| ~Beyond the Border~ > Rumia's Party Games |
| Seija Quest 2 |
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| Tom:
> Prologue > You're Seija Kijin the rebellious Amanojaku. > Tonight you were supposed to be accompanying Shinmyoumaru to the Full Moon Festival at the Hakurei Shrine, to help her feel a little more comfortable around these powerful and influential humans and Youkai. She's pretty much your only ally in Gensokyo who hasn't forgotten you after your exile so you accepted helping her, even though you're an Amanojaku. > However while walking up the long stairway to the Hakurei Shrine you spotted one of Aya's newspapers under the shrine's gate and the headline caught your attention, it read: A Competition among Gensokyans To Fulfill all Ten Desires Wealth? Knowledge? Prestige? Magic? Longevity? Any one of them can be yours~ Whoever can successfully cause an Incident without being caught will have their greatest wish fulfilled~! Everyone interested should gather at the Hakurei Shrine Grounds at Sunset. Also in this Bunbunmaru issue: >Another year of excellent crop yields thanks to Minoriko's blessings. (Page 2) >The Kraken confirmed!? Eyewitness reports from fishermen about strange sightings under Misty Lake's surface! (Page 3) >Reading Tarot Cards 101! 5 cards link you to your past, present and future, according to an expert. But which cards provide the highest accuracy of readings? We compare results from 5 different sets of cards across 30 individuals. (Page 4) >An exclusive interview with Village Physician Unshou about the health benefits of smoked herring, a village delicacy. (Page 5) > You first thought of it as some kind of joke or some kind of ploy by the Bunbunmaru to attract readers. It's such an alluring idea though, fulfilling your deepest desires, your deepest wishes... Needless to say it kept nagging you in the back of your mind while preparations for the festival were taking place. > Full Moon Festival > At the shrine you met Reimu who together with Youmu and Suika were preparing the tables outside and food inside. During the preparations you tried to tempt Reimu into switching places with you through the use of your inversion abilities but she politely refused, claiming she needed more time to think about it. > Shinmyoumaru was very excited to see you after such a long absence from Gensokyo! She hadn't changed one bit since you tried to take over the world, still adamantly trying to become bigger and flip Gensokyo on it's head! > After meeting the inchling princess you found a mysterious looking magic tome in the shrine's living room with mysterious foreign runic symbols on it and depictions of what Shinmyoumaru called a "solar system". Inside it you found an unfinished group spellcard in it which turned out to belong to a ghostly blue figure who introduced herself as the Evil Spirit Mima. > The celestial Tenshi was the next to arrive, bursting through the doors and rudely grabbing a couple unfinished spring rolls to munch. Seeing the shrine maiden's patience running thin you quickly save the day by flipping the celestial's taste causing her to run off in disgust the moment she tried eating one! > Taking a break from the preparations you and Shinmyoumaru headed outside to a secluded place to see if the Miracle Mallet's energy had returned and how much it could power up your abilities. With the mallet's assistance you were able to invert your location/orientation/size with anyone you chose three times before running out of energy! > With the festivities beginning you both returned to the shrine grounds, where you watched a "friendly" duel in the sky between the sword wielding Tenshi and a flower Youkai capable of duplicating herself while shooting giant lasers! The match ended in a draw with both being knocked across the shrine grounds after their final attacks collided head-on. > Immediately afterwards though a mysterious doll you had spotted earlier lying on the donation box suddenly sprang alive and started clapping at the performance it just witnessed. > This doll which you later learned was named Iris went on to babble about how watered down Gensokyo and the title of Shrine Maiden had really become. She claimed Youkai only caused little nuisance incidents which only got punished by a slap on the wrist by the Shrine Maiden, even inviting said instigators to tea parties of all things afterwards. > Besides having an annoyingly smug voice this doll just about drove you over the edge when it called your revolution a petty nuisance incident... > With tension and disbelief rising among those in attendance the doll dropped a bunch of spell cards on the table claiming they're proof of it's legitimacy and left you all to investigate. While the cards initially appeared blank you figured out that in the hands of their "owners" they light up, containing shockingly accurate information about their owner along with the occasional snarky comment about them. > That is when the realization struck that this doll wasn't