to get to whitehearth one follows the path into saerun wood
some time back the government of cyre granted house cannith all of saerun wood and everything within so they reshaped it for their purposes
that's why a third of the city's area is one huge magically-created plateau of hexagonal columns of basalt – a type of rock that shouldn't be found anywhere near here! – on which they built the whitehearth research center and a campus to support their artificers and administrators
to get to the campus one must either ride in a "skylift" – like a small train car that climbs a long cable up to the top – or scale perfectly smooth vertical columns
the hardbacks cannot scale the columns
while we reattached the skylift cable bell worked up a method to power it using 2 of our reserve mana batteries ... which we hope to recover when we're done
then we explored the ground level city
we found a floral shop that once grew flowers from magically-enhanced seeds
we found a shop full of complicated board games and wildly artistic card games and booklets of illustrated stories for a wide variety of interests
we found a "style-shopping" boutique with mirrors that show one in a number of stylish outfits that an "auto-tailor" can create on the spot ... but it works best for bipeds
we found an eatery using foodmakers that can magically create anything from a list of dishes and treats ... including a cup of custard frozen into tiny spheres?
morran says the city was meant to be a paradise of wonder and comfort for everyone who supported the research center above which is why they filled it with automation and artifact prototypes
but the research going on was kept secret so the mail forwarding station listed words and subjects – project names and such – that would disqualify a letter from being sent
also a list of suggested safe topics to write home about
even private letters were evaluated
how creepy is that?
having been in two combats then exploring a city has left us all somewhat worn tired so we're camping down here tonight and learning a couple new games
tomorrow we ride the surprisingly safety-oriented skylift up to the plateau and pore through everything to be found in "cannith central"
with any luck we'll find those manuals intact
i hope we do ... for the sake of all forged and those of us grown who would harmonize