ic Snakebite In: Hidden Treasures of the Himalayas! (IC)

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

"If you can get it fixed, that'd be a big help, yeah. We have to take different paths due to that being unstable for now. Why don't you rest with us for the night and then you can head off in the morning when the rest of the camp breaks; you don't really want to be wandering around in the middle of the night in a place you've never been before, after all. Pitch a tent and take a seat." She may not have their full respect; Baiyun might still be looking at her like she's poisonous, but the rest of the guides seemed to not particularly mind her at this moment; maybe they felt embarrassed about Baiyun, maybe they were just curious if she really was going to go gallivanting around in the mountains looking for someone they were pretty sure was dead.

[Supercape]

Snakebite

 

A night in a tent?

 

It was tempting; but the dark held no peril for her snake eyes. And every hour was another hour her quarry might be dying, or dead. 

 

The flip side was that the climb would be arduous even for her wiry physique. A good nights rest? It might be in order. 

 

"Ill pitch up," she said. "But I'm off the first glint of sunshine."

 

She made up a tent as quickly as she could and snuggled up to try and sleep. It did not come easily, and when it came, it was fitful, full of dreams about Yeti and Professors and Snakes. 

 

The first glint of sunshine did arive, and Cassie was not sure if she was more, or less tired. She heated some strong coffee over fire - very strong. In retrospect, she should have pressed on. The bitter coffee matched her bitter mood. Her face was sour, scowling. 

 

Throwing the last dregs of coffee onto the fire, she picked up her backpack (with surprising ease), holstered her dart pistol, and hooked her whip onto her belt. She was as ready as she could be; pack full of mountaineering gear, rope over her shoulder. Plenty of food. GPS signal in one pocket, Swiss Army Knife in another. 

 

She consulted her maps one last time, and started heading off in the direction of the Professor. She hoped. 

 

It was not easy; one could not climb in a straight line. Cassie had a grip of iron and wiry muscles that were - for her size - inhumanly strong. She knew how to climb, too, but she was not an expert. For now, she stuck to the moderately difficult lines; ones that might pose some challenge, but were not perilous. 

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

Cold air, snow drifts, slick ice. The beautiful Himalayas, considered one of the most beautiful mountain ranges in the world. But beauty is often the alternate side of difficult and dangerous. Cassie stuck to the easy trails, and that kept her going on her first segment of the climb; well beaten, well traveled paths that could keep her going. She passed several places mentioned in the journal and in the sim card of locations the Professor had looked through. None seemed particularly frutiful in examination; of course they wouldn't be, of course; if there was anything important to learn in the obvious locations and obvious traveling, then there would be no reason for the Professor to have engaged in multiple years of in depth hiking, mountaineering, and study to try and find this hidden valley, hidden temple, and secret of the Yetis if you could find it on the beaten path.

 

So Cassie's day mostly traveled without concern, climbing, moving, swinging. The normal motions of a regular climb.

 

But it was the bridge that changed the sequence.

 

It was the Bridge in question; rickety, with missing panels, it's rope line poorly supported. It whistled in the noon wind, cracking painfully back and forth. It definitely was unsafe; it made absolute since why no one used it anymore, it just wasn't safe. No one would willingly cross it.

 

And what made it even more dangerous at this moment was the giant, lurking figure standing on the middle of it, covered in a thick cloak and slightly hunched over like it was too big for the world it was standing in. It tensed and moved with the wind, the cloak flapping this way and that.

 

"You should not be investigating this." The figure said in a heavy accent, clearly not used to English as a language. "There are things better left alone in this world, things man is not meant to know, places they are not meant to step, and you are approaching one. Even if you find it, you will not leave unchanged."

[Supercape]

Snakebite

 

That, thought Snakebite, looked very much like a Yeti in a cloack. 

 

Of course, she was expecting, nay, wanting, to see Yeti, so she was seeing Yeti all the time. But still, this looked more like a Yeti than the last cluster of rocks that had piqued her interest. 

 

"Some things," she called back. 

 

Her hand moved a millimeter closer to her dart pistol. She kept her eyes on the figure. Mainly because she didnt want to cast them down. She was adventurer archeologist. Whilst she wasn't scared of snakes, she felt queazy at heights. 

 

"But a man's life in danger. And a life is priceless."

