Iku Quest Sedem: A Z-Machine Adventure

[Hello Purvis]

> "May I presume this is a spiritual weight rather than a physical one? You have shown no signs of being weighted down in combat."

>She nods. "It wouldn't be a problem, but it doesn't fit like it should..."

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"How do you know it should fit? I presume you've never tried to take the shadow of anything remotely as vast as this before?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"How do you know it should fit? I presume you've never tried to take the shadow of anything remotely as vast as this before?"

>"Because they all do," she says, giving you a sharp look.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Well, for whatever reason, this one doesn't seem to. Is it... uncomfortable for you?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"Well, for whatever reason, this one doesn't seem to. Is it... uncomfortable for you?"

>"Not exactly," she says. "It's...just not fitting like it should."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "...Something just occurred to me. I don't know if this is significant at all, because I really don't know how this process works, but...when I was wandering around the shadow version of Bhava-Agra in that void, I came across material items that were unaffected in the real world. My personal possessions among them, such as my shawls and my spell cards. Both of those things are definitely fully present here - my spellcards worked yesterday exactly as they were made to work, for example. If they were completely unaffected by this process, why would there be a shadow copy of them in that void?"

[Hello Purvis]

> "...Something just occurred to me. I don't know if this is significant at all, because I really don't know how this process works, but...when I was wandering around the shadow version of Bhava-Agra in that void, I came across material items that were unaffected in the real world. My personal possessions among them, such as my shawls and my spell cards. Both of those things are definitely fully present here - my spellcards worked yesterday exactly as they were made to work, for example. If they were completely unaffected by this process, why would there be a shadow copy of them in that void?"

>She frowns. "Let me see one."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "Sure. How would you like me to give it to you?"

[Hello Purvis]

> "Sure. How would you like me to give it to you?"

>"Just hand it to me," she says.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Take out "Dragon Palace Messenger's Swimming Shot" and hand it to her

[Kilgamayan]

> "Just to check, I don't suppose it will matter what this card can do, will it?"

[Hello Purvis]

>Take out "Dragon Palace Messenger's Swimming Shot" and hand it to her

>You offer her one of your spellcards. She takes it with her right hand, the chill within you fading noticably as she does. It's more unsettling than physically uncomfortable now.

> "Just to check, I don't suppose it will matter what this card can do, will it?"

>She shakes her head as she examines the card, flipping the card over in her fingers. She then holds it over the ground, and stares at the shadow. "There's nothing wrong with it," she says. "Odd."

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"I take it that it shouldn't have been in that shadow realm, then? I shouldn't have been able to pick it up and hold it?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"I take it that it shouldn't have been in that shadow realm, then? I shouldn't have been able to pick it up and hold it?"

>"You said you found a copy of it?" she asks. "There?"

[DracoOmega]

>"I did, yes. They didn't function as spellcards when I tried to use them, but their physical properties seemed otherwise the same, aside from lacking color. And they were kept in the same place in my room that I always keep them."

[Kilgamayan]

> "I did take one of my shadow shawls since I was lacking one at the time, but I noticed after I left the void that it was gone. I presume it stayed in the void, as I presume Nitori stayed in the void, but I can't even begin to guess where specifically it is now."

[Hello Purvis]

>"I did, yes. They didn't function as spellcards when I tried to use them, but their physical properties seemed otherwise the same, aside from lacking color. And they were kept in the same place in my room that I always keep them."

>She nods. "It's not surprising they didn't work. But...hm."

> "I did take one of my shadow shawls since I was lacking one at the time, but I noticed after I left the void that it was gone. I presume it stayed in the void, as I presume Nitori stayed in the void, but I can't even begin to guess where specifically it is now."

