Mysterium...

... was a lot of fun. We should do it again next year ;).

Boarding my return flight to New Mexico in a few minutes. Will update again when I'm back in the City.

Once More Into the Breach

Well, it's been more than a week, but I'm finally heading back to D'ni. I've made plans to attend Mysterium this year at the end of July, now that I know I can actually get there, so there's one more week-long hiatus definitely planned for this year, but beyond that, I don't think there's any plans to spend a considerable amount of time on the Surface before the end of the year (Christmas seems like a good time to be with my family, at the very least...).

I'm finding it difficult to really keep an interesting blog of the stuff I'm doing in D'ni, so updates may be fewer and more far-between for a while. I'm also running into the limits of what I feel comfortable doing on my own right now, because I'm not a structural engineer, and I don't have access to a lot of the DRC's equipment for shoring things up and securing them before doing extensive restoration work, or even just looking around. This is as much disaster recovery as it is archaeology, and I'm only marginally more well-equipped for the latter (still can't find a really good bull whip...).

Hopefully a lot more info will be forthcoming once I manage to stabilize the data connection between the Surface and D'ni so that I can send more than just text along the uplink. Photos and drawings are definitely things I want to include in my posts, but for now, the written word is all my crummy connection can handle. The DRC did some crazy wizardry with the KI network several years ago to allow them to make posts on their old forum from their KI, and I've managed to hook into that to send these updates to Blogger, but sending an image stream is a lot more complicated, and without actual internet access in the Cavern, this is the best I can do at the moment.

Holy Crap, My KI is Working!

I apologize for not writing in a while... I've been doing more thorough studies of the stuff left in the DRC base camp, and none of it makes for terribly compelling blog posts. However, my KI had been acting weird over the past couple of weeks, and I think it's about time I mentioned it, just for the sake of keeping an accurate record.

I haven't really been wearing my KI lately, because it's largely useless with the Lattice all mucked up. Around the 27th, it started making odd beeping noises every once in a while, which did wonders for keeping me awake at all hours, but little else. A few days later, I noticed the hologram emitter started turning itself on and off every few seconds, causing the heads-up display interface to flicker annoyingly out of the corner of my eye. I initially just chalked it up to further Lattice destabilization and stuffed the thing in a drawer wrapped in a blanket where I wouldn't have to see or listen to it anymore, but today I noticed during a morning walk to the DRC camp that I could see the trail of Markers I'd dropped during my initial exploration of the area. As I reached out to trigger one of the holographic spheres, the entire set blinked and then vanished.

Needless to say, I rushed back to the tavern and pulled my KI out of its drawer to see what was going on. In the chat interface were several status messages from the Lattice, which read roughly as follows (I've cut out a lot of redundant messages):

System: Unable to repair damaged Lattice branches. Data is unrecoverable. Attempting to restore to secondary tree.

System: Restoration Success. Some data lost during restoration to secondary tree. Polling field units for additional information.

System: Field unit 6409780 Discovered. Time: 4/28/08 9:57:05

System: Attempting to synchronize with field unit 6409780. Awaiting unit response...

System: Field unit 6409780 Discovered. Time: 5/13/08 13:54:27

System: Attempting to synchronize with field unit 6409780. Awaiting unit response...

Elated that the Lattice may have been able to repair itself (Laxman was a busy man before he left!), I quickly activated my KI and dropped a Marker to try and synchronize it with the Lattice network. The following message appeared in my chat interface:

System: Response from field unit 6409780. Synchronization successful. WARNING: Some data may have been lost due to Lattice corruption. Verify data is intact before use.

Getting happier by the minute, I checked my files and marker missions, and with few exceptions, they were all intact and readable by my KI. All of the Ages I had visited were also still listed in the device as well, though obviously I was unable to reach any of them because of having lost my Relto Book.

I decided to take advantage of my former Restoration Engineer status to try and poll the Nexus to see if it was working. I entered a custom command into the chat interface and received the following response:

System: Nexus access granted. Welcome ResEng G. Buddell. Nexus status code: 0001.

This was fantastic news. A status code of 0001 meant that the Nexus was fully functional, and I wasn't going to get trapped there if I linked in. Whether I'd be able to access any of my previously-registered Nexus Terminal links was another question entirely, so I made sure to register the nearest terminal before linking back to the Nexus for the first time in over a month.

