Recovery

Definitely going to run out of witty post titles before much longer...

Anyway, I'm mostly writing this as a follow-up to my last post. After finishing my investigation of the tavern earlier, I went back to the boat house and investigated the boat I found last night. It seemed stable enough, and proved to be so on my trip back across the lake. I had my raft in tow as planned in case the bottom of the boat suddenly collapsed from the shock of use after 200 years of abandonment, but as has been noted before, the D'ni built things to last for a very long time.

The trip back to the other side of the Cavern was considerably easier than my stumbling progress last night, mostly thanks to the fact that this boat is streamlined and not just a slab of rubber and plastic. I piled the rest of my gear into the boat and hauled it back to my new home away from home in the tavern. I still haven't investigated the upstairs section of this building, and I don't think I'm going to until I have someone around who's actually trained in structural engineering to make sure the whole thing won't collapse on me when I set foot on the stairs. Still, there's plenty of room down here, and I suspect it'll be quite a while before I outgrow this space.

I may not have maps as soon as I might have liked... I'll see what I can do, but it may be a while. The fact that I lack a scanner to import any sketches I make into my computer is not helping me... look forward to dim, grainy, orange-tinted photographs of my doodles in the future.

Now, I'm going to bed. I have a lot to do, and rowing around the Cavern for a few hours has tired me out considerably.

Man About Town

Perhaps my greatest fear is that I shall run out of witty post titles before my time down here comes to an end...

After a long night's sleep recovering from my grueling trip across the lake, I awoke in the dim orange of mid-whenever that is ever-present here in D'ni, turned on my lantern, and did some of the exploring I'd wanted to do last night.

The City's structure is interesting. Seeing it up close like this really gives me a better understanding of the D'ni's approach to city planning. There are hints of it in the neighborhoods and Ae'Gura, but the City really lays it bare. Whereas human cities tend to be sprawling grids or tangled knots of criss-crossing streets with buildings filling the empty areas between them, the D'ni City is much more structured in a way. There are large courtyards scattered across the terrain around the harbor, each with a cluster of buildings and access paths radiating out from them a short distance, seemingly limited in reach by the surrounding landscape for the most part. The courtyard areas are all connected to each other with broad, clear avenues, and navigation posts sit at the junction points indicating where various important landmarks are located.

The harbor level is marked by a collection of water-level docks and service buildings  – again with attendant courtyards – arrayed around the rim. As on Ae'Gura, broad, steep staircases climb the rough terrain away from the shallow slope of the immediate harbor area to connect with larger courtyards at higher elevations. In other places where the separation is more cliff-like, broad stair-cased tunnels are carved through the rock to connect these two levels. At the center of the harbor's arc is a large round courtyard that sits a little higher off the water's edge than the docks, and is ringed by an ornate fence that serves to prevent it from being used as a pier. It looks distinctively ceremonial, and based on its alignment with Kerath's Arch, I'm going to guess that it's positioned along the line of the Great Zero. There's some sort of large sculpture in the center of it, but I don't have a context for what it might represent. It connects directly to a smaller circular plaza at a higher elevation, which is itself connected by a long flight of stairs to a huge structure that sits astride a peak in the terrain. I suspect it's the original Temple of Yahvo built by Ri'Neref and his followers when they first arrived here.

Despite roaming around this area for an hour or two looking for a suitably undamaged place to settle in for the night, I never felt lost. The layout of the area makes it easy to keep your bearings using environmental landmarks, and for the most part traffic was designed to be funneled along the major avenues that connect all of the courtyards, with only limited extents of side-paths and back alleys branching off to navigate the surrounding clutch of buildings, so getting from place to place is a relatively painless affair.

Farther back from the harbor, the levels of the City begin to climb quickly, and it rises sharply from the surrounding rock in tall, thin arcs of heavy yet delicate construction. The island of Ae'Gura looms in the distance across the way. With the aid of a pair of binoculars, I can make out occasional shapes moving on the Great Stairs and around the Library courtyard area, but more often than not, the Island looks desolate, save for the glow of the firemarble lamps.

