Maribel Quest More - A Z-Machine Adventure

[Hello Purvis]

> Get a bit away from Marisa's house and step back onto the main path
> Did we ever learn some sort of light spell from anyone?
> If not, take out the Bottle of Soft Light, but do not open it. how well does it illuminate our surrounding area?

>You step away from her house.
>You do have the Starlight Incantation that Marisa taught you this morning.
>Renko presently has the Bottle of Soft Light.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>At which point did we give her that? (Because I'm rather certain it never actually happened, yet)
>Invoke a non-danmaku familiar, and see how much light it gives off

[Hello Purvis]

>At which point did we give her that? (Because I'm rather certain it never actually happened, yet)
>Invoke a non-danmaku familiar, and see how much light it gives off

>She took it from you initially, as you were ostensibly getting it for her.
>You create a familiar. It gives of about as much like as a night light; though much softer in hue. You can't see well enough you'd want to go exploring, but you can probably find your way through familiar territory with no problem.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Did we also give her the black cube while we weren't looking?
>Go search for the path we took with Renko

[Hello Purvis]

>Did we also give her the black cube while we weren't looking?
>Go search for the path we took with Renko

>No, you still have that. Though you did say she could use it.
>You make your way back toward the lake, and follow the western bank to the path leading toward the clearing. You look around for a bit along it, and find it after some fumbling around. Thankfully, there don't seem to be any ninjers on watch at the moment.

>_

[UncertainJakutten]

> But we can't see ninjers, so how would we know they were on watch?

[DracoOmega]

>Continue onward to Renko's camp

[Hello Purvis]

> But we can't see ninjers, so how would we know they were on watch?

>You can only assume, judging from the lack of them flying off, or being assassinated.

>Continue onward to Renko's camp

>You follow along the path you've found, and are soon satisfied that it is the right one, after you nearly trip over the same tree root a second time.
>Soon, you emerge near Renko's teepee. It doesn't look like there's anyone around it.

>_

[UncertainJakutten]

> But we wouldn't see them fly off. In fact, we might already have been assassinated!
> Ah well, Renko can tell us if we're still alive.

[DracoOmega]

>Search around for Renko. Go to the other fairy encampments if necessary.

[E-Nazrin]

>Around != Inside. Peek into the teepee first.

[Hello Purvis]

> But we wouldn't see them fly off. In fact, we might already have been assassinated!
> Ah well, Renko can tell us if we're still alive.

>You are left with a conundrum, and decide to let Renko deal with it.

>Search around for Renko. Go to the other fairy encampments if necessary.

>Around != Inside. Peek into the teepee first.

>You look for Renko, peeking inside first. You find she is precisely as you left her, still in the futon and still undressed. She must have drifted off right after you left.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>How tired are we, anyway?

[E-Nazrin]

>Pet.

[Hello Purvis]

>How tired are we, anyway?

>You could go a while longer if you wanted to. But you'd also be perfectly content to just head to bed for the evening as well.

>Pet.

>You pet her hair. Renko shifts a bit and sighs.

>_

[DracoOmega]

I have no objections to simply going to bed now, unless there's something else someone really wanted to do

[E-Nazrin]

>There space in the futon for two to sleep comfortably?

[Kilgamayan]

Hmm, that changes things. The only thing I wanted to do was predicated on whether or not she was interested enough to stave off sleeping for a little while longer, but if she's already fallen asleep waiting for us, that caveat is removed.

This will likely be our once chance all game to talk to the Eientei folks, assuming we haven't blown it already. Is this something we want to do? Either we go to bed now, or we go back to the bar, talk to them if they're still there, and then come back to camp and go to bed then. (Or do something else someone wants to do, I guess. The important thing is that our time limit has been extended a bit, since Renko's no longer awake and waiting for us.)

[DracoOmega]

May I ask what the purpose of speaking with them at this point is? It was originally to get Reisen's opinion / advice about the fairy situation, correct? But given how things have played out, what could she possibly say / do that would be beneficial at this point?

[Hello Purvis]

>There space in the futon for two to sleep comfortably?

>There was certainly space enough to do other things. You suspect there's room enough for you as well.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

If I knew what she would tell us, we wouldn't need to ask her, would we? :V

In all seriousness, I see two potential benefits to talking to Reisen.

