Maribel Quest Abridging - A Z-Machine Adventure

[Hello Purvis]

>Open them such that we can see the side of the gallery where the door to the hallway is.
>If there is nothing there that seems to take notice of us, shift our position to peer at the rest of the room in sequence.

>You open them to get a glance at the doors to the western gallery. You can see a number of western style artworks through the crack, but the door is of more interest. You have a fairly clear view of it. All you can see is a doll in front of it, staggering and holding her head like she's dizzy.
>Checking the rest of the gallery, you see nothing threatening in the middle area. To the southern side, you see Alice in the corner. She is obscured by some of the artworks there, but she seems to be casting a spell of some sort. Another doll is in front of her, arms waving. You think it may be gesturing in your direction.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Does Alice appear free of the physical trauma we inflicted? No shaking, no head-rubbing, etc.?

[DracoOmega]

>From what we can see, if the door was open, would we have a clear shot at Alice without hitting the artwork?

[Hello Purvis]

> Does Alice appear free of the physical trauma we inflicted? No shaking, no head-rubbing, etc.?

>She is certainly still beat up, but she doesn't seem to be trembling that badly. It's hard to tell from tis distance.

>From what we can see, if the door was open, would we have a clear shot at Alice without hitting the artwork?

>You don't feel especially confident in your chances to do that without hitting something.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Can we tell what she might be casting? Does anything appear to be happening in response to her actions?
>If we can't really tell, do the following:
>Nod to Renko
>Quickly open the door and rush towards Alice, angling for an open line of fire to her without collateral damage

[Hello Purvis]

>Can we tell what she might be casting? Does anything appear to be happening in response to her actions?
>If we can't really tell, do the following:
>Nod to Renko
>Quickly open the door and rush towards Alice, angling for an open line of fire to her without collateral damage

>You are some ways from being intelligent enough about magic to know what kind of spell she is casting by sight. But, you are able to make out a couple of details with more observation. You can see, just obscured by a stand with a bust on it, what looks like a closed black book floating in front of her. You also think you see something metallic on the floor, but it's hard to tell.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Either way, it's probably best not to let her finish what she's attempting
>Nod to Renko
>Quickly open the door and rush towards Alice, angling for an open line of fire to her without collateral damage
>Unless the spell is occupying so much of her focus that it doesn't look like she noticed our entrance: "Alice! What're you doing?"

[Hello Purvis]

>Either way, it's probably best not to let her finish what she's attempting
>Nod to Renko
>Quickly open the door and rush towards Alice, angling for an open line of fire to her without collateral damage
>Unless the spell is occupying so much of her focus that it doesn't look like she noticed our entrance: "Alice! What're you doing?"

>It's probably a bad thing.
>You nod to Renko, then burst into the gallery. Seeing the place has been arranged into aisles, you run toward the south end to open of a clear line of fire. As you do, the faerie that was hovering around her with arms flies in front of her; about a yard from her, with arms spread wide. You also see that the burlap sack she had the the dolls carrying has been opened. It's contents seem to be a great deal of clockwork rods and hinges and other such things. You recognize them quickly, you gave a handful of these to a faerie yesterday.
>"A test run," says Alice.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>How close are we to Alice?
>How close are we to the bag?
>Aside from the doll in our way, do we a shot safe of collateral damage?
>If Alice fires at US, would she likely risk damaging things?
>"If you're after the stuff in here, do you really want to bring the fight in here and risk damaging it?"

[UncertainJakutten]

Why don't you just shoot her?

Better to damage stuff rather than have it all stolen.

[Hello Purvis]

>How close are we to Alice?
>How close are we to the bag?
>Aside from the doll in our way, do we a shot safe of collateral damage?
>If Alice fires at US, would she likely risk damaging things?
>"If you're after the stuff in here, do you really want to bring the fight in here and risk damaging it?"

>You are about 20 feet away.
>It is about the same, though some of it has spread out as much as 15 feet away.
>You think you shouldn't hit anything.
>You look around. There's a fair chance that Alice might hit a painting near you.
>"Because it's better to bring back some of it rather than none of it," says Alice, as the book begins to float over the pile of clockwork junk.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Try to stop time again. Be ready to move quickly the moment this happens, if it does
>If this doesn't work, aim a quick blast at Alice as a feint. If the doll in front of her moves to intercept, immediately switch a more directed stream at the book

[Hello Purvis]

>Try to stop time again. Be ready to move quickly the moment this happens, if it does
>If this doesn't work, aim a quick blast at Alice as a feint. If the doll in front of her moves to intercept, immediately switch a more directed stream at the book

>You are unable to stop time.
>You aim a quick blast at Alice! As you expected, the doll moves to intercept the shot. You then switch over to a quick stream at the book as the doll takes the hit. The bullets fly at the book and hit! They don't seem to phase it very much.
>"It takes more than force to open the Grimoire," says Alice, as she lowers her trembling hands.
>Some of the metal scraps are starting to rise into the air.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>The book is currently hovering a short distance away from Alice, over the scraps, right? And it moved to that position during the spell?
>Assuming so, dash towards the book while firing a few more shots at Alice to hopefully occupy the doll. Not enough to affect our momentum.
>Try to grab the book and hurl to the other side of the room, generally in Renko's direction (without being close enough to actually hit her in the process)

[E-Nazrin]

DO NOT GRAB THE BOOK!

