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.