It's DONE! Well, it was actually done a couple of days ago, but the Pyramid of Many Wonders is *DONE! We each loaded a block, and Gumby put in the last one because he's the one who's been organizing. There was a great hush and sense of expectation as we found out the stuff that we'd need for the consecration. 10K mud, 10K black paint, 1K gold and 127 mallets. I'm sure that there was something else, but I can't remember it right now. So... I have to say that I'm utterly and completely amazed at the teamwork that happened to get it done. We had 135 gold around camp, and I got some clay for the paint (which wasn't used). As-yoo-meows brought over some copper, Gumby did some mining, Lord and Lady of fire did some of the paint, Bellah and Tweetiti brought other supplies, RehemaSagira did some of the running to various parts of Egypt to pick up supplies from us, and it all came together so very quickly that it was impressive. There were others involved, too (I sometimes feel like I have a memory of mush) Made me feel extremely good to be part of a team like that, I wished that Bahaumaut had been there to see it. So, the pyramid was consecrated within a few hours of its completion. I've never seen one of them go up - there was fireworks and all kinds of general revelry. I hope that we'll be able to find out the requirements for the Monument of Architecture soon, but I don't expect them to be horrendous since the major efforts have been done in getting the pyramid up and running.
I'm so very tempted to start on some new projects. I still want to learn fireworks, which means that I have to find an acid bath to work with, to make salts. I know that there's resources around, but I just haven't gone out to get them just yet. We still need to consolidate mine and BaMeow's camp, too... I dislike having everything all spread out and not knowing where anything truly is. The chest farm that's outside of my camp has got to go - it's not serving a real purpose anymore other than to sit there and look like a bunch of chests. If it weren't for the Master's Forge that is sitting in my compound, I'd tear it all down and put it in the giant compound.
Maybe that will come tonight, or I might just wander around and try to decide who I want to hire in the Bureau. If I had a waypoint to it, I'd go to the Aqueduct Project cabbage tower and get a little closer to passing The Test of Life and get a bit more ash and potash out of the deal. I do so love the burbleburbleburble of the kettles. I'll check the supplies to see how long it will be to get Bahaumaut to pass The Test Of Octec's Ghost, too. I think we have 20 crystals and just need to trade out to get the ones that we need. I know that we have Set and Bastet, so obtaining the rest of them should be easy. We'd need to get more rods, and some more silver, but that shouldn't be too terribly difficult.
One of the last few things that Bahaumaut did before he went on vacation from Egypt was make a lot of Silver Powder for Mirrors needed for Desert of Shades. I'm not sure what else he needs them for, but I do know that we had a ton of powder sitting around so I donated it. I'm going to be giving away some of the other stuff that we've got in our stores, but I'm still holding off on giving away the marble until we know the requirements for the Monument of Architecture. So far all of the monuments have required that there be some quarrying done. From what I can tell, the requirements for the Monument of Conflict are a serious pain, needing types of marble that aren't used in anything else other than the monument.
I was actually home for a little bit this morning, while I was getting the silver powder. Got to briefly meet Kharizma and vote on his sculpture. He definitely put a lot more effort into his than I did on mine, though he's paying the price for having it be out in the middle of nowhere. Apparently, he's just flagging folks down and trying to get them to come to the middle of nowhere to see a really cool art project.
Got to see the Sphinx in RSO, and answered a couple of riddles. I was able to answer the common one right, but the noble one, I missed. Ahwell... I should play with that a little more, just to help out - that, and I like the test even though I can't think of anything that I'd make a riddle on.
Sallah-Hazerah made me an elder of Precious Pyrimids, so I can work on guilding the stuff there for the others around the area. Frankly, I might make all of it public use, since there are a couple of things that I'd love to share. I've never seen a Star Rack before yesterday, nor have I actually seen a Toxin Kitchen ready for use. There's also an Alembic on site, which I don't even know how to start to use. I know, I'm usually not all that fascinated with STUFF, but this is just neat stuff that I've never played with before. I swear, I'm going to teach my grandchildren how to light things on fire and make pretty colors.
