Beneath - An Uru Explorers Journey Through D'ni and its Ages

A gentle breeze greeted me, a slight shock from the heat of Eder Gira and as such I found myself distinctly chilly.

But I was finally here, Eder Kemo, an Age I had been studying for some time since news of it first surfaced within the “explorer community”. I had come to believe that I had actually mapped out the entire Age based solely from the photographs of the Age I had seen, this map was in 3 sections and all that was needed was a clue on how it fitted together.

The rocky bridge lead across a pond below and to a slight corridor between the walls of the rock valley in which the Age sat. Eventually it opened up to what I had deemed Area One. A pleasant grassy area with long thin trees with pancake like foliage, smooth pebble like rocks and what looked like bamboo. The dirt path I stood upon lead down to a stone path which curved to the left out of view, straight forward to the infamous door and then to the right where it arched around the area, passing the gazebo before reaching some steps that lead to the fountain.

The fountain was a place of interest for me, but it would have to wait for a minute, as I was now able to take a look at the door that Phil Henderson had vanished through.

It bore the same spiral hand symbol that I had seen in many places now, pressing this symbol revealed nothing, but that did not surprise me. In fact I am starting to form an idea on how to open it, if it is anything like the similar door back at The Cleft, then I shall probably need to hunt down the cloths I found on the Age, but I could only find 4 cloths, and The Cleft had 7.

Heading to the door revealed more of the pictographs that the Age was littered with, it also revealed to me how Areas One and Three were linked (or Area Two as I have now correctly labeled it).

I decided to inspect the glyphs at the fountain area next, these were the ones that held interest to me more than the others currently. They seemed to depict other Ages, indeed I am pretty sure one of the Ages is Kadish Tolesa and another looks like Teledahn, but I’m not sure what they are trying to say, or who the strange figures are in them.

I spent the rest of the day chronicling the gyphs, both drawing them in my journal and taking KI images of them, along with details of their locations within the Age.

I think these have the potential to tell us a lot, my only question is, who drew them?

When I get some time I really need to set up a more comfortable spot to sleep on.

I spent a lot of time in Ae’gura yesterday, conversing with a fair few explorers down at the Ferry Terminal, not many other places to gather currently. The vast stairwell (The Great Stairs as it is known) is blocked off at the top, barring access from the Tokotah Courtyard. Half way up the Great Stairs is a damaged portion of wall that leads to a corridor, within is a blocked area which is curtained off currently, I was planning on darting under the curtain and checking it out but someone approached the area so I left, I’ll explore it later.

Growing tired I retired to Relto to once again sleep on the floor with only my backpack as a pillow.

I slept late, the constant dark of the cavern and quickly moving to an Age at the peak of its day is jarring, like a really bad case of jet lag. I think it will take some time to settle into this new pace of life.

This fact was made worse when I decided to spend today on Eder Gira.

The heat hit me right away, a vent near by spewed steam into the the evening air. In the purplish sky I could see that the Age had twin moons.

The cracked earth gave way to a different substance of rock, and from the looks of it I’d venture a guess to say it was caused by a lava flow, indeed this theory was enforced as I reached the edge of the cliff I was standing upon and looked down to see a lava flow.

Several pipes lead up towards a structure high up on the cliff wall, it seems to be siphoning the thermal energy from the Age, but for what use I am unsure of.

The Age has rudimentary plantlife, some thorny vines, and scrub grasses as well as some plants with a large leaf to them, there are also large bell shaped plants which I must admit I had failed to notice at first due to their similar colouring to the surrounding rock.

The lower level was blocked by rockfall, but continuing past it opened out onto a wonderful view. A small lake fed by waterfalls tumbling over the rocks, jutting from the water was bones of some huge creature. The best part to all this were the strange manta ray like fish which swam in the waters, these fish apparently had some kind of bioluminescence to them which allows for parts of their body to glow a blueish purple colour.

