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Odyssey - a potential GOW storyline
Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 1:29 pm
by katreeny
Odyssey begins with a diary found in a Pennsylvania farmhouse. The first few posts of the diary tell you that you are reading the thoughts and impressions of a Writer who is doing it all by experiment and guess but has quite a lot of talent. You can read the whole diary at once, or you can slip it onto a pocket to re-read later.
Underneath is a leather-bound book, unlabeled. You open the book and see a linking panel to what appears to be a dock attached to a lagoon in the middle of an ocean.
When you link there, you find that you are on a floating dock tethered to a lagoon formed by the crater of a long-extinct volcano. In the distance, you can see two more old volcanoes. The one straight ahead of you is taller, and appears to have something built on it. The one to your right is more eroded, and you can see what appears to be a large cave. The only other thing of any interest is a tall mast anchored in the rock and the box built around it at about chest height. The box is locked by a mechanism of sliding wood attached to wooden hammers. (Those who have played Myst IV will recognize it as similar to the gate lock Achenar built in Haven). After some investigation, you work out how to configure the mechanism to unlock the box.
A hatch swings open, revealing a button. You press it.
Soon, you see a catamaran sailing towards you from the big island. If you've read far enough into the diary, you'll recognize that this must be Lagoon, the home Age written by the diarist.
The catamaran stops at the edge of the dock, and you get in. You now have a choice. The big island, or the island with the cave?
Katreeny (there is more - a LOT more. None of it except comments in the diaries reference any of the MOUL or other Cyan Ages.)
Re: Odyssey - a potential GOW storyline
Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 7:12 pm
by katreeny
Assuming you decide to go to the big island...
You steer to the big island. As you draw closer, you see that it too has a cave, though it doesn't seem to be as large as the one on the small island. You sail the catamaran in to a cave lit partly by sunlight and partly by lamps. There's a dock to your right, with a ladder up to what appears to be a stone shelf formed from the rock. As you bring the catamaran into the dock, you hear a click and a soft hum. When you investigate, you find cabling that leads out to cave mouth.
You climb up to the rock shelf, and see a door in front of you and a pile of rope and assorted other bits and pieces in a corner. The door is locked by a combination lock showing five different geometrical figures. It would take far too long to work out the combination for the lock by selecting at random. The figures change each time you press one, so you can't tell if the combination needs the right figures in position, a particular order of pressing them, or both.
You go over to the rope. It's not terribly bright here, but a scrap of paper under the piled rock and cloth catches your eye. You pull it free, to find a list of numbers. It must be the combination to some other lock.
With nowhere else to go, you get back in the catamaran and head over to the smaller island.
- Entries from the journal Show Spoiler
November 11
Another new diary. I go through these things like you wouldn't believe. Funny, that. I wouldn't have pegged myself as a diarist, but this is the third one this year. Maybe I should buy fatter books.
I don't remember when I started. Back when I was a kid, I guess. I could go up to the attic and dig through the piles of old ones to find out, but it's cold and we never did get heat up here.
At least it's a weekend. No job to put up with. I've got the place to myself so no-one's going to notice when I leave.
There are times when I wonder if I should have followed Yeesha's Call. The flight from Philly to NM wasn't exactly cheap, and car hire fees were worse. Discovering the Cleft and Relto... well. It was weeks before I could think of anything except the Journey.
Ever since, I've been off to Relto every chance I get. The special book cover that lets me clip my Relto Linking Book onto my belt, my Ki... I keep them hidden at home, but putting them on and reaching for the warmth of the linking panel... The hardest thing is to remember to come back. For all the wonders of the Ages and Ae'Gura and the D'ni there are some basic facilities that just aren't there. I guess it's not surprising that the Fall eliminated things like whatever the D'ni used for plumbing, but it's kind of awkward and uncomfortable to go to Relto and lean out over the void to do your business.
Building a bathroom, even the hole in the ground sort, always seems to me like sacrilege.
Oddly enough, that was what started me trying to Write Ages. The translations weren't all that clear on how the process worked, and the D'ni Linguists don't have enough material on the language for anyone to actually write a descriptive book. So, I started experimenting.
It surprised me how easy it was. The descriptive book can be anything. It just has to describe a location clearly enough that something on the Great Tree can match it. I prefer handwritten description because that forces me to think it through first, but I could just as easily type the description into a computer and bind the printout.
The difficult part is the linking panel. I went exploring in parts of the city the DRC had partially blocked off, looking for 'dead' linking books I could dismantle and analyze. What a surprise! The ink they used is weakly conductive and the linking point description forms a circuit. It's very stylized and recursive.
The description itself, as far as I could translate, is simply a positioning within the greater descriptive book. The old Writers appeared to have some rules about how it worked, since they generally specified things like "above ground level", "nearest space of this size" and the like to handle changes to the Age. The whole process seems to act like a recursive fractal algorithm expressed in words.
The ink in the description that forms the linking panel is actually different from the rest of the book. The descriptions elsewhere are simple ink on paper with a very slight positive charge. The ink for the linking panel has a slight negative charge. As far as I could tell from studying dead books, a good link point description would twist through the void between Ages to the point that matched best in the specified description.
I can see why some D'ni believed they created Ages when they Wrote them. The Books take something that exists in potential but might - or might not - actually exist, and stabilize their existence. I could go digging into quantum theory and other esoteric aspects of physics and metaphysics but I'd rather experiment with Writing.
The hardest part was working out how to Write linking panels. Ink was easy - any metallic gel pen will do the job, although the gold ones work best. Adjusting my handwriting so that there were no breaks took a while, as did finding a source of paper that had the right conductivity. I'm sure the paper stores thought I was insane, testing their stock with a multimeter.
My first experiment was - no surprise here - a bathroom age. It was pretty simple - outhouse over old volcano with a bowl shaped depression nearby to hold water. It rains often enough that there's usually water there, and the box I brought in to hold paper is tied to one of the 'legs' of the seat. I've hooked it to a cover like my Relto book so that whenever the need arises I can go in comfort.
What a ramble. Rabbiting on about linking book theory and other boring stuff when I could be in Relto or elsewhere, Writing.
November 13
Work is a nightmare. As always. I can't wait for dinner to finish nuking so I can link to Relto. With an alarm clock so I remember to come back in time to get a decent night's sleep before work. I wish I had an Age where I could stay, permanently, and never have to deal with all this stupid nonsense again.
