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The Path Unending (A Cultivation Quest)

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KreenWarrior said:
One of the advantages of the Garden is that it extends the range of our scanning considerably. We have a much better chance of detecting interesting anam sources at a distance with it on.
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But there is no reaction from the testing treasure or anything else to indicate any anam sources currently active.
Whatever happened to the merchant was days ago.
And it seems like a veil is being used, as Zhi could only sense a ripple in the background before, from close range.
 
[x] Where is the merchant? Where did the cart even come from? There must be some tracks from someone near the cart. I will search for them and follow where they lead.
 
[X] This whole business smacks of illusions and trickery. Enter the Stallion's Enclosed Garden, and cast about thoroughly with my Sixth Sense for anything amiss. Failing that, examine the cart, but with the Twilight Horizon.
-[X] Be sure to search for tracks near the cart. The merchant to whom this cart belongs was likely taken by illusions or similar trickery. Assuming that trickery was involved and it's not another out-there situation that falls under 'Caretaker Business'.
 
The simplest explanation for the town disappearing from maps is that someone in the Zhaun government is helping to hide it.

We also know a group that's very interested in remaining hidden from the government because they're rebelling.

We might be about to walk into the Seated Will Stand's secret base.

[x] Where is the merchant? Where did the cart even come from? There must be some tracks from someonenear the cart. I will search for them and follow where they lead.
 
Does anyone think that this a paper towns situation?? Mapmakers adding a fake town for "copywriting"?
Would make sense then that Jingyi's summit doesn't have it, if it really isn't supposed to exist.

Maybe now there are people trying to make it a real town! Like our merchant!
 
Could be a trap street. But I'm not sure why people would be copying a map and renaming the town. To do that, they would have to know it was a trap street.
 
Snorting.Hat said:
Does anyone think that this a paper towns situation?? Mapmakers adding a fake town for "copywriting"?
Would make sense then that Jingyi's summit doesn't have it, if it really isn't supposed to exist.

Maybe now there are people trying to make it a real town! Like our merchant!
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Maybe, but given that different maps have the town at the same location, it would be weird if it was just for copyright purposes. Unless the maps are just copying each other, but if that was the case, then the value of having different maps dramatically diminishes.
 
[X] This whole business smacks of illusions and trickery. Enter the Stallion's Enclosed Garden, and cast about thoroughly with my Sixth Sense for anything amiss. Failing that, examine the cart, but with the Twilight Horizon.
-[X] Be sure to search for tracks near the cart. The merchant to whom this cart belongs was likely taken by illusions or similar trickery. Assuming that trickery was involved and it's not another out-there situation that falls under 'Caretaker Business'.

If at a later point we learn the merchant has died, we should loot the cart and hand the rest off to the nearest friendly civilian (or pay them to deliver it someplace).
 
[x] Where is the merchant? Where did the cart even come from? There must be some tracks from someone near the cart. I will search for them and follow where they lead.
 
So we have a quiet hammer, a sly clerk, a gormless ox, and a fighter crab.

So, good money is on all the maps being correct. There was a village here named X, there was also a village here named Y, and now there is no village here.

Most mundane answer is that it gets destroyed every so often and rebuilt but that feels like something Zhuan Kun may have known about, even if i kinda think thats giving him too much credit here. The real indication given by his lack of knowledge is that whatever is going on here is subtle, has likely been going on for a long time, and probably not enough to simply snare the vassal mapmakers.

In any case, merchants sell to people and this place is so off the beaten path it feels unlikely that this one would be using it as a shortcut so that lends some support to the idea of there being a village around.

Finding the merchants map seems to be a good first step here for cross referencing purposes. Or perhaps second. Seems to be deliberately parked and his ox set to graze so he might be around if hes alive. Find the merchant first.
 
[x] This whole business smacks of illusions and trickery. Enter the Stallion's Enclosed Garden, and cast about thoroughly with my Sixth Sense for anything amiss. Failing that, examine the cart, but with the Twilight Horizon.
 
Perhaps there's a secret way of getting into the town. If so, perhaps the merchant was lured into it somehow. In which case, following any merchant tracks ought to be the best way to find the town.

