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Document Type and Number:
WIPO Patent Application WO/2017/001726
Kind Code:
Method for shaping a film/sheet (1), particularly for making three- dimensional shapes (2) in it, in which case the outlines (3) of the shape to be formed are warmed/heated and the film/sheet is stretched along the heated outline, in order to cause the part of the film/sheet inside it to deviate from the plane of the surface. The heated outlines are created by, for example, directing a moving beam (4) of thermal radiation onto it. A countersurface (9) is provided to limit the stretching and ensure that rupture does not occur. By repeating the procedure sequentially, a great variety of shapes may be created.

VALKAS, Timo (Kuuselantie 5 B, Karkkila, 03600, FI)
SEPÄNMAA, Arto (Huuhanahontie 25, Huuhanaho, 51740, FI)
PARTANEN, Jouni (Aarnivalkeantie 10 A, Espoo, 02100, FI)
Application Number:
Publication Date:
January 05, 2017
Filing Date:
June 28, 2016
Export Citation:
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AALTO UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION (P.O. Box, 00076 Aalto, 00076, FI)
International Classes:
B29C51/10; B29C51/42
Domestic Patent References:
Foreign References:
Attorney, Agent or Firm:
SEPPO LAINE OY (Itämerenkatu 3 A, Helsinki, 00180, FI)
Download PDF:

1. A method for shaping a material film or sheet for making three-dimensional shapes, in which method the film or sheet is heated and a pressure difference is applied by means of a pressure medium to one side of the film or sheet; the heating being performed along an outline of the three-dimensional shape to be formed to a temperature which will permit a change in the shape of the film or sheet in the area of the heated outline and will create stretching along the heated outline in order to cause the unheated part of the film or sheet inside the outline to deviate from its initial plane, the targeted three-dimensional structure being divided into two-dimensional slices, the outlines of which in the film or sheet are sequentially heated and subjected to a pressure difference to generate the desired structure, characterized in comprising the following steps: providing a countersurface to limit the stretching of the heated material during a stretching stage

allowing the material to cool and harden

moving the countersurface to a new position

- heating a next outline

applying a pressure difference to stretch the material along said next heated outline until the material again meets the countersurface

repeating the process until the desired shape is obtained. 2. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the heated outlines are formed in the film or sheet by directing a moving beam of thermal radiation to it.

3. A method according to any of the above claims, characterized in that the film or sheet consists of an organic polymer, particularly of a thermoplastic material.

4. A method according to any of the above claims, characterized in that the film or sheet has a composite structure.

5. A method according to any of the above claims, characterized in that the film or sheet is of metal or a metal alloy.

6. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that pulses of pressurized medium are used to shape the film or sheet in different directions in different stages.

7. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the heating is performed by using a source of collimated or focused infrared or laser light.

8. A method according to any of the above claims, characterized in that in the shaping, a computer-based system is used, into which the three-dimensional model to be formed is loaded.

Method for shaping a film-like/sheet-like material

The present invention relates to a method for shaping a film-like/sheet-like material. In particular, it relates to a method for changing the shape of a film or sheet, especially to create various three-dimensional shapes in a film or sheet.

Many different methods are used to shape plastic sheets. One example is the creation of Braille printing intended for the blind to read. Because plastic is a very common material in many applications, various articles made with the aid of heating and then shaping are made for very many different purposes.

In order to shape plastic, for example, into the shape of a cup, a mould can be used, into which plastic material, softened with the aid of heat, is pulled with the aid of a vacuum. A typical example of this kind of procedure is disclosed in the German application publica- tion 10349156. As a source of heat, a laser source, for example, can be used, by means of which specific areas of a generally flat sheet-like material are heated, after which shaping takes place by suction against a mould. A similar method is disclosed in German application publication 10106183, in which specific areas are heated and subsequently formed using a mould.

A method is known from US patent application 2002/0062161, in which a wall deformation is created in a piece with a closed volume, or in a sheet, by heating the wall with a laser light and causing a pressure difference in the wall/film, which causes the wall to bulge outwards, in such a way that the most heated parts bulge more than the less heated parts. Thus, the shape is created by the differential stretching of parts heated to different degrees. Additionally, publications EP 0703019 Al and JP 2002 154161 A disclose methods in which a sheet is posed on top of a chamber, parts of the sheet are heated and then deformed by pressurizing the chamber. Publication WO 2005/007386 A2 discloses a method for shaping a plate-like object by locally heating at least a portion of it while exerting differential pressure on the opposite sides. This method is directed towards achieving local smoothly shaped deformations. Moreover, different shapes are achieved by modifying the laser beam using optical elements. Publication US patent publication 5,359,872, in turn, discloses a method for sheet metal processing in which the area to be deformed is heated by a laser beam prior to the deformation. According to the method, shapes extending from the sheet can be formed by first heating an area corresponding to the shape and subsequently drawing the area using a drawing jig also corresponding to the shape. Furthermore, more complex three- dimensional shapes are formed using a set of several drawing jigs specific for the shape in question. In European patent 2 247 430, a method is disclosed for shaping a material film or sheet for producing three-dimensional structures. The outlines of a free-form image to be formed on a film/sheet are heated to a required temperature by rapidly moving, selectively directed thermal radiation. Pressure is applied to one side of the film. The pressure stretches the film at the heated outlines of the image, so that the image is transferred from the surface of the film to a raised position. This procedure is repeated moving the heated outline sequentially, resulting in a three-dimensioned shape. By this method, general three-dimensional forming of almost arbitrary surfaces defined by the shape of the set of contour curves is possible. In German laid-open publication No. 10 2006 006 662 is disclosed a process in which a plastic body is selectively coated with a heat-reflective film. The surface is heated using radiators whereby the uncoated areas soften and can be drawn with vacuum against a forming tool, forming a raised pattern corresponding to the heated and unheated areas of the plastic body. A single step is described, and it remains unclear how the body is supported to prevent the unheated areas to be drawn as well.

According to the present invention, an improved method utilizing the principle of European patent 2 247 430 is provided. As pressure is applied to a material in which a contour curve has been heated, there is a risk that the material ruptures along the heated curve if the material is stretched beyond its capacity. This risk can be reduced or eliminated by means of the present invention. Summary of the invention

According to the present invention, a film or sheet is formed into a three-dimensional shape using local heating and a pressure differential across the film or sheet material. A source of heat is used to heat and soften the material in the shape of a contour, and a pressure differential is used to push the softened material towards the lower pressure. Preferably, the heating is provided by focused or collimated thermal radiation; preferably, a laser beam is used.

A countersurface is provided to limit the stretching of the heated material. After the material has cooled and hardened again, a next heated and softened contour curve is formed in the sheet material. The countersurface is moved to a new position before, after or during the forming of the next heated contour curve or outline. A pressure difference is again ap- plied, stretching the material along the heated outline until it again meets the countersurface . The process is repeated as required until the desired shape is obtained.