kidding and had either done it's sneaky research or worse was incredibly powerful and resourceful. > From that point on everyone sort of split up to try and make sense of what this "competition" means and who might be behind it. Shinmyoumaru and you stuck around the big table with all the spell cards along with the Scarlet Mansion residents and investigated. > You experimented with taking cards that didn't belong to you to test the limits of Iris' perception (as she had warned you earlier not to steal them). What you found was that they were rigged with some sort of incendiary spell that ignited the cards after a brief visual warning countdown! Luckily the mansion's librarian realized the card's paper looked eerily similar to experimental anti-theft books she was developing and swiftly knocked the card out of Sakuya's hands before it had a chance to burn her. > Afterwards Seija and Shinmyoumaru snuck off to the shrine's back yard where they found miss Mokou lighting something she calls a "cigar" while contemplating what just happened. You discussed the recent events and speculated on what the doll might stand to gain out of a competition like this, since she seemed pretty trustworthy you even showed her your card (as Shinmyoumaru) and had a look at hers. > Sidequest - Special Agent Fujiwara! >> Mokou was pretty suspicious of the pupeteer (Alice) being behind the whole incident and since you agreed you lent her the strength of the mallet in order to turn tiny (Shinmyoumaru's size) to sneakily follow Alice to find out what her "spell card" says. In the process you try and tackle one of Alice's dolls but it manages to run away and you give chase. When you finally caught up to it in the backyard you found it staring at a scattered mess of doll parts in the back yard. While investigating you tried to convince the doll you chased to reuse the fallen doll's stuffing and parts but it adamantly refused, claiming it might explode if you tried packing more material in it. Upon leaving you tackled the doll, sending it's head flying across the backyard! You then promptly used it's clothes and wig to disguise yourself as one of Alice's dolls with the goal of following her home. > The destruction of the Hakurei Shrine > Meanwhile Seija who had failed to deduce the source of the noise she heard in the back yard (OOC Knowledge: Mokou's attack on the doll) decides to look for Shinmyoumaru. Upon walking out the front door however you bump into Tenshi and scatter the tray of spring rolls she was carrying. Before she has the chance to pick them up however the donation box *explodes*, sending her soaring over the faith gate and throwing you across the shrine and punching an Amanojaku-shaped hole in the door. > Upon regaining your senses you quickly picked up your dropped cheat-items and ran back inside the shrine which was a complete and utter mess. The kitchen had sustained most of the damage, with the living room being still somewhat in one piece. However you quickly spotted two trails of liquid on the floor, one coming from a foreign looking device and another from a barrel with the name "Oni-Slayer" written on it. > Rushing through the shrine you accidentally slipped on the mysterious liquids on the floor, luckily landing on the living room couch! Getting up however you noticed the strange liquids had immediately ignited upon contact with a small fire, the fire quickly following the trail of liquid back to its source. Realizing what would happen if it reached either the barrel or device you quickly sprung into action, using your Oni-Level strength to smash two holes in the floor disrupting the trails of liquid thus saving the shrine! > With everyone having rushed into the shrine to assess the situtation you all hear a familiar voice exclaim "What a fitting way to kick off the competition, with the destruction of the Hakurei Shrine!" > Noticing Reimu stepping approaching she capitalized on her hesitation, claiming that she's ignoring her Intuition in favor of her Youkai friends... Thus failing the humans she swore to protect as the Hakurei Maiden and risking losing the already little faith the have in her. > She then exclaims you have until sunrise to find the culprit or she's revealing to the village how "worthless" their shrine maiden really is... > Iris then threatens that without faith she'd simply cease being the Hakurei Maiden, and with no successor to the bloodline the barrier would rapidly deteriorate... > Having heard enough nonsense you decide to tackle Iris using your abilities to swap positions and sizes. In the process you manage to briefly disorient her enough for Reimu to pin her down and demand the shrine be fixed, after which Iris seemingly passes out. It seems she had an ace up her sleeve however when you hear a slight hissing sound and smell gunpowder burning. At that moment Yukari leaps across the shrine, grabs the doll and tosses over the front yard where it explodes spectacularly into fireworks! > Your relief from Iris however