I think I've found a good base of operations in my explorations today. I wanted to find a place that was not only stable, but relatively obscured from sight when looking from Ae'Gura. I'd rather not attract any attention, and the glow of a firemarble, flashlight, or campfire would certainly manage to draw someone's eye eventually. Finally, I came across a small tavern-looking structure in one of the smaller courtyards, about 300 yards from the cliffs that drop into the harbor. It can't be seen from Ae'Gura due to a taller structure located across the plaza, between the tavern and the lake. I can also cover up any lake-facing windows, just to be safe.

From what I can tell, the structure is reasonably stable, or at least is in no danger of imminent collapse. It's close enough to the harbor that I can get there quickly, but far enough away and secluded enough that I doubt someone will stumble upon me, should anyone decide to be foolish enough to just start bumbling around the City. There is ample room for storing supplies, and further exploration indicates that my initial assessment of the purpose of this structure were correct: it's a tavern or bar of some sort, or at least it was. I found several store rooms, one of which was stocked with rotted-out barrels of something that thankfully lost its stench decades ago. The floor there will probably never be clean again, and I'm inclined to avoid storing my gear and other findings there until all the other rooms are full. There were also shelves of glass bottles which I dared not open, and a collection of overturned tables and chairs were strewn around the large main room. It wasn't a large establishment by any means... more of an out-of-the-way dive-type place. There is also a second floor to this building, though I'm not exactly inclined to push my luck by trying the stairs. I suspect that the second floor is full of bedrooms, and that this place was also a rest house for those who worked the ships of the D'ni merchant fleet.

I intend to spend the next week or more exploring the harbor area, determining which buildings are safe for further investigation and putting together a map of the area. I will try to have something worth posting soon, but I can't promise that. I've got a lot of other priorities and exploration targets to get to, and more work to do getting the rest of my gear back. I still have yet to inspect the boat I found in the boat house on the harbor-front; I woke up much later than I intended to today, and have spent most of the day thus far exploring the City and investigating the tavern.

Solidarity

It took the better part of three hours to paddle my way across the lake to the City Proper (which I will hereafter simply call the City... what the DRC and explorers call "the city" is actually Ae'Gura, and I intend to use its proper name to avoid confusion). My arms are killing me; I haven't paddled this much since I went on an expedition to Boundary Waters with my scout troop about 8 years ago. I'm so tired I'm having trouble getting into the spirit of exploration and documenting what I find, but I'll do my best.

I docked my raft in the boat house at the City's harbor and hauled myself out onto dry (and stable) land. I hadn't anticipated how much of a nightmare it would be paddling across over a mile of water in a soft-hulled boat, and I'm really not looking forward to doing it again. Fortunately, I may not have to... there's a solitary boat left in the boat house here that seems relatively undamaged by the destruction of D'ni. I'll test its seaworthiness tomorrow when I've got a clearer mind. Even if I do decide it's safe to use, I'll probably tow the raft along behind me in case of any trouble in the middle of the lake.

The amount of devastation is simply overwhelming. I can certainly see why the DRC never let anybody over here. I can also understand why Atrus was so overwhelmed when he and the D'ni survivors attempted their own restoration. For the first time, I think I'm starting to grasp the true scope of the task at hand, and can better understand why the DRC generally seemed to be depressed or snippy. Even during my time as a ResEng, I was never really granted access to un-opened areas like this. My job was mostly dealing with and assisting explorers as they arrived from the Surface, or as they needed help on their journeys. Occasionally I would be asked to help do a final once-over of an Age or area of D'ni before it was released, but by then all of the hard work had pretty much been done.

I may have mentioned this already, but I am so very tired. I nearly fell asleep where I sat after climbing up onto the pier from my raft. I've managed to haul the rest of my gear out of the raft though, and I plan on just collapsing in the nearest me-sized patch of ground that's relatively rubble-free. Ugh. Good night!

Returning

Well, it took a little longer than I expected, but I managed to make my way back to the Cavern today. There's a considerable amount of damage to the outlying regions of D'ni, and a fair portion of the tunnel network has suffered collapses or is otherwise unsafe to explore due to structural instability resulting from the earthquakes experienced during the Fall. I'm glad there are as many side passages and alternate routes as there are this close to the main Cavern, because otherwise, I don't think I would have made it back. Aside from the considerable number of detours I had to make, I can't say there was really much eventful about this last leg of the trip, though. The passages I found myself in had either been access tunnels, or had been cleaned up by the DRC, and any doorways to "interior" spaces were either locked or required higher security clearance than my KI is currently granted.

