So it's been a minute, we have a bunch to catch up on and so lets start where we left off.
As you may remember from our last recollection report, we had run into a cave system of stale air while clearing out the area. We fixed it by jerry-rigging some stone pipes (It was very difficult) to pump the air up over the mountain.
Due to the very mountainous area we have found ourselves in, there are also deep pits between each mountain and normally filled with snow and ice. We’ve run the pipe into there, deep into the snow.
We’ve also done that with the leftover stone and gravel, one of these pits have become our dumping ground where we chuck cubes of stone into it, we found that if six of us use Elemental Avatar to compress the stone as far down as it can into a cube then we can create highly dense stone that can take up little space.
Once we’re able to dispose of it properly then sure we’ll remove it from the natural ice and snow but for now our new base needs fresh air.
Once the stale air got removed we were able to get into the cave system. It looks like natural water or snow melt is leaking through here, from our ground level and from higher up the mountain. The cave system is rather typical of a large cave system, large underground areas, muddy floors, some pillars from the stalactites and stalagmites combining. It's a pity that we had inadvertently damaged this underground area but if it's any consolation there is nothing living in here.
Speaking of living, it's like the mana in here is non-existant or barely there. Only really present in small amounts of water, it's as close to Earth caves or environment I’ve ever seen. Not that I’ve seen much of this world.
The cave, while tall, is also long and slopes down away from us. Over the next few days we steadily moved more and more of the stone away, creating an arched hallway with a single elevated road along the middle with the sides not reaching the walls. Instead, along the road of compressed stone there are small staircases that lead down to what will eventually be other rooms.
While this is supposed to be just a side entrance that might be reused in the future there are plans to create a “Main Road” for the headquarters which is quickly becoming a city in scope thanks to feature creep. Anyone who works with software knows that eventually you need to limit the scope of your ideas, otherwise your product will have dozens upon dozens of features and then you have no idea where to start.
The plans for an Irish pub and a few other fast food places instead of the cafeteria idea we originally had is either the others really wanting to RP as the owner of a tavern or don’t like the idea of a central cafeteria. I was quickly voted out.
There are also plans to move upwards to the top of the mountain, having a large lookout area with a section of glass disguised as stone from the outside is a dream for some of us. Maybe we’ll chuck a chapel/lookout platform up there?
We’ve also been brainstorming about what stuff we’ll need, Mr Original will probably want vehicles and such so we have plans for a ring track for land vehicles and an air tunnel to test air vehicles. Then there needs to be a hanger for those.
Others are focusing on the more practical things, where we look at geothermal energy plants deep underground and a massive library/research area.
Another thing we’ve been working on is a path out of the Oasis.
We’ve sent a team of four out towards the south east which according to our maps is closest to normal land and not massive ice mountains. They were making a steady pace for a while but quickly ended up surrounded by massive storms, shooting ice spears, sudden drops in mana, extremely cold weather and slight hypothermia.
They ended up turning around and arrived back to Oasis battered and bruised. We’ve begun thinking of creating a tunnel system but unsure if it could be lead back to us by… I don’t know, seeing if it's rock that’s been Powered back together?
Kinda surprised that people haven’t found this place. Why not just tunnel through it, much easier than going around via sea ports… Then again, not like I don’t know if they have done that before or if there is another reason for it. Not really anything I need to worry about right now.
End of Report
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Seven here, leader of the exposition towards the abandoned town at the opposite side of the oval oasis. I have Numbers 8, 9 and 10 with me also with a pack full of food and spare clothes. The plan is to get down there, map things out and bring back anything of worth.
We followed the trail that Numbers 1 and 2 had followed in the morning and taking a break for an early lunch as we passed the 20km mark. Plenty of cloud cover and forest surround us, the chattering of birds and screeches of animals in the forest along the water a sort of music that would make people who say “I listen to anything” suddenly wish for silence.
After eating a quick lunch of fruit and meat we continue on our way, we arrive at the opposite side, there are some minor evidence of other people, some wooden planks, a very rotten wooden canoe or fishing boat, a small shack holding some more rotting fishing boats and a slight trail leading further inland towards the edge of the mountains.
We continue onwards after a short break to investigate these and see if there is anything else around here but decide to follow the trail some more. Overall we found that the river is around 30km long and another possibly 5km to the edge of the oval. Overall we figure we had walked approx 35km in about 7 and a half hours.
As we near the mountain edge, the forest starts to become less dense which we had expected but it is a lot less denser than we had thought compared to the forest on our end. We found a couple of tree stumps that answered that question.
We finally arrive at a village as the trail we followed becomes more and more like a solid dirt path, like a fire trail in the bush, stony ground, flat and wide, not yet reclaimed by the forest even though it is trying.
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The trail has us arriving from the west of the village and dead ahead of us is a large log house with a chimney, as we approach the path splits off towards the mountain which allows us to see more of the village.
The village is completely abandoned, trees are sprouting up and vines cover the walls of the buildings, sometimes breaking through as the weather over the years has made cracks in the walls and roof.