November 17
Finished exploring Ahnonay and K'veer today. Need to see if I can fix the mechanism in Kadish's office so I can rotate the spheres from there. That's obviously what it was meant to do, but with it not working I need to play games with Yeesha's journey cloths and someone who's willing to link in and out of the water sphere to rotate it for me.
Meanwhile, I'm going to leave the spheres set to Kadish's statue. The old fellow had quite the ego, but he certainly knew how to write beautiful Ages. The link to Myst is... well... Boring. I guess the old mechanisms are all broken and that's why the DRC cleaned out anything that hadn't already been taken away. There doesn't seem to be anything powering the fireplace lift, and the door mechanisms just aren't there. Pity. Myst has been the center of so much of the Atrus story it's a shame it's not able to be explored.
Heard about Yeesha's appearance in K'veer. No-one's sure if it's for real or holographic. She's a strange one, at any rate. The Bahro war is worrisome, too. It's not surprising that now they're free some of them want vengeance on anything that looks like the people who enslaved them. All the more reason to Write my own Ages and not rely on anyone else.
November 22
Crazy, crazy day yesterday. Thanksgiving today. Once I'm done with fixing packed meals, I can go to Relto and be away from the miserable weather.
November 25
Finished my Kitchen Age experiment. I've got no idea how it works, but it does seem to be stable. It's basically a greenhouse with several different rooms. Grows pretty much everything from tropical to strange nuts and someone or something stacks the harvest for me in a room that seems to be a kind of stasis thing. It's not tech I recognize, but it's a source of food I can use for longer stays.
November 27
Got a shock in the Kitchen Age today. There's a statue outside the greenhouse. Of me. Recognizably me. What have I done?
November 30
They think I'm a god...
Re: Odyssey - a potential GOW storyline
Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 6:09 pm
by katreeny
When you reach the smaller island, you find that, like the big island, there is a large stone shelf that acts as a dock. The catamaran sails to the dock and settles into its charging area, just as it did on the big island. You climb the ladder to the shelf, and see three doors, each one with a lamp set beside it. There's nothing else to see: the mysterious diarist has left this particular part of her domain in good order.
The door nearest the catamaran - and furthest into the cave has an inlaid floral decoration. Each petal can be pressed, and so can the central part of the flower. Yet another combination lock that you can't open. Like the door in the big cave, all three doors are polished metal, with no ornamentation apart from their locks. The flower is a dark red metal, with five petals and a round golden center. It's pretty, but you can't do anything with it.
The central door has an alphabetical code lock. Although you play with it for a while, you can't find any combination that works. Like the door back at the big island, it would take far too long to try every possible combination for it - with seven letters for each slot and seven slots, you'd be here forever. You really hope that the slip of paper with the numbers that you found will open something that will help you here. You can't go anywhere else, and you have no way back to the farmhouse where you found the linking book.
The door nearest the opening to the cave does have a numerical code. You try the numbers on the paper and find to your relief that they work. You hear something click, and a panel slides back to reveal a handle of the same metal as the door. You pull the handle back, and the door swings open to reveal a dimly lit storage cave. Before going in, you check the back of the door. To your relief it has a simple handle. You won't need to mess with the code if it swings shut while you're in there.
The storage area has shelves around the walls. There isn't much in there - some cushions, canned food and bottled water (this could be useful if you're stuck here for too long). At the back of the storage cave, you find another leather-bound book.
This time you open it cautiously. It's another linking book. There's nothing on it to say where it is, or what it leads to. The linking panel shows a sofa sitting next to a free-standing door that doesn't look like it goes anywhere.
If you've read the diary, you might suspect that this is one of the diarist's experiment ages.
With no better choice right now, you take a deep breath and put your hand on the linking panel...
- Another excerpt from the diary Show Spoiler
Dec 1
Still shaky. They looked almost human, they've got technology I couldn't duplicate, ever, and they were worshiping me. I'm scared to go back, but at the same time I want to know why they were worshiping me. I NEED to know why.
Dec 4
Weirder and weirder. I don't know if they speak English or if I absorbed their language when I wrote the Age, but I can understand them. I can read their writing.
I think they're evolved from social cats, because while they look mostly human, their hair grows in the most bizarre colors, their eyes have vertical slit pupils, and they have claws, not fingernails. Oh, and little tufts of fur on the tips of their ears. They decorate their hair and pile it up on their heads.
The greenhouse is on a large tropical island with a population of fifteen thousand or so. Their city is... amazing. Instead of building on the ground, they wove the branches of trees together as they grew to create roofed nests that are open to the breezes. A large tree might have twenty or more nests linked by rope ladders. Rope bridges run from tree to tree in a positive maze, although the people don’t always use them. They're just as likely to jump from branch to branch and scamper along them using their bare feet to grip the branches. The biggest tree has a series of interconnected nests that make public gathering places.
It all looks so simple it's easy to forget their technology level. They have several buildings on the ground, shaped like their nests but with big windows of something that isn't glass but is see through and harder than steel. Some of them are privately owned, with ladders from - I guess - trapdoors up to the nests of their owners. Others are public or collectively owned and have doors. I have no idea how they power all of these things, but I watched as some of them used a complicated-looking device to extrude the materials they use for the buildings, stained 'glass' and all.
I still don't know why they think I'm their god. One of the priests showed me their scripture - their writing looks vaguely runic, but I could understand it without having to be taught it - and it describes their god as "the Quiet Lady". When I protested that I wasn't a god, just a traveler, the priest flipped the scripture open to another verse that translates (I think) to "You who see Her will know Her by Her modesty: She will not seek your worship." How can I argue against that?
The greenhouse is also a temple. They grow food crops from all around the world there, and store food for the needy as well as for their god. I haven't seen the docks where ships bring new offerings and pilgrims yet. This island - they call it Lady's Gift, which sounds like 'Hrewrraowr' in their language - is apparently where their civilization and religion started.
I just... It scares me, being thought of as their god. What happens when I find out I'm no more holy than they are?
Dec 17
I've been avoiding the Age I used to call Kitchen. I can't call it that any more, not when it has people with their own name for their world. I've been thinking of it as the cat people Age, but it's more than that.