Most of my time has been spent chatting with other Egyptians these days, at least while delaying going back. Helped out folks with The Test Of The Acrobat, getting distracted at the Karnak Chariot Stop for a little while. Found out that KellyC was in need of one move day before yesterday, so yesterday I tried that move out on her. I was so very impressed - One facet learned, One move taught, one ZAP from above. We weren't so lucky on getting me the two facets that I need, but that was just... impressive. I think that most of the joy comes from the divine lightning, and it doesn't really matter who's receiving the gift from the gods.
So, remember when I went out to Dustinthedesert and Hemptwister's place (1153, 1652)? I didn't really mention the garden that Dusti showed me. Oh... my... word. It's absolutely and completely gorgeous. I wished that I could have taken a picture of it - it is so absolutely relaxing and beautiful. I kind of wish that I actually needed to head out there again, just so I could see it... there are sheep everywhere, pretty flowers, walkstones along the way. I realize that I'm a sucker for things borne of love, but it's okay to admit that there's a little girly girl in the cat sometimes.
I need to get back, though. I'll work on guilding stuff when I wake up, and then head out to the middle of the desert.
Then, I got word that I had enough votes to become an Initiate of Art. I've had a sculpture near Mike's place for what seems like forever. It isn't particularly a good location, but there are the occasional passers by who can appreciate the sense of humor. I had to use a lot of travel time to get back there, leaving me with only a few hours, but it was worth getting ZAPPED. Perhaps the last one during my lifetime.
Have to go back to the site either today or tomorrow to work the crawlers, though I'm feeling quite tired right now.
So many things have happened since I've last written in this journal. Ashi-Da has decided to take a trip, himself, leaving us no real indication of when he'd be back. I miss him, too, and hope that he'll return to us in good stead.
Been donating a lot more things to the various monument projects. Bahaumaut left a lot of things scattered around in chests, things that I never thought would come up again. Ibis feathers... they're getting donated to the Body monument project - I think that everyone was wondering when they'd come up again. I cleared out a lot of the stock to the Worship monument, rediscovering my love of making gravel.
My time and energy these days has been devoted to working on the Pyramid of Many Wonders for the Architectural monument. Building things, castles in the sand, has always been one of my favorite things. I love to get to operate the crawlers, having finally gotten up to working 10 at a time - It's neat to get to see the things just crawling with their stones under the pyramid. Working with a fairly good group, too. There's Gumby and Rena, RehemaSagira, Bellah, Tweetiti, Lord and Lady of Fire, Vraitak, asukals and some others. Asukals and I were working on the Pyramid Of the Distant Plains pretty much by ourselves, so this is a very welcome change. At the rate that they're going, they'll probably have the whole thing up by the end of the month. I can't wait to see the thing consecrated.
Going to be giving my patronage coupons over when I see Tweetiti... I think that the test should probably be under Worship. Egyptians are starting to talk about potential tests that we should leave our grandchildren, too. There's a few musings in the various disciplines. There's some that I'm rooting for, and some that look like chances to backstab one another. I don't know... but I do know that I'm looking forward to when I can leave this land to my grandchildren, even though there's LOTS of preparation that we have to do to get there.
CaveCub has decided to take a trip outside of Egypt to scout out new territories. He enjoys doing that, though I don't think that he's going to be back any time soon. He made sure that all of us were taken care of before he took off, and I hope that he finds what he's looking for. Honestly, Cave's been one of the few who's kept me inspired, who's kept me sane... who always has a kind word for those whom he's around. I know that he'll do well. I hope that he returns during the time of our grandchildren to offer us the knowledge that he's gained out there in the world.
I've been out to the University of Architecture several times to drop off treated boards for the Ferry Construction Two technology. After all of the boards have been donated, we're going to need some (well, a LOT) of silk cloth - they're asking for 300 pieces of it! I don't think that I've even held one in my paws. I'm hoping that I can wave the 'but it's for research' flag at the silkworm farmers to get some of the materials. It seems like every university needs silk for something or other.
