I plan on opening the age to the public in 2015, I know, I have announced this a few times already, but this time the age is in a state I can predict to be safe and interesting in only a couple of months, maybe even earlier.
I also will post KI-shots over the next weeks to show you how far the age has developed, and what you can expect to see.
My home base has come a long way. It started with a cavern in the rock, and now has grown to almost 20 rooms.
Looking forward to hear opinions on Afelahn soon!

By the way, the expedition also has almost regrown to its old numbers, most of our former members are back and already working again on various projects.
Yesterday, Shane Kennett, Carla Mastrelli and Keira Bracetty presented their plans of rebuilding at least part of old Asheten mansion, our former headquarters until its destruction in the year 2012.

The next big projects after Afelahn to restore to a level, where the ages can be visited by the general public, will be Ahnoto and Risoahl.

Stay tuned over the next months!

The council met immediately after the theft was detected. Teams searched the near vicinity of the mansion, but no clues were found.

This is really disturbing – until now, we hadn’t had any problems with other groups or individuals in D’ni. The list of suspects is long – from surviving D’ni over begrudging explorers to evil Bahro, everyone could have done it. Even our own expedition members could be involved.

For now, the council decided to improve security – cameras  around the mansion, and safer locks will be installed.

I’m thinking of increasing security in Afelahn as well.. at least take the linking book to a safer place. If the culprits are Bahro, of course everything we can do is in vain.

Nevertheless, there are positive news as well.

I’ve brought some samples from other ages to Afelahn, to finally start to work in my new home base, though it still isn’t complete yet.

I’d like to show you some of those samples on KI-shots:

The first image shows a “Star fruit” from Yagee Mohts. It is quite big – approximately the size of a medium pumpkin – and tastes sweet and sour. This one has been primed (right english word?) to last without rotting.

On the second shot you can see a crystal from Eder Kamonee. Do you remember our first, disastrous expedition to that age? If not, I recommend reading the old posts on this blog.

To give you a summary: The crystals of Eder Kamonee are very fragile and sensitive to vibrations – as we found out the hard way, when someone accidently hit one of them, and – well, you could say, hell broke loose on us. Luckily, most of us were only injured lightly, and the age as since been closed for anyone.

Some weeks ago, a small group of expedition members went there in medium maintainer suits, though, and took some samples. After sealing one of the crystals with some kind of artificial wax (forgot, how they called it), Tom Woods gave me this sample for my studies in Afelahn. The wax keeps the crystal from imploding or hurting anyone.

On the third picture you can see a vase we found in one of D’nis lower districts, in a devastated pottery shop. It was one of the only undamaged pieces – not interesting scientifically, but a nice example of D’ni craftsmanship. So I took it to Afelahn and put it into my lab.

Oh, by the way – I nearly forgot to mention the earthquake in Dasharen.

I wasn’t there when it struck, but Alex was. She told us, that it scared them quite a lot, and that one of the hallways broke down, fortunately without injuring anyone. It wasn’t a major quake, but still did some damage.

Keira Bracetty and her team will try to secure the structure in case of more quakes.

B.P. suggested bringing one or two seismographs to the age so we can record the frequency and intensity of future quakes. Might help us to understand the geological status of Dasharen better.