One embodiment of the invention is described with reference to the accompanying patent drawings.

Figure 1 shows the initial situation, the first outline being applied on an essentially flat sheet of material,

Figure 2 shows the step of applying a pressure difference,

Figure 3 shows how the stretching is limited, and Figure 4 shows the final product.

Thus, Figure 1 shows an essentially sheet- like initial product 1, on which a shape to be made is indicated by dotted lines 2. Following the edge line of the shape 2, it is bordered by a line marked by broken lines 3, along which the area is heated to a temperature that permits a pressure-pulse stage, which takes place next. The source of the heating radiation 4 is marked with the reference number 5. The source can be, for example, a laser light source. No more detailed reference is made here to laser technology, which is one possible heat source, because this area of technology will be conventional technology to one skilled in the art.

The intention is to heat the outlines of the image in the material to such a temperature that in the following stage, the outlines will be sufficiently elastic for a pressure difference to cause stretching in the material, so that the heated parts of the material sheet or film heated along the desired outlines will stretch and the unheated area remaining inside the heated lines will rise from the level of the material, in the direction of the lower pressure. Figure 2 shows the vacuum and/or excess pressure treatment described above. In this case, a lower pressure prevails above the sheet 1 than below it, so that a portion of the sheet heated along its outlines rises upwards from the level of the rest of the sheet/film.

Figure 3 shows how a beam from a laser 6 is directed to a galvanometric scanning mirror device 7, corresponding to the generally depicted radiation source 5 of Fig. 1. A computer or a special purpose microprocessor (not shown) controls the scanning mirrors 7 so that the laser heating pattern draws a contour onto the sheet material 1 that is attached to a chamber 8, in which the pressure has been reduced relative to the outside of the chamber. Inside the chamber 8, there is a flat horizontal platform 9 that is attached to a vertically movable translation mechanism 10. This platform acts as a countersurface limiting the movement of the sheet portion that shifts due to the pressure difference between the upper and lower surface of the sheet.

Initially, the platform 9 is located at a height below the top surface of the chamber 8 corresponding to the desired and allowable stretching of the heated contour area. After the laser beam softens the first contour, the pressure differential above the sheet material 1 pushes the material within the contour area to abut the platform 9. When the laser is turned off, the material cools and hardens maintaining the step shape. The platform can now be moved down by another desired increment. The system is now ready for the laser to soften the next contour and the pressure above pushes the interior of the contour again to abut the platform 9. The process continues until the defined shape has been formed through consecutive heating and stretching steps.

In the above figures, the stepped shape is shown roughly for reasons of clarity. In practice, the final shape may be achieved by slicing the final 3D shape into very thin 2D slices, from which the shaping of one slice at a time in the desired direction is performed as consecutive operations. Even a relatively simple final shape may involve a significant number of stages. Negative shapes can also be made according to the invention. This refers to the fact that the desired shape is created with the aid of heating and excess or vacuum pressurization, which excess or vacuum pressurization is performed in the opposite direction to the general direction of the overall shape. In this case, it is also possible, if necessary, to exploit the memory property of the material, when re -heating of the outlines will return it to its former shape.

It is obvious that according to the invention, very many different types of material can be used. The most obvious material is an organic polymer. However, other materials that become plastic at a certain temperature are also suitable for use according to the invention. For example, nearly all metals soften to become malleable at a certain, specific temperature. One interesting area is also composite-structure films/sheets. Thus, whether the use of a specific material will succeed or not depends only on variables such as the dimensioning of the heating power source, the duration of its operation, and similar. It is also obvious that reference to a sheet or film includes a large variation in material thicknesses.

The temperature is controlled in some suitable manner. The skilled person is aware of a large range of alternatives for this purpose in different fields of technology. However, it can be mentioned that temperature can be measured and its control performed, for example, with the aid of a heat camera based on infrared technology monitoring the laser beam. Temperature monitoring may be used in the general control of the process. In this context, it should be noted that according to the aforementioned procedures, the heating can take place in such a way that a continuously heating radiation beam is moved along the outlines of the image to be formed, when the material will heat at the outlines. Another way is one, in which the thermal radiation moves along a specific, usually backwards and forwards path, and heating occurs locally only at points located on the outlines of the image being formed. The movement of the thermal radiation can be achieved by moving a component creating thermal radiation, but more probably it will take place in such a way that the control of the thermal radiation takes place with the aid of mirrors, lenses, or corresponding optical elements, as exemplified above.

A third alternative is an embodiment where the heated area is created in such a way that a pattern shaped to correspond to the area to be heated by a thermal radiation beam is created in the heating head which is aimed at the material to be heated, and a heated area corre- sponding to the outlines of the shape, arises in a single operation. There are several ways of forming a thermal radiation beam of a desired shape, whereby optical methods are the most likely.

A procedure of this kind can be envisaged as very advantageous when a relatively simple product is being made in a large series.

A common feature in all of described embodiments is that the heating is performed only along the outline of the area to be raised from the initial plane. According to the method according to the invention, the heating/pressurization cycles can be repeated for a desired number of new coordinates, which means that three-dimensional surfaces can be formed from a film/sheet in the same manner as in vacuum moulding, but in the present method the geometry of the piece is created directly by numerical control, without moulds.

It should also be noted, that shapes can also be formed, for example in such a way that, as already stated, shapes that are 'negative' with respect to the previous stage are made onto three dimensional shapes created by one way or another in a stage. This refers, for example, to a situation, in which the product is shaped originally, by means of vacuum forming, for example, with the aid of a mould. For vacuum forming to be possible, the product must not have protrusions extending in opposite directions, as such a shape would prevent it from being detached from the mould. By means of the method according to the invention, the shaping of a vacuum-moulded body can be carried out in a continuous operation, generating protrusions in any direction during the process. As such, the method is suitable for very many different purposes.

If desired, temperature and/or distance measurement can be used as variables controlling algorithms exclusively or in combination. Return and reshaping according to the prior art can also be used in this method.

Experiments have shown that liquid, as well as pressurized air or gas can be used for shaping, in which case the control of the shape becomes a mathematically calculable change in volume of each free-form change in shape.

In practice, an application can be based on a computer-based system, in which the desired three-dimensional model is loaded into the system, which slices the model into parts and which controls the heating and operating unit according to the model produced, the unit performing the shaping in stages of the film or sheet by heating specific outlines, performing the stretching of the material at the outlines with the aid of pressure, simultaneously controlling the movement of the countersurface limiting the stretching, and thus manufacturing the final product. Any known system with the aid of which a targeted heating effect can be created can be used for heating. Such systems are particularly based on the use of laser or infrared-range light and on possible optical concentration, collimation or reflection of the light.

