The Great Swarm

Gather biomass - 10 votes
Explore around nest - 3 votes

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The majority of the Swarm's attention is on gathering further biomass A full two-thirds of the workers devote their every waking hour to feeding the Queen and their broodmates. They burst from the nest in an explosion of limbs and antenna and begin scouring the area for matter that can be used for meals. Plants are ripped up and stored in sacks for digestion and processing, the soil is filtered for small creatures who are liquefied in the worker's guts, and two pairs, working in tandem, chase down a small herd of hexapodal, brown creatures that browse on the foliage of tall, twisting trees. They are slain and dragged back to the hive, their meat and organs food for the queen, their bones cast aside at the edge of the nest out of some unknowable instinct.

Poisons developed to ward away curious herbivores are no match for the potent digestion of the Swarm, and the liquefied, processed plants and animals are spread out across each worker and the queen, who rewards the workers who bring her food with gentle brushes of her antenna against theirs. They chirrup in praise of their mother and go to seek out more food.

While the majority of their attention was on gathering food, they did pay attention to their surroundings. The nest is in the midst of a long furrow, clear of any obstructions. Debris litters both sides of the furrows: shattered branches, crushed undergrowth, and more. Beyond it are interlocking trees, their trunks slim and straight but their branches winding. Fruits that smell strongly of sugar hang from the tops, beyond the reach of the workers, and grey-skinned simians cavort among the branches, hooting at the newcomers. In the far east, a wall of grey can be seen. The air from that direction feels wet on the worker's antennae.

Dig - 2 votes
Excavate Nursery/Spawning Chamber/Queen's Refuge - 4 votes
Excavate Biomass Farming Chamber - 1 vote
Fortify - 1 vote

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Most of the rest of the Swarm seeks to expand their nest. One worker, immediately seized by instinct, begins to burrow down, heaving great piles of dirt out from the back of the queen's chamber and tunneling a hole that leads nearly straight down. Two more follow after, pressing the walls of the tunnel firm, and then finding two suitable spots. They work in careful unison, one hauling dirt away as the other digs out a comfortable chamber sized for the queen, ensuring she has ample room to turn around and roll over, with a small, personal store of biomass secured for her in the back of the chamber should the worst come to worst.

After the Queen is carried down by the two workers, they mark out a second spot, spraying it instinctively with pheromones indicating the purpose it will have: to store their waste and encourage the growth of fungi that can be harvested for more biomass. They know their are better ways to farm, an instinct just beyond their reach...

The spoil from the digging is automatically piled up around the nest entrance, lifting it off the ground to make a hill that can be better defended. Marks and pheromone sprays are made, indicating future plans of greater grandeur, but that is all that can be done for now.

Tend the Queen - 2 votes
Meditate on the Song - 4 votes

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The workers also take time to ensure the comfort of the Queen, carefully rubbing her body clean of any filth, driving away any insects or burrowing creatures that dare to discomfit her, and otherwise giving her attention. As they do, they hear her Song and listen instinctively...much of it is strange to the minds of the Queen and the workers both, full of contextless images and nonsense sounds, but gradually some order is drawn from it.

The workers rest, but even as they rest they hear the Song, and the difficulties they encountered are Sung of. Answers are sought by the Queen, acting on the same instinct that causes the workers to gaze at that distant eastern wall. The workers desired food that was too high for them to grasp. The workers desired a better way to grow food. The workers desired to know just why they discarded those bones...and the Queen found hints of answers in her Song.

She Sung those hints to the workers and encouraged them. The Swarm would grow. There would be more answers in the Song.

The Queen felt another egg slipping from her belly as she ate from the bounty of meat offered by one of her children. All seemed well, even as she heard the workers grumble to each other about the delicious-smelling fruit they could not reach. She studied the embryonic form of the worker growing within the eggs, and wondered if it could have its legs reshaped, to have hooked claws to bite into the trunks.

A worker carried a load of dirt and dumped it at the base of the nest, before raising one limb and studying the flat extension at the end of it, split into six clumsy digits. It studies a broad bone that lay off to one side, and then tried to graso for it.

Turn 2
Hive Power: 8
Biomass Reserves: Low
Mineral Reserves: None
Known Forms: Worker

[] Gather biomass
[] Hunt animals
[] Gather plants
[] Try to gather the fruits
[] Explore
-[] Direction
[] Excavate chamber
-[] Purpose and direction
[] Fortify the nest
[] Mediate on the Song
[] Tend the Queen
[] Mediate on Notes
-[] The Note of Grown Biomass
-[] The Note of Shaping Life
-[] The Note of Better Use

(Notes are fragments of knowledge gained from the Song. Meditating on them can gain further information about what they mean, and unlock new abilities or forms)