Surface Trip

Heading out. I'm making a few things secure in the Office and a few other ages and heading home for New Years. I wasn't going to go up this year, but the discussion over Christmas dinner convinced me. I'll be back sometime after New Year's Day.

Perhaps after dealing with more surface issues I'll start writing the descriptive book.

I'm going to keep a log of when I see those flashes... I saw some more today. Times in KI time.

12.26.07 -22798:
Time | # | Duration | Color | Hand-widths from Horizon| Degrees
03.00 | 05 | 1 sec | alt. green/purple | 1 | 58
03.34 | 01 | 2 sec | orange | 1.5 | 23
04.51 | 03 | 1 sec | blue | 0.5 | 56

Merry Christmas

Put up a small tree in the Office with some lights on it. Set up some equipment and I'll have a nice little meal there tomorrow. Some family and friends will be in there too. Happy holidays.

Whilyam

D'ni Language Reserch Project: Food, Caterer

New D'ni words! A whole mess of them.

Food, Cater, Caterer, Guild of Caterers

doo - DU - n. food
(b)doo'shol - DU'Sol - v. (to) cater (der -> DU (food), Sol (prepare))
doo'shol-tahn - DU'Soltan - n. caterer
tel-doo'shol - telDU'Sol - n. Guild of Caterers (short for tel-okh-doo'shol-tahn-tee)


So, for Christmas, we'll be eating D'ni doo doo? Boy, does that sound lovely.

I'll be busy tomorrow organizing some of my equipment (as well as picking up some new equipment). Looks like the funders are interested in showing off the idea I have for an age once I find out if it's safe. I have to make it first though...

I've got a few notes written down, and I'd really rather not write it until the New Year (relaxing and merriment can be such a drag, right?). But they still want me to use the old eye symbol. Sent me a few crates of equipment today with it branded on there. So I'll work on it this new year. Once I make sure it's safe, I guess I'll pass it on to the maintainers to check out. I know the funders want it released, though I think that's just to brag about it...

Whilyam

Okay, that thing's creeping me out in the office... I'm moving it to Dereno. The pod's sealed so it should be secure. For right now, I think I'll just preserve it until I can figure out what to do with it. If nothing else I'll take it with me next time I go there and bury it...

Final Preparations

Just received the last of the supplies for my Christmas stay. I'm probably going to take a break from age writing until the New Year. I've moved the Bahro from Gira to my Office for preservation in the cold. It's quite heavy. I got a picture of it in the area where I had been cleaning it before I took it away.
Talked to the funders again about their projects. Looks like they're funding me again, though it's uncertain and I'll have to wait until the New Year to see if it pans out...

Noloben Report

A warning, the pictures I got were not pleasant.

Alright, so I arrived in the Restorer's Guild Neighborhood and signed a few papers (stuff about not suing for evisceration etc. I wouldn't do that, but I guess the Restorers have to cover their behinds. Not that I saw any of them jumping at the change to risk them coming with us to Noloben, but that's their choice.

We linked in on the beach to a pretty nasty sight.
The bodies are in pretty bad shape. Most are burned and scratched and others dismembered. The area was most certainly a war zone, though if I'm right some Bahro consider this their home like we consider the cavern our's. Like we're called here. Who wouldn't fight for what you consider a home? Along the beach we found a KI. Not sure if it was there last time Tweek had an expedition... I think he's taken it. Maybe something is on it. I didn't see any remains around the KI so I can only imagine its owner was able to link away.

We did a quick look around the upper portion of the main island. In some areas the grass was torn apart though the lab for some reason was intact. More bodies up there, They littered pretty much every part of the beach. Many in worse shape even then the ones I got photos of. After that unpleasantness, we went back down to the beach and into the tunnels to Esher's lab. Again, the place was littered with the most disgusting things. The smell, particularly in the tunnels, was bad.
As we made our way into the lab, an interesting thought occured to me. All the devices that had been there before (the Bahro soap bubble, the pedestals) were all missing. Indeed there were no remnants of anything the Bahro had brought there. It makes me wonder how this place was like before when the Bahro were free and not so bitterly divided. Perhaps they changed the landscape for fun like we play sports.Once inside, I noticed the lab was fairly clean. I would imagine that, considering the historical implications of the building, that the nekisal bahro wouldn't like fighting or existing in this area. We quickly located some of Esher's notes and I took some pictures of a few.



