Perhaps I won’t have to revisit that place again for a while.  Too much dust and sand fro my taste… Though I must say, I love the night sky and the sense of wonder it inspires.   The ephemereal music is also amazing – Where does it come from?  Maybe the music is the soundtrack my subconscious generates as I explore?  Nah, there has to be a better explanation for it than that…  Anyway, I hope the DRC can capture that music onto a D’ni music stand.

I also checked out Er’cana – things have changed a bit since I last visited there.   The Shell cloths are Green.  There is a mysterious hovering hologram  in one of the canyon alcoves.  I got some truly alien foliage for my Relto…. Don’t know if pine trees, deciduous fall foliage, grass, overgrowth, and now what look like mold spore stalks in one place are really a coherent decoration statement…  I’m actually getting enough options to give my Relto definite Moods – maybe I should have a costume party in my Relto and decorate it to match?  That coudl be a lot of fun!

Other changes in Er’cana – the train seems to have been added onto by the DRC – there’s now a blinking light that blinks red… eye candy, or meaningful?  I’ll have to wait until I can get inside the complex to be sure.  I’m looking forward to feeding that algae and seeing Kodama’s machine working.   Speaking of machines… I hope to see that weather machine from Delin someday.   Speaking of, I need to stakeout the Beginner’s Bevin and find the dude who can give us back our Delin book!

The Watcher’s Sanctuary is also open, and it seems that it will be the central meeting place for future meetings with the DRC.  The maximum population counter used to say 5000, but it recently got adjusted down to a more reasonable 100…  A shame, though – I’d love to have seen it filled with that many people!

I’ll probably be back down there later this week.  It’s just a shame we have to wait for ahnohay – Looking forward to that head trip!

So there is a new buzz of activity that says the DRC will release some new Age this Saturday.  I hope it can give some succour to us, still hurting from the wounds of the last DRC outing.  I don’t understand why they want us all to become PTSD victims, with such heavy and heady occurrences in the cavern when the restoration is just beginning.

This whole Bahro war is strange too – why are they in the city?  Why do they care?

I’ve also neglected Uru Search for the past month – I should give it to someone who can give it the attention it deserves.

Here’s to hoping a better experience this time around…

Well, I pulled up visio and made line segments with the specified length and direction, and discovered that if you follow the compass roses from left to right, connecting the endpoints (orienting to rose 2 and walking its distance when you arrive at the end of rose 1)  you get line drawings that represent the 5 constellations in the sky.  Each level gets harder and harder.  There are not holes at every endpoint, so we may not know how successful we are until we have finished the entire set of instructions.

It seems that there should be a simple ki function that tells me how many degrees I am turned from some arbitrary North.  Until then, I will have to use the stars exclusively.  I still think this will take a lot of trial and error.  Perhaps a group would be better, so each person can stand at the proper place, as human waypoints.  then another member could be “trapped” in the cage, ready to swtich between night and day for better orienteering.

Still, there must be something obvious that makes orienting oneself easier.  I haven’t observed the shadows, so perhaps that holds a solution.  Also, the “craters” strewn around may have an orientation, just as lore has it that moss grows on the south side of a tree.  Otherwise, how can anyone be expected to walk 2000 units without making a mistake?  Even a small degree of error at the outset would mean a large degree of error at the end.

What we really need is a compass and a pedometer.  Maybe the Ki already has this functionality, just waiting to be enabled.

I believe that finding your path in the stars is more than an easy way to find the base after running around in Minkata. For those of you who don’t know, the farther you get away from a particular constellation, the closer to the horizon it gets, with the base being roughly in the middle. So to return to base, find the lowest constellation in the sky, and walk toward it. Minkata, after all, is round, and this is caused by us traversing the curvature of the world.

But that’s not what I’m talking about. There are five constellations. There are five pages. I’ve alreay determined that the numbers within each compass rose are distances, and the green arrows are the direction in which to go. We found one hole for the four directions on page 1, with us starting at the base. But what if the holes match the constellations? That means that we would go from base to hole 1 to hole 2, until the entire set of roses is expired. We would be tracing out the constellations on the ground! By touching each stone in the proper order, following the constellations, something is bound to happen. We probably link out at the end of each constellation for another disc wedge. Hopefully there is a bit of explanation from Yeesha, but I’m not holding my breath.

“But,” you ask, “how do we go from hole to hole?” If you look at the holes carefully, there are the same number of bones, in the same spacing as the Base. I don’t know their orientation at this time, but that should be simple enough to surmise from the position of the stars. I’m betting that the ladder or the stone tablet points north, but I won’t know without some experimentation. Once the cave’s north is found, following these paths is a matter of trying combinations. Fortunately, the combinations are such that some trial and error will yield the first points, and should be enough to compare to the constellations to know where you are and where you’re going.

Some things to do to test this hypothesis: Take KI images of all the constellations. Get pictures of the pages in the Minkata guide book. Use map-scaling skills, a compass, and math to draw lines connected to each other, following the scaled distance and the compass rose direction to make a shape, or use a quick processing app to perform the same set of tasks. I don’t know if there is an order to the compass roses yet, but trying some combinations will yield results immediately.

