TreeQuest: Magitech (Riot Quest)

Turn 25 Results

(Christmas Present, 14 votes: 5 votes + tiebreakers to [X] A free rare and useful insight into the Laws of Magic in the TreeQuest Universe.)

There are four ways to gain Magic: two to get it, and two to be given it.

Some take some concept and meditate on it; some just meditate in general; some live many years and find they've managed this way by accident; but you can gain Magic with enough time and meditation - and understanding, usually, even if you can't quite put the understanding into words; also, devotion to a field or substance or concept can often help, as can identifying with it or expressing its attributes. (Additionally note that, if you study an Element enough, you will tend to become like it - Negacion Pairs are an interesting way to counter this.) This is how the Grimm siblings learned Magic. This is the normal way to further your Magic rank.

Sometimes, a person, when pushed beyond the breaking point, will find further reserves there, beyond anything they thought they were capable of. Sometimes, these reserves are Magic, and the ability to access it. This is how Arthur Scrat learned Magic. This was also the typical means of achieving Legendary among Elves in the elder days - though it wasn't something they typically tried for, since it necessarily had a horrifying fatality rate.

Some are given Magic. Essentially nobody around can just go, "Oh, have Magic, here's Competent Rank in three different Elements, enjoy." That said, a Wish or two have had effects like this, GM will hereby confirm that Last-Star-Rachel became a Seer just after birth due to a Blessing, and it is normal for a neophyte attempting to gain access to their Magic to have one or two decently skilled Mages attempt to run Magic through them repeatedly to help them sense it. (Yes, the Grimm siblings were certainly given this advantage!)

Some are born with Magic - this is vanishingly rare among Humans or Elves, but it seems to be normal for Monsters (and, I suppose, the Trees of the Forest). Foresight may be an exception to this, in that it seems normal for Two-Legs to pick it up seemingly from birth? Technically speaking, the ancient Elves had this in a very limited way: Elves aged about 100x slower than Humans, and learned about 10x slower. But each Elf had a Gift, a single subject (usually a Magical Element but not always) at which they would learn just as fast as a similarly-talented and similarly-dedicated Human. (Occasionally two Gifts, though each was usually slightly weaker to compensate. Three had happened just enough times to be provably possible. Four was theorized but never confirmed.)

A note at this point: It took a dedicated and skilled Elf, working in their own Gift, one to one-and-a-half millennia to train their way to Grandmaster. Adrian reached this point at twelve centuries of age total, which was a combination of incredible natural talent, dedicated drive, good training, plenty of opportunities for practice, the occasional bit of desperate combat, and his undying drive to protect his close friends and family. He was, in essence, a one in ten-thousand best-case-scenario as far as reaching Grandmaster quickly was concerned.

(OOC: A further note: while I'm still debating the fine points of the chronology, I believe Adrian had actually reached Grandmaster shortly before Apocalypse 111: Wish-forge. If he didn't make Legendary during Wish-forge - and it's practically impossible to make the jump without another 1-1.5 millennia of training - I don't think he would have had a chance to until after 112: Cataclysm. So sometime while on the Last Star station, or not at all. There's a chance he'll make Legendary next year, actually, in an event that I guarantee won't directly impact the Forest (barring the Forest being insanely overpowered at that point, and/or deeply affiliated with The Last Star, and even then it's just "+1 extreme-range laser battle"; Rachel already knows about this and has been setting things up to win for decades now). Idrial, I think, made the jump to Grandmaster for Starlight and Healing both in the aftermath of 112 - using a "barely possible feat" to skip training time - and Rachel would have made the jump to Grandmaster Seer during 112, for much the same reason.)

(OOC: Further note on my further note: Rachel was considered a prodigy for reaching Grandmaster at her age. Given that Idrial has two Gifts - half the training time each, and a slight malus to training-speed - she was quite impressive as well. Though neither of them managed Adrian's record. Like I said, he was one in ten thousand. I'd say that "being around a Fairy, which messes with your odds and brings in more danger" would explain Adrian's record, but no - he became friends with Idrial after making Grandmaster. See the 111 Interlude for more details.)

First note continued: Getting Legendary by pure training would take around seven hundred centuries, or about seven consecutive Elven lifetimes, for a particularly skilled and dedicated individual. So, consequently, it was considered unusual. Quite unusual. Around 80% of Elves eventually made Grandmaster - though for the lazy, insanely unlucky, and/or talentless, it was only after they turned 50 (centuries) or some such - but only a percent or two of Elves ever made Legendary. You had to train to Grandmaster, train that much again (and typically then some), and pull off a feat that should have been beyond you - and you had to risk a lot and know that - and even then a lot of the time you just wouldn't make the jump. Being around a Fairy seemed to provide a boost to your chances, but then, Fairies were always the exceptions to a lot of the Rules.

