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Catering ages

Posted by Rabenschwinge - Friday, April 22nd, 2011

Since the Forberg expedition consists of more and more people, we´ve had a meeting about new food resources and how to acquire them. B.P. told us, that one of the Resehren-ages and another age found in J’taeri had been ages of the guild of caterers. We agreed to visit these ages this weekend – maybe we can obtain some of our food directly from there!

In Afelahn, Tom Woods and I set up lights in most of the rooms in my home base. They are simple and not very pretty, but they´ll do.
Although the age is not complete yet, I´ve decided to start using the base. At first, there´ll be only limited access, for expedition personnel.

I brought a crate full of firemarbles from Dasharen to Afelahn, I´m planning to design some lamp variants for my ages with them.

Tags: Afelahn, age, B.P., Dasharen, Forberg, guild of caterers, J'Taeri, Resehren, Tom Woods
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Interior decoration

Posted by Rabenschwinge - Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

The last days, we began to bring equipment to the rooms in Afelahn. Shane and Tom Woods helped me to install a small water basin for experiments (I´m thinking of the creatures in Tufolehn). Besides a couple of shelves made of wood we brought to the age, I used a machine found in one of the Resehren-ages to mold a stone table, and another table with a different design and a cavity for plant experiments.

I saw the lobsterpede again, crawling under the same rock as before. Now I´m convinced it has a nest there. Maybe I should watch the place for some time and write down my observations?
I´m not even sure if it is a crustacean or an insect, or maybe a arachnoid-like creature… it has characteristics of all of these.

To relax a little, I made visits to some of the ages we got from the DRC. Spent an hour or so in Negilahn. The reepahs are shouting again (at least I think it´s them), but besides a swarm of kiri I didn´t see any creatures there. I wonder, if the animals of “rehziksehv” have recovered from the unfortunate events back at the beginning of the Bahro incidents…

In the next days, I plan to intensify my work in Afelahn, and maybe making some preparations in Ahnoto and Tufolehn, as well. Now that the cavern is getting more and more active and populated, it would be nice to have something to contribute. But no promises or actual dates yet, sorry.

Tags: Afelahn, age, Ahnoto, Bahro, cavern, DRC, kiri, lobsterpede, Negilahn, reepah, rehziksehv, Resehren, Shane Kennett, Tom Woods, Tufolehn
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New ages

Posted by Rabenschwinge - Saturday, April 16th, 2011

When I was ill, work didn´t end for the Forberg expedition. Due to the new guys who had joined some months ago, they have managed to start work on half a dozen additional ages, mostly from linking books they found in Resehren.

One of the most interesting ages is Dasharen, a kind of a residential area, built into a underground cavern system. The age itself is an arid, hot environment, mostly consisting of desert and rock formations. Dasharen is similar to a small town, built for around 100 to 150 residents. There were no remains of D´ni found there, so either the plague has not reached the place, or the residents fled beforehand.
Near the caverns, on the outside, there is a rather expanded cemetary. Our historians speculate, that this community was mostly self sufficient, for unknown reasons, so they buried their dead here instead of one of the usual burial ages.

Alitnee is another new age. It is cold and windy, but with a bright sun. The only place we are able to reach is the top of a high pinnacle with constructions made of metal that appear to be viewing platforms.
The place is full of flying creatures of various kinds and sizes, some of which are breeding their youth at the rocky walls of the pinnacles. It is a great place for bird watchers, although the winds are sometimes really uncomfortable.

B.P. promised me to show me more ages over the next weeks. Looking forward to those!

Tags: age, Alitnee, burial age, D'ni, Dasharen, linking book, Resehren
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Maintainer work

Posted by Rabenschwinge - Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

Today Tom Woods showed me the maintainer outpost we had visited months ago and what work they have done while I was away. They´ve managed to get most of the systems working again. Two heavy suits, around a dozen medium suits and over 30 light suits are ready to use.

The expedition has made three visits to ages of unknown security status (read: ages without a maintainer stamp), and so far everything went fine.
They followed security protocols set up by the original maintainers (which were quite cautious) and managed to define the status of the three ages they visited to “relatively safe”.

One of the ages is especially interesting: the linking book seems to link to the bottom of a sea, so visiting it without the most hardy suits would be suicide. These are able to resist the immense pressure of that environment.

We aren´t sure if these bulky, heavy suits are made of Nara, Deretheni or some other durable kind of D’ni stone, personally, I suspect it to be Deretheni (Nara would be too heavy, I suppose.)

