Beneath

Stopped by Cass this morning to check on the plantlife I had saved from Fahets to find a note on my desk.

The handwriting looks somewhat familiar, whoever wrote it apparently knows me which could be why the handwriting is familiar.

Enclosed in the note was a Garohevtee I had not seen before. The question is would it actually solve the issue as the mysterious author attests too? The notation under the phrase comments on which elements within Fahets that it relates to, I can see how it technically could introduce a stable element. I won’t further risk Fahets with adding it untested though. I Wrote two other test Ages when the Fahets issue started in order to try and figure out a solution, I think testing it on one of them would be a good idea. I can monitor any changes and if it proves safe apply it to Fahets.

It has been a while since I had last stepped foot upon Fahets. My last visited had showed me the upheaval that was wrought by the last series of earthquakes. The basin wall has been cracked and a section fallen away. The basin floor itself has shifted with one area dropping down and splitting the pond into two area, an upper pond and a lower pond. For a while it seemed as if things had quietened down so I started to venture out into the surrounding area taking stock of what damage there was. The tall stone columns seemed stable, but the ground showed signs of trouble with several pits that had opened up to reveal lava at the bottom of it. It is clear that this Age has stability issues…

The apparently stability did not last of course. I was down near the swamp area when the tremors started again, this time they were significantly more violent that any we had previously encountered. Several times we were thrown to the floor.
The others felt it prudent to leave, I stayed, longer than perhaps I should. But in doing so I witnessed a prelude of what was to come.
The sky was darkening, loud thunder rumbled the rock beneath my feet. As I looked out over the swamp I noticed that patches of water were beginning to steam, and boil, the wildlife in the water floating to the surface dead as they were boiled alive.

The rumble of the earth and the thunder above grew ever louder until the point it was almost deafening, at that point I felt it best to leave before I ended up hurt or worse.

Work on Cass has been progressing nicely, the central hallway is now stable and completed and work has moved on to what I call “The Harbingers Wing”.

The new expansion for the Age has created 4 museum wings dedicated to various aspects of D’ni. The Harbingers Wing which deals with D’ni past. The Restorers Wing, which deals with the DRC and their restoration attempt. The Grower Wing, which deals with Yeesha and the journey as well as the Bahro and their freedom. And finally the Explorers Wing, which deals with the new inhabitants of D’ni, us.

The Harbingers series of portraits have already been hung in their new home, as well as replicas of paintings found in the Ae’gura museum and the Ri’neref one that we discovered elsewhere.

One of the spare Rehevkor from the Archive has also been submitted as well as a damaged Descriptive Book. We also decided that the Seed from the Tehren prayer rooms should find a home there too given that its former home is in a bad shape.

Currently the work is being overseen by Keira and Steve, which allows me to step back for a few days to focus on some other issues that have been slowly coming to fruition over a long period of time.
Some instabilities have wormed their way in to Fahets it would seem.
It started at the beginning of the year, slight tremors at first that have been gradually getting worse. Reports have been coming in from other explorers and Path members of fissures (not Fissures mind you) opening up here and there.
As a result I have gathered the Descriptive Book for the Age and taken it to Cass for further study.
Whilst I am loathe to squander precious resources that are in short supply, I need to look into Writing some experimental Ages to see if I can predict the decay and counter it..

After my meeting with Jilen and sampling some of his home-made wine I had been entertaining the idea of experimenting with something similar, perhaps using the Norapods from Fahets.

With Rob’s help I was able to acquire some equipment to add to Sul so that I could start my experiments, Sul has the best source of heat needed for the process so it seemed logical that I should set up the gear there.

Took us a day or so to get the equipment set up and the heat right. But we eventually got the Norapods processing. Given my fondness for harder alcohol like whiskey and brandy, I figured I’d try with a Norapod Brandy, fruit brandies are not unheard of after all.
The first attempt was a disaster, I’m still not exactly sure what happened, but the result was a mess and tasted highly unpleasant.
It took us a few more tries, experimenting as we went to get a formula that worked right.

Last night, we celebrated the success by testing the first bottle of 40% Norapod brandy that doesn’t taste like something served up in the depths of hell. The bitter after taste of the Norapod seems to be a little more pronounced in the brandy, I think I may have to look into finding a way to scale that back if possible, but it’s not a bad taste, I if mixing it would help.
I was fully prepared that the Norapods wouldn’t be suitable for the process, little surprised they worked.

Once some extra fine tuning is complete I think I shall process some bottles for aging and see how those taste in the future. I need to send a bottle off to Blake to try to see if he wants some for the pub he’s restoring.