(Fairies had rules of their own, of course, but even the ancients weren't able to precisely describe them.)

(Barring the OOC bits, the Forest knows all of this in-character, via a very strange note that a random traveler along the path dropped, with bits of Newton-Village specific info added after-the-fact.)

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For the first time, the eighth sense of the Sensing Trees noticed… something. A slight murmur, distinct from the normal approximately-daily crashing surf-like sound. You had no idea why - and a careful check showed nothing wrong within range of any of your other senses - but it did happen. Everything was back to normal the next day, and the next, and the next - all the rest of the turn, in fact.

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The Forest put in a huge chuck of effort to Connect to first the Wraith, and afterwards the Dire Bat. Both have been fully Connected to the Forest by halfway through the turn. The Dire Bat doesn't quite have a Mind, even by the end, but it is incredibly smart compared to any mundane Bat. It also is fully capable of scouting the area, and happily started to do so - while eating odd mosquitoes and such to feed itself. Not any of your Bees, by request, of course - indeed, they often ask it for protection in particularly dangerous flights. It gives you a modest bonus to the Monster Energy project. (GM: I will owe you an expanded map in a turn or two.)

The Lesser Wraith is hungry. Always hungry. It doesn't seem to be able to be full, though you can tell that it can survive on very little energy with enough lethargy. You immediately see a pair of great research projects based on this - one to create other Magical Construct/Creatures like it, and one to learn from its Energy-Draining ability. Studying it gives you a substantial bonus to the Monster Energy project.

Smoke rose, yet again, on the horizon this turn, as the first dead leaves of fall threatened to turn into a massive Fire. The Bees didn't want to scout near Smoke - and with some reason - but the Dire Bat braved the flames and found, in the center, a Lesser Fire Salamander.

The Forest, seeing a potential fight coming and always wanting more friends, decided to Connect to its third Monster this turn, and - with some difficulty - claimed the Lesser Fire Salamander this turn.

It turned out to be the same Lesser Fire Salamander that distracted you from the Shadow Spinner a few turns ago. When you peered into its memories, you found it had actually been quite cross at that time - "Nothing is quite as it seemed! I can't find a good place to rest and roast! … … OK, everything is back to normal, but - there isn't much around to Burn! I'm hungry…" You were fairly certain that the Shadow-Spinner just used the Lesser Fire Salamander as a distraction, and after a very thorough scan, you were also fairly confident that said Salamander wasn't under any Illusions, nor was it carrying any diseases (barring a Fire-loving slightly-Magical Fungus that goes completely dormant the moment it cools down, and seems to like living in the Fire Salamander's fur).

(Yes, the Lesser Fire Salamander has very short flaming fur; no, a Salamander shouldn't have hair; it's physically a Salamander aside from the fur so a Salamander it gets called… Its larger cousins apparently have scales and could have inspired the legends of Dragons… well, some of the legends of Dragons.)

If it weren't for the bit of Foresight, you'd have asked it to burn some ornery Vines for you. But, since you believe that these Vines are extraordinarily Fire-resistant, you instead asked it to teach you further of the art of Fire. With what is quickly becoming an unlimited supply of fallen leaves, it happily obliged! (Note: Your Lesser Fire Salamander has Fire at, effectively, Expert rank. New upgrade quest unlocked, with some fairly major bonuses.)

Since you didn't think the Lesser Fire Salamander would be effective against the Vines, you considered options for additional support… and the Lesser Wraith was really hungry… So you sent it as backup, to the first Portal team to have significant problems, namely the Wolves. (More info later.)

(5 prior successes from Connect to Local Wildlife: Monsters and 10.98 from Connect to Lesser Wraith used. This turn added 2*1.25*1.03=2.575 Connect to Dire Bat successes and 17*1.25*1.03=21.8875 Connect to Lesser Wraith successes. Full success on Dire Bat costs 5; full success on Lesser Wraith costs 15; full success - without prior preparation and interrupting what could have been a combat and doing a lot of extra checks - on the Lesser Fire Salamander costs 20. Overflow contributed to Connect to Unspecified 9.35->12.22.)

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After extensive debate, the Forest chooses to try to make two members of Newton Village into Speakers for the Forest: the siblings Ben and Betty Grimm. They were the first two to volunteer, they work well together, and their competitive tendencies are explicitly aimed towards driving both to greater heights. They're also young enough to get a lot of benefit from the Connection, but old enough to remember clearly what it is to be a mostly-just-plain-old-Human. They're also two smart cookies, and already starting to study Magic.

