Iku Quest Dos - A Z-Machine Adventure

[DracoOmega]

>How do you intend to travel there?

>Fly there directly

[Hello Purvis]

>You set off for the Bamboo Forest, flying over the plains to the south of the city and heading toward the west.
>There's a few small islands here and there along the way, none of them used much by Celestials as a whole, though you suspect some could be home to recluses. As you pass by one close to the edge of the bamboo forest, you can see your goal up ahead. You also see an immense beam of light blasting from it...

>_

[DracoOmega]

>The beam is coming from the island's surface?
>Where is the beam aimed?
>If it's headed towards us, scramble out of the way

[Hello Purvis]

>The beam is coming from the island's surface?
>Where is the beam aimed?
>If it's headed towards us, scramble out of the way

>Yes.
>It seems to be directly westward and upward.
>Thankfully are nowhere near in the way.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Does it look like one of Marisa's attacks, or a beam of some other nature?
>Move in for a closer look. Try to keep a relatively low profile, if we can, using parts of the island itself, or the buildings on it, to disguise our approach

[Hello Purvis]

>Does it look like one of Marisa's attacks, or a beam of some other nature?
>Move in for a closer look. Try to keep a relatively low profile, if we can, using parts of the island itself, or the buildings on it, to disguise our approach

>You are quite certain, upon reflection, that this is a Master Spark.
>After a moment, it fades from the air.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Can we tell at all what was being fired upon?
>If not, move closer in the manner previously indicated

[Kasu]

> Keep an eye out for any potential cover just in case.

[Hello Purvis]

>Can we tell at all what was being fired upon?
>If not, move closer in the manner previously indicated

>You have no idea what the target was.
>There isn't much that can disguise your approach, unfortunately. You could go into the forest itself, and hope that a floating island can serve as a decent enough landmark.

> Keep an eye out for any potential cover just in case.

>Midair tends to have an astounding lack of cover.

>_

[Kasu]

> What kind of geography does the island have?

[DracoOmega]

>If there is a village on this island, that presumes there are buildings, correct? And possibly hills, trees, etc. If Marisa is on the surface of the island, as the beam suggests, keeping buildings or hills in between us and the source of the Master Spark should make it difficult for her to see us unless she gains significant altitude, shouldn't it?

[Hello Purvis]

> What kind of geography does the island have?

>It is mostly flat, with gentle hills here and there. To a large degree, it consists of empty plains, but there are some forest here and there. In the middle of it is a town comparable in size to the human town.

>If there is a village on this island, that presumes there are buildings, correct? And possibly hills, trees, etc. If Marisa is on the surface of the island, as the beam suggests, keeping buildings or hills in between us and the source of the Master Spark should make it difficult for her to see us unless she gains significant altitude, shouldn't it?

>Technically true, but it's difficult to determine what line of sight would be for her, given you don't know where she is. A low approach would certainly help.

>_

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Approach the part of the island where the Master Spark originated from directly, hanging a little below the surface vertically
>Keep an eye out for more fire, or anyone suddenly ascending
>Be ready to drop further altitude in response, depending on who it is, and what their bearing seems to be

[Hello Purvis]

>Approach the part of the island where the Master Spark originated from directly, hanging a little below the surface vertically
>Keep an eye out for more fire, or anyone suddenly ascending
>Be ready to drop further altitude in response, depending on who it is, and what their bearing seems to be

>You keep low and approach, keeping an eye on the island. After a moment, you see a large black figure ascend, her bearing not certain at the moment.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Drop height a little, while continuing forward
>Try to keep the island almost at the edge of blocking our line of sight to her as she ascends, so that we can drop beneath it entirely if we see her turn this way, before she can see us
>What does she seem to be doing?

[Hello Purvis]

>Drop height a little, while continuing forward
>Try to keep the island almost at the edge of blocking our line of sight to her as she ascends, so that we can drop beneath it entirely if we see her turn this way, before she can see us
>What does she seem to be doing?

>You drop height, trying to get to the point that the island almost cuts off the flying person from sight, and continue forward. Very quickly, the island fully cuts off your sight of the black figure, but not before you can see that she is flying in your general direction.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

A thought occurs.

