Speculation

Though many try to move through the darkness of fear and nightmare, not all succeed. In fact most answers are simple gateways to millions of new questions.

When you talk to someone in Orting and you ask them what is there to do, most will say "Absolutely nothing" But that is simply not true. It isn't their faults for lying. You must refrain from jumping to this conclusion. Most people don't know what happens beneath their very feet. However if by chance you ask the right person then they might just tell you what is really happening. If you are lucky, they will show you one of the four secret entrances to the vast forgotten under-city that the town of Orting was really named for.

A vast and vacant metropolis, bridges criss cross through the air, great halls blasted with frigid air. And tunnels, devoid of any markings at all, they span for miles and miles. My colleagues and I hypothesize that Orting is only one of many underground cities all connected by a vast network of tunnels stretching across the globe. Part of an ancient civilization lost to history.

It is not just speculation, supposedly there are myths across the land of such locations. The lost city of Svenz in Germany, Hel in Scandinavia, Hades in Greece. And no doubt many more places that my colleagues have not either located or theorized yet. I have had the fortune of knowing a man who has explored one such city. Victor T. Halls, has shared with me his experience in Svenz. Most of it makes sense. But some things he speaks of seems to be mere fantasy. 

Victor claims that deep in Svenz was a dark deity who killed his friends and turned one of them into a slave of some sorts. Clearly a fiction, but I must admit I have heard many a tale of men gone mad, or made terrified of the dark after adventuring into one of the lost cities. I personally do not believe it is an elder god, just merely the human mind. But none the less we have gathered as much knowledge on these gods as we could. 

Our organization has been around for decades. Recording tales of the strange as well as we can. Some of us publicize our findings so as to hide our research in plain sight. With the knowledge we have gained we have decided we need to mount a search party into the under-city Orting. Even as I write this, preparations are being made. A party of investigators is being put together, so far I am the only one among my colleagues who has agreed to go with them. I assume it is because I hold the least belief in the "mythic beings" that inhabit these cities.

I must return to my studies now, it is my goal is to use as much of my knowledge as possible to protect the team who go with me, so that as many of them may live their lives to the fullest. I will not lose anyone in Orting, no matter what.

Signed

~Dr. Simon J. Coachmen~

Author's Note

Go ahead with all your dark fury, if you see something that you think I may have done wrong. Go ahead and tell me. If I did something right, definitely tell me. It is much appreciated.

Reviews

[spaekona]

The concept is really good, it's a kind of Lovecraftian sounding build-up and I'm digging it. I think the descriptions of Orting could be written a little better, and some of it could be condensed/cut out to have a better flow. Very, however, and must are words that a lot of authors tend to overuse without realizing it. It makes it sound like the Dr. who's writing it is an author more than he does a man creating a log of the adventure he's about to go on. I would figure this character out. If you have anyone you've based him off of think of how they speak, or if you could find someone who speaks the way you picture him pay attention to the kind of words they use.
You've got to make your own style with it so I hope you don't take my suggestions personally because you have a good style so far. I think it could be improved if you focused more on gripping the audience with your character and getting a small sense of foreboding or doubt going with him. Show the contrast between him and the other members of his organization by telling things they've said and either his doubt or his observation that they truly are perturbed by what they think they'll find. If you do that then he'll describe the city more naturally, it'll basically write itself. And you'll draw the audience into feeling curious about the city themselves.