Because the return/returning of the film is not necessary in all cases, this extends the range of materials available for use.

The invention can be varied in many ways without nevertheless deviating from the scope of protection of the basic idea of the invention as defined in the accompanying claims.


Enter your text below to find synonyms and click here

What is another word for community?

493 synonyms found

[kəmjˈuːnɪtˌɪ], [kəmjˈuːnɪtˌɪ], [k_ə_m_j_ˈuː_n_ɪ_t_ˌɪ]

Synonyms for Community:

mankind (noun) Other synonyms and related words:

Rhymes for Community:

  1. unity;
  2. impunity, immunity, disunity;
  3. opportunity;

Quotes for Community:

  2. You can keep it to yourself, but you could also call a support team like the team at MS LifeLines. They are there to support the MS community and give good advice. Teri Garr.
  3. Feeling a part of that community is my greatest reward. Paul Parker.


Equitable Growth round-up

Many Americans think of college as a great beacon of upward mobility in the United States. Kavya Vaghul takes a look at research that gives policymakers conflicting evidence of whether this is actually the case. Vaghul also notes that scholars have failed to look at an equally important dimension of this question: race and ethnicity.

Elisabeth Jacobs writes about new research suggesting that universal pre-K programs, rather than targeted programs, do a better job at serving low-income students.

What does the craft beer craze have to do with inequality? New research by Equitable Growth grantee Xavier Jaravel, a post-doctoral fellow in economics at Stanford University, finds that firms focused their innovation on products that cater to high-income households, such as the explosion in different kinds of craft beer.  Lower-income products, however, face less competitive pressures and have therefore experienced a higher rate of inflation. There’s other research highlighting the potential of rising inflation inequality in the United States.

Speaking of inflation, Nick Bunker looks at how common-sense views of inflation and its determinants affected the Fed’s decision to raise interest rates, and why that view may not make sense.

Trump’s economic doctrine may not work when it comes to the actual policy specifics, but Heather Boushey writes in The Atlantic about the psychological and emotional appeal of such a doctrine in that “it answers the core question that millions have about economic policy […]: What about me?”

The montly data release from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey was Thursday. Check out some key graphs from the new data.

And because it’s St. Patrick’s Day, a look back at a piece written last year by Matt Markezich on what Ireland’s spectacular economic growth reveals about corporate tax avoidance.

Links from around the web

Tanvi Misra looks at a new interactive created by Texas Christian University’s Kyle Walker that shows the distribution of the U.S. population by educational attainment. The maps show the extent to which, in urban areas, the achievement gap is associated with racial and economic segregation.  [citylab]

If the proposed U.S. border tax adjustment blueprint reduces U.S. imports and promotes U.S. exports in a way that violates international trade rules, it could put pressure on U.S. trading partners to retaliate. Chad P. Brown argues that any overhaul of the tax system, therefore, should take a closer look at the international affects of the policy. [piie]

Neel Kashkari, President of the Minneapolis Fed, was alone in voting to keep interest rates steady at the Federal Open Market Committee’s meeting earlier this week. He provides an explanation. [medium]

In his address to Congress, President Trump cited a report released by the National Academy of Sciences to claim that immigration harms the U.S. economy. Cornell University’s Francine Blau, an editor of the report, and University of California-Berkeley’s Gretchen Donehower, who served as a consultant, say that the report actually finds that the economic and fiscal consequences of immigration are generally positive. [vox]

Some of the best academic ideas are secluded from the public domain in journals read largely by other academics. Savo Heleta looks at why academics are not doing more to share their ideas with the broader public. [the conversation]

Friday Figure

From “Product innovations and inflation in the U.S. retail sector have magnified inequality” by Xavier Jaravel


June 28, 2017, 09:08:58 PM

Registration Agreement

Furthermore, you also agree, through your use of this forum, that any content (such as characters, nations, stories, etc.) you create and submit for the purpose of contributing to the site (developing the universe, worldbuilding, etc.) or participating in the events herein (roleplaying) will remain yours in general ownership, but that this website shall become part-owner and be free to continue to use, alter or remove this content, within the scope of this website and nowhere else, as is seen fit by the moderators. A consequence of this is that you also agree that any work or the exclusive rights to work you have submitted to this website will not at a later time be sold or given away. As a member, you will generally be free to remove any content you posted, but items that have been adopted into the life of the website are not yours to delete.

This website is non-profit and any commercialization of content found or created on this website is strictly forbidden unless explicit permission has been given by the website owner.


The dachshund is of German origin and literally means “badger dog” The breed was developed to use scent to trail and hunt animals,and may have descended from scent hounds such as bloodhounds, pointers, basset hounds.It can also be argued that they could have developed from the terrier, or “earth dog”, group.due to its persistent personality and love for digging. One dachshund was known to have dug a 10 meter hole to catch its unsuspecting prey.

1.3”H x 1.37”W. Weight: 25g. 18K Gold Plate on Bronze

Price: $495.00 Quantity:


Goodstein-Nuns, Rebuked by Rome, Plan Roadtrip to Spotlight Social Issues

In June 2012, after a rebuke from the Vatican, a group of nuns decided to roadtrip across the United States to promote religious liberty. The tour is being used to highlight issues related to social justice and religious equality as a response to what the nuns believed to be a misguided critique from the Vatican. During their bus trip, Goodstein notes that the nuns will be stopping at Congressional offices as well as various churches in an effort to spread their message. This article highlights a particular passionate action to promote equality and religious liberty rather than focus on the critiques against one group.


rightfulrula was born in London. rightfulrula is currently based in the UK. rightfulrula  believes age and experience are relative. rightfulrula has engaged in the system. rightfulrula  chooses to leave the system that restricts. rightfulrula  takes the past with the present and mixes it into the future. rightfulrula  expresses himself through the medium of art. glam rock to punk, reggae to hip-hop, rightfulrula  absorbs it all through his work. protest to persecution, sexuality and sin these are the areas rightfulrula  inhabits in his quest for a voice. rightfulrula  is a social commentator and a thought instigator. rightfulrula  uses words and images to provoke debate and split opinion. rightfulrula  likes to recycle and repurpose, exploringdifferent texture and crossing boundaries . rightfulrula  sees beauty in the decay and majesty in the graffiti scrawled walls of the urban landscape. rightfulrula  fears not but fear itself and understands that the only restriction is himself. rightfulrula  follows a path towards free expression and creativity. a path well traveled by influential figures that help shape him. from Dali to Newton , Basquiat to Haring , Lydon to Lee amongst others. rightfulrula  wants to ask questions through his work and hopefully along the way will open eyes and agitate. Educate not segregate .