(You are also delighted to be able to answer their mental pleas of "Can I? Can I? Can I?" with a "Yes." If that had been a poor decision, you could have disappointed them, but you're glad you don't have to.)

You have an instinctive knowledge of roughly what you want to do, but you've never actually done it - aside from, perhaps, once by accident, with Arthur Scrat - so you aren't sure how long it will take or how difficult it will be.

But in the end, all it takes is having the two stand together in the middle of the Forest, and ask a question:

"Will you represent us? Will you care for us as kin? Will you teach us of Two-Legs and learn of Trees in turn? Will you stand with us - until one of us meets Death, or one of us chooses to go our separate ways?"

And they both, wholeheartedly, trusting you, Accept.

And suddenly, it's no longer an effort to see from their eyes, hear from their ears. They aren't quite a part of the Forest as-such, but the limits of the Connection fall away.

'I wasn't just trusting you,' Ben mentally insists to you. 'I was too in-tree-gued to not further investigate!'

His sister mentally laughs at him. Then they both turn and face each other, and their eyes get big, realizing: 'Telepathy!'

Betty promptly thinks of the silliest face Ben has ever pulled, and he fires back with the weirdest dream he's ever had, and…

They seem to be having a blast. There's an occasional memory that they didn't mean to send, but they both gain enough control to avoid accidentally sending thoughts or memories fairly quickly. Both do have a brief thought along the lines of 'Well, that could have been traumatic,' but they process it all well.

They're also quite delighted to be able to claim to be "Twins, with Real Twin Telepathy!" now, since they'd occasionally joked about being twins in the past.

After things settle down, and they have a good night's sleep (they're initially quite exhausted) and a talk or five with their parents about the experience (with 'our oddest / most-concerning thoughts' being a significant topic, for obvious reasons, that thankfully their parents had actually expected and were prepared for - or maybe being prepared was just a side-effect of raising a pair of barely-teen children…), they try looking through the Forest's memories.

Both are intrigued and delighted by the Laser Computer, though its finer principles would take a bit to comprehend. Both have a blast playing around with Fire, though Betty first switches to shaping ever-more-elaborate snowflakes with Ice. Both nearly fall unconscious when they first seriously try to process everything that the Sensing Trees can perceive, and later carefully limit themselves to small subsets of the data. Both try Flying with Telekinesis briefly, though it costs a fair bit of energy and can't be sustained long-term - Ben is actually more scared of heights than his sister, and though he doesn't want to admit it, she probably would have known even without Telepathy.

Both are surprisingly weirded out by the way Ants see the world, but actually think Bees make a lot of sense, but only if you look at the world from a Bee's point of view. Both have a dozen "aha!" moments on how Dogs and Wolves communicate and react. Both point out to the Wolves that "Of course Cats raise their tails when they're greeting you - Cats are ambush predators and Dogs/Wolves are persistence predators - obviously 'Here I am See Me' is about the most un-hostile thing a Cat can do!" (Admittedly, both had just bounced ideas off of each other to think of this, and hadn't considered it ever before. But they still said it was obvious. And once someone states it, maybe it is.)

Only Betty thinks that food tastes different now. Only Betty immediately starts trying to learn any Life Magic she can - and quickly reaches Competent from sheer determination. Only Betty wants to decorate her bedside with living plants.

Only Ben wants to have a race against the Squirrels. Only Ben starts dreaming up new cool attacks. Only Ben brainstorms crazy additions to the Forest's Void defenses.

But, to everyone's relief (but not surprise), for all the changes, they're both very much still themselves: Ben and Betty Grimm, siblings, children of Ben (senior) and Beth Grimm, heirs of the Grimm name (family motto: Danger Runs From Us).

…Though nobody's surprised when they claim the House-Tree that the Forest grew ages ago as "our clubhouse." There is typically an adult keeping half-an-eye on them, but the Forest is a nice place to relax in, everyone agrees - particularly Granny Miller, who likes to take advantage of the various Life Magic learners for relief from whatever her latest old-age ache happens to be.

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Marta Yarrow the Herbalist would have to have been blind to not notice something up with the Grimm kids, and she was not remotely blind. On the other hand, the changes certainly seemed beneficial, to the best of her (limited) ability to detect and analyze.

"Just another mystery to this place," she sighed and shook her head.

But that day was the last day she'd need to wonder, because the Grimm siblings and Granny Miller invited her along to a trip into the woods. Marta Yarrow could tell that something was up, but it didn't seem malevolent… Though she wasn't about to go without a few potions, easily accessible, naturally.

They traveled across the creek, to one region that had always felt too… forbidding for Marta to dare explore. Not evil - but maybe the lair of a Wizard who wanted no visitors?

