Author Topic: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)  (Read 58877 times)

Hello Purvis

  • *
  • Hello Jerry
Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #30 on: January 01, 2014, 01:19:21 AM »
>Does the tree around it seem to be exceptional? For instance, might there be disturbed or broken branches to indicate that someone flew through them?

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #31 on: January 01, 2014, 01:45:08 AM »
>Does the tree around it seem to be exceptional? For instance, might there be disturbed or broken branches to indicate that someone flew through them?

>Not specifically, but if you had to guess, you might say that someone flew past it. It would explain the abrupt end to the footprints.

Hello Purvis

  • *
  • Hello Jerry
Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #32 on: January 01, 2014, 02:10:49 AM »
>Consider the direction the footprints have gone, and toward the trees in that direction to see if there are any signs of passage among the branches.

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #33 on: January 01, 2014, 03:40:33 PM »
>Consider the direction the footprints have gone, and toward the trees in that direction to see if there are any signs of passage among the branches.

>On closer inspection, there is a bent twig or two in that direction, though the tree itself is sturdy enough that you wouldn't expect heavy disturbance unless whoever it was literally crashed into it.

Hello Purvis

  • *
  • Hello Jerry
Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #34 on: January 01, 2014, 06:52:19 PM »
>Let's pay some more attention to those bent twigs; do they feel consistent with a flight path?

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #35 on: January 02, 2014, 04:35:03 PM »
>Let's pay some more attention to those bent twigs; do they feel consistent with a flight path?

>They could.

Hello Purvis

  • *
  • Hello Jerry
Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #36 on: January 02, 2014, 09:22:10 PM »
>Let's continue in that direction a bit, checking the trees and the ground alternately, to see if any traces show themselves. Or interesting scents.

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #37 on: January 05, 2014, 07:25:39 PM »
>Let's continue in that direction a bit, checking the trees and the ground alternately, to see if any traces show themselves. Or interesting scents.

>This seems difficult, as that direction is primarily up and you're limited to the treetops at the very best - these are not particularly tall.

Hello Purvis

  • *
  • Hello Jerry
Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #38 on: January 05, 2014, 09:57:31 PM »
>Does the direction of the traces which have a compass seem to be going toward where we think the faerie village would be?

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #39 on: January 06, 2014, 12:10:12 AM »
>Does the direction of the traces which have a compass seem to be going toward where we think the faerie village would be?

>It is somewhat hard to be exact from your current position, as you're not sure exactly where your current position is, but you don't think so.

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #40 on: January 06, 2014, 03:45:51 AM »
>Hmm.
>Produce rods and scan for unusual metals.

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #41 on: February 05, 2014, 07:29:00 PM »
>Hmm.
>Produce rods and scan for unusual metals.

>You take out your dowsing rods and have a scan for any unusual metals in the area. A few moments' concentration turns up trace deposits of iron, tin, and a little zinc in your immediate vicinity, though this is neither unusual nor economically interesting; you can find as much or more nearly anywhere. You sense nothing rare, nothing magical, nothing even worth somebody's time to dig up. Casting wider, you find much the same thing, though it grows increasingly hard to sense at all as you go further out. The fort is not hard to find if you pay attention, even from this distance, the refined metal of its clustered armaments and faint hints of multiple enchantments standing distinct from the unsettled lands that surround it; in a more densely-packed region, it would long ago have been lost to background noise. And probably still would to most people, for that matter - even in your current state, you can allow yourself a little pride.
>In a similar vein, there are a couple hints of something in the opposite direction which just barely brush across your attention after another minute or two - something which feels less rough and natural than its surroundings. It is so faint that it might be nothing, but it's also in the general direction you believe you're supposed to be traveling anyway. The distance is hard to gauge - closer than Isir's Cross, certainly, and much smaller - but probably still the better part of an hour away.

Hello Purvis

  • *
  • Hello Jerry
Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #42 on: February 05, 2014, 07:40:21 PM »
>Let's close in on that feeling about an hour away.

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #43 on: February 05, 2014, 10:23:49 PM »
>Let's close in on that feeling about an hour away.

>You stow your dowsing rods again and head westward in the general direction of the faintly conspicuous signature you detected. This is not far off the path you were originally following before you diverged in search of blackberries and fairy footprints, and sometimes the terrain itself forces you to follow closer to it than would be strictly direct; there is only so much you can do about the bumpy terrain and thick underbrush. Faint birdsong and the rustle of tiny animals through the bushes offer sporadic counterpoint to the steady thump of your feet against the mossy dirt. Just once, you thought you might have heard a voice call out at the edge of your hearing, but if it really was, you were unable to find further sign of who it belonged to. You continue forward.
>You take periodic measurements with your dowsing rods as the terrain forces you to steer aside in one direction or the other, referencing your map each time you do so. It seems increasingly likely that what you're sensing is some sign of habitation, past if not present - smelted metal of some sort, more refined than that in the ground around it and much more of it in one place. It could just be a few tools strewn around an old campsite, but maybe an actual dwelling. You even start to sketch roughly where you think it's located on your map, correlating the shifts in its relative position with the changes in your own - probably on the other side of the Grau, towards the south.

>The Grau itself, at least, is easy to find. The gentle rumble of what could be nothing else first reaches your ears about twenty minutes after resuming your journey, then weaves steadily louder among the sounds of the forest until it has risen above them all. A hint of fresh spray from its waters mingles with the heady scent of the wood around you long before you can spy the river's flow through a gap between the trees.
>The river is broader than you suspected, though it does not look to be particularly deep, judging from the multiple protruding rocks that can be seen cresting its surface even far from shore. The waters churn grey around them, but the flow elsewhere is clear and cold - forceful, but not rapid. Trees crowd close to the river on both sides, before their soil gives way to rocky ground with little for a plant to find purchase. There isn't really much of a shoreline to speak of, but you suppose someone could prop themselves up on one of several convenient rocks and have a comfortable enough time fishing, if they cared to - assuming there's actually something worth catching in the river, of course. The meandering course of the river and the dense forest that surrounds at least this part of it prevents you from seeing more than a couple hundred feet along it in either direction, and nothing that you can see particularly catches your eye.

