(Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 2)

[DracoOmega]

>You are Nazrin, a newly inducted member of the Seeker's Guild and you're nearing the end of your first day on the job.

>You found and retrieved a cat for a witch named Ellen, and were rewarded handsomely for your efforts. You've agreed to help some fairies find two new cats, one of which you've already given them. You got into a fight with an oni who was attacking a man outside a restaurant, and assisted Orange in arresting her. You accepted a job to investigate a delayed fruit shipment to the Melon Bowl. You recieved a job notice from Ichirin about disappearing livestock in Easthaven. You have travelled to Easthaven to follow up on both of these leads. Along the way, you met Cirno, an ice fairy who calls herself a swordsman. She attempted to challange you to a fight, but you managed to talk her out of it. You also may have encouraged her to investigate the Seeker's Guild.

>You are currently in Isato Matsutaka's house, speaking with him about the youkai who attacked his cart on the road to Braston several days

>"That's fine, I just wanted to be sure you didn't leave anything out. And, as far as you know, she didn't follow you?"

>He shakes his head. "I never saw her again, even when I went back to look for my cart. I guess she was more interested in that than me, thank god."

[Hello Purvis]

>Nod.
>"You went back, and what did you find and find missing?"

[DracoOmega]

>Nod.
>"You went back, and what did you find and find missing?"

>"I couldn't find a thing," he says. "No sign of any of it; horses, cart, fruit, nothing."

[Kips McKipzerson]

>"And thats why I'm here, eh. Dont worry, I'll take care of it somehow."

[DracoOmega]

>"And thats why I'm here, eh. Dont worry, I'll take care of it somehow."

>"Well, uh, if you can..." he trails off, frowning. "If you can find some of it still intact, I'll try to find some way to pay you back for it."

[Hello Purvis]

>"I assume you saw nothing like footprints, wheel tracks, and so on?"

[DracoOmega]

>"I assume you saw nothing like footprints, wheel tracks, and so on?"

>"Er, um, I didn't really notice." He looks a little sheepish.

[Kips McKipzerson]

>"Eh, doesnt matter too much. As long as I've a general area, I'm sure I can help in some way."
>If we asked him about what was in the basket, Could we somehow dowse it?

[Hello Purvis]

>That would indeed be the plan.
>"Give me a description of the shipment; and the carts and the horses."

[DracoOmega]

>"Eh, doesnt matter too much. As long as I've a general area, I'm sure I can help in some way."
>If we asked him about what was in the basket, Could we somehow dowse it?

>Isato nods slowly. "I know you Seekers are good at that." Something about his demeanor makes you wonder if he's still doubtful.
>It seems a safe bet that it was mostly produce. Plant matter like that is very hard and indistinct to dowse. Among an open wilderness filled with plant matter, it would be kind of like looking for a piece of hay in a haystack. There's always a chance there was something more distinctive than that in the cart, however.

>That would indeed be the plan.
>"Give me a description of the shipment; and the carts and the horses."

>You decide to inquire.
>"The shipment was just fruit," he says. " Pineapple, watermelon, a bunch of other things. That's what I grow, mostly. A lot of it was going to the Melon Bowl, but some was for the open market or smaller contracts. The cart's a regular open two-horse cart; you know the type, I'm sure. Wooden, nothing fancy. The horses are both draft mares: a chestnut and a bay. The bay's getting a little up in years, now, but still going strong. Or, well, she was when I saw her last..." He trails off, frowning.

[Hello Purvis]

>Would being exposed to things belonging to the horses, or having samples of their hair or whatnot, help in tracking them down?

[DracoOmega]

>Would being exposed to things belonging to the horses, or having samples of their hair or whatnot, help in tracking them down?

>Given the difficulty of dowsing organic material, you don't think hair would be very helpful. You certainly couldn't match it to any specific horse that way. As is, you may be able to get a vague read from the horses themselves, in the sense of 'largish, probably animal', but would likely already have to be close to them in order to separate this from background noise.

[Hello Purvis]

>Ah well. Does worked wood or harvested produce count as organic?

[DracoOmega]

>Ah well. Does worked wood or harvested produce count as organic?

