Actual Play: Golden Sky Stories, the Little Shrine in the Woods Part 4

[roseembolism]

Actual Play: Golden Sky Stories, The Little Shrine in the Forest

So, after meeting the bear god, and making outraguous promises to right everything, we go to the final scene.

After a nap, in the afternoon we meet with Emi to tell her what we've found. This requires some of us deciding to wear human bodies- or rather how much like humans we want to look. Note that in the Change table, the cost to change to human is based on the time of day, and the amount of change. Most of the henge choose Full Human (4 for full human, 4 for daytime) costing 8 points. I decide that nobody is going to notice a tail under a sailor fuku (4 for day, 2 for tail). Bird chooses obvious flight capable wings, for 4 points, because well, the bird has no caution.  This shouldn't bother the humans, right? After filling her in on the situation, a surprisingly calm Emi says that maybe her grandma might know something about old shrines. So we troop up to the cottage where we meet Emi's surprisingly sharp grandmother, who after a bit of a pause seems to see through our clever disguises. Fortunately she doesn't seem at all bothered. A variety of more or less inappropriate salutations occur, except for me, who says Ohayo Gozaimasue obasama- which earns me a narrow look.This aside, Grandma offers us tea and cookies, Pixel loves the cookies, which I very much approve of. "Yes. Go ahead and eat. Eat LOTS of cookies." For some reason Amasa has a bout of hysteria, screaming at Pixel that he shouldn't eat the cookies. A puzzled Pixel eats the cookies anyway.

When Grandma gets settled, a bit of sharp questioning ensues about our goals beyond cookies. Grandma is utterly unshocked by mentions of gods and spirits, and even talks about how as a child she knew a black eared rabbit. Amasa immediately spills that that's her grandmother Ninjin ("Carrot"). Satisfied, Grandma talks about how they used to be friends with the rabbits, and even set aside the field of wild carrots for them. But her son is a bit of a dunderhead, and can't understand that the obvious solution to a problem of pest management is propitiating gods. Instead he's gong to buy a gun soon- which cases Amasa to nearly faint. After more questioning about gods and shrines, Grandma mentions that there's an old goat trail heading up into the mountains that might go somewhere. Naturally, we decide we all need to go see, right? Grandma of takes forever to get ready. Idiot Tomo spends the time running around the house, the others go outside and wander around, and me? The couch is perfect for a nap. But when grandma leaves, I manage to slip out the door in front of her. On the trip up, Tomo gives her support, while I scout around to protect her from any vicious attacking mice. We discuss the visual of Mako giving grandma a mouse head as a gift.

After miles of a wandering path, we find two slabs of rock propped together in a "V" shape, like some neolithic peoples pushed some rocks together and said "Eh, I guess that's shrine". It smells and feels about right. Most of the group start cleaning the thing out, and find some broken, decayed straw rope that had once been a seal for the shrine. Tomo enthusiastically digs the leaf litter and dirt that had blown int the cave, and finds a clay statue that's a crude representation of a bear with antlers. Suzume puts it in it's proper position, and says the right words. Bunker leaves a cookie as an offering, and Tomo and Pixel use their powers to rush back down to the farm and get additional offerings of strawberries. Kicking myself for not thinking of it before, I use one of my powers to to state that some time before I had gotten a bunch of reeds to weave into a new rope. Because you never know when you might need reeds when visiting a shrine.

At this point, Kumashika appears in bear form. It nods to us, and we bow respectfully back. It disappears into the forest, and the atmosphere feels more relaxed. Barrow then pointed out that the sacrifice was spiritual, and now the cookies and strawberries really ought to be up for grabs- You will NOT EAT THE OFFERINGS! A debate follows as to proper protocol for eating shrine offerings, and then we decide to leave them alone. For once I'm on the same side of an argument as Suzune.

Going down the the others rush ahead, or in the case of Tomo, give Grandma support.  Along the trail I loop ahead, and then come back to weave around Grandma and Erin. The fact that I'm in human form makes this less cute than it could be. We settle in for tea and milk, and a grateful Grandma offers to make us more cookies. My request for Otoro (tuna) cookies is met with a very Japanese "That is very unusual" response. We chat about what sort of offering schedule the shrine will need, and Suzune offers to handle the offering schedule, because unlike SOME cats she has a shrine of her own, and knows about these things. I DON'T CARE! I don't NEED a shrine! I can get my own shrine! With FISH! Then Grandma comes in to tell Emi that she should get to bed early, because it'll be a busy day tomorrow cleaning up the greenhouse, and school is starting soon. The other henge happily offer to help fix the greenhouse, and also bring some strawberries up to the shrine in the forest.

Which is where game ends. Though this is a one-shot, we got around to spending our Dreams points. Since I earned Fifteen points, that meant I could increase my contacts by 3 points. I choose to increase my rivalry with Suzune by 1, and my friendships with Bunker and Emi by 1 each.

There IS an epilogue. Mako has no interest in helping the others fix some stupid greenhouse and disappears on her own business. However, a couple days later, when Emi leaves the house in the morning, Mako is at her porch, waiting. "What are you dong here?" "Not like I care or anything- this place was on my way! And you need to hurry, you'll be late for school!"