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Nifehrehn shivering

Posted by - Friday, October 8th, 2010

Okay, this age IS cold. I went there yesterday, with a small group of fellow expedition members. We explored the outpost first. It is partly underground, and rather small. There are sleeping rooms for four people, so I guess, it was crewed for more than just short visits. The expedition had found three journals before, which Noelle has translated partly. It seems, the writers were three survivors, who had fled here, when the Fall happened, two men and a woman. The dates given in the journals suggest, that they stayed here for at least two months – because of the limited space and ressources, the tensions between them rose, and it seems, that at least two of them got rather deranged after some weeks. What happened to them? Why did they leave with most of their equipment left behind, not to mention, their personal journals?
I fear, a great tragedy has happened here.

The outpost itself is mostly disfunctional currently. The gauges and scales seem to get no energy, and frost has entered most of the equipment, rendering it unusable.

At least some kind of emergency light is still working – maybe we just have to find the energy source and turn it on again.

We left the outpost through some kind of lock – not an airlock, but something similar, maybe to better keep the cold outside.

All of us weared our maintainer suits, because we were repeatedly warned – the temperatures are really low, beyond -50.0 °C (approx. -58.0 °F).
Even with the maintainer suits, we only stayed out there for 10 minutes – if the D’ni survivors really left the outpost, they wouldn´t have been able to survive there for long.

After that visit, I had to warm myself up, so I was rather happy to be invited to a small party given for one of the explorers because of his birthday, in Risoahl.
The age is very comfortable, as I mentioned before, at least, if you´re not doing any hard manual work there.
We had a campfire, sat around on some felled giant bamboo stems and roasted marshmallows (I had just learned how to do this, I´m not from the US, so this was new to me – I like this particular custom :P ).
Of course we told each other ghost stories (especially creepy, when some unknown creatures suddenly shriek inmidst the night, as we found out)

I got to know some of the guys from the expedition a little better, for example, our diving team. They are cave divers from New Zealand, and asked, if I would mind them dive in my new age, Ahnoto. I told them to go ahead, but of course told them of the huge shadow I saw on my last visit. They weren´t scared at all, said, they had dived with sharks, whales and giant squids, and they could handle any creature. Well, it´s their necks they risk – maybe I should let them sign a waiver of liability.
Just kidding … or am I?

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Ahnoto preparations

Posted by - Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

I talked to B.P. and Kennett about Ahnoto. They agree with Pavitra (thanks again for the advice), that some kind of boat would be the first step, and after that a floating platform should be installed. Kennett suggested to position a buoy at the link in point, so that if one was carried away by a current, the linking point would be recognizable. He said, he could provide some.

I asked for a sounder, but he was reluctant to give me one – I think, he feared I could loose it in the lake, and he only has four of them.

So I decided to do it the earthling-way, and to fathom the deep with a plumb line.
I linked in, with a plumb line of 40 feet length. It wasn´t easy to use it, though, because of the waves – it was quite windy, and I swallowed a lot of water trying to stay on the surface. But finally I managed to determine the depth of the lake: at this spot, it was approx. 30 feet deep.

As I prepared to link out, I saw a huge, dark silhouette beneath me, slowly moving. I freezed and tried not to move (which isn´t easy, when swimming). The thing – whatever it was – disappeared into the dark depths and didn´t come back. I waited for some seconds to be sure it was gone, and then linked out. I have no idea what it was, but it surely scared me silly. I´m not sure, I want to return to Ahnoto with such big creatures swimming around in there…

Finally, we had another meeting (it had been postponed several times, because everyone was really busy).
B.P. told us about the progress they made in one of the other ages they had found, Nifehrehn. It is a very cold, polar age with a small D’ni outpost inmidst an arctic desert.
I´m not very fond of cold places, but what they told me about the D’ni outpost was very interesting. It seems, the D’ni researched these place like our scientists do in Antarctica. And – after the Fall, a small group of survivors had fled to Nifehrehn! The expedition found some records made by them, but no remains – maybe they made it and went on to another age? Or they died out there in the ice wastes, searching for food and water…
I definitely will visit this place!

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Ashetens fate

Posted by - Monday, October 4th, 2010

Today B.P. told us a little about Asheten and his life. He had been a wealthy and influental guild master of the guild of writers.
The expedition has found three ages, that had been in his possession. (One of them beeing Risoahl.)
There is an interesting bit about Asheten: He once had been married to a woman named Naila, who had suddenly gotten ill, and, after some years, had succumbed to the illness. Rumors had gone wild in D’ni about her, some claimed, Asheten had been very jealous about her and accused him of having killed her. There seems to have been an investigation by the maintainers, but they couldn´t find any evidence to proof this accusations.
Asheten had not married again, and died like many other D’ni in the Fall. The expedition had found his remains in what happens to have been his study, and some other remains (maybe his servants) in various other rooms of the mansion.
He had been 298 hahrtee old on the day of the Fall.
Though he had been a writer, no ages written by him are known yet. But if one might speculate – as influential as he was, surely he was a skilled writer.
Coincidentally, Asheten seems to have befriended another fellow guild member with a familiar name – Anesh.
Since they lived both at the same time – the late D’ni era before the fall – and they both were influential guild masters of the same guild, this is only logical.

