I don’t know what you are talking about.
Good to see you back @Brendon!
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Bahaha, nice to see you Bren.
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Has Robert’s response been sent yet, or are we still waiting on the reply box to show up?
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It was sent this morning EST yes.
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The things I miss when trying to dry out flooded files…
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I apologise if I’m not supposed to put this here.
Summary
OKAY!!! Here are the links for the defensive spell casting!
If you want to take part in the casting:
https://hangouts.google.com/hangouts/_/2u2c636fkbccbpt5y5tgrtnlzme
If you want to watch it:
http://youtu.be/cZPAd-u42Ic
It will start at 8 EST today.
Edit: Okay! We are live!
Edit 2: The Sigil spell is cast! Sorry for our shenanigans!
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so thats why i needed a nap earlier
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We got a reply from Ascender.
You’re the mountaineers I always hoped we could be.
If this is true, I have an insane choice to make. I could try to control the storm here, now. And risk changing everything for you, and risk giving you the chance to see this through… for what? I don’t know what happened with the complications. I don’t know where to go, how to start. Do I really think I have a chance at finishing this on my own, with the book fading more every day? While outrunning the storm?
Do I try what I’ve tried to do my whole life, or do I try to come up with a way to make the world you live in happen?
I have questions I need answered. Did I tell you how I managed to outrun the storm for twenty years? What else did I tell you about it? About us here, now? About the book? I need to know about me, then, so I can figure out what to do, now.
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I don’t think our Ascender told us much about what he did, but I wasn’t around them so I wouldn’t know. That would be before Fragment 9 right?
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This is a good question for @Endri , I would also ask @Eaves. They would probably know the most about his history.
I’ve been here for a while and I dont even know too much about Ascender.
on the other note, we may want to try and suss out a few answers to these questions from Past!Ascender
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As far as I know the only things Ascender told us is that Augie and he were mountaineers together, and that he was moving about constantly trying to keep under the radar.
I did find this one line in his very first post just now that is interesting in this light.
We can’t do this alone. We’ve kept quiet, secret, in the past and it cost us.
But together, out in the open, we might be able to see through the lie.
He references ‘in the past… it cost us’ Is that an indication he did remember the last Mounties being wiped out?
Also @grimangel53 that’s a good idea. Also we should do something radical and see if @Ascender would like to come forward and give any advice to his past self. Never hurts to try.
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Of course!
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We could try asking all of the old group of Mountaineers. They would have alot of information for us to give past Ascender.
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He never mentioned The Storm, not to me at least, except that vague reference in his “goodbye” letter. We knew he’d founded/worked with a loosely organized group of people calling themselves The Mountaineers in the mid-late 90’s. We knew someone or thing came for them at some point and Ascender survived by living “off the grid” until we met him.
We know the '94s were called The Mountaineers because:
I thought this might be useful for new people coming in. Where the name “Mountaineers” originated.
Back in the mid-90s, when the Mountaineers formed the first organized forum online to discuss the LC (Lost Collection), someone shared a hand-written occult pamphlet they’d found in an estate sale called Monarch’s Mountain. It detailed a secret society of the same name that was dedicated to the collection and preservation of “lost” artifacts and literature. The pamphlet claimed questionable things like Monarch’s Mountain saved the contents of the Library of Alexandria before it burned and that Atlantis was a galactic library. People looking for the Ackerly Green books back then liked the idea of a secret society dedicated to lost books, so they started calling themselves Mountaineers.
Which I wrote about last year. That’s pretty much the extent of what we, the new Mountaineers, learned from Ascender. He’d also told us that we had an Ebenguard leader we couldn’t interact with (Augernon.)
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More from his ‘You are the Mountaineers’ post.
It took me almost two weeks to get to the States and get out again without going through border control or booking transportation in my name. It’s not easy to stay off the grid and get across the world, but I’ve been doing this a long time.
I went byck to see an old friend who we used to call “Augernon.” As far as I know we’re the last of the ’94 Mountaineers, Augie and me. I’d been dreaming about him lately. Ever since the Book of Briars showed up. In the dream, he was trying to tell me something but I couldn’t hear him. He was too far away.
Augie’s been in a Maryland mental health facility for years. After everything that happened with the ’94s, I disappeared. But he same “thing” that came for me and the other ’94s came for him. Twisted his mind. He knew more of the truth than anyone else, but it’s like someone went in and tore it out of him, leaving half a man behind. One day he was the sweetest guy I ever met, father, husband, friend… The next day he was a ghost.
I think he remembers bits and pieces of something that happened to the 94 Mountaineers. But maybe not exactly what.
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So it appears Ascender left the US and went off grid in another country/countries. That would explain how he was able to hide for so long.
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Proposed reply.
The past little while we’ve combed through everything you ever posted, and we’ve harangued the first Mounties you brought together for this generation to see what you’ve told them. In the end the answer is ‘not a lot’.
One quote you put into a post saying “It took me almost two weeks to get to the States and get out again without going through border control or booking transportation in my name. It’s not easy to stay off the grid and get across the world, but I’ve been doing this a long time.” In our history, you’ve been hiding and running for a long time.
One time you mention that the mountaineers had ‘kept secret in the past…and it cost us’.
Another time you mentioned some ‘thing’ came for you and the other '94 Mountaineers, but you never elaborated beyond that.
When the Book of Briars arrived and contacted us, you seemed as honestly surprised as the rest of us.
The way we figure it, if we’re not changing history one of two things happened. Either you deliberately didn’t tell us what was coming, perhaps in fear of scaring us away, or maybe you just didn’t know it’d happen again. Or, as you mention earlier your memories are still slipping away. It’s possible you just won’t remember much of this discussion and what I’ve told you at some point, and only remember that you need to keep moving and find the truth.
It actually really pains us to suggest you spend the next 20 years in hiding, waiting for a chance to bring the Mountaineers back. No one would blame you if you took your shot now. But I’m afraid I doubt we could help you so you’d be without a lot of backup. Plus if you change history we have no idea how we would have helped Augie and Knatz with Complication 13 and 14. But like I said before. Sometimes you have to let Chaos run wild.
My fellow mountaineers did want me to mention one fact I neglected to mention. Our numbers. We currently have almost 2000 Mouintaineers in our lodge in some capacity. All of them owe what they know and believe in in some part to you. If you do change history and we never actually have this conversation (that’s like Sentence #109 of the ones I never thought I’d write before I joined the Mounties) then on behalf of all of us thank you for everything.
On a last side note though. Can you please send us your half of the Lantern before you do anything? If you succeed in stopping the storm, then no harm done we won’t get it. If not, well we’re going to need it. Not to be dark, but we have to cover our bases.
Be careful, Ascender.
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I’m down for that reply.
It’s certainly better than what I could’ve wrote.
any other thoughts or suggestions?
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Especially if anyone would like to try to talk me out of the ‘Hey, go ahead and rewrite history if you want. We’ll be fine’ I realize not everyone might be happy with the prospect of that. I’m not either, but I figure if we don’t address it head on, then we run the risk of him thinking we’re trying to make his choice for him.
I’m open to any ideas.
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The only problem with this… is the same problem we have always had. We don’t know what he did then. We don’t know if we’re changing anything at all, even giving him what we think is “new” information.
It’s always turned out to be leading directly into history as we’ve always known it.
So… I say your response is… fine. You’re well-spoken as always. And if you go against your gut now, he will be able to tell. Your honest voice is what he believes.
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