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From The Primordial Soup

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Hmmm... well, they all seem decent.

I'll be partial to scouting and information gathering though

Im glad the lufels are getting a break

[x] B) Spy on the scouts and then the shaman to see what shenanigans they're planning with the serpents.
 
Two votes ain't enough (again)... I'll be awayish tomorrow so the post will go up saturday if we get another vote.

Saturday edit: No new votes? Need 3... we only have 2. No votes, no progression. I'll give it until monday, then I'll put it on ice until after christmas if there's still no votes.
 
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[X] C) Focus on food and shelter while things are calm.

Honestly, If we don't know what to do, let's just focus on something that we know will work.
 
BeeBadidoo said:
[X] C) Focus on food and shelter while things are calm.

Honestly, If we don't know what to do, let's just focus on something that we know will work.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I wouldve voted for this, if it wasnt recently showed to us that gathering resources during winter was going to be a tough task that might not give much
 
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Year 2 of 5, Month 3: Awakening
  • Threadmarks
    • Sorry it took so long. The holiday took longer than expected. Next post friday evening.

    I might have to put this on ice in january. Depends on if A) we don't get new blood (and I don't have time to advertise) and B) I have mental bandwidth for it as there's going to be a lot going on in the upcoming year leaving my weeknights commandeered and posts regulated to early morning.

    The Boreal Shadowbeak
    The Boreal Shadowbeak is a cold-dwelling cross between a macaw and a raven native to the southern tip of the Glacierbone Ice Sheets, making its home in the trees of special Alumwood Groves. Able to somehow digest shadows and darkness, instead of building traditional nests, it builds hives of darkness-aspected ice which does not melt on exposure to the sun. This takes a great deal of energy -- sometimes one bird will drop dead while making the hives for others in the flock-clan to live out of.

    One hive can support about 18 birds (eight males, eight females, two Queens), each with a specialized role / "caste" in the flock-clan such as hunter, scout, or builder. Birds of a particular caste will associate with identical caste members from other hives as well as their home flock-clan.

    This bird is the size of a Hyacinth Macaw, with a fourteen inch wingspan from tip to tip. Colored a sooty gray like the ice it conceals itself among, its talons are the first thing noticeable about it because they're a very dark black -- a sharp contrast to the rest of its coloration. Along its back between its wings is a clear, narrow oval-shaped window of clear, flexible chitin that grants a perfect view of its spinal column and nerves and which lights up with electrical activity and bioluminescence from its heart when it wants to attract a mate.

    Its bones are doublejointed, enabling crawling into tight spaces or escape points a breeze, and its elliptical wing shape allows for tight moves in enclosed spaces in order to escape predators. While not particularly strong, birds of this species are known to band together in tight social flocks; lonliness and losing their flock are major sources of stress. They do not migrate, picking a spot and staying there for multiple generations as long as the local food supplies hold.

    The bird is an opportunist insectivore, living off the cold-immune bugs and crawly things native to the local cave systems. It's not above feeding on carrion when the situation arises, though it has nowhere near the immune system of a hyena nor the resilience of the polar bear. It also feeds on the sweet fruit of their trees, known simply as Frozen Blood-Rubies for their rich color and weepy-exterior so that it looks like it's leaking blood.

    Its legs are springy and the inside of its talons is lined with thin gripping-scales much like a gecko's footpads, allowing it to jump and latch onto anything it can; the grip-scales prevent unintended removal. Upon its head is a unicorn-like horn half an inch in length which allows detection of magnetic fields, (limited) photosynthesis when no other food is available, or communication with others in its hive.

    Upon its legs are nodes that extrude a kind of icy substance that freezes and darkens on exposure to air; it uses this Dark Ice to construct its hives for safety and defense. It can also vomit this Dark Ice in liquid form.

    The Boreal Shadowbeak has a heart larger than would be expected for its size; this heart takes up one third of its body and has the ability to store kinetic energy that it gathers by flying. What used to be a shocking "node" on one of its legs has been internalized to provide a secondary feedback for the heart in case of damage or irregular heartbeat; this is a nod to its extremely powerful genetics preserving the species far longer than other creatures on the planet.

