Nue Quest 3rd Impact: A Z-Machine Adventure

[DracoOmega]

>"Or maybe they're just practicing for the next shump?"
>"Well, I'm not about to complain about being able to fly over here without that happening to me."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Or maybe they're just practicing for the next shump?"
>"Well, I'm not about to complain about being able to fly over here without that happening to me."

>"Well they have to pick the formations from somewhere that isn't Renko."
>"That's true!" says Marisa, grinning.
>"With luck," says Alice, "they won't give my dolls much trouble, either."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Nod.
> "Anyway, with all due respect to present company, I hope this isn't all we get tonight."

Fightest: I am home from the festival now, but am unlikely to have anything written up tonight due to exhaustion. If you can tell me what you last remember before getting sidetracked, I can start from there and write something up tomorrow night.

I will say the most important thing we've found is that the original money-to-gems transformation act was apparently based in faith rather than magic (i.e. it seems extremely likely some unknown god is responsible).

[Hello Purvis]

> Nod.
> "Anyway, with all due respect to present company, I hope this isn't all we get tonight."

>"They'll trickle in," says Marisa. "Usually Patchy is the first one to show. The new kids are probably on their way right now, and Eirin's hard to tell."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "I can tell you right now Eirin won't be here at all. I talked to her already. Apparently she had something important to do tonight, and that was before Mokou started punching her house in. The others, though, I've at least left messages to make sure to show up."

[Hello Purvis]

> "I can tell you right now Eirin won't be here at all. I talked to her already. Apparently she had something important to do tonight, and that was before Mokou started punching her house in. The others, though, I've at least left messages to make sure to show up."

>"Hmm," says Alice. "What was she up to?"
>"Sounds like Mokou, though." says Marisa.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "She told me she didn't want to talk about it, and apparently that was only because I gave her info about the money affair. Sounds like she would have flat lied to me if I hadn't."

[Hello Purvis]

> "She told me she didn't want to talk about it, and apparently that was only because I gave her info about the money affair. Sounds like she would have flat lied to me if I hadn't."

>"How not at all suspicious," says Alice, as one of the dolls sets a teacup beside her. "It's not as though this date would have caught her off guard, we've only been doing this since winter."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "I wondered about that myself, but I wasn't really in a safe position to throw out accusations."

[Hello Purvis]

> "I wondered about that myself, but I wasn't really in a safe position to throw out accusations."

>Alice nods, as the doll sets a mug beside Byakuren. "That is a point, I suppose. Well, you'll be here to take her share of the cake, so it works out."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "Awesome. One more reason I'm glad I-wait, no."
> Slap forehead.
> "No. Stupid. She said she would have lied to me when I asked about her shrine maiden type from the moon. She didn't elaborate on really anything when asked about what she was doing tonight and the question just sort of slid by. Which is not really any less suspicious, but still."

[Hello Purvis]

> "Awesome. One more reason I'm glad I-wait, no."
> Slap forehead.
> "No. Stupid. She said she would have lied to me when I asked about her shrine maiden type from the moon. She didn't elaborate on really anything when asked about what she was doing tonight and the question just sort of slid by. Which is not really any less suspicious, but still."

>"Wouldn't be the first time Eirin was evasive," says Marisa. "But anyways, you were there. What do you think?"
>A doll sets a teacup beside you.

>_

 

[Kilgamayan]

> Nod to the doll and take a sip of the tea.
> "That depends. How good are the foot soldier rabbits as actors?"

[Hello Purvis]

> Nod to the doll and take a sip of the tea.
> "That depends. How good are the foot soldier rabbits as actors?"

>"They can be kind of sneaky," says Marisa. "But I don't think they'd be particularly good actors."
>"Liars, maybe," says Alice. Then she glances past you. "Oh, there's the outsiders now."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Look back behind us.

[Hello Purvis]

> Look back behind us.

>You look back, and see Maribel and Renko being lead toward the table by a doll.
>"Well, guess we're just missing Patchy, then," says Marisa.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Here's hoping she shows. She seemed, um, a bit grumpy earlier, if Flandre's message is at all accurate. I'm sure Remilia's been up in arms about this whole gem business. If anyone would be..."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Here's hoping she shows. She seemed, um, a bit grumpy earlier, if Flandre's message is at all accurate. I'm sure Remilia's been up in arms about this whole gem business. If anyone would be..."

>"I can only imagine," says Marisa. "Remilia gets like that."
>"Quite," says Alice. Then she looks to the two newcomers. "Come, sit and be comfortable. We'll be ready to begin once Patchouli gets here. Eirin won't be joining us tonight."
>"Alright," says Maribel. "Is she alright? Eirin, that is."
>"We don't know why she didn't come," says Marisa, as the two take their seats. "But it's what Nue told us."
>"Oh," says Maribel.
>"Where's Patchouli, anyways?" Renko says, looking around.
>"Another fine question," says Alice. "We don't precisely know."

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Actually, now that I think about it, Meiling said something about Remilia probably not even wanting to let her out of the mansion with this incident afoot. Then again, she also said the Patchouli could probably make it out, anyway. I don't know if she meant convince her, or sneak out, or what, but..."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Actually, now that I think about it, Meiling said something about Remilia probably not even wanting to let her out of the mansion with this incident afoot. Then again, she also said the Patchouli could probably make it out, anyway. I don't know if she meant convince her, or sneak out, or what, but..."

>"Hmm," says Alice. "Well, if that's the case, and she's already late, shall we begin now?"