I eventually found my way into the main Cavern, and I couldn't have asked for a more advantageous location. I discovered a small side-cave with a boat dock and boat house on the water level, tucked under a long overhang that blocked the view of the main Cavern. Another Nexus terminal was nestled in the back wall, and I registered my KI there as well, so I can now still get back to the Surface whenever I need to, and can skip the whole trip back down in favor of linking here and taking my raft. This all assumes, of course, that the Nexus will keep working in Laxman's absence, but better to try and fail than never try at all...

Fortunately, the inflatable raft survived the heat of the Lava Chamber, and still seems to be sea-worthy. It's not big enough to take all of my gear with me in one trip - especially not while it's still in the wagon - but it should be fine for getting across the lake to the City Proper a few times. I'm not entirely looking forward to paddling that far, and am beginning to wish I'd gotten some sort of motor, but then I'd have to deal with gasoline, and I think that'd be more trouble than it's worth.

The boat house looks like it's been ransacked; there's no boats left in there, and most of the equipment and furniture (such as it is) has been smashed up pretty bad. There's no signs of the roof collapsing, so it was probably destroyed at someone's hands. There's a fair amount of scorching on the walls too, which leads me to suspect it was put to the torch in the chaos of the Fall. Hopefully I can find some intact D'ni hard-hulled boats at some point so I don't have to trust myself and my gear to a flimsy inflatable each time I want to go exploring elsewhere in the Cavern.

Since I very, very seriously doubt that anyone will be coming through here on their way out, I've secured what I can't take with me on the raft in the old boat house, and will return for it first thing tomorrow. I'm not sure how long it will take to get across this lake, but since it's just myself and about 30 pounds of gear this trip, across over a mile of lake, I imagine it will take the better part of a couple hours each way. It's just now mid-afternoon, so one trip to the City should give me enough time to find a temporary place to sleep for the night before I continue looking for better accomodations and move the rest of my gear over here.

Hot Under the Collar

I found my position on the map this morning shortly after getting underway. Somehow I managed to cross over the path and come out in Room 8 last night (I'm aware that these numbers likely don't indicate actual room numbers, but I'm at a loss to explain their significance and they provide a handy reference point). I decided after writing my last journal entry that I would just pitch camp where I was and not bother trying to explore further until today.

While I was fairly confident that I'd found my place on the map again, I couldn't be certain until I reached the next major landmark on the map: the Lava Chamber. I found the room itself around noon, but I could feel its effects long before then. The heat was intense enough to be felt several nodes away, which was impressive, given the distance they were from the chamber. I eventually entered a large cave-like room with a massive edifice on the far side, framing an exit that spilled a dirty orange light across the floor. The tunnel continued, somewhat broader and with a considerably thicker floor of solid nara that extended into the room and terminated in a semi-circular step decorated with colorful stone. The edifice of the doorway was a wall of huge dark stone polished to a nearly mirror-like shine, making the room seem even larger than it truly was. In the dim collected light of the lava's glow and the firemarble seated atop the node door behind me, I could make out D'ni phrases and pictograms carved into the face of the rock. Sadly, I could only guess at the meaning of the words, but the pictograms seemed to be expressing a warning about what lie ahead. Given that this path was originally intended to be used by D'ni and human alike, I imagine that the pictograms were for our benefit, and the text for the D'ni's.

I pulled out a bandana from my backpack and tied it around my face. In the process I noticed a small crate sitting in the corner of the room beside the great slab of rock framing the cave's exit. The DRC logo was stamped onto the side, and within it I found a few sets of protective gear. I grabbed one and pulled it on without hesitation: any protection is better than just a bandana across one's mouth when you're dealing with magma...