    The bird's heart gathers so much energy so as to discharge it if we are handled, through nodes on our chest and back (much like an electric eel's defense). Our cold spit has evolved to a Breath Weapon of liquid Dark Ice that can freeze (and poison) a small animal in place. Our bodies have limited color-shifting ability, and some feathers are an indication of age because the color shifting transfers to the feathers in a way much like a tree's rings.

    If hit by blunt trauma, our bodies harden as we play dead, preventing death through broken bones or impact. Our blood instantly thickens on exposure to air, preventing blood loss and death from shock. However, we lost our heat resistance (nothing up here uses heat-based attacks) and great heat of any kind will overwhelm us.

    To protect our eggs, we cover them in our poisonous feathers; those that approach may stick themselves with one by accident.

    The Boreal Shadowbeak is a poisonous bird; when its feathers are plucked it leaks a foul-smelling toxic substance that will bring necrosis to open wounds. This "venom bile", if swallowed, will kill most other creatures. Underneath its layer of poisoned feathers is a second layer of razor-sharp feathers, and we can "fling" these to a range of ten feet by whipping a wing.
    Positive Perks
    We are very intelligent, capable of grasping complex problems, coming together for defense, and discussion of situations and news.
    Our Queens enter a state of rage if the eggs are threatened. One squawk from them and the rest of the hive follows.
    We have a significant Cultivation Instinct and know the value of seeds, storing them for future need.
    We are immune to toxins and poisons as our blood is too dense.
    We have advanced danger sense capabilities, enabling us to react lightning-quickly, preventing predation by most other avians.
    Our feathers are waterproof, allowing us to dive into the ocean to look for other kinds of food (or hide from predators, although there's stuff living in the ocean too...)
    Negative Perks
    We are resistant to the developing "spirit world" that is taking form, and may not be able to enter it later when the opportunity arises.
    We are weak to magnetic distortions (or extremely abrupt atmospheric pressure changes, such as sudden storms).
    Exposure to fire for more than five minutes will boil our blood and cause us to burst.
    We are weak against impalement and piercing damage.
    Upon exposure, toxic metals (mercury, and such) and injected poisons will kill us almost immediately.
    Contact with free flowing water slows us as our bodies harden against the temperature change.
    Predators, Prey and Neutral Interactions
    Four-Legged Geese: Predators of our eggs. Xenophobic to other creatures, especially other avians of any kind and twice as especially to its own species outside its home flock. Permanently hostile to everything.
    Destrobeast: Predator. A beerslam of ape and elephant. Has a "magical" scare attack which we're resistant to. Kills for pleasure. Permanently hostile to everything.
    Seukothi: Four-armed squirrel-centaurs. They hit the tribal stage before we did, though they're more akin to chimp intelligence than actual intelligence at the moment. Hostile.
    Lu'Fels: Essentially sabretoothed wolves running on feline hardware. Allies. Hostile to the Four Legged Geese.
    Fire-breathing Penguins: Southern coastal area, west of us. Hostile to the Seukothi.
    Arctic Komodo Dragons: Unintellient, hostile. They do group up and colonize caves the further north one gets.
    Shoulder-Bladed Rabbit: A vorpal bunny with blades attached to tendons on their shoulders they shoot out for a ranged attack. Hostile.
    Scorpi-Rays: Aerial manta rays with scorpion stingers where "legs" would be underneath them. Hostile.
    Snow Serpents: Hunters of the Lu'Fels. They tend to ignore us because we're poisonous. Neutral.
    Three Shadowbeak Traitors, currently Missing In Action...
    Our Nest's Resources
    The Supergroup's Nest: Population 22/40
    Abundance: Arctic seeds, boreal tundra plants
    Scarce: Many kinds of meat, requiring careful hunting / picking-and-choosing.
    Secured Resources (including SAs/FH)
    Standard Actions available: 3 of 3
    Finest Hour Available
    A Source of S+ (Available now, requires SA + 4 turns, two to travel in each direction)
    The Scorpi-Rays have a source of ZB -- but you'll have to use an SA to get it and fight them for it.