If you have no idea what I´m talking about: You can find more information about the different D’ni stones at the guild of archivists website: http://www.dpwr.net.

Of course, there is a lot more information at this site, I recommend to everyone to read the excellent articles there!

Tags: age, D'ni, Deretheni, guild of archivists, guild of maintainers, linking book, maintainer, maintainer stamp, maintainer suit, nara, Tom Woods
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Return to duty

Posted by Rabenschwinge - Thursday, April 7th, 2011

After my long absence from the cavern I´ve finally returned. Health issues kept me from doing any work on my projects in D’ni.

The Forberg expedition has made a lot of progress in the meantime – I will gather intelligence about all the new stuff over the next weeks.

As I returned to the maintainer website, I saw, that many posts have vanished due to a technical problem – I will have to repost all of my inspections. Due to this, I will proofread them once again, and try to adapt to the new style the maintainers seem to use since some time.

Work in Afelahn has been stopped while I was ill, but Shane Kennett told me they are ready to resume as soon as I want them to. Great!

Tags: Afelahn, cavern, D´ni, Forberg, guild of maintainers, inspection, Shane Kennett
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Nifehren research

Posted by Rabenschwinge - Monday, December 6th, 2010

The last two weeks were really busy. Despite the newly recruited staff, we have a lot more work than we actually can handle at a time, so we concentrate on the most promising tasks.

One of my favorite works was the research on Nifehrens archives. I learned a lot about the fauna and flora of that barren, frozen wasteland. Dr. Shingler, our zoologist, and his assistant Jessie found information about a creature the D’ni called “Rehnuradoy”, a strange animal, roughly similar to a small reptile, with body fluids, that act as non-freeze liquids. This is a trait that it shares with a lot of other lifeforms of the age, but in its case the fluids are so potent, that it can live even in the harshest, coldest places of Nifehren. It is approximately a half foot long and nourishes on lichens. The most apparent feature of the creature are its “eye stripes” – instead of eyes like we know them from earth, they have two, deep blue stripes, from their heads to their hind feet, that are photosensitive, and with which they can see, even in the dark, cold Nifehren nights.

I also started to help out the new maintainers, with doing inspections on explorer written ages and restored areas. It is something I had wanted to do since a long time, and finally, after reading a call in their forums (Link: http://www.guildofmaintainers.org), I decided to do something.

Respondences were really positive, which is really motivating for me, and I´m planning to do at least one inspection for each age and area that is available right now. I won´t post any of them here in my blog – unless the writers want me to. Some of the ages are not yet opened for the public, and I clearly will respect the wishes of the ages writers.

Tags: age, Dr. Erik Shingler, D´ni, Jessie Teneyck, maintainer, Nifehrehn, Rehnuradoy, shafee, writer
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High expectations

Posted by Rabenschwinge - Monday, November 22nd, 2010

As I wrote on my last entry, I had the honorable task of introducing the “newbies” to the expedition. B.P. had talked of a dozen people – in fact, there were more than twenty who came to Zandis property, up there in New Mexico. We let them sign a NDA (just to be on the safer side) and then introduced them. Alex was with me, which was greatly relieving for me. I´m not comfortable with speaking to a large group all by myself.

There were some interesting people there – scientists, students, explorers, interns…
We gave them a tour through some major parts of D’ni – Ae’Gura, Great Tree Pub, some hoods… and then led them to Risoahl (which is quite tidied up now.)

It was entertaining to watch how they reacted to all that stuff… I can very well remember how it was for me, linking for the first time, standing there, watching in awe about all those wonders…

B.P. took over after that, and explained to them, what kind of help we need, what tasks there are to do, and so on.

So, after this, our staff has increased greatly – and the work on the new ages and areas we found can finally begin!

The other day, in our spare time, Tom Woods, Shane Kennett and myself visited an old maintainer facility in one of the outlying districts. It was in good shape, and there was plenty of interesting equipment there. The most interesting parts were the maintainer suits. Not only the newest ones, like in Gahreesen, but also some older models – some looking like a kind of insect, and some – the oldest ones – huge and bulky, and extremly tough looking. I guess, these would be suitable even for the harshest ages.

Shane said, he thought about using this maintainer outpost for the same purpose it was used back then, by the D’ni – as a starting point for expeditions to new ages. With all the new areas, we could make good use of all that equipment.

Tags: Ae´Gura, age, Alex, B.P., D´ni, Gahreesen, Great Tree Pub, hood, Jeff Zandi, maintainer, maintainer suit, New Mexico, Risoahl, Shane Kennett, Tom Woods
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Forecast: stormy, with heavy rains

Posted by Rabenschwinge - Friday, November 19th, 2010

So, what we feared to happen, happened to happen. (Sorry for the pun.)

