Three of the new additions, Gregoria, Peranza. They'll get a reassurance beforehand that Carissa continues to be committed to only truly punishing betrayal, not incompetence, and that if they get horribly muddled they won't be abandoned; they should explain the muddles the best they can and know that much of the attention of Cheliax is on helping fix them. 

(She's pretty sure that this reassurance is going to reduce the breakage rate, and is therefore worth the expense.)

Peranza is very grateful for the reassurance and the solicitousness of her superiors.

She's going to die horribly and go to Hell and be shattered.  Peranza can't even question whether or not this is really true, since she's not allowed to believe it in the first place.

PL-timestamp:  Day 35

PL-timestamp:  Day 36

PL-timestamp:  Day 37

THEY FINALLY COMPLETE ONE FLAMING ACID PRODUCTION CYCLE

IT ONLY WORKED BECAUSE KELTHAM PERSONALLY PRESTIDIGITATED SEVERAL KEY STEPS BUT HE DOESN'T EVEN CARE BECAUSE THE PROJECT ACTUALLY HAS ANY REVENUE SOURCES NOW

Confetti rains down everywhere!  Cookies for everyone!  Not even with Pilar handing them out, they're just there!

Cayden Cailean is terrifying and Carissa is looking forward to Him being conquered by Hell.

 - the acid stuff is really cool, though, and the delight on Keltham's face is very important. People ought to have that in them, the thrill of actually for real doing something rare and valuable and important, the knowledge that being good actually matters. 

People should have PARTIES, is what they should have!  Pilar's curse hasn't eaten a really nice one of those in quite a while!

Something deep inside Keltham is relaxing, the knowledge that he's not an impostor, that he'll be able to repay Cheliax and Carissa and all his researchers and everyone who's invested so much in him.  Like, he was already making sure his employees got paid, putting the financial risk on the entity of Cheliax that could afford to take risky ventures, but - he knew they weren't entirely in it for the money.

...this sort of thing is why Keltham wanted to be a mad investor, in his past life, and not an entrepreneur.  Entrepreneurs fail, sometimes, and don't repay what's been invested in them.  As much as it's supposed to be the case that every investor knows this is a risk and voluntarily takes it, it's still roughly the most socially terrifying thing that anybody in dath ilan ever does.

He'll probably seem more comfortable in his own skin, more comfortable being himself, from now on.  Including in the cuddleroom.

Next up: some miscellaneous improvements to Chelish life but mostly SPELLSILVER.

PL-timestamp:  Day 38

PL-timestamp:  Day 39

Keltham has gone ahead and requisitioned a Major Image scroll, now, out of Project funds.  There was probably something slightly insane, about how Keltham felt reluctant to do that before the Project had any guaranteed revenue.  Yes, their supposed future value to Cheliax was immense, but to order the spending of 350gp on something, just like that...

Anyways, he has the scroll of Major Image now.

That should be enough to cast the illusion of an high-powered optical microscope.

And then see if Carissa and Avaricia can learn - from seeing Keltham's illusion and knowing relevant bits of the above-quantum classical-surface Law of optics - to cast the Major Image of an optical microscope themselves.

...and then, having successfully maintained concentration through that - Keltham has been practicing! - he'll take this chance to show everyone dath ilan properly, with high-definition video, and sound.

There are sights shown in Cheliax then that would have not been seen in Golarion since the fall of Azlant, and perhaps also not seen before.

Vast abysses greater than the Pits of Gormuz, not where Civilization's greater weapons were tested, but mines where minerals were torn entirely from the ground.  It seems more real now, what Keltham sometimes told them, that in Civilization they could produce a million tons of spellsilver if they had a reason.

People floating above huge grates from which air blasts upward, soaring through the air on strange artificial wings, in a world where the Flight spell doesn't exist.

Also there is music heard, ranging from the strangely ethereal and beautiful, to sounds that the Chelish can hardly recognize as music at all.

And Keltham shows them one of the few music videos that he's seen often enough to remember by frame: a children's song about dath ilan's logistics, that he and his parents used to sing around the dinner table on more festive dinner nights, with vidscreen accompaniment, when he was little.

It begins with a shipping port unloading containers from the sea, complete with tiny human figures to give a sense of scale to oceangoing ships huger than most castles, with a soaring voice and melody above it...

AlterPeranza stares, wide-eyed and breathless.

RealPeranza is faking that.  She's trying very hard not to feel anything, anything at all, if she feels those feelings she'll die.

PL-timestamp:  Day 40

How would Meritxell feel about getting, um, forcibly subdued and dragged off to a nearby simulated cuddleroom by Keltham?  He's getting a surprise ready for Carissa.  Meritxell shouldn't use magic, but should fight back against Keltham as hard as possible except for that part.

This is not a strong social request, to be clear.  If Meritxell would rather not get hurt that way, or would feel weird about going all-out against a cuddling partner, Keltham will ask Pilar.  He almost did that anyways, just, his social model suggested that Meritxell would strongly want to be asked even if she said no, leaving aside his not-to-be-mentioned-in-advance probability that Meritxell will say yes.

Yes she's absolutely down for that, that sounds great. Does 'as hard as possible except for using magic' include, like, calling for help, Carissa's pretty unlikely to do that but it's, you know, an obvious thing to do if someone tries to forcibly subdue you and grab you off, if they're not preventing it.

Nope.  That's not realistic.  He rather doubts Carissa will try that, but, if she does, Security won't do anything about it.

...oh, right, Meritxell is not to try telling him to stop.  That is something Keltham doesn't want to try fighting his brain about, yet, and Carissa is under the same order.

PL-timestamp:  Day 41

PL-timestamp:  Day 42

Willa Shilira is the first tier-2 to learn Prestidigation to the point of being able to complete a full acid production cycle - following Keltham, Avaricia, Carissa, and Meritxell among the tier-1s.

Seems like a fine occasion to promote Willa Shilira to tier-1!  To be clear, that doesn't mean everyone else gets to be tier-1 as soon as they master Prestidigitation to that same level; this reflects an expectation that Shilira will continue to learn at this speed.

Shilira's tier-1 pay is made retroactive to when she was hired; Keltham wasn't quite sure of her value at the time she was hired, but now he's sure, and be it far from him to dock her pay for his uncertainty.