Transmissions from an Explorer

Hey! Is anyone... anyone getting this? Stupid- malfunctioning piece of...

...can't make it work right, but I saw the notes on...forums, hear everyone's coming...

...stupid KI, leave it alone for two years and it.... technology would be slightly more durable, yeah?

...hopping a plane next chance I get, gonna see if this is for real...

...part of me thinks its just... pipe dream again but I gotta make sure...

...admit it but I missed this...

*fzt*

It's been a while since I've written here. Been in the Cavern a lot since, of course, but... it seems somewhat of a shame to have this be the first entry in a while, but... I have to write. I have to get this out on paper. Out of my head. Somehow.

Wheely Engberg and her friend Rosette are dead. I'm sure you all know this. I'm shocked. We're all shocked, I think.

And I tried - we tried. I ran marker missions around the city on Sunday to try and strengthen the Great Zero to help Laxman. Once we found out there was a Bahro in there with her, I went to the Bahro cave via Eder Kemo and sat in there for a good hour, speaking aloud, trying to speak with, to understand, the creature whom I had freed.

I'm not sure if that even works. But I tried.

Yesterday, before the... event... Leonor and I combed Eder Kemo looking for any occurrence of the glyph Nick White had found in Negilahn, and that the DRC had found on the second floor of the building where Wheely was trapped. Then I went back into the Bahro cave.

I sat there in the flickering light, with a relay from Ae'gura via hood chat, screaming my lungs out, pleading desperately - with the Bahro, Yeesha, Yahvo, anything that would listen.

Nothing.

My throat is so sore today.

What happened? What's going to happen to us, to the Restoration?

My dearest, most desperate condolences to Michael Engberg, to Rosette's family, to all who knew them, to the DRC... and now, I don't know what to do. Two girls are dead. Douglas Sharper is late reporting in from Negilahn. What's going to happen?

Whatever this is, be it Bahro or something else, it's got me scared. I just... can't go to Ae'gura right now. Tried, had the book open, but my hands shook. Closed it after a moment.

I'm going topside for some food and a nap in my apartment; spent all night in Relto. Didn't really sleep. Topside, the Cavern seems a little less real. I... need that right now.

And then once I've slept, eaten, regrouped, maybe taken a long soak in the hot pools in Eder Gira, I'm going back in. This will not drive me from D'ni! I'm scared, but there has to be something - some clue, some key, something that we can do. Whatever has done this will NOT get away with it. There will be - no, not vengeance. Justice.

Rest in peace, Wheely and Rosette.

Oh, sweet Relto!

... Alright, fine, so I haven't used my Relto book yet, because I have a lot of things I should catch up on surface-wise first, but I'm finally back in New Mexico.

So what did I miss? Anyone care to clue me in? I hear from the KI messages that Negilahn is up (nnng... you have no idea what self control I'm exerting right now to be Responsible and Take Care Of Surface Things First...) but as for the in-cavern scuttlebutt, I'm in the dark.

Ah, it's good to be back. Will be good to be back.

Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to be in the Cavern until March 3rd or 4th - I'm visiting family and... well. They don't really know the truth of D'ni and I'm not sure how they'd react if they did, so I decided to force myself to be good by leaving my Relto book at home to avoid temptation. Still, I hope I can maintain some form of internet access so I can keep track of Cavern happenings on the explorer forums!

By the way, one last note on the vigil event: ireenquench posted a really good description of the events on the DRC forums, here!

At least before I left yesterday (I'm topside right now) I was able to see Dr. Kodama in sil_oh_wet's Bevin. He lingered by the imager for a while... looking a the pictures of Yeesha, maybe? I'm really curious to see what the DRC thinks of all this, if they research it and what they find if they do... I've seen some people wondering if the image we saw was truly caused by Yeesha. Honestly, it could go either way. It could be her, it could be someone trying to fool us... there's no evidence to support either claim more strongly than the other right now. Both are interesting possibilities.