The heat was beyond intense. I wondered to myself what level of madness the D'ni must have been experiencing to think that this would be a good idea – or even just a not-completely-terrible one. I walked as quickly as I dared across the broad bridge that spanned the chamber, trying not to look down at the lake of molten rock beneath me. The air shimmered in front of me, and the hazy outline of the exit danced as I watched it. The glow of the magma, combined with the dryness of the air and the incredible heat, made my eyes water. I looked back briefly the entrance and noticed that the rubber wheels on the wagon were beginning to melt, and had left skid marks along the bridge where the rubber had been dragged off of the tires. Suddenly, I remembered the section of The Book of Atrus that detailed Atrus and Gehn's crossing of this bridge and the mention of a missing section, and I had a brief moment of panic before managing to make out the rest of the bridge. It was certainly not still intact, but the last span had been bridged by a more reliable suspension scaffold that held up a set of thin concrete slabs. It was wobbly, and I was worried for a while that the wagon wheels would melt completely on the less heat-resistant material, causing it to become unstable and fall, but I made it across with all of my gear, and without incident.

Ten minutes later I was clear of the worst of the heat, but the heavy sulfur had drifted down the tunnel from the lava chamber, and my initial attempts to remove my helmet resulted in a bit of unpleasant gagging at the stench, so I left it on until I was in the next room. If the room preceding the lava chamber had been impressive, this was stunning. Not quite on the same engineering level as the Great Shaft, but still a feat requiring considerable skill, craftsmanship, and above all, artistry.

The room was bisected just after the entrance by a wall of polished rock, not unlike that of the edifice in the previous room. The nara pathway terminated just beyond it in another round step that stood at the base of a great mosaic depicting a massive tree. Pathways sprang from the trunk and branched off in all directions, leaving the room to form a network of tunnels through the surrounding rock. The top of the tree mosaic, at the far side of the room, depicted the glow of the sun, with a single ray sprouting from the top to continue on down the main path. Despite its worn and damaged appearance, it was remarkably beautiful. But the beauty did not stop there. The wall which bisected the room was engraved with countless lines of D'ni text and pictograms, depicting prominent figures and events from D'ni's history, as well as icons which I could only assume were meant to indicate the open trade between D'ni and the surface dwellers that the Path had originally been intended to foster. On the side facing into the room, the symbols continued, with a section beside the door reserved for the same warning text and pictograms as those on the entrance to the lava chamber I had come from.

I have found the Southern Gate. Once again, I am in D'ni. From here, the way will likely become easier, and also more difficult. The network of connected passageways will make it more likely for me to get lost, but the odds of serious, impassable collapse are greatly diminished as a result. Although, if the path retains the golden color given to it by the mosaic, following it shouldn't be difficult. Besides, there should be signs at some point saying "Ae'Gura is this way". I believe I will camp here for the night, and spend the rest of the afternoon recovering from my trip through the lava chamber and exploring this incredible room.

Lost & Found

Had a bit of a scare today...

Yesterday was fairly uneventful. After a very cautious trip, I'd gotten all of my gear down to the ground floor of the Shaft by way of its main spiral ramp. I poked my head into the eder tomahn in the middle of the Shaft, where the Bahro Stone leads, but was unable to find anything useful, or even interesting. The KI light dispenser is still glowing that obnoxious purple-pink, and the effect is still limited to about 60 seconds of light. The Nexus Terminal here was also, predictably, still out of service.

The Path continued largely uninterrupted after leaving the Shaft, save for the occasional pile of rubble. There were some obvious signs of major reconstruction, and a few places had walls shored up with heavy wooden support frames, which leads me to believe that this path used to be a lot harder to travel, but by and large, it was a straight shot through several of the Nodes and connecting passageways. There were a few flights of stairs in the steeper areas that naturally gave me hell trying to lug my wagon down them, but that's about it.

Today, however, was a different story. I arrived in an area which, assuming I'm on the right track, corresponds to the room marked "11" on Aitrus' map to find the D'ni path interrupted by a cave-in just beyond the Node door. Markings on the Node door leading into this room seem to confirm my guess. Since the route was blocked and I gathered from the look of the rock that it wasn't at all recent, I set about looking for a way around the collapsed section of tunnel. I referred to Aitrus' map and determined that the cave system I had foregone exploring one node back connected to a node closer to D'ni that was hopefully beyond the damaged region. I backtracked the short distance to the node and left my wagon so that I could explore without worrying about how to get it across the uneven terrain of the cave, then come back once I'd found my way through. I tied a considerable length of rope to the base of the node door's control arm and set off, using the rope to keep me from getting lost, and began searching the cave's rooms for a way through. My flashlight danced across the rock formations, long since frozen in time by the absence of continued water flow.

