Nue Quest II: A Z-Machine Adventure

[Rin Kagamine]

> What kind of work would we have to do to our black dress to disguise it?
> Would it be permanent?
> The crowd we here from up ahead, is it beyond the woods?
> Are we in the woods right now?
>> If not, move into the woods.

[Kilgamayan]

I'm wondering if that crowd isn't the kappa, rather than the tengu. The kappa village does come up first, after all.

If we do try to squeak by as a fairy, what is to be done about the purse and trident? We can change ourselves all we want, but we can't change those, I don't think.

[Rin Kagamine]

Yeah, I'm leaning more towards just Nue-ing it than trying to be a fairy.  Especially since modifying our dress to be more fairy-like might attract attention from fairies, which will probably just make things harder.

[Kilgamayan]

Eh, might as well ask about it.

> What normally happens when we're carrying around our trident and we decide to shrink in size? Can we even still carry it around?

[Fightest]

So no real fairy disguise then?  Awesome.

Disguise? Just tie up our dress here, and tuck it in there, and it'll serve fine. It's not like it has a giant neon sign saying "This Is Actually Nue Right Here." Our purse and trident we can hide somewhere and pick up later, it's not as if they're mission-critical.

Especially since modifying our dress to be more fairy-like might attract attention from fairies, which will probably just make things harder.

Would actually make it easier. A cloud of fairies is, probably, less noticeable than a solitary fairy, in the sense that it's presumably more of a common sight, and thus more likely to be ignored. All this said:

> How small can we go?

[Hello Purvis]

> What normally happens when we're carrying around our trident and we decide to shrink in size? Can we even still carry it around?

>Your possessions do not change with you. If it is vital, you tend to use a Seed of Nonidentification to hide them.

> How small can we go?

>You can make yourself a bit over two and a half feet tall, at the most.

>_

[Rin Kagamine]

> What kind of work would we have to do to our black dress to disguise it?
> Would it be permanent?
> The crowd we here from up ahead, is it beyond the woods?
> Are we in the woods right now?
>> If not, move into the woods.

[Hello Purvis]

> What kind of work would we have to do to our black dress to disguise it?
> Would it be permanent?
> The crowd we here from up ahead, is it beyond the woods?
> Are we in the woods right now?
>> If not, move into the woods.

>Your dress is designed to be able to accommodate some of your shape changes, which is why you didn't have to change clothes after augmenting your chest earlier today. If you were trying to make it look like the clothing of a small faerie, it's looseness would be a particular problem. Using a few sashes might help with that. You could alter it more permanently if you had some thread and needle. As for disguising it further, any number of permanent or temporary alterations could be made with the right materials.
>You hear the crowd up ahead, you're reasonably sure it is not in the woods.
>You are presently in the woods.

>_

[Rin Kagamine]

> Move through the woods and closer to the crowd.
> Try and verify what species the crowd is.

[Hello Purvis]

> Move through the woods and closer to the crowd.
> Try and verify what species the crowd is.

>You head onward, and soon reach the edge of the dark and still woods. Things light up quickly enough to dazzle your eyes.
>Staying near the edge of the forest, you look eastward and see the land inclining upward, becoming the sharp slope of Youkai Mountain not too far from here. Small houses dot the area, little roundish things built into the dirt and obscured with leafy plants and cattails. More cattails and little ponds line a mishmash of roads, while a river flows through the town. To the south, you can see a large warehouse almost set against the mountain side, decorated and colored like the other houses, but an obvious to the eye compared to them. To the north, you can see a large blocky building with quite a crowd around it, the source of the noise. You're reasonably sure they are mostly kappa. Obvious exists are North, South, East, and West.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Curse under our breath at the sudden brightness.
> Does there appear to be a leader of the crowd, like there was at the village with Byakuren, or is it just a regular mob?

[GuyYouMetOnline]

Yeah, I'm again going to say that I think the best course of action is not to try a disguise.

[Hello Purvis]

> Curse under our breath at the sudden brightness.
> Does there appear to be a leader of the crowd, like there was at the village with Byakuren, or is it just a regular mob?

>You're too far away to tell.

>_

[Fightest]

Yeah, I'm again going to say that I think the best course of action is not to try a disguise.

What is your reasoning?

[Kilgamayan]

> Make our way toward the crowd.

[Hello Purvis]

> Make our way toward the crowd.

>You approach the crowd, coming to the banks of the river that separates you from them. They are gathered in front of a largish building whose architecture reminds you of a barn, or rather several very large barns jammed together, with a couple more in the process of being built on. There seems to have been an effort to design some of the building in the usual style of kappa architecture, covering the room with plant life and burying some of in dirt. But overall, the whole thing is enough of a mish mash to hold your attention for a momene before looking at the crowd.
>At a glance, it seems like there are quite a few kappa gathered there. It's not quite a large crowd, but numerous little crowds, mostly engaged in what you are assuming is arguments from the various gestures you're seeing. It's impossible to hear anything. Here and there you see people moving around, apparently also arguing. You can see a few people that appear to be observing various individual squabbles, as well.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Is there anyone present we recognize?
> If so, head in their direction.
> If not, head over to someone observing rather than arguing.

[GuyYouMetOnline]

What is your reasoning?

