Climber, also known as AlisonB on the forums, is a Mountaineer and magical adept who was captured by Kemetic Solutions in Phase Three. Alison is Knatz’s daughter.
Personality
Alison is a highly intelligent, magically adept individual who is able to remember the memories of her ancestors. She came to have a close relationship with Portencia while being held captive by Kemetic Solutions. According to Aether and Theodore Fallon’s logs, Alison would tell Portencia stories about her past through the walls of their cells.
Biography
Alison was kidnapped by Kemetic Solutions at some point in time. According to Teddy, she seemed to be expecting them. Alison is highly intelligent, drawing from the wisdom of all of her ancestors. She and her ancestors have followed the Path of Wool for centuries, learning more and more magiq throughout the ages.
Using “coercion therapy,” Kemetic Solutions was able to force answers out of Alison, referring to her as “Climber.” She was able to answer nearly anything on any subject and held the secrets of Monarch’s Mountain in her mind. For this reason, Teddy considered her an extremely valuable test subject, “too valuable for them to resist.”
During Aether and Martin Rank’s attempt to break into Kemetic Solutions on May 31, 2017, Martin encountered Alison with Portencia in the underground facilities. Alison was initially skeptical of Martin but was reassured by Portencia, who knew that Martin was trying to rescue them. It was then revealed that she was AlisonB from the Basecamp 33 Forum. Unfortunately, Marty was unable to rescue Alison and the others, as the Storm arrived to attack Kemetic Solutions. In response, Portencia asked to be taken to the chair so that they could escape. Alison resisted, stating that Portencia could die by using the chair. However, she eventually was convinced that it was their only option. While Aether stayed behind to buy Portencia some time, Alison and Marty took her to the chair. Portencia, not having all the pieces of her memory, believed she could not use her powers, but Alison comforted her and assured her that she could control her powers. She told Portencia that her power was not scary, but a gift, and told her to peer into the future and see the safe space she had created in her drawings. Portencia opened up the door to the future, and took Alison with her, while Martin ran back to save Aether. However, the livestream cut out as the Storm arrived, leaving the fates of Alison and the others temporarily unknown.
After the Storm overtook Kemetic Solutions, Alison’s fate was unknown, until Martin came out of hiding to speak to the Mountaineers. He revealed that Aether, Portencia, and Alison were safe together, hidden from the Storm. Portencia had brought them into the future that she saw. They were using a magimystic token that was gifted to Marty to hide from anything magimystical. Alison’s remained in hiding for the remainder of Phase Four.
On The Day of Change, Alison popped in to tell the Mountaineers that Aether was in the grid redirecting traffic away from Cole and Marty, and he was ready to access fire and rescue to register high gas levels so he could limit casualties. Port and Alison worked on a blinding charm to give low-level protection to recruits along with Cole and Marty.
The Secret Society
According to Martin Rank’s “A Quick Check-in” post from February 2018, Aether, Alison, and Portencia were all still living together and adjusting back to normal life as a family unit. He said that Alison was “keeping everything that happened at KS locked up,” but that she had finally met her mother, Knatz. He also reported that the trio was finding it more difficult to use their adept powers, most likely due to the diminishing capacity of magic in the world.
The Search for Magiq
When the Mountaineers were able to contact Marty via Neithercourier during the Search for magiq, they learned that he had been unable to contact the Kemetic Solutions trio for some time. Worried, he drove out to where they were living and found them “flat out gone. And it looked like they packed up and bailed in a hurry.”
By July 2019, Eaves reported that Alison and Portencia had reached the Sanctuary and were faring well despite no longer being able to use their adept powers. However, Alison was still able to draw upon her ancestral memories, and in doing so assisted the Mountaineers in providing steps for the Peering Arts spell.
The Book of Briars
After the dawning of The Book of Briars, Alison lost her adept powers completely, including her ancestral memory. A message from Eaves in March 2020 reported that she was okay but was taking the loss of her ancestral memory especially hard, and was taking a sabbatical from Lion’s Heart.
Trivia
- During a monthly Patreon Google Hangout, CJ revealed that he had created Alison as a way to give hints and help move along puzzles during the early phases, without breaking the immersion of the forums. As recruits became more skilled at puzzles, she was no longer needed, so he used her as an easter egg for veteran recruits. Her centuries-old memory was the reason why she was so good at solving puzzles.