I told the refugee dwarves about the pn to send them back at the very start of spring. I also told them we'd do our best to support them in their endeavor to return home, but we'd leave the choice to them for their method of transport. I also presehem with two other options, if they were ied.

  First, wait six or seven years, aurn to the dwarven ti at that point. Sed, bee a citizen here and stay on the isnd. While I doubted any would take me up on that offer, I figured it'd be worth presenting, given how many years they've been here w and tributing to our success. I also told them that I wanted eadividual to make their decision to either leave, wait, or join us by the end of the month so we could have an accurate t of hoeople were going to o fit on whatever transport they choose.

  Obviously, many of the dwarves were ecstatic to finally be able to return home. Also iingly, a few of ur residents, like Karsh, said they wao send their now grown children back to the dwarven tio learn and make a life for themselves there, rather than here. I'd agreed to that previously, so I was alright with it, as long as they were fortable with the risks involved. There was, after all, no promise that everything would go acc to pn, and that travel may not actually be safe.

  While I waited for them to ultimately mull over their decisions, I went back to supervise and assist with strug the remaining pylons on our cableway, while als to plete the mana crystal groaratus at night.

  At the start of the month, I got the final ts for all the dwarves. As I expected, the majority of them wao go back to the mainnd. In fact, we're sending back more total dwarves than there are refugees. We have six dwarves who used to be children who are now grown who are heading back with the refugees. We have five dwarves who are staying here, well, really there are four, and then also Shasta who is staying until the st of the refugees leave.

  Those four all pn ourning to the mainnd ter, but after talking with Shasta, they're afraid that it won't actually be a safe journey. Apparently they were quite skittish when they were told they were going to be stationed on Kao's isnd as well. In fact, there were others like them, but most of them could be talked into returning, it was just these four who held out. Shasta told me that normally, they'd just be forced to ply and go back with the rest, but given how the st group's journey went, it was decided that they could stay until the opportunity.

  Somewhat iingly, there was at least oher dwarf arently had simir s, but they were a higher level individual, and they decided internally that they were too important to be left here, meaning we'll essentially be left with frunts and Shasta. I'm sure that'll slow down on our stru quite a bit. We do, after all, have dozens of dwarves that have been helping with some of our projects, with most of them being assigo the tunnel project.

  I expect it'll start slowing down well before they actually leave as well, sihey've decided they want to make a proper ship to leave on, rather than just longboats. I'd told them we'd help them, and after a bit of discussion with Zeb and Zaka, we settled on only charging half as much for their ship stru as we would normally charge for all the goods and bor. They're wele to use their own bor, obviously, but if they need ours for anything, it'll still cost some amount of money. I've also shown them a p a map where they cut trees to use for wood oher side of the isnd that would ultimately be beneficial to us as well if they cut them down.

  Given the political situatioween the dwarves and us, I also stated that they wouldn't be able to take our money with them. They trade it in for dwarven currency at a disted exge rate in our favor, or they take trade goods with them that we've been stockpiling at full pribsp; We have an excess of salt and paper that has been building up that I'd like to get rid of, after all. In the very unlikely event that they somehow mao actually buy all our trade goods and still have leftover mohen they get dwarven currency at full price.

  Simir to st time, I'll be sending them with a chest for Kao with enough dwarven for sending a message back to us describing their journey and any current happenings in the world. Their trip will probably use up the rest of our roofing supplies, but given our redueed for it, I think that's fine as long as they actually pay for them. They've worked hard, and while I don't kly how much wealth they've stored up, they tend to party a a lot so I really don't kly what to expect.

  I ended up w on the pylons for the remainder of spring, and fihe 12-foot mana crystal groaratus. With the crystal apparatus done, I'm no longer on a ch for time for that. While the cableway isn't quite do, at least the pylons got finished, but having it finished isn't a requirement to get the crystal down from the cave, and in fact, I think I'm going to avoid bringing it down the cableway, just for safety reasons. The only things left to build before the cableway is ready to test are the bullwheel, tensioner, and the two stations, and to then string the cable between them. Iween the seasons, I checked in on how everything has been going with the dwarves.

  As it turns out, they did, in fact, have quite a bit of money saved up. Ultimately, they'll almost certainly have enough money saved to fill their ship with trade goods, and after talking with Shasta, I agreed that as long as their ship is reasonably sized, then the remainder of their money could be exged at full price after they stock up on paper first. I did some snooping and found that while they did party quite a bit, a lot of it was in their gambling hall which, as I think about it, they ran, meaning they kept the wealth from it, along with ah that they probably won off of demons who were using the facility.

  That's actually going to end up being a nightmare to maintain ohey're gone. Oher hand, if we just let the gambling hall go unmanaged or into disarray, it's hard to say what the demons who've developed an addi to it will do. Some will probably get better, but others might get violent, that's also ign the fact that a rge amount of our dwarven citizens could occasionally be seen there, though I'm not sure how much of that was just due to having a rge amount of new dwarves to talk to.

  If I get the cable and going before winter, I'm going to start testing it by hauling down a lot of the spent crystal sg from before. Then, giveuation we find ourselves in with the dwarves leaving, I think I'll detour to doing a little bit of testing with better methods for imp summoning.

  I've been thinking for a little while now about the nature of summoning imps, as well as the situations I found myself in when I was an imp. Now, there are some differences, because I seem to be aio came to my imp form. All the other demons I talk to only have vague memories of emotions and hunger from when they were imps. Almost all of them were only an imp for a day or so, which probably tributes to that.

  I've got a few tests I'd like to du the matter such as summoning them in isotion with a plentiful supply of food, or, if possible, in an area with a mana infused pool of water. Ultimately, there are dozens of tests that could be ducted to see how the imps react, and whether it could improve our efficy at turning imps into productive members of society. Currently, we only really get about 1 goblin out of about 6 or 7 summons, though they do end up a gobliy quickly.

  Meanwhile, I didn't bee a lesser earth demon for aire year, and that was only after having killed one of iant lizards. There is probably a bao be struck reted to that, and it'll probably be quite the long experiment as a result. We really don't housands of imps sitting arouing food for a year or two before being productive members of our society, which is what would happen if they all just waited to evolve until they were forced to do so and we summo our maximum rate.