Sigh. I really wish I had my Relto book. It feels strange now to be without it, I'm so used to having it with me all the time while exploring. I just hope I haven't slowed my reflexes to things or something - I'd hate to automatically think "hey, I can jump that, and if not, Relto!" before doing something stupid, and ending up in deep trouble as a result. Pfft, I can almost see that happening. I'll have to make sure to be extra careful... Cavern instincts die hard.

Wow. Just... wow! I'm completely blown away by the events of today.

As some of you reading this may know, I've been working on organizing an event to get in touch with Yeesha in the Cavern. Well, today was the day, in sil_oh_wet's Bevin from noon until 5pm Cavern time.

A huge group met in the 'hood - I was really surprised to find nearly 20 people already present when I linked in fifteen minutes before the scheduled start of our 'vigil', as it's now being called. That number only grew, and at one point I know we had 43 explorers in the 'hood. I'm not sure what our top population was, but there were never less than 15 explorers present at any one time.

We tried a lot of things to try and get Yeesha's attention! Many people came wearing their Journey shirts, myself included. One of the first things we did was to get into a spiral symbol - not the spiral hand of the first Journey, but the mark of the second Journey, the same symbol as in Eder Delin and Eder Tsogal. We started from the fountain, using the center as the dot-and-circle in the spiral, and moved out from there... here's a KI shot of the spiral at its height, though I'm not sure who took this image.


(You can barely see me in there - I'm the first person by the fountain's center, behind ireenquench in the blue hair and black shirt.)

We also discussed questions we might ask Yeesha were she in fact to appear, and did other things like filk songs and write lame poetry. ;) ireenquench tried talking back to the Bahro of the Cavern. A group went to the Egg Room to meditate. We all tried several rounds of calling Yeesha's name combined with beckoning motions, and even did waves of movement like leaning to one side and cheering that swept down our human spiral. At one point, DRC translator Nick White dropped in, and he teased us a bit but was overall quite friendly.

About halfway through the vigil, we found out that it had begun to snow in Eder Delin, and that the Age now has snow on the ground with more falling gently. Still, many of us held our resolve and vowed to go to an after-vigil party in the Eder Delin instance 'belonging' to Amber Horizon's 'hood. At the end of the vigil time, we all cheered and celebrated a gathering well done - while nothing momentous happened, we'd all had a good time and enjoyed ourselves.

Shortly after people began leaving, three ResEngs linked in, apparently attracted by the bustle in the 'hood and the high population. But my feet were cold and very wet from standing in the fountain for hours... so I retreated to Relto to change into fresh (and warmer!) clothes and headed off to Eder Delin.

It was while romping merrily around Eder Delin (which is beautiful in the snow, by the way - exquisitely so!) with other explorers, mostly those who had come from the vigil, that I recieved an astonishing KI-message from Azador - saying that Yeesha had been sighted in sil_oh_wet's Bevin!! At first I didn't believe it... but a KI-mail picture was on the way that proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt...



Our calling had worked!

It seemed unbelievable, but those still present in the 'hood reported that Yeesha, or a hologram representation of her, had appeared in a series of odd circumstances - not wearing a KI as their KIs did not detect her, but she appeared briefly at the link-in point before vanishing. A cloud of static then moved around the 'hood for a few minutes before Yeesha appeared on the fountain top - precisely in the center of the human spiral from the vigil! She did not speak and remained there for only a short time before vanishing once more...

I, of course, promptly freaked out and started shaking, my hands trembling so from excitement that I could not remember how to operate my KI and send the proof image to Thend, Vortmax and ireenquench, who were also in Delin with me (among others). I eventually made it back to sil_oh_wet's Bevin, where a startled crowd including many who had actually seen Yeesha's appearance were discussing the events of the day.

I do not know what this means, only that our call was heard... I am sure that there will be more to follow in the days to come as the explorers discuss this occurance. Perhaps this is a small snowball that will become an avalanche of change in the Cavern - and it's something that we, the explorers did. Not through conflict, but through a concerted effort of cooperation.