1) Getting a second viewpoint on fairies. We just spent some time getting several opinions on youkaidom, I don't see the harm in getting a second opinion on fairy behavior/treatment/whatever else. Besides, Reisen has known them and how they operate for a while. Renko has done well for herself, but she's been here two days, so it's very possible she doesn't know all there is to know.
2) Getting info on why fairies will respect someone. Ichirin told us that no one has ever won fairy respect like Reisen has. Tactics we lern from her could be useful in reconciling the fairies with the SDM after the fight.

[DracoOmega]

But wasn't the reason for Reisen getting the fairies' respect essentially that she just answered a single problem very cleverly? Unless you're thinking that she's had more fairy dealings since then that she might have learned from. Or I'm forgetting something, which is also possible.

[Kilgamayan]

I'm thinking there's more to the story than just that one instance, even though it's the only thing we've seen. She got a scarf for answering a tough question; how did this alone make her renowned amongst the fairy kingdom?

[DracoOmega]

I got the impression that the ribbon was essentially a mark of honor in fairy-dom, in and of itself. I could be wrong, I suppose.

...I suppose I'm just eager to get on with the events of tomorrow.

[Kilgamayan]

That's also possible, but I would be impressed if, for such a long period of time, the fairies remembered (a) what it was, (b) that they gave it to her, and (c) who she was whenever she took it off. Hell, I don't even remember if we were still wearing it by the end of Reisen Quest, and her description in the bar didn't include any mention of it.

We can simply go to bed if people want that; this isn't a big deal, and with the way things have gone in this topic I wouldn't begrudge anyone that doesn't really feel the need to indulge me in something like this. I'm just saying we have this chance to potentially gain extra info, and the opportunity cost appears very low, as it appears Renko is indeed done for the night and thus is no longer waiting on us. It seems like if worst comes to worst we go to bed twenty minutes later than we could have.

[E-Nazrin]

That, or embarrass ourselves by interrupting the lunar magician's date.

While I wish more attention had been paid to figuring out how to get the fairies respect while they're incurably childish, I'm not sure now is the best time to start looking for alternatives - and on a meta level, nor am I sure that Reisen fully understands what made the fairies love her.

[Kilgamayan]

Given the amount of time that's elapsed, I am less concerned about date interruption than I was before.

If not now, when? Eientei is a pain to get to; it's a good bet this will be the only time all quest we see Reisen. If we could be at least reasonably positive we'd get to see her again, then I'd be all for dumping the idea now and just going to bed and hitting her up tomorrow, but that's not the case, so I do think it's worth considering.

Let me put this another way. I've outlined what we stand to gain. What do we stand to lose?

[DracoOmega]

Frankly, I agree that the only thing we really stand to lose is time (real world, mostly). But we've spent half today not doing anything because everyone else is wondering if anyone else has something they wanted to do, so no one's doing anything. Either sleep, or go talk, but at least do something.

(I'm personally in favor of just going to sleep, but am not going to raise serious complaints about going elsewhere)

[E-Nazrin]

Your shame

The question is how likely that is to be worth it/actually useful in figuring out how to get the SDM and the fairies on decent terms with one another after this mess, regardless of who comes out on top. If Reisen has no idea how to deal with fairies (or at least, no better than Renko) then it wouldn't have much point.

On the other hand, odds are good Mary is still hungry, and stopping by the inn for a snack in order to sleep better might not be a terrible idea from an objective standpoint.

I'm somewhat indifferent, really, but I'm strongly tempted by the notion of Renkocuddling.
... shut up.

So yeah, go ahead I guess.

[Kilgamayan]

But we've spent half today not doing anything because everyone else is wondering if anyone else has something they wanted to do, so no one's doing anything.

I've noticed this as well. I think it's a byproduct of the more serious nature these games have taken. I got the distinct feeling we were starting to do this in about the middle of Utsuho Quest, really. Maybe a little later.

That being said...

> Did we make a mental note of where the hidden path's entrance was relative to the main path? Let's do that now, in case we haven't.
> ...

> Lean down and give Renko a kiss on the forehead.