 

That was a half truth. Sure, save the professor. But untold fame and glory would be a nice little side salad, wouldn't it?

 

"I need to pass. A friend was lost here, and I must find him, or his bones."

 

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

"...The men you are tracking may as well be dead; for all that others may know, tell them he perished on his failed expedition, that no one should try to uncover the secrets he was looking for. To know this, to do this, is more than even he offered, and more than you and he deserved." The figure said, swaying in the wind slightly. It hunched down for a moment, then leapt! Shooting into the air like a rocket, the bridge underneath it snapped, falling down into the abyss; clearly intentional! The Yeti was blocking Cassie's path, or at least trying to!

 

His voice carried across the wind, a whisper in the howl of a gale, but as strong and loud as an avalanche.

 

"This is your last warning! Proceed no further in your goal, or you will never return!"

[Supercape]

Snakebite

 

Cassandra looked down - to her regret. Swirling air, swirling wind. The view made her feel queasy, made her step back. 

 

Her hand now lay on the undrawn pistol. 

 

If she fired, and the Yeti fell unconscious - it might take a tumble to the depths below. She was no killer. She took her hand off the pistol. 

 

"I have to pass," she explained, breath harder now, laced with adrenaline. "I cant let a friend die, even if there is only a chance. Would you leave one of your tribe to die?"

 

All the time her tongue worked, she wondered what she was going to do if the Yeti turned violent. She would, she realised, have to make sure it got off the bridge before she fired, or even struck. If it fell, it would die. 

 

For that matter, so would she. 

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

"You will not pass this way!" The Yeti roared, and it truly roared; it challenged the howling winds, the loudest, strongest parts of the roar of a Lion, the trumpet of an Elephant, but in the words of a human. But it paused as the wind whipped around it, as if it was listening to something Cassie couldn't hear.

 

"...But so be it. If you wish to enter the Sunbright Temple, the Forbidden City, you can not take it easily. Retrieve the three keystones hidden across this mountain, and the way will open to you." It said, raising a claw. Three lights sparked in the mountains around Cassie; on three different peaks. "The Key of Body, of Mind, and of Reflex. Obtain them, and the way to the Sunbright Temple will open for you." The Yeti called, before the lights disappeared. There was at least enough information to go on. Then it made it's way to the other side of the bridge, ignoring Cassie to return to the far side. But as it walked past the supports on that side, it lashed out with a giant paw topped with giant claws from under the cloak; The ancient rope tore to shreds, and the bridge began to tumble precariously. Cassie had to get off the bridge now!

[Supercape]

GM

 

Cassandra's body reacted before her mind was fully aware of the danger. The feeling under her feet... the wood and rope slackening, falling. 

 

Perhaps she would have been scared, but her snake-reflexes were already launching her to the mountain ledge behind her. She was in the air before she absorbed what was happening. 

 

Once absorbed, however, the magnitude of the peril hammered into head like a stream of nails. 

 

"Oh, Sh---" she started, before deciding to preserve her energy and breath. 

 

She grabbed hold of one flailing rope, and as she swung towards the sheer cliff face, launched herself up with her wiry strength, flipping her body so that she managed to get one-two hands onto the mountain, and climb up to safety. 

 

"Spiderbite today..." she said, impressed with her own agility. 

 

Pausing a moment to get her breath back, she contemplated the lights. The light of the body - that sounded the first to go to. Because she was sure her body would fail before her will did!

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

The Yeti seemed rather impressed at Snakebite's quick moves. Maybe he hadn't been intending to slay her entirely. Instead, across the winds echoed his roar.

 

"You walk the path of peril for a reward that will not sate you, explorer! Let this be your final warning!" And then the creature disappeared in the mist and flurries of snow.

 

Which left Cassie to progress towards where the light of Body had appeared; a red light. The journey was slow, and the cold was getting more intense; the chill of the air seemed heavier with each step, the air a little thinner. Was it because she was walking a mystical path, taking a mystical trail? Maybe it was magic, that was making this hike seem all the more difficult, all the more tiring. The wind bit and howled, the snowdrifts grew heavy and painful. But movement was paramount, and eventually, following the path left for her, Cassie found herself below a giant ice sheet; a ripple in the ice produced a red glow, a square based ruby statue of a bison that floated at the top of the ice sheet.