    Previous Choice Values
    3 A) Follow the Seukothi Scouts back to the Shaman, and launch a counterattack. -- Striking before she has a chance to cause more damage? Yes please.
    1 B) Spy on the scouts and then the shaman to see what shenanigans they're planning with the serpents. -- Helpful, but not as much a a direct attack, or at least a direct warning to the shaman
    2 C) Focus on food and shelter while things are calm. -- Calm moments are few and far between and gathering resources is important
    0 D) Assist the Lu'Fels with eliminating the snow serpents entirely from the area. -- At this point they don't need your help (one of those "something had to be a 0" moments)


    Awakening 18, 749,999 BS: 7/27 Survival Points.

    Scouting the Seukothi encampment, you find it was not one, but two half-encampments rolled into one -- this is the dregs of the Seukothi population sent out on their own to make a name for themselves and to (more likely) keep the "actual" warriors and shamans trouble-free. In the center of the encampment the Shaman from earlier works tiressly on chipping out a large chunk of some kind of crystal... the largest "shiny stone" ever carved, shaping it into the image of one of the snow serpents. This she sets into her staff.

    She then impales the staff into the ground and you swear you can feel the world shift under her feet, rolling in what you could only describe as some kind of agony. Multiple snow serpents, some of which are ghostly-looking (?) are drawn to the staff's impact point and are forced to meld together, and the end result is a massive snow-serpent with multiple fist-sized heads on a larger single-serpent body. This new serpent is capable of knocking smaller trees down with its coils, and it looks to be under control of the shaman.

    If this thing were to be sent against your Flock-Clan and supergroup, it'd be a real problem on the level of the Destrobeast. Luring it to the cliffs like you did for the Traitor's Destrobeast isn't going to work here, not while the shaman is wielding that staff. Trouble is you don't know who the target is of this creation, whether it's you out of spite, or the shaman's tribe for kicking the dregs out.

     
  • Threadmarks
    • [x] A) Keep watch... but send a courier back with the knowledge for the rest of the Flock-Clan.
     
    C) Pick up and drop huge stones on the staff, trying to break it. It'll surprise her for sure.

    i want to do this because it could work but from a realistic perspective it has a low chance of workings
    high risk high reward literally could be zero but i think D is zero
     
    Year 2 of 5, Month 4: Creation
  • Threadmarks
    • Next post probably late sunday night to give something to comment on while waiting for the new year to click over.

    The Boreal Shadowbeak
    The Boreal Shadowbeak is a cold-dwelling cross between a macaw and a raven native to the southern tip of the Glacierbone Ice Sheets, making its home in the trees of special Alumwood Groves. Able to somehow digest shadows and darkness, instead of building traditional nests, it builds hives of darkness-aspected ice which does not melt on exposure to the sun. This takes a great deal of energy -- sometimes one bird will drop dead while making the hives for others in the flock-clan to live out of.

    One hive can support about 18 birds (eight males, eight females, two Queens), each with a specialized role / "caste" in the flock-clan such as hunter, scout, or builder. Birds of a particular caste will associate with identical caste members from other hives as well as their home flock-clan.

    This bird is the size of a Hyacinth Macaw, with a fourteen inch wingspan from tip to tip. Colored a sooty gray like the ice it conceals itself among, its talons are the first thing noticeable about it because they're a very dark black -- a sharp contrast to the rest of its coloration. Along its back between its wings is a clear, narrow oval-shaped window of clear, flexible chitin that grants a perfect view of its spinal column and nerves and which lights up with electrical activity and bioluminescence from its heart when it wants to attract a mate.

    Its bones are doublejointed, enabling crawling into tight spaces or escape points a breeze, and its elliptical wing shape allows for tight moves in enclosed spaces in order to escape predators. While not particularly strong, birds of this species are known to band together in tight social flocks; lonliness and losing their flock are major sources of stress. They do not migrate, picking a spot and staying there for multiple generations as long as the local food supplies hold.

    The bird is an opportunist insectivore, living off the cold-immune bugs and crawly things native to the local cave systems. It's not above feeding on carrion when the situation arises, though it has nowhere near the immune system of a hyena nor the resilience of the polar bear. It also feeds on the sweet fruit of their trees, known simply as Frozen Blood-Rubies for their rich color and weepy-exterior so that it looks like it's leaking blood.

    Its legs are springy and the inside of its talons is lined with thin gripping-scales much like a gecko's footpads, allowing it to jump and latch onto anything it can; the grip-scales prevent unintended removal. Upon its head is a unicorn-like horn half an inch in length which allows detection of magnetic fields, (limited) photosynthesis when no other food is available, or communication with others in its hive.