doesn't last long as she reappears the moment you all decide to investigate the incident... > Investigation > You begin with investigating the liquids on the floor and learn the one was a type of highly potent sake named "Oni-Slayer", with Suika exclaiming one glass is enough to make her pass out for the night. The other liquid is more peculiar, coming from a foreign looking heating device the Kourindou Shopkeeper calls a Kerosene Heater. While there's nothing wrong with the device he explains they leak if tipped over, which likely happened after the donation box exploded. He considers the three-legged design flawed, claiming a round base would make it much more stable. > You then turn your attention to the donation box's remains which you immediately recognize smells like gunpowder, albeit with traces of some other ... foreign scent. Patchouli (who was also investigating the box) agrees with your findings and is surprised you know what gunpowder is. She theorizes Alice could be involved in some way since she's one of the few in Gensokyo that not only know of gunpowder's existence but she also uses it extensively for channeling magical energy in her dolls. As for the other substance she theorizes it could've been some type of fuse since gunpowder is only explosive under pressure but is difficult to ignite under such circumstances. > The Hourai pharmacist notices you two investigating the box and offers her assistance in determining the mystery substance by testing it with various reagents. This however takes time so you decide to split up with Patchouli to cover more ground. > You then notice a blank spell card on the floor, suspecting it's Tenshi's you pick it up and see five flames glowing on it. Having seen the results previously Patchouli rushes you to the round table to set the card down before it burns you, explaining it's a type of anti-theft system where only the card's owner can hold it. > Speaking of cards you hadn't had a chance to look at Shinmyoumaru's so you take the chance to ask to see her card which she happily shows you. Hers is considerably more complete than yours, having no ??? sections and even having a snarky comment in the "extra" section. > You then head off to find Youmu who was inside the shrine investigating the floorboards you shattered. Looking around in the area under the floor she notices there's some item down there which you offer to retrieve through the use of your abilities. To make matters more interesting upon swapping positions and sizes with the mystery item you spot a hatch in the floor directly above it! Making a mental note of it's position relative to the shrine you float back up through the broken floorboards where you undo the previous swap and end up underneath Youmu! You accidentally startle Youmu attempting to hug her and she ends up mistakenly stepping on you! Even though she apologized immediately being an Amanojaku you made sure to get your revenge by picking her up and carrying her like an item to where you traced the hatch to be. Which turned out to be in Shinmyoumaru's room, right under her futon! No wonder it looked so uncomfortable to begin with! > You're now alone in Shinmyoumaru's room, after having swapped Youmu and the futon's sizes to make her slightly taller. |
| Kilgamayan:
> Oh, right that Leviathan thing. Hmm, if there actually is anything to that story, maybe we can swap sizes with whatever creature that is. > But that's another concern for another time. Head back out to the folks out front. |
| EggBread:
>Start a poll and a debate scrum over nonsensical topics, like the standard size of spring rolls, whether to use rice or wheat flour, whether to let it rest after cooking, whether crabs or surimi or meat is an appropriate filling, etc |
| Tom:
--- Quote from: Kilgamayan on August 11, 2021, 10:46:07 PM ---> Oh, right that Leviathan thing. Hmm, if there actually is anything to that story, maybe we can swap sizes with whatever creature that is. > But that's another concern for another time. Head back out to the folks out front. --- End quote --- > Indeed it would be interesting! Maybe you should consider going fishing sometime? Hopefully there's some truth to the legend... > You head back out front and I'm find everyone split into small groups and investigating or discussing their findings. --- Quote from: EggBread on August 11, 2021, 11:57:39 PM --->Start a poll and a debate scrum over nonsensical topics, like the standard size of spring rolls, whether to use rice or wheat flour, whether to let it rest after cooking, whether crabs or surimi or meat is an appropriate filling, etc --- End quote --- > You ask around about the spring rolls and get overwhelmingly positive opinions about them, everyone applauded Youmu's cooking. Even Tenshi who had her taste inverted agreed they were really good! |
| Kilgamayan:
> We are aware of the Bamboo Forest area, yes? > If so, who is still here that we know is from that area? |
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