(Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 4)

[Hello Purvis]

I'm thinking spider silk is a fine trade good and she'd be swimming in cows within a year as word gets out.

[Hanzo K.]

That's exactly what i was thinking!
Y'know, a lot of the silk out there is actually made from the wool of goats that have been injected with spider DNA that runs the silk production or something.
I read it somewhere in a scientific magazine several years back, apparently it's a good equal to silkworm and spider silks.
So I'm thinking, she'd be raking it in when she starts making silken goods. But of course, you pretty much already said that.
...Hang on...I got an idea. Why not TELL her that she'd be able to get cows by trading the silk that she and her spider comrades can produce?
If it involves food, and pretty much the ensured peace of her lot, she'd probably be all for it. We'd just have to prove it too her somehow.
I'm thinking that we might be able to get one of our friends to help explain it to her.

I'm figuring that we could start it with an offhand remark about how silk's a valuable commodity, and how people give a lot of gold and other sorts of goods to get it.

[DracoOmega]

> Is our pack large enough to hold the sword inside?

>Given the weapon's length, you have serious doubts it would fit without forcing it down; incidentally, doing that with a very sharp object sounds like a great way to puncture holes in the other side of your pack.

[Kilgamayan]

> What if we left it sticking out of the top?

[DracoOmega]

> What if we left it sticking out of the top?

>You imagine you could leave the top of your pack open and let the grip stick out. Of course, there's still the issue of the sword possibly damaging something inside the pack or falling out entirely if you get jostled; it wouldn't be suitable for any sort of quick action. This would be so much more convenient if you'd just found a scabbard to go along with it...

[Kilgamayan]

> What about leaving the pointed end sticking out of the top?

[Kilgamayan]

> Parser parser parser parser parser parser parser parser

[DracoOmega]

> What about leaving the pointed end sticking out of the top?

>That could safeguard some of your possessions from the blade, though it would obviously make retrieving the sword a slower and much touchier process.

> Parser parser parser parser parser parser parser parser

>Sorry, my mental faculties were consumed pretending to be a fairy with limited mental faculties.

[Kilgamayan]

> "How's this?"
> Carefully place the sword in our pack so the blade is pointed up and away from our other possessions, as well as the walls of our pack, then look back at the youkai.

[DracoOmega]

> "How's this?"
> Carefully place the sword in our pack so the blade is pointed up and away from our other possessions, as well as the walls of our pack, then look back at the youkai.

>You take careful hold of the sword by the blade and ease it down into your pack until you feel the hilt brush against the bottom. Several inches of the tip protrude from the open top, but you think the walls of the pack are relatively safe for the moment; however effortlessly the blade had cut the youkai's tethers, it seems content to rest against the much softer material of your pack without slicing through on force of gravity alone. You release the blade and turn back to the youkai. Her expression looks... strangely uncertain.

>You feel a sudden wave of nausea brush against you and then nearly double over as pain explodes in your lungs. You gasp at the air, but it comes out as a strangled wheeze; it feels like you're inhaling shards of glass! Your limbs start trembling and you feel a rapidly growing sense of dizziness. Oh god...

[Kilgamayan]

> Quick! Pinch our fingers around the flat part of the sword and draw it back out!

[DracoOmega]

> Quick! Pinch our fingers around the flat part of the sword and draw it back out!

>You reach a trembling hand back towards the sword blade protruding from your pack, but one of your knees buckles under you before you can grasp it and you stumble forward, barely keeping yourself from falling face-first onto the ground. You hear the sword shift around in your pack. The room is spinning and you can feel fire radiating outwards from your lungs. Dimly, you notice a kunai flying through the air towards you, a silken strand trailing it.

[Oldmansour]

First off, Hanzo. Good to see you again. Second,

>Obviously don't have the wherewithall to catch it.
>Stagger/dodge/evade to one side with as much dexterity as we can manage, given our compromised condition.
>Get that sword back in our hands asap!

[DracoOmega]

>Obviously don't have the wherewithall to catch it.
>Stagger/dodge/evade to one side with as much dexterity as we can manage, given our compromised condition.
>Get that sword back in our hands asap!

>You barely have the wherewithal to remain upright and you're pretty sure you're about to decorate the cavern with your lunch.
>You try to move out of the way of the incoming projectile, but none of your limbs are working quite right and the rocks won't stop moving around underneath you. An attempt to dash left results in you tumbling to the ground instead, when your upper and lower body refuse to stay in sync. The floor rotates up to meet you and the impact makes you gasp another agonizing breath. Dimly, you hear the sword clatter out of your pack and onto the ground.
>You quickly scan around the chamber to see where the sword landed, your vision swimming. You fight to keep from simply throwing up from the motion. There it is! You shift and weakly stretch out a hand towards it, only to see your kunai reeled back along its tether; the flat of its blade clatters against the sword's hilt, knocking it away from you again.

[Oldmansour]

>Too bad she's not close enough for us to vomit on.
>Don't lose that sword! We need it back if we're to survive.

[DracoOmega]

>Too bad she's not close enough for us to vomit on.
>Don't lose that sword! We need it back if we're to survive.