Anyway, some of my other experiments have been promising enough that I'm trying something new. I'm going to try Writing an Age that's my retreat. I know there's a lot I'll need to write into it, but I think I can make it work. I've started by Writing an old volcano lagoon that's underwater at high tide but above the ocean surface at low tide, forming a natural fish trap. With my usual imagination, I'm calling this Age Lagoon.
Dec 20
Phase 2 of Lagoon is a floating dock attached to the lagoon. It's made of wood and attached to the lagoon by a length of chain and a metal stake pounded into the ground. I figured if Catherine and the Moiety could write giant knives into Riven, I could write a floating dock into Lagoon.
Dec 21
The floating dock worked perfectly. I think the wood is some kind of palm tree wood - it's very light and quite spongy, but it doesn't tip when I'm at the edge of it, and it handles the tides nicely. I've set the link-in point to the floating dock for now.
Dec 22
Hands hurt. Too much Writing, but I couldn't write in half an island. Had to do it all in one hit. Need to rest.
Dec 24
Vacation at last. Still hurt from the Writing, but a quick visit to Lagoon reassured me. The old volcano that's going to hold my refuge is still there. Age hasn't destabilized like the experiments one did. Need to think about how I'm going to do it. Wrote in all the gas bubbles into the walls of the old volcano and gave it a nice big lagoon in the crater.
Got to deal with family and all that tomorrow, but then I've got some freedom.
Dec 26
The family's all off back to their normal lives. I've started Writing my retreat. I think if I do it one gas bubble 'room' at a time, I'll be able to make it work without destabilizing anything. The first part was to make a dock out of the only room that's open to the ocean. I Wrote it with a shelf that's always above tide level, so adding a floating dock to that with a ladder for tidal changes was relatively easy.
For a way to get to and from the retreat I Wrote a small catamaran with a radio signal built into it so it will home in on the lagoon dock. I added a mast to the lagoon by the floating dock so I could signal the cat and have it come to me. Wrote the cat with a single sail rig that I can handle while steering with a simple tiller arrangement. For alternative power when there's no wind or too much wind, I added a small outboard motor that's run off a solar charged battery. Not sure how effective this is going to be, but we'll see. The first tests - in good weather - were fine.
It's so NICE to be able to mess around in a tropical lagoon instead of a miserable PA winter.
Dec 27
Added some solar panels to the outside of the retreat island and ran circuitry to the cat panels so that the battery can stay charged when it's in the island dock. Also modified the slope into stairs so it's a bit easier for me to go up and down. All the bubble-rooms are stable, but they definitely need to be refined.
I've started thinking about how to add locking doors to the dock exit and the top of the stairs. It's going to take some work, but I think I can do it. I'll make a few attempts in the second experiments age before I go adding anything that complex to Lagoon.
Dec 29
I've got several different designs for locking doors working in the experiments age. I think the best combination of easy to use for me and protecting against anyone else getting in are the two mechanical lock arrangements I figured out. Both of them are a simple slide back from the inside, but the outside needs to be set to a combination, a little like the way the entrance to the Book Room in the Mechanical Age in Myst worked.
The one I want to put between the dock and stairs uses a six character key which resets as soon as the door is closed again. Naturally, the door's going to be Written so it will swing closed without any help. I'm not planning on making that many trips outside, and the combination's going to be something I'm not likely to forget.
The other door is a bit fancier. The version in the experiments age looks like a silver star design inlaid in polished stone. Several of the star segments can be pushed, like buttons, and each one unhooks a catch. If they're not pushed in the right order, the catches reset - a bit like a trip switch. In the right order, they'll open another segment that hides a door handle. And again, the whole thing resets when the door closes. I think I'll put that one at the top of the stairs.
I'm going to polish the walls and put some fire marbles in the stairwell for light. It should look lovely when I'm done. I'm not sure how Yeesha does it, but if I take the fire marbles from Relto, then turn off the page and turn it back on, I get a full set again. That's probably a safer source than relying on whoever keeps putting things back in my 'hood. Maybe there are Bahro there that like everything to be neat and tidy.
Dec 30
The doors are in and working, and polishing the stone works a treat. The basalt just gleams, and it's got lighter crystals in it that catch the light from the fire marbles and make the whole stairwell glitter. I'm really delighted with the way that turned out.
Dec 31
I went back to the cat people age today - pretty nervous about it, what with the god thing and all - but there weren't any problems. They just seemed to assume that I have more things to do than bless them with my presence.
It's the worship that scares me. The floral garlands around the statue, the statue itself... The food offerings, too. These are sophisticated people. I could see that from the ship they had in at the docks today. Strange design notwithstanding, it could pass as a luxury liner back home.
The clothes they wear here are simple and light, but that's the climate, not anything to do with their tech levels. Both sexes typically wear a light skirt a little like a sarong skirt, and the women often wear a halter top of the same material. They love bright colors, the more vivid the better. I think it's because their eyes don't distinguish subtle colors the same way a human eye would.
There's not really a nudity taboo here, either. The clothes are more for showing off than hiding anything, and for protection. One of the priestesses admitted that the halter tops make running a whole lot easier, and the men will often retie their skirts into a kind of loincloth affair to protect their equipment if they're doing anything physical.
The people from the ship wore clothes more like I'm used to, although in eye-burning bright color. Their skin tones ranged from the dark of the islanders through to Nordic pale. That was nothing out of the ordinary to me, but them bowing and kneeling and worshiping me was.
I hope I can get past this whole god thing and get to know them as people, but... I'm not sure I'm brave enough to try.
Re: Odyssey - a potential GOW storyline
Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 8:25 pm
by katreeny
You find yourself standing on rock in the middle of a heavy fog. There's nothing growing on it, and nothing living except you. Immediately in front of you is an old fashioned sofa with its back to you. Beyond that, you can see a door frame with an open door. It's not attached to anything. The fog swallows everything else.
To your right is a cliff with shelves jutting out from it as though they were formed from the rock. The shelves are empty and the top of the cliff vanishes into the fog.
Behind you, you can go a few steps before reaching a deep chasm or possibly the edge of the Age. You can't see anything beyond it except fog. (If you were to fall, you would find yourself linked back to the Age link-in point - but you don't know this). To your left, there's a small shelter that appears to have been formed from the stone.
Periodically, the whole Age shudders, as if it's not quite stable, and you hear a creak of overstressed stone.
