>"'Not the only place'"?"

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #4 on: June 21, 2011, 02:40:53 AM »
>"'Not the only place'"?"

>"Well, er, I don't know for sure where all the others were when theirs went missing, but I'm pretty sure they weren't all over at that one spot. Some people were a lot further west than that, anyway. Or said they were, anyway."

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #5 on: June 21, 2011, 03:01:32 AM »
>Are we familiar with the area he's referring to?

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #6 on: June 21, 2011, 03:16:52 AM »
>Are we familiar with the area he's referring to?

>Not intimately, but you think you could find it generally. Now, whether this was the specific spot he was referencing would be harder to tell.

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #7 on: June 21, 2011, 03:37:20 AM »
>Well, one location at a time.
>Look over Takashi's cows, see if they're all wearing cowbells.

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #8 on: June 21, 2011, 04:33:59 AM »
>Well, one location at a time.
>Look over Takashi's cows, see if they're all wearing cowbells.

>Looking over the cows, a couple of them seem to have cowbells, but most do not.

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #9 on: June 21, 2011, 04:35:17 AM »
>"Tell me something, Takashi. Your missing cows, were they wearing cowbells? Or any of the other cows, for that matter?"

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #10 on: June 21, 2011, 04:37:42 AM »
>"Tell me something, Takashi. Your missing cows, were they wearing cowbells? Or any of the other cows, for that matter?"

>"Cowbells?" He gives you a strange look. "Uh... I don't think so, no. I wouldn't have a clue about any of the others. Um... why?"

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #11 on: June 21, 2011, 04:56:18 AM »
>"You'd be surprised how often that sort of thing can be helpful."
>"Any distinctive items at all, like collars, or anything?"
« Last Edit: June 21, 2011, 05:04:41 AM by Sourfang »

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #12 on: June 21, 2011, 05:12:41 AM »
>"You'd be surprised how often that sort of thing can be helpful."
>"Any distinctive items at all, like collars, or anything?"

>He nods dubiously. "Uh, I guess."
>"Well, they're branded, of course," he says. "Other than that... more or less the same as anyone else's, really."

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #13 on: June 21, 2011, 05:13:36 AM »
>'Mobile seared cow hide' isn't the sort of thing we can douse for, is it?

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #14 on: June 21, 2011, 05:17:48 AM »
>'Mobile seared cow hide' isn't the sort of thing we can douse for, is it?

>Seared or not, cow hide is still cow hide. It doesn't have a structural resonance that you can dowse in any useful fashion.

Hello Purvis

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Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #15 on: June 21, 2011, 05:26:33 AM »
>Presumably, we also cannot dowse for cows?

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #16 on: June 21, 2011, 05:30:06 AM »
>Presumably, we also cannot dowse for cows?

>Not from any great distance. If you were fairly close to them, you would probably be able to sense something vague like 'large organic fleshy thing', but flesh in general lacks good structural resonance to dowse for.

Hanzo K.

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Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #17 on: June 21, 2011, 05:31:42 AM »
>What about any sort of minerals or whatever that they may have in them?
>Like iron fragments left over from branding, or stray metals they may have consumed inadvertently?
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Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #18 on: June 21, 2011, 05:32:44 AM »
Very clever.

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #19 on: June 21, 2011, 05:46:51 AM »
>What about any sort of minerals or whatever that they may have in them?
>Like iron fragments left over from branding, or stray metals they may have consumed inadvertently?

>While there are undoubtedly trace quantities of elements you could detect present in the cows, these same elements would be present in similar trace quantities in all manner of things in the environment itself. It would be impossible to differentiate signal from noise without a marked difference in the density or distribution of these elements from one spot to the next.

Hanzo K.

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  • Whoa, this YF-29's awesome!
Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #20 on: June 21, 2011, 05:50:01 AM »
>What about their bones? Can we try to dowse for those?

Hey, at this point I'm just shooting in the dark now.
Essence RO
Eiji Komatsu L1xx/6x CritsinX | Ryoshima Nanbu L7x/4x Crafting Blacksmith

Arbitrary Gaming~!
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Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #21 on: June 21, 2011, 06:00:08 AM »
Still, clever shots.
If it doesn't work, my plan would be to head out to where the cows dissapeared and see if we can find some mice to interrogate, cuz I'm not sure we can get much more out of Takashi here.

