197. Expedition Logbook

Each time you read this entry, choose one of the following Venture to the Depths passages to read.

Venture to the Depths: Days 1–3

You read through the first few entries, which was kept by Hollan Helgur herself. Besides Hollan, the expedition's three other members were a shaper named Yara, an explorer named Xavi, and an artificer named Timo. Much of the logbook details the preparations for the expedition: records of food and supplies, training runs on caves along the western edge of the Valley, and endurance hikes up and down the Silverfin. Then, the expedition sets off from Spire.

The first three days are spent cataloging and mapping the spaces just below Spire. You know they are pretty well explored, but as you go through Hollan’s notes, you realize that you had no idea just how extensive even those passageways are. It appears Hollan planned to be extremely thorough as she and her team hoped to map the enitrety of the arcology from top to bottom.

Venture to the Depths, Day 4

With only an hour before the noon mark, we broke through a small cave-in and found ourselves entering a vast, empty shaft. The space rises vertically above us some dozen meters or more, and it descends to an impenetrable darkness. Xavi dropped a 500 meter plumb line without hitting bottom, so we knew we had quite the descent ahead of us.

The shaft can be traversed by a wide spiral ramp. Platforms and walkways split from it at intervals. I think there was some order to them once, but many have sheared off or collapsed. So far, Yara's foresight has helped us safely navigate the ramp's many fissures and gaps.

By evening, we had descended well past 500 meters, but the bottom of the ramp was nowhere in sight. It is difficult for me to imagine how Sal Orlin and his apprentices were able to transport the Carbon Forge to the surface using this passage. It must have deteriorated greatly in the one hundred years since.

The gloom is absolute, and the light of Timo's lambance rigs reaches only a sort distance. After making camp on the ramp, we had a spirited debate on whether we should be exploring the passageways that branch off from the shaft, but I have decided that we will first find the bottom of this pit as a group.

Venture to the Depths: Day 5

We have reached the bottom of the shaft. It opens into an echoing hemispherical space. It appears to be at least half a kilometer across at the base, but the floor is covered in great mounds of rubble and debris that make estimation difficult. Yara is exhausted from manefesting our safe passage, but Xavi is anxious to explore what lies beyond the chamber. Timo has already begun investigating the remnants of Estian technology strewn about.

I have decided to send Xavi, an experienced explorer, to scout ahead. When he returns, we will venture deeper.

Venture to the Depths, Day 6

We woke this morning after a fitful night's sleep. In the middle of the night, we heard shuffling noises approach our camp from the northernmost tunnel. We grabbed for our darters and staves, and flared the light of our lambance rigs. It was an autonomous machine of some kind. Apparently disinterested in us it continued south through a darkened passage. Timo wanted to pursue it, but I convinced him to wait until we were more thoroughly prepared.

Xavi returned from his scouting expedition in time for breakfast, having discovered a chamber he described as "another world with a night sky all its own." He provided us with directions and a crude map so that we might see it for ourselves, but stayed only long enough to eat and resupply before he struck off once again on his own.

Yara, Timo, and I gathered our gear and went in search of Xavi's discovery.

Venture to the Depths, Day 9

It has been three days since Xavi left our company. His absence most worries Yara, who has begun to advocate that we go in search of him. That would be foolish. We would only become lost ourselves.

I have begun mapping the central, arterial corridor that seems to span the entirety of the underground complex, and found that there is energy still running through this place as well as pipes filled with clean, flowing water. The presence of the ancient Estians is palpable in their works. Much of it still stands, and resembles somewhat the ruins found on the surface.

Yara and I argued about where we should focus our priorities. Timo might have been the tie breaker, but he was busy investigating the wreckage of what he has dubbed a "lightbringer;" a type of ambulatory machine that we have spotted on more than one occassion, busied with some unknown purpose, while carrying with it a warm, illuminating glow.

Timo is clearly in his element. He feels a kinship with the Estians, who he sees as exemplary artificers from whom there is much for him to learn.

Venture to the Depths, Day 10

We awoke in the night to find that Timo had wandered off. Yara found him in a nearby passage, deep in thought, like a shadow in the darkness. He said that someone called to him in his sleep, and that he then, like a spirit speaker, spent the next several hours in deep conversation with the lost spirit of an engineer who described to him the former function of much of the technology that Timo has catalogued on the journey. As a result, he has become even more enthralled by this place.

In the afternoon, Yara found something of interest: a patch of mushrooms the likes of which we have never seen. I didn't take her for a botanist, but she has somehow become convinced that these mushrooms are the biggest discovery down here, despite being surrounded by the inumberable wonders devised by the Estians.

The day ended with no sign of Xavi. Yara is ready to abandon the expedition to go in search of him, but I believe that he is safe, and will find his way back to us in time.

Venture to the Depths, Day 12

Xavi has not returned. I fear the worst. Yara was right to worry. Timo has grown strange. I'm starting to think we might be out of our depth.

Venture to the Depths, Day 13

Yara has convinced me to return to the surface, but before we do, I have asked that she first investigate the fungal forest we've discovered, which she was more than happy to do knowing that our time down here is nearing its end. Yara believes the mushrooms to be evidence of some grand biological experiment. I don’t think it a radical hypothesis.

In the meantime, Timo and I will continue to investigate the branches of the main artery, and then begin our ascent once Yara returns.

Venture to the Depths, Day 14

Timo has wandered off again, leaving me alone to walk the arteries as I await Xavi and Yara’s return. I swear sometimes I hear rumbling, like the great transitways are running once again, but it is surely my imagination.

I long for home.

— Hollan Helgur