[x] Where is the merchant? Where did the cart even come from? There must be some tracks from someone near the cart. I will search for them and follow where they lead.
 
[X] Where is the merchant? Where did the cart even come from? There must be some tracks from someone near the cart. I will search for them and follow where they lead.
 
[X] This whole business smacks of illusions and trickery. Enter the Stallion's Enclosed Garden, and cast about thoroughly with my Sixth Sense for anything amiss. Failing that, examine the cart, but with the Twilight Horizon.
-[X] Be sure to search for tracks near the cart. The merchant to whom this cart belongs was likely taken by illusions or similar trickery. Assuming that trickery was involved and it's not another out-there situation that falls under 'Caretaker Business'.
 
[x] This whole business smacks of illusions and trickery. Enter the Stallion's Enclosed Garden, and cast about thoroughly with my Sixth Sense for anything amiss. Failing that, examine the cart, but with the Twilight Horizon
-[X] Be sure to search for tracks near the cart. The merchant to whom this cart belongs was likely taken by illusions or similar trickery. Assuming that trickery was involved and it's not another out-there situation that falls under 'Caretaker Business'.
 
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[x] Where is the merchant? Where did the cart even come from? There must be some tracks from someone near the cart. I will search for them and follow where they lead.
 
[X] Where is the merchant? Where did the cart even come from? There must be some tracks from someone near the cart. I will search for them and follow where they lead.
 
[X] This whole business smacks of illusions and trickery. Enter the Stallion's Enclosed Garden, and cast about thoroughly with my Sixth Sense for anything amiss. Failing that, examine the cart, but with the Twilight Horizon.
-[X] Be sure to search for tracks near the cart. The merchant to whom this cart belongs was likely taken by illusions or similar trickery. Assuming that trickery was involved and it's not another out-there situation that falls under 'Caretaker Business'.
 
[x] This whole business smacks of illusions and trickery. Enter the Stallion's Enclosed Garden, and cast about thoroughly with my Sixth Sense for anything amiss. Failing that, examine the cart, but with the Twilight Horizon.
-[X] Be sure to search for tracks near the cart. The merchant to whom this cart belongs was likely taken by illusions or similar trickery. Assuming that trickery was involved and it's not another out-there situation that falls under 'Caretaker Business'.
 
This really sounds like either time manipulation or an illusion. That the Ox wandered far in the direction we came from to continue to find food points towards the cart being abandoned long ago. But it's still in perfect condition.

Then there's the presence of the different maps. Either the village disappeared between the visits of different map makers, it got destroyed and re established, or the village was hidden from the last mapmaker somehow. Very strange.

The entire thing reminds me a bit of the movie "inception", so we should do our own spinning top trick. By which I mean trying to ride a horse again.

[X] This entire situation feels like a false dream. A village that's there and not there at the same time, strange moodswings among my companions, and now the mystery of the merchant's cart. While the others are investigating the current situation, I am going to try to ride a horse! Clearly that's the best way to find out if this is even real.
 
The only purpose I can think of for this as a possible illusion would be to delay the group from going further forward.
But why do that when we could be deceived into not going through this area entirely?
 
[X] This whole business smacks of illusions and trickery. Enter the Stallion's Enclosed Garden, and cast about thoroughly with my Sixth Sense for anything amiss. Failing that, examine the cart, but with the Twilight Horizon.
-[X] Be sure to search for tracks near the cart. The merchant to whom this cart belongs was likely taken by illusions or similar trickery. Assuming that trickery was involved and it's not another out-there situation that falls under 'Caretaker Business'.


Just got caught up with this! Now i may join in voting! Also, may I get a invite to the discord I hear being talked about in the thread?
 
If we suspect that something is happening do we really want to use 11 out of 28 anam? SEG is fine I suppose, but the additional 6 anam for a re-rolled failed dice is likely not necessary. We'll be rolling 7 dice for investigation already.
 
[X] Where is the merchant? Where did the cart even come from? There must be some tracks from someone near the cart. I will search for them and follow where they lead.
 
[X] Where is the merchant? Where did the cart even come from? There must be some tracks from someone near the cart. I will search for them and follow where they lead.

Start with mundane methods, then move to anam.
 
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