WEB: rightfulrula.com
EMAIL: rightfulrula@gmail.com


Our People

Leadership is often a misunderstood or misused term. At RemoteResources, our leadership includes:

1. Establishing a clear vision;

2. Sharing this vision with others so they will follow enthusiastically;

3. Providing the necessary resources, knowledge, information and methodology to realise the vision;

4. Coordinate and carefully balance  the interests and any possible conflicts for all concerned.

Our exceptional performance is inspired by our leadership. Or put another way, inspired leadership creates extraordinary success.


STO-2 Mission Overview and Hang Test August 2015

I am a graduate student at ASU working on the Stratospheric Terahertz Observatory reflight mission, STO-2. STO-2 is a telescope that hangs underneath a very large helium balloon. The balloon inflates to ~100 meters across and is full of helium gas. The balloon reaches a height of approximately 36 kilometers, which is within the Earth’s stratosphere. The telescope that sits underneath is 0.8 meters in diameter. The STO-2 science objectives are to look at Cold Dark Clouds in the interstellar medium of the Milky Way galaxy. These clouds are thought to further condense into Giant Molecular Clouds, where star formation takes place. Giant Molecular Cloud studies have been ongoing for several decades, but this mission will be one of very few to directly observe the Cold Dark Clouds, and will help us understand how Giant Molecular Clouds form. We will also study how interstellar clouds get disrupted by nearby high mass stars as they give off intense solar wind, and later from supernovas as they die.

ISM carbon lifecycle

A diagram showing the lifecycle of gas and dust in the Milky Way. The diagram shows which dominate species of observable chemical transitions are used to study each phase. The STO-2 mission observes CII and NII and OII emission.

The STO-2 telescope looks at these cloud regions and uses three separate terahertz detectors to record data from these clouds. Each detector is specifically designed to look at photons emitted by different chemical transitions within the Cold Dark Clouds. Together, these three emission profiles help determine important properties of these galactic clouds, including: distinguishing which cloud type we are observing, what the temperature of the cloud is, where the cloud is located within the galaxy (3 dimensionally), how thick the cloud is, how the cloud is moving internally (rotating, expanding, etc), and the what the radiation environment surrounding the cloud is like. This information will lead us to understanding the higher level questions of: what is the complete lifecycle of interstellar gas, study the creation and disruption of star-forming galactic clouds, determine the parameters that effect star formation rate in the galaxy, and provide templates for star formation and stellar/interstellar feedback in external galaxies.

STO galactic survey region

The survey region of the STO-2 payload. We will look at a significant fraction of the galaxy which includes looking through the spiral arm and inter-arm regions.

The STO-2 mission is scheduled for launch from McMurdo Station in Antarctica in December of 2015. Recently, I traveled to Palestine, TX to help with the integration and testing of the STO-2 payload. This test is critical to to ensure that the instrument is balanced and all of the equipment fits into its specified location, make sure that the data collected by the instrument is properly stored by the onboard computers and relayed by satellite to mission control, and to test that that the telescope is properly aligned and can receive satellite pointing commands.

There are two major ‘teams’ working on the full STO-2 payload. The first is the instrument team, who are in charge of making sure all the receivers are working properly. The receivers we use are Hot Electron Bolometers (HEBs) for our CII and NII emission. These detectors need a lot of support electronics to make them work properly, and so the instrument team is in charge of focusing the light from the secondary mirror onto the detectors, through a series of lenses, mirrors, and windows. We also shine a second, high powered light source created by us onto the HEB detectors, which acts as a light ‘pump’ for our detectors. We call the light pump a Local Oscillator (LO). The HEBs convert the photons from the LOs and the gas clouds into lower frequency electrical signals. The electrical signals get amplified and converted into digital signals, which are read by our spectrometers. A lot of the electrical equipment, especially the HEBs, need to be supercooled to function properly. The camera sits inside a big dewar, which holds liquid helium at 4 degrees above absolute zero. The instrument team is not only responsible for making sure the electronics are properly aligned, they also need to make sure each piece of equipment is kept at its desired temperature.

Members of the instrument team working on the electronics outside of the dewar during the Hang Test. The dewar is the white tank in the middle-left of the image with a lot of electronics boxes attached to it. We paint everything flight-worthy white to reflect as much sunlight as possible which helps keep it cool.

The other team for the STO-2 mission is the telescope team. While the instrument team sets up the receiver system, the telescope team sets up the majority of the structure of the payload as well as a lot of support systems. The telescope team handles the telescope itself, which is the primary and secondary mirrors, sitting along the long gold baffle. They also set up the guidance system, which uses visible light cameras to triangulate which direction the telescope is pointing, and uses gyroscopes and reaction wheels to keep the telescope steady and slew it back and forth to take an image of the cloud regions we study. The telescope gondola has two sets of solar panels to provide power to the telescope subsystems, and we have batteries on-board to store the extra energy. The telescope team is in charge of thermal control for all the equipment that isn’t cooled by the helium tank in the dewar. Finally, the telescope team provides contact to and from the telescope, which allows us to communicate via satellite with the telescope while in flight to check on its stats, upload pointing commands, and collecting the data through mission control.

The telescope with the dewar attached but before the solar panels are installed. The guidance system has also not been installed underneath the telescope. The gondola pictured here is just shy of 20 ft. tall.

The hang test is the first time that the instrument and telescope come together and all the electronics are hooked up to each other. The hang test takes place at the Columbia Science Balloon Facility in Palestine, TX. It is a small NASA center where they used to launch balloon missions, but cannot do so any longer now that Palestine is a booming metropolis (heh). You can still go out and see the gigantic launch pad, which is a 1000 ft diameter concrete circle, surrounded by an even wider open space now used for growing hay.

The CSBF launch pad during the day (lower) and at night (upper). I wanted to include the sunset picture because it was very pretty. It was not as hot in Texas in August as in Phoenix, but it was about 3 times as humid. You can’t see the launch pad as well from these angles, but it is very large and quite pleasant to take a stroll around.

During the hang test, the entire gondola payload is actually hung from a crane! The test not only tests the hardware system but also the software system, which is very complex, elegant, and designed by the STO-2 team specifically for this mission. The dewar and the telescope are integrated inside a large hanger. On the day of the test, a crane in the hangar lifts the payload to the door, where it is transferred to a separate crane and taken outside. The hanging payload is free to point and rotate, and it can communicate via satellite. Mission control (Houston) send pointing commands to the gondola, and the team can determine if the telescope is pointing correctly. We also take some ‘fake’ data and make sure it is stored and processed correctly. Since things went well, the hang test only took ~ 3 hours. However, there were two straight weeks of 10-16 hour days necessary to get us to that point (and one 22 hour day!). The success of the hang test shows that the mission is prepared to be sent down to Antarctica for launch. The entire system has to be taken apart to be shipped, so all that hard work gets immediately torn apart.

