Looks like we're finally up and running, even if things aren't fully polished just yet.
It feels fitting then, that one of our first threads is about the Lake Light project!
I'm not sure where to begin, really. 2007? 2010? 2014? 2020? What's a good place to start looking back retrospectively? I guess I'll start with where I have the most concurrent data relevant to my own endeavors.
When everything kicked back up August of Last Year, I started resuming my monitoring of the Lake Light levels. I wasn't keeping official notes or anything, but I was observing the occasional flare of brightness out on the lake. When I took a trip out on the lake back in October, I ended up discovering the Cathedral Island due to a bright cluster of Algae around the shore.
During my restoration work on the Cathedral Island, I observed the light levels from this algae patch, and many others across the lake, flaring brighter, or weakening dramatically depending on the day of week, or even time of day. It was rather brilliant, if concerning. That really reignited my research into things.
Inspired by the work of Mary Sue on her own Er'cana/Pellet Research, I set up a work station on the island where I brought many batches of Harvested Pellets for experimentation. I'd tried some local experiments of setting up feeders on a timer, as well as trying to grind up pellets into a powder for a more 'expedient' attempt at feeding the lake. None of these seemed to affect things locally, however, let alone have a wider impact on the lake itself.
I was periodically sampling the lake water from the island, as well as off the harbor railing facing the Arch at Ferry Terminal, in Ae'gura.
On 9/13/21, I finally got a sample of lake water that showed a significant change in behavior. At that point, I began taking notes. (I'll be posting these in the next post for anyone interested.)
The KI networking issues we had around that point took up a lot of my time after that point, so I wasn't able to really dive into things deeply. I've collaborated notes with a few others, Hazaado, Briggs, to name a few. And we've been seeing similar results.
It seems one of our own explorers, Wayne Todd, decided to take up the mantle of investigating on his own, however. He took a boat out on the lake, and told his friends he was going 'camping' -- without stating where and I'll reiterate for safety concerns for anyone else attempting to replicate Wayne's trip to PLEASE inform folks of where you're going and please take a Networked (Internally Trackable) KI instead of their normal External Release KI. We all assumed he was on the surface.
Wayne, on 10/18/21, found what seems to be one of the security overflow stations that Laxman or one of the DRC folks mentioned back in '07. These security facilities seem to be designed to prevent massive spikes in pellet food content hitting the lake all at once, preventing, well, damage to the lake by over feeding the Algae. We're still investigating the facility and are surveying it for potential restoration. (I don't think this is even officially Phase 1 yet? I haven't gotten any map diagrams back yet.) But, yeah, this really seems to be the case.
Anyways, Wayne, deciding to poke around the place himself, decided to crawl into a gear mechanism and give it a kick. This managed to dislodge his Relto book, mangle it up inside some gears, and dump the thing into the Lake itself. He thought it was gone...
Alas, it made its way to Ae'gura, where Briggs fished it up from the Ferry Terminal docks on 10/19/21.
He notified me, and I put out the word in case someone had lost their Relto. We still didn't know whose book it was, or if anyone was missing.
I decided it was worth the effort to run some search teams out on the lake, and so we went out.
10/20/21's day of searching didn't bring up anything much except for an old D'ni boat crashed along some rocks, crewed by skeletons. It looks like a ferry boat that crashed during the Fall, poor folks.
The following nights, after more searching-- Briggs observed the now dried out Relto Book, and pointed out the damage had seemed to match if the book had gone through a paper jam in a copier. After some discussion on Discord with Gondar and Inunah, we deduced that the damage likely was caused by an Industrial machine of some sort, and we began focusing out searching onto the Industrial Areas of the Cavern that had shore-front access.
A bit pointlessly, though, as Wayne contacted us, finally.
The following Monday, 10/25/21, Wayne returned to Ae'gura, where we had a talk about things. (Chatlog Here, may paste it down below into another post if folks want it.)Hazado!
You may not know this, but I have been out and about on the lake exploring one of the overflow stations you mentioned before. What a sight to behold up close! Of course, this equipment has not been running for quite some time, but I think with a little elbow grease and a handful of volunteers we could restore functionality. Climbing around inside is a bit treacherous, though. I was applying a little "“boot force”" to a jammed section of gearing, lost my balance and snagged my Relto. Darn thing snapped right off my belt and churned its way through those gears before popping out the other side and falling into the lake! Alas, there was no way for me to recover it. I will have to look into a possible replacement when I return to the city…....
The samples I have collected out here are encouraging and reflect what you and Calum have been seeing in the city. The oxygen and carbon dioxide levels are consistent with what you've found there; if we can get some of this equipment up and running, I believe it will go a long way towards restoring the lake!
My supplies are starting to run low, so I will have to head back soon. This has been a delightful escape, I must say! I will let you know when you can expect me back in the city.
-W
So, yeah, that about covers it, I think?
Oh, right, almost forgot. I've installed a temporary meter at the lake, disguised so folks don't mess with it, to take periodic samples since then. It's not doing it's job great, and the results are about as good as my own hand sampling was. Honestly, I'm hoping we can get the Lake Dalek put back in to provide a more public facing meter of the Lake's health. Hazado, I'll message you later about that.
In the mean time, I'll get to posting the rest of my notes on the lake samples I've taken manually. Others can post their results here if they want.
_Calum Traveler