Yukari Quest III - A Z-Machine Adventure

[Yaersulf]

>Good enough, continue up the mountain for now, keeping an eye out for signs of someone passing through.

[Hello Purvis]

>Good enough, continue up the mountain for now, keeping an eye out for signs of someone passing through.

>You continue up the mountain.
>You see no signs of movement or motion that could be attributed to any kind of person as you walk further along the increasing incline. What little movement there can be seen in trees and grass in the wind, and the occasional bit of dust in the air that has traveled from the badlands.
>Soon, the trees and such grow more sparse, and the grass gives way to rocky dirt, and increasingly to bare rock. Looking back, you have already ascended a couple hundred feet over the rest of the island simply by walking up the lower incline. Before you, the mountain's rise becomes sharper; a rugged cliff looms before you that is only a few angles short of rising straight up for at least a hundred feet. It seems to continue around to the western face of the mountain, while the eastern face seems to be softer and more broken up. You suspect you could climb this cliff, as long as nothing goes wrong.

>_

[Yaersulf]

>Inspect the cliff in greater detail. Specifically scouting out handholds and suchlike.

[Hello Purvis]

>Inspect the cliff in greater detail. Specifically scouting out handholds and suchlike.

>Examining the cliff, you find that the lower regions should be easy enough to scale. Despite the severity of the incline, there are a lot of handholds that look trustworthy enough. Once you reach the middle region, a hundred or so feet up, the handholds become more sparse. You are a bit too distant to discern any real paths, but a few seem plausible from a distance. One goes up the middle, and seems to be reasonably plausible for most of the way. However, there is a part covering a few yards where you cannot make out any handholds from here. Either they are going to be small, or you will have to be creative to scale that length of the cliff. To the left, you think you see a faint path upward, but the handholds are small and might be unreliable. Further left is another potential path with some prominent handholds, but it winds to and fro.

>_

[Hello Purvis]

>Of course, these are hardly your only options for ascending the mountain.

[Yaersulf]

>Carefully ascend the third path.

[Hello Purvis]

>Carefully ascend the third path.

>You begin to make your way up the southmost part of the cliff.
>The early going is about as easy as you could hope, the incline is harsh, but it is enough that you can lean into it and be fine as long as your footholds are reasonably secure. It isn't too hard to scale this part, it merely takes a little time and some effort.
>Then things become harder as mountainside becomes slightly steeper, making your task much harder. The handholds become more scarce. but the route you have selected still has a number of them available. Many of them are reassuringly firm, but you are certain to test each one before putting your weight onto it, and find there are a couple that are simply too weak for you. The route starts leading upward, then it begins to sway to the left, then to the right. Soon you are tacking back and forth across the cliff face, covering several yards for each foot that you ascend. While it is a safe climb, even the periodic wind does not give you cause for worry, it is slow and tiring.
>Still, you manage to scale three fourths of the cliff before you come across a ledge several feet long and a yard wide. It seems to be quite secure.

>_

[日巫子]

> If we were to fall from this ledge, how far would the drop be?

[Hello Purvis]

> If we were to fall from this ledge, how far would the drop be?

>A few hundred feet. You have not looked down to estimate the drop for obvious reasons.

>_

[日巫子]

> Start moving across the ledge, slowly.

[Hello Purvis]

> Start moving across the ledge, slowly.

>You make your way to and across the ledge slowly, and have no real issues. You could probably settle down upon it and rest if you wished.

>_

[日巫子]

> Take a sit-down break.

[Hello Purvis]

> Take a sit-down break.

>You lower yourself onto the ledge, and have to take care to plop down into an unceremonious mess. Your legs feel like tender noodles and tingle unpleasantly. Your stomach rumbles angrily, reminding you that it has likely been a day and a half since you last ate. Your fingers and toes ache sharply.  All in all, it feels good to just take a load off.  The view from the ledge allows you a panoramic view of the island, the flower field and the forest in particular. The latter stretches with few breaks or clearings that you can see, right to the edge of the island. Beyond that, well into the distance, you can see the tiny island that you had previously visited, as well as an occasional shimmer from the bridge of light that brought you here.

>_

[日巫子]

> Wait a little while, until our legs hurt less.
> How big is the forest from up here?

[Hello Purvis]

> Wait a little while, until our legs hurt less.
> How big is the forest from up here?

>Looking at the forest, it roughly half circle in shape, the rounded edge following along the side of the island. You estimate it is about a mile and a half long, and maybe a half to a third of a mile wide.
>You linger for a good ten to fifteen minutes before your really feel up to using your legs again. You definitely needed this rest, you hadn't noticed how much you were pushing yourself beforehand.