Patchy wants us to tell Marisa about that meeting, right? At some point, we're going to have to talk to her. If she really was flying in our general direction, I think now is the best time. There's a chance she's seen us, and trying to hide from her will make us look like we have something to hide, which will feed any existing belief that we're the ones responsible. We have nothing to hide, and have encountered all of Reimu, Sanae and Sakuya and have come away relatively unharmed - Sakuya didn't assault us at all, Sanae we surrendered our spellcards to and demonstrated trustworthiness, and Reimu hasn't come back from whatever trip we sent her on (I actually forget what we said to get her away). I think we might be able to talk our way out of fighting with Marisa, since literally every other problem-solver has had the chance to put us down and didn't, and that has to mean something. We may also get bonus points for going up to her of our own volition (and not firing upon her) instead of her having to track us down.

Since I'm going to bed right now and Draco has so far seemed to want to avoid Marisa entirely I'll just leave this idea out for people to think about instead of making that sort of unilateral decision, but I really do think we'd be better off confronting her instead of hiding from her.

[DracoOmega]

I agree, actually, and wasn't intending to hide from her entirely (although I realize that might be how it looks). Otherwise, I would have just dived into the forest and waited. I think there's several reasons we need to talk to her, but I just wanted to see if we could find out who she was fighting, where she was going, and whether she was truly on the warpath, before we spoke with her. That and try to position an escape route if she really ends up being unreasonable.

>How quickly could we descend from where we are into the forest?
>If Marisa continued in the direction we saw, how far out of vertical range of us would she be when she reaches the point where she can see us from her current position?

[Hello Purvis]

>How quickly could we descend from where we are into the forest?
>If Marisa continued in the direction we saw, how far out of vertical range of us would she be when she reaches the point where she can see us from her current position?

>It would take a couple seconds.
>By the time you calculate this, she would probably already have seen you and started closing range.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Continue forward, then, until Marisa comes in sight again

[Hello Purvis]

>Continue forward, then, until Marisa comes in sight again

>This doesn't take long, as she picks up speed.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Does she seem to be headed towards us?
>If not, call out to her

[Hello Purvis]

>Does she seem to be headed towards us?
>If not, call out to her

>Not directly, more toward the east than you are.
>You call out, and she turns toward you. You are most certain, now, that this is Marisa approaching you.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Move slowly towards her until we're in comfortable range to at least talk loudly to each other
>"Marisa! I have a message from Patchouli for you!"

[Hello Purvis]

>Move slowly towards her until we're in comfortable range to at least talk loudly to each other
>"Marisa! I have a message from Patchouli for you!"

>"Isn't that convenient!" Marisa shouts back, as she comes to a stop some yards away.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Given that you weren't at home, I would say it is. It's about a magician's circle she's thinking of forming."
>"But before that, I don't suppose I could ask you what you were shooting at?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"Given that you weren't at home, I would say it is. It's about a magician's circle she's thinking of forming."
>"But before that, I don't suppose I could ask you what you were shooting at?"

>"Huh," says Marisa, "she's going through with that one? Sounds fun."
>Her voice hardens a little. "Yeah, you'd like to know that, wouldn't you?"

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"I would, yes, given that you were firing it by one of our islands."
>"I will start by saying that Bhava-Agra's descent is not of our doing. I have spent all morning searching for a cause or possible suspects and have found neither yet. I understand that the first suspicion falls on us, and believe me I have dealt with that from nearly every corner already this morning. But consider this: to the best of my knowledge, no one on the surface has been hurt, yet our own people have suffered numerous injuries, property damage, and our harvest has been severely decimated. If this was an act of aggression by Bhava-Agra against the surface, it would have to be the most poorly conceived in Gensokyo's history, would it not?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"I would, yes, given that you were firing it by one of our islands."
>"I will start by saying that Bhava-Agra's descent is not of our doing. I have spent all morning searching for a cause or possible suspects and have found neither yet. I understand that the first suspicion falls on us, and believe me I have dealt with that from nearly every corner already this morning. But consider this: to the best of my knowledge, no one on the surface has been hurt, yet our own people have suffered numerous injuries, property damage, and our harvest has been severely decimated. If this was an act of aggression by Bhava-Agra against the surface, it would have to be the most poorly conceived in Gensokyo's history, would it not?"

>"Not like Remilia or Yuyuko or anyone else thought ahead, either," says Marisa. "I'm onto your conspiracies, though. Did you really think no one would suspect the Lunarians?"

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"....what?"