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #22 on: June 21, 2011, 06:39:06 AM »
>What about their bones? Can we try to dowse for those?

>Bone does have characteristic mineral content, but much of its structure is still organic and the minerals themselves don't resonate nearly as clearly as things like, say, iron or gold. This is further compounded by them being encased in flesh, which effectively serves to muffle the resonances. Still, a cow is a large animal, with a commensurately large skeletal structure. If you focused and attuned yourself to this specifically, you might be able to detect them from a longer range than simply looking for the cows themselves. Searching for them in this fashion would require considerable time and concentration, however.

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Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #23 on: June 21, 2011, 07:01:47 AM »
We definitely want to question some meeses. Some of them were probably awake when things went down. So the trick would be to find where most of the overnight disappearances happened, since they's be more active then.

>"What other kinds of places have the cows been vanishing, anyways? And at what time?"

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #24 on: June 21, 2011, 07:14:53 AM »
>"What other kinds of places have the cows been vanishing, anyways? And at what time?"

>"Usually evening," he says. "Well, mostly, anyway. I heard there's been one or two during the day, now. At least I think so. And I don't know where they disappeared from any better than what I already told you. A lot of them out that way," he gestures broadly northward. "Some of them not so far out. I think one was over by the river...."
>You believe you know the river he's referring to. It frames part of the grasslands to the northwest, out towards the forest. Much of it runs through the forest itself, in fact.

Hanzo K.

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  • Whoa, this YF-29's awesome!
Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #25 on: June 21, 2011, 07:47:53 AM »
All for investigating the forest?
I have a feeling we'll find out what's behind the cows vanishing if we search there.
Essence RO
Eiji Komatsu L1xx/6x CritsinX | Ryoshima Nanbu L7x/4x Crafting Blacksmith

Arbitrary Gaming~!
Youkai Quest: Unknown Adventure

Hello Purvis

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  • Hello Jerry
Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #26 on: June 21, 2011, 04:09:07 PM »
Going northward and questioning the local meeses is probably the best idea.

>"Alright, you've been a big help, Takashi. Could you tell me where you live, in case I have to ask more questions this evening?"

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #27 on: June 21, 2011, 06:37:56 PM »
>"Alright, you've been a big help, Takashi. Could you tell me where you live, in case I have to ask more questions this evening?"

>"Oh, uh, sure," he says. "It's in the row off northeast of the inn. Blue shutters, with a little flower bed under the front window. My wife's got daffodils planted there this year."

Hello Purvis

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Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #28 on: June 21, 2011, 06:56:52 PM »
>"Thanks. I've got a hunch, and if it's right, I might just be able to crack this open. Keep an eye on your cows in the meantime."
>Head toward the river to the north at Takashi indicated.

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3)
« Reply #29 on: June 21, 2011, 07:12:49 PM »
>"Thanks. I've got a hunch, and if it's right, I might just be able to crack this open. Keep an eye on your cows in the meantime."
>Head toward the river to the north at Takashi indicated.

>"You do?" he says. "I mean, great! And don't worry, I'm not letting them out of my sight." There's a certain irony in this statement, as you're pretty certain that he can't see half his herd at the moment, distracted as he is facing you.
>You head off towards the river. It's a fair trek, across more gently sloping hills and valleys. You pass a scattered few clusters of cows, although they get decidedly thinner as you go further north. The uppermost extent of the grasslands is nearly bare; it's quite probable that people have been pulling back from the edges, if most of the disappearances have happened there. Eventually you reach the bank of the river.
>The river runs along a considerable length of the western boundary of the pastureland and Takashi gave no indication along which part of it the disappearance occurred. This leaves quite a bit of ground to cover if you want to search the area. The river itself is fairly shallow and not terribly wide, though the current does get brisk in places. On the other side of it, clusters of trees rise up, swiftly becoming dense forest as you travel inward. Further to the north, the forest swallows the river on both sides as the grassland gives way to trees across most of its northern edge.