As you explore the Age you find the solution to all the doors you've seen in Lagoon, and some that you haven't seen. You also find tables, chairs, and an odd contraption that looks as though it's meant to be a generator although it isn't connected to anything and doesn't do anything when you try to work it out. There are tree like shapes formed from the stone, a bed that, like the sofa, hasn't been there long enough for the dampness to damage it, and stained glass designs that seem to have been pulled from the stone.
What there isn't, is a way out of the Age.
Eventually, you work out that it's more or less square, and the experiments are scattered randomly on it. Three sides have sheer drops into the fog, and the fourth side is mostly sheer cliff except for the section with shelves.
Hoping that the shelves will take your weight, you start to climb.
Some distance up, you find a linking book, but it doesn't go to Lagoon. Instead, the panel shows a shelter like the one near the link in point.
With the hope that there might be a linking book there to get you either back home or back to Lagoon, you use the book.
- More from the diary Show Spoiler
Jan 1
Back to work tomorrow. I'm going to miss the freedom to head off to Relto and elsewhere whenever.
On the plus side, the next round of experiments worked well. I can Write furniture into an Age. I'm keeping it pretty simple, though, and what I can take in personally, I do. I've also made the whole retreat weatherproof with windows that aren't really glass and a big set of doors of the same material from what will be my living room leading out to the basalt shelf I shaped into a patio. I've got a slope from there down to the black sand beach of the crater lake - it's not really a lagoon, since it's got no connection to the ocean.
Anyway, my windows are clear crystal with stained-glass like arch designs of different crystal colors, and they swing in and latch so I can open them to let fresh air in. I've also written in metal shutters to protect the windows from storms. Those pull down from a recess above the window opening. I need to remember to shutter up whenever I leave.
I also need to add protective doors to my patio doors - while the inside walls of the old volcano won't get as much from storms, it could still get ugly. Once I've got that done, I can start fitting the rooms out. I think I'll go for cushion nests rather than chairs in the living areas, and form as much of the furnishings as I can out of the rock. Even though the experiments age is handling having sofas and beds written into it, I'd rather not take too many chances.
Jan 3
I think I've got the first room - my entry hall and formal lounge - done. It's pretty simple: polished stone, some shelves extruded from the basalt walls for whatever decorations I want, adjusting the floor height so that cushion nests would make a cozy spot to sit. I'll buy up a bunch of cheap Wal-mart cushions and bring them in next trip I make. I've already taken in the things I want to put on the shelves, although I'm going to leave a section for coats and shoes and things.
The patio door shutters work perfectly, and adding a metal fence around the patio and changing the slope to stairs down to the beach also did well. I think I might get a cheap all-weather mat for the patio so that the sun doesn’t glare so much off it. Maybe work out how to roof it over. I wonder if I can make a retractable roof?
That can wait, though. An all-weather mat will do the job for now, and I've got the rest of the retreat to put together. There's the kitchen and dining room, the living room, the stairs up to the bedroom and the library/study still to do. The kitchen and the study are probably going to be the hardest. I imagine I'll lose another experiments age to figuring those out.
Jan 4
Another Friday - more time to Write. I stopped by Wally World on the way home to pick up the things I'm taking in to Lagoon, then went straight to Relto and on to Lagoon. Bad idea. A storm had kicked up and I had to keep a death-grip on the radio mast to stay upright. The boat made the trip without any problems, though, and once I was inside the docking cave, it wasn't too bad. I just have a bunch of soggy cushions to get dry.
I left the cushions and the all weather mat on the dock, and went up to check the rest of my retreat. To my surprise, it's doing well. The shutters keep the storm out without any problems. While the fire marbles don't give out much light, they give enough.
I ended up coming back home to try some more experiments with designing and Writing my retreat kitchen. It won't have a fridge, so I'll need a different way to keep food. I don't like going to the cat people's greenhouse, even though they say I'm why they have that storage area.
I might try a garden age that's got nooks like Eder Delin and Eder Tsoghal where I can have wild-growing food plants. There's a lot more to the mechanics of getting away from it all than I'd really considered.
Jan 5
The garden age idea worked wonderfully, at least in its first attempt. Bad writer's cramp, though. Two groves, both citrus fruit, one northern hemisphere, one southern. Right now the south grove's in fruit. Links to both work fine. Putting them both in a Tsoghal-esque hidden grove works well - lots of birds, not much else. I can just pick whatever looks good. Lemons, limes, oranges and a few hybrids. They all taste so much better than anything I've ever bought.
I need to make a link in point to Lagoon that's not exposed to the weather. I think I'll do another volcano island with a big dock cave. That way I can store stuff there until the weather's good. I don't want a link direct to my refuge - it's a security thing. I should investigate securing the signaling mast for the boat, too. What I'm seeing from the new Guild of Writers suggests that once you create a link point, it tends to attract new links to that Age even if you destroy that link point. I think it's got something to do with how the Great Tree works and which parts of it are closest to other parts in whatever that space between Ages is. I wonder if that's how the Bahro navigate?
Jan 6
I Wrote a northern and southern stone fruit grove in Garden today. It's actually not that hard to Write multiple linking pages to an age and keep them all in the one Age book. I'm keeping the master book in Relto at the moment, but bringing fresh fruit home is a nice bonus. If I add a tropical grove, with bananas and breadfruit and the like, and then start the vegetable groves, that should work out nicely. Maybe apples and nuts and root vegetable groves as well. Possibly also corn. I might need to write some kind of herd animals in, although I'm really not looking forward to that. The fishing I've done at Lagoon makes me suspect that slaughtering and dressing my own meat isn't going to be something I'll enjoy.
So many details just to be able to keep myself fed. I haven't even considered what I'm going to do about clothes. There had to have been many other Guilds among the D'ni. Weavers, and tailors, and all manner of artisans - it's one thing to Write it, but quite a different thing to have to actually MAKE it. I hope I can do this.
Best I took myself to bed. It's back to the job tomorrow.
Jan 9
I went back to Lagoon today - I figured the storm had to have died out or moved on by now. There's a lot of broken rock strewn about the lagoon, but no damage to the floating dock or the signal mast.
Everything at the refuge seems all right, too. The cushions had all dried out, so I took them up to the front room and arranged them in the seating nest areas. They look rather good there, even though they're a bit rumpled from getting soaked and then left to dry.
There wasn't any damage to the doors or the windows, and the all weather mat fits the patio nicely. I'll have to find a way to secure it, or I'll be fishing it out of the crater lake after every storm. Maybe some super glue will do the trick.