But today she had permission, it seemed, because there wasn't anything forbidding about the place. Just… powerful. Quite a bit of Magic, clearly, she knew, by the static on her skin.

And - wait.

Marta was absolutely certain that the tree she'd just glimpsed was not anything she'd ever seen before.

With a glance at her guides to make sure it was allowed, she darted over: a tree of crystal and light? It was… beautiful, actually. Probably the most beautiful tree she'd ever seen - and she'd once seen a cutting of a cutting of Nimloth the Fair.

She slowly circled the base of this impossible - well, clearly not, just unprecedented - tree. "It's a prism? Made of glass? No, something crystalline… but it's alive?"

With another glance at her guides to ensure it was safe, she put a hand to this amazing thing. 'OK. That settles it. There is a reclusive plant wizard here.'

Even as she gently traced the smooth not-bark of this Tree, even as her limited Magic sense tried to fathom it, she detected, ever so faintly, a bit of apparent amusement.

She glanced back at her guides again. Not them - well, mostly. She glanced at the Tree. Amusement. She raised an eyebrow (her left; her right refused to raise without it, for whatever reason), and asked aloud, "Are you… Can you understand me?"

In an instant the light exploded all around them. The sky went dark for an instant as beams of light darted around and a fractal of color carpeted the Forest floor.

And, in a moment, the awe-inspiring display was gone, and she stepped back and bowed slightly, saying "Thank you! That was beautiful!" while thinking 'Be polite!'

Then Betty Grimm tugged on her sleeve, and said, "I think you'll like this one!"

With a few minutes' more trekking - through woods filled with Magic, where she was quite certain a lot of things (hopefully friendly?) were right on the edge of her vision - they came to a short Tree. This one was, likewise, definitely not anything she'd ever seen before. It was nowhere near as strange as the first, though. That said, though the early-fall winds varied between great gust one moment and calm the next, this Tree's leaves fluttered back and forth in a steady gentle breeze all its own. And its bark was lined with… she thought the odd patterns were telling a story, but she had no idea what.

She thanked that Tree as well, and over the next hour was shown a dozen wonders: a Tree with patterned bark that looked like some strange writing (but it was clearly grown that way), a Tree that drank sunlight and was nearly pitch-black, a Tree that was brimful of more raw Protective Magic than anything short of an Artifact should be able to manage, a Tree that only existed if you looked at it right, a Tree that seemed constantly damp, a Tree that had seemingly grown itself into a house (that the Grimm siblings introduce proudly as "our clubhouse"), a Tree with weird pinholes that always felt like it was staring into your Heart and Soul, and a grove of identical Trees that were clearly growing the very lumber that the traders had all carried off weeks ago.

"Thank you so much for showing me these Trees; I can hardly believe that they exist! Is there any chance I can meet their creator?" she asked Granny Miller.

The Grimm siblings both grinned hugely, but Marta Yarrow hardly noticed. Because she heard from all around, a multitude of voices chorusing, 'Hello! We are the Forest! Pleased to meet you!'

A moment later, even as she was looking around in shock, a Squirrel carrying a tiny Sword - an enchanted blade what? - ran up to a branch in front of her, and performed a courtly bow. Then the Tree the Squirrel was on copied the bow - though with more limbs what? - and the whole Forest rustled in a nonexistent breeze.

It took several minutes for her to recover from the shock, and the immediate questions - a talking Tree or two wasn't quite the weirdest thing she'd seen, but a whole Forest took the cake - but she eventually realized just how big of a deal this was.

Trees, thinking. Telepathy. No obvious limits. Magical, learning and teaching Magic.

(Of course, the Forest could probably hear her thoughts, she figured, which was a touch annoying to plan around. She would tentatively assume it was friendly - since it seemed to be so far. And anyway, while she might get a bit overenthusiastic, she definitely wanted to investigate this thing finally. …Which hopefully wasn't a terrible idea.)

She spent a night back in Newton Village, finally hearing the full story of the last year or two in full. She slept on the knowledge, and in the morning toured the Forest again, on her own this time.

And when she came across an in-progress Wise Tree, and learned that the Forest had a project to analyze how it grew these Special Trees, the Forest had a moment of concern. Because that gleam in her eye, that was - no, it probably (conclusion not an illusion, triple-checking, not an illusion, no mind-affecting, things might or might not be fine but the Forest's Mind is its own) it probably wasn't the gleam of a triumphant foe. It was probably just the Forest being paranoid and seeing the gleam of "a person who wanted Immortality to study Herbalism Forever" finally finding a project worth spending years on. Probably.

(Marta Yarrow the Herbalist now knows about the Forest. Newton Village is no longer keeping secrets, at least about the Forest, barring maybe a few details occasionally. Herbalist will add 10 auto-successes, with bonuses applying, to Special Tree Growth each turn until it's complete or someone physically drags her away.)