The STO-2 instrument and telescope teams in front of the complete instrument gondola. Hang test success!

The gondola only needs to hang by a few feet to be able to swing properly. You can see the back sides of the solar panels in this view, as well as the instrument support package underneath the dewar. The communication antennas are sticking out on the boom at the very top of the payload.

Davis Groppi STO2 hanging

Me and my adviser Chris Groppi with the payload. You can see the extent of the instrument better in this view.


What is cystinosis?

Cystinosis is a rare, genetic disease, which is mostly diagnosed early in childhood, usually before the age of two. It is autosomal recessive, which means that it is inherited when a child receives two copies of an abnormal gene, one copy from each parent. Because the parents each have only one abnormal gene, they are not affected.

It is estimated that cystinosis occurs in somewhere between 1 in 100,000 to 1 in 200,000 live births. There are 10 to 15 new cases of cystinosis diagnosed each year in Europe.

The problem in cystinosis is an increase in many parts of the body an amino acid called cystine. This build up causes cystine crystals to form in many organs of the body. These crystals form firstly in the kidneys and the eyes, late complications can occur in muscles, pancreas, thyroid gland and in other parts of the body.

There is a specific treatment for Cystinosis, but there is no cure. Children with cystinosis are experiencing much better outcomes and many young adults are living happy and active lives. But we still have a long way to go.

In The Netherlands we have a patient support group. It is called Dutch Cystinosis Group (Cystinose Groep Nederland). The website you now visit is our website. If you need our information translated into English, please contact us by the use of the contact button.

Source: Cystinosis Network Europe


Single-Page App Architecture talk
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Single-Page App Architecture

In this talk, we will survey the landscape of techniques for building single-page web applications, for fun, profit, and most importantly, perceived performance. Compared to a traditional site with page refreshes for navigation and actions, single-page apps introduce complexity around state management, client-server synchronization and memory usage, and often increase initial page load time. Learn how to minimize the spinner and make your site feel responsive and continuous.

Instead of focusing on a particular server or client-side framework, we will lay out pros and cons of strategies for serving assets, passing data, shared templating and code, caching and managing dependencies, referencing tools that can help along the way. You will leave this session knowing how to evaluate the different approaches and decide what is right for your project.

bundle install
bundle exec showoff serve
open http://localhost:9090


The ones that get away

Due to the juxtaposition of my previous post with the tagline of my blog, it has come to my attention that I did not include libraries in my diet in the event that I become a godzilla-monster.  This oversight is a terrible disservice to a noble institution.  On my own behalf, I must offer heartfelt apologies to libraries everywhere.  Unfortunately, I will not be able to change the tagline, because “If I were a godzilla-monster, I would only eat bookstores and libraries” just doesn’t sound as good.  It is possible that a compromise, such as alternating between “bookstores” and “libraries” in the tagline, might to some degree ameliorate the consequences of the lapse, and I would be open to such a compromise.  Regardless, I deeply regret the error and will strive to avoid replicating it in the future.

A love note

It should come as no surprise to anyone that I’m a big fan of public libraries.  I must have started going (or more accurately, my mother must have started taking me) fairly early in my life.  I don’t even remember the first time I went to one.  I do, however, remember my first “home” library.  It was a large, white (ish) building probably built sometime in the 80s based on the architecture.  The few windows were heavily tinted, so it was always dim inside, and it smelled fusty.  I remember the children’s room being brighter, though whether it was better lit or simply more brightly decorated I couldn’t tell you now.  I went every week when I was young.  I remember exiting from semi-gloom into brilliant afternoon sunshine, delighted with a fresh haul and eager to dive into it.  We would go with sturdy canvas bags to carry the books, and mine was always absolutely crammed.  I could fit perhaps six to ten books in one bag, depending on whether they were paperbacks or hardcovers.

Choosing the books was the hard part, however.  This was a relatively large public library – larger than most individual branches I’ve encountered since, anyway.  It had a correspondingly large selection.  I remember, once, sitting down in one of the back aisles of the children’s section in front of a whole series of books about different animals.  There must have been at least a couple dozen of them.  And there were so many I wanted to read!  My mother typically let me browse as I wished while she did the same, only coming to look for me if I hadn’t shown up at the circulation desk to check out in the usual amount of time.  So by the time she found me, I had pulled what seems like twenty of them in memory but might have been half that off the shelves.  Dismayed, she had to explain to me that I could not check all of those out, and I would have to put most of them back.  This was an exacting and laborious task for a seven-year-old, but my mother stood by patiently while I did it.

Some years later, a new branch of the county library opened up not five minutes from our home.  The building was brand-new, bright, airy, spacious, and clearly intended for growth, since half the shelves were still empty.  It was beautiful, but I never quite grew attached to it in the same way I did the old, dark, musty library I grew up with.  It wasn’t my library.  Still, I went there occasionally in my late teens, mostly during summer breaks when I was bored or stressed and didn’t know what to do with myself.  The librarians were always pleased to see me.  I gathered that most of their other teen volunteers were as much hindrance as help, and I was a shelving wonder – despite sometimes getting distracted by interesting-looking books.  I even managed to help patrons find books on occasion, like the man looking for a nonfiction children’s book about space.  I had just shelved a book there, so I was able to find the general section for him quickly, and felt quite pleased with myself.

Now, I’m fortunate to live in a large city with an extensive public library system.  New York actually has three: one for Queens, one for Brooklyn, and one that covers the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island.  At this point, I’ve visited more branches than I can readily count.  The most memorable, unsurprisingly, is the iconic central branch of the New York Public Library, on 42nd Street.  It’s huge and beautiful, so old and so well-traveled (well-loved) that many of the steps have been worn hollow with the passage of feet.  Most of the public parts of it feel like that – vast, lovely, venerable.  I went to the enormous reading room, filled out a slip to request a book decades old, and watched it whisked away by pneumatic tube.  When my book arrived, I sat down at a table in a hard wooden chair and read it cover to cover in one sitting, since the collection there can’t be checked out.

I’ve even seen parts of it most don’t get to, thanks to a friend who worked there a few years ago.  At a donor event to which employees could bring a guest, I had the opportunity for a short behind-the-scenes tour that included the stacks.  Unsurprisingly, the less-public parts are more workaday – less nice, even, than the stacks at other libraries, since the public isn’t admitted to them.  More surprisingly, they were incredibly hot, even in December.  I suppose such a large, old building has heating and cooling challenges, but it did make me worry for the books, especially because the collection there is generally older and rarer.  Still, I’m glad I had the opportunity to see the stacks.  Now, I donate regularly to the New York Public Library myself – not a large amount, but every little bit counts, as they say.

