While it wasn't without some hiccups, after two weeks of troubleshooting and some minor ges, the cableway was ready for some initial tests. So, I started tests by loading rocks into the carriers on the line. While I was initially nervous, after a few hours without a problem with dozens of carriers on the line having made two round trips, I started to get less worried.
After a few more days of simir tests, I sidered it safe enough to ride along myself, whided up being quite the iing experienbsp; While most of the view was obscured by trees fnking the lift, higher up the mountain the lift rises higher tharees to help prevent the copious snowfall from damaging the cableway. As a result, I got a pretty view for the st half-mile or so, overlooking the valley where our city and two vilges are located.
From here, it's very clear that we've actually done an incredible amount of work, thinking ba what the valley was decades ago. From the artificial tidepool, the sea wall, the salt evaporation ponds, and a few meical facilities by the o, then to the fields fnking the road to the city, the research facility, and the terraces along part of the valley, and even further up where the dam is and the vilges are located with their own fields cleared. It's a lot to take in, and it's a hard view to see normally.
Once I made it up to the top, I took two hours, went and grabbed a tainer of crystal sg, and rode the cableway back down. Afterwards, I took ahree days iing the cable and all the pylons for any points of before deg that the whole thing was ready for use. The 8-foot crystal will be done growing at the start of fall, so I decided I could use the cableway to start sending down the spare crystal sg that I won't need.
Since I'll need more facility workers anyway to start handling mana crystal pos moving forward, I decided that I should take the time to hire them now, and have them help me move the material as their first job. They, just like all the other demons w in the research facility, were required to move to the facility, and keep everything fidential. Ultimately, the process of moving crystal sg took just over 12 days, and most of that time was actually manual transport to either end of the cableway. I had a demon at either end doing loading and unloading, and then a few that would transport the material to and from either station.
Then, after we had pleted that task, I informed them that we'd be hauling the 8-foot crystal down the mountain manually in a few days. Food measure though, I also asked Zaka and one of the demon gorils to help, given their exceptional strength. Just like previously, my pn is to extract the crystal, then coat it in a yer of stone so that we more safely transport it. Though I did think of something iing that I'll try a with a smaller crystal after we move the big one down to the old bathhouse.
Thankfully, moving the crystal down to the bathhouse went off without a hitch, and before long, you could feel the familiar warmth spread bato the city, as it had before the mana surge broke all our surface crystals. It's almost tempting to leave it here and work on a new crystal instead, given how feels, but that's just asking to waste all this material again if another mana surge occurs. So, while it paio do so, after winter ends, I'll be removing it from the bathhouse to tinue growing it.
As for the thing that I wao test, it came out to be a failure. I had tested on one of our smaller 2-foot crystals whether or not my thermal regution would let me pull directly fre mana crystals. The result was far worse than I had imagined would be the worst case. I had thought, at worst, maybe I'd get shocked, or feel some pain, but that would be it. Instead, I seem to have damaged my ability to store mana slightly. As soon as I noticed what was happening I pulled away from the crystal.
In short, my thermal regution didn't actually prevent some other form of damage, but it did help prevent me from feeling the heat which would probably have normally been hot enough to indicate I was being hurt. Since I essentially had an unlimited supply of mana, I could keep up with whatever heat was building up in my body as a result of the massive surplus of mana. It did not, however, prevent whatever in my body that handles mana from getting damaged.
I should normally, at my current level, have 2289 maximum mana, but instead, it's sitting at 2211. I'll be keeping a close eye on it, to see if it heals, or if I've irrevocably damaged my mana supply. I don't regret the test though, sihe positive payoff that could have occurred would have been signifit. If thermal regution had prevented any injury iter, I could have directly wielded areme amount of mana at a time, which would have let me do all kinds of things that would normally be impossible.
On a lighter he dwarves have pleted their ship already, and there is still aire season before they head out. So, while quite a few of them are just rexing, more are w than previously, trying to earn a bit more money for themselves before they head out. Sinany things are ahead of schedule, I'm going to talk with Zaka about trying some new imp summoning ideas.
Zaka was surprisingly opposed to a lot of my ideas for imp summoning. After some discussion, I uood why, though I didn't agree with it fully. He has better memories of being an imp than most of the demons on the isnd even though his memories of it are older than others. While they're still somewhat blurry, he remembers being in a small cage being fed minimal scraps for robably equates to a few weeks before he became a goblin.
That description alone makes me think that, indeed, without the fight or flight survival instinct, many of the imps would actually choose to prestige at least once before being a goblin, or even something more. However, he seems to have some trauma reted to being trapped in a small cage with minimal iion. I find it quite illogical though that he then decides that the better alternative is a fight to the death with other imps, though he does value individual freedom quite a bit, which is probably also a sequence of those traumatic memories.
If we get an opportunity to talk to other demons from the demon ti at some point, I'd be very ied in seeing what their actual culture looks like. Zaka lived in it for a minimal time before ing here, so while he knows some of it, our culture is probably signifitly distinct from theirs.
I'm beholden to all of his demands, since he's the only summoning source we have. I eventually vinced him to let me proceed with some imp summonis, though getting things prepared for them is going to take a while. In order to get him to agree to some isotioed tests, I had to also agree to make the ditions exceptionally fortable for the imps. Meaning they're essentially getting summoned in a room with as much space as a goblin would get in an apartment, and they'll be provided more food than they need, as well as barred windows to see other imps and/or whoever is going to be watg them around the cloake sure they have enough food.
These stiputions do remove one important aspect of the test that I wao do, which was reted to full isotion. My is that if the imps see each other evolve, it'll influehem to choose to evolve as well, or seeing other, bigger demons might also cause the same desire. Though I suppose we actually do want them to evolve quicker on bance, so that probably isn't a big problem.
So, for our first test, I want to excavate an area underground where we have 12 fairly rge chambers surrounding a tral stairway where we watch them. Each chamber will also have the ability to see into the other chambers in a few pces, and we'll provide plenty of food through a lockable fp into the chambers. Thankfully, Zaka didn't also demand that we provide them with ptes or anything, saying "They're still imps, they eat each other on the floor, they eat provided food there too."