The Magellan Linden Chronicles

10:16 AM

Got a late start this morning. Woke to the sound of gunfire. Carla was trying to kill the sun for "making it hurt" (her head I guess). Got boat packed, made Adrian row again. heh heh

A poem:
Adrien, tech guy,
rows the boat to impress Her.
Fish catching Eagle.

Ugh, I hate waves. 

10:01 PM

Tonight we are bidding this village a fond farewell.  Milo put together a seaweed souffle, and we toasted the stilts with ruou can. We want to get an early start tomorrow - I don't know why, but someone told me that.

4:39 PM

Randall is now fluent enough to read most text around here. We have not thoroughly explored the Stilt village yet, as it is turning out to be more like a stilt city. However, Randall claims that there is evidence of more advanced civilization on the land - maybe that is where the natives have gone. We will wrap things up here, and go forth.

I think the crew is getting a little bit suspicious - I don't usually leave a place before it is fully Explored, but LIER is coming in to "restore" the stilt village and our landing site so that they can be settled. I am tempted to get Carla to leave some "surprises" behind, but I suppose that it will be enough work for the LIER crew without my slowing them down. They will need more time to rebuild than I do to explore.

8:09 PM

In honor of silkworms, we are drinking Mezcal - the final resting place of the Prionoxystus robiniae.

10:38 AM

Milo has finished analyzing the soil here. He found evidence that this region was impacted by a giant meteor some 50,000 years ago. Pre-impact, the region was just shallow ocean, but the force of a giant space rock raised the land around here.

I got hit by a space rock last year. Damn thing took my eye right out. Good to know I have something in common with this land.

The entire region was covered in vaporized rock, burying all the animal and plant life that existed before. Milo says this means that this could mean we are sitting on top of a rich reserve of primoleum! As rich as the mainland! And it is all mine.  Miiiiiiiiinne. I used the radio to contact my broker and told him to keep an eye out for prime real estate in Nova Albion, daddy's struck it rich!

I will be sure to remember all the little people who made it all possible.  Keep true to the street. Word.

Mood: Wealthy
Music: Ryan Downe, "Comets and Stars"

4:13 PM

Randall has provided me with a translation for some of the text we found in the temple. I guess it explains some of the moth stuff. Who woulda guessed?

Page 1:
This universe began when Mother Moth laid her egg. Out of the egg hatched a caterpillar which fed on the old universe. Once it finished, it spun a pupa, which is the world. Out of the pupa, emerged Mother Moth, whose wings fill the sky and decorate the heavens. She will lay another egg, and it will happen again.

The first people were spun out of the caterpillar’s silk when he created the world pupa. The world was cold and dark, because there was no sun or moon or stars. They tried to go into the pupa where it was warm, but the caterpillar chased them out, and told them “There is no room for you here, only room for me.”

So the first people had to stay on the surface, where they starved, and grew cold. Their wings fell off, and they lost legs and antennae. Their eyes grew weak, and they lost most of their hair. They were close to death when Mother Moth emerged wet and weak from the pupa.

Awesome.

Mood: Reverent

9:18 PM

Milo has classified several new types of plant. The ocean floor here is very fertile, he is taking soil samples and trying to figure out why.

Milo has been working the last 40 years as a gardener for a British aristocrat. He justifies his Exploring habit by bringing back seeds of the strange plants he finds and getting them to grow in the garden. It's amazing, he can take the most exotic plant in the world and make it look like a hedge.

It is good to have someone around who knows how to test them for toxicity - especially when your food explodes with your ship. Speaking of which, I think it is seaweed (pardon me, Kelp) casserole tonight. Unless Carla has caught a fish, which would go well with the Lambanog.

8:27 PM

The front door of the temple was locked, crowbars are our friends. Phew, they could have used some mothballs, that place was full of the things. We found some books, Randall is working on them now. He says he has figured out the word "the" and it is only a matter of time now before he is fluent.

The art has a lot of allusions to the sky, wings, and the moon. I also found what I assume is some kind of sacramental beverage - not bad, it has a bit of a kick.

Adrien spent the day making a spear-gun for Carla for "fishing."  Cupid works the other way around bud.

Mood: Unholy
Music:  The Dandy Warhols, "The Gospel"

8:54 PM

At the center of the town is a larger, better built structure. Judging by the iconic art covering it, I would guess it is a temple. I learned a long time ago that you never Explore a temple at night. Walking into some dead culture's church with a torch made out of rags and a dead ape's thighbone is just asking for a heart attack. Nothing like a flickering shadow looking thirty feet over you to put the fear of god into you and scare all that Uisge Beatha you drank out of you.

Milo served us some seaweed soup tonight. I think he just scooped it out of the ocean and put it in a pot. Carla tried to stab hers.

Mood: Dark
Music:  Outkast, "Where Are My Panties"

7:23 PM

Well, we know that there are natives, the seagulls couldn't have pooped this place together. The ocean floor here is very shallow, and an entire town sits on long stilts. It feels ancient, but it is in decent repair. Most of it is made of crude building materials - wood and thatch, but here and there a wall or stilt will be reinforced with metal.

Milo is getting set up to dive and check out some of the plant life on the sea floor. I think Randall saw some murals with what looked like a written language on them - maybe we can learn a little something about the people who built this before they come back and find us sleeping in their beds.