I still check out plenty of books, though not quite so many as in my childhood, and libraries are still my preferred place to kill time if I need to.  I was about to say that I appreciate them more now, but I think it would be more accurate to say that I appreciate them differently now.  As a child I loved libraries for the treasure trove of delights they offered me; as a teen I loved them for the refuge they offered me.  As an adult, I’m more aware of what they offer others.  Obviously, they still offer everything they did me: a tremendous variety of enjoyable media to consume, a safe and pleasant place to spend time for people of all ages.  But they also offer a great many other services that rarely if ever impinged on my awareness when I was young: classes and assistance on every topic from computers to job hunting to language learning to knitting; art, history, and culture exhibits; events with public figures, thinkers, and artists of various kinds; and probably far more that I still don’t know about.

All of which is to say that I am really, truly, deeply grateful for the existence of public libraries, and I hope they thrive far into the future.


Oliver Phillips

My long-term research goal is to understand the dynamics of carbon and biodiversity across the world’s tropical forests, how these change with our changing climate, and how they may feedback on the whole planet.

The scale of the endeavour is large, requiring global team-work and a multidisciplinary approach. I lead RAINFOR, a team of more than 100 researchers in Leeds, Oxford, across South America, and elsewhere, to understand the behaviour of Amazonian and other tropical forests in the changing earth system, working closely with GEM colleagues.


Configure Redundancy Zones for Members

Group members into redundancy zones so GemFire will separate redundant data copies into different zones.

Understand how to set a member's settings. See and (GemFire Properties).
Group your partition region hosts into redundancy zones with the setting redundancy-zone.
For example, if you had redundancy set to 1, so you have one primary and one secondary copy of each data entry, you could split primary and secondary data copies between two machine racks by defining one redundancy zone for each rack. To do this, you set this zone in the for all members that run on one rack:
You would set this zone for all members on the other rack:

Each secondary copy would be hosted on the rack opposite the rack where its primary copy is hosted.


Get access

Are Bald-Faced Lies Deceptive after All?

According to the traditional philosophical definition, you lie if and only if you say something that you believe to be false and you intend to deceive someone into believing what you say. However, philosophers have recently noted the existence of bald-faced lies, lies which are not intended to deceive anyone into believing what is said. As a result, many philosophers have removed deception from their definitions of lying. According to Jennifer Lackey, this is ‘an unhappy divorce’ because it precludes an obvious explanation of the prima facie wrongness of lying. Moreover, Lackey claims that there is a sense of deception in which all lies are deceptive. In this paper, I argue that bald-faced lies are not deceptive on any plausible notion of deception. In addition, I argue that divorcing deception from lying may not be as unhappy a result as Lackey suggests.


Carrion Crown

Carrion Crown – The Haunting of Harrowstone
Session 6

The heroes leave Vesorianna to search for Warden Hawkran’s symbol of office, to find the five arch-criminal ghosts, and to defeat them. The heroes go upstairs. Three stirges attack them. The Ulan cousins easily defeat two of the stirges by themselves. The entire rest of the company desperately struggle against the third stirge. By working together, the other four heroes manage to take down the last single stirge.

The heroes continue to explore the upper floor and find the cell block. Each cell has the skeletal remains of a prisoner that died in the jail.

Suddenly the heroes are surrounded by the sound of a mournful dirge. The music forces the heroes to resist its magic or become staggered. The music also causes every skeleton to animate and rise to attack the heroes. And finally, it attracts three stirges into the area.

Battle begins. Initially most of the heroes focus on fighting the stirges. Yosief calls upon the power of Iomedae to drive back several of the skeletons. The stirges are quickly killed. Several skeletons are able to exit their cells, and they advance towards the heroes. The heroes start to destroy the skeletons while Yosief continues to force the monsters to flee. Yosief takes several hits from the skeletons, and one delivers a devastating blow, taking Yosief down. Jonas casts his Heavenly Fire power to heal Yosief. As the battle continues, Yosief is badly wounded again, and again Jonas heals Yosief, this time with a wand. Although the magic closes Yosief’s wounds, scars remain.

The heroes destroy all the skeletons that were able to exit their cells. They continue to explore while the sound of the mournful music continues. Daratrine goes up a ladder to the tower and finds a giant stirge. Eventually the music causes Jonas to fall into a trance. Yosief succumbs to the trance shortly thereafter. They have a vision of the Piper of Ill Marsh approaching them. Harten pulls out the Piper’s flute and he begins to play it. The flute causes Harten to bleed from his fingers and eyes. The music of the Piper decreases in volume, and Jonas and Yosief are able to see that the Piper in their vision begins to take damage from the music that Harten is playing.

Yosief manages to break free of the trance and informs the heroes to keep playing the flute to defeat the Piper. Daratrine battles against the giant stirge up in the tower. Clutch takes a defensive position to protect the party in case something comes at them. Jonas breaks free of the trance, and then he and Yosief take damage from a flock of phantom stirges.

Murdoc takes the flute away from Harten and plays the flute himself. He is also able to harm the piper with the flute’s music. But he suffers the same ill effects as Harten did, and also falls under the power of the flute, becoming entranced with the music he is playing. Harten takes the flute back and finished the song while Murdoc recovers. The final chords of the song that Harten plays destroy the Piper of Ill Marsh.

Only four ghosts are left.

Carrion Crown – The Haunting of Harrowstone
Session 5

The heroes continue to explore the prison. They return back to the fungus room. The haunt returns and slams the door shut. The heroes go through the podium room. Daratrine opens the locked door and enters the next room. It is filled with antiques that are labeled. They find a set of masterwork thief tools, a medallion from the Shining Crusade, a painting, hair clips, a masterwork punch dagger, shurikens, a war razor and a wand of lesser restoration. Daratrine finds a secret room. Inside are the personal effects of the five arch-criminals. They are:

A bloodstained hand axe
A set of twelve holy symbols, all from a different deity
A leather-bound book
A smith’s hammer
A silver pipe

The heroes continue to explore and they find the guard’s offices. The offices still have paperwork inside of them. The heroes study the papers and discover that Father Charlatan was not a murderer. He was a con-artist that swindled money from people in exchange for fake miracles.

The heroes continue exploring and find the Warden’s office. Daratrine is able to open the safe. Inside is:

4 potions of cure moderate wounds
3 scrolls of lesser restoration
2 potions of remove disease

The heroes continue exploring and go past the washroom and come to the Chapel. It is filled with spider webs. Three giant spiders come out and attack the heroes. The heroes defeat them and investigate the Chapel.

Afterwards, they explore the Induction Chamber. Harten hears sobbing and experiences a feeling of hopelessness when he walks into the chamber. A set of manacles rises up and attacks Harten. Harten destroys them.

The heroes continue on and explore the Branding Room. Three branding irons rise up and attack Harten, Clutch and Daratrine. The irons are unable to hit the heroes, and they knock the irons away.