Two common sources of error in orienteering are 1) not calculating your stride properly, leading to misjudged distances and the possibility of getting lost, and 2) not setting a fixed point in the horizon to walk toward, because everyone has one stronger leg, and you will tend to be pulled in that direction. Without a fixed point, you will basically be walking in large circles. Because of this I recommend doing your orienteering at night.

In case you’re wondering, the distance from the edge of the base to flag 125 is 12 steps while running. The distance from the edge to flag 625 is 60 steps while running. I haven’t had the patience to run and count to flag 3125. Counting steps while running can be difficult because the steps are almost to fast to count. I suppose walking would be more accurate, but it would also be more slow.

I can’t wait to try these theories out. I’ll let you know what happens!

Then it hit me:  the pods are  an exercise in meditation and consideration and were chosen to tell us something.

You must observe as you wait – you see the eerie lack of fauna in Negilahn, the lessons in stark contrast in Dereno and Payiferen, and the unease and disuse of Tetsonot.  Something is not right here, on this Age.  What used to be a museum has turned into more of a mausoleum.  Something happened here -three of the four pods show various signs of attack, wrought externally – N is split open, P has what appear to be “bullet holes”, T has obviously been damaged and moved from its original location.  Something wanted in to these Pods.  Why would Yeesha give these Ages to us to look at and examine, if not to teach us something?

All the signs of the Pods point to the fact that a damaging presence has visited that  Age.  Yeesha told us, “Destruction is coming. Find a way. Make a home.”  The pods are a harbinger of things to come.  Yeesha is warning us, urging us to learn from the D’ni’s previous mistakes, and letting us see firsthand the effects.  We must prepare for what is to come.  We must survive through cooperation and communication.  We must protect D’ni.

In other news, the Bahro opened up a section of the Great Shaft via a linking tablet. Reading Dr. Watson’s words again, and his encouragement to take a leap of faith still echo back to my first visit there, the cavern deserted, myself so young and full of hope. Once again I took the leap of faith, but the results were substantially different. As the ground rushed toward my feet, I had the distinct impression that something was wrong. Realizing my trajectory was going to drub me against the opposite wall before dashing me on the exquisitely tiled floor below, I panic-linked out. Perhaps the first time was a hallucination? Perhaps the Path of the Shell has been lost or destroyed. I don’t know, but I know I won’t be trying that stunt again for a long while.

I was reading Whilyam’s blog yesterday on Urublogs and he mentioned that Cate’s visits to the Caverns “answered most of his investigations.” Curious, I visited his blog proper and discovered a list of current mysteries in the Cavern. I believe I’ve seen this previously but gave it little attention. Then it occurred to me: If his investigation questions are being answered, where is he posting the results of said investigations? I’m sure his insights would make a great blog entry or even news article for TCT or D’net, even. Maybe I’m just missing his updates somehow… At any rate, I think a list of investigations is a fine idea, something every Explorer should consider doing. Keep up the good work Whilyam, and be sure to let us know what you find out!

urusearch.googlepages.com

I now have a total of 6 volunteers willing to add content, and I started a Google Group for them, to communicate better.   If you like what you see, please consider joining the initiative.

Uru Search

I need help with it though. Artists to make graphics, volunteers to add even more Uru-related content. Check it out and click “Volunteer to Contribute” if you want to help! I’m not using adwords and doing this for any personal gain – this is totally for the Explorers Community. Have a look and tell me what you think!

The Great Zero calibration has begun, and I must say kudos to Laxman for simplifying the calibration process.  When I was in the caverns after the DRC withdrew,  I found calibrating the GZ to be less obvious and less fun.  Now, gone is the coordination of three different axes, replaced by 14 calibration missions.   I never thought I’d feel like a real-life pac-man, but I get the distinct urge to say “wocka wocka wocka” as I run through the cavern picking up the CGZMs!  A fun diversion with very immediate benefits, totally different from the waiting for the Portals in the most recent ages.

With each new Age, each new discovery, the Cavern gets a richer feeling.  Some Ages can be solved by a single explorer, others require a group.  Some challenges require patience and waiting, while others require agility and speed.  A little bit of something for everyone, and certainly enough to actively “do” for a solid week, if not more.  But don’t forget about the rich history, the friends you can meet, and the things you can take part in.   I believe we’re truly seeing a re-awakening of the Cavern, and we’re finally seeing some life and longevity here.  This is how the Cavern should have been when the DRC re-opened it.

However, some are concerned by the nearly complete silence of the DRC, and some even think this is a harbinger of “Destruction is coming…”   I still don’t know what to think of Yeesha’s last words to us, and what they really mean.  If this Destruction is coming, it’s taking its own sweet time.  Until something occurs that makes me think differently, I think I’ll just enjoy the Cavern as it is until such time as I can actually make decisions and take actions that may affect the Cavern’s future.