Beneath

Been busy setting everything up, decided to take a break and head into Ae’gura. Nexus is still down so I had to take an alternative route, using the Bahro Stone in Gira I arrived at the Tokotah Rooftop, I knew the DRC had an alternate way of getting down as there is a wooden ladder up there. Using the ladder to get to the adjacent building then used the rope I had packed to descend into the alleyway.

All very tedious, I think the Nexus and KI needs to be the first thing we get sorted, even if it only had the base functions for Ae’gura access.

For some reason the DRC decided to put the barriers back up, maybe they had anticipated people returning, not that it matters as the barriers failed to stop us from entering closed areas in the past, at least back then you had the chance of being caught by a DRC member, now of course the city is open to us.

The others arrived today, after meeting them on the surface we moved the supplies down to Tehren and started planning what we were going to do next.

I spent the day moving supplies down into the Tehren Neighbourhood and setting up a camp of sorts. It will serve as a central location for our activities. The others will be joining me soon, bringing with them the rest of the equipment we need for our stay.
The silence in the cavern is overbearing. For so long the cavern was a hive of activity filled with sounds of the DRC at work, of people running, talking, and laughing. Now all that I hear is the gentle pulsing of the fans and the occasional splashing of fish in the lake.
At first it was peaceful, it allowed me to think without distraction. But soon the silence became almost deafening, I took to talking to myself or to the treadfish in the lake just to hear some noise.

I did manage to make some progress however, I managed to regain access to the city. It was a tedious effort with the Nexus being down, I had to take the Bahro Stone in Eder Gira to the Tokotah II rooftop, use the DRC’s ladder to move to an adjacent building then climb down with rope. It will be nice when David arrives so he can take a look at the Nexus and see if we can get some sort of access going. Not to mention it would be nice to have someone to talk to.

This silence is playing with my mind. I keep hearing whispers echoing off of the rock and through the streets…I’m sure I can hear footsteps.

Shadows move…I don’t think I’m alone down here.

Is it really surprising? Why would I be the only one who found a way back? The pull of D’ni is strong in many of us of course others would seek to return. To find away, to make a home.

I shall have to keep a quiet eye on the neighbours and see who followed me back down to the cavern.

We knew this day was coming, it had been on the lips of both explorer and DRC member alike for weeks. The DRC’s finances have been running out and the incident at the Guild Hall with Phil Henderson was the final nail in the coffin. As everyone was frantically running around and saying their goodbyes and heading back to the surface, we were preparing to return. Utilizing the Tehren Neighbourhood as our base of operations we stockpiled resources and supplies.
When the DRC left everyone else went with them, us included. Whilst on the surface we picked up more supplies we would need over the coming months, food, water, and the like.

I often found a degree of arrogance surrounding the DRC. I understand that they have been in the cavern longer than us, especially Doctor Watson, but they seemed to have this attitude that they owned D’ni as a result. They closed the cavern and honestly believed they could keep people out, but they lost that ability long ago when Jeff Zandi opened the floodgates. You cannot control all the Linking Books, all the tunnels that lead to the cavern. We will find a way, we will make a home, and we will continue with our work in D’ni.

I returned to Relto with the supplies and proceeded to where we had hidden the Tehren Book. The Nexus is still functioning although at a reduced capacity, I will have to see if David can take a look at it and get it working as it was before the DRC left. The KI functions have also been reduced making communication currently impossible, we will have to look into an alternate solution to that if we can’t get them working again

It has been a busy week since the DRC opened the cavern to the public. For some reason the DRC closed the city up again prior to the opening. As a result the Neighbourhoods were the only public place open. The Neighbourhoods had the water turned off and the light garden lamps weren’t working, I am assuming they had rushed the restoration of these areas to ensure there were Neighbourhoods available for the influx of new people.

Members of the DRC started showing up and talking to explorers, prior to the opening they weren’t seen around in cavern, working behind the scenes instead. Michael Engberg visited one of the Neighbourhoods to chat to the explorers, his field is architecture and structural integrity of buildings within the cavern and it’s Ages. He advised people to stay away from the areas blocked off, claiming they were unsafe.
There were also reports that Rand Miller from CyanWorlds was in the cavern greeting the new explorers, alas I did not happen to bump into him which I would have liked greatly.

Whilst the DRC had closed off access to the city it seems they forgot to remove all the Nexus Books, an explorer discovered one in a Neighbourhood and took it to their Relto where they proceeded to start sharing it with everyone. Before long a large group of explorers had found their way into the city. A group was hanging out in the Kahlo Tavern when one explorer started lambasting the others for being there saying the location wasn’t safe they proceeded to report the gathering to the DRC. Engberg arrived and was livid, telling the explorers that they shouldn’t be there and they could get hurt. He eventually calmed down and apologized saying they wanted a clean safety record. He was then asked about Phil Henderson who had gone missing in Eder Kemo over a year ago which evidently made Engberg cry.
In his defense though, the Kahlo Pub is in poor condition, lots of damaged rock, missing section of ceiling, shattered floor, and so forth.

Douglas Sharper showed up a few times, he had lead the restoration efforts on Teledahn and is now in charge of restoring a bar somewhere in D’ni. He was seen in the Neighbourhoods where he was handing out some fleeces with a Great Tree symbol upon them. A lot of people believe these jackets are tied to the pub he is restoring.

Signals from Phil Henderson KI started registering in Eder Kemo, an explorer going by the name “Zardoz” bumped into him on Wednesday. I spent the last few days staying in Kemo, even sleeping there, in the hopes I would run into Phil but alas, he did not make another appearance.

Doctor Watson and Marie Sutherland also made an appearance with Doctor Watson holding a quiz of sorts and giving out T shirts to explorers who managed to ask him a question he did not know the answer to regarding D’ni and its Ages.

Today, despite the fact explorers discovered a Nexus Book and accessed the city, the DRC finally opened the city to everyone else who did not manage to get a copy of the Nexus Book for their Relto.

Today is the day!

The DRC have officially opened the D’ni cavern and people have been making their way down. A new group of some five hundred explorers arrived today to join those explorers already here.
I’m looking forward to seeing the population increase, if we can get the city restored and have people living down here in the future…

Time to head to the city and meet the new explorers I think.