In Ahnoto, a huge storm flushed away not only our boat, but also the buoy at the linking spot. Both anchor ropes were riven – we didn´t watch the storm, but it must have been enormous.

I talked to Shane Kennett and B.P., and they agree, that at the moment no one should visit Ahnoto – we have no means of forecasting the weather in Ahnoto by now, and it would be too dangerous to link into the middle of a lake while a hurricane (or something like that) is raging there.

In Afelahn, we carved two more rooms into the rock. A medium sized one, which will become Lab I, and a small one, which will become the “entry room”, where the link in spot will be.

I already started to write a linking book to that place, so that visitors will be able to come to Afelahn in a convenient way.

Shane told me, they had found more D’ni engineering equipment in one of Ri’tehrafs ages, including machines, that generate furniture out of stone.
It works like a printer – you enter the plans of what you want to design, and the machines does it for you. It is able to cast, but also to cut stone into the desired mold.

That will make many things so much easier! I think, I will get to do some interior decoration

In Resehren, some of Ri’tehrafs journals have been translated. It seems, that he was neither mad nor scientist – he did some chemical research on ages given to him by other guilds, but more of an engineering , than of a scientific kind. So he didn´t steal any of the linking books either – I´m sorry to have suspected you, Ri’tehraf!

B.P. told me, he managed to hire another dozen guys for all the work in the new ages and areas we have found – they will arrive this weekend. He asked me to introduce them to the expedition, tell them a little about D’ni, the expedition and so on. Gosh, why me? I´m not fond of giving speeches in public! (I hope I won´t stutter too much.)

Tags: Afelahn, age, Ahnoto, B.P., D´ni, guilds, linking book, Resehren, Ri'tehraf, Shane Kennett
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Work, work, work…

Posted by Rabenschwinge - Tuesday, November 16th, 2010

The last days we were really busy. First, we carved out two more rooms in Afelahn – everything is going as planned, and I´m happy to see the advancements. These rooms will be a storage room, and lab II, (lab I has yet to be done) when my “home base” will be ready.

With the help of my toosha, Tubby, we brought a heavy metal door to the age. Tom Woods, Shane Kennett and a bunch of guys with muscles managed to build it into the opening between the “garage” and the cave, so that the inner area is now secured against at least the strongest wind.

Shane told me, he would insulate the rooms when they are ready and that he had found a sprayer with some kind of D’ni material (stone?) that had been used by them for that purpose.

In Ahnoto, we have anchored a boat – a bigger, wooden one, not an inflatable – at the link in spot. It will stay there for the moment, so that we can bring material there, when we have time for that.

B.P. updated us about the Resehren books at the last meeting. They´ve found 23 of them. Unfortunately, four of them ceased to work, out of unknown reasons – maybe the descriptive books have been destroyed.
The other ones link to different ages and locations – 9 ages and 7 city locations altogether (some of the books link to the same places as others).
At the moment, we don´t have the personnel, nor the time to explore this new places, though we really would love to.
B.P. hinted, that he is actually trying to recruit more people for the expedition.

Tags: Afelahn, age, Ahnoto, B.P., descriptive book, D´ni, link in spot, linking book, Resehren, Shane Kennett, Tom Woods, Toosha, Tubby
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Discoveries

Posted by Rabenschwinge - Monday, November 8th, 2010

The last few days have been very exciting. A small group of explorers from the expedition, led by B.P. himself, visited a new age they had found some weeks ago – a private age named Resehren of a guy named Ri’tehraf – and did some research on the equipment there. It seems, like Ri’tehraf was a member of the guild of chemists and did a lot of strange experiments in his age (I´m imagining some kind of “mad scientist” type of character).

At first, it seemed like that was it – interesting enough – but then they discovered a secret door, leading to a hallway, leading to a room with shelves full of books – linking books! No descriptive books, as it seems, but a big number of linking books. B.P. says, they counted at least 20 books of different ages.
Nobody knows, how Ri’tehraf was able to keep such a big number of books, when even the richest D’ni didn´t – the most likely theory is that he had stolen them.

Anyway – it will be difficult to research such a huge number of ages with a rather limited staff. Most of the expeditions members are already working on the ages we have access to yet, and so the new ones will have to wait for some time (although many of us can´t wait to visit them.)

Tags: age, B.P., D´ni, explorer, guild of chemists, linking book, Resehren, Ri'tehraf
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