[i]I hope I've provided you all with a suitable location to meet up and get to know each other![/i]

[img]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hI7m8qoLD2Y/T9SVG8aectI/AAAAAAAAAQo/c-VN02sZq-o/s1600/FoggyPathToSkalnat%C3%A1Chata.png[/img]

The climb up Wua-Sho has been a miserable one, of blood and sweat and ever thinner air.  Animal attacks, starvation, freezing, exhaustion, all these dangers pale to the hardest obstacle you've yet faced in your journey; that of simple, mind numbing attrition.  The mountain doing all it can to turn you around.  The only kind thing Wua-Sho has provided is the abundance of fleshy pink fruits that grow along its ridges, and even those are beginning to taste foul.

How long has it been?  The last time you were able to see the lights of Harutoma city was something like a week ago, that was before the fog set in.  Maybe two weeks.  Two weeks of battling this mountain.

But you've nearly beaten it.

Ahead is a clearing of grey stones and green grass.  Paper lanterns hang from ornamental poles between the stones (how they are still lit is not apparent), and just ahead of that clearing is a wrought iron gate, open but not inviting.  Stairs are beyond that -- the final six thousand stairs, it is said, that lead to the City of Jade itself.  One last push is all it will take.

Perhaps a rest on one of the stones first?