>Belay all of that.

Byakuren said touching the Grimoire would turn us into a youkai.

I'm a retard :]

[Blitzer]

>What would happen if you danmaku'd the book?

[DracoOmega]

DO NOT GRAB THE BOOK!

>Belay all of that.

Byakuren said touching the Grimoire would turn us into a youkai.

Actually, that was Reimu. And then she retracted that and said it would probably require opening the book. I didn't actually forget that she'd said that. I don't think there's a credible risk of it happening from touching it. In truth, all Reimu admitted afterward is that she suspected the book was involved with Alice becoming a youkai somehow.

>What would happen if you danmaku'd the book?

We just DID. It did nothing.

[E-Nazrin]

... oh. My bad then. Might still be a risk, though... eh. Sorry :ohdear:

[Hello Purvis]

>The book is currently hovering a short distance away from Alice, over the scraps, right? And it moved to that position during the spell?
>Assuming so, dash towards the book while firing a few more shots at Alice to hopefully occupy the doll. Not enough to affect our momentum.
>Try to grab the book and hurl to the other side of the room, generally in Renko's direction (without being close enough to actually hit her in the process)

>This is correct.
>You dash toward the book, firing a few more shots at Alice. "Stand down, Hourai," she says, as the doll starts to move to intercept your shots. Alice simply backs away from them.
>You find that dashing through the pile of metal would be just inviting yourself to trip, fall, and probably hurt yourself very badly. So you take to the air and grab the book! It is warm and tingly under your fingers.
>You turn and hurl it as had as you can in Renko's general direction! The book sails across the gallery, slowing to a stop a midair, rather like your Floating Stone did. The bits of gold and sliver clockwork that were already in the air move with it; while more lift from the pile to follow.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>How close to Renko did the book get before it stopped?

[Hello Purvis]

>How close to Renko did the book get before it stopped?

>It is a couple yards from her and about three yards in the air. Renko just stares at it, whether she is amazed, confused, or both is hard to tell.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Renko! Get that book out of the room! Close the door behind you!"
>Position ourselves to give Renko some cover, and fire at Alice

[Hello Purvis]

>"Renko! Get that book out of the room! Close the door behind you!"
>Position ourselves to give Renko some cover, and fire at Alice

>"Got it!" Renko says, flying up and grabbing the book, while dozens of parts from the pile lift up and begin to fly toward it.
>You fire at Alice, who calmly backsteps away.
>"Damn, this thing's heavy!" Renko shouts, as she starts for the door with the book in hand.
>"So, what are you hoping to achieve with this?" Alice asks.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Isn't attempting to interrupt something you were planning to use against us reason enough?"
>Launch a small danmaku cloud at her, followed by a faster moving stream targeted at where we expect the most likely place for Alice to shift to is, based on her last movements

[communist unity (comm-unity)]

> "Renko, try to see if Patchouli can stop whatever that book is doing!"
> How far away are we from Alice?


If you can't shoot her, punch her.

[DracoOmega]

> "Renko, try to see if Patchouli can stop whatever that book is doing!"

I was thinking that it wouldn't matter, actually. The metal parts aren't going to fly THROUGH the door to it

[communist unity (comm-unity)]

Yeah, just doing it just to be safe in case that doesn't work and the parts phase/break through the door.

[DracoOmega]

I guess I was just worried we'd provoke Alice to try harder to stop us if we were going to get Patchy involved as opposed to being 'clueless' and therefore harmless. But I could easily just be being paranoid over here.

[Hello Purvis]

> "Renko, try to see if Patchouli can stop whatever that book is doing!"
> How far away are we from Alice?

>"Trying!" says Renko. You notice she is not flying nearly as fas she should be. The parts floating around the book are starting to join with others flying toward it.
>She is about five or six yards from you.

>"Isn't attempting to interrupt something you were planning to use against us reason enough?"
>Launch a small danmaku cloud at her, followed by a faster moving stream targeted at where we expect the most likely place for Alice to shift to is, based on her last movements

>"I meant more specifically," says Alice, as she steps around your cloud. "But I suppose that is fine. Though you may want to recommend she drop it before she gets hurt."
>You fire a stream behind her, given her prior habit of stepping back from your attacks, but she holds still this time as the cloud goes around her.

>_

>_

[DracoOmega]

>How far is Renko from the door, now? How long do we think it will take her to reach it at the speed she's moving?
>Fly towards Alice. As we do, launch a direct stream at her. Try to shift it to follow her.