After I'd got everything organized, I tried out the seating nest. It's remarkably comfortable. I actually dozed off for a while. I guess I'm going to have to do less Writing during the week - I don't want to lose the job because I'm falling asleep at work.
Jan 11
I started Writing the new link-in point this evening. The description is almost the same as for my retreat - a volcanic island - only this one has only the one accessible cave, and it's at sea level, with a large shelf to use as a dock and for storage. I Wrote the link point to the stone dock area, so that no matter what the weather is I can link safely. Now I need to work out a way to summon the boat to the new link point, and to add secure storage.
I think I'll Write more combination locks for the storage areas and the radio signal at the dock cave. The floating dock at the lagoon needs something that won't rust closed, since it's going to be out in all weather. Maybe something like the wooden bolt arrangement Achenar used in Haven? That would work to secure a box around the signal controls.
This is sounding paranoid, but... I just want peace and quiet. The only people I want at my retreat are the ones I invite. I've never been at home here in PA, but at Lagoon, even as rough as the retreat is, I do feel at home.
Jan 12
Busy day Writing today. I've got all my radio signals secured, as well as my storage nooks in the dock cave. The dock cave security is similar to the lock on the entry to my retreat, but uses a different combination. I used something like Achenar's bolt lock around the wooden box enclosing the controls for the floating dock.
I also started working on the shelving and equipment for my kitchen. It's looking pretty good now I've got the stone polished and the fire marble lights in place. I'm going to start collecting utensils and whatnot from the local second hand places and bringing them in each visit. The hardest part is going to be heat for cooking. I can manage without refrigeration by using fresh food from Garden or going to the cat people's age and taking things from storage there, but I will need to cook.
Maybe a hearth like the one in the Relto page, with an inlet to the kitchen to pipe heat in? I'd have to work out how to keep it fueled, but I think I can manage that. It shouldn't be too much of a problem - the whole complex stays comfortable no matter what its like outside. All that rock is an excellent insulator.
Jan 13
I've got my Garden tropical groves in place now, and cleaned up the kitchen at Lagoon some. It's slow progress, but I can see the changes. Swimming in the lagoon while it's freezing miserable at home is a wonderful luxury. It's almost worth it just for that.
I need to collect rainfall so I've got a ready source of fresh water. Once I've got the hearth going, I can heat it, but I need something that isn't salt water. I should be able to convert a section of the volcano into a natural holding tank and run a pipe from there to the kitchen. And to the bathroom, while I'm at it.
Which reminds me, I need to arrange some kind of laundry. It needn't be too fancy, just somewhere to wash clothes, and somewhere to hang them to dry. The base of the patio might work for that. It's certainly warm enough. I guess I should find out how to get clothes clean without all the modern stuff I'm used to, since most of what I'm doing is going to be relatively low tech. That or Write an Age with soap trees and clothes trees and the like.
I could try that in Experiments 2 and see what happens, I suppose, although I hate to lose an Age when I accidentally destabilize it. Although I try to Write the descriptive Books for the experiments Ages so that there's no way they could be inhabited, I just don't know. My first one I specified as the only island on an ocean world - but what if there were people who lived underwater? I still have nightmares about the way it folded in on itself and fed itself into the void between Ages.
For Experiments 2, I specified something like Relto, a floating island in mist, the only solid thing in the whole Age. The bizarreness of that and the way it twists ordinary physics into pretzels should make it impossible for people to live there, but... I just don't know.
It might be callous of me, but I'd rather not find out.
Jan 16
I've loaded up with stuff for the retreat - more cushions, some silverware, plates and pots and pans. I can take it in in bits and leave it in the storage area of the dock cave until I can take it to the retreat.
Jan 18
It took me several trips to get everything to the dock cave, but I'm happier with it there. Once I've got a Linking Book working, I keep it in Relto, so that the only Book I need to worry about at home is my Relto book.
Things are pretty quiet in the cavern at the moment, with everyone waiting for news about the DRC and what will happen. There's a fair few people who suspect the cavern will be closed again, possibly permanently.
I hope not, but at least I have my Ages as an alternative. I should probably make plans in case I lose Relto. It shouldn't happen, but the way things work between the Ages, I don't want to take chances. Maybe try to copy my home book, or move it to Lagoon somewhere.
Jan 19
Another productive day. I have a dining area. Instead of trying to make a table, I Wrote a shelf of stone and a hollow under it, rather like my living room cushion nest. It works nicely to sit at, and polished up beautifully.
I've also got all my stuff in the retreat and arranged in the kitchen, and set up a water supply. I even got a hearth written in and working, so I can cook and have drinking water. I still have Bathroom, so that much is taken care of for now.
I'm going to the informal living area next, after I've put some doors in.
Jan 20
I've got doors between all the rooms now. They're simple latch affairs, but I managed to add a stained-glass panel to them so they look lovely. It's not really glass, any more than the windows and patio doors are really glass. Instead, I'm pulling minerals from the stone and using those - muscovite for the clear sections, thin spars of hornblende for the separators, and biotite, olivine and hornblende with muscovite for the patterning. With the fire marbles inside and sunlight outside it looks so beautiful.
The informal living area is done, too. It's the same basic layout as the formal area, only I've put in more shelves. I'm going to start bringing books and things across for it. I even finished the hall between the informal living area and my library, bedroom and bathroom. It's got stairs, and another combination locked door to get in - I like my privacy.
I think for simplicity I'll do the bedroom as a nest, so that any largish padding will work. I can probably sew that and bring it over. If I do that and drape fabric around it should look exotic and be comfortable to sleep in.
The bathroom and library will take more thought.
Jan 25
Another Friday, and another burst of Writing. The bedroom is done - I figured I'd get the easiest part Written first. I spent a bit of time yesterday making myself a giant mattressy thing for the bed nest - it's basically a rough cylinder about a foot tall and ten foot in diameter, made of heavy cotton. Thank goodness I can work a sewing machine! I must see if I can put some solar panels on the inside of the retreat to run a sewing machine for clothes making and repair. It's so much easier than trying to hand-sew something like that.