The familiar clatter of the Nexus machinery welcomed me back to the access room, and the Book Machine happily accepted my KI signature when I placed my hand in the registry slot. A quick look at my available links confirmed at least some of my fears: most of the links I had registered were missing, prticularly the older ones that gave me direct access to Ae'Gura. However, the links I had registered on the way down the Descent were all still intact. Almost literally bouncing with glee, I touched the line that read "Great Shaft - Top", waited impatiently for the machine to vend the Book, and linked back to the eder tomahn at the top of the Great Shaft. A quick jog back up the path to the Surface confirmed that it was still clear all the way back to the Volcano's caldera (I was concerned that some of the tremors I'd felt while descending may have caused further collapses in the cave system), meaning I now had almost immediate access back to the Surface, and any supplies I might need, without needing to spend the better part of a week going back and forth.

As dedicated as I am to restoring D'ni and keeping it alive, I think I'm going to take a week or so on the Surface to get some more things, rest, relax, and sleep in a bed that's bound to be better than the sleeping-bag-on-a-cot arrangement I've got in the tavern. D'ni is great, but I occasionally need to see the sun. I'll post again before I head back down.

Emo D'ni

The dimness of this place is kind of starting to get to me... I've been sleeping a lot more than I usually do, and spend a fair amount of my waking hours feeling tired. I don't think I noticed this nearly as much while I was working for the DRC because we were in parts of the Cavern that were much better-lit, and I always had easy access to several above-ground Ages if I needed a breath of fresh air and the warmth of the sun on my face. Despite Ri'neref's intention that the D'ni love their home here in the Cavern, I can't help but understand why many viewed it as a place to hang their hat and little more, while they basked in the splendor of their Ages. Perhaps his plan to teach the D'ni some humility through their surroundings ultimately backfired...

I think what will help me the most is getting some of the firemarbles around the harbor lit up again. Knowing that the Nexus is currently FUBAR, I doubt many people are going to be able to get to Ae'Gura right now, so I'm not nearly as concerned about someone finding me out here and invading my space (for everything else that's got me down, the silence isn't all that depressing). A little bit more light in the area couldn't hurt, at any rate.

Uphill Battle

My how the time flies. I've been off on an expedition for the past week, without a way to post an update. As part of my new high priority plan to make sure I can live off the land down here (so to speak), I took off on a hike to track down the source of the water flowing through the channel near the tavern I'm still calling home for the time being. I've made extensive use of my dye paint since I can't map my way with Markers any more, and hopefully I won't need to go on any more long treks like that, because I don't think I have the paint for it.

My explorations took me deep into the City Proper, and the level of devastation there makes even what I've seen on the harbor front pale in comparison. Whole buildings are completely leveled... and not little one-story affairs, either. I'm talking about major structures, including what looks like the remains of an apartment complex or something similar. This is one of the oldest areas of the City, so these buildings are likely to be upwards of 9,000 years old in some cases, and their stability was probably somewhat questionable at the time of the Fall. What the quakes back then didn't completely flatten, two hundred years of neglect likely managed to pull down later.

The view of the Lake – when I had one – was breathtaking, though. I ended up several hundred yards above the waterfront before I reached the main aqueduct for the water channel I was following, and the top of the Arch was seemingly at eye level. Ae'Gura glistened in the dim evernight of the Cavern, and its mirror image shimmered darkly but elegantly in the water below. It was a hollow image, though, remembering not just the millions of D'ni who had lived here in the past, but the thousands of explorers who had also called that island – and this Cavern – their home for upwards of five years. Not to mention the DRC members, Elias and Jeff Zandi, and Branch Loftin, who had first discovered this place over two decades ago. That view, more than any other, impressed upon me the sheer scale of D'ni's size and history. Even if it remains just me, alone down here in the dark, for the rest of my life, I am determined now more than ever to make sure that the memory of this place does not burn out, and that someone is still here to keep it alive.

I continued to follow the aqueduct back to a long, elevated archway that stretched across a wide canyon to where the waterfall that fed it cascaded down in a misty stream into a collection basin. Knowing that channel was elevated from here back to its source,  and having not stumbled across anything that might sully the waters between this junction and my home in the tavern, I have concluded that the water here is as pure as I might hope to find in a cave. I'll run a few final chemical tests tomorrow to be sure there isn't anything growing in the aquifer, but I feel much safer about drinking the water here without needing to purify it first, which is fortunate, because I'm down to my last few purification tablets... after that, I start running it through my sock and boiling it with what little propane I have left for my stove.

