The counterweight lift · Velstraven

A major room of chapter 3. When you walk in, the room card reads: The lift car hangs below the upper landing; the landing gate stays shut.

Narrated walkthrough

The counterweight lift from its entrance — The counterweight lift: how to solve it

Getting there

Chapter 3, second upper floor. The north doorway of the Workshop and observatory hub. Solving it raises the service gate in the passage to the stair up to the stalled orrery.

What is wrong

"The lift car hangs below the upper landing; the landing gate stays shut." The car (140 kg) outweighs its counterweight (100 kg) across the sheave, hangs askew, and a spring brake holds the shaft. A service stair rises to a 2 m maintenance platform beside the shaft.

What you can work

Car: The lift car, a metre under the upper landing. It outweighs the counterweight.
Counterweight: The stone counterweight at the far side of the shaft.
Guide eye: An eye on the car's side facing an eye on the fixed rail; nothing links them, so the car sways.
Guide: A skewed guide roller with a service handwheel that would seat it.
Brake: The spring brake on the shaft; nothing moves while it holds. Hand lever, at the maintenance platform.
Clamp: An open inspection clamp around two broken chain ends.
Chain: The broken auxiliary chain on the inspection shelf.
Auxiliary: A spare weight meant to hang from the counterweight line by that chain.
Shoe: A service shoe on the car's top that should meet the fixed landing cheek.
Catch: The floor catch at the upper landing. It takes a car that arrives level, square and still.
Upper: The upper landing's return gate. Its handle only works from the landing itself.
Wall: Bare masonry from the maintenance platform up to the upper landing.
Recovery: A guarded crank at the lower bay that winds an undocked car back to its stop.
Reading lamp: Optional light to read the room by: Handle toggles it, Heat lights it, Supply liquid douses it, Place light roots a lasting flame blossom in its cup. It works none of the room's fittings.
Reading shutter: Optional: Handle or Orient opens a high window for daylight from a second angle. It works none of the room's fittings.

Solution

A nudge

Lighten takes 45% of the car's weight, so it pulls like 77 kg. The 100 kg counterweight now outweighs it, but the brake still holds the shaft.

The full solution

From the floor, aim at the Car and cast Lighten (Wind, Wind, Will).
Lighten takes 45% of the car's weight, so it pulls like 77 kg. The 100 kg counterweight now outweighs it, but the brake still holds the shaft.
What you see: "Partial air lift reduces the car's effective weight; its full inertia remains." The car now reads "The counterweight now outweighs it; the brake still holds it where it hangs."
Climb the service stair to the maintenance platform. Aim at the Guide eye and cast Tether (Growth, Growth, Will).
The line joins the car's eye to the rail's eye. It is long enough for the 1 m rise but stops the sway. The catch will not take a swinging car.
What you see: "The length-limited lateral line restrains sway while allowing the final rise."
Handle the Brake.
With the brake off, the heavier counterweight sinks and hauls the car up. A governor keeps it slow.
What you see: "The spring brake changes grip on the coupled lift shaft." The car rises about a metre, to the landing.
Aim at the Shoe and cast Anchor (Growth, Growth, Water).
The shoe now touches the fixed landing cheek. A root cuff holds the two together while the mechanical catch seats.
What you see: "A contact cuff holds the docked shoe while its mechanical catch seats."
Handle the Catch.
The car is level, square and still, so the floor catch takes its full load. From now on no spell is holding the car up.
What you see: "The floor catch takes the car load independently of magic."
Get onto the upper landing. Cast Climbing growth (Water, Water, Will) on the Wall, then jump from the platform's edge onto the holds with forward held and climb. Once there, Handle the Upper gate.
The landing is 1.5 m above the platform, too high to step up. Its gate only opens by hand from the landing itself.
What you see: "Finite holds lead from the maintenance platform to the upper landing." then "The upper landing's return gate catches open." and "The counterweight lift settled."

Other ways that work

Instead of Lighten, add weight to the other side. With the Brake still on, Handle the Clamp shut on the chain ends, cast Join (Wind, Fire, Fire) on the Chain, wait a few seconds for the weld to cool, then Handle the Auxiliary. The extra 70 kg on the counterweight line outweighs the 140 kg car.
Instead of Tether, Handle the Guide: its handwheel seats the skewed roller and stops the sway.
Skip the lift: stand on the floor just to the right of the upper landing, cast Rising draught (Wind, Wind, Wind), wait while the column lifts you above the landing's edge, then step left onto the landing and Handle the Upper gate. The game's tests confirm this; an ordinary jump cannot reach.
Climbing growth on the Wall plus Handle the Upper gate also settles the room without repairing the lift.

Watch for

Lighten on the Counterweight is the wrong side: it reduces the pull that should raise the car.
The brake, guide eye, shoe and catch are worked from the maintenance platform. From the floor they are "above ordinary standing reach".
Releasing the brake with nothing stopping the sway leaves the car swinging. The catch refuses it: "The car is not stable inside the landing catch."
Join refuses until the chain ends touch under brake and clamp: "The compatible chain ends must contact under the brake and clamp." A hot joint cannot carry the weight yet: "The auxiliary weight lacks a cool, load-bearing chain joint."
The holds start just beyond the platform's edge, so you need a jump onto them with forward held. A missed jump drops you to the floor; walk back up the stair.
From the floor, the gate answers "Reach the upper landing to release its return latch."

If it goes wrong

There is no failed state. Before the catch is set, Handle the Recovery crank to wind the car back to its stop with the brake on: "The guarded recovery crank returns the car to its inspection stop."
Hold R for one second ("Keep holding to restart from the room's autosave"), or use the pause door "Restart from autosave", to put the room back as it was when you walked in: "Automatic room-entry save restored." Rooms you settled earlier stay settled.

Achievements here

The Lift Runs True: Solve the counterweight lift.
Featherfall: Featherfall needs a Rising draught cast followed by a soft landing. Riding the draught onto the upper landing and settling there counts.

Spells used

Lighten, Tether, Anchor, Climbing growth, Join, Rising draught.