By sewing two king size sheets together, I have myself a usable sheet for it, and the temperature in there stays comfortable enough that I shouldn't need much more than that and maybe a light quilt. If I buy enough of the quilted fabric at Wal-Mart, I can make myself one. I need to get a bunch of gauzy stuff to hang from the hook I shaped from the ceiling and drape around the room. I should also buy a couple of those blanket boxes and bring them over to store clothes in.
Jan 26
The study is mostly done. I put shelves on every wall, and one of those massive great desks with the leather inset top in the middle of the room, facing the large windows that look out over the lagoon. A nice, comfortable chair to sit in when I'm writing, and carpet on the floor. Once I've got my Description and Linking Books there, and my writing materials, it will be perfect. I've rigged up a lamp with one of the clear fire marbles, so I can Write no matter what the light outside is like. I'll need to stock up on paper and pens until I can find a supply that doesn't involve buying it here.
Jan 27
I have the bathroom shaped and ready for plumbing. This has been a productive weekend. I think what I'll do is tap into the heat deep down under the old volcano, and use that to keep my bath warm - I've made a large tub with a passive water circulation system. If I extend it to run the water past the heat source, I should be able to have a permanent warm pool to bathe in. If I want cooler water, there's always the crater lake.
I also set up a basin and vanity, and a separate nook for the toilet. That uses the same principle as my Bathroom Age, only smaller and more controlled, with a flush system to send the waste on its way down to the level where it will burn. At least it rains so often here I don't need to worry about running out of water.
Re: Odyssey - a potential GOW storyline
Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 6:51 pm
by katreeny
You find yourself near the top of a mountain, in heavy rain. The shelter, small though it is, is open, so you hurry in to get away from the rain.
Inside the shelter you find a rough cylinder built up from the rock, with a plastic toilet seat set on top of it. When you open it to look down, you can see the red glow of lava a long way down. This has to be the diarist's Bathroom Age.
There's also a water tank - stone - with a pipe leading into the cylinder, and a pull-chain. When you pull it, it - yes - flushes. After a while, you hear hissing as the water is turned to steam by the heat of the distant lava.
There's a small box that would be on the left side of someone sitting on the toilet. You open it to find several rolls of toilet paper, and a notebook. The notebook has a few disjointed comments in it, but you can't make sense of them. You guess that the diarist must have been making notes, so you put the notebook in your pocket to use later. You're starting to suspect that the diarist is at best rather eccentric.
There's nothing else to be found in the bathroom itself, so you resign yourself to getting soaked and go back into the rain. Since there doesn't appear to be anything else man-made that you can see, you start by exploring around the bathroom.
Behind it, you find stone shaped into a chest, complete with a hinged lid. The back of the bathroom roof projects far enough out that whatever's in the chest won't get soaked when you open the lid.
You open it and peer inside. There's more toilet paper in there, and a linking book. The linking panel takes you to somewhere dark.
You sigh, and link.
- Last of the diary Show Spoiler
Feb 2
Done! My retreat is perfect.
Feb 3
I spent today ferrying bits and pieces over. I can work on Writing there, now, and move my Age Books across as well as personal essentials.
Feb 4.
Disaster. The cavern is to be closed. Access to Relto will be blocked. We have two months at most before everything is locked off. I am so glad I got my retreat finished. Just in time, it would seem.
The explorers are in shock, mourning the loss, although some are looking for back doors they can use to stay in the cavern.
Feb 10
The last of the things I need - I hope! - is at Lagoon. I'm not going to stay with Relto or the explorers until the bitter end. I want solitude. I want to be able to Write, and to build on what I've done with Lagoon. There's enough that I can be self-sufficient for now, and I've taken clothes over until I can work out how to get or make more.
So, I guess that's it. Strange how I don't want to call an end to it all now it comes to it.
No, I'm leaving. No more dealing with idiots at work. No more miserable freezing weather. This is the end of that part of my life. Finis.
Re: Odyssey - a potential GOW storyline
Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 6:21 pm
by katreeny
To your relief, the link takes you to the small island in Lagoon. The catamaran is still there.
You use the codes you found in the Experiments Age to unlock the flower door, and find another storage area. This one is packed solid with non-perishable food. Canned food, rice, pasta, coffee... Obviously the diarist expected to be here for a long time.
The middle door opens to a small alcove that holds a single pole with a button like the one on the lagoon dock. You guess it's another signaler for the boat, since the pole seems to go up through the stone to where a radio signal would actually carry.
You get back into the catamaran and sail back to the big island. With the code that you found in Experiments, you can now open the door.
It opens to a stairwell that glitters with multi-colored light. As you climb the stairs you see glowing crystals set into the walls, and the dark stone is polished until it's smooth and gleaming. You climb the long, curving stairwell until you reach another door.
This one is polished silvery metal, but with a multicolored 64 point compass rose design set into the door. You realize that you didn't see anything on the Experiments Age like this. You take the notebook you found in the Bathroom Age, and flip through it again. One cryptic comment catches your attention. "Fibonacci clockwise."
You look at the compass rose again and press the diamond-shaped north point. It clicks softly and rises. Taking north as zero, you carefully count a Fibonacci sequence around the compass rose, pressing the appropriate points. As you press the last one, you hear a latch move, and the door swings open.
Re: Odyssey - a potential GOW storyline
Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 1:26 pm
by katreeny
The room beyond is large and dimly lit. You can see windows on either side, but heavy shutters beyond them block daylight out. In front of you, there's a large lowered section shaped into a more or less circular seating area covered with cushions. The wall opposite the door has shelves like the ones you climbed in Experiments. The ornaments on the shelves look like treasured mementos rather than anything intrinsically valuable.
Near the outer window, you find a lever that opens the shutter, letting sunlight spill in. Now you can see that the window has an intricate stained glass pattern although it doesn't look like traditional stained glass. You cross to the other side of the room and open the other window, which looks out over a crater lake.
The shelves don't have much on them at all - some framed photos of attractive scenery, crystal sculptures that have an organic 'grown' look, and a few miniature dragon figurines.
You move through the archway into the next room.
This is a kitchen and dining area. You open the shutters on the inside and outside walls, then investigate. The dining table is a slab of rock that stretches over a lowered section like the one in the living room behind you. It's polished stone, with a checkered cloth haphazardly thrown over it. There's no dust, and no sign it's ever been used.
The kitchen section has shelves with crockery and silvery set neatly, other shelves holding pots and pans, and a basin with two levers and a faucet. The red lever does indeed produce hot water - hot enough to steam - and the blue one has cool water. There's a small stove which appears to simply be hot. Boxes on the shelves hold food, but not very much, and beside them is a book with a cover that says "Garden."
