Tengu Reporter Quest (Touhou) (World 7 - Wheel of Time)

Ask Saria to lead you to an exit to the forest.
- Are there any particularly dangerous monsters you'd like help dealing with before we leave?
- Is there any way we can contact you if we manage to wrangle up some Gensokyan fairies?


"It would be much appreciated, actually," you tell Saria, ignoring Hatate's look of surprised indignation. Saria smiles and hops off the stump, waving for you to follow, although after a moment she double-takes and looks at your and Hatate's feet.

"Huh? Your shoes are …." You chuckle and pat her head; she must be very polite, having only been looking up at you and Hatate, to have only just noticed your geta.

"Heh, they're just a bit of old culture we've managed to keep around. The clothes are really new, but there wasn't any support for changing to modern shoes when that switch happened." You remember a few tengu who tried it, but getting literally looked down on by everyone convinced them to stop after a few days. It's honestly surprising that it took that long, really.

"Isn't … how can you walk so easily in them?" Saria looks back and forth between your and Hatate's geta, giving you a few seconds to firmly control the grin that threatens to spread across your face.

"Practice, I guess." Hatate shakes her head at your dismissive response, but you just wink at her before turning your attention back to your guide. "Ah, before we get too far out of the woods," you begin, ignoring Saria's sudden wariness, "are there any creatures around here that have been giving you trouble? I don't know how much help we'll be, but if there's something dangerous that you'd like help dealing with, we can at least try." Saria relaxes as you continue speaking, then looks around, first toward the 'defensive line' and then back at the mansion. After a moment, she resumes walking and shakes her head.

"I don't think so …. I mean, thank you for offering, and things are more dangerous for the Kokiri, now that the Great Deku Tree is gone, but … most of the really dangerous things I know about either live far away, where I don't know about them, or don't cause trouble unless you specifically bother them. Like moblins; they're huge monsters that no Kokiri would even try to fight – but they don't live around here. They sometimes pass through the forest, and if they see a Kokiri they'll try to catch us, but they're pretty easy to avoid and rare to see. Apart from them …." She glances back at the mansion, and even Hatate can tell that there's some kind of story there.

"Is there something living there?" Saria's head whips around at the sound of your voice, but after a moment she shakes her head and smiles sadly.

"No – the opposite, in fact. It's haunted. But they don't seem very powerful, and can't do anything unless someone actually goes inside the mansion. And since we don't actually need to go in there for anything … well, why bother them?" She looks around as you reach the steps, then turns to you and Hatate, a serious look on her face. "Please be quiet now, unless I tell you it's okay to say something." She looks at you, waiting for your acknowledgment, and when you nod she turns to Hatate as well. Satisfied, she then presses her fingers into the wall and climbs up, motioning for you to follow. A series of handholds are carved into the wall, the overgrowth concealing them either cleverly or fortuitously. Walking carefully now, instead of running, Saria is almost silent – even her breath is difficult to hear, and you can't hear anything from her footsteps, even when she jumps down from the wall. She guides you through the woods on a meandering path, shallowly curving from one side to the other. Twice, she points things out to you: the first is a passive Deku Baba, and you quickly sketch the strange plant. The second time, however, she leads you up into the trees and points out a particularly organized pile of grass and leaves. After warning you to cover your eyes, she hurls a small object down onto the pile. The object produces a tremendously bright flash, and when you look back at the pile, there's a strange plant-like creature dancing around, squeaking annoyingly – one of the standard green-colored Deku Scrubs. Eventually, you reach a point where the everpresent fog starts thinning noticeably, and Saria stops.

"Well, thank you for the help getting out, Saria. And for showing us the Deku Baba and the Deku Scrub." Hatate nods along with you, and Saria smiles.

"They were on the way, so figured it wouldn't hurt to show you. You shouldn't need to do anything special from here, though – just keep going straight and you'll leave the forest soon enough." She starts to back away. You snap your fingers.

"Oh, one more thing – sorry. Ah, if we do manage to get some of our fairies over here, is there any way we can contact you? It seemed like you thought of something that they might be able to help." Saria clamps down on her hope, coughs, and looks around. At first it seems like she's just trying to find an excuse for something, but then she seems to look around for something specific. Finally, she sighs and looks at you.

"... Do you remember the song you heard me play?" You nod and hum a bit of it. She smiles. "Right. I'll talk to some of the Skull Kids and have them keep an eye out for you. Even if it's not one of the ones I'm friends with, most of them know that song, so if you can keep it close, it should keep them from attacking you, and I should hear about it fairly quickly." You curtsy, smiling, and after a moment Saria takes a few quick steps back, disappearing into the fog. You listen for a few moments, but of course you don't hear anything.

"Well, Hatate, let's go." She nods and follows you, looking around nervously; it takes a bit of effort to keep from reaching back and pulling her by one ear or a braid, but you manage. Eventually, you're far enough out of the forest that you can see the great field. " … Thoughts?"

"Mmm. She seemed nice. And … I guess I don't mind the forest. Better than the Forest of Magic or the Bamboo Forest." You nod along; it's a fine forest, and you can easily imagine tengu living there … although maybe not in harmony with the Kokiri. But maybe it is possible. It would all depend on what the tengu would gain, really. And there does seem to be a rather nice mountain just a bit away ….


What do you do?

[ ] Go to the castle.

[ ] Go to the mountain village.

