#bfrpgminorquest008

[tara-firma-blog]

I miss the mountains // minor quest 8

She went to the mountains to avoid her problems. What kind of well-adjusted, intelligent-but-ditzy twenty l-two year old even had problems? Problems technically included minor inconveniences such as “trees are noisy bedmates” and “I miss my dad,” but those were not the things that kept her up late at night. Well, technically, trees wanting long chats could keep Tara up for longer than her bedtime, but she was avoiding problems in the figurative, grand sense.

Existential crises, the morality behind the killing of AIs, feelings of alienation… Apparently this all added up to being alone in the mountains with nothing but the bitter wind whipping past her ears.

Rubbing the tips of her ears, Tara wondered why the wind had started suddenly sounding so odd. She looked up to see… a person? What in the world could be all the way out here? And they were essentially clinging to the cliff side to boot. Jogging toward the cliff, she realized now that said person must have been the source of the noise.

“Help me!”

Tara waved to let the climber now that she could hear them. She headed up the mount, noticing that the person had a small ledge to perch on, but no real way to ascend or descend. “How can I help?” She asked when she believed when she was in better earshot.

“My rope snapped on the way down,” said the climber. “You’ve heard tell of the riches in Hawa, right?” Tara shook her head. Money did not particularly motivate her, and pretty rocks were plentiful if one only kept an eye out. “I was exploring. And the tales did not disappoint. Girl, if you help me down from here, I’ll let you have some of the loot. How does that sound?”

Tara could not tell if the explorer was an NPC or a player, but she was not leaving anyone to die by exposure and starvation. Nobody would probably come by for ages, and what were the chances that they would notice the problem?

“Wait here,” Tara said, dashing away and immediately feeling stupid for telling a stuck person to stay where they were. Blushing to herself, she went and gathered the longest branches she could find. A felled tree (poor thing) caught her eye, and she rolled that over on a bed of branches. It took a while to get together, perhaps an hour, but this was worth doing properly rather than by impulse. Anchoring the tree body with the weight of several carefully curated large rocks, she let the trunk extend outward. Since Tara had selected a spot level with the cliff side overhang, she had made something of a makeshift bridge. After testing her weight on the trunk, she extended another branch further out.

“Tie the rest of the rope to this branch. I’m going to have you climb over to me once I get this in place, and swing over if you fall.” Since she had no other rope apart from some lucky vines, Tara used her own strength to hold the tree in place.

With baited breath she told the climber to “Go!” She couldn’t watch, and could only pray that this held. She had done her best to arrange all of the pieces of her bridge so they would need minimal binding but it still sucked.

It felt like hours before she heard, “I’m here!” Tara looked up, and there was the explorer!

“Get across now!” She shouted, feeling her strength start to fade. While Tara had been careful not to take this too fast and to properly angle everything perfectly, the tree binding took a lot out of her.

Tara could not remember crossing back to the ground, but she remembered how excruciating it was to help the explorer all the way down the mountain.

[flynnraider-blog]

“Between a Rock and a Hard Place″

New Side Quest Available! Accept? Yes or No

Leo had been heading back to his favourite grinding spot with the Kobold’s when he’d heard the faint yelling. At first he’d thought he was imagining it – a full day spent in the sun tended to mess with your mind – until he heard it again. Curious, and more than a little wary, he’d followed the sound as it got clearer and clearer, all the way to a rocky mountainside.

“Help! Help! Somebody please help me!”

Eyes drawn upwards, they landed on the faint figure of a man, cowering on a ledge. A small piece of rope tied below him blew gently in the breeze. The drop must have been at least 20 feet, give or take.

“Uh, you alright up there?” Leo called back, shielding his eyes from the sun. Kind of redundant, given the situation, but he figured he might as well ask.

The yelling immediately cut off as the person noticed him.

“Oh thank god. I thought I was doomed to die up here. Any chance you could help get me down from here?” he pleaded down.

Leo squinted skeptically. Seemed a little shady to him. Coming across somebody stranded on a mountain wasn’t your typical everyday occurrence. “What are you even doing up there in the first place?” he asked in lieu of responding.

“I’m an explorer. Archaeologist, if you will. I was exploring some caves up here before my rope snapped. Found some pretty valuable stuff. I’d be willing to make it worth your while if you lend a hand.”

Leo mulled it over in his head. While it did seem like a good deal, how the hell did he expect Leo to help? It’s not like her could fly or something. Biting his lip, he examined his surroundings. The cliff face might just be rocky enough to climb if he could rely on his high agility. If he could scale the rocks up to the explorer then Leo could reattach the rope so he could climb back down. He eyed the mountain warily. Easier said than done.

But it wasn’t like he could just leave the guy there. Sighing, Leo gathered up the fallen rope. Best not to think about it too much.

“Alright, I’m coming up.” He called back before setting a tentative foot onto a jagged piece extending from the cliff. It held solid beneath his foot. Right. He could do this. Very slowly, Leo began to ascend the mountain, clutching at the rough face of the mountain.

Trying his best not to look down, Leo reached for the next handhold. Finding it steady, he readjusted his foot briefly and then – nothing. With a huge crunch the rock crumbled away, sending him roughly off-balance. Swearing, he clutched desperately at the wall, suddenly startling aware of just how high up he was. Above him, the explorer blubbered his concern.

“Not helping,” Leo grunted, righting himself once more. His heart was beating a million miles per second. Exhaling and closing his eyes briefly, Leo pulled together his resolve and continued. It was too late to turn back now anyway.

Upon finally reaching the small outcrop the explorer was stuck on, Leo collapsed onto it. The man yelped in response, frantically reaching for him. Leo simply shrugged him off, grumbling. “This reward better fucking be worth it.”