Teledahn, the Great Stairs, and the roof of the Pyramid

I finally made it back down to the Cavern yesterday - I'd made a couple of very quick trips earlier in March, but the aftermath of the Choir Concert left me pretty tired, and there was way too much surface foolishness to deal with to take much of a vacation in another Age (more's the pity.) I've been in to Dereno and Negilahn briefly, but I haven't had a chance to really sit down with a pen and paper and work out what each of the buttons in there do - I mostly just turned on the power, appreciated the prettiness of it, and then turned the power off again and went home.

So yesterday was really the first time I'd spent any significant amounts of time down there, and we found some startling things, as well as some neat ones.

First of all, Yeesha's left us a gift! There's a new stone in our 'Hood's bookroom, which links to just under the treestump, facing Kerath's Arch in the City. It's not the City in the Age of Earth - that's been accessible through the Nexus for some time, now - but it is one that everyone in our Neighborhood can link to without needing to share books or mess about with bookshelves.

We found this out the usual way - by going, "oo! shiny!" and touching the stone to see what it did, and discovering that we were all in the same version of Ae'gura. And Jack hadn't been in there yet, so we had lots of fun watching him run up and down the Great Staircase.

While he was exploring, I went and checked behind the Library - and the Bahro Stone that I'd only heard about before, the one that Tweek mentioned a long, long time ago was there. The stone that links you to the top of the pyramid in Kadish Tolesa.

I want a climbing harness and a tripod, and then I can take some really, really spectacular pictures from up there. I love that Age - I only wish it were something other than a giant Treasure Vault. Someday, I want to go climb another one of the trees (hah! - I have to figure out how to GET to another one of the trees first. Hanglider seems the best option) and build a treehouse up in one of them, where I can see the moon and the sun without having to look at all the broken mechanical stuff.

Digression aside, the final thing we found in Ae'gura was the map Cate Alexander had mentioned. I will be trying to translate what's on there - of those of us in our 'Hood, I'm probably the closest thing to a linguistics geek we have, though I certainly wouldn't say I'm anywhere other than an aspiring novice in the ranks of the DLF, sadly. But I haven't seen a translation posted yet, so I suppose I'm it. (Oh! Woe is me! I have to mess around with D'ni script! ;)

The map does answer the question about the numbers on the ceilings and floors of the Pods in Dereno and Negihlan - and why they're named what they are named. It seems they're all in the same Age, just in different ecological zones. Negihlan's an island, and there's only one pod on that island, so hopefully whatever is killing all the wildlife around the pod won't escape to the mainland.

We were thinking of trying to figure out what all the buttons in the Pods do, but Jack hasn't been to Teledahn yet, so we figured we'd go there instead. The Pods aren't going anywhere, and with the big crack in the Negihlan one, there's some incentive to stay out of them for a bit.

Jack got to ride the buckets for the first time after he got the power turned on, and then we poked around for a bit and he pointed out something I'd never seen before. Below the mushroom logo on the buckets and the door, there's D'ni script. More stuff to translate. Heheh. We're speculating that perhaps it's the name of the Guild of Caterers, but we're not sure. I'm going to have to play with Photoshop to try to enhance the photo I took of it, just to see if I can get things a bit clearer, but still, it's something new I hadn't seen before.

It's always nice exploring with new people - they see things I miss.

Oh, and as a note to folks showing the Baron's office to new explorers: bring a crowbar when you're trying to get the darn fish tank open. The safe mechanism is wearing out in a big way, I'm guessing from so many explorers opening and closing it repeatedly, and it's liable to close on your wrist if you're not careful.

Shorah!