Another topic: We have succeeded to prepare the cave on Afelahn to the state, where we just could go on with excavating, if, only if we had a bigger excavator in the age.
I think, I should talk to Alex and Noelle. Maybe the Yagi can be convinced to “borrow” us one or two Toosha.
The problem is: We can´t tell them, were we´ll take the Toosha, of course. So, how do we explain this?

And another topic: I think, I´ll keep the watery age I initially was so disappointed with. Yeah, sure, I don´t know what to do with it yet, but it is stable, it is mine, and I wrote it :P
So, with the help of the Linguists (Link: http://linguists.bahro.com), I made up a name for it: Ahnoto, which literally means “water place”. It´s not a very elegant translation, I know, but I like the sound of it, and it fits. So, this is the second age written by me :)
If any of you, who read my blog, have ideas, what could be done with an age consisting of a big lake with no shores in vicinity, tell me, I´d be interested to hear (or read) your opinions!

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Writing failures, Part II

Posted by - Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

Wasted another kor’nea. Remember the one I was confident to finish last week? Well, I didn´t.

Well… that´s not entirely true. I DID finish the age – but it seems, I overdid it a little with moisture… when I linked into that age – and DON´T you dare to laugh! – I materialized some 10 feet above a sheet of water. It felt like standing still in the air for a heartbeat (of course I didn´t, but it seemed so), then gravity had me, and I fell. It was very unpleasant, I got wet all over (fortunately the Relto book seems to be waterprove). For a moment, I thought I would sink to the bottom, I had my maintainer suit on – but it seems, they were built to handle such situations.

Now I swam there, looking around – no landmass is visible from the link in spot, as far as I can tell. And so, though the age is stable as far as I can tell, I consider this a failure. What would one do with an age, were there only is water?
It seems to be fresh water, if the displayed informations were correct.
I stayed a little, swimming around a bit, but then I thought about what might swim beneath me, down there, in the dark depths of that lake or whatever it is … suddenly I imagined big fish with long teeth, or big, maritime reptiles like in our earths past – needless to say I linked out very quickly.
There I stood on Relto, soaking wet and really disappointed.

At first, I wanted to burn the book. But then… it IS stable, after all. Maybe it is of any use. I will keep it for now, and think it over.

I visited Afelahn to distract me a little. Kennett has brought me another D’ni excavation-machine – don´t know, what it is called – which can be used to level a rocky floor. I worked for some hours in the cave we had discovered before, and managed to get rid of the most annoying bumps.
By the way: the “clams” I had noticed, are not clams, but tiny crustaceans with clam-like shells. They dig through the soil, like worms on earth. They are approx. 1 to 3 mm long (can´t recall, what this is in inches, sorry)
And I saw another, much bigger creature, at least 3 feet long – it seemed like a really big (and ugly) centipede, but with long, spiny legs and a hard shell, like a lobster. It moved rather quickly, when it saw me, and hid beyond a huge boulder. I didn´t want to follow it – might be poisonous, after all.

Why do I always get ugly, dangerous creatures in the ages I visit? Why not a Squee or something like that?

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Yagi visit

Posted by - Monday, September 27th, 2010

As I had mentioned before, Alex and Noelle had invited me to join them visiting the Yagi, our first “ahrotantee” people (if you don´t count the Bahro).
So we linked there last saturday.
I was surprised, how cool (fresh) the age was – I had expected a tropical climate. There were pine trees on the islands, a lot of long grass, and ferns of various sizes.

The village we visited lies on a rather big island, adjacent to a small bay. We were joyfully welcomed by nearly the whole village population. The Yagi are clearly humanoid, and quite similar to us. But there are some differences: They are smaller and broader built, and their heads are rounder. Their language is strange, they seem to speak very fast (I couldn´t make out any single word) and add many snarling and hissing sounds.
They are a very friendly and peaceful people. Noelle and Alex are already well known, but I was eyed curiously. Some of them touched my hands and my arms, as if they hadn´t seen something like them before (but their arms and hands are nearly identical to ours, so I guess it´s some kind of greeting gesture).
Noelle is quite fluent in their language by now, and she translated.

I got to observe the fishing techniques of the Yagi – I think, I´ve seen this techniques in TV on our own earth. They stand in a semi cycle in the shallow water and slowly direct the fish between them into the direction they want: A gap in the circle, where another group of Yagi waits patiently with big nets. When the fish have been driven into the nets, the Yagi enwrap them quickly. This technique works surprisingly well, and we were invited to a opulent fish meal that evening.

