Iku Quest N?nt? - A Z-Machine Adventure

[Hello Purvis]

> Step 3: Open the box!

>You open the box!
>The inside is lined with red felt, forming four cavities in a square pattern. Resting inside each of them is gemstone, cut into a circular shape with many facets exposed; alas you do not know the name. You think that one is a lapis lazuli, and are reasonably sure another is an amethyst. You cannot identify the other two, one white with green speckles that look like moss, another is red with bits of gray.
>The poltergeist peers into the box.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "Wow, these are pretty. What do you think?"

[Hello Purvis]

> "Wow, these are pretty. What do you think?"

>She nods. "They do look nice."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "Hmm. Since we are in Gensokyo, these could do or be just about anything. I would suggest you step back, just in case something happens when I prod at them and it causes a bit of collateral damage, okay?"
> Assuming she steps back, take the hand that is not holding the box and gently poke at the lapis lazuli with our index finger.

[Hello Purvis]

> "Hmm. Since we are in Gensokyo, these could do or be just about anything. I would suggest you step back, just in case something happens when I prod at them and it causes a bit of collateral damage, okay?"
> Assuming she steps back, take the hand that is not holding the box and gently poke at the lapis lazuli with our index finger.

>She nods, and takes a couple steps back.
>You prod the Lapis Lazuli. Aside from being cool to touch, it does nothing special.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Gently poke each of the other three gems in the same fashion. First the amethyst, then the mossy-looking one, then the red one.
> If none of them do anything unusual upon being poked, take the Lapis Lazuli out of the box and fold our hand into a fist around it.

[Hello Purvis]

> Gently poke each of the other three gems in the same fashion. First the amethyst, then the mossy-looking one, then the red one.
> If none of them do anything unusual upon being poked, take the Lapis Lazuli out of the box and fold our hand into a fist around it.

>Nothing unusual happens when you prod them.
>Taking out the lapis lazuli, you find it tapers to a point at the bottom. Gasping it, nothing unusual happens.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Open our hand. Does it cast a shadow, or perhaps refract the light onto our hand?
> Put it back in the box where it belongs and close the box, then put the box back in our purse.
> "If they do anything special, I cannot tell what it is. I suppose they may be just ordinary gems. Still nice to look at, though."

[Hello Purvis]

> Open our hand. Does it cast a shadow, or perhaps refract the light onto our hand?
> Put it back in the box where it belongs and close the box, then put the box back in our purse.
> "If they do anything special, I cannot tell what it is. I suppose they may be just ordinary gems. Still nice to look at, though."

>You open you hand. The gem does cast a shadow. As it is opaque, light does not refract through it at all.
>You put the gem away, and put the box back.
>"I suppose that is fine," she says.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "Well, now that that curiosity is quelled, we have an interesting situation on our hands. On one hand, we have you having held back in our first encounter. On the other, you will be subject to much different conditions as a soul, which is how you would theoretically be battling the Yama, because you aren't getting to her courtroom while you're still alive if you're this committed to the position of keeping yourself hidden."

[Hello Purvis]

> "Well, now that that curiosity is quelled, we have an interesting situation on our hands. On one hand, we have you having held back in our first encounter. On the other, you will be subject to much different conditions as a soul, which is how you would theoretically be battling the Yama, because you aren't getting to her courtroom while you're still alive if you're this committed to the position of keeping yourself hidden."

>She nods. "I'll manage."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "Okay. Perhaps a second duel between us, with you operating at full effort but weighted down by the restrictions being merely a soul would place on you, would help determine how prepared you are for the greater challenge?"

[Hello Purvis]

> "Okay. Perhaps a second duel between us, with you operating at full effort but weighted down by the restrictions being merely a soul would place on you, would help determine how prepared you are for the greater challenge?"

>"I would prefer not to, at this point," she says.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "Well, I felt I owed it to you to make the offer, but to be honest, I feel the same way. There are others I would rather combat right now, and I would prefer to be in top form should they humor me. Not to say you are weak or unimportant, of course. Perhaps instead I can simply tell you the restrictions, and you can make your own judgment?"

[Hello Purvis]

> "Well, I felt I owed it to you to make the offer, but to be honest, I feel the same way. There are others I would rather combat right now, and I would prefer to be in top form should they humor me. Not to say you are weak or unimportant, of course. Perhaps instead I can simply tell you the restrictions, and you can make your own judgment?"

>"Very well," she says.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Do we know if a soul can use danmaku?

[Hello Purvis]

> Do we know if a soul can use danmaku?

