kirabug's idea files

Day 476:

I dug into a chamber that, based on the age of the broken tools abandoned there and the torches I left behind, I started mining a few days ago.

I don’t remember anything about it, though I do recognize the tools. In fact, I’d wondered where they’d gone.

I think there’s some kind of bad spirit about this particular set of chambers.

In the past, bad spirit has meant everything from unstable to deadly to haunted. (And haunted, in turn, has meant everything from “being driven out by someone” to “scientific explanation found later” to “totally unexplained”.)

If I had to guess, i’d bet fumes of some sort, but not the standard carbon dioxide/carbon monoxide/methane/sulfur kind. There’s no scent. My torches aren’t flaring. I’m not coming out with any reddish kind of hue to my skin like I’d get with some fumes. And I’ve been pretty deeply trained in recognizing the symptoms of most of the frequently-found fumes because, well, one never knows when one might rip their suit.

So it’s a mystery, but not the type I want to solve. The type I want to run away from. I’m clearing out of here for the next few days to rest my head, and then I’ll see what’s next on the agenda.

Day 475:

I had another one of those time blackouts, where I don’t remember what happened. I was mining, and then I was standing in the pit trying to figure out how to get home, and I couldn’t figure it out.

I tried digging west, which I guessed was the right direction, but I was wrong.

So I did what any wise digger does and dug a stairwell up, until I came out into one of my chambers.

But I was so disoriented even then that I had to climb three floors before I finally figured out where I was.

It’s late now. I don’t know how long I was down there, but I’m thinking a nap would be a good idea.

Day 474:

Can now also confirm that the red sparky rock, when fired off, will startle a ducken… because somehow a ducken has followed me all the way down to the bedrock level. I don’t know what she thinks she’s going to eat down here, but here she is, and she is not a fan of the red rock.

Very tired tonight. I’m closer to where I started than where I once was, but I’m tired of hauling things. Feels like all I’ve done since I arrived was haul things. It’s time for that to change.

I’m pretty confident I can turn the red rock into a small explosion that can push a cart forward on some rails, if I make rails. I’m not talking a combustion engine here, more like being shot out of a cannon, but that beats walking.

Day 473:

I can confirm that if one puts a potato down at one end of a line of sparky red rock dust and then hits the other end with a pickaxe, the potato will be scorched.

It’s worth noting I did not run this experiment on purpose, but rather had mined a whole lot of the red rock and didn’t pay attention to my dust volumes.

The fact that the stuff hasn’t made the air explode yet is quite remarkable, on retrospect.

Well, and the fact that my lungs haven’t sparked to death.

Day 472:

I’ve collected a lot of this red ore that sparks when I hit it with a pickaxe. It seems to have some kind of electrical properties.

I’m hoping it’s not nuclear because that would really suck, what with not having any radiation pills on hand.

I’d like to think I would have seen some signs of radiation sickness by now if that were the case, too.

Anyway, I’m wondering if there’s some way to get it to power a motor, since the only thing that it seems to need to create a spark is a smack with a hammer.

Maybe I should get back to work trying to forge wheels.