Eventually, I ran out of rope, and silently cursed Aitrus' cursory mapping of this particular segment of cave. I pulled a dye marker from my bag and began spraying indicators on the walls that could lead me back to where the rope ended when I went back for the wagon. I had just begun worrying whether I had been mistaken about this cave system connecting to another node when I saw the cool, dim glow of a firemarble around a corner. Relieved, I hurried ahead only to find the node door closed tight, its control mechanism damaged by a stalactite that had fallen from the high ceiling.

Frustrated, I returned to the last junction in the cave system and sprayed a large red X on the wall before returning to my search. It was another two hours before I found a way through to another node door, which was thankfully open. I activated my KI and started dropping custom markers as I walked to guide me back through the cave with the wagon (or if I ever needed to get back through it again later). A full nine hours after I encountered the blocked tunnel in Room 11, I was back on the path, my wagon trundling happily - if loudly - behind me. The trouble is, I'm unsure as to where on the path I am now... Aitrus' map of the cave system was so woefully inadequate that I couldn't tell where I came out, and distinguishing rooms are relatively few and far between. I'm pretty sure that I'm some considerable distance from Room 11, but with how winding the caves were, I'm not sure at all just how far I've gone. I'd use my KI to help me, but it's still reporting coordinates of 0, 0, 0... it's a wonder the markers even work out here.

It's been a long and frustrating day, so I will probably not go much farther before turning in for the night. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to figure out just how much ground I've covered.

Descending

It's been a long first day and a half on my journey back to D'ni "the hard way". I'm still decidedly annoyed at the fact that my Relto Book is gone... with any luck, whoever took it was clever enough to get to the Cavern themselves and is being looked after by the (diminishing) contingent of other explorers, assuming they used it at all. As for me, I've got a long road ahead of me before I can re-join their company. To make matters worse, there have been occasional tremors in the rock. Hardly frequent, and barely noticeable, but they can have a cumulative effect that is most disconcerting. In fact, I may be lucky if I can still even get to D'ni in the first place...

After my last entry two days ago, I returned to the Cleft and spent much of the day getting my belongings and equipment into the Volcano's caldera, and then into the cave below. It was very hard going, and for future reference, the Volcano is deceptively small from the outside. Awkward as it made me feel to do so, I had no choice but to sleep in the Cleft that night, as the tunnel to the first Eder Tomahn on the Path appeared to be a considerable distance from the Caldera, and I didn't have the energy to transport all of my gear by then. I can't say how much sleep I got; the history of where I was sleeping (or trying to, anyway) was almost overwhelming, and I probably spent most of the night looking out the door of the bedroom at the thin sliver of sky visible above the rim of the Cleft. Nonetheless, I awoke feeling refreshed, and spent the first few hours at the entrance to the caves beneath the Volcano organizing my supplies and having a simple breakfast. I decided to take my descent slowly; I was really in no rush given the amount of supplies I had, and knowing that it would likely be several days' journey anyway, I didn't want to over-do it and end up in trouble, alone in a cave few others knew about, miles from help in either direction.

The trip to the first Eder Tomahn took about 15 minutes, which in retrospect wouldn't have been all that bad to walk last night, but again, I'm trying not to over-do it. I set up camp there, and spent most of the "day" exploring the area. Fortunately, the Node doors here still work, though there's no need to operate them as the DRC left everything unlocked when last they used this path. I'm hoping that their frequent supply trips several years ago have left their mark, making it easier for me to follow in their footsteps. The Nexus Terminal here also appears to be functioning properly, and I took the opportunity to register the station with my KI for the sake of convenience. If I need to make a return trip now, I shouldn't have to walk the entire way again.

The Great Shaft itself continues to amaze me. It tunnels I-don't-know-how-many hundreds of feet straight down, and the acoustics of the place are stunning. The architecture is typical D'ni, with heavy arches and thick pillars either carved from the surrounding rock or built – almost fused – into it. The elevators are unfortunately still non-functional, though there are signs of "recent" repair work. The DRC does some great work, but it's obvious they haven't come this way in a few years; I think most of the resupply operations in 2006-2007 were coordinated through one or more of the Council's Reltos for the sake of speed. As a result, the restoration work has already started to give way to the hundreds of years of prior abandonment, and even D'ni machinery has its limits when left alone for that long.