>You're reasonably sure that the cannot. There may be some odd exceptions, but you're quite sure that without lingering attachments that keep them in this world, making them a ghost or evil spirit or some such, they cannot do anything like that.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "All right. There are four major circumstances I can think of. The first circumstance is an obvious one. The Yama will merely proceed with her job as she expects if you sit there and do nothing, or attempt to argue her into submission. Therefore, you would need to be the aggressor, and you would need to go on the offensive almost immediately. If you are lucky, you might even be able to get aggressive before she can read that you are after her shadow, though I don't know exactly what she would need to do to learn this, or how long it would take."
> "The remaining three circumstances are all closely related to what a soul actually is. I understand that, to the Yama and shinigami, souls look something like what their physical form was when they were alive, but to the rest of us, a soul is just a floating blob of energy. Now, for the second circumstance, it is my understanding that souls cannot use danmaku. It is possible that an odd soul may be an exception to this, but I have never heard of one being able to do so. So we could probably assume danmaku is out of the question."

[Hello Purvis]

> "All right. There are four major circumstances I can think of. The first circumstance is an obvious one. The Yama will merely proceed with her job as she expects if you sit there and do nothing, or attempt to argue her into submission. Therefore, you would need to be the aggressor, and you would need to go on the offensive almost immediately. If you are lucky, you might even be able to get aggressive before she can read that you are after her shadow, though I don't know exactly what she would need to do to learn this, or how long it would take."
> "The remaining three circumstances are all closely related to what a soul actually is. I understand that, to the Yama and shinigami, souls look something like what their physical form was when they were alive, but to the rest of us, a soul is just a floating blob of energy. Now, for the second circumstance, it is my understanding that souls cannot use danmaku. It is possible that an odd soul may be an exception to this, but I have never heard of one being able to do so. So we could probably assume danmaku is out of the question."

>"I'll find a way to manage," she says.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Nod.
> "The third circumstance is that, as you will recall from our earlier discussion, a person in possession of shadows that did not originally belong to them will lose those shadows upon their death. Those shadows may be put back in their proper place by the Yama, or they may scatter to the winds. Either way, they will no longer belong to whoever took them. This means that you will have no shadow-shifting at your disposal."

[Hello Purvis]

> Nod.
> "The third circumstance is that, as you will recall from our earlier discussion, a person in possession of shadows that did not originally belong to them will lose those shadows upon their death. Those shadows may be put back in their proper place by the Yama, or they may scatter to the winds. Either way, they will no longer belong to whoever took them. This means that you will have no shadow-shifting at your disposal."

>"I can get more," she says.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "And the final circumstance is that, given you are a soul and thus lack your physical form, you will not have hands and feet to punch, kick, rip or stomp at a shadow, like you did with me. You will need to find an alternate method to assault the Yama's shadow. I also assume your tearing into my shadow with both hands was your attempt to take it for yourself; you would thus need an alternate means of taking her shadow."

[Hello Purvis]

> "And the final circumstance is that, given you are a soul and thus lack your physical form, you will not have hands and feet to punch, kick, rip or stomp at a shadow, like you did with me. You will need to find an alternate method to assault the Yama's shadow. I also assume your tearing into my shadow with both hands was your attempt to take it for yourself; you would thus need an alternate means of taking her shadow."

>She nods. "I'll keep that in mind."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Raise an eyebrow.
> "So you actually have alternate methods at your disposal?"

[Hello Purvis]

> Raise an eyebrow.
> "So you actually have alternate methods at your disposal?"

>"I'll find one," she says. "Or, I'll avoid her."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> How would a soul go about not having enough coin to complete their journey across the Sanzu no Kawa?
> "There are only two ways to avoid her that I can think of. One is to have an attachment to something in this Earthly realm so strong that you turn into a ghost and avoid the process altogether. Do you have a strong attachment to something that would keep you here? Clearly you're not too terribly attached to that book, given how you unceremoniously slammed it to the ground."

[Hello Purvis]

> How would a soul go about not having enough coin to complete their journey across the Sanzu no Kawa?
> "There are only two ways to avoid her that I can think of. One is to have an attachment to something in this Earthly realm so strong that you turn into a ghost and avoid the process altogether. Do you have a strong attachment to something that would keep you here? Clearly you're not too terribly attached to that book, given how you unceremoniously slammed it to the ground."

>Lack of relations to others; the coinage is symbolic of the lives that the deceased touched and was enriched by.
>"I don't know," she says.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> So this poltergeist seems very unlikely to be crossing the Sanzu no Kawa on her current path, then. Presumably she'll thus turn into a ghost. Do we know what ghosts do after turning into ghosts but before getting exorcised?

[Hello Purvis]

> So this poltergeist seems very unlikely to be crossing the Sanzu no Kawa on her current path, then. Presumably she'll thus turn into a ghost. Do we know what ghosts do after turning into ghosts but before getting exorcised?

>Largely, they just sort of float around and exist. They have a tendency to congregate around old houses. dark places, and the like.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Do they still have wills and personalities?