 

'All' Cassie had to do was climb it, while the freezing winds and snowdrifts threatened to slice her to the bone, and 'it' being a giant, slick sheet of ice!

[Supercape]

Snakebite

 

"Oh well thats just great..." muttered Cassie to herself, looking upwards to the ice. The cold bit deeply, but she was dressed for the cold, and her blood was made of strong serpentine stuff. 

 

More problematic - climbing up the ice. She had some basic climbing equipment - a pick, some rope. Without it, the climb would have been impossible for anyone other than an arachnid-themed superhero, maybe wearing some blue and red costume. Hypothetically. 

 

She was strong, and she could climb, but she was not a professional climber. This would stretch her. 

 

Taking a sniff in of the cold air, she stuck her pick into the ice, and started upwards, looking for the safest route. Or at least, the route that was least dangerous. 

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

Up, Up, across the ice slips Cassie! It's not a fun climb; the icy wind snakes through her body and seems to render protections useless, the sheet of ice is so slick that she finds herself slipping. The climb isn't fun, and it isn't fast, but slowly, surely, she made her way upwards. Until she reached the top. Until the Ruby Bison was clenched firmly in her hands. It spoke to her, but the language was somewhat unfamiliar. She could pick out small phrases and words; the Bison spoke in a language with traces of several Ancient languages she was familiar with, along with some similarities to Chinese.

 

"Those of.... Body. The....purification....the weight of cleansing...Continue on..." 

It was almost impossible to understand, but one thing Cassie did understand as she held the statue was 'weight'. She felt heavier. This statue, if it represented Body, was testing her Body by weakening it. To carry it on would mean to take in the weakness it represented. It likely meant the other two statues would do similarly. Was she willing to bear the weight of 'purification', whatever that meant, to enter the Sunbright Temple?

[Supercape]

Snakebite

 

"Damn it. I didn't study Gem..." sniffed Cassie, icy air spiking up her nostrils. She was frustrated she couldn't understand the language... all those hours learning ancient and obscure languages, and she couldn't even understand an esoteric magic gem stuck atop a mountaintop accessible only by climbing a sheet of freezing ice. 

 

She stuffed it into her backpack. A little more forcefully than required. 

 

Purification next, she said, feeling the cold, feeling the ache of climbing muscles. That didn't sound good. She wasn't the most pure of souls, and had no intention of being so. She embraced the dirty flaws in her personality. 

 

She spat in disgust, the ice phlegm freezing before it hit the ice. 

 

"Well, anything for archeology..."

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

The stone sat heavy in her backpack. It was actively weighing her down, she realized; purification involved trials, and they would be with her until she finished these them. So did Snakebite continue on her path through the mountains, guided by brief flashes of blue and yellow that indicated where the other crystals were.

 

It became strange that the day never seemed to end; she marched, climbed, and walked through the snow, climbed across the mountains and peaks. This must be part of the test; she hadn't seen anyone else on the mountain in so long, it was almost as if she was somewhere else that was still the mountain. 

 

And then there was a rumbling. A shifting rock and snow tumbled, landing near Cassie's feet. Then another. Up, higher, to her left, a mountain was collapsing in an avalanche! And it was charging directly down at Cassie, a tumbling pile of snow and rock.

[Supercape]

Snakebite

 

The backpack straps cut into Cassandra's shoulders. She grunted, trying to shift the weight. The gem was a lodestone, and her flesh was getting raw. For all her wiry strength, and height, Cassandra did not have the bones for heavy loads. 

 

Still, she no expedition was without its hardships. That was the challenge. A thin smile of determination flashed across her lips. 

 

"I can do this..." she told herself. "I can do th---whoa!"

 

She leapt to one side. 

 

Rocks... falling. That wasn't good. Rocks could crush snakes. Rocks could crush her. 

 

She got to her feet an instant, boots kicking up snow. Her acute eyes glanced upwards. More rocks. 

 

And that meant more dodging! With fingers crossed...

[Poncho]

CRUNCH

SMASH

 

RUMBLE

 

TUMBLE

 

Avalanches are LOUD, they don't tell you that one. It interrupts the serenity of the Himalayas with the sound of crushing weight and snow. Water is pretty heavy, after all, and so are rocks. But Cassie ran, and ran, and the rocks were right at her heels, and even though the statue drug her backwards, she didn't fall into pile of snow and rock that would sell her certain doom.