The heroes continue on to the workshop. Inside, they see lots of linen and a skeletal corpse lying on the floor. Daratrine and Jonas see a brick in the wall that looks odd. They go to investigate it. Yosief goes to investigate the corpse.

As he approaches it, the ghost of Vesorianna Hawkran rises and speaks to the party. She was the wife of Warden Hawkran. She answers questions that the heroes ask her. She explains that the Whispering Way cultists have cast a spell that removed her husband’s spirit from the prison. She is trying to keep the five arch-criminals from escaping, but she is weakening and eventually will not be able to contain them. She asks the heroes to destroy the spirits of the arch-criminals before they escape. Time is limited because somehow the Splatterman is spelling out Vsorianna’s name. Once her name is completely spelled out, she will be destroyed.

Carrion Crown – The Haunting of Harrowstone
Session 4

The heroes return to Kendra’s house and go to bed. They wake up and leave town two hours before sunrise. They arrive at Harrowstone and wait for sunrise. The heroes enter the prison.

The first room they enter has fungus covering the walls. They continue through and enter the Auditorium. A ghost appears and slams the door behind them. The door is then held closed with magic. Everyone feels a wave of cold in the auditorium.

The heroes continue to the next room which is the Training Room. Three flaming skulls rise up out of a pit in the floor and attack. The heroes defeat them and continue on to the next room. It is the Furnace Room. There is a sign that says “Embermaw”. The furnace shoots a jet of flame at Clutch. Harten looks in the furnace and sees bones inside. Harten takes the bones and throws them into the water nearby. Daratrine recognizes this as a haunt. Throwing the bones into the water defeats the haunt. Yosief heals Clutch.

The heroes continue to the next room. It is the Infirmary. They meet a ghost nurse that they call Nurse Joy. Yosief and Jonas are overcome by fear and run away. Clutch, Harten, Murdoc and Daratrine fight the ghost. Daratrine is able to kill it with one shot from a ghost touched arrow. Inside the infirmary they find :

2 healers kits
3 vials of anti-toxin
2 vials of anti-plague
3 doses of blood block
3 doses of smelling salts
2 vials of soothe syrup
4 potions of cure light wounds.

Carrion Crown – The Haunting of Harrowstone
Session 3

The heroes investigate the area around Harrowstone. Clutch, Murdoc and Yosief find old tracks. Jonas realizes that they were humanoids wearing shoes.

The heroes push the front gates open. Clutch and Harten experience a feeling of claustrophobia and of being on fire. But they push on despite their fear and pain.

The heroes investigate the manor house. Harten sees that the house is unstable, but the heroes decide to investigate anyway. Inside, they find a sign that identifies the house as Warden Hawkran’s house. During the investigation, a portion of the ceiling falls on Jonas, wounding him. Yosief casts healing magic on him.

The heroes exit the house and follow the track to the prison. Along the foundation, the heroes find runes written along the foundation wall. The runes are etched into the stone and are covered in blood. Lyvar Hawkran’s name is repeated over and over in the script. The script is a magic incantation. The runes are written all along the entire building, and the heroes are able to tell that they have been recently inscribed. The incantation magic involves abjuration and necromancy.

The heroes decide to return to Kendra’s house. When they get there, they realize that Vladimir is not there. Yosief, Clutch and Murdoc want to go look for him. After a long search, they find him sleeping in the Pharasmian church. Yosief leaves a note instructing him to come back to the house when he wakes up. The heroes return to Kendra’s house and get some sleep.

In the morning, the heroes eat breakfast, and Vladimir returns. The heroes research the incantation. They are able to determine that the inscription is the beginning of something bigger which somehow involves the deceased warden. The warden was the focus of the inscribed magic. Yosief investigates and notices that Mrs. Hawkran’s name in not inscribed on the memorial statue.

The heroes go visit Father Grimburrow. After he listens to everything they have to say, he suggests that they go visit the Unfurling Scroll a school and magic item shop. The shop is owned by Alendru Ghoroven and he has a library there that may help with the investigation.

The heroes leave, and go visit Sheriff Caeller. They report everything that they learned. The sheriff tells them to continue their investigation, but not to let townsfolk find out about it.

The heroes go visit Alendru Ghoroven and he lets the heroes use his library to assist in the investigation.

Yosief decides to study the Whispering Way. He learns that they are an organization of necromancers who have been active for thousands of years. They often ally themselves with undead to further their goals. Tar-Baphon the Whispering Tyrant was the most active and infamous member of the organization. The Way is a series of philosophies that are only whispered from one member to another. They are never written down. Agents of the Way seek ways to make liches and to release Tar-Baphon from his prison. If an outsider learns too much about the Way, they are killed and the victim’s mouth is mutilated so that nobody can cast Speak with Dead on the corpse. This is what happened to Professor Lorrimor.

Murdoc decides to study the five infamous prisoners of Harrowstone. He learns about Professor Hean Feramin. He was a scholar in Anthroponomastics (the study of personal names and their origins). He was from Caliphis. Feramin was obsessed with names and what happens to people’s names when they died. He became known as the Splatterman because he was a serial killer. He would choose a victim, and he would spell out their name in blood or in body parts, one letter at a time over the course of several days. When the name was completely spelled out, he would murder his victim.

Jonas decides to study the magical incantation. He learns that the spell captures and imprisons the ghost of Warden Hawkran.

Harten, Clutch and Daratrine go to Sheriff Caeller to see if he has anything that he needs them to do. He has nothing specific, so they walk around town looking for ways to help out in town.

Daratrine sees two farmers arguing, and she helps them resolve their disagreement.

Clutch sees a group of men working on a broken wagon. He sets up a rig to lift the wagon.

Harten sees two girls playing by the town’s well. They get into an argument, and one girl accidently pushes her friend into the well, where she will surely die if nobody helps her. Harten decides to go into the well, and he is able to climb back out with her, saving her life.

And the townspeople begin to warm up the heroes.

Carrion Crown – The Haunting of Harrowstone
Session 2

The heroes investigate the statue. The letter “V” has been painted on the statue base. The crowd blames the heroes. Daratrine finds a dead rat. It is apparent that the letter was painted on the statue with the rat’s blood.

Sheriff Caeller arrives. He is shocked. One of the names on the base has the last name of Caeller. Sheriff Caeller places his hand on that name and murmurs, “I am sorry.” He asks who found the mark on the statue. One of the townsfolk steps forward and claims to have found it. The sheriff takes the man to the jail for further questioning.

The heroes go visit Father Grimburrow. They tell him about the treasure that was in the false crypt. The heroes ask if they can use those items to investigate The Whispering Way and Professor Lorrimor’s death. He agrees to let the heroes keep the items.