>_

[日巫子]

> Stretch our arms, and start climbing again.

[Mr. Sacchi]

> Wait, we were able to actually rest? Didn't we try that before and fail miserably? I believe we had a nap back at gensokyo.

[Hello Purvis]

> Wait, we were able to actually rest? Didn't we try that before and fail miserably? I believe we had a nap back at gensokyo.

>You managed to sleep and rest beforehand, just that it was a crummy night's sleep. It did the job, just not as well as you would have liked.

> Stretch our arms, and start climbing again.

>You stand, stretch, and resume scaling the mountainside.
>Having rested a bit, the rest of the trip up the middle second of the mountain goes easily. You still have to follow a relatively winding path, but refreshed as you are it is not so difficult. As you come to the upper portion of the mountain, the incline becomes much less steep, angling down to sixty degrees or so. The rock is quite rough, providing as many handholds as you should need. The peak is a mere thirty or so yards above you, seeming to be rather blunt and wide enough you could probably stand with ease. More notably, you see what looks to be a thin ledge that winds up at least part of the mountain, about ten yards above you.

>_

[日巫子]

> Does the ledge look stable?
> Do we feel like we have enough energy to keep going the rest of the way?

[Hello Purvis]

> Does the ledge look stable?
> Do we feel like we have enough energy to keep going the rest of the way?

>It seems stable enough.
>You should be able to finish the ascension without worry, assuming there are no unexpected issues.

>_

[日巫子]

> Keep climbing, then.

[Hello Purvis]

> Keep climbing, then.

>You keep climbing, covering the ten or so yards to the ledge without too much of a struggle.
>Examining the ridge as you close in upon it, it is about two feet wide on average, and seems to be reasonably sturdy. It is a bit uneven, but you ought to be able to walk along it without too much trouble if you take care. It might not be a bad idea to walk sideways at some parts, though.

>_

[日巫子]

> Are we close enough to step onto it?
> If so, do it.

[Hello Purvis]

> Are we close enough to step onto it?
> If so, do it.

>You climb onto the ridge. It provides a blessedly sturdy surface, letting you to stand and feel well-balanced for the first time in much too long. The ridge rises upwards in fits and starts as it winds along the northern face of the mountain. You suspect, as long as you don't try anything silly, you should be able to follow it up to the peak rather easily.

>_

[日巫子]

> Begin ascending the ridge, carefully.

[Hello Purvis]

> Begin ascending the ridge, carefully.

>You begin to make your way up the ridge as it follows around the top of the mountain.  It circles about halfway around the peak, and ascending up several yards.  Soon, it comes to an end, perhaps ten yards from the top. Here, the rest of the incline is perhaps sixty five degrees, it should be easy to climb up. The peak above seems to be barren, and largely uninteresting. However, you can sense there is something...unusual with regards to the borders in that direction. They are as shifting and crude and where else, but among that is a kind of border debris of a kind, gently wafting around in the chaos. It is delicate, to say the least. Had you opened a gap here, it likely would have been scattered.

>_

[Yaersulf]

>Climb up to the peak.
>Examine the border-related oddity.

[Hello Purvis]

>Climb up to the peak.
>Examine the border-related oddity.

>You make your way up the last bit of the mountain without difficulty.
>The mountain top is a blunt and vaguely dome-shaped bit of land, about nine or so feet in diameter. Below you, the mountain spreads out majestically in all directions. You can see the sheer face that you scaled to the south, which rounds out to a markedly gentler slope to the north. The island stretches around you in all directions; you have a commanding view of the dry lake bed, of the rocky badlands and the forest, and of the flower fields. You detect the faint glimmers around the edges of the island which suggest a couple of light bridges.
>More immediately, you feel the remains of a gap here. It has fallen apart before you, almost entirely collapsed upon itself. The fabric of the border here is twisted and frayed, edges of it blow around freely in the swirling sandstorm that makes up the borders of this place, tugging at it bit by bit. the gap is in highly delicate state , just about any border manipulation would cause it to fully collapse. Judging from the fraying around it, someone has walked through this gap. It is not right to say they opened it, exactly, but is has definitely been triggered in some manner. You imagine it is rather like a person walking through a paper door in that regard; while they have passed through, the door itself has been wrecked in the process.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Is it reparable?
> Is it reparable with our current inventory?

[Hello Purvis]

> Is it reparable?
> Is it reparable with our current inventory?

>You don't think it can be repaired. However, if you make careful use of your hourglass and pliers, you may be able to open it one more time before it falls apart.

>_