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One Tree decided to try to organize a library of everything the Forest had experimented on, with as many specific measurements and observations as possible. It wound up making two copies: one stored on the Laser Computer, and a backup copy distributed throughout the Forest (twice, just in case). This resulted in both significant progress on the Laser Computer, and an equally significant broadening of the project - with expected benefits. Further, while trawling through past observations, the Tree has noticed something: Enemies are harder to affect with Magic than Allies.

To be more specific, an outright Enemy that has a decent bit of Magical power can resist the Forest's Magic to the point that otherwise incredibly-efficient attacks against the pinpoints of Fire within them are likely less efficient than lighting them on fire outright. By contrast, the Forest's own Creatures see none of that resistance, or at least nearly none.

A few further tests are prompted by the prior realization, and the Forest concludes that it has no resistance to its own Magic, Arthur Scrat has maybe 1-2% resistance, the new Speakers have 4-5% resistance (with Ben probably slightly less resistant than Betty - but within margin of error on measurement), the other Creatures have about 10% resistance, random members of Newton Village (now including the Herbalist) are closer to 15-20% resistance but it depends on the individual, the Traders and Herbalist-pre-introduction were estimated at 20-40% resistance, random wildlife that the Forest doesn't care about either way tend to have around 75% resistance, and enemy Monsters were estimated to have been around 95% resistance. The Lesser Fire Salamander actually is able to be used as a test-case for Enemy Monsters while it is being Connected into the Forest, and it plummets from 96-97% resistance down to 12-13% resistance over the course of half an hour.

This body of research has many possible conclusions, but it does seem clear - at minimum - that being an Enemy of the Forest blocks Magic to a fair extent, and Connecting to the Forest improves efficiency. This suggests many lines of potential inquiry, but one particularly annoying unsolved problem that might be relevant is this: Perhaps a sufficient density of ambient Magic can block Portals? … Indeed, perhaps just having the Shield up, over an area, is enough to make Portals difficult or impossible?

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The Unusual Lumber Tree, in its enthusiasm to produce lumber, overstrained itself ever-so-slightly last turn, so its production this turn was slightly slower than it will normally be in the future. But after that brief hiccup, it has hit its stride and started producing Unusual Lumber, which you have then stored safely (and dryly) over the winter, preparing for the coming spring.

The Weather Tree put in a bit of effort towards optimizing this turn's Weather, and the effort paid off in the Forest's two successful Growth projects.

The Forest has Grown its third Wise Tree, significantly assisting Research. Once that was done, the Forest pivoted to finishing Upgrading a Lens Tree.

Upgrading the Forest's first Lens Tree was, barely, finished this turn. It finished too late to assist projects this turn, but it was finished! It is nearly half-again as tall as it used to be, and nearly transparent. Most of your Creatures can see only part of the patterns of light and shadow that play about its Roots. Just for a test, at one point, you shot a (very) small Laser at it, and it effortlessly redirected the attack into the sky. This Lens Tree, by becoming an Elder Lens Tree, will grant another +5% to all Growth, and +10% to all Survival successes, in the entire Forest. This upgrade project took most of the efforts of the Deer and Beavers this turn. The Beavers have hit their stride, and decided on a new running project: Helping you upgrade your Special Trees.

The Forest grew a small but significant amount.

The Forest made substantial progress on learning to combine Light with Darkness, and found two further effects of completing the full Negacion. As roughly expected, this will double Laser Damage (before other multipliers). Additionally, this will double the base damage of your Darkness Attack against all foes, double it again against certain Light-dependent foes (such as certain Vines), and grant it resistance to weaker forms of supernatural sight. Definitely useful! And, if you continue making progress like this, you're only one turn from Light/Darkness Negacion completion, too!

Movement Research continued apace, and is now well over halfway done. The Forest got a good start on both constructing the full Laser Computer, and learning to Incorporate nearby Trees (and other Plants) into its own network. The Forest is also over halfway to fully analyzing Ice/Fire and the Fire Within - you have confirmed, in a brief early snowfall, that you can grant the Lesser Fire Salamander a small degree of Ice resistance with this combination, and while it's not yet cold enough, you're fairly sure you can at least use it to shield your Creatures from frostbite.

You had a key breakthrough that you'd been looking for, when you further analyzed the Vines' Shield-Piercing attacks. Your instinct that you were on the verge of a breakthrough was absolutely spot-on. While the techniques will take some time to polish and fully implement, you have gained an academic understanding of "how to pierce Shields" and "how to build a Shield that is resistant to both Piercing and Draining." Though, admittedly, you understand Piercing far better than Draining - but, thanks to the Lesser Wraith, there's a project for that. (Action updated.)