We slowly move through the village entering when we can, each building is run down and falling apart. Kitchens empty, beds filled with old leaves, ferns and other soft bedding materials that now are long dead and crunchy. From what we can tell however, these people did not leave in a hurry. No rotting food, no animal furs or pelts except for one or two rotting in a corner, no mess or signs of a rush. It’s like one day they just decided to leave…
The buildings are fairly typical, almost in a Tudor style of house with wooden or stone walls, thatched roofs and some windows. We found all kinds of buildings including some specialty ones like a blacksmith, farm pens, storage, tannery and more. All long abandoned and most missing things that you would expect to see left behind. I can imagine a blacksmith leaving a 50/60kg anvil behind if you’ve got all those mountains in the way to make it back.
All in all we found nineteen houses/huts with one along a more dirt trail into the woods a little till we found a small hunting lodge next to a slow river, must have missed it on our way in or it goes underground after a time. Looks like it is snow melt from the mountains as not only are there no fish but it is freezing cold and crystal clear.
In the far right side of the village there is a small wooden bridge leading over the river towards what we can see are more animal pens, but the bridge is damaged and the pens empty. In the top left of the village there is an entrance to a mine but it has long been boarded shut, filled to the brim with rocks and stone, possibly from a cave in?
We attempted to move some stone out of the way but only made it more unstable, so we decided to leave it for now.
The village is empty, we are going to spend the next few days looking at the village doing a more thorough search but for now it's getting late. We find a larger house that is not as damaged and make camp, not lighting a fire in the fireplace for now but a small fire on a dirt section of the floor, visible thanks to rotting floor boards.
We spent the next few days doing a search through each building and found only small things that were thankfully well preserved.
In one house we find a book filled with handwritten writing, in what language we don’t know. It’s about 500 pages long and a portrait of a young man and a smiling woman holding a babe which was wrapped in several cloths, wrapped in blankets and in a trunk.
Some other smaller things are found like another book that has slowly been decaying, rusted tools, damaged crystals and beautiful carvings long since damaged by weather.
We decided to grab those items and bring them back for proper preservation, for now we added them to our Inventory, there they will stay safe until we can get someone to look at them.
Our job done, we make the long trek back towards camp along the other side of the river, passing a small river where the snow melt flows into the main river. As we had left late that day it gets late and is late afternoon by the time we finally reach our side of the shore when the Interface suddenly stops working as expected, causing us to start sprinting.
End of Report
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Number 5 here, we seem to have an emergency on our hands.
The Interface suddenly stopped working as expected, glitching out and not allowing us to swap windows, our Powers are working fine however.
As we group up to discuss, Number 7 and his team of four rush in having just now arrived back from their adventure in the village.
“What's happening?” says 7 as they run inside the now carved out cave system/road and join the circle of clones discussing the situation.
“Don’t know” says 1, “Our Interface suddenly stopped working.”
“It must be a Michael thing.” says 13 thinking aloud.
“It could be us, maybe the lack of mana in the cave is causing issues?” adds 2.
“Let's assume that for the time being it is us. What do we do?” I say to try and keep them on track, I can see 1 lost in thought, obviously thinking of the other possibility.
“Well if it's just us then we need to figure out the limitations of it and if we can fix it, if not then we wait for Mr 0 to redo us with the new Powers.” says 12.
“One, what do you think?” asks 11, who he’s standing next to.
“I’m more worried if this is a Michael thing, it could be that he’s in a situation where something is blocking him or the Interface. But there's no way for us to know. Hell it could be that the connection we have to Michael is just breaking down and the Interface is that breakdown manifest.”
“Don’t think so” says 2 jumping in, “Interface should be still ours, like how we are able to do all our other Powers just fine. The only things I can think of is that either there is an environmental issue here or something to do with Michael.”
“And as we have been away for the last few days but it just happened to us at the same time and out of proximity then its probs Michael.” says 7, bringing the conversation to a halt, for a moment we stand there in the cold underground of the cave lit only by flickering flames we have set up.
“5, you're the tactical commander, what do you think?” says 1. We had decided to keep the style of having Number 1 be overall leader and I strategic leader. I’ve even been studying strategy and fictions to see if they can give us an edge, but I don’t know what we can do from here…
“We wait, it could very well be a temporary situation but there is no way for us to be sure. So here's what we’ll do.” I say, taking in a deep breath as a semblance of a plan comes to the forefront of my mind.
“We revisit the “Over the Misty Mountains” plan and try to cross the mountains back towards the sea. Then once we do we make a beeline for Oghqoa and see what we can find. If not then back to Farmers Rest, travel by ship if we can, hitch a ride if we can't.”
“In the meanwhile, until we figure out a definite method, we test our Powers and Interface as much as we can. Seven, I want you to take 2 and four more to go back to the village, find out how they got out. Maybe we can follow them.”
A silence falls over the guys as we think over that plan with some nodding in agreement. Glad that thats sorted.
“That mountain was almost impassable, I’m not sure what we could do differently” says 10, who was the leader of the original “Over the Misty Mountains” plan.
“Then we just need to figure something out, brainstorm and then face that literal storm. Realistically, the way our Powers are setup there is nothing else we can do except sit here and work on HQ. I’m gonna guess that none of you want to just sit around?”
The only response I get is the only one I need, a look of conviction on our identical faces, ready to fight our own battle while Michael fights his.
The days pass and eventually the Interface gets back to its usual self, but there is not much in celebration. Aside from a slight reduction in the number of clones looking for a path over these mountains we still are determined to get to Michael, we hope, really, really hope that it all works out. Maybe it’s already been resolved and I don’t have to come up with anything else, being the one in charge of these tactical and operational decisions is tough.