>"You wouldn't be able to take that kind of thing out, it's intrinsic to the shadow itself."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "Is it possible that this different nature of the Bhavagran presence was able to affect the other shadows? When I was there, I asked Nitori was she had experienced before my arrival, and she told me that she felt like she was just floating around, and then suddenly she was on one of the islands. She could move around and such, but she was stuck on the island upon which she landed, unable to fly away to other islands. Then she became attached to me and, when I flew over nothingness, she said she experienced falling, rather than floating."

[Hello Purvis]

> "Is it possible that this different nature of the Bhavagran presence was able to affect the other shadows? When I was there, I asked Nitori was she had experienced before my arrival, and she told me that she felt like she was just floating around, and then suddenly she was on one of the islands. She could move around and such, but she was stuck on the island upon which she landed, unable to fly away to other islands. Then she became attached to me and, when I flew over nothingness, she said she experienced falling, rather than floating."

>The poltergeist nods. "It gave her something to fall on," she says. "Without that islands, she just keeps falling. She was falling the whole time, she just didn't notice."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "Hurm. That makes sense, I suppose. So that  probably wouldn't affect the other shadows to the degree you've mentioned. Still, I think it's reasonable to guess that the extra Bhavagran shadows you somehow picked up are why the shadow feels heavier, and possibly why it doesn't want to fit properly as well."

[Hello Purvis]

> "Hurm. That makes sense, I suppose. So that  probably wouldn't affect the other shadows to the degree you've mentioned. Still, I think it's reasonable to guess that the extra Bhavagran shadows you somehow picked up are why the shadow feels heavier, and possibly why it doesn't want to fit properly as well."

>"I'm not so sure," she says. "That thing you fell from is much stranger than all of that. I'm sure that's part of the cause, at least."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "I wonder if it may have been an effect rather than a cause, but you know more about this stuff than I do. I have nothing else to offer off the top of my head. Whatever introspection you have to do is the only thing left I can think of."

[DracoOmega]

>"I'm curious, though. I take it that all of these shadow objects on Bhava-Agra are not something you should expect would be there? Do you have any idea why they might have been?"

[Hello Purvis]

> "I wonder if it may have been an effect rather than a cause, but you know more about this stuff than I do. I have nothing else to offer off the top of my head. Whatever introspection you have to do is the only thing left I can think of."

>She nods again, staring at the spellcard and its shadow as she continues to turn it over in her hand.

>"I'm curious, though. I take it that all of these shadow objects on Bhava-Agra are not something you should expect would be there? Do you have any idea why they might have been?"

>"I think," she says, "that they were attached strongly to it."

>_

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "I wonder why Bhava-Agra's people were not affected, then."

[Hello Purvis]

> "I wonder why Bhava-Agra's people were not affected, then."

>"People have their own wills," she says. "They're separate from other things. Objects are different."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "That must be a very strong connection, then, if even personal possessions were taken along for the ride. A knife I kept in my desk drawer was a gift from outside Bhava-Agra - its attachment to the land was purely through me, and yet its shadow was still in the shadow of my room."

[Hello Purvis]

> "That must be a very strong connection, then, if even personal possessions were taken along for the ride. A knife I kept in my desk drawer was a gift from outside Bhava-Agra - its attachment to the land was purely through me, and yet its shadow was still in the shadow of my room."

>"It might have been attached to the room through you," says the poltergeist.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"I also wonder at how different Nitori and Bhava-Agra's conditions were. To me, Nitori was nothing but a shadow on the ground, like any other around here, yet Bhava-Agra and all its contents were solid three-dimensional objects, as physical as if I were interacting with the real thing. Is there any significance there, or is that also an expected effect, for some reason?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"I also wonder at how different Nitori and Bhava-Agra's conditions were. To me, Nitori was nothing but a shadow on the ground, like any other around here, yet Bhava-Agra and all its contents were solid three-dimensional objects, as physical as if I were interacting with the real thing. Is there any significance there, or is that also an expected effect, for some reason?"

>"The island has more of a presence," she says. "Nitori's is more strongly divided. People do that."

>_