From the David's Journey Team, to give you an idea of what we're working on, and to see what you think about it. It's in second person for... I don't know why, actually - that's just how I wrote it.
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You start in a narrow, poorly lit hallway. Right in front of you is a line of the familiar orange barriers completely blocking the path. Obviously, the DRC does not wish for you to go further in that direction. Perhaps it's because there is a gaping hole in the ground there.
You remember the big gap near the beginning of Gahreesen? It's somewhat like that.
Fortunately for you, there must be more to this Age through the door to your side. Or not. It just leads to a room with three locked bookstands. One of the stands is conveniently unlocked and wedged open, but you don't want to go to that Age just yet. Bored, you glance at the notebook beside it. Evidently, this book leads to a Post-Fall fortress. Although the pictures depict a crumbled ruin, the notebook assures you that the unrestricted areas in the Age are perfectly safe - a training and fitness area for explorers.
The Fortress Age (we haven't given any of the Ages actual definite names yet) is mainly for minigames (that should address most navigation skills - jumping, running, pushing things, etc.), although it does have some puzzles (mostly of the exploration kind, or community puzzles*)
*I mean puzzles like those utilized in the original puzzles for the mystmovie site, or for garternay.com. These would be mainly one time ciphers and other such puzzles that would develop the storyline. We're not sure exactly what, yet.
Contemplating the notebook, you walk outside again. The hallway is still dark and dusty, but you think you see something moving in the distance Curious, you try to scale the barriers, but they are as impassable as always. Frustrated, you glance around and for the first time notice the debris blocking the other side of the hallway. After a couple falls - at least you didn't twist an ankle like in Gahreeson - you manage to climb to the top and inch across a narrow ledge, and in an undignified leap, you manage to fall on the other side of the gap.
There's also another way to get over this gap. It's multiplayer, though. The whole Age should play nice multiplayer, but it's never necessary (and this is the only puzzle that can be solved easier [or at least more spectacularly] multiplayer that we've formed for it so far for this Age).
Picking yourself up, you wander down the hallway for a short distance before reaching a much larger room. It's disorienting for a moment (not to mention that it's still rather dark) after the tight hallway. The ceiling of the room appears to be a large industrially designed dome, with some small skylights at the top. These provide some light for the center of the room, but little for the sides. It's a pity, because the sides look interesting at first glance. There are several openings for passageways (although they all look blocked from where you are standing), and lots of dark alcoves and corners.
You, however, head to the center of the room. Here you see several giant (at least twice your height) boxlike objects arranged in some kind of pattern. As you draw closer, you see that each one is made of the same kind of dark metal. Each one appears to have a large opening, although most that you see are closed and apparently locked. Several have large dents, and some even have holes (although not large enough for you to pass through). You would examine these more, but for the fact that one of the boxes is open. Inside are a couple archetypically D'ni furnishings and, in contrast, a starkly modern notebook.
The notebook, you figure out, was written by a DRC worker named David. Maybe he left it there so he would have it readily at hand. He writes in it that he'll later transfer the information into another notebook to place at the link-in point if the Age ever gets fully opened. He then describes what he's learned about the Age. It used to be a rather minor farming and granary Age for D'ni (David doesn't seem sure about what they were farming). When D'ni fell, however, the Age avoided the plague (mainly by getting swift warning and destroying most of the link-in points). Without D'ni supplies, the outdoor areas in the Age became rather dangerous wilderness, forcing the refugees into the underground granaries. Here, they converted the shipping containers into makeshift houses. David says he knows the combinations to some of the other containers, but only has them written down in his office.
David's "office" is in another Age. It's mainly an Age for information and clues to various things, sort of like the Baron's Office. David, however, is much less neat.
Another note on the shipping containers. We're thinking of maybe letting other age builders pick containers and fill the insides (much like Ahra Pahts shells). It would be mainly for small places to place journals, linking books to Ages, and other such things (and they could use the combination lock as a puzzle [with the explorers having to find or figure out the lock combination in some other place]). They could even make it into some private meeting place or something. What do you think?
Finishing the journal, you decide to look around the room some more. All the passages out are indeed blocked, and most of the alcoves are in a severe need of repair. You do find a curious note in one of them, telling you how to open another one of the bookstands and a few other similar pieces of information (but none of the others make sense to you yet). You wonder suspiciously who wrote this note (why are you suspicious? If I told you it would ruin the surprise, sorry), and why they want to enable someone else to sneak into another one of the Ages David was checking over...
While you are contemplating this, you notice that your friend is in Gahreeson and wants your help with the puzzles (and so you conveniently do not reveal any spoilers ).
This other Age mentioned is the burial place that an old D'ni poet wrote for his wife. This will be the main Age for puzzles.
So... any thoughts (suggestions, questions)?