[X][Action] Study on Light Magic; specifically, how to our Fire Magic into our Laser Beam. If our Laser Beam can set things on fire, shouldn't it be possible to add a fire aspect to it for additional firepower (heh)? And if THAT works... let's see what happens if you add Fire/Ice Negacion to it, too! Or Fire Within.
-[X] Destructive testing on any applicable hostile targets, starting from non-lethal attacks meant to deter if it were the other Two-Legs, to outright vaporising sum bitches if they fucked around too much.
[X][Minor Question] Talk to Materson about the Lumberjacks and the incoming refugees, plus pursuers.
[X][AutoFocus] Maintenance for Forestlife and preparing for the coming winter
[X][Focus] Void Forest
[X][Focus] Monster Energy
[X][Focus] Life Indeed (Magic Biology Research)
[X][Focus] Burninator
[X][Squirrel] Assist with the Lumberjack problem.
[X][Deer] Assist with the Lumberjack problem.
[X][Moles] Make irrigation channels off of the dams.
[X][Beavers] Make irrigation channels off of the dams.
[X][Bees] Learn Magic to prevent winter hibernation.
[X][Ants] Learn Magic to prevent winter hibernation.
[X][Wolves] Assist with the Lumberjack problem
[X][Corvids] Weather Analysis (9 dice)
[X][Bears] Life Indeed, overflow to Burninator
[X][Lesser Wraith] Research Magic-Drain
[X][Lesser Fire Salamander]Teach Fire Magic
[X][Speaker] Life Indeed, overflow to Burninator
[X][Speaker] Life Indeed, overflow to Burninator ×2
Hmm, Burninator seems interesting, but I'll let the forest in general deal with it. Personally, I wanted to actually advance on being the fucking sun.
All, right, we've got some opinions in favor of Thinking Ant contact, and some against, mostly of the "there's a lot going on right now, don't add more" flavor. And a Mad Science Tree hurrying here to make contact, which is cool.
So, I think I'm going to plant roots a little distance from the ant trails we found, and just observe and try to figure out how to talk to ants that we don't have a telepathic connection to. Hopefully the ants I brought along can help with that. Maybe I should have brought a gift? A large bag of sugar to say "I come in peace"?
If the big ants find me, and want to talk, we can start talking, otherwise, we can do it next turn, with more trees on location and hopefully fewer evil lumberjacks needing attention. Also, the Evil Lumberjacks would be a good time for somebody to deploy the Annoying Pollen attack. Make them uncomfortable, without immediately resorting to lethal violence.
And with that in mind...
[X] [Action] Try to open a portal to the Mad Science Tree's location, to help it get here faster.
I figure, opening a portal is probably easier if you have good information about the starting and destination points, right? And what would be better for that than having a telepathic tree at both ends. Hopefully I don't send @ConfusedPotato to Oz by mistake. Although, think about how much we could learn if he got isekai'ed...
[X][AutoFocus] Maintenance for Forestlife and preparing for the coming winter
[X][Focus] Void Forest
[X][Focus] Monster Energy
[X][Focus] Life Indeed (Magic Biology Research)
[X][Focus] Burninator
[X][Lumberjacks] Put up a Shield and let them bounce off of it. (If they ever find you past the still-active Empty Veil.)
[X][Speaker] Represent the Forest
-[X] Ask the loggers to leave while having the wolves, wraith and bears along as escort as soon as the loggers get close enough that the forest can help if the logger attack.
You'll want to put an [Action] tag after the X on that so that the vote-tally can count it properly.
Otherwise, yay, my Ent might get grown!
Now to decide what I'm going to do myself. Study Monster Energy? Design more Ents? Think of other biological things to do? Hmmm...
Also a thought; we could try the potential option of
[][Lumberjacks] Use Illusions and mild mental prodding to make sure they get lost and don't find the forest.
@kinglugia@Phigment
"[AutoFocus] Maintenance" is from an old post of mine, replaced by "[AutoFocus] Maintenance for Forestlife and preparing for the coming winter" in my actual action post, would that work for you, too?
