After 22 days of teise, we didn't find any mana crystals in the unnel. However, I did mark a few points of ihat we e back to at a ter time. One of the points looks promising as another sulfide ore deposit. The uself is tributing somewhat to water flow down to the tral area and out the two side tunnels as well, which was one of the added bes I'd hoped we'd get from doing this. At the very least, there is now a small trickle of freshwater into the tral area.

  I'm thinking of potentially building a small ste tank for the fresh water to fill before it runs out of the tral area to work as a buffer. That would allow a rger number of individuals to tinually stay in the tral area without needing to wait for water to colle a cup to drink. I do wonder somewhat what effect these tunnel's water drainage is likely having on the spring sources above ground. We're essentially draining the aquifers at a lower level, so we're probably killing a few surface springs by doing this. Oher hand, we're also likely preventing some amount of water waste that would simply run to the o, so it's hard to gauge the effect of this process.

  As fetting the popution ready for the eagles and the new bathhouse, I started going neighborhood by neighborhood iy at around diime, and talked to those who would listen. Between word of mouth spread at work areas, and general dealings between individuals, it only took twenty days before most of the popution was aware of the uping status quo ge. The handful of remaining dwarves from Kao's isnd were optimistic at the prospect of a proper ship ing to pick them up ohe threat of leviathans abates.

  I'm personally going to go double check all the different preparations around the isnd to make sure we're ready. I always dey moving the crystal if the need arises. A few months of ether and nitrous oxide should provide us with an ample stockpile for attempting to handle a few eagles that get out of lihough eae will likely e a siderable amount to properly move them.

  I spent 68 days cheg that everything was in order. The s that the demons had built were impressively natural looking. I was a little worried they might not be able to make ving s, so I'm gd to see their success. Acc to them, there are 88 s pced strategically around the higher parts of the mountain. The paths up to the s could still use a little work, but they're manageable currently.

  The feeding area is , with dozens of food bowls with subterranean access and ste. I'm ied in seeing how that ends up funing, though it seems somewhat dangerous to observe and work there. The bathhouse area is impressive and already has water flowing throughout it, just waiting for the crystal to be installed. All the various chemical processes were also proceeding nicely, so I'm fident to say we install the crystal when it's finished growing in about a month.

  On the fifth day of the new year, we began the process to install the finished crystal. The whole thing ended up being a five day endeavor. First, I had to break the apparatus I used to grow it. I quickly became aware that, even deep underground here, I o sheath it in a stone c almost a foot thibsp; The apparatus it grew in had thick walls so I hadn't noticed before, but even being close to it felt oppressively dangerous, like the energy emanating from it would arc out if I got too close.

  O was sheathed, we opehe artificial fl yers, then attached cabling and slowly hoisted the massive crystal up and out from the growth area. The crystal with it's sheath weighed at least a dozen tons, probably more. Moving something of that size took a siderable amount of time, even with roads and a e.

  Further, even in the sheath, ohe crystal was on the surface, it was clear that this wasn't like crystals we'd had in the past. There was a siderable mana pressure in the surrounding area. It wasn't so much as to be unfortable, but it was far beyond anything we'd previously felt.

  When we finally got it moved into the bathhouse and positioned, and I removed the stone sheath, a few things happened. First, as soon as a small amount of the sheath was removed, the crystal was blindingly bright, and the water itself began to almost crackle with energy. Later that day, it became apparent that the crystal had likely been releasing some amount of ultraviolet light in addition to visible light, because a few hobgoblins developed sunburn. Myself, and other harder skinned individuals didn't notiy ive effects, and even those with the sunburns healed shortly thereafter.

  However, we o make some ges to the bathhouse iion area. In the following three days, we o add some steam vents, sine of the water was actively boiling away while iing with the crystal. All the ovens iy also started going haywire, produg drastically more heat than they previously did. Ultimately, we o remove one of the heat crystals, and also give it a slight insutio prevent it from overcooking items.

  Even further away from the city, mana engines began running much more vigorously than before. A few entirely broke dowo being overstressed. It'll probably take a month or two to properly re-tool all the various mana driven manufacturing lio be in accordah the new ambient mana levels.

  Given the sheer amount of mana iion happening, I had the atmospheric rec team spread out around the isnd to begin taking readings with manascopes. Over the course of twelve days, the mana readings were nothing short of astounding. Throughout the half of the city close to the mana crystal, mana levels were literally off the chart for the high capacity manascopes I'd made, putting it well over 50 bsp; By the far side of the city, they only got down to 43 bsp; Even on the furthest side of the isnd, the readings were still at 10 CU, which is about 5 times the regur mana level that we would expect at noon.

  At some point, I'll o make an even higher capacity mana scope to allow us to measure these incredibly high ambient mana levels. Unfortunately, that will have to wait, because we've developed a much bigger problem, beyond the o repair and adjust mana-powered devices. Leviathans.

  I was shocked when I saw them. Not just one, but dozens of them. They never came to the shallow waters, probably due to their size, but they were all fairly close to the isnd, and staying there. Horrifyingly, different kinds of leviathans would csh with each other, and it seemed like it was only a matter of time before it caused a problem for us. Giant eel like leviathans fighting huge crabs, and a massive fish-like things brutalizing something that looked like a massive jellyfish.

  If it hysical bat, it'd be less ing, but their fighting is occasionally atuated by a massive outburst of magibsp; Whether it's something that sounds like a massive explosion, or a huge number of fish suddenly washing up on shore all cooked alive, it's a serious problem.

  The only thing that I think of is that the increased mana levels from such a rge crystal extend out into the o, and are actually attrag the leviathans here. I'd also wager that beyond the increased mana levels, there is probably a wider area of low mana. Based omospherifo we'd gathered previously, winter has the lowest ambient mana levels due to it's ce with eclipses. When we had smaller crystals, we probably deprived the nearby o of more mana overall, redireg it over the isnd. In wihe levels got low enough that the leviathans, like the eagles, were no longer fortable in the area. If prevailing currents run towards the mainnd, it would expin their absence, and why the eagles felt the o migrate.

  Now, we're probably geing something like a dead zone around our isnd. If I had to guess, it'd look something like a bullseye, with our isnd and the nearby o having high mana, and a wide zone of low mana. All the leviathans have since moved inward, and are noed, unwilling to move out through the low mana area to escape.

  That also probably means that the mainnd will think it's safe to travel here when it isn't, though they'll probably be able to safely turn away given the visibility of leviathan fights . We're going to have to sy these leviathans soon, or else we're going to have a problem. The area they seem to g to is about a ten mile extension out from our isnd in each dire, and they're actively destroying the aquatic ecosystem we rely on for food.