Learnvault is a stereotypical Eastern monastery. So the official religion must preach rebirth, and the only available religion for that is worship of Nongnob Gristlydrives the Simple Callus. The monks have made Nongnob an elaborate temple, many wonderful statues and countless decorations.
Nongnob is a hydra, not a deity. He has existed since before time began, though, and has killed more things than infection. In case Nongnob shows up and tries to kill them all (not a usual Eastern monastic issue, probably), the monks practice their forms and build cage traps. The monks really want to talk to Nongnob about this whole rebirth thing. (Note: all the devotion has not increased the number of worshipers.)
Speaking of !!SCIENCE!!, the monks were given the research question: Is the sand-blast from a collapsing ceiling capable of propelling a test chicken vertically into the air? A small test rig showed that the sand-blast does travel vertically itself, and it does push chickens horizontally. The Giant Blowgun was built, and in multiple trials, positive vertical travel of chickens was not observed (exception: when the chickens bounced up on hitting the bottom of the Blowgun after a ten to fifteen urist drop). The answer to the research question was: No.
Several chickens gave their lives in the study. Some interesting effects were noted. Further research is planned. Acquisition of a senior mathematician is desired (our dabbler has spent the last five years pondering positional notation, whatever that is, and did not assist in this study).