Beneath

Spent a lot of time up on the surface lately, previous to my departure I had a crazy few weeks that left me feeling burnt out and disillusioned with what we were doing.

I have spent time enjoying the weather, spending time with my family. All the while trying to push past how I feel, trying to find that spark again that drives me, it has been, difficult. Even more so when those I talk to for support feel the same way themselves, it’s easy to be drawn in and settle in that rut.

The other day I was stood out on the porch of our house on the phone to my parents in England, it was raining heavily and I felt the urge to return to Fahets. I had left on the eve of heading out into the Age further and exploring new areas for people to one day walk along, I had left my studies on the Age abandoned and I thought is this a healthy mentality to have, countless Ages to explore and are we to throw them aside when we grow bored of them?

So today I decided to head back down into the cavern, my previous notions about venturing out of the shadows to meet people had reversed, I now find comfort in the dark recesses of the cavern.
I decided to take a walk through one of the hoods, gaze out over the stretch of orange lake try and find that feeling I had when I first came down here, a feeling that has eluded me for years and continues to do so.
But I wasn’t as alone as I thought, as I walked towards the fountain area I spied a solitary Bahro staring at me, watching.
I walked up to him/her and it didn’t flee, just stood there chittering slightly, as I walked around him/her he/she moved around to face me. We stood there for several minutes in each others company, with I not saying a word (despite my desires to be able to actually communicate with them) before the Bahro vanished from view and I returned to Sul to turn in for the night.

Our previous expedition into the City had proved fruitless in regards to finding some Ink and Books to bolster our failing supply.

As a result I’ve decided to head back up with Sophie and search some other areas of the city to see if we can find anything.

I’m worried there may not be anything left after being plundered by Gehn and other explorers. At this point I’m thinking we need to look to the lake and the private islands there, although I don’t think we’ll find any in K’veer.

I’m just waiting for Sophie to meet me here at the Ferry Terminal before we head up.

I recieved a whole pile of books today. 1 Linking Book, the others were “Words”, a set of books writing by a D’ni Seer called The Watcher. I have read about him in the various DRC journals on the D’ni Kings, he wrote a series of books which more or less amounted to a series of prophecies.

I’ve spent the morning reading over them, pretty interesting.

The Linking Book lead to a new location, a round hall like room with an imager in the center, upon the imager is a symbol I have seen in James’ journal, it is the same symbol I know I have seen before..

Of course!

The Cleft!

The hologram of Yeesha forms the symbol during her speech, I can’t believe it took me until now to figure that out.

I must be loosing my edge.

A stair well leads up to a balcony above.

The canvas sheets over the various doorways indicate that the DRC have been here.

I don’t believe it! The Great Tree! I’ve seen photos of this place, have waited to explore this area and now I am here, now if I can just figure out how to get there.

Given the Great Tree, and the fact that there is one of Sharpers Great Tree jackets here, it’s pretty safe to assume this is the Great Tree Pub he was after.

I was right, DRC have one of their notebooks here, one of Simpson’s research books. This place was built long ago for The Watcher apparently. Kadish took ownership of it, started restructuring the place, believed he was the “Grower” that The Watcher spoke of.

Apparently this place is in the J’taeri district of D’ni.

Inside the alcove with the notebook is a couple of Linking Books, will check those out in a bit, first I want to explore the second level.

Balcony is straightforward, there is an alcove that leads to another room, within this room the walls are engraved with strange markings, almost like calibration settings. The one wall shows an odd looking clock, next to it a small metal plate is set in the ground under a lamp. There is a ramp that curves up and around leading to a giant metal sphere engraved with the symbol of The Watcher.

I assume this is the puzzle game Simpson mentioned. I think I’ll take a look at those Linking Books.

The one to the right of the notebook lead me to an enclosed building, lined with metal and familiar stained glass windows that are also in the Kadish Gallery. At the other end of the corridor like building was another Linking book which lead me to an Age I had seen long ago before the cavern opened from some DRC documentation I stumbled upon but wasn’t supposed to see, this Age was Ahnonay.

Strange Age, filled with funny little crab creatures running around, they seem to run from me when I approach them. I have discovered some Journey Cloths, except unlike the ones which have the spiral hand symbol on them, these have the shell symbol upon them.

There is an island I need to get to, looks like I’m gonna have to swim, maybe a change of clothes would be wise.

More and more explorers have been sneaking back down into the Cavern, one of them, Max, has deemed the group D’ni Raiders. They are organizing themselves, sending out “Raider Reports” to interested parties.

Up until now we (The Third Path) have been watching from the shadows, keeping ourselves to ourselves, but this D’ni Raider concept interests me and so I have joined up with them.

If this group continues to grow perhaps we’ll have a population down here again, one can hope at least, sometimes the quiet in the cavern is unnerving.

But until then, D’ni Raiders we are.