No, SV, You Are the Forest! (Riot Quest)

The presence of other beings within it, who hunted in faraway places things that had never grown there – that could never grow there – told the forest much of where it lived.

The movement of something towards it, a deliberate action laced with intent, taught the Forest that it was not alone. There was little that it could do at this stage beyond store resources and grow, so it gathered what resources it could, and ensured its future growth in the face of novelty. A new Collector Tree was grown within the boundaries of the Forest, its dark crystals drinking in ever more light.

Roots strained to gather resources as Heart Trees sought to prepare for the worst, building a modest reserve of particles that landed within the Forest, slowly storing resources as the years passed. Mind Trees scattered their efforts, delving every which way as they looked for solutions to problems that may not exist yet.

Only one project completed. The Forest reached out to the predators lairing within its domain and touched upon their thoughts. Their desires were simple, searching out food, breeding, and shelter from the even more massive predator that had destroyed their previous home, nestled within a gas giant many stars distant.

The Forest was wary of anything so strong as to casually destroy dozens of the predators that lurked within it, but their mere existence might prove useful. The various parts of the Forest would have to draw their own conclusions from the limited data available.

There was little there that could be communicated with, but the Forest could drive them away with the collected strength urging them to flee if it so desired.

/*** Vote Interrupt

[ ][Predators] Urge them to leave
-The Den is emptied and the Predators flee, with their young in tow.
-Closes down Predator events.

[ ][Predators] Allow them to remain
-The Den remains filled as a new generation is born.
-Predator events remain open and will slowly expand to incorporate new things.
-Unlocks new tech path

***/

A second stand of Mind Trees made a great deal of progress on understanding the power of the Empty Trees, but they did not grasp enough of how it worked to enable the Forest to utilize the effect.

A third stand focused upon the incoming ship, deciphering what it did, but not how to replicate it for themselves. The ship mimiced the Forest in some ways, stabbing into space to anchor it, but it adjusted the nature of that anchor. It would take time for the Forest to design a Tree that could accomplish the same adjustments to its own anchors, and then more time to actually grow such a tree, but they now knew it could be done.

A fourth stand sought to muster the strength to reach the Ship, but failed in the attempt.

The efforts of the Root Trees were also scattered among many things, for there were many things to grow. A stand managed to focus on a second new Collector, but it remains unfinished, the resources collected by the Root Trees not enough to complete its growth. A smattering of progress was made on other Trees and the Forest itself.

A second stand of Root Trees focused on the imprint of the Worm, and the Forest had a thought as the Worm slowly grew. What was, will be. Perhaps it had been mighty once, and would be again.

Perhaps it would never find out.

In the moment, the Vessel approached. At its current distance, the Forest detected a number of smaller objects detach from the Vessel, and approach it rapidly. Light, like that from the sun, poured out of those objects as they approached.

The newly grown Collector Tree turned its leaves to one of the probes, greedily drinking in all the light that it could as it approached.

The Forest grew restless, afraid of the unknown, and took action. Magnetic Trees spooled up, a small measure of the might of the Forest behind them as their field grew stronger by many orders of magnitude.

The probes bounced off once, twice. Thrice.

They would not be approaching this day. The Forest was content with this.

*-*-*-*

Senior Scientist Oragles examined the data with glee.

Energy shielding. This strange, wonderful, somehow crystal, forest had energy shielding. And absorption, too, if those dark crystal trees that practically drank in all the light the probes emitted were anything to judge by.

This... this was something that the Ingaba had never seen functioning before. The Matlownee didn't have energy shielding. The Blathubu didn't have energy shielding, and their energy weapons were the best the Ingaba had ever encountered. The Aarallaia didn't have energy shielding, and they outmatched everybody else the Ingaba had met put together.

All he had to do was figure out how this worked. Without knowledge leaking to the other species, who would then contest the area, or screwing up and destroying the Forest before figuring it out.

At least... at least the Forest seemed to be capable of protecting itself, in the event that raiders arrived.

Oragles shook his mane, long, full hair flying wildly. That would have to wait; the forest before him was growing, drawing matter from an impossibly high number of particles that found their way to it. It wasn't just the energy shielding that did it, either, oh no. The emmissions of the local star alone couldn't account for it, carried on the solar wind. There was something more there – no.

One project at a time, maybe two. If he could reverse engineer the energy shielding, the his people would have a tremendous advantage in all fields; if he couldn't, then figuring out the stabilization methods the Forest used to remain fixed in place relative to the star would enable their starbases and system defense stations to be much more capable, especially if it could be adapted to planetary orbits instead of stellar ones.

He couldn't do it alone, though. Oragles would have preferred not to expend favors on this process, but the shield... if he could figure out how to replicate the shield, it would revolutionize the Fleet, securing the borders against the barbaric Matlownee and the rapacious Blathubu, maybe even allow them to recover lost worlds. He would have to speak to his contacts in the Fleet about military assistance.

Greater, more powerful tests of the Forest's shielding should yield useful results.


*-*-*-*

More ships hummed into the system from a specific point – the same point the initial ship had arrived from. Some are larger, some are smaller.