You open the book, and find several linking panels, one showing a grove of apple trees, another showing a field of berry bushes. Others show plants you don't recognize, but which have familiar-looking fruits.
After your experience with Experiments, you're a little reluctant to link away until you know more about the diarist, so you let the book lie. (You could link there - more on that later).
A heavy curtain separates the kitchen and dining room from the next room, which appears to be another living room. This one is more subdued than the first room, and instead of shelves has a single low table under the outside window. Instead of an inside window there are glass doors leading out to a patio.
You open the shutters, and go out onto the patio. It's got a pale green all-weather carpet on it, and stairs lead down to the lake. There's a beach there with black sand. Tucked in between the stairs and the crater wall you find an old-fashioned washing machine with a mangle, and strung lines for hanging clothes. The washing machine is powered by cables running down from the roof of the patio, which you guess must have solar panels on it.
The washing machine is empty, and there are no clothes on the lines. The beach is smooth, as though no-one's ever walked there before. The walls of the crater are too steep to climb, so you go back up to the second living room.
Another heavy curtain hides a door with yet another strange lock. This one has a panel of stained glass forming a series of swirls in to a clear center.
You check the notepad again. "Red. No, blue." Is written on the last page. "Blue" is underlined. You look back at the stained glass panel. Every color except blue has two swirls. You reach out and carefully trace the blue swirl from the outside to the center.
You hear a soft hum, and the door slides back into a recess in the thick stone wall. Beyond is another glittering stairwell with those crystal lights set in the wall to light it.
At the top of the stairs is another door, this one - thankfully - open. You've had enough of doors with peculiar locks. The room beyond is a bedroom.
Here, the shutters are open, letting you see the large roughly circular nest in the middle of the room. The pillows and covers are in disarray, the first sign that someone actually uses the place. Hand-made quilts drape the bed-nest, rumpled and tossed aside. Blue gauzy fabric drapes from the ceiling to hooks set around the room, giving the impression of being inside an exotic tent.
There's another door beside the stairwell, as well as the one on the other side of the room.
The door near the stairwell leads to a bathroom with a pool almost as big as the bed filled with steaming water. The water circulates in a gentle flow from the bedroom side to the kitchen side. Shelves along the wall hold towels, brushes and soap, and a gilt-framed mirror hangs from the wall above a hand basin. On the far side of the bathroom, another door opens to a toilet very similar in design to the one in the Bathroom Age.
There's nothing in either room that you wouldn't expect to see there, so you return to the bedroom. The draping actually hides nooks holding hanging areas for clothes and some chests which hold tee shirts and more... personal clothing.
You move to the other door, which is also open.
The room beyond is a study. Except for the windows, the walls are lined with shelves, and the shelves are filled with books. Some are ordinary books, although it's obvious the diarist's tastes are wide ranging and eccentric. Others are empty, intended as either diaries or Age books. A large section of shelf under the inner window acts as a desk, with a cheap plastic stool beside it.
The desk holds a cracked mug with an assortment of pens, more of the blank books and several linking books, each neatly labeled. "Bazaar", "Materials", "Klein". There's also a belt lying on the desk with a peculiar clip that holds another book, this one labeled, "Lagoon". You wish you'd had that one earlier. You open the Lagoon book, and see the lagoon where you'd first linked in the linking panel. When you turn the page, you see the storage cave on the second island. There is no link direct to the home island.
You put the belt on, thankful that it fits. You still have no way to get home, but at least you can come back to the Lagoon age if you find yourself somewhere unpleasant.
Under the belt is another book. This one is another diary, although it's undated. You skim through it, before adding it to your collection of items to read.
Re: Odyssey - a potential GOW storyline
Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:12 am
by katreeny
You find nothing else about the diarist in the study. There are no more notes about any of the Ages that you can find, and no more linking books. This bothers you - a place someone has used as their home should have more personal things scattered about.
You decide to investigate the other Ages you can visit. Perhaps there will be more information there.
(It makes no real difference which of the available Ages are visited in which order - all of them will provide hints allowing you to learn more about the diarist.)
- The Lagoon diary Show Spoiler
Maybe I should have brought my diary with me. I need something to keep notes in. This will do.
I'm not sure how long I've been here - long enough that I finally feel relaxed and rested. I've been disgracefully lazy, just doing what I feel like and sleeping a lot of the time. I'm finally starting to wake up, though.
I need a list of things to do with my Ages. Garden needs linking books back to the storage cave, and I need to Write somewhere I can pick up gemstones and precious metals, and somewhere else I can sell them.
**
Garden has the linking books in all the groves now - hidden of course, just in case. It was nice to go there - there's been a horrible storm here for the last few days. I just camped out in the tropical grove.
The first part of the Materials age is written. It's a steep valley with a waterfall on either end, one coming in, one out. I Wrote it to be inaccessible without a linking book, and so it would produce a lot of gold nuggets. That ought to allow me to pay my way when I Write somewhere to buy things.
I think I'll do enclosed caves for the gemstones, and take lamps with me. I wonder if there's a way to link to a fire marble deposit - if they're even natural, which I doubt.
**
Strange. I keep thinking I hear someone else here. But there isn't anyone. Everything is exactly as I left it whenever I return, and I haven't seen anything. It's like some kind of ghost.
**
Materials done, or done enough. I can add to it later.
**
The place to buy and sell things turned out to be easiest of all. I Wrote a big city in a desert, at a major oasis and crossroads. Old stone buildings form the center of the city, with a vaguely Arabic kind of styling, and tents form a semi-permanent outer section of the city, coming and going with the traders. It has everything. Some of the traders come in on floating barges and set the barges down in any clear space they can find, others are in long caravans of camel-drawn sleds, and still others carry their loads on their backs.
In the Old City, the Karash Square is entirely given over to a huge bazaar. The Potentate's palace is on the whole north side of the square, almost half a mile long devoted to a single building. The eastern side is a mix of churches and other public buildings: so far I've seen libraries, art galleries, museums, and schools. South is filled with all manner of shops where the wealthiest of the traders do their business, and the west is all private homes. I think the shops have apartments above them, too.