The Corvids worked on helping the Forest analyze Weather. The Forest is beginning to understand Weather, not just from the perspective of "one being happily rained on," and "one trying to manipulate the weather," but also from the perspective of the birds that dance on the winds, soaring on thermals and dancing against downdrafts.

As usual, the Forest - particularly one Resource-obsessed Tree - stored away massive quantities of Resources against any Future Need. This was greater than outlays by a factor of roughly 5.5, you are glad to say.

The Forest, having spent its single Favor with Newton Village in exchange for two Speakers, has proceeded to Mine quite a bit more Linestone - enough for two additional Favors. An attempt to figure out better mining techniques via Fungi found a few more Linestone to mine, but wasn't a major improvement (yet). (Started with 1 Favor. Spent 1; mined enough Linestone for 2 Favors. Newton Village currently owes you 2 Favors.)

With the efforts of the Forest - particularly the Bee Tree - the Bees continued to multiply nicely! Indeed, with their greater numbers, they can now help the Forest modestly more.

The Forest has also begun to work on Cultivating the Surrounding Plants. This went far slower than expected, for this turn at least, due to a series of annoyances from "that bush-honeysuckle just doesn't know when to quit" to "did a bunch of seeds just get blown into that area no" to "why are Dandelions so hardy? WHY?" But, in the end, with some suggestions from the Ants (that advised you to calm down, take a break, then think over things and try to come up with a better solution), you managed to make significant (if slow) progress.

The Ancient Tree that is also an Elder Empty Tree (Void) opted to keep the Empty Veil aloft, and did so effectively. No enemies will be getting information out of the Forest this turn, no sir. This assisted slightly in preventing the Lesser Fire Salamander from causing problems, before the Forest Connected with it. Spare effort boosted the Shield, as usual.

The Shield itself was, despite minor issues, about as strong as it's ever been - testament to how far the Forest has come. It easily stopped the spare Fires of the Lesser Fire Salamander, and kept the Dire Bat contained until the Forest had Connected with it. ((2+5.25 +~10)*1.5*1.03 +2.03 (Empty Veil overflow) successes.)

One Tree continued setting Rocks on Fire. A few dead leaves, as fall starts, were also burned, and the Lesser Fire Salamander got some comforting warmth at one point. Not only has that Tree, specifically, has gotten far better at Fire over time, but it managed to contribute to the Fire Magic upgrade quest! One final note: It managed to reach across the vast distance, to light a small Fire among one patch of Vines… which proved completely immune to even a very intense spark of Fire (as a Vision had told the Forest to expect).

Two skilled Trees tried to analyze the Elder Void Tree and the not-Forest and not-Creatures surrounding it. Neither had any success at trying to Connect with any Flora there, though a few of the Fauna seem to be just barely reachable by the Elder Void Tree itself - and it doesn't think it can affect them, only detect their presence. Trying to analyze the Void Tree's biology drew about as much of a blank as anything Void does, aside from noting a few suspicious Magic oddities, that seem to imply it's subsisting on Magic - Void Magic? - rather than any normal physical substance. The Void Tree is somewhat better able to defend itself after their analyses, though not massively.

One Tree finally succeeded in luring back an old foe - one particularly ornery Boar - and eating it. This was simultaneously disgusting and much-appreciated by your Creatures (aside from the Ants, who just thought the scraps were good food). The damage that the Tree took, roughly canceled out any Resources it might have gathered - but that's OK, this was always intended to be more of a "weird science project." And it succeeded at that goal, indeed, unlocking "Flesh" as a new Magic for the Forest - something the Forest can obviously work to improve.

Another Tree poured its efforts into extending the Forest's Telekinetic range, and had decent success. Along with prior effort and work, Telekinesis is now practically usable as far as (for example) Newton Village, though it is weaker than it would be at closer range. (As a note: Newton Village itself contains the Speaker Tree, and as-such was already well within your TK range. Old Man Materson's house is now much easier to defend, though.)

The Forest offered to power a full use of Old Man Materson's "build a house instantly" ritual, as a "welcome to being a full Newton Village member" present for the Herbalist. The members of Newton Village insisted on helping - she was becoming one of their own, after all - but were glad to have the Forest do a chunk of the work. Marta was thankful, and happy beyond anything you've seen from her before, for all that she won't be moving from the Yuadore's until their baby is born. The Forest, watching the ritual, didn't see many obvious ways to use it - except… wait a second… that kind of micro-telekinesis with a specific pattern could definitely help gather more Resources, especially with Earth Magic! (+5% to future uses of Gather Resources; this will double with every additional rank of Earth Magic.)