I'm still boggled, frankly, and deeply honored that my small idea gained not only support, but an actual response! I counted the vigil a major success before Yeesha even appeared, just because we had such a good time. To actually get a glimpse of Yeesha - incredible. Amazing.

It kills me that I'm going to have to be out of the Cavern - surface trip, and heading back to Relto at any point would be bad news, as I'm trying to keep the more 'mumbo-jumbo' parts of this, hem, archeological excavation out of sight of my family - for the next week or so. But I think we as explorers saw and did something very important today, and I'm excited as to where this may take us.

Shorah!

So today was the 'sit-in' in Ae'gura to try and speak with Cate, and it did not seem to go well... as I am neutral on this particular issue of Cavern politics, I did not attend the sit-in itself but did come to A Beginner's Bevin after it was over to find out what happened. Tweek got a log of all the KI chatter, and it can be found here.

While as I said I'm neutral in this case, I do think what happened highlights some crucial issues in the explorer community, and it does make me disappointed in Cate herself... another reason why, while I don't oppose her, she makes me uncomfortable.

I think the best bet would be to form another town-hall like situation, in a private neighborhood if necessary, because it seems impossible to have a reasoned discussion in public without mass chaos. Not something exclusive to the 'protesting' explorers either - something that respectful members of all groups can attend, with the key being respectful. Not agreeing with each other, but capable of holding an ordered and calm dialogue. The situation in Ae'gura was pandemonium because of that and it did not reflect well on ANY explorers, regardless of their standing or affiliation.

Isn't clear communication and respect something all explorers can get behind?

Today Piper and I did some brief exploration... she pinged me the instant I turned on my KI with "Wait, Gahreesen was a PRISON?" and we went from there!

After explaining a bit about Gahreesen, as she hasn't explored the Age - she was working on Teledahn and found the Bahro stone to the prisons, you see - we met up in Teledahn. She was nearly done with the Age, but there was still stuff to do together. We stomped on the metal bridge to collapse it down in order to connect the loop - no more flailing around the creepy prison. We also looked for Shroomie but didn't see her anywhere... fine by me as Shroomie kind of creeps me out, but it would have been nice for Piper to see her. It's not as bad when Piper's there anyway, not quite as twitch-inducing.

I stood a safe distance away from the rocks when Piper shot them down with the air gun, and it was interesting to see the process from somewhere other than behind the gun scope. After completing the Age, we met up in Piper's neighborhood, where I taught her the basics of 'heek. Yay for 'heek!

I had to go back up to the surface then, but Piper visited the Great Zero for the first time and did some marker hunting, I'm told. So a short evening of exploring, but that's okay.

Of note is that I got greetings from other people while exploring, via the KI. At last I'm developing a small social network in the Cavern, mainly of people I met while working on Eder Delin's door, and it's really nice - feels much more homey and less alone that way! I'm hoping we can all reconvene for any puzzles or Ages requiring multiple people in the future.

Ugh. The surface world chewed me up and spit me up today - so after it let me go, I linked to Relto as fast as I possibly could and stood on the dock watching the butterflies and fireflies dance together, taking deep, deep breaths before heading to the bookshelf.

I chose Eder Gira on a whim, and linked into a gorgeous pink sunset, the stars thick and bright overhead. The very sight was calming, and I stood for a while on the top of the jungle-drop waterfall just watching the slowly shifting colors between the distant spires.

I walked around the Age a bit, trying different vantage points to best view the sky, but finally ended up back by the waterfalls, climbing up to the second level and resting there. The water was warm and soothing, and I eventually changed into something more suitable for swimming and settling back with the waterfall pounding my back, watching the sky and the stars, listening to the waterfall and the distant chirp of those cricket-like creatures.

It was incredibly peaceful, and once I had relaxed and the waterfall had beaten the tension out of my shoulders, I fell asleep in one of the caves. Just a little nap.