>They would. Moreover, the bigger issue in this case is that if they were somewhere in the wilderness, they would be surrounded by materials very similar to them. Such low contrast would make it very difficult to distinguish the produce from other plants and vegetation growing all around, or worked wood from trees, unless there was something unusual about the way the wood was treated.

[Hello Purvis]

>Then we're probably limited to looking for the nails and such in it.
>"One last thing: Where did the attack happen? You mentioned the bridge, but how far from it? And, on this side or the other?"

[DracoOmega]

>Then we're probably limited to looking for the nails and such in it.
>"One last thing: Where did the attack happen? You mentioned the bridge, but how far from it? And, on this side or the other?"

>Small as they are, they'd probably still be easier to find. If the cart had metal axles, that would be even better.
>"On this side," he says. "It was, uh, well... not too far from it; 15 minutes? You could still see it from there, anyway."

[Sect]

> "All right, thanks for the info. By the way, does your cart have metal axles?"
> When he inevitably gives us a dumb look, add: "Trust me, it'll help me find the thing."

[DracoOmega]

> "All right, thanks for the info. By the way, does your cart have metal axles?"
> When he inevitably gives us a dumb look, add: "Trust me, it'll help me find the thing."

>"Uh, yeah?" he says, looking a little puzzled.
>You explain that it'll help you find it. He gives you another uncertain look, then shrugs. "You know what you're doing, I'm sure."

[Kips McKipzerson]

>Well that helps more then enough.
>"I'm pretty sure I can find your cart, along with whatever is missing. If not, I'll at least find the perpetrator. Thank you kindly for the help."
>Shall we take our leave and get to dowsing?

[Hello Purvis]

>How far off is the bridge from here?

[DracoOmega]

>Well that helps more then enough.
>"I'm pretty sure I can find your cart, along with whatever is missing. If not, I'll at least find the perpetrator. Thank you kindly for the help."
>Shall we take our leave and get to dowsing?

>You're pretty sure that you can find it, assuming it's still in the same general vicinity.
>Istao nods slowly. "Um, thanks... Uh, I mean, thank you." He bows his head towards you.
>Shall you?

>How far off is the bridge from here?

>The better part of three hours' walk.

[Kips McKipzerson]

>We'd better get there fast then.
>Head to the bridge.
>we can has timeskip?

[Sect]

Hold the phone. You should probably check to see how tired you are, first: it's currently night, Nazrin's barely eaten all day, and that's a six hour round trip to confront a youkai with sharp claws.

[Kips McKipzerson]

Well, We dont have a very big timeframe to get this stuff and get paid. I'm pretty sure Naz can handle a scrap with a random Youkai if she could handle one with an Oni - if it ever goes that far, that is. Plus I can assume that Cirno is still in the vicinity of the bridge, which is why once we got there I wanted to ask her to help us.

[E-Nazrin]

>First, estimate how many hours we have left before getting debilitatingly tired.
>Would Ichirin be upset about skipping out on her after this?

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>We can always come back to do her request, though we might want to tell her what we're doing and why. She'd probably understand, though.

[Kips McKipzerson]

>We can always come back to do her request, though we might want to tell her what we're doing and why. She'd probably understand, though.

>But before we do that, Would it take a considerable amount of time to get to her place, and back to the bridge?

[Hello Purvis]

There's two ways to do this. One is that we go now, and if we find the goods we bring back word. That's six hours. Realistically nine hours, because the farmer would have to get there.

Second way is we wait, bring the farmer with us, and if we can find it, we send him on his way from there. However, this requires the horses to be in travelworthy state, the cart to be moderately intact, and the shipment to still be at least kinda there.

The third way is we kidnap a horse and use that to speed things along.

[Kips McKipzerson]

Well purvis, Keep this in mind: Why would a Youkai attack a cart full of food? At the very most we'll probably only get half of what the guy was carrying. We can find the youkai in most likely an hour, so thats 3 hours to going to the bridge plus one. And iirc from bridge to town is... 2? We can give the shopkeep the stuff (if there's any left), and go back to Ichirin for the night.

That or we could borrow/steal a horse to speed this all along quite a bit. But remember, There's most likely no food left.

[Hello Purvis]

Why would there be almost no food left? It was enough to supply a restaurant.