One Tree, seeking ways of blocking Portals, started trying to find Law Magic, or the Magic of the Laws of Physics (including Magic), or something of the sort. It actually - to everyone's surprise, including its own - managed a breakthrough, and even unlocked Law Magic as-such, rather than something like Physics Magic. That said, it became immediately apparent that Law Magic is incredibly abstract, and something that the Forest hardly understands at all - advancing it is going to be nearly impossible (or incredibly expensive at best) for the Forest alone. Yet the idea of being able to declare a Law such as "no Enemies may enter the Forest" is quite appealing, and would provide a ridiculously-good defense against (say) teleporting enemies, Shadow-Spinners, and other esoteric effects. …Andrewsburg has both Physics and Legal texts, doesn't it?

One Tree had a very near mishap when teaching Growth Magic to Arthur Scrat. If not for its prior experience, and a double-check at precisely the right moment, it would have shoved Growth (Plant) Magic into Arthur, which would have likely had… interesting consequences. Instead, it managed to teach Growth Magic to Arthur Scrat, though he's still more skilled with Life Magic. He can now teach Growth to the other Creatures, along with Life. He says he can use it to speed up a young Squirrel's Growth to maturity, but hasn't found any other uses for it yet that Life can't do better, and he can't safely affect other Creatures.

Two Trees collaborated on trying to learn Life Magic and learning to heal the Forest's allies. They made little progress, but succeeded in establishing that it was possible to teach most of the Creatures of the Forest at least the basics of Life Magic. This would teach the Forest a good deal about Life as a side-effect… but it would also go faster if the Forest were better at Life Magic. As such, they decided to combine the two projects. (New research option unlocked.)

Arthur Scrat continued to teach Life Magic - and, now, also Growth Magic - and feels like he's getting the hang of it. Two fellow Squirrels and one of the Bears (the old Grizzly) have all picked up Life Magic. Additionally, one Ant colony picked up Growth Magic and its Ants can now somehow use Growth to temporarily become slightly larger than Arthur Scrat (though the Forest has to sustain them or they run out of energy and lose consciousness almost immediately). The Forest has definitely learned from the lessons. (+3 successes before bonuses.) As a side-note, the Moles Avo and Gadro (that learned Life Magic in a prior turn) have both been much in demand this turn, for triage, healing other Creatures enough to keep them alive until they can get back to the Forest and Arthur Scrat.

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One Ancient Tree started having strange dreams. Most were indescribable, or made no sense in any context. That said, a vision of some Vines proved useful - as it showed the Vines refusing to burn to the Forest, and barely smoldering if exposed to the full wrath of the Lesser Fire Salamander. It also showed the Vines happily devouring several bolts of Light from your Lasers (how the Forest would get within range of the Vines was ignored, as usual in dreams). So our enemy has upgraded these new Evil Vines, huh?

A great deal of effort from several Trees went into the project to arm the Forest's Creatures - and, since they were planning to head out and fight the Vines, all Shields and Weapons and Armor for our Creatures were finished first. Then the Forest worked on Shields for Newton Village.

Two Trees attempted experiments on further refining the wooden equipment. One looked great, had a good bit of effort put into it… and then the resulting armor lost its Magic after three days, rendering it nearly useless. (-2 Resources, +1 Unusual Lumber.) The other Tree had a similar breakthrough, and this one had no hidden catch, giving all the resulting equipment the ability to draw upon the wielder's power (and, to a very limited degree, the power of anyone nearby) instead of the Forest's, if used when far from our Forest.

With the Forest itself working on the project, everyone got the weapons and armor they wanted. Two of the Bears got weapons, and four ultimately decided they'd like some armor. Several Wolves got the armor they wanted. And, after the Vine-fight had begun, the Forest built a dozen Shields for Newton Village; Gustav seems to be slightly looking forward to the next attack. Finally, as the turn drew to a close, you rebuild the tiny Ice-Swords for the Squirrels to handle Ice/Fire Negacion, and keep working even when distant from the Forest (to a limited degree).

(Contributed actions: two write-ins, one Focus action, two auto-successes from an Omake as requested on page 119. This counts for +1 Favor with Newton Village, 2->3.)

With just enough work from one Tree to keep all the Creatures fully Connected (to each other and to the Forest) at this range, the Moles, the Bees, the Bears, and the Wolves all go forth to fight the Vines.

The Bees help a bit with the battles, but are mostly a scouting force. They report that each Portal site has a similar mass of Vines, equivalent to the one that the Bears destroyed last turn. Well, mostly equivalent - they are each roughly a third larger than the Bears' target was, most likely having grown that much in the intervening time.