Got rid of a bunch more tiles! They were just taking up space, so I was attempting to use them to get access to the complex that's close to the pyramid site that I've slept on over the past couple of days. I **really** need to set myself up a flax hammock so I have a better place to sleep than sand. Spent much of my time tapping for blocks, trying to get enough dug up to transport over into the construction zone. OH!!! We have a crawler working on the site right now! It is incredibly cool to watch, I'm going to have to get someone to draw me a picture of it so I can put it here.
Went home briefly to see what else I could give away, and picked up some sulfur and some small emeralds for those who are wanting to pass Test Of The Obelisk Haven't gotten much of a bite on it, and I don't want to give away stuff without it going to some overall purpose.
Gave away one of the ovens to Mike with a bunch of tiles in it. Hopefully he has a shot at passing the test to become an oracle. I'm more concerned about giving some of the stuff we have away. After all, it's nearly impossible to get rid of things once you make them... and honestly, I'm devoting my time to huge projects. I just hope someone ends up doing a Sphynx in my area so I can help out with that, too.
Laid down more rods while asukals tapped. That's going to be the story of my life for a while. Hopefully in the next few days, I'll get back to pushing.
For the first time, I went to someone's Test of the banquet. I spent a lot of time tromping out to the middle of nowhere (725, 6160) again, this time to Psychodelica's place to enjoy her food and her wines. I didn't have time to enjoy and experience the entirety of the festivities because I accidentally carried the rods that I was going to use for tapping with me out to the party and had to bring them back.
There was much fun to be had, too. I got to see a lot of folks that I hadn't seen in a while again, as well as getting in a little bit of time in The Test Of The Acrobat. Unfortunately, I didn't get either of the two facets that I'm missing, though I was able to give Deohotep one of the facets that he was missing (JJ), leading him with just three to go (IP, JS and SS). That was great. :)
When I got back, I had the rods on me and ended up going immediately to putting them into the ground. It was a little tough to get the hang of, because I wasn't able to see the landmarks as well as more experienced folks do. We still got a lot done, bringing up a bunch of blocks for later pushing. I might start splitting my time between the Pyramid and gathering the supplies for those who are trying to complete The Riddle Of The Sphinx
I got a bit of maragosa, orris and bloodwort, using the herbs that we have at the compound to make up for all of the other requirements. When I finished traveling, myn had also given me 1 deben of Golden Dubloons (Or Gold Balloons!) to put into the recipe - it increased the efficacy, though lowered the time for its effect. Dusti Dustinthedesert gave me the orris and bloodwort in return for turning some of her ash into potash.
When I came back from picking up the ash, I ran into asukals and we spent our time tapping for blocks. This process would go so much faster if we had people helping out on the site. I realize that I don't know how to do the rod placement, but I'm sure that someone does. I'll figure things out.
Today was spent traveling out to the middle of nowhere (1153, 1652) to drop off the potash, as well as bringing Mike (MikeScioscia) many of the tiles that Bahaumaut and I had collected. I'm supporting those who have the chance to become oracles, those who have more than just one project going on. It's an exciting time, where one gets caught between wanting to build new things and putting what one has to the best uses. I gave away some of the gems that we've got around, and gave away some of the silver that we'd managed to collect since I've already passed The Test Of Octec's Ghost. The days are rife with possibility.
I didn't get a chance to go out to FP yesterday, and I'm probably going to help work on a game plan for the celebration of the end of the world tonight. I have a whole lot of tiles that are gathering dust, so I imagine that it's high time that I used them or traded them for something useful. Tiles for herbs? Hmm...
There are many who claim that the end of the world is near. Even Pharaoh is giving us all hints that there may indeed not be a tomorrow. A month, three... all of that is up in the air, left for Pharaoh to decide. There are more tests that will be released, I'm sure, and there are questions about what the future will hold.
Me... I'm just a cat. Supposed to meet a guy in Fool's Paradise tonight to join a bureaucracy. Seems awfully silly that I have to do some traveling to benefit someone else. Might make a full tirp of it and bring supplies to their Universities - they're not as 'technologically challenged' as the CotS region, but they're not the most advanced region in Egypt. I hope one of the clarity plants bulb tonight so I can make a fruitful trip to our UWorship and make a prettier garden.