Chapter 4: PHAKDING MARCH 31, 1996 — 9,186 FEET
The first six days of the trek went by in an ambrosial blur. The trail took us past glades of juniper and dwarf birch, blue pine and rhododendron, thundering waterfalls, enchanting boulder gardens, burbling streams. The Valkyrian skyline bristled with peaks that I’d been reading about since I was a child. Because most of our gear was carried by yaks and human porters, my own backpack held little more than a jacket, a few candy bars, and my camera. Unburdened and unhurried, caught up in the simple joy of walking in exotic country, I fell into a kind of trance – but the euphoria seldom lasted for long. Sooner or later I’d remember where I was headed, and the shadow Everest cast across my mind would snap me back to attention.
We all trekked at our own pace, pausing often for refreshment at trailside teahouses and to chat with passersby. (p. 50f.)
DON’T EVEN GET STARTED ON HOW YOU’RE STILL AT BASE CAMP, DEAD OF NIGHT APRIL 15, 1996 — 17,600 FEET
“Wheeeeeee!” Skydancer is the only one who doesn’t seem to mind your lack of progress in altitude too much. She can fly ahead, wheeeee! The overall mood is something she’ll gladly escape from, whenever possible. Those people are weird, man. Curmudgeons, the whole lot. Why climb a mountain if it scares you?
That’s just silly, she thinks.
So, when she encounters three more curmudgeons as she whirls across the camp, it doesn’t bother her much. Let them be silly. Maybe she can even make them feel a tad better?
“Heya, how are you? Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!”
“Oh look, it’s that damn mosquito”, Cliff grumbles.
Maria von Trapp laughs her pearly laugh. “Would you like to go on an adventure, you favourite thing?”
“Wheeeeeee!”
“I never realised you spoke French”, offers Bigfoot. If only those damn fairies weren’t made of plastic, he thinks. So much residual waste.
“Adventure.”, Cliff reminds him.
They take Skydancer to yet another crevasse close-by. (There are so many! Who’s counting, right?)
“Let me show you this interesting technique.” Skydancer stands to attention as he binds her feet and unrolls a long, long rope hanging from those ties. She can see where this is going. Silly, just silly really. People never ask the right questions about Fairyland. Oh well.
“1 – 2 – 3 – GO!” Gabe hauls Skydancer over the ledge, and down, down, down it goes. Her wings flutter in excitement. Gabe ties the end of the rope to a bush and weighs it down with rocks and snow. Then he, Maria, and Bigfoot walk back to camp.
Being a good sport, Skydancer starts singing: “Take me up, before you go-go, don’t leave me hanging down here like a yo-yo…”
Nobody answers but the wind.
“Fine, be that way.” Skydancer wraps herself in her wings, and goes to sleep.
Skydancer (Lindsay) has been left high and dry. She was a member of the Motley Mountaineering Crew (Town).
When she wakes up from her nap, Skydancer gives the trio one last chance to show some decency. Maybe this was a misunderstanding. Her thin, high-pitched soprano carries across the ravine: “Come on baby/Let’s not fight/We’ll go climbing/Everything will be alright.”
Nothing.
She can’t hear Gabe on the radio, frantic, because he heard her: “It’s Skydancer! The son of a bench is still alive.”
Bigfoot: No name-calling, this is an open line.
Gabe: I don’t give a damn, BIGFOOT!
Skydancer wraps herself in her wings more tightly, and goes into the fairy state of hibernation. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
(All cursive text quoted from: Jon Krakauer, Into Thin Air, Anchor Books, New York, 1999)
3 Wolves
(The roles are for flavor only and aren’t assigned to specific players)
- Maria von Trapp: Maria is sick and tired of her Sound of Music persona. She longs for change. Maria is ready, so ready for something other than cream-coloured ponies and crisp apple strudels. The hills are alive with The Sound of … Murder!
- Bigfoot: Two things have sent Bigfoot on this homicidal path. First, the US of Arrogance claiming him as theirs. Secondly, the constant littering of those damn climbing tourists. Some of the stuff is actually recyclable!
- Gabriel Walker as Portrayed by Sylvester Stallone in Cliffhanger (just call him Gabe): Nobody understands the mumbled motivations of The World According to Gabe, but that’s okay. His emotional issues are so massive that you can see them bulge even through a snow suit, anyway.
13 7 members of the Motley Mountaineering Crew (Town): Their only power is to vote on whom to leave out in the snow to turn into a Permanent Popsicle at the end of each day.
- Do not edit or delete posts for any reason.
- The Wolf kill is mandatory.
- On the mountain, indecision can be deadly – In the event of a tie, the wolves decide which of the tied players dies.
- Autokill is triggered if one player gets a majority, but only if everyone has voted (a retracted vote still counts for this purpose).
- Town wins when all Wolves are eliminated. Wolves win when their numbers equal Town (or when nothing can be done to prevent this).
- Play the game! Inactivity may result in replacement. Try to make at least 10 game related posts per day.
- Quoting: do not directly reference any communication with the Mod that happened outside the game threads.
- No game talk after twilight. If it’s not roleplay, save it for the next day.
- Attack arguments, not people. Be kind.
- VT Message: “You are a member of the Motley Mountaineering Crew (Vanilla Town)”
- Special thanks to Tiff for writing all the flavor (sorry, flavour).
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11Dm2aRZ9p2GNn71nOEGAGO2BUtUbreZJxJOCmI_Hx3w
- The spreadsheet will have the most up to date vote count, though I’ll also update the count in the vote thread as often as I can.
- If you’re in the document, you’ll show up as a random anonymous animal to anyone else viewing the document (including me), even if you’re signed into a google account. So you can open it without worrying about anyone seeing your IRL info.
Players
- Abby // THE BOULDER
- April // Det. Alex Cumberland, MD
- Chum // Big Rock Candy Mountain Expeditionist
- Goat // MU Logicker
- Jake // Not-the-Horror-Film Jack Frost
- Lamb // Cliff Hanger
- Mike // George Mallory, Mystery Mountaineer
- Moonster // Blucifer, the Blue Mustang from Hell
- Queequeg // Yukon Kornelius
- Sic // Smash Bros Ice Climbers
Lindsay // Skydancer, Fairy of the Mountain– Town, Died Night 3Nuka // Cuphead– Town, Died Day 3Owen // Snow Miser– Town, Died Night 2Cork // Brett, an Alternative (TM) White Guy– Town, Died Day 2Malthusc // Frederick Barbarossa– Town, Died Night 1Josephus // The Ghost of Edmund Hillary– Town, Died Day 1
Twilight will be at 3pm Central (4pm Eastern) on Wednesday, July 27.