The most intriguing fact about the Yagi are their domestic animals: They have tamed a huge species of herbivore, which they call “Toosha”. They are bigger than a Rhino, but very calm and imperturbable.
They are really strong – Onsha, one of our hosts, showed us a Toosha pulling a big tree down – it didn´t seem to strain itself a lot.

I wonder, if the Yagi might borrow us one or two of these formidable beasts – they could easily pull a medium excavator!

We left the Yagi late at night. They first wouldn´t let us go, and always brought more food. Very hospitable.

That visit will stay in my mind for a while, what a great day!
And, of course, the Toosha.

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Sounding

Posted by - Thursday, September 23rd, 2010

Kennett brought a D’ni sounding device with him last time he visited me in Afelahn. He determined, that there was a rather large cavern behind one of the rock walls of the valley. The wall was rather thin, and the surrounding parts of it stable enough to try and bore a hole into it.

When the dust had settled, we looked through the hole in what appeared to be a cavern, that had been enclosed by rocks always until that time. It is stable, so we can bring some bigger equipment into it and start drilling or excavating from there on. There still is the problem with the bigger machines, though…
I talked to Kennett, and he said, he wouldn´t take those machines apart. He isn´t even sure, if they CAN be dismantled, because some parts of it look like they are fused together – there are no screws, bolts or stuff like that visible. They are much to big to carry them with us… the only other option would be some kind of beast of burden. I don´t think, we´ll be able to make an elephant walk down to D`ni… that would the only beast of burden on earth I could imagine that would be strong enough to pull one of the bigger excavators.

While having a break from all the work in Afelahn, I began to write another age. This time I want an age with a little more humidity and warmth – Afelahn is quite cool, dry and windy, and I want a more comfortable place, maybe even something like a garden age.
I started the second age some days ago, and I´m confident to finish it this week already… it will be nothing to complicated. (Well, sweet and simple did work for Anesh, so why not for me?)

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Afelahn research

Posted by - Monday, September 20th, 2010

We did some more research on Afelahn the last days. It seems, that air, water and soil are quite similar to those on earth, except there are a lot of small lifeforms which look like clams in the soil. On the other side, there are no worms or wormlike creatures – so it seems, the “earth-clams” are Afelahns equivalent to our worms. Fascinating.

Kennett brought a small excavator with him on Saturday, and did some test bores. He said, the rock is stable enough to excavate bigger cavities – maybe even rooms!

The only problem is, that it would need a lot of time to cut out rooms with this small excavator – if only we could bring one of the bigger ones into Afelahn… but as we know, only that which comes with you when you walk comes with you when you link.
So, how are we supposed to get the bigger equipment from age to age?

After spending a lot of time in Afelahn, I went to Tufolehn again, this time joined by Alex and Peter Chang, who is a microbiologist. He had done a little research on Tufolehns water and wanted to see it himself – he said, there were a lot of strange microorganisms in it.

When I showed them some of the strange fauna of Tufolehn – sea urchins, jellyfish, starfish and a strange, slimy mass (yuck!) floating on the water – Peter said, the fauna of the age is quite similar to our own earth in the geological era of Cambrium or Ordovicium.
And he recommended not to swim in the water… there are a lot of small creatures with nettles swimming in it – some even might be poisonous, but at least swimming would be quite uncomfortable.
A pity… I would like to explore the other, bigger island – it´s just a few dozen meters away.

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Success!

Posted by - Wednesday, September 15th, 2010

It´s done! My very first age has been written!
On Sunday I wrote the last gahrohevtee into my kor´nea – and seconds later, the linking panel changed on the first page. It was a bright view of a rocky surface with some grass and other small plants, my first age!

I had already decided before to use the name of the destroyed description book I had found, Afelahn.

I still couldn´t believe it… the link to another world, which no D´ni nor human ever has visited. I felt like Columbus or Neill Armstrong – I would be the first to venture into this age!
On the same day, I don my maintainer suit – had to check everything twice, no, trice, because my hands where shaking like if I had fever.
I put my hand on the linking panel, and instantly materialized on this rocky surface I had seen through it.
I looked around. It was a small valley, filled with a little pond. Grass and small bushes everywhere.
The suits microphones received birds singing and wind noise. I looked onto my suits scales and devices, and it seemed that the atmosphere was clean of any poisonous gas and breathable.
I decided to take some samples – the usual ones, atmosphere, water, soil, and some plants – and returned to my Relto.
I brought them to Asheten mansion to have them analyzed.

When I went to bed that night, I couldn´t sleep for hours… in my mind I tried to remember every single detail, every rock and every grass halm.

