Iku Quest - A Z-Machine Adventure

[DracoOmega]

>"Part of attaining enlightenment is renouncing attachment to worldly goods. Moreover, what ones exist there would likely be someone else's property. I hope you can respect this."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Part of attaining enlightenment is renouncing attachment to worldly goods. Moreover, what ones exist there would likely be someone else's property. I hope you can respect this."

>Renko frowns and looks away. "Well crap, there goes part of the fun..."
>"It'll be okay," says Maribel, tucking the box under her arm and squeezing Renko's shoulder. "If they don't care about worldly goods, maybe we'll find something nice they don't want?"

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Well, at least that seems to be a better attitude regarding property than this morning
>"I'm sorry to disappoint you. I should mention that the islands' decent has been a startling experience for many celestials. However, if you're polite, I hope there should be no trouble for you."
>"In any event, I think I should continue searching for Tenshi. It was nice meeting you, and I bid you a good day."

[WHMZakeri]

>Go to Kourindou
>Scout the south.

[Hello Purvis]

>Well, at least that seems to be a better attitude regarding property than this morning
>"I'm sorry to disappoint you. I should mention that the islands' decent has been a startling experience for many celestials. However, if you're polite, I hope there should be no trouble for you."
>"In any event, I think I should continue searching for Tenshi. It was nice meeting you, and I bid you a good day."

>It seems that way, though you wonder if they were hoping for some actual plunder, as opposed to simply raiding an orchard...
>They both nod. "We didn't intend to be rude," Maribel says, "So no worries on that account."
>"Good luck," says Renko.

>Go to Kourindou
>Scout the south.

>You begin toward the road to the east again, then follow it south toward Kourindou.
>You see that the agitated faeries are still on the road. They don't seem to have noticed you, yet.

>_

[E-Nazrin]

>What exactly are they doing? Just looking nervous, or acting up?
>Do they seem to be taking any interest in the island?
>... are there any signs of fairies already on that island?

[Hello Purvis]

>What exactly are they doing? Just looking nervous, or acting up?
>Do they seem to be taking any interest in the island?
>... are there any signs of fairies already on that island?

>They are flying around erratically, and seem to be having an argument. When they aren't all talking at once, at least.
>You can't be sure. There aren't any Island in the immediate vicinity, but there are certainly several of them over the forest.
>You didn't see any near the one by Maribel and Renko's home. Others are too distant to be sure, faeries are hard to see from a distance due to being tiny.

>_

[E-Nazrin]

>Might as well act casual about this, at least...
>Approach quietly.

[Hello Purvis]

>Might as well act casual about this, at least...
>Approach quietly.

>You decide to approach the faeries causally.
>"It's fall!" you hear one of them shout. "Things are supposed to fall when it's fall!"
>"Nu-uh!" says another faerie, "It's Pazhitnov's revenge!"
>"That's silly!" cries a third faerie, waving her arms. "Pazhitnov already got revenge!"
>"Well maybe he wants more!" the second faerie says.
>"Maybe they just really need to go on a diet?" asks another faerie.
>"Rocks aren't that vain!" the first faerie says.
>"What about floating rocks?!" says the fourth faerie, "You didn't think about that, did you!?"
>"Okay, maybe not..."
>"Hey I got it!" a fifth faerie cries, "Time's moving backwards! Oh crap, all the sake's going to unferment! Quick, to the tavern!"
>"That doesn't make any sense!" the third faerie cries.
>"Your face doesn't make any sense!"
>"More than hers!" The third faerie points at you.

>_

[E-Nazrin]

1. How the fuck do fairies know about Pazhitnov and why did I crack up after looking him up
2. Where's Kilga?

[DracoOmega]

2. Where's Kilga?

I make no pretense at having the same ability to converse with the spastic, but I'd rather keep things moving forward. ^^; Feel free to stop me if you like.

>"Maybe they're just tired? They've been floating way up in the air for ages now, and everyone knows how exhausted you get doing that after a while. The air gets thinner the higher you go, so you get tired quicker. Maybe they just came down here to take a break?"

[E-Nazrin]

>Consider whether being mischievous with these fairies is appropriate, between playing along with their nature and style and the misdirection required to do so.

[Hello Purvis]

I>"Maybe they're just tired? They've been floating way up in the air for ages now, and everyone knows how exhausted you get doing that after a while. The air gets thinner the higher you go, so you get tired quicker. Maybe they just came down here to take a break?"

>There is a pause.
>"Holy crap!" says one of the faeries.
>"Genius!"
>"That's stupid! Rocks don't get tired!"
>"Are they eating properly?"
>"Maybe your rocks don't!"
>"You're stupid!"
>"But how did Pazhitnov do that!?"
>Some of the faeries, there seem to be nine of them, gather around you.

>Consider whether being mischievous with these fairies is appropriate, between playing along with their nature and style and the misdirection required to do so.

>In general, it's accepted that faeries are fairly nonsensical outside of one on one conversations. It's usually accepted that when dealing with a group, it's alright to play along. You won't deceive them any worse than they deceive themselves, as long as one isn't trying to encourage them to do bad things.