The same as it was before. I don't think we'll be denied access to the shrine; Kanako would've made sure people could still visit the shrine, I'd expect. We might end up with an escort, but I think we'll be allowed up. And if by some chance we're not, we can just send a message, or we can try the sneak-in approach then.

[Kilgamayan]

So what to do with the tengu village, eh? We need to choose between asking our way through and sneaking our way through.

Asking's a fairly simple affair. If we're lucky, we draw 'Miz, who remembers we helped get a picture of Aya, and thus may be ever so slightly more lenient about letting us through. Regardless of who shows up, we're here to investigate and potentially solve the mystery, we're more or less working with Reimu on this task, and we have the trump card of being "backed" by a whole boatload of oni who are our acquaintances-if-not-friends and far more shitripped about what has happened than any other group of people we've come across yet. I'm sure the tengu will need to think twice before hindering an investigation being carried out by the first person to try to restore normality to daily oni life. Even if this fails, we can double back and try to sneak in, or we can request Sanae come meet with it.

Sneaking in requires no negotiation but has its own list of problems. Two-and-a-half feet is rather large for a fairy, and we're not terribly well-equipped for the transformation clothing-wise. We might be able to use the rabbit dress, depending on how big it is, but any particularly traveled tengu may recognize the origin of the outfit and call shenanigans, as rabbits aren't exactly known for their honesty. (That we aren't a rabbit won't make a difference because we'll still be a trespasser.) We'll also look awkward as all hell carrying the purse and trident around, both in terms of size and in terms of where the hell did a fairy get all those things. An alternative option is to stash our stuff somewhere that won't get nicked, modify as much as we can and make the trek nude (our regular outfit might be small enough that we could try to store it within ourselves so as to not talk to the Moriya Shrine buck naked). Or use a Seed, though I'm hesitant to use one this quickly.

On top of all this is the fact that, while not being allowed in still leaves open the possibility of sneaking in, the reverse is decidedly not true. Sneaking in gets one coin; if we get busted somehow, that's that, we're looking somewhere else. I doubt the tengu would even relay any messages to Sanae if this happened.

If we want to sneak in, we need to cover all those problem areas and make sure it is going to succeed, because there isn't a Plan B along that path like there is with attempted negotiation.

[Hello Purvis]

> Is there anyone present we recognize?
> If so, head in their direction.
> If not, head over to someone observing rather than arguing.

>You are not close enough to tell.
>Detouring to a nearby bridge, you cross over the river and approach the crowd. You note a sign nearby that reads "The University" in large authoritative letters. You note some other names have been crossed out, such as Kappa University, Everybody University, Ishi University, and so on. The babble of so many arguments makes it practically impossible to hear anything. Looking around, you find the crowd is not purely kappa as you first thought, there's a scattering of youkai and humans among them as well. Many of them make up the observers. You don't see any familiar faces at first, until you catch a glimpse of the woman you've secretly labeled Pocket Yukari, Maribel Hearn. She seems to be moving between two groups at the moment.

>_

[Fightest]

we draw 'Miz,

Who?

Otherwise, the only reason I'm somewhat wary of not sneaking in first is that, should we alert people that we want in and they don't want us there for some reason, then they'll be doubly on-guard against us trying to get in by sneaking or otherwise. Be very careful whom you ask about getting passage up the mountain.

[Kilgamayan]

> Head toward Maribel. Wave if she sees us before we get to her.

Fightest: Momizi. She is The 'Miz and she's awesome.

[Hello Purvis]

> Head toward Maribel. Wave if she sees us before we get to her.

>You approach Maribel. This is not as easy at it might seem at first. While the people here aren't nearly so tightly packed as they were in the human town, people are moving more freely, it's rather like pushing through a festival crowd. You find yourself idly wondering if there are any pockets worth investigating for interesting things. It takes a couple moments, but you manage to approach Maribel without too much trouble. When she looks in your direction, you wave to her. She returns the gesture, and says something you can't hear over all the arguing.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> While looking at Maribel, put a hand to one ear and shake our head, then jerk an index finger upward.

Otherwise, the only reason I'm somewhat wary of not sneaking in first is that, should we alert people that we want in and they don't want us there for some reason, then they'll be doubly on-guard against us trying to get in by sneaking or otherwise. Be very careful whom you ask about getting passage up the mountain.

This is true. Should we be declined, the best compensation I can think of is to descend the mountain far enough that we're not in visual range of the patrols, transform, circle around and aerially approach the peak from the other side.

[Fightest]

Fightest: Momizi. She is The 'Miz and she's awesome.

Some say she knows the safe spot in the middle of a Master Spark. Some say she owns an exact 1:16th scale replica of the Hakurei Shrine's donation box. All we know is, she's called the 'Miz?

[Blitzer]

Fightest: Momizi. She is The 'Miz and she's awesome.

Some of us spell her name as "Momiji" you know.

[Kilgamayan]

I know. The additional sentence is there to explain where the nickname comes from.

[Hello Purvis]

> While looking at Maribel, put a hand to one ear and shake our head, then jerk an index finger upward.

>She frowns, nods, and takes to the air.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Follow her into the air, getting a little bit closer to her so hopefully we won't be shouting the whole time.

[Hello Purvis]

> Follow her into the air, getting a little bit closer to her so hopefully we won't be shouting the whole time.

>"Nue." Maribel says, "What are you doing here?"

>_