The three remaining patches of Vines are, as expected, 9 miles to the north, 13 miles to the south, and 22 miles to the east. The Bears claim the closest site, which is nearly halfway to Andrewsburg but thankfully just over a mile off the path. The Wolves - experts at rapid distance travel - offer to take the furthest site, 22 miles to the east. The Moles hitch a ride on a few free Deer, and head to the site 13 miles to south. There was some discussion of having multiple Creatures team up against the same patch of Vines; the five Bears on the job are fairly confident (and with good reason) that they can take a patch of Vines without assistance, but the Wolves and Moles briefly consider teaming up, before deciding to try to each at least stop one patch from growing further.

The Wolves and the Bears arrive first, with the Moles only starting combat a day later. And in that time, quite a bit changes.

The Bears have no real issues. They go in, start tearing things up, and by the turn's end have destroyed another patch of Vines. The fact that there are more Vines means nothing, because there are also more Bears - and better-armed and -armored, at that. The Ice/Fire weapons - glove-like things worn over their front paws - are effective though not outrageously so, and are most useful against any bit of Vine that is too thick to break and too rooted to tear from the ground.

The Wolves, however, have unexpected problems. More than once, a Wolf misses an easy dodge, and gets ensnared by the Vines. It's not until a Wolf dies - and several more are terribly injured - that they pull back and try to figure out what's wrong.

The Bees ultimately manage to notice an odd taste to the Evil Vines' sap, and the Wolves eventually realize that it's a subtle toxin. If ingested or absorbed through the skin, it delays reaction time and slightly distorts thoughts. The Bears report that they aren't as affected - and anyway, their combat with the Vines was always a matter of wading in and tearing things apart, not carefully-timed dodges and snaps.

The Moles, when they start to fight, are incredibly thankful for the information, as it saves them from casualties much like the Wolves'. They aren't able to eradicate their patch of Vines, but they do stalemate it, damaging it just as fast as it Grows this turn. Thanks to Avo the Mole, they take no permanent casualties.

Meanwhile, the Wolves are suffering. One of the injured succumbs, for a second casualty. Several more would have died, and only survived thanks to their armor or immediate medical attention from Gadro the Mole. They spend a few days to recover and regroup, and go back in with some serious bloodthirst - which works against them, as much as anything, though they still fare far better. In one case, a scarred female Wolf is nearly entangled by the Vines, but an unexpected individual shows up and, biting the Vines viciously, hauls the Wolf to safety: the Doe that said Wolf had once saved, shows up to save her in turn. Indeed, the Doe refuses to leave until the Wolf is clearly recovering.

(The Doe lets out a distinct outraged cry of "Food should stay food, not hurt friends!" She is too distraught to see any irony in her statement at the time, but is rather amused a week later.)

No further Wolves are lost, but it's a near thing several times. Then… a very hungry ghost shows up, and the entire battle changes.

The Wolves' gear can - barely - pull from the Lesser Wraith. And said Lesser Wraith is shoving all the power at them that it can, because it is feasting without limit. It is trying its absolute best to drain every last Vine dry, and in a span of days the battle goes from "the Vines are slowly outgrowing the Wolves" to "it's just a matter of time." By the turn's end, the Wolves have effectively won - it's just a matter of cleanup to make sure the problem stays gone.

The Lesser Wraith is starting to wonder if "full" is actually possible. "No," it concludes, "But 'barely-hungry' is, as is 'bloated to nearly exploding.'"

You have one very happy Lesser Wraith on your hands. It would probably be wise to bring it back to the Forest next turn to ensure it hasn't been re-corrupted or anything of the sort. You don't think it was, but best to check. The best sign - and also the best support to your argument - comes from the Wraith's own reaction to your concern: "Please check! I don't want to go back!"

(Limited Deer assistance from 2.26 excess Growth successes (this includes Growth modifiers).)

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Actions, Turn 26:



Summary

Your Votes should look like the following:

[ ][Action] Action
[ ][Focus] Action
[ ][Focus] Action x2
[ ][Focus] Action x3
[ ][Focus] Action x4
[ ][AutoFocus] Automated Focus; vote by plan
[ ][Squirrel] Squirrel action
[ ][Deer] Deer action (very optional)
[ ][Moles] Mole action (very optional)
[ ][Beavers] Beaver action (very optional)
[ ][Bees] Bee action (very optional)
[ ][Ants] Ant action (very optional)
[ ][Wolves] Wolf action (very optional)
[ ][Corvids] Corvid action (very optional)
[ ][Bears] Bear action (very optional)
[ ][Lesser Fire Salamander] Lesser Fire Salamander action (very optional)
[ ][Speaker] Speaker action (very optional)
[ ][Speaker] Speaker action (very optional) x2

Newcomers should add one of the following:

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

This vote will always be open.