 

But she got quite lost, which was clearly intentional and part of the trials, as she escaped, and after what felt like ages of lungs being sliced with frozen daggers and a stitch in her side, she finally escaped the falling snow, the blinding mist.

 

And she was standing in front of a rickety old shack. Barely enough to stop the snow from coming in. Sitting on the table in the center of the rickety shack was a topaz statue with a circular base; instead of a Bison, this held a perched rat on the top of the base, it's eyes gleaming with gold. Was this, then, the Test of Will? The mountain was surely being rough, with the tests coming so fast. But to know, Cassie would need to enter the building; to enter the zone of the Test of Will, and see what challenge awaited her mind.

[Supercape]

Snakebite

 

Cassandra flexed and unflexed her fists repeatdely, staring at the rat, the gold. 

 

This was treasure, but the symbolism... a rat? gold? She could not think of a culture that did not, in some manner, demonise the rat. Spreader of disease, eater of corn. 

 

She entered the shack, slowly. 

 

She wanted the statue. But that was the problem. She wanted it. This smelled of temptation. 

 

Her eyes glanced left, and right. Some sixth sense pondering some kind of trap. Maybe not a pit, maybe not poison darts (not that they would work against her snake blood, but still...), no, some trap of temptation. 

 

She dragged herself away from the statue, trying to find some clue within the shack itself. Maybe the statue was just a distraction...

[Poncho]

(GM Post) 

 

The rat hung, tauntingly. It was more than just a statue, it seemed almost full of promise; the promise of wealth, of the end of desire. It spoke, but this one did not speak in the way of an object utterly unable to be understood, it spoke in the tones of fundemental desires; to obtain more, to want more, to have more.

 

"This challenge is pointless." spoke the rat. "You go so far to rescue old and rotting bones. You could be rich if you took me. Rich, famous, beloved by the masses." as if to prove it's point, the statue 'produced' a handful of golden coins; it was as if they popped into existence directly above the stone, then fell to the ground with a satisfying clatter, the heavy sound of being worth their weight in gold. 

 

It was laying it on rather thick and heavy, that much was true, but those coins certainly seemed real. If this was not the real stone of Will, then where was it in this house? It had to be hidden somewhere. Cassie needed to find it. 

 

For more than one reason, as the gold coins kept falling, an eternally increasing bribe that threatened to swallow up her feet with the wave of coins.

[Supercape]

Snakebite

 

"Rich..."

 

Cassandra whispered the words, mesmerised. 

 

She shook her head. "No, I have riches..."

 

"Famous!"

 

A cruel smile swept over her faces. "Yes. Fame. Glory..."

 

Those words were not whispered, but sung. With relish. 

 

Some part of her mind protested this was a trap, but it was smothered. The rat was somehow something she always wanted, and always would. All caution and wit flushed down the garbage chute, Cassandra strode over the gold coins and grabbed the statue with both hands, eyes glinting.

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

"For Greed, then you may have as much as you wish, but your belly will fill with gold and your only drink will be loneliness!" spoke the rat as the coins began multiplying faster. "You have failed the test of Will!" the rat continued! The door of the cabin shut with a slam, the windows slamming shut and locking. The coin came faster and faster, filling the little shack and threatening to suffocate the explorer under all the gold she could possibly want!

 

Her snake-enhanced eyes, her notice, could see a possible escape; a hatch in the floor that possibly lead to escape! But the gold was coming fast, and she needed to BE fast! It was her only option!

[Supercape]

Snakebite

 

"Aha! Greed!" said Cassie, shaking herself out of the hypnotic seductiveness of greed. 

 

Greed came in many shapes, many forms. Gold? Nice, but not necessary. Glory was another matter. And here she had failed!

 

She may not have wanted the gold, but it would soon be poring into her lungs. She struggled to keep afloat in the coinage. Her eyes caught the hatch. It was the best option - or, to put it another way, it was the least truly awful option. So she took it and dived into the coins, powerful arms propelling her through the coinage with breast strokes, fighting to keep her lungs full of air and not coin by heavy nose breathing. 

 

And then, wiry fingers from her wiry hands grasped the hatch and pulled!

[Poncho]

The door cracked open, then splintered into pieces as it exploded under the weight of gold above it. Cassie went down, and so did a shower of gold.