In the square itself, there are hundreds of tents and stalls, selling everything from flour to precious metals. There are stalls where you can choose your fowl and have it slaughtered and dressed while you shop elsewhere, and others where you can buy sticky 'jesh' - a little like a long, thin donut glazed with honey and some spice I don't recognize. It's a cacophony of sound and smell and sight.
I've rented a small apartment a few blocks back from the square, in the West Shakra District. It came furnished - a little like a modern studio apartment, only the bathroom arrangements are much less advanced. Everyone in the apartment block uses a common bathhouse in the block courtyard. It's not bad, so long as you don't mind the lack of privacy. Even the toilets are open.
They're very big on public bathing here - everyone goes to one of the public baths at least once a week. It's a social event. There are men's baths, women's baths, and mixed baths. As far as I can tell it's only for washing, although if arrangements to meet later are made at the baths I wouldn't be surprised.
By setting my link in to my apartment, I can arrive privately, make my sales and purchases, then return home whenever I'm ready.
**
I spent several days in Bazaar, just exploring. Karashan has a lot of places you wouldn't want to get lost in, districts where someone who looked wealthy would get swarmed by beggars. There's also the slave markets I heard about today, and fully intend to avoid. Apparently not all the slaves are human - they have some means of traveling between Ages themselves. I haven't seen or heard anything about it, nor do I intend to pry. There are too many dangers in that.
**
I decided to try something really unusual - a Klein bottle Age, just to see if it would work.
**
Klein is... weird. It actually is a Klein bottle. There are glowing plants that give off a night-time light, since it obviously can't have a sun, and perspective just doesn't work. I got a headache within minutes of linking in, and before I'd linked out I was getting dizzy and nauseous. I don't think I'll be going back.
**
Maybe it's Klein. Or not. The walls here seem to be closing in, and I keep thinking I'm being watched.
**
Found myself wandering around the lake crying. What is wrong with me?
**
I can't stand this. I'm going crazy here. I thought I'd like being alone. Why is it so difficult?
**
Need to get away. Can't trust anyone in Bazaar. Only other place is the cat people. God, is that even safe? Maybe I should have kept a link back to Pennsylvania.
**
Re: Odyssey - a potential GOW storyline
Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 10:08 am
by katreeny
Garden Age
(Each of the Garden groves have a linking book hidden in them somewhere and at least one artefact left there by the diarist. Each book links back to the smaller island. If the player hasn't found the Relto-esque book back to Lagoon yet, the books will need to be found.)
The first linking panel in the Garden book takes you to a grove of apple trees. They look as though they were deliberately planted, but they're in a deep valley that doesn't appear to have an exit. High cliffs that would be far too dangerous to climb surround the valley, and a few streams trickle to a clear pool in the center.
At one end of the valley, you find signs of an old camp fire. There's a half-burned sheet of paper in the ashes. It was written on, but all that's readable now is a cryptic phrase. "member not to eat the".
As you explore the grove, you find stones that must have fallen from the cliffs. There are some substantial rock falls at the cliff edges, and some have exposed small caves. One looks like you might be able to reach it.
You scramble up the fallen rock, and find that the small cave holds a wooden box. When you open it, you find a linking book back to Lagoon.
**
The second Garden link takes you to another pocket valley, this one with citrus fruit trees. Instead of a lake, this valley has a river running through it, narrow enough to jump over, but steep-sided and fast-flowing. It vanishes into a cave at one end of the valley, and comes from a waterfall at the other.
Here, the only trace of the diarist is a basket filled with overripe fruit that she must have collected then decided not to take back with her.
You find the linking book back to Lagoon hidden behind the waterfall in a shallow cave.
**
The third Garden link takes you to a steamy, tropical pocket valley. Huge mango and tropical fig trees grow between banana trees and pineapple bushes. You find a cave deep enough to be cooler than the stifling outside air. Here, there's a blanket laid on the cave floor, some cushions, and a small notebook. In the notebook you find diagrams of the hearth in the diarist's home, the plumbing arrangements, and a sketch map of a hidden passage off the study that leads to the water tank and outside hearth, and to a room labeled "make lock I can't open".
The linking book for Lagoon is hidden in a wooden box nestled between the branches of a massive fig tree near the center of the valley.
**
The fourth Garden link is to a valley of plants that appear to grow something similar to a breadfruit. It's hot, but not as steamy as the tropical valley. Here you find a key on a string that's snagged on one of the trees. You pocket it and keep looking until you find the linking book tucked inside a large woody gourd hanging from one of the trees.
**
Re: Odyssey - a potential GOW storyline
Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 7:04 pm
by katreeny
Materials
(this is another multi-link age with a number of small enclosed areas, each with a linking book hidden somewhere in the area. Again, without the Relto-type Lagoon book, the linking book needs to be found to return to the small island).
The first link takes you to a narrow valley. A waterfall thunders down at one end, and a narrow chasm opens at the other. The river swirls and eddies around rocky obstacles in the valley, and gold nuggets lie in the water.
A flimsy rope ladder allows you to climb from the link in point on a rock shelf part way up a cliff down into the valley, where you find a cave behind the waterfall with a small pile of collected nuggets, including one that's been carved into a stylized tree. There's also a rather battered teddy bear that looks as though it's been well-loved.
On the other side of the river, near where the river leaves the valley in a drop that's on the scale of the Eder Gira drop, you find a pile of stones marking a stone box. Inside is the linking book back to Lagoon.
**
The second link takes you to an enclosed cave. In the dim light of the fire marbles/glowing spheres you can see diamonds glittering in the walls. The uneven floor is littered with rock, and near one of the diamonds you find a small pick. Scratch marks on the rock near the pick tell you that the Writer has been carefully working to free the diamond without damaging it.
At the far end of the cave from the linking panel, you find a small pile of diamonds, and a sheet of paper underneath. The paper is a diagram of a complex lock requiring a key and something else to open. You can't read the requirements other than the key - they've been scribbled out.
The linking book back to Lagoon is near the link-in point, behind a pile of rubble.
**
The third link also opens to an enclosed cave, this one with emerald-studded walls. One of the cave walls hides a tunnel that leads to a smaller cave, this one holding a torch with worn out batteries, a lap desk you can't open, and a torn piece of paper showing part of the mechanism to open the hidden door in the Lagoon library.
If you went to the fourth Garden link, you can try the key you found there, but it doesn't open the lap desk.
The linking book to Lagoon is under the lap desk.
**