The ones I noted the most were ones that seemed to detail the structure of a Bahro's head and its eye (the picture I think depicts the eye also having the symbol ofthe snake on it). These all had stains of blood covering most of them. I'm not sure I even want to think about the state in which Esher wrote down these notes.

On the top level inside the cage, I found a Bahro body. I'm not sure if it's one from one of Esher's last experiments or one of them trying to hide from the war surrounding them, but it was a very sad little thing. Before we left, I took it out and brought it with me.I'm keeping it, for now, in Eder Gira. Cleaning it up. Not sure what, if anything, I'll do with it. I'm not going to stuff it, but perhaps I can do some research on it. Might go back to Noloben again to try and bury some of the bodies. Least, I guess, we can do.

Noloben Report: Preliminary

Just posting a quick note before I get to work processing some of the images we got. Obviously Tweek and I are back from Noloben. As I'd expected, it's not a very pleasant age right now... We saw a number of bodies. No live Bahro, though. It's a horrible sight, though. Obviously damage done by their claws is going to be, though...

I'll post more tomorrow. Got a few good pictures and so did Tweek. I'm hoping this could help us. Maybe I could even get more interest for a further expedition... That's for another day, though.

Out the Door

Posting this from the Restorer's Guild hood... On my way to Noloben. I'll try and get pictures up when I get back.

Noloben Rescheduled

Looks like I'll be going soon after all. Tweek said we might be able to go tomorrow .

Things are still up in the air surface-wise. I'm likely going to head to the surface at some point for the Christmas holiday. Though I might stay down this year. Who knows.

Happy Christmas.

Delays

Talked to Tweek briefly. He's having some issues getting access to Noloben, so he's delaying things. No matter, though. Just lets me prepare some more. I'm binding some books. A couple for a pair of new journals and another for the age I have ideas for.

Speaking of ages, I did a little structural work in the Office. I really need to get a proper name, but I suppose that can wait.

Noloben Trip

Tweek had to delay the Noloben trip last week. Still have the gear ready. I'm traveling light, but not unarmed. A couple of bayonets ought to stop any Bahro that want to harm any of the group (need to check with Tweek how many will be in this little party). Purely defensive, though. I'm not going to go all "Sharper" on them. I'm not going to be Bahro meat either.

I'm going to wait until after the trip to do any work on my age ideas... No real point if I don't come back, eh?

More New Words

Busy with new issues in on the Office. The tremors haven't returned, but I'm finding new cracks on my inspections. I'll need to strengthen the Crevice if I want to make it passable. Perhaps I can try and find some new tools...

Either way. Last Friday A couple new word meanings were recovered by Dr. Watson and the explorers who are helping him out.

bah-tsah-nah - baxana - n. map
(b)bah-tsen - baxen - v. to map
bah-tsen-tahn - baxentan - n. cartographer (lit. "mapper")
tel-bah-tsen - telbaxen - n. Guild of Cartographers (short for tel-okh-bah-tsen-tahn-tee)

Even though I've got more than enough to do, I'm thinking about some new ideas for an age... I wanted to try some formulas with Gahtehrahn, but the concepts I worked out seemed like they were missing something. I've gotten a set of new reference works and I might try my hand at some...

Office Excavation

Tremor in the Crevice. I need to get some working lights in there and investigate the stability of the area. I've done some basic surveying and the Crevice is approximately 50 feet deep, 20 feet wide, and at least 70 feet long. The rock, like most everywhere else inside the island, is a kind of granite-like rock. I still have to do some tests, but it shows some characteristics of sedementary rock, but it's quite strong. Large slabs of another type of rock (seems to have been ignious rock which cooled over the granite-like rock and then shattered off) form natural bridges over the chasm and small boulders litter the ground.

Most of the public areas have been excavated. I need to get some supports in the main room, but otherwise the areas seem stable.

More lights? I wish I could get a cloud-free day or night to see what's going on. Maybe the stars are dying out...

New Words

After more research, the Linguists, under direction from Dr. Watson, have founds more new D'ni words. One, in fact, I helped discover.

sheetehm: Message
sheetehmsootahn: Messenger
tehlshee: Guild of Messengers

(b')laysoo: (to) carry
laysootahn: carrier (courier)