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November « 2010 « Rabenschwinges Cavern blog

Archive for November, 2010

High expectations

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.

Forecast: stormy, with heavy rains

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.)

Work, work, work…

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.

Discoveries

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.)

Breakthrough

We did a lot of work on Afelahn during the last days. With the help of a Toosha (I´m calling him “Tubby”) we managed to link a medium excavator into Afelahn and started to excavate (surprise, surprise) first a rectangular opening which will become a door – I´m planning to use a big, stable gate – and then a big, rectangular room, an entry room into my future home base so to speak. I think, I´ll call it “the garage”.

With the help of Tom Woods, I planned the overall layout of my home base – complete with an office, labors, storage rooms… and of course a “link in room” for visitors comfort.

I don´t plan any recreational facilities yet – it will solely be a working space, maybe with presentation of my findings from various ages to give visitors an overview.

While we were working with the excavator, I saw the “lobsterpede” again (from “lobster” and “centipede”). It was as ugly as ever, and as dumb as ever: it hid under the same rock as last time.
Maybe it has a nest there?

I visited Tufolehn again, and took a boat with me this time. I couldn´t resist my curiosity – the second island is only a few meters away, and so I row there.
It surely was worth it. The second island is approximately double the size of the first, and there is much more to see: on the beach, beyond some medium sized rocks, there are some strange organisms growing on some smaller rocks, above the water line. They belong to different species – most of them are quite colorful. I don´t even know, if they are plants or animals (or something else(tm)), but I really like watching them. Between the motionless ones, there are some creatures creeping and slithering around – I guess, they could be some kind of sea cucumber or conches. Will have to ask Peter Chang.

I watched them for a while (from a safe distance, beyond the medium rocks) and decided to take some KI-shots (I tend to forget to do this, so I haven´t got a lot of them yet.)
Before I post them publicly, I want to do some research. (And let some other guys from the expedition do some research for me :) )