Entry 26 - Minkata

Missed the chance to go yesterday when Minkata came on line (school play to attend), but I didn't miss tonight. Cate Alexander's conference in front of the library made it pretty obvious where to find the book, so there I went. Beside the linking book is another book full of some very large D'ni numbers - obviously some sort of key to the Age.

Minkata

The fun thing was that Corbin and Garamoth were both on-line. Corbin popped over and we went through the Age together. I invited Garamoth too (whom Corbin have never met) but he crashed when he linked in so decided that he was going to play solo at least for tonight, probably a good idea.

I thought Corbin and I did pretty good. The Age is a huge desert which seems to have no borders or paths anywhere, which certainly makes deciding which way to go a challenge. There are a few very large bones scattered about as well as a number of flags, some numbered some not. Corbin found a small cavern at the bottom of which was a large stone with Bahro carvings, though the words "Find your path in the stars" could clearly be read. Corbin clicked the middle and we linked to a spectacular, star filled, night version of the Age (I'll get a pick next time). In the center of the day version is a cage in which there is another linking stone. In the night version, the cage is smashed allowing access to the stone. Pressing the stone gets you inside the cage in the day version, but we couldn't see anything to do, so we linked back to the night version.

The two of us then began some, more or less, random exploration. We found another bone and flag, but our running around (with significant lost time) amounted to little else - all and all, though, I felt it was a pretty productive night.

So, I decided to call it night. I find when you work as a team, its more difficult to be patient. I think we both worried that we were boring the other person, so we spent more time running around and less time thinking about what we were doing. I'll have to come back and begin a more systematic mapping of both versions - there's obviously more to find and there must be meaning behind the flags, numbers, and, perhaps, the bones. It seems to me in both Ages that the stars and suns can be used to help keep our directional bearings. Of course, if they move, that idea is screwed.

I'll snap some more pics too. The night version is something.

HC