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.
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