Their intent is sharper, hungrier than that of the smaller ship already present, floating a distance from the Forest. The new ships are moving closer.

This bodes ill.

*-*-*-*


Communication Actions

[ ][Action] Try to reach out to the first Ship.
-Requires 10 successes
-What is this? What were those? Why are you poking us?
-4/10 successes


Defense Actions

[ ][Action] Those Ships are scary. Erect the Shield!
-Opposed Action. Unknown dice available to the Ship/s.


Growth Actions

[ ][Action] Grow the Forest.
-4/200 successes to Mag 04.

[ ][Action] Grow the Worm
-11/50 successes to Stage 02

[ ][Action] Grow <Treename>
-Replace <Treename> with the name of a Special Tree from the Front Page. Variable cost.

Growth progress is visible on the front page.


Offense Actions

~Glare angrily into the sun~ The Forest has no means of striking at others at this time.


Research Actions

[ ][Action] Research the Empty Veil power (Void)
-Study how the Empty Tree works, and discern a means of applying that to the whole forest at once. Unlocks a Survival Action that protects the Forest from detection if successful.
-Requires 20 Research successes. 9/20

[ ][Action] Research the Shard Volley power (Crystal)
-Study how the Sharding Tree accomplishes it's explosive effect, and seek a less onerous means of replicating it on a smaller scale. Unlocks a Defense Action that can damage or kill enemies within the boundaries of the Forest.
-Requires 20 Research successes, 0/20

[ ][Action] Research the incoming Ship. It's just sitting there, waiting. Menacingly. (???)
-How does it move? How? Inquiring Minds want to know! Unlocks a new field of research.
-Requires 10 Research successes. 6/10


[ ][Action] Research the Scoop Tree (Magnetic)
-An alternative application of magnetic fields, the Scoop Tree improves the efficacy of growth actions, by proactively adjusting magnetic fields to reach out and obtain charged particles.
-Requires 10 Research successes.

[ ][Action] Research the Hoop Tree (Magnetic)
-Yet another application of magnetic fields, the Hoop Tree unlocks a Survival action, allowing for resources to be stored against future need. Automatically applies one die to that action each turn.
-Requires 10 Research successes. 5/10

[ ][Action] Research the Shaping Tree (Crystal)
-Crystals aren't particularly fluid, but their interiors can be adjusted to mimic that of other trees as the need arises. This tree allows for other trees to take up arms in defense of the Forest. Up to one Defense Action per Forest Magnitude per turn gains one extra die per Shaping Tree.
-Requires 20 Research successes 0/20

[ ][Action] Research the Reflecting Tree (Crystal)
-Energy taken from successful strikes is returned back to the attacker, diminishing the amount suffered by the Forest. One point of damage per Tree is 'returned to sender' in some way, shape, or form, reducing the damage taken by that amount.
-Requires 10 Research successes. 1/10

[ ][Action] Research the Soothing Tree (Psionic)
-The Mind of the Forest is a potent thing indeed, capable of reaching out beyond itself. This tree serves as a focus, allowing for a new Offensive Action that can calm aggression and hostility, allowing for or encouraging peaceful discourse. Provides one automatic success to this action per Soothing Tree. One communication action per turn gains one extra die per tree.
-Requires 10 Research successes. 4/10

[ ][Action] Research Elder Trees (General)
-Some Trees have grown old indeed, and were old when the Forest was young... old when the Forest was last whole. Some measure of this experience can be distilled and incorporated into new and extant Trees, improving their skill at wielding their power. Unlocks upgrades to existing and future Special Trees, required for Tier Two trees.
-Requires 50 Research successes. 4/50

Survival Actions

[ ][Action] Attempt to store resources against future need.
-All successes stored. 25 successes banked against recovering future damage.

Other

[ ][Action] Write-in
-For if you believe I'm missing something. I reserve the right to disapprove of any write-ins, or appropriate them for other purposes and places.


Focus Actions
Choose any three actions from the above for the Forest to focus on. These are voted upon by the entire group, and are in addition to the individual actions taken by each member. Multiples should be indicated with a x#, so the second identical action would be x2, etc.

[ ][Focus] Action Name

These Actions will receive a number of automatic successes equal to the Magnitude of the Forest and any bonuses from other sources.

At the moment, the top three focus actions will win, each receiving the focus of the Forest.

*-*-*-*

Your Votes should look like the following:

[ ][Predators] Choice
[ ][Action] Action
[ ][Focus] Action 1
[ ][Focus] Action 2
[ ][Focus] Action 3

Newcomers should add one of the following:

[ ][Tree] Heart Tree
[ ][Tree] Mind Tree
[ ][Tree] Root Tree

This vote will always be open.

*-*-*-*

'Ere we go! 'Ere we go! Don't die, would you? That would be most inconvenient for the Ingaba.

Didn't take as much time as I thought it would, so you get the update waaay early. I'm going to eat another sandwich or something, too. Please tag me or PM me if you think I missed something, there's a lot to keep track of here - unlike in a standard quest, every player is a moving part.