Dice In The Darkness: Cthulhu Calls

Chapter 45: Identifying Key Props for Success

"Er, since Alger has been hospitalized, it seems there's no way he can join the gathering now. Let's start playing then," Tina said, putting down her phone with a suppressed smile.

Akira Akashi nodded, reaching into the small bag he carried and took out several flyers. "I got these from the staff at the entrance, promotional flyers for the Harvest Festival. They include a map of the venue, which I thought could be useful, so I took a few copies. Everyone should take one."

As Akira Akashi spoke, he distributed the flyers to everyone present.

Liu Xing took a flyer and studied it carefully.

The front of the flyer introduced the origin of the Harvest Festival and its schedule.

Since Liu Xing already knew this, he flipped to the back.

The back featured the festival venue map. Taking the entrance where Liu Xing and the others were as the starting point, there were commercial zones on both sides formed by various stalls. Notably, on the right side of the commercial zone, there was going to be a performance related to the Harvest Festival. Liu Xing checked his phone; the performance would start in ten minutes.

On the left side of the commercial area, the map marked a grape arbor.

In the Cthulhu RPG Game, there are usually no irrelevant clues, so Liu Xing felt this specifically marked grape arbor was definitely a location worth exploring.

Additionally, Liu Xing noted that at the midpoint up the mountain towards the Crane Pavilion, there were bamboo groves on both sides. Behind the Crane Pavilion's temple, there were several peach trees, and the map specifically indicated that these peach trees were planted by a certain Taoist. Therefore, the offerings used in each Harvest Festival included peaches picked from these trees.

Liu Xing silently nodded, concluding that he would need to find a way to obtain a peach.

"Alright, has everyone finished looking? I think we should head to the commercial zone on the right and check out the Harvest Festival performance. It seems interesting," Tian Dao suggested with a clap of his hands and a smile.

The group agreed without objection and began to move towards the right-side commercial zone... However, because of Li Ming's leg injury, the journey that would have taken one minute took them five. After all, the Harvest Festival was bustling with NPCs, and without the escort of Liu Xing and the others, Li Ming would have found it extremely difficult to walk.

"Er, sorry everyone for wasting your time because of me," Li Ming said, touching his head in embarrassment.

"It's no problem at all; we're all friends here," Tian Dao replied with his usual beaming smile, patting Li Ming's shoulder without a care.

Liu Xing also smiled and nodded, adding, "Yeah, we're all friends now. How could we possibly abandon a friend to go have fun on our own?"

But inwardly, Liu Xing made a resolute decision: when the time came to let go, he would let go. Given Li Ming's limited mobility, Liu Xing really had no way to assist him. With Liu Xing's own strength and build not being substantial, he doubted he could carry Li Ming, and even if he could, he felt his agility would be halved as a penalty.

In the Cthulhu RPG Game, the mythical creatures are far faster than humans. Therefore, in any chase, Li Ming would stand no chance, and to attempt to aid him would likely result in sharing his doomed fate.

"The show is starting," Tina declared, observing the stage ahead that was now encircled by an impassable crowd, with all the actors in place.

Consequently, the group ceased their discussions, preparing to watch the harvest festival performance attentively in hopes of gathering vital information about the ritual.

The performance on stage was a reenactment of how the Taoist of ancient times would conduct the harvest festival. Naturally, Liu Xing was focused on the items displayed on the offering table.

"KP, I'd like to determine the exact items on the offering table, will that require a scouting roll?" Liu Xing reached out to the game master, KP Cao, since his position was too far from the stage to see clearly, even with his good eyesight.

KP Cao considered this and said, "It's possible. All players, let's roll for a scouting check to ascertain what's on the table."

Liu Xing, 33/40, success.

Tian Dao, 61/70, success.

Tina, 77/50, failure.

Akira Akashi, 47/40, failure.

Li Ming, 56/55, failure.

At the moment of a successful scouting check, Liu Xing's vision seemed to enhance miraculously, allowing him to discern the peaches, grapes, and bamboo shoots on the offering table.

Liu Xing and Tian Dao, who had also succeeded in their checks, exchanged knowing glances. It was likely that these three items were the necessary props for passing this segment of the harvest festival ritual.

After the performance concluded, Liu Xing commented with a smile, "Did you see? The required items for the festival aren't the traditional three sacrifices but peaches, grapes, and bamboo shoots. It seems this Taoist has quite the eccentric taste."

Tian Dao added, "I don't think it's the Taoist's peculiar taste. It's more likely that the original Taoist was simply using what was available locally. After all, didn't the map on the back of the flyer mention that the surrounding area of Xianhe Guan has grape trellises, bamboo forests, and peach trees?"

Liu Xing chuckled. Tian Dao was indeed a reliable teammate, perfectly in sync with him.

"Right, I also agree with Tian Dao's view. Liu Xing, making up stories about the Taoist isn't nice," Tina said with a laugh, while Li Ming and Akira Akashi, though silent, looked on at Liu Xing with smiles.

Liu Xing could only shrug in feigned helplessness and replied, "Alright, alright, my bad for speaking out of turn. But now that the show's over, why don't we head over to the commercial district on the left and check out the grape trellises? We might even get to taste some fresh grapes."

The group understood Liu Xing's intention. Tasting grapes was just a pretext; the real aim was to procure them, as they were one of the essential items for completing their quest, and getting them now should pose no challenge.

Just as Liu Xing was about to head towards the commercial district, he noticed a little girl crouched by the roadside, crying, ignored by the NPCs passing by.

Liu Xing knew that it was time to trigger the main quest of this module.