Pantaleon - Journey

At first light I began my journey to the caldera.  I brought my backpack filled with supplies some food, tools, my handy camera, and my digging tools.  Upon reaching the edge of the caldera I noticed a path leading into the volcano, slowly disappearing into darkness.  I slowly proceeded downward and retrieved my flashlight to shine a light, into the darkness.  As I walked down the path I got the feeling this journey would be difficult.

What felt like hours passed as I kept pressing on unsure of how long I had been hiking.  I began questioning if there was an end to this path, or if anything could even survive in such a place.  As the descent continued I grew weary, my feet were sore from hiking.  I found an alcove along the path with a cot to rest in.  It appears this civilization included rest areas.  After eating a small bit of food, exhaustion took me and I fell into a deep dreamless sleep.


Time.  I have lost my sense of time down here.  I awoke disoriented and confused  in overwhelming darkness.  Fear shot through me like a knife.  I felt trapped as if I were in a cage with no escape.  After a few seconds the fear dissipated and I remembered my purpose.  I grabbed my flashlight and decided to look down into the abyss to see how far I had progressed.  To my amazement I could see and ornate floor at the bottom of the shaft.  Eagerly, I proceeded further down toward the bottom of the shaft; there I could start documenting the symbols and textures of the shaft’s elaborate design.

To my surprise, as I approached the ground floor of the shaft I found Esto.  He told me he often came there to think as there has been a lot of issues in D'ni of late.  I began documenting the shaft.  Once complete I would be ready to continue my journey to D'ni.  It was then that Esto told me some devastating news.  The path between D'ni and the surface had been broken; to continue any further on foot would eventually lead to a dead-end.  There would be no way to progress on foot.

Esto said there was another way to reach my destination.  I was confused.  Esto asked if I retrieved the book from the Cleft.  I told him how I had found and kept a strange book but that I dared not use it.  He told me this was Relto; gave me two books: one blank and the other filled with strange symbols and told me to return home.  “Once you are home you must you copy the one book into the other.  Then use Relto.”  He told me that it would be my link home whenever I needed it and to be sure that I have the copied the book with me before I used Relto.  He told me to contact him once I was finished so he could explain how to meet again and then visit D'ni.