The next day, Monday, I instantly run down to the laboratories to get the results. As I had expected, there wasn´t any sign of poisonous or hazardous matter, neither in the atmosphere, nor in soil or water.

I asked B.P. and Alex to join me when I visited the age for the second time.
We arrived there at night – I couldn´t figure out the day-night cycle of the age yet, will have to stay there for some time before I can determine the day length.
It was pretty cool – around 15 degrees Celsius – and the wind was blowing intensely. There are surprisingly few stars in the night sky, and no moon can be seen. B.P. said, maybe the planet is in a outer part of its home galaxy.

We stayed there for a while, enjoying the night. Finally, I decided to put off my helmet. I know, it´s not best idea, but the tests hadn´t shown anything harmful.
The air was fresh, cool and clean.
I think, I´m in love with my own age :)

B.P. said, the rock seems hard and durable. It could be possible to carve some rooms into it… maybe some kind of home base for me, finally!
I will talk to Kennett and Tom Woods about that, one of our engineers. They have done some tremendous work on Asheten mansion and the Kurat neighborhood, maybe they can help me out with some equipment and manpower.

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Progress

Posted by - Saturday, September 11th, 2010

I´ll finish my first age this weekend, it´s nearly done. I feel so excited!
What will it look like? Will it be flawed? Will it be suitable for a home base?
It´s hard for me to keep concentrated on writing with all that thoughts running through my head…

Yesterday I had a chat with B.P. He told me they had found some documentation on the crystal age we had escaped narrowly… he said, it was a garden age!
It´s name was Eder Kamonee. Can´t believe the maintainers allowed such a dangerous place to be a garden age… what were they thinking? Though, I like the name, sounds nice.
B.P. said he thinks, there must have been some kind of shelter in the age once… otherwise the D´ni wouldn´t have been able to visit the “garden age” safely.
Maybe there is another linking book to this shelter?
At the moment, it will keep closed for any visitors, even of the expedition itself. They clearly won´t risk anyones life.

Work in Risoahl has stopped for now – felling the bamboo is to time consuming right now. B.P. said, it will be restored later. They´d rather do some work on another age they found last year… B.P. said, I would be told more about it at the next meeting.

My wounds from that visit to Eder Kamonee are slowly healing, but they still hurt.
On the positive side: We heard news from Claire, the intern that got hurt most in the incident. She is alright, the cut will heal without any long-term sequela.
Alex collected some money to buy her flowers and “get well soon” cards. And then, she told me, she and Noelle would make a visit in Yagee Mohts next week, and invited me again to join them. Great!

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Crystalline menace

Posted by - Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

After a few days of relaxing, B.P. assigned me to another task, this time to an expedition into a new age they found in J’taeri last weekend. They don´t know its name yet, unfortunately, but Alex is leading a group right now whos objective is to find additional documentary on the age.

We linked in this morning. It was an astounding view, the whole age is covered in crystals of various sizes, from small, thumbnail size, to giants of 20 meters.
Our crew started to survey the age. One of the first things we noticed was, that the crystals vibrated when we made noises. The louder the noise, the more vibrations. Kennett told us to stay as silent as possible, fearing that the vibrations could cause a “crystal slide”. We moved slowly and didn´t talk much. It was a strange, eerie atmosphere – no other noise could be heard, and we didn´t see any signs of life.
The crystals had a blueish hue mostly, though some of the smaller ones were more green.
Kennett asked me to take some small samples (but carefully) and put them into a knapsack he had brought with him.

I was concentrated on my work, so I didn´t see, what happened next – but the others told me later: Someone must have stumbled and fell against one of the bigger, fragile crystals, which gave way and fell against another – and so on. A terrible, loud noise filled the air, as more and more crystals – well, I think you can say, they imploded, and sent their sharp shards into all directions. Everyone of us was cut by those shards, we were bleeding, I couldn´t see much because blood ran into my eyes. Someone took my hand and put it on a linking book they had brought into the age.

Somehow we all made it out of the age, but all of us are hurt in some way. Fortunately, most wounds are only skin deep and light, but Claire, one of our interns, got a gaping wound on her left shoulder, and was taken to hospital.
Our M.D. and his two nurses tended to us others. Now I´m sitting in my room, my cuts are slowly healing – B.P. said, we won´t go back there, until we find a way to better shield ourselves. Maybe one of the older maintainer suits would provide enough shelter?

Until then, the age is deemed “unsafe” and “volatile”.
I thought I had had enough of tumbling things, but it seems like this is a recurring theme in my career as an explorer…

Something more pleasant: My first age is making progress. I think, when I can upkeep my pace, it will be finished at the end of the week. Finished writing, of course. I really hope, that the age will be sufficient to build me a “home base” of some kind… well, we know, that writing isn´t a exact thing. Who knows, what the age will be like.

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