 

THUMP

 

THUNK

 

THUMP THUMP THUMP

 

WOOOSH JINGLE

 

It was moving fast and it was hard, bouncing roughly back and forth in the underground slide, lit only by a few torches! Cassie had no idea where she was, where she was going, and for a little bit she was maybe okay. But that was all of a few seconds, shooting through the underground darkness before she hit a sharp, fast turn and, after her shoulder bounced off the side of the tunnel, she was in the air, soaring across a gap in the underground above a bottomless seeming pit, gleaming gold coins joining her in her incredible flight through the air. Her only hope? A worn, brittle looking rope that she could use to fly across the remainder of the gap!

[Supercape]

Snakebite

 

This was like a playground slide. Of gold!

 

But more thrilling. And dangerous. It was, Cassandra noted, as she sailed through the air, rather lamentable that danger and thrills went hand in hand. How much simpler life would be if one could be thrilled without the risk of falling into a bottomless pit - and presumably a bottomless pit that actually had a bottom. A bottom full of sharp and poisonous spikes, one would imagine. 

 

The thought flashed through her head like lightning, and then she was back in the moment, grasping on to the rope with two wiry hands, praying to multiple pantheons of Gods that the rope would not snap (Cassandra was tall and strong, but surprisingly light), and doing her best to leverage her momentum into a swing across the chasm!

[Poncho]

Across the Chasm! Cassandra swung, over a bottomless abyss, glinting gold coins flying through the air with her visible only in the flickering torchlight!

 

She landed on the other side of the chasm, with a crunch in her pocket and the coins falling to the ground. Alongside the rat statue. Which was now revealed to be little more than a fake wooden idol, alongside fake wooden coins.

 

There is no reward for greed, it seemed. If anything there was punishment, as the crunch in her pocket was revealed to be the GPS machine that had been tracking her progress to the sites that were indicated.

 

"Overcome this Trial, and you may still proceed. You have failed the challenge of Mind, but Reflex still continues." The machine beeped. Difficult to make repairs in the darkness of torchlight, but it appeared to be the requirement. Where the machine would lead her afterwards, manipulated by magical forces beyond the ken of man, would be it's own question. Likely further into these deep, dark caves, to test 'Reflex', whatever that would mean.

 

Good thing Snakebite could see in the dark!

[Supercape]

Snakebite

 

"Wood! I wooden believe it!"

 

She cast her eyes to see if any tumbleweed and whisked across the chasm. Non had, despite the terrible pun. Comedy was not part of the smorgesbord of her skill set. 

 

She got up, wincing slightly, dusting herself off. Any tears in the clothes? That was the thing... in this temperature, even Snakebite would not survive long with ripped clothing. 

 

With her amazing Snake eyes, she studied the GPS. Like comedy, electronics was not really in her skill set, but she knew the basics. With a little jiggle there, and a little tweak here, and then a bit of blind luck in the mix, she shook the GPS signal back into life. 

 

"Well, I guess its onwards and... upwards?"

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

The GPS beeped and bopped, finally recovered. But it wasn't displaying upwards. It was displaying...downwards?

 

One last shrine, down below. If it was supposed to be the test of Dexterity, but for now it was just moving quietly through the dark. It would be hard if she wasn't able to see in the dark, but with the aid of her GPS and her ability to see in the dark, Snakebite carefully avoided the perilous pitfalls of spikes and danger! The only thing that mattered was progressing onward, to get through this adventure.

 

And that's when she reached the door.

 

Intricately carved and worked, it was comprised of a variety of pictures of the yeti, the treasure, the capital of China burning, and a dozen other scenes through history.

 

And now Snakebite was standing in front of this wrought door of gold and wood, and, as she watched, as she examined, she realized this was another puzzle;

 

The great rings of the door could be moved, twisted, manipulated. To finish the story, to settle it, Cassandra would have to fix it; to right the storyline and explain the entirety of the history of this valley. Not just the bringing of treasures to the valley, but beyond that; why are the Yeti here, how long have they been here. Who brought the Yeti here? This door held, in essence, the entire story of this hidden land in the Himalayas, but in order to learn about it, and in order to process it, one had to engage in the history, learn it, walk through it.

 

Given her Post-Cognition, Cassandra was going to truly learn some interesting things.