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Afelahn « Rabenschwinges Cavern blog

Posts Tagged ‘Afelahn’

Afelahn research

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.

Success!

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.

Unpleasant trip …

Well, the trip to city proper didn´t go well. On my search for ink I stumbled into a house which was quite unstable… I didn´t see it coming, until a whole wall came down on me.

Fortunately I´m always wearing a hard hat when venturing into ruined districts… otherwise this could have ended badly for me. A big chunk of wall hit me on the head – it chopped a big scratch into my helmet. Another one touched on my arm, but only lightly.

I´m not hurt badly, except for a biiig headache… maybe I should see a doctor, just to be sure.

Besides from the headache, I brought nothing of value with me… the place is very much devastated. Not much left there.

After that I went to my Relto and once again examined the burnt linking book. From the looks of it, I more and more come to think it IS a descriptive book – so this age, Afelahn, is essentially defunct now. (or at least the link to it.)

I think, I´ll stay with the name for my own, very first written age – if all goes well, I´d like to set up a “base camp” or an office or something like that in the age … Relto is a nice place, but space is limited, and it can be quite cold sometimes, even with the fireplace activated.

But… without ink, I´m not even ready to start writing, which is really annoying right now.

If someone knows a place, where one can find ink, please let me know!

No ink yet … but something else

I still didn´t manage to get ink… the few houses of ink makers I found (only 2, in one of the higher districts) were empty, no signs of “relehm” there.

But I found another thing which will hopefully help me a lot learning the Art: a book of commentary, 200+ pages, all written in D´ni, of course. The age it belongs to I couldn´t find, though.

I´ll need the help of a really skilled translator now – any volunteers? No payment, but the warm feeling of having helped a promising young writer?

I´ll go for another “treasure hunt” today in the afternoon. If anyone looks for me, I´ll be in the city proper.

Dabbling in the Art

Ever since I heard the first explorers were able to learn how to use the Art, I´ve been eager to do so myself.

Now, after months of reading, learning, watching, I think, I´m ready to try and write my first age.

Last week I had ventured into one of the more devastated districts of the city proper. On this little expedition, I broke into… err, entered a house, that seems to once have belonged to a member of the original guild of writers. I searched the house for anything helpful, and actually found a pile of kortee´nea, blank books, waiting for someone to write into them!

The second discovery I made was the burnt remain of a linking book. On the cover, barely noticable, a D´ni word was written.

I managed to transcribe it, and it says “Afelahn”. I guess, this was the name of the age. The book has no maintainers stamp (at least, as far as I can tell, it really is badly burnt) and of course has ceased to work. If this is a descriptive book, then it seems to have been rejected by the maintainers… a failed work of the late owner of this house perhaps?

I´ve tinkered with the idea of using the name for my first age… would this be appropriate?