Behind the waterfall there is a relatively large cave, inside seems to be some wooden basket like items, not sure what the use for these are yet, but I have some ideas what I could use them for. It appears the cave reaches back and ventures further into the rock, despite the two geothermic lighting systems I found and activated the way appears to still be a little two dark, I shall require alternate lighting before exploring into it more.

However, not one of these marvels held my interest as much as the strange tablet I found sitting on one of the bone fragments. A strange item constructed of whiteish pink rock, upon it was a burlap fabric extremely similar to the “Journey Cloths” I had seen in the Cleft. Upon the cloth, to my surprise was a Linking panel, unfortunately I couldn’t quite make out where it Linked to.

Across a stream leading from the pool of water was a small structure of stone and wood, upon it seemed to be another Linking Book.

As it turns out it was, and it was just the Book I had been looking for, the Eder Kemo Book.

Awoke with my muscles feeling stiff from lying on the hut floor to sleep.

First order of business was to find a Gahreesen Book and get a KI. I took a closer look at the hydrants I had first spotted during my visit back in August. What I had failed to noticed before was that on the tops of the hydrants were symbols which indicated which Age Book was contained within.

Opening up the one with the Guild of Maintainers symbol on revealed the Gahreesen Book. I opened the other 3 hydrants to discover Books for Teledahn, Kadish Tolesa and Eder Gira.

I placed them on the shelves in my hut, and in doing so noticed 2 other Books I had failed to notice in my fatigue yesterday. One was on the shelf I had placed the other Books on, it was blue with gold trim on the spine, flicking through showed an area that looked like one of the D’ni Neighbourhoods.

The other book was a kind of journal left by Yeesha I’m guessing (her symbol was on the cover), which contained various verses regarding the Ages in my possession (as well as Eder Kemo which I have yet to locate).

Teledahn

The truth of a man is found in the
darkness, beneath the surface. Some
light might reveal only what some
men want to be seen.

Sayings of Regeltavok of Oorpah -
Book 9, Entry 221, Item 29

Gahreesen

The laws contrived by the proud are
their security and their undoing. Such
laws make disobedience a virtue, and
obedience a sin.

Sayings of Regeltavok of Oorpah -
Book 12, Entry 32, Item 134

Kadish Tolesa

Only the way a man is when he is
hidden, is how he is. A shallow glimpse
can deceive. Look deep, ponder, and
recognize all that is hidden.

Sayings of Regeltavok of Oorpah -
Book 9, Entry 221, Item 77

Eder Kemo and Eder Gira

When all is taken from one, the only
hope that remains is what is given by
another. Through this giving, both are
redeemed.

Sayings of Regeltavok of Oorpah -
Book 2, Entry 1,071, Item 54

Not quite sure what those refer to within those Ages yet.

I decided to remove some of the weight in my bag by putting my spare clothes in the wardrobe before heading to Gahreesen to get my KI.

The dispenser was slightly alarming, you place your hand inside the device, and the mechanism places a KI around your hand, I was half worried it was going to take my hand off.

After returning to Relto, I used the “Neighbourhood” Book. I arrived in a familiar location, a place I had seen many photos of before I ventured down here. I wandered around to find the “hood” empty of people, a couple of Books were located however, one was most interesting, it sat on a pedestal which had a slot on the side which had a symbol on it that looked like the one found on the KI dispenser.

The Book took me to a small room with moving cogs, the Nexus. A hub which contains a great many books that can be accessed via a user interface which links with the KI. A quick browse through the interface showed that there were a selection of “hoods” that could be visited, as well as Gahreesen and the Ferry Terminal in Ae’gura.

The lure of D’ni was to strong, I decided to put Yeesha’s “journey” on hold whilst I visited the D’ni city.

It is not what I expected, not at all. I believe it’s the architecture, I was expecting something more classical, more like Rome, but the Arch, it is so huge, what a sight to behold!