>At this point, it's hard to even be sure what direction she's in.
>You half-stumble, half-crawl towards where the sword skidded, compelling yourself to move though you feel like a shambling incarnation of misery. At the edge of your field of vision, you see the kunai incoming again. You honestly cannot tell what it is being aimed at, whether yourself or the sword ahead of you, or maybe even the ceiling, for all that you can see straight.

[Oldmansour]

>If she hates the sword as much as we think she does, she'll be aiming at it again, to keep it out of her hands.
>Grab it before the kunai hits it.

[Kilgamayan]

Um.

Oops. .-.

[DracoOmega]

>If she hates the sword as much as we think she does, she'll be aiming at it again, to keep it out of her hands.
>Grab it before the kunai hits it.

>You scrabble towards the sword, as best you can approximate that action at the moment, and then nearly collapse on top of it as you try to reach out for it. You're feeling vertigo in a dozen directions at once and having some difficulty even remembering what you were just trying to do. You feel a dull pain... somewhere. Was that your arm? Oh yes, the sword!
>You fumble your hands beneath yourself and feel something smooth and flat. You grab it tightly!
>Almost immediately your misery retreats. The room stops pretending to be a lake in storm, and your breath draws no pain aside from a lingering foul taste in the air. Your nausea returns to a moderate unpleasantness and your thoughts rapidly clarify. ...and you are definitely gripping the sword by its blade.

[Oldmansour]

So the sword was keeping us from feeling the worst of the gas? Wow. Wouldn't have called that.
I wouldn't blame yourself, Kilga. I don't any one of us would have predicted that before the fact. There was no way to know. And who knows? Maybe the act of doing that helped. She did seem confused by the gesture.
That said, however, I trust no one has any objections to leaving now? Before things get even worse?

>Try not to inhale in relief. We're still in the cloud.
>Where's that kunai gone?

[Kilgamayan]

Wellllllllll...to be honest, this turn of events makes me want to talk to her more. <_<;

[Hello Purvis]

I think we can play it to our advantage.

>Get a grip on the sword's hilt, no need to wound up our fingers more.

[Oldmansour]

No, Purvis, we can't. If there ever was a sign to leave before things get worse, that was it.
And besides, there's another problem, on top of everything else. The torch. That torch isn't going to burn forever, and it's the only one we've got left. If we get blacked out down here, we've had it. That's it. Game over. The longer we stay, not only do we get weaker from our wounds, not only do we soak up more toxins, not only do we lose more blood, but our only light source gets closer and closer to going out.
So, that's it.

[Aya Squawkermaru]

>How is our torch holding out?

No point in keeping ourselves in the dark about it.

[DracoOmega]

>Try not to inhale in relief. We're still in the cloud.
>Where's that kunai gone?

>You avoid drawing a deeper breath, although you did just take one a moment before. You have enough air for a little bit, though. That being said, even this state of wounded and exhausted unpleasantness is overwhelmingly more pleasant than your state a moment ago.
>From the feel of your left arm, it was in there a few moments ago. The visible wound in it would seem to corroborate this, though it isn't especially deep; it doesn't look like the angle of penetration was very good. Scanning about, you don't see it... or the youkai. ...but you do hear movement from the northwest tunnel.

>Get a grip on the sword's hilt, no need to wound up our fingers more.

>You ease your grip on the blade a little and grab the hilt with your other hand. A bright line of crimson scores the middle of your right palm; you're just glad it doesn't cut through your flesh as easily as it did hers or you might be missing half that hand now.

>How is our torch holding out?

>You seem to have somehow managed to keep a grip on it during that ordeal. Its light is still fine, though it has burned down some since you first light it. You should have plenty for a while, but given how far into the caverns you've come now, you're not entirely certain you have enough to make it all the way back out again.

[Oldmansour]

>Movement towards or away from us?

[Kilgamayan]

Okay, fine, we can leave the room now. =P

[DracoOmega]

>Movement towards or away from us?

>Away.

[Oldmansour]

>Cut the air in front of us enough to draw a quick breath, just enough to call after her, "I'm sorry things turned out this way."
>Cut enough air to take a slightly better breath, then haul ourselves to our feet, and head back down the tunnel towards the river. If we find ourselves running out of air, cut the cloud long enough to draw a quick breath.

[DracoOmega]

>Cut the air in front of us enough to draw a quick breath, just enough to call after her, "I'm sorry things turned out this way."
>Cut enough air to take a slightly better breath, then haul ourselves to our feet, and head back down the tunnel towards the river. If we find ourselves running out of air, cut the cloud long enough to draw a quick breath.

>You cut some of the miasma away from your face and call out to the youkai. The sound of her retreat echoing through the tunnels is your only reply. You hope that at least some of your words may have left a mark on her. Undoubtedly this will not be the last time her or her kin brush against the surface; you would like to think it's possible there can still be peace in their two futures.
>Then you slash at the air some more and take a deep breath, pulling yourself to your feet. You head to the southwestern tunnel and quickly retrace your steps. After a short distance you find yourself clear of the haze and resume your normal breathing. It... is a strangely alien feeling at this point to not be locked in struggle or flight. You do keep an ear out in case she has chosen to stalk you once more, but hear nothing more of her. A short while later, you find yourself back in the large chamber with the river.