The heroes tell Father Grimburrow about the vandalism at the statue. There is discussion about the statue. It commemorates the guards at Harrowstone Prison who died during the fire that destroyed it. Between Father Grimburrow, Yosief and Murdock, the following information is revealed.

The prison burned 50 years ago and its ruins have been empty ever since. The locals think it is haunted and don’t talk about it. The prison was built 117 years ago. Ravengro was founded at the same time for the guards and their families to live at. Fire destroyed the underground east wing. The stone above ground remains. The warden and his wife died there. It is unclear why the warden’s wife was at the prison. The statue in Ravengro was erected shortly after the fire. Criminals that were sent to Harrowstone only spent a few months there before they were executed. Fifty years ago, there was a prison riot, and a fire broke out. When the fire broke out, Warden Hawkran and 23 guards prevented the prisoners from escaping.

Jonas and Harken return to Kendra’s house to research Harrowstone. They send Vladimir Bloodtusk out to join Yosief, Clutch and Murdock. Their research finds out that originally Harrowstone was only for locals. Eventually, other towns sent their most dangerous prisoners there. At the time of the fire, the number of prisoners was at the highest level ever. The five most notorious prisoners were: Father Charlatan, The Lopper, The Mosswater Marauder, The Piper of Ill Marsh and The Splatter Man.

The true name of the Piper of Ill Marsh is unknown. It is known that he would torment victims with a terrible dirge. Then he would poison them with lich dust. Then he would set a swarm of stirges upon them.

Meanwhile, Yosief, Murdock and Clutch see young girls singing a creepy song as they jump rope. With Yosief’s help. Murdock is able to convince them to teach him their song. After learning the song, the three go visit Sheriff Caeller. They ask for permission to clean the statue. The sheriff gives permission, but asks that great care is taken with the statue. The three stop by Kendra’s house to get cleaning supplies, and Murdock is singing the girls’ song in Kendra’s house. Kendra seems to think it is odd that an adult man would walk around singing a young girl’s play song. The heroes go out and clean the statue.

After the statue is cleaned, the heroes return to Kendra’s house. They use the spirit board and ask “Did the Whispering Way kill Professor Lorrimor?” The answer is “Maybe.”

The heroes head out that night to the ruins of Harrowstone. As they approach the ruined wall, they try to decide the best way to begin their investigations.

Carrion Crown – The Haunting of Harrowstone
Session 1

The story opens with the characters traveling to Ravengro to attend Professor Lorrimor’s funeral. Clutch is traveling north, and on the road he meets Murdock, the Bard. Yosief, Jonas and Vladimir Bloodtusk are traveling together. Daratrine is traveling by herself. Harten is traveling by himself by carriage. Outside of Ravengro, the carriage is forced to stop for a minor repair. While it is stopped, all of the heroes meet each other.

They enter Ravengro together and arrive right as the funeral procession is about to take Professor Lorrimor’s casket to the graveyard. Everyone is greeted by Kendra Lorrimor, the professor’s daughter. Yosief, Harten, Murdock and Clutch volunteer to be pallbearers. Several mourners are present to pay their respects.

As the procession approaches the graveyard, they are blocked by a crowd that does not want the professor’s body buried there. They didn’t like the professor or something. Harten speaks to them and convinces them to stand aside and allow the funeral to proceed. Father Vauran Grimburrow conducts the ceremony and then asks people to come forward and speak about Professor Lorrimor. Kendra steps forward and speaks about her father. Yosief steps forward to speak, but after a few words, he is overcome with emotion and Jonas has to come forward and finish for him. Harten speaks next about how the professor helped the noble folk. Clutch speaks next, and he is followed by Murdock. Murdock plays the professor’s favorite song. The performance is wonderful and the crowd is deeply moved. After the song, Daratrine steps forward and speaks about the professor’s work. Vladimir Bloodtusk is the last to speak. His speech is short but powerful. “The professor hated ghouls. I hate ghouls. When I kill a ghoul, I will remember the professor.”

After the funeral, Kendra invites the heroes to her house. They all join her there, and they wait for Councilman Vashian Hearthmount to arrive and read the professor’s will. When the councilman arrives, it seems that he does not approve of the heroes. It is presumed that it is because they are outsiders. He states that the will cannot be read until all the heroes and Kendra are present. The heroes are surprised that their presence is required.

When Councilman Hearthmount is ready to start, he breaks the seal on the will, and a key falls out. The councilman reads the will. All of his property is left to Kendra. He asks the heroes to perform two services for him. First, he asks that the heroes deliver a chest of books to Lepidstadt University. Second, he asks the heroes to stay with Kendra for a month to keep her safe while she decides what to do with her estate. If the heroes do both of these things, each will receive 100 platinum pieces. Councilman Vashian then leaves. Kendra asks the stay at her house. The heroes agree. Then Kendra then brings out a locked chest. The key from the will opens it, and inside are several books. They are:
A purple book with a lock.
A book titled “On Verified Madness” – a treatise on aberrations.
A book titled “Serving Your Hunger” – a book sacred to Urgathoa.
A book titled “Unbral Leaves” – a book about the teachings of Zon Kuthon.
Professor Lorrimor’s personal journal.

Jonas reads the journal, and discovers clues about the professor’s death. The book also describes a secret cache of magic items hidden in a false crypt in the graveyard.

The heroes make plans to visit the crypt. They leave Vladimir at the house to protect Kendra. The heroes go to Father Grimburrow’s house, but he is not there. They continue on to the temple, and find him there. He speaks with the heroes. Harten reads the journal to him, and after a lot of persuasion, he gives the heroes permission to investigate the false crypt.

The heroes proceed on to the graveyard and find the crypt. The lock has been cut using acid. The heroes go inside and find it has no corpses. In the far back room, the party is attacked by two giant centipedes. After the centipedes are killed the party opens a large stone sarcophagus. Inside they find:
12 Silver Arrows
4 Sunrods
6 flasks of Holy Water
10 magical +1 Arrows
4 Haunt Siphons
5 magical +1 Ghost Touched Arrows
2 magical +1 Undead Bane Arrows
5 potions of Cure Light Wounds
2 potions of Lesser Restoration
1 scroll of Detect Undead
2 scrolls of Hide from Undead
1 scroll of Protection from Evil
A thin darkwood case with the symbol of the Palatine Eye. Inside the case is a spirit board.
The heroes can see that six Haunt Siphons have been removed.

The heroes take all of the items and return to Kendra’s house to rest for the evening.

The next morning, there is a large commotion down by the river. The heroes go out to investigate. There is a large crowd beside the large statue that is a memorial to the soldiers at Harrowstone Prison who gave their lives to prevent a prison escape several years ago when there was a fire in the prison. During the night, somebody has painted a large letter “V” in blood on the statue.

The heroes contemplate how to calm the unruly crowd.