Hello Purvis

  • *
  • Hello Jerry
Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #44 on: February 05, 2014, 10:53:54 PM »
>Do we see any spots where the river might be forded, or crossed without getting into it?

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #45 on: February 05, 2014, 11:02:44 PM »
>Do we see any spots where the river might be forded, or crossed without getting into it?

>Not from your current vantage. While some of the rocks look navigable, if rather water-slick, there aren't enough of them close enough together to reach from one bank to the other without diving into the water itself.

Hello Purvis

  • *
  • Hello Jerry
Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #46 on: February 05, 2014, 11:39:35 PM »
>Have a look around, anything like footprints or signs of passage?

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #47 on: February 05, 2014, 11:57:27 PM »
>Have a look around, anything like footprints or signs of passage?

>A brief search turns up a few animal prints, but nothing that conceivably belongs to a person.

Hello Purvis

  • *
  • Hello Jerry
Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #48 on: February 06, 2014, 12:03:32 AM »
>Presumably no wolf prints either.
>Does the river seem to widen or narrow in either direction?

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #49 on: February 06, 2014, 12:10:23 AM »
>Presumably no wolf prints either.
>Does the river seem to widen or narrow in either direction?

>None that you saw. The largest thing was probably a badger.
>The width varies a little here or there, but does not seem to do so consistently in either direction. There are, however, a couple spots on your map which are presumably fordable - at least the trail crosses the river without comment - though they are somewhat out of the way of where you're trying to head at the moment and would require some backtracking.

Hello Purvis

  • *
  • Hello Jerry
Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #50 on: February 06, 2014, 12:44:30 AM »
>Compare the directions of those trails to how irritating the forest looks in their respective directions, and determine which one would seem to take the least time to get to.

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #51 on: February 06, 2014, 12:54:01 AM »
>Presumably the trees are not close enough to enable us to either swing from one side to the other, or jump across?
>Cast Detect Evil.

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #52 on: February 06, 2014, 02:29:28 AM »
>Compare the directions of those trails to how irritating the forest looks in their respective directions, and determine which one would seem to take the least time to get to.

>Well, they're all northward of your current position, and the place you're aiming to reach is southward, so it doesn't really matter which - you'd be walking the same way. The shoreline seems fairly navigable in general, though.

>Presumably the trees are not close enough to enable us to either swing from one side to the other, or jump across?
>Cast Detect Evil.

>The tops of the trees are further away than the banks of the river are, anyway, and the height wouldn't add nearly enough distance to a jump to cover the whole width of the river here - probably it would just a be a great way to break some part of yourself against the rocks. Though maybe if you could get a rope to the other side somehow, you might be able to get across that way. Would be tricky to secure it from this far away, though.
>If only evil were that easy to sense, the world might be a less complicated place. Sadly, you couldn't even cast Prestidigitation if your life depended on it.

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #53 on: February 06, 2014, 02:46:58 AM »
>Don't we have a grappling hook?
>Bullhonkery. We have to have at least one level in Diviner. Mage/Rogue ftw.

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #54 on: February 06, 2014, 04:09:18 AM »
>Don't we have a grappling hook?
>Bullhonkery. We have to have at least one level in Diviner. Mage/Rogue ftw.

>You do, and enough rope to reach the other side. The issue will be in throwing it that far across and managing to land it on something secure; if it were half the distance that it is, there'd be no problem.
>I'm afraid this dowsing business is all Use Magic Device feats, sorry.

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #55 on: February 06, 2014, 04:28:42 AM »
>Wait a minute, we're a douser. Water is easy.
>Scan for the thinnest point of the water's flow within a short distance.

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #56 on: February 06, 2014, 04:45:12 AM »
>Wait a minute, we're a douser. Water is easy.
>Scan for the thinnest point of the water's flow within a short distance.

>While detecting water isn't hard, it's rather more difficult to measure specific changes in the width of the river from your current position, in somewhat the same way that it's hard to measure someone's height by looking at them from directly above; the bend and meander of the river would confound any attempt to get a good read on the width at any specific distant point without yourself being geographically aligned with it. This probably means standing in the river. For that matter, a more pertinent point here is probably the height and closeness of surrounding trees, which you definitely can't dowse for in a useful way.

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #57 on: February 06, 2014, 04:58:08 AM »
Will not be flummoxed by a river.

>Make sure no one's looking.
>Then string up a rope & grappling hook combination and attempt to hitch up to one of the trees on the other side.

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #58 on: February 06, 2014, 08:09:20 AM »
>Make sure no one's looking.
>Then string up a rope & grappling hook combination and attempt to hitch up to one of the trees on the other side.

>You are fairly certain no one is watching as you produce your rope and grapple and tie them together. Though one wrinkle in your brilliant plan becomes fairly obvious as you size up suitable trees on both banks: even with the best candidates you can see, the distance between them is greater than their elevation from the ground. In other words, someone swinging from a tree on one side would land in the river long before actually reaching the opposite bank.

Re: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)
« Reply #59 on: February 06, 2014, 08:18:52 AM »
>Well, then.
>Stick arm into the river to gauge depth, if we cannot gauge this data from a visual assessment.
>Outside of cold feet, there's really no reason we couldn't just walk across the river, is there? Assuming it doesn't drop off in the middle.