    Upon its legs are nodes that extrude a kind of icy substance that freezes and darkens on exposure to air; it uses this Dark Ice to construct its hives for safety and defense. It can also vomit this Dark Ice in liquid form.

    The Boreal Shadowbeak has a heart larger than would be expected for its size; this heart takes up one third of its body and has the ability to store kinetic energy that it gathers by flying. What used to be a shocking "node" on one of its legs has been internalized to provide a secondary feedback for the heart in case of damage or irregular heartbeat; this is a nod to its extremely powerful genetics preserving the species far longer than other creatures on the planet.

    The bird's heart gathers so much energy so as to discharge it if we are handled, through nodes on our chest and back (much like an electric eel's defense). Our cold spit has evolved to a Breath Weapon of liquid Dark Ice that can freeze (and poison) a small animal in place. Our bodies have limited color-shifting ability, and some feathers are an indication of age because the color shifting transfers to the feathers in a way much like a tree's rings.

    If hit by blunt trauma, our bodies harden as we play dead, preventing death through broken bones or impact. Our blood instantly thickens on exposure to air, preventing blood loss and death from shock. However, we lost our heat resistance (nothing up here uses heat-based attacks) and great heat of any kind will overwhelm us.

    To protect our eggs, we cover them in our poisonous feathers; those that approach may stick themselves with one by accident.

    The Boreal Shadowbeak is a poisonous bird; when its feathers are plucked it leaks a foul-smelling toxic substance that will bring necrosis to open wounds. This "venom bile", if swallowed, will kill most other creatures. Underneath its layer of poisoned feathers is a second layer of razor-sharp feathers, and we can "fling" these to a range of ten feet by whipping a wing.
    Positive Perks
    We are very intelligent, capable of grasping complex problems, coming together for defense, and discussion of situations and news.
    Our Queens enter a state of rage if the eggs are threatened. One squawk from them and the rest of the hive follows.
    We have a significant Cultivation Instinct and know the value of seeds, storing them for future need.
    We are immune to toxins and poisons as our blood is too dense.
    We have advanced danger sense capabilities, enabling us to react lightning-quickly, preventing predation by most other avians.
    Our feathers are waterproof, allowing us to dive into the ocean to look for other kinds of food (or hide from predators, although there's stuff living in the ocean too...)
    Negative Perks
    We are resistant to the developing "spirit world" that is taking form, and may not be able to enter it later when the opportunity arises.
    We are weak to magnetic distortions (or extremely abrupt atmospheric pressure changes, such as sudden storms).
    Exposure to fire for more than five minutes will boil our blood and cause us to burst.
    We are weak against impalement and piercing damage.
    Upon exposure, toxic metals (mercury, and such) and injected poisons will kill us almost immediately.
    Contact with free flowing water slows us as our bodies harden against the temperature change.
    Predators, Prey and Neutral Interactions
    Four-Legged Geese: Predators of our eggs. Xenophobic to other creatures, especially other avians of any kind and twice as especially to its own species outside its home flock. Permanently hostile to everything.
    Destrobeast: Predator. A beerslam of ape and elephant. Has a "magical" scare attack which we're resistant to. Kills for pleasure. Permanently hostile to everything.
    Seukothi: Four-armed squirrel-centaurs. They hit the tribal stage before we did, though they're more akin to chimp intelligence than actual intelligence at the moment. Hostile.
    Lu'Fels: Essentially sabretoothed wolves running on feline hardware. Allies. Hostile to the Four Legged Geese.
    Fire-breathing Penguins: Southern coastal area, west of us. Hostile to the Seukothi.
    Arctic Komodo Dragons: Unintellient, hostile. They do group up and colonize caves the further north one gets.
    Shoulder-Bladed Rabbit: A vorpal bunny with blades attached to tendons on their shoulders they shoot out for a ranged attack. Hostile.
    Scorpi-Rays: Aerial manta rays with scorpion stingers where "legs" would be underneath them. Hostile.
    Snow Serpents: Hunters of the Lu'Fels. They tend to ignore us because we're poisonous. Neutral.
    Three Shadowbeak Traitors, currently Missing In Action...
    Our Nest's Resources
    The Supergroup's Nest: Population 22/40
    Abundance: Arctic seeds, boreal tundra plants
    Scarce: Many kinds of meat, requiring careful hunting / picking-and-choosing.
    Secured Resources (including SAs/FH)
    Standard Actions available: 3 of 3
    Finest Hour Available
    A Source of S+ (Available now, requires SA + 4 turns, two to travel in each direction)
    The Scorpi-Rays have a source of ZB -- but you'll have to use an SA to get it and fight them for it.



