Kisume Quest II - A Z-Machine Adventure

[Kilgamayan]

> Huh. Well, if she wants to leave, let's not stop her.
> Are there any bullets coming directly at us?
> What do we see for gaps on this horizontal level?

[Hello Purvis]

> Huh. Well, if she wants to leave, let's not stop her.
> Are there any bullets coming directly at us?
> What do we see for gaps on this horizontal level?

>You let the faerie fly off and concentrate on the bullets. There's a good dozen or so coming in your general direction, some are converging on each other and some are dividing apart. You can see a few gaps, but it's hard to judge which will have ways to escape and which will trap you.

>_

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>Wait, we have a danmaku-blocking bucket!
>Drop to the ground, flip the bucket over our head, pull it down so that it completely covers us, and wait until the shots pass.

[Kilgamayan]

> Wait, we mean the bucket that contains all of our personal possessions, at least two of which are stabbity objects? This is the bucket we want to turn upside-down over our own head?

[Hello Purvis]

>Wait, we have a danmaku-blocking bucket!
>Drop to the ground, flip the bucket over our head, pull it down so that it completely covers us, and wait until the shots pass.

> Wait, we mean the bucket that contains all of our personal possessions, at least two of which are stabbity objects? This is the bucket we want to turn upside-down over our own head?

>Maybe you shouldn't have taken that free drink...

>_

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>Then we just make sure to hold the 'stabbity objects' when we flip it.

[Kilgamayan]

> What about our food? Or those chopsticks? Or that bottle of liquor? Or the fact that we've already established to ourselves - multiple times - that we can't actually completely hide ourselves within the bucket?

[Hello Purvis]

>Then we just make sure to hold the 'stabbity objects' when we flip it.

> What about our food? Or those chopsticks? Or that bottle of liquor? Or the fact that we've already established to ourselves - multiple times - that we can't actually completely hide ourselves within the bucket?

>As you are not an octopus, you do not have enough hands to keep everything in place, nor a lack of bones needed to completely place yourself inside it.

>_

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>Just use the bucket as a shield, then. That worked last time.

[Hello Purvis]

>Just use the bucket as a shield, then. That worked last time.

>How will you be doing this?

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> How high above the trees are we at this point?

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>How will you be doing this?

>_

Really?

>Position ourselves so that the bottom of the bucket is towards the oncoming shots.

[Kilgamayan]

He asks because we actually haven't tried this and succeeded (and I don't know why you think we did). In fact, he's stated several times that we're too big to actually use the bucket as a full-body shield. <_<

[GuyYouMetOnline]

It worked against the oni; we only got minor hits from where we held onto the bucket. And we can't duck inside it, perhaps, but we couldn't be in it at all if it wasn't wider than us, so the bottom can offer full protection. We just need to keep said bottom pointed at the shots.

[Kilgamayan]

Yeah, I asked about using it that way earlier, and was told it would not work.

Stuff that happens to smack into the bucket will do so harmlessly, but it's been game-mechanically established that we can't actively use it as a shield, even via using the bottom of the bucket as suggested (and yes, I did ask specifically about using it that way a while back).

I think we could likely get away with letting one or two bullets smack harmlessly into the bucket if that's all that's coming right at us, but with the density at our current position, there's no way we would get away with it. Most of the oni's stuff wasn't nearly this dense and we weren't able to actively use it as a shield then.

[Kilgamayan]

> Before committing to using our bucket as a shield, back up a bit more.

[Hello Purvis]

>Position ourselves so that the bottom of the bucket is towards the oncoming shots.

> Before committing to trying to use our bucket as a shield, back up a bit more.

>You back away about as far as you can and turn yourself sideways, doing your best to get as much distance before the catch up to you. You can feel one of the shots thump into the side of your bucket. Then a blue one comes from the side, and slams directly into your right arm like a sledgehammer! Another red shot comes around from the other side and almost smacks into your head, just clipping your ear and feeling like you just dipped it into a fire!
>The rest of the cloud passes you by while you struggle with the pain and try to keep from tipping over in midair.

>_

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>Ow.
>The oni's shots didn't hurt that much, did they?

[Hello Purvis]

>Ow.
>The oni's shots didn't hurt that much, did they?

>Very ow. You might want to rest for awhile.
>You didn't get hit with as many of them at one. Still, for a faerie, that's pretty amazing...

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> How far away is that potential road spot? If we can just get there, we can plop down and recover from this.

[Hello Purvis]

> How far away is that potential road spot? If we can just get there, we can plop down and recover from this.

>The potential road area is not too far away now.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> C'mon, gotta pull it together and get that bucket upright!
> Once we're relatively stable again, float our way over to the road area at a stable clip.

[Hello Purvis]

> C'mon, gotta pull it together and get that bucket upright!
> Once we're relatively stable again, float our way over to the road area at a stable clip.

>You try to pull yourself together, and at least manage to get your legs back under you.
>You then proceed western, trying to ignore the stinging in your ear and the dull pain that clamps around your arm like a vice. You are pleased to note, though, that the cleft in the trees is indeed due to a road.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Drop on down to the road. Not TOO hard, we don't need to do further damage.
> Once we land, get to resting and seething to dull the pain.

[Hello Purvis]

> Drop on down to the road. Not TOO hard, we don't need to do further damage.
> Once we land, get to resting and seething to dull the pain.

>You land on the simple dirt road, not too far from a large rock off to the side.
>You take some time to massage your aching parts and slowly bring them to a more manageable level. While you do, you note that the road stretches north and south. Going northward, you can see a bend in the road, and what seems to be the edge of a building. Southward, it seems to continue toward the lake. At one point, to the west, you think you can make out a distant cry of "It's Spring!"

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Where did Nue say the gap youkai's house was? North of the human village?

[Hello Purvis]

> Where did Nue say the gap youkai's house was? North of the human village?

>You got the feeling it was between the forest and the village, as she mentioned some fields.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Let's hope and pray that ain't it, then.
> When we're feeling better enough to move, take back to the air and fly north.

[Hello Purvis]

> Let's hope and pray that ain't it, then.
> When we're feeling better enough to move, take back to the air and fly north.

>You take to the air after a few minutes, once the pain fades from bad to kind of irksome, and fly northward.
>You can see see the edge of the forest ahead, as the road continues northward into a large grassy field. Some distance away, you can just glimpse a town, while closer by you see a house near the edge of the forest, and another in the distance that seems to run along a road that intersects with the one you're following.  You can see a few patches of snow here and there around the field, some fairly large, but overall there is less of it than there was around the forest.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Any people visible near either of the houses?
> Is the closer house the edge of the building we saw earlier?