After the revised testing procedures involving ground birds were fihe new, 36-inch fluorite doped with iron finished growing. Well, it didn't actually grow as intended. While the beginning of the crystal seemed to grow as intended, it fractured into multiple smaller growths off the top, meaning we really only had a singur 18-inch crystal, and tons of smaller ones. While I could have potentially used the 18-inch crystal, I decided to break it down, make some ges, and try again.

  So, I tinkered with a few ges to the growth chamber. I extehe growth time to 20 days from the 18 it was set to before, and I modified the shape of the furnace portion. The furnace previously formed a ring around the chamber, desigo equally heat it. However, based on the fact that the small crystals started to precipitate on the faces of the rge crystal, I adjusted the furnace shape to be a diamond, matg where the crystal faces should grow. Hopefully this will result iemperature he crystal surface being more even, though I'll have to wait 20 days to find out if that actually helps or not.

  Those modifications took two days, and in the middle of making the ges, I received word of another development happening. About a quarter of the dwarves that we rescued from Kao's isnd have decided that they're tired of waiting to go back to the mainnd. They've decided that they'd prefer to risk the trip in oes like we made to rescue them, rather than wait any longer.

  I think they expected either Zaka or I to object, based on how they decided to present themselves for the situation. They gave noti the m that they wao hold a meeting with Zaka and myself, and showed up en masse at the time of the meeting, with many appearing disgruntled or upset. sidering that it was a minority of the dwarves we rescued, I'm guessing that they'd thought we were taking advantage of them somehow, and that we could, at any time, simply reinstall a rge mana crystal, and allow them to return.

  I mean, it's not actually that unreasonable of an assumption, if you sider the kinds of teology that they've been seeiing structed in the past few years. Though making exceptionally rge mana crystals isn't really oable unless we find another deposit of crystals or they wait an unknown number of years until we get enough argon to effectively use our existing supplies.

  I expined our situation, and how we're also attempting to get rge mana crystals online again, and while they seemed to at least be less immediately upset, they still wao return. So, I offered that we'd help them build whatever boats they need for their trip. I also let them know that they could exge our money for dwarven to return home with, and that I'd send them back with enough spare to pay for a message to be sent back via the elven uniethod, so they could let other dwarves here know if the journey is safe or not if they make it back.

  While I appreciate having the spare dwarven workforce, which has been signifitly speeding up our mining and stru projects, I'm not looking to make our retionship with the dwarven try any worse than it's already bee. That doesn't mean, however, that I'm not scious of the potential for spying. While I doubt that any of the dwarves could recreate any of our more advanced maes from only seeing their outsides, I don't want to take any ces.

  After the dwarves left the meeting, I talked with Zaka about getting some of the military to guard a few locations around the clobsp; I have three processes that I want to keep secret, and now that some of the dwarves are pnning on leaving, they might be ined to try to find some extra information that they could sell bae. I keep the vacuum chambers for mana crystals sealed, but I still want some guards at the cave on the mountain to protect that. I also want the stairs in the b guarded, to protect the fluorite growth process fr eyes. Finally, I also want the cryogenics facility guarded.

  Thanks to the dwarven civil war, I've already seen how much of an upset to existing power structures some of our teologies have caused. Part of the reason I built the b away from everything else was for safety reasons, but now, I'm also seeing that it's probably useful to keep things secretive for strategic purposes as well. I'll o talk with the workers that I've already hired to work on these processes, and see if they've already leaked information. For the most part, other than the demons who seem to be addicted to gambling, the demons and dwarves don't actually i all that mubsp; The demons who do gamble also don't really hold down jobs for long, so none of them have worked long term in any of my facilities that are important, so the odds of any major information having leaked is quite low.

  Things are only going to get more plicated in the few years, because I have quite a few teology ideas that will utilize our artificial fluorite, and each teology will require more and more people w to produce the maes utilizing the products. Thinking about it that way, I should talk to Zeb about building out a vilge around the b spabsp; Realistically, it would funore as a military base, and I'd want it to be walled and stationed with guards, just like the city.

  Zeb was less eager to help build out walls around the b's area as pared to the fluorite facility from before. Admittedly, we do have a goblin in critical dition now, and the wall is less about productivity, and more about safety. There are other s as well reted to building a vilge here, even if it's a small one. There isn't a very steady source of water here, for starters. However, I vinced him that during the spring, when the reservoir is uo be dug out further, rather than have those teams go to build out the aquedud road, they should e here to help build out a wall.

  I was also able t him around to the idea of building housing over here. The b does have it's own mana crystal underground, so it won't be any slower than building in the main city, and once demons move from the city to here, it's funally the same as building iy, as far as total popution is ed.

  The b is closer to the city than some of the other vilges, so s our water there, at least temporarily, shouldn't be a . I proved out that we could build a well for water, and in fact, it's still here, though it does o be repaired for it tain. I would just say we should build another aqueduct down at this altitude to supply our water, but the valley would be somewhat useless to gather from, since just uphill in that valley is our sulfide ore roasting facility, so all the water that we'd collect would likely be tainted by lead and arsenic.

  However, we could dig a few water els into the hillside to get a small stream of water out of the mountain, and thee a smaller reservoir that we could pull that water from. Even a very small stream should produough water for us, as long as it's collected for the whole day. Which means I'm going to be juggling a few different jobs at a time for a little while. I'll o keep up with our fluorite supply to make sure we tio grow crystals to fuel produoving forward, I also will o design our initial ehat use our heat fluorite whe our first rge crystal.

  I also o pn out what this walled in area will look like, where the housing should go, and he of an area I want enpassed. In addition it will need a reservoir, and water tunnel. Finally, I'll also want to build a much rger cryogenics facility over here, and potentially deission the o the reservoir. If I'm going to be sg everything up, I may as well shut dowher facility ohe rger one is online, since I'd prefer to keep this sort of teology secret. Which means I'm actually going to need a lot of space walled in over here, sihere are quite a few facilities that need built, if you sider I want to have a dedicated bcksmith and smelting area where we cast repceable parts for stirling and steam engines.