    Previous Choice Values
    2 A) Keep watch... but send a courier back with the knowledge for the rest of the Flock-Clan. -- probably the best choice.
    0 B) Attack now, while she's distracted. She could use this thing on you in the future. -- She's expecting an attack
    3 C) Pick up and drop huge stones on the staff, trying to break it. It'll surprise her for sure. -- ... ... ... but not from big stones from high altitude.
    1 D) Make yourselves known and work on an alliance. Better she's shooting out at enemies than shooting in at you. -- Unlikely, given the shaman's past actions.


    Creation 24, 749,999 BS: 9/27 Survival Points.

    The past month the shaman has spent "training" this giant cursed serpent-beast-thing. It looks like her targets are multiple, as she's attacked exploring Four-Legged Geese, assaulted another Seukothi camp of another tribe from further south (with the other camp breaking and running for their lives), killing not one but two Destrobeasts for food (which she sends back to her tribe further south off the map) and harassing the Shadowbeaks (but now she's keeping her distance, as you keep ruining her shiny stone placements and her followers can't be at all places all the time to get more serpents under her control).

    Now she seems to have chosen a target and commanded her serpentine creation to move there -- the cave of ZB that the Scorpi-Rays had colonized. Said Scorpi-Rays are all but wiped out by the overgrown handbag and now it has taken up residence in the cave, slowly soaking in the ZB and beginning to grow even bigger and stronger. At a point in the future it will grow to an unthinkable length, so as to be able to reach your particular Flock-Clan's location without even moving from its new home. Half of it will be so big it can't even exit the cave, and the half that is out of the cave will become an area-denial against predators and Lu-Fels under control of the shaman.

    The shaman's power is tied up in that staff. Break the crystal, break the hold over this multi-serpent-headed serpent. The shaman is expecting trouble, being of the paranoid sort and guarding the staff with her life... but with some divide-and-conquer tactics, you might be able to play a game of keep-away with it if the Flock-Clan rushes her before she has a chance to keep it safe. If this thing is left to grow, it will eventually reach your nests... and there's nowhere else to flee to since you have ocean on two sides, Four-Legged Geese and Anthropomorphic Komodo Dragons to the north, and Seukothi territories to the south before potential freedom.

    The Queens of the Flock-Clan tell the scouts that action must be taken now. Can't run away, and this "summoning" wasn't disrupted, so now it has to be dealt with.

     
  • Threadmarks
    • So imo i think C and D arent good options. if we do A we could lose a large portion of our flock while if we do B we might end up with a few less birds in our flock

    least projected risk B) Find Destrobeasts and lure them into a crossfire with the shaman and the staff in the center. Two birds (heh), one stone.

    Damn i was way off mb
     
    Last edited:
    [X] B) Find Destrobeasts and lure them into a crossfire with the shaman and the staff in the center. Two birds (heh), one stone.

    Yea i thought about this since it was mentioned, sounds like a good crossfire, if we can pull it off
     
    Time for a Hiatus
  • Threadmarks
    • Alright guys I hate to do this, but I'm not gonna have the mental bandwidth to keep this goin' on top of the projects I'm doing in the new year, plus some Medicaid bullshit plus some family drama plus medication taken off market to "spite the libs", plus some other things. The lack of multiple voters beyond 3 or 4 people was a factor as well. So before the quality of my posts drops to zero (I phoned in the last two, trust me), I'm gonna go on hiatus.

    Figure if I'm not back by march it can just be dropped instead.

    (as an aside, destrobeasts is a 0 pointer)
     
  • Threadmarks
    • C) A stealth mission to sneak up and snatch the staff while her back is turned. She's expecting trouble, but you're kinda out of options.
    New to this quest but very interested in it.
     
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