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Well, that's up to you people; it's your meeting and all. I'm fine, either way."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Well, that's up to you people; it's your meeting and all. I'm fine, either way."

>"Anyone opposed?" says Alice.
>Looking around the table, you see only headshakes.
>"Very well," alice continues. "Let us bring the meeting to order. Does anyone have anything more important to talk about than the recent incident? No? Good, let's start with that. Our special guest has taken it upon herself to gather some information for us. We know this incident has occurred all over Gensokyo, and it seems to have happened instantly. I think we can all agree on that. As for the rest, well, I'll open the table."

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Mind if I go first?"
>Assuming no objection:
>"Like you said, I've been looking all over since I first found about it this afternoon. And yeah, it's hit every place I've seen, but it's not just Gensokyo, either. Same thing happened all the way out to the Netherworld. Mightn't just be there, either, but Higan and Bhava-Agra don't use much real money, or so they tell me, and who knows about Makai?"
>Shrug
>"About the only real clue I've found so far came from Sanae, actually. Said her goddesses are convinced this was an act of faith, caused by some god or another. No one they've been able to figure out yet, at least when I was talking to her, but they're sure it's somewhere in Gensokyo. When I left, they were still looking."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Mind if I go first?"
>Assuming no objection:
>"Like you said, I've been looking all over since I first found about it this afternoon. And yeah, it's hit every place I've seen, but it's not just Gensokyo, either. Same thing happened all the way out to the Netherworld. Mightn't just be there, either, but Higan and Bhava-Agra don't use much real money, or so they tell me, and who knows about Makai?"
>Shrug
>"About the only real clue I've found so far came from Sanae, actually. Said her goddesses are convinced this was an act of faith, caused by some god or another. No one they've been able to figure out yet, at least when I was talking to her, but they're sure it's somewhere in Gensokyo. When I left, they were still looking."

>No one objects, and you explain things.
>"Well, if it's an act of faith," says Marisa, "we can rule out Scarlet Devil Mansion for sure. That place is like a gallows for gods, there's so little faith."
>"Conversely," says Alice. "You've mentioned a shrine maiden of note among the Lunarians."
>"Yeah, that's true," says Marisa. "You think it was her?"
>"It seems more and more likely," says Alice.
>"Are we sure we should be ruling out the Moriya Shrine?" says Renko. "From everything I've heard, they like to meddle. And aren't the kind of the top gods around here?"

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"They might be, yeah, but why would they go volunteering that kinda info if they'd done it? I mean, I didn't have a clue until Sanae said so; gods hadn't even entered my mind. All I had to go on was Ran saying she sensed something 'like, but not quite like, magic'. If you're trying to pull one over on people, you don't go filling in the missing pieces for them that easy."

[Hello Purvis]

>"They might be, yeah, but why would they go volunteering that kinda info if they'd done it? I mean, I didn't have a clue until Sanae said so; gods hadn't even entered my mind. All I had to go on was Ran saying she sensed something 'like, but not quite like, magic'. If you're trying to pull one over on people, you don't go filling in the missing pieces for them that easy."

>"It presumes, I admit, that they don't need to evade capture forever," says Renko. "But, I think it's something we can probably consider likely. Either our perpetrator believes they can hide forever, or that they only need to hide long enough. With this in mind, if it is the Moriya Shrine, volunteering that kind of information would be a great way to throw you off their trail for a length of time. Not only would it seem illogical, but after they assisted you, it would seem ungrateful to turn around and accuse them."

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Hmmm... well, you never know, I guess. The thing is: do you think this info is really throwing anyone off their trail for any longer than silence would have done? Just look at how many possible suspects we eliminate off the bat if we assume 'it's a god'. How much time could we waste looking into, I don't know, Remilia or Yukari or who knows who else? Once you cut them out, the Moriya Shrine is probably still the most obvious suspect, despite what they've said. Yeah, sure, there's a chance, but I kinda think it would be a bad move on their part if they're actually responsible."

>"That being said, any of you folks know about some more obscure gods around here than the usual suspects? Something not nearly as visible?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"Hmmm... well, you never know, I guess. The thing is: do you think this info is really throwing anyone off their trail for any longer than silence would have done? Just look at how many possible suspects we eliminate off the bat if we assume 'it's a god'. How much time could we waste looking into, I don't know, Remilia or Yukari or who knows who else? Once you cut them out, the Moriya Shrine is probably still the most obvious suspect, despite what they've said. Yeah, sure, there's a chance, but I kinda think it would be a bad move on their part if they're actually responsible."

>"That being said, any of you folks know about some more obscure gods around here than the usual suspects? Something not nearly as visible?"

>"Yeah, but there's deniability," says Renko.
>"Who cares about that," Maribel says. "It's not really important in the face of Reimu or Marisa, is it?"
>Renko shakes her head. "Yeah, fine. I suppose."
>"There's a number of minor gods," says Alice, "But, they're minor for a reason. I don't think they could create anything of this nature."

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"No other major, but quiet gods? Reclusive ones, say? Old ones that haven't been heard from for a while, either way, maybe?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"No other major, but quiet gods? Reclusive ones, say? Old ones that haven't been heard from for a while, either way, maybe?"

>"Hmmm, there's Shinki," says Marisa. "But she's in Makai."
>"I don't think she'd do this," says Alice. "She doesn't tend to care about things outside of Makai."
>"Perhaps an accident?" says Byakuren.
>"It's possible," says Marisa, frowning. "Don't think it's happened before..."

>_