Food, Glorious Food

My luck seems to be slowly turning around...

I've spent the last couple of days pouring over the rest of the stuff I found in the abandoned DRC base camp this week, looking for anything that might help me avoid an untimely death by starvation. In addition to the Er'tsuda Book (which is actually [eh|r|'|ts|oo|d|ah], not [ts|uh|d|ah] as I originally reported... my D'ni is very rusty), I also found a DRC-stamped Age that looks like a private garden from the Gateway Image. The note attached to it indicates it was found higher up in the City, but the specifics are hard to make out because of the DRC's tedious practice of turning everything into a 4-digit number. I found a notebook elsewhere in the camp that indicated the Book was part of a collection removed from a private home in a district accessible only by Linking Book, so it's fair to say it's pretty safe to use. I'm still not entirely sold on using it until I've found the restoration documents for the Age (and they're bound to be around the camp somewhere) and have some substantive proof that a DRC ResEng came back from the place alive, but it's a great lead.

There isn't too much more to report at the moment... there's a ton of stuff in this camp site, and I've only gone through about half of it. Most of it is pretty dull stuff... lots of catalogues of artifacts and a few maps which may prove useful if I can figure out where they're for. Tons of minutes from meetings held years ago, which I'd eventually like to go through, as they may help me figure out what areas are safe to explore and what the state of restoration was when this site was abandoned. For now, though, I've got a good lead on two new Ages, and a whole 'nother stack of research notes to go through. I also found a few boxes of MREs, so I should be set for food for a little while longer. Now, though, it's well past time for me to be in bed, so off I go. More as I have time to post it.

The Long Goodbye

God it's late... or early, depending on how you want to look at it. Since I haven't gone to bed yet, I choose to call it late.

The party went off largely without a hitch. I'm led to understand that there was a near-record number of people in the Cavern, which is nice – if a bit frustrating, given how hard everyone at the DRC has worked to attract attention to this place to no avail, and now that they're leaving, everyone piles in for one last "my parents are in Atlantic City"-style party. Not to say I don't appreciate it, I'm just kind of annoyed that it took something like this to bring people to the Cavern in such droves.

Still, it was a blast. People I hadn't seen in months were there, and many of my former co-workers were as well. We had about 5 or 6 current and former ResEngs in the Beginner's Bevin by the time the party ended, and all told, it was a pretty awesome time. The party ended around 10:00 Cavern Time, and a lot of folks left pretty quickly after that. After Beginner's Bevin cleared out, I went to the old DRC cafeteria with GreyDragon, Cowart, and BennyD for some reminiscing. We had fun, though we talked surprisingly little about the Cavern. I think I'm the only one of the crew that's sticking around after tonight, judging by the odd looks I got from GD and Cowart when I told them what I was up to.

We finally all left about half an hour ago, and it was at that point that the problems started; fortunately, I was prepared for it.

First, I realized that my KI was no longer reporting my location or my coordinates, and my message lists were all blank. There were also messages in my chat section from the Lattice system indicating a power and data failure. It seems the KI network is completely down now, which means all of the registration terminals and access points will be out as well. Had I not thought ahead, I would very likely have been up poop creek without a paddle. Fortunately, I raided the Nexus last night and absconded with a Linking Book back to the City harbor before linking back to a location closer to the tavern. When I realized after leaving the cafeteria that the Lattice was down (everyone else had linked away using their Relto Books, probably to head back to the Cleft), I linked back to the Nexus, pulled the Book back to the harbor out of my knapsack, and linked away without needing to worry about accessing the Nexus terminal. I've only just returned to the tavern after treking back from the waterfront.

I seem to be very much on my own now. Even if I wanted someone to talk to, I wouldn't be able to find them using the KI at this point. I can't use the Nexus because I'll be trapped there, and because of the massive nature of the place, I can't count on linking back to the same access station where I was forced to leave the harbor Book behind.

Oh well. I suspected something like this would happen eventually, so it doesn't really set me back all that much. I've been keeping notes of my explorations on good old notebook paper, and think I've found one of the DRC's old generators that I can use to recharge my laptop from time to time so that I can keep posting. I have a new priority tomorrow, though: finding something to eat that won't kill me. My supplies are a couple of weeks from running out, but after that, I'd rather not have to keep spending what little money I have left at Wal-Mart for food.