Part 6: The Lands Above - On second thought, let's not go to Crystal City. It is a silly place.

06. The Lands Above - On second thought, let's not go to Crystal City. It is a silly place.



After being turned away at the gates, Torin decides to take another route. So we return to the main Lands Above map and walk past the berry bush to the next screen:



The Lands Above is basically Earth-like, but also has massive crystal mountains jutting up everywhere and massive razor blade vines just growing up along pathways. Seems like that could be a safety hazard. The small tan blobs hanging out at the base of that tree are, in fact, a breed of Lands Above slugs. They are extremely quick and will flee up the tree when approached:



For good measure, we can also test the edge of these knife plants:



Ow! (Whoa, these spins are razor sharp! I better be careful.)

Thanks, Torin.

We can squeeze between these knife plants into the small alcove behind them but--



--all we find are a pile of leaves. Nothing we can do here at the moment. So we'll leave and head to the next screen. There's something on the side of that big tree we're able to click on.







What're you lookin at?
Yeah, you got nothin' better to do? Starin' at snails!
Well, uh, I, no actually--wait, hey, I have a lot to do. But who are you?
Who are we? Who in the Tenebrous are you?
Yeah, who are you?
I'm Torin. Torin Farham.
Farm hand? Yeah, you look like a farm hand.
Hahaha, farm hand! Good one, Slim!
Thanks, Slime! EYE FIVE!


ALRIGHT!

Slim and Slime? You guys seem different from the others I've met around here.
Different? You bet we're different!
Yeah! Whaddaya think, you're talking to just another coupla snails?
Yeah, you're quite a pair.
Why that's right... We are a pair.
Hahaha! A pair! Good one, Slim!
Thanks Slime! EYE FIVE!


ALRIGHT!

What's so funny about being a pair?
'Cause we ARE a pair. A figure Sliming Pair.
Yeah, we're goin' out for the Moat Olympics. In the Figure Sliming event, Pairs division.
So 'cuse us now... we gotta work out while the light holds.
Good luck. Maybe I'll come back here again later.
You can bet we won't come lookin' for you!
Hahahaha! Lookin' for you! Good one, Slim!
Thanks, Slime! EYE FIVE!


ALRIGHT!

Okay, that's quite enough of that. We'll leave Slim and Slime for now.



Instead of continuing right, we're going to take this branching path behind the knife plant. But first, this is what happens when Boogle gets in Torin's way:



He gets squished, makes an adorable kid-friendly sound, and springs back to shape the moment you step off. So yeah, Boogle is meant to be as unobtrusive as possible.






Behind the plants we find a peat bog. We don't really have any reason to be here yet, but the game allows us to climb up the tree:








And commit suicide! But Boogle laughs it off. I have no idea why we're allowed to do this, but there you go. It's not a big deal, we're just kicked back to immediately before we jump. I haven't played any other Sierra games, but I'm under the impression there's a lot of cheap and nonsensical death screens. There aren't a tonne in Torin's Passage, but when they do occur, they're usually shrugged off as jokes--and admittedly, some of them are pretty funny.

You know, kid's game and all that.