The DRC have barriers up all over the place, blocking entrance off to those who aren’t DRC. I ran into a group of explorers near a “Nexus Point” so I stopped and chatted to them for a while, there were a few familiar faces I knew from the surface.

My visit in August was very solitary, aside from my guide. Meeting fellow explorers in the city was definitely an experience, it was nice to just chew the fat, discuss D’ni society etc.

I still have so much to see.

[note:] DRC released a KI user manual, obtain a copy of it later.

I have no idea how long that message had been sitting in my inbox. The message was from Jeff Zandi, despite the wishes of the DRC he was giving me the means to reach The Cleft.

Despite it being late August, the temperature was extremely hot, thankfully I had packed plenty of water, I was not used to American weather. I had been walking a while, eventually I started recognizing the landscape from my previous visit, and as if to signal that I was on the right track, on the horizon I could see the volcano.

I had spied the volcano even before I had noticed the fence that surrounded Zandi’s land. As I walked over to the infamous Airstream trailer I was surprised to find Jeff himself waiting for me outside.

Surprisingly he had little to say to me, he mentioned a message waiting for me from “her”. After I finally got the windmill working and power running in The Cleft, I discovered “her” message.

Shorah. Rekooahn treCleft preniv legloen b’rem… Oh yes, not in D’ni, they won’t understand.

Once again, the stream in the Cleft has begun to flow. It was dry for so long. The water is flowing in from the desert. The storm is coming.

Have you heard of the City? The deep City, the ancient Uru? Where there was power to write worlds? For thousands of years, the City lived; lived beneath the surface, keeper of the secret, keeper of the power, keeper of the Ages. Always keeping. The City grew proud, and then it died.

The water flows where it wills. It seeks its own path uncontrolled except that it flows downward, always downward.

D’ni, the City of Ages, of other worlds, died. But now it breathes again, it awaits. Some will seek that destination, but you should seek the Journey. It’s as a fine tapestry, complex beyond comprehension, but now torn. We will show you remnants; pieces of the tapestry. Pieces of the Journey. Find the remnants, these Journeys. Seven. Seven in each Age, seven here in the desert. Consider it a quest. No, a request.

Worship.

The water flows downward, and there it pools and collects, and finally, it reaches the roots. And the tree begins to grow again.

I am Yeesha. My parents brought me to this place. We will bring you.

There is much to study here, there is a document seemingly penned by Atrus’ own hand to Yeesha, his daughter. I shall have to return here with the means to copy the document for future referencing I think.

My search for the cloths took me back up into the heat, as I headed back over to Jeff to see if he had any thoughts on the message, as I did so I discovered another one of the cloths on the back of his Airstream. Despite his lack of words he was most helpful in pointing the way at times. My hunt for the cloths lead me to discover some interesting artifacts strewn about the area. My first discovered was sheets of metal, half buried in the desert floor, they encircled a larger object which I recognized from Catherine’s journals as the telescope from Riven. Across the way I could spy some large bones, upon which was another cloth. Then bones as it turns out (from looking at the formation of the skull and tusks) is that of a Wahrk, which leads me to wonder what other relics from that infamous Age has fallen through to Earth to be left here gathering in the dirt unloved, if I had my way I’d be carting them off to somewhere safe.

Is this the location where the fissure lead too after the collapse of Riven?

Incredible, it seems that the seven cloths allow for the doorway under the tree in The Cleft to be opened. Opening it revealed a tunnel that lead to a cave. All around me I could hear strange chittering noises that I found unnerving coming out from the dark recesses of the cave. Upon the walls were strange pictoglyphs of symbols with D’ni lettering, a figure and spirals, all of which gave off a blue light when passed.

The path through the tunnels lead to a podium of rock, upon which was a small book which I had seen before, a Relto Book, my Relto Book.

It’s been a long day, the cave is nice and cool but I need to find a place to rest. I will chronicle the pictographs when I return here, but for now I shall Link to Relto and see if I can rest there.