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!