I woke up to full night, the rays glowing in the dark, and took in the beautiful sight of Gira's two moons high in the sky before linking back to Relto to change. A quick splash in my Relto pool to clean off properly, a change of clothes and a sandwich eaten on the spiral island later, I was more than ready to join Piper in Kadish Tolesa.

It was one of the finest evenings I've had in D'ni in a long time. So soothing, so full of peace. Anyone who says Gira isn't really a rest age is full of it, I think.



Oh, our explorations in Kadish? They went beautifully. Piper's quick with puzzles, and she figured out the weights and the vault in no time. I explained to her about Kadish's fate, the translation of the letter, and attempted to explain what Yeesha had done in creating that alternate vault. In the end, we entered the Journey door together, even though we couldn't both go to the same place.

And this (as inspired by Whilyam) is what I love about the Cavern and D'ni.

Ah, Eder Delin - I got to visit the Age the day it was released, and I enjoyed it immensely. It's a small Age, but beautiful... very peaceful, with the birdsong and falling leaves. It's definitely my favorite of the garden Ages we have access to right now, although Gira's warm waterfalls are nice too.

Yesterday, I tried with a group of fellow explorers to solve the puzzle of Delin's unusual door, and the new spiral cloths. Though we struggled for two hours, we weren't able to do it, and reconvened today. We met in A Beginner's Bevin and used that hood's 'instance' of Eder Delin. And today we managed to get the door open!

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After that success, I returned to Eder Delin to try and help those of our group who hadn't made it through the door, but Sharaya had to go so a few of us headed out to A Beginner's Bevin to play ayoheek. It was my first time playing and I surprised myself by winning the first few games I tried - all with three beetles, too. Yay beetles! I played with barker57 and fchall first, as they had been part of our door crew, but fchall left later, and Maratanos came in, as well as a new explorer waiting for the ResEng orientation, Jacobo.

After a few more games I had to go - surface matters, bah, why don't they pay me to play Ayoheek in D'ni? - but it was a really nice afternoon of exploring. I made some new aquaintances among the explorers and had a great time, and I hope I can do it again some time!

Perhaps tonight I can get Piper in and we can explore together. Hmm...

Hm, I've been lax in my transcriptions. Been taking notes on my paper journal mostly, then forgetting to transcribe it into a digital format - procrastination strikes again! So this is going to be long, my apologies. Heh.

To sum up, briefly: Last week, Piper and I had an excellent evening one night exploring together. We'd intended to catch a ResEng lecture in the Beginner's Bevin, but unfortunately one never showed up. Perhaps he was out sick, or the DRC had a better use for a spare ResEng than lecturing to two explorers. Wouldn't blame 'em. So instead, we hopped neighborhoods until we got Piper the Islands page.

Afterwards, we tried to get to Ae'gura, but the Nexus wouldn't give us the book and the 'instancing' through the Kadish Gallery link brought us to two different empty cities. Very odd, and a bit creepy... but we kept in contact via the KI and it was okay. A little barrier-scrambling (don't tell the DRC) brought us to the Hall of Kings, and we spent a good chunk of time just reading through all the notebooks there. D'ni history really is interesting - very dramatic.

Still, the way they concentrate on not liking outsiders makes me a little sad. I don't think many D'ni would approve of humans swarming over their Cavern. Then again, the D'ni on Releeshan...

Excuse me a moment. I need to go have a "dude, it's all real" squealy moment again.

Anyway. Maybe the D'ni on Releeshan would feel differently. Atrus' influence and all that... and Yeesha clearly doesn't mind us. That'd be nice to know. But regardless, after reading the histories, the Cavern almost felt... oppressive to me, for a moment. Like something was staring at me, and telling me I didn't belong - but then a Bahro screamed, and broke it. Not sure how I feel about that.

Piper and I met up in Kadish Tolesa once we were done reading the books, and she worked on the first two puzzle-locks while I waited, giving hints when she asked. We got past the first set and the Moon Room, and got to enjoy the gorgeous vista before calling it a day.

So that was that epic day of exploring, one of the best I've had so far, easily.

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