My explorations ended up taking me to the bottom of the Shaft by the end of the day. The scale of this construction is still mind-blowing, and it's almost too easy to get some pretty severe vertigo in here. The access tunnels leading to the floor are all clear and debris-free, and the floor itself has seen some degree of restoration work done to remove fallen bits of rock and ornamentation from higher up the Shaft. The Path continues through another Node door set in the wall, and my brief foray into the passageway indicated that the Node itself was still intact and operational. The faint breeze blowing up the tunnel also indicates that the ventilation system is still working; if it's hooked into the same air supply system as the great fans in the Cavern itself, that's hardly surprising... the DRC left them on for the sake of the sizable population that remained after they'd gone.

Quite possibly the best part about being on the Path is that I don't need to use my flashlight. I'm contemplating prying a firemarble out of one of the light fixtures here to take with me so that I can keep the flashlight for absolute emergencies, but I'll need to see if I have the right tools to do so. Tomorrow I will begin my expedition "for real" and bring my gear with me when I return to the base of the Shaft, but for now, the exploration has made me rather tired, and I'll need my strength and my wits from here on.

Son of a...

I'm beginning to suspect that the universe has something against me...

Thursday I spent most of the afternoon moving my belongings out of Relto to the Cleft. I decided that there just wasn't enough room on the island for all of my stuff, and I didn't think the environment was conducive to long-term storage given the amount of moisture in the air most of the time (and the fact that the roof still leaks when it rains). I shipped most of it back home, and the rest of it I stashed at the DRC offices for the weekend while I got my affairs in order. At this point, I'm glad I did.

Friday I got a ride into Carlsbad with one of the remaining DRC lackeys, whom I'd never met before and didn't manage to remember well enough to tell you his name. I stowed my stuff at the office and got a room at the Holiday Inn in town - the same place we stayed at Mysterium 2001. I decided to take a day or two away from the Cavern, and besides that, I didn't want to trouble the DRC fort-holder more than once in a day... the offices aren't far from town, but they are a ways away from the Cleft. I got a raft from Wal-Mart on the way into town, and made arrangements to be picked up on Sunday. With nothing to do with myself but relax for a weekend before starting on a long expedition in D'ni, I spent the rest of the day around Carlsbad, mostly down at the park by the river. The backpack with the rest of my gear and my Relto Book lay safely in the hotel room. Or so I thought...

I returned after having lunch on Saturday to find my Relto Book gone. My backpack was untouched, but evidently the cleaning crew had been through and discovered the Book, which I had burried under the backpack after not being able to jam it into any of the over-stuffed pockets without damaging it. I hadn't taken it with me out of concern for losing it on the streets, and now I've lost it anyway. The worst part is that whoever took it probably used it, intentionally or not, and is now lost in the remnants of my Relto with absolutely no idea what's going on. Were it not such a terrible thing to have happen (for me and them), I'd probably make some sort of glib joke about turning it into a video game.

On the bright side, my KI was safely tucked away in a pouch of my backpack, so all is not completely lost... though I'm going to have a heck of a time getting back to the Cavern and finding anything to eat down there now.

Anyway, I'm writing this from the DRC offices before I go back on safari. I made a return trip to Wal-Mart yesterday to get provisions for a month, a bigger backpack, and a little wagon to cart what I can't carry. I don't exactly look forward to the prospect of walking back to the Cavern with a wagon of supplies and a raft in tow, but such is life. I just hope Zandi doesn't catch me climbing over the "do not enter" signs around the volcano... I don't know whether he'd laugh or have me arrested.

This is another notice that I will probably be off the radar for a number of days while I work my way back down to D'ni. With this turning into a real travelogue, I'd like to start providing photos or sketches as I go through this, but I'll have to see what I can do. The lighting down there is pretty crap for the most part, and the caves are going to be a nightmare without any lights but my flashlight. I'll probably back-date any updates I write so that they chronicle my journey after the fact, but I won't have any real-time updates to post until I get back to the Cavern and can get back to an internet access terminal. What I wouldn't give to have D'ni bathed in Wi-fi right now...

b'D'ni!