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The Path Unending (A Cultivation Quest)

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It's too idyllic, too. My guess is some sort of memory, or land out of time, or something. The clearing was like, a place where they turned in 4d and now they're dislocated from the normal map and in this sort of sideways place. Then again, i've been reading a bunch of eldritch stuff so as long as you consider each being as a person with feelings and personhood it's basically the same as the 'it's an illusion' theory. Except with maybe more potent opportunities when we study it after we solve the case.
 
[X] Zhi will handle the administration, recording records of those who have passed or failed.

I think Daiyu would be better suited to finding out what is wrong here. Zhi has a sheltered background and wouldn't have a lot of clue about what a backwater village should be like at this time. Daiyu would be able to spot things that are wrong more easily.
Daiyu is also more likely to pick up on unusual cultural references like the ones we just saw.
Or just general people being off. Zhi stands out a lot while Daiyu is more approachable to the common person.
 
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[X] Zhi will roam the outskirts of the village, insuring there are none hiding from the Examination.

An excuse to study this place.

The villagers clearly know whats going on here and have decided that not interacting with the anomaly is the way to go.

There are no attempts to get aid from us, which implies its not a problem they believe we can solve or want to draw attention to, and even children seamlessly keep up the act, which implies this happens often enough for them to be drilled in it. Nobody was looking out for us so it probably isnt a regular occurrence but one that happens enough for this response to be natural. Reactions appear to be anxiety adjacent.

I suspect that to them we are the weird thing coming out of the mist to do nasty stuff, though it could very well be a doppelganger predator situation or something else.

The merchant vanishing, doing so without signs of struggle, and the ox being left behind, is causing a lot of weirdness in the more mundane possibilities such as bandits, local cults, hiding from the exams, time bubble, or kukuni farming them.

Still not enough information.

I wonder if the reason why this place wasn't on the recent maps was whatever tf that thing that told us to flee was having scared them off from completing the survey here. Hrm, even if that was the case though you'd imagine that they would just keep the old records instead of calling it empty. Unless they were justifying their lack of detailed data by concealing the whole place. Bah. Could be anything, not enough info yet.
 
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Interesting. Villagers from a sleepy hamlet noticing but not really reacting or engaging with any strangers, let alone as colorful strangers as our group must seem?

A normal village would have reacted. Out of curiosity if not self-preservation.

That it hasn't, means that we are inconsequential to its inhabitants.

I kinda think this vilage is not on the same "metaphysical wavelength" as the rest of the world. Not anymore.

Ps. So, the driver literally disappeard from on top of his wagon. Echoing the way the revenants/specters disappeared the other night, from being present one moment to being gone the next.

Probably a curse or curse-adjacent event, rather than a lure by something in the dark.
 
I wonder if we're dealing with something that has aerial predators?

Like, the cart man could have been taken from the air while he was sitting on his cart, would explain why no tracks away from it.
 
[X] Zhi will roam the outskirts of the village, insuring there are none hiding from the Examination.
 
HousePet said:
I think Daiyu would be better suited to finding out what is wrong here. Zhi has a sheltered background and wouldn't have a lot of clue about what a backwater village should be like at this time. Daiyu would be able to spot things that are wrong more easily.
Daiyu is also more likely to pick up on unusual cultural references like the ones we just saw.
Or just general people being off. Zhi stands out a lot while Daiyu is more approachable to the common person.
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While I disagree with the argument (Zhi at the very least has been taught how to search for oddities/out-of-place things by his court) there is one huge flaw with this reasoning.

Vesvius said:
Though something odd might be going on, your duties remain the same. What role does Zhi take in the examination of Shoubiao's Wake?
[] Zhi will stand guard, keeping watch over Clerk Ni as he performs the testing.
[] Zhi will handle the administration, recording records of those who have passed or failed.
[] Zhi will roam the outskirts of the village, insuring there are none hiding from the Examination.
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Daiyu is going to be guarding Clerk Ni if the voting options are anything to go by.
 
[X] Zhi will roam the outskirts of the village, insuring there are none hiding from the Examination.

mmm. Barring more fantastical explanations. Could just be that this is a village of people that dont respect the emperors rule. They fully intend to just go along with clerk ni's antics, then after we leave they just never send their prospects.

They replace clerk ni's map with a subtly different one and the bureau cant find the place again. After all, its so well obfuscated that even the zhaun werent aware.

Also possible they try to kill us in our sleep, or destroy the treasure or some other form of subterfuge.

But my read is the former. They are doing their best to be isolationist and left alone. Their resistance will be passive and be via hiding.

I fully expect that they will try to hide prospects, as it hasnt been an issue at any of our other stops. Nowhere else has really tried to hide prospects.

I would say that we are the best suited for an investigation, but...

We just blew almost all our anam investigating the merchants cart.

Due to that im kinda leaning towards letting zhaun take this one. Though i doubt his efficacy.

Ideally id want mei deiyu searching.
 
Yeah I think guarding is crossed off because of Fractal View. We had a whole tiff with Ni about not deactivating it so we could guard him.
 
It's definitely not this exactly, but I'm getting False Hydra vibes, to be honest.

The "no need for names" thing is worth noting, as is the fact that nearby recordkeepers (Zhuan) don't have the village recorded but a far away one (imperial) does.
 
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