>_

>_

[E-Nazrin]

>"Nine, eh? Well, make a circle and let's do the Cirno Summoning Dance!"
>bust a move

[DracoOmega]

>"Normal rocks don't get tired but how do you know about floating rocks? Have you ever asked one?"
>"Either way, It's my job to get to the bottom of this. I'm the official falling floating rock investigator, and I'm chasing after an important clue that I saw passing through this forest. Have you seen a blue-haired woman fly through here recently? I think she has more answers."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Nine, eh? Well, make a circle and let's do the Cirno Summoning Dance!
>bust a move

>You try to lead the faeries in a circle dance! Faeries are terrible followers! You have cursed yourself and now think in base nine. Unfortunately this requires the loss of a finger and toe to biologically compensate.

>"Normal rocks don't get tired but how do you know about floating rocks? Have you ever asked one?"
>"Either way, It's my job to get to the bottom of this. I'm the official falling floating rock investigator, and I'm chasing after an important clue that I saw passing through this forest. Have you seen a blue-haired woman fly through here recently? I think she has more answers."

>"...Maybe I have!" cries one of the faeries. "Have you?!"
>"There's lots of people with blue hair!" says another of the faeries gathered near you, frowning.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Describe Tenshi's appearance in more detail
>"It would have been right after the islands fell down here."

[E-Nazrin]

>"I dunno what language rocks speak! Do you?"

[Hello Purvis]

>Describe Tenshi's appearance in more detail
>"It would have been right after the islands fell down here."

>You try to describe her in more detail, and get a chorus of headshakes in return.
>"There's more important things than Tenshis!" one of the faeries cries. "What will this mean for the mushrooms?!"

>"I dunno what language rocks speak! Do you?"

>"Maybe I do!"

>_

[Kilgamayan]

Sorry, but this weekend has left me too exhausted to faelosophize tonight. If it's still relevant tomorrow morning, I'll take a look.

[DracoOmega]

>"The mushrooms will be fine. They're not afraid of falling rocks."

[E-Nazrin]

>"Tenshi's really good at making rocks go places. If we find her, she might be able to convince them to go back home, or at least help find out how to do that."
>"Hey, maybe she knows how to speak flying rock? I never asked her!"

[Hello Purvis]

>"The mushrooms will be fine. They're not afraid of falling rocks."

>"How courageous!"

>"Tenshi's really good at making rocks go places. If we find her, she might be able to convince them to go back home, or at least help find out how to do that."
>"Hey, maybe she knows how to speak flying rock? I never asked her!"

>"That sound silly," says one of the faeries. "But okay."
>One of the faeries jumps as though shocked. "Maybe it was because of magnets!"

>_

[Kilgamayan]

Heading off to bed now, but while I'm thinking about it, something that's bothered me a bit over the past couple of quests has been a bit of a lack of information gathering. I look back at the last two postgames and the number of important accomplishable things that we didn't do prefaced by "if you had talked to _____ more/thought about ______ more" irks me. I get the feeling time is not going to be as big a deal in this quest because we're Iku, so I'd like to put out there that we may want to start talking to people more, if there are unusual circumstances surrounding them. For example, I'm willing to bet Yamame was at Renko and Mari's for a non-trivial reason. Even disregarding the fact that Utsuho wasn't there, Iku knows approximately who Yamame is, and to see her above ground in the house of two people we've never met surely should have piqued curiosity to a degree.

Of course, this completely skips over the fact that we'd never seen Renko and Mari before, and probably could have stood to ask them about themselves, even if only for a bit.

Now obviously this shouldn't come at the expense of gathering information for readily identifiable quests, but more often than not we have the time to stop and ask, and we're the best character we've been since Reisen in terms of mobility, power and societal knowledge. Try to keep this in mind as we meander our way through Gensokyo. Make sure we've thoroughly exhausted directly important avenues of conversation, and at least touched on idler curiosities. We never know what we'll need down the road.

[E-Nazrin]

Time does matter to a fair extent. Tracking down Tenshi while the trail is hot would be good. But yeah, talking with people a little more thoroughly might be good.

>What do we know about magnets?

[Hello Purvis]

>What do we know about magnets?

>They attract certain kinds of metals.

>_

[E-Nazrin]

>"But why would the magnets do that?"

[DracoOmega]

Honestly, I have to disagree with a lack of information gathering in previous quests. In fact, I would argue that we spent far more time than necessary doing that in Maribel Quest. Yes, perhaps we missed a couple important bits, but we spent a huge amount of time talking to people in general. Even if you spend a protracted time talking to someone, it's easy to overlook that one question/topic that would have been relevant to something, and I don't think that's the kind of thing you can reliably hope to avoid simply by talking a great deal (or we would have already done so, then)

And yes, in Maribel/Renko's case, it was mostly a time concern. I admit I very much would have liked to have just stepped in for tea with them, but it's hard to conscience, given the circumstances.

[Hello Purvis]

>"But why would the magnets do that?"

>"Because... uh...they could! They do weird things to things!"

>_

[E-Nazrin]

You can never have too much information, Draco. More than is strictly necessary does not mean more than is worthwhile. You're right about missing important topics, but I think more time on it helps more than hurts.

Actually, what's stopped me more often was the current conversation drifting away from one or two points of interest that I noticed but wanted to be polite about bringing up. Or just not being on at the right time. Ah well...

>"Weird. I'll have to keep an eye out for them, little sneaks."
>"But hey, if you do see Tenshi, could you try and let me know? Or at least, tell a few people I could ask."
>Where could this info rule out for Tenshi's path through the forest?