Somewhere high in the vast jagged eternity of the Himalayas exists a timeless cluster of weathered stone buildings, clinging to the icy cliff face, attacked by howling alpine winds, only accessible by an ancient winding path, a stone stairway said to be cut into existence by the gods themselves. Nobody has climbed this stairway in centuries.
In 1907, British explorer Charles Norway, said to have gone insane in search of the elusive Yeti (whom only his fierce Australian rival Buck Lancaster claimed to have witnessed a year earlier), took his team of fellow explorers, assistants and admirers with him into the deadly peaks of the Himalayas, never to be seen again. After a month of pointless wandering, their last known contact with the outside world, at the monastery of Paro Taktsang, went down in legend as being bizarre. Norway, caked in ice and missing many digits (as well as most of his crew), was said to have been speaking in tongues, uttering things about a terrible disease, about a prisoner of the gods, about a simple truth that threatened to undermine society. Then he and his most loyal friends and mountaineers disappeared again, forever.
Ten years later, near the end of World War I, renowned expeditioner Bront Brontson and an international crew of dedicated scientists, mountaineers, military officers and local Nepalese are on the trail after a decade of fading public interest in the story of (posthumously knighted) Sir Norway. It began with the discovery of Norway's base camp at the foot of a colossal, antediluvian staircase carved directly into a massive mountain, a mountain too newly discovered (or rather, re-discovered) to even have been named yet.
However, something quickly became clear. Due to the nature of the mountain and surrounding topography, every day vicious winds slice across the face, making it impossible to travel. Night is calmer but not by much, forcing the explorers into a nocturnal assault. It's constantly snowing. It's tough going - the staircase has been eroded and reshaped over many many years into a hazardous ascent: part ice-chute, part collapsing ruin. In some places where the mountains have oozed apart, blocks are dangerously close to dropping directly into abysses and chasms below. It's cold. There may not be enough supplies. And there's something out there, in the snow. Something deadly.
And not just that. The very first day of the staircase's discovery, at the same instant everyone beheld the much distant shape of what might just be a building near the top of the mountain, Bront Brontson was murdered, from behind, with an icicle.
When I see how many people join I'll then put up the names/professions/slight backstory of everyone in the group, you can choose which you want. But of course each role has secrets too. There are more things going on than meets the eye.
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unreality
SANCTUARY
Somewhere high in the vast jagged eternity of the Himalayas exists a timeless cluster of weathered stone buildings, clinging to the icy cliff face, attacked by howling alpine winds, only accessible by an ancient winding path, a stone stairway said to be cut into existence by the gods themselves. Nobody has climbed this stairway in centuries.
In 1907, British explorer Charles Norway, said to have gone insane in search of the elusive Yeti (whom only his fierce Australian rival Buck Lancaster claimed to have witnessed a year earlier), took his team of fellow explorers, assistants and admirers with him into the deadly peaks of the Himalayas, never to be seen again. After a month of pointless wandering, their last known contact with the outside world, at the monastery of Paro Taktsang, went down in legend as being bizarre. Norway, caked in ice and missing many digits (as well as most of his crew), was said to have been speaking in tongues, uttering things about a terrible disease, about a prisoner of the gods, about a simple truth that threatened to undermine society. Then he and his most loyal friends and mountaineers disappeared again, forever.
Ten years later, near the end of World War I, renowned expeditioner Bront Brontson and an international crew of dedicated scientists, mountaineers, military officers and local Nepalese are on the trail after a decade of fading public interest in the story of (posthumously knighted) Sir Norway. It began with the discovery of Norway's base camp at the foot of a colossal, antediluvian staircase carved directly into a massive mountain, a mountain too newly discovered (or rather, re-discovered) to even have been named yet.
However, something quickly became clear. Due to the nature of the mountain and surrounding topography, every day vicious winds slice across the face, making it impossible to travel. Night is calmer but not by much, forcing the explorers into a nocturnal assault. It's constantly snowing. It's tough going - the staircase has been eroded and reshaped over many many years into a hazardous ascent: part ice-chute, part collapsing ruin. In some places where the mountains have oozed apart, blocks are dangerously close to dropping directly into abysses and chasms below. It's cold. There may not be enough supplies. And there's something out there, in the snow. Something deadly.
And not just that. The very first day of the staircase's discovery, at the same instant everyone beheld the much distant shape of what might just be a building near the top of the mountain, Bront Brontson was murdered, from behind, with an icicle.
When I see how many people join I'll then put up the names/professions/slight backstory of everyone in the group, you can choose which you want. But of course each role has secrets too. There are more things going on than meets the eye.
Brontson's Team:
[1] …
[2] …
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