[ ] Find a nice tree around here and wait for sunrise.

[ ] Other?

Go to the mountain village.


"Well, that's the forest done with. For now, anyway. If we can't find any somewhere else, we might want to see if we can find that mansion and see what the local spirits are like." Hatate makes a face before sighing and follows you into the air. You take a breath and watch the foxfire dancing through the field below; are the spirits found there and in the haunted mansion of different kinds? Or are the field-lights not ghostly in nature at all? Something to look into … later.

"So are we going to the castle or the mountain? What, it's not like there are any other obviously civilized places around where we could maybe rest for the night. And I'm not sure about the castle, either." You smile and shake your head at Hatate's not-quite-whining voice. Instead of answering, you just fly in a sort-of-in-between path, leaving it unclear whether you'll turn toward the castle or the mountain, and look at the smaller castle in the middle of the field as you pass it by. Perhaps it isn't a castle at all – the interior is too open – but it certainly seems to be a fortified structure of some kind. Something else to look at, later. Finally, however, you turn decisively toward Death Mountain once you can detect a slight red glow coming from the peak. A fire? Or is the volcano currently very active? Hmm. Something to look forward to by daylight, when your pictures will be clearer.

The town, once you turn your gaze to the mountain slope itself, is quite easy to find. Not only is there a quite regular path that seems to have been carved into the mountainside, but the walls of the town are brightly-lit with torches. You find a tall tree growing near the town and observe it carefully as Hatate settles on a lower branch, sighing loudly at the delay. The town is built at a corner in the path carved along the mountain, serving as a barricade and a rest stop. It's high enough on the mountain to overlook the castle town, and you wonder if it was initially established by invaders or defenders. In either case, the town seems to have expanded quite a bit, wrapping around the mountain, with small fields behind the bulk of the village. Most of the houses are brick-and-timber construction, but some are much sloppier and hurriedly-built structures of wood alone, and you look back at the castle. Would it be better if you and Hatate posed as refugees? Probably not; without a better understanding of how Ganondorf work, you're too likely to trip up and say something the locals know is false and thus damages your reputation. But unlike Saria, these people likely have a better understanding of the greater world, and simply saying that you're from 'far away' probably won't be enough, either. You turn your attention to the two gates. The lower gate has a large, solid-looking wooden wall, and four armored guards with spears and bows stand on platforms near the gate. And someone down there is quite wise, as torches are mounted on the walls of the path to allow the guards sight beyond a spear's length. No sneaking up on them. The upper gate is smaller, and watched only by two guards, but the path above the town is narrower. It too has torches installed on the walls of the path for the guards to see.

The rest of the village is dark. No torches are used in the streets, no lanterns hang on the buildings. Here and there you see glimpses of light through a shuttered window, but that's it. Are they being rationed? Do they not have enough? Or is the village simply being run on a necessity-only basis, where the lack of useful work at night means torches and such aren't used? You nod to yourself as you study the village's layout – a newcomer could get turned around quite easily, particularly as there are several levels to the village, and not all connect equally.

Finally, you turn your eyes to the observation tower. It's high enough that someone standing atop it could look out over the great field – but then, Remilia did indicate that this place is one of refugees from the sorcerer's attack. If he used an army, then such an observatory could be useful …. "Why didn't we just land there first?" You glance at Hatate and shake your head despairingly.

"Sure, it gives a better view of the village, fewer restrictions on line of sight – but it might not be safe. The village could be warded, or the land inside protected by some other magic. Not so different a question as 'Why didn't we just walk up to the guards,' really. Because it's probably very early in the day and if we don't handle this properly, there might be violence. At least some of these people used to live over there, after all." Hatate huffs, about to reply, but you wave her to silence as two people slide out of the shadows of the town and stride toward the guards at the lower gate. The lesser of the two is a nervous youth, perhaps a page or messenger, their motions hesitant and a shawl covering their face. The superior is a grown woman, minimally-armored and wearing a short sword or long dagger at her waist. Interesting how you didn't see them until they left the shadows – the youth's pale clothing should have been easily visible even in this light, and the woman's skin might be sun-roughened, but she's hardly going to blend into the shadows naturally. Your eyes flick back to the observation tower before looking back toward the guards and willing the wind to bring their voices to you. Simultaneously, something makes the youth twitch and almost lose their step. You bring your wings in front of you, blocking your own bright shirt from sight, and Hatate follows suit.

"Impa! Good morning. Has there been news?" One of the guards turns and greets the newcomers, and the woman raises one of her arms in response.

"Nothing so solid, I'm afraid. Merely forebodings of an ill wind rising. How has the night been?" The guard shrugs at the woman's question.

"Quiet. Get the feeling that the Gerudos've gone off for the season." The woman frowns and looks up at the sky.

"Maybe. Don't think it's wet enough to really bother them yet, though, so keep your guard up." The guard salutes and turns back to the path, while the woman looks around carefully. She doesn't react at all when her eyes climb the tree you're on, so either she didn't see you or she has exceptional control over herself. Hmm ….


What do you do?

[ ] Approach the gate on foot, from the pass.
- [ ] Introduce yourselves as reporters.

[ ] Land in front of the woman in charge.

[ ] Sneak into one of the more run-down buildings and take a nap.

[ ] Keep watching to see if you can learn anything else before making your next move.

[ ] Other?



NOTE: Approaching on foot does not have Aya and Hatate hide their wings by default.