[X][AutoFocus] Maintenance for Forestlife and preparing for the coming winter
-[X][AutoFocus] Put 1 Focus Action towards upgrading 1 Weather Tree to elder, then growing a Lens Tree until completion and then a Wise Tree until we've reached the cap for both
-[X][AutoFocus] Put 1 Focus Action towards "Life Indeed", then Burninator, after that put 1 Focus Action towards Salamander learning Fire/Ice negacion
Huh, seems the void animals have a void truce in place to protect themselves from the void sun's deadly void lasers, speaking of the void, I'll be helping with the Empty Veil to hide us from the Robberjacks
[X][Action] Empty Veil (Void)
1. So… it seems that we accidentality colonised Talanburg. Awkward.
----
2. As this is a communal action I think we can do approval voting? I don't want to resort to violence as yet, but nor do I want to negotiate with self-describing thieves as a first response. The traders came in good faith and left with goods. These gits came with sinister intent and will leave with nothing.
1. Very Awkward, but hopefully we'll be able to have a friendly conversation and clear up any worries or concerns in the next turn or two. And I also think that this turn or the next we are going to have to accept that we are going to become quite known to groups in the area. As players, I think we should consider how to do 'group-diplomacy-votes' to put our best branch forward.
2. I don't want to resort to violence as our first action, especially since they are coming in with hostile intent but have not committed hostile acts. If only because to attack based on perceived intent looks kinda bad to anyone who can not see people's intentions. Personally, I dislike what these people are coming here to do, and really don't want to reward them.
But thinking long term in terms of reputation and future groups/trouble, I think it might be better for us to (somewhat) reward them - try to open a dialogue to give them new information in the hopes that their intentions will change.
Vague idea: We let them get closer (to keep our range secret), we let them know that we know that they are there and why they are coming and then we tell them something along the lines of:
(note the following is somewhat stream-of-consciousness, and has a lot of room to be condensed and improved. I've written it in single-person as I am pretending the forest is just one wizard)
"As a group, you have skill and strength and cleverness and are choosing to use that try and take from people. Some of you are willing to kill the people of the village, if it would profit you. I do not wish to harm you but I will not let you take from me. I will not let you harm them. It is in the interests of both kindness to you and avoiding unnecessary expenditure of attention on my part that I am warning you away from what you intend to do. As an alternative, I am open to suggestions you might have for fair exchange. Or you may simple leave.
I understand that as risk-takers there is a chance that you may wish to try to "call my bluff".
If you wish for a small non-harmful demonstration, that can be arranged [intent: shoot some lasers near them or create some fire or send out animal friends to looks scary or something]. If you ignore this communication and continue, or choose to procced in your attempt to take from me after my demonstration, I will kill you."
Elder Trees @Fabricati, 11 total actions; Heart Tree; 5 Survival; 3 Special; 2 Defense; 1 Offense - could be a Survival Tree, an Eldest Tree, or an Elder Heart Tree. @Nigerian Duck, 9 total actions; Heart Tree; 9 Special - could be an Elder Heart Tree or an Unpredictable Tree (the version that doesn't have to do only Phigment's write-ins). You might be able to be something like a Bone and Flesh Tree, as well.
Ancient Trees @Svn0One, 25 total actions; Elder Root Tree; 14 Special; 5 Research; 5 Growth; 1 Communication @Tetra, 24 total actions; Special Research Tree; 22 Research; 2 Special @Ylamona, 25 total actions; Huorn; 10 Survival; 9 Research; 5 Special; 1 Offense
As always, let me know if I've missed any patterns!
@Nigerian Duck, 9 total actions; Heart Tree; 9 Special - could be an Elder Heart Tree or an Unpredictable Tree (the version that doesn't have to do only Phigment's write-ins).
Woah—I can upgrade early? That's a pleasant surprise. Seems like I can't go for my preferred trio of Bone, Flesh, and Soul right away, but maybe if I play my cards right that could be my Ancient Tree Upgrade.
Is there any benefit to not becoming an Elder Tree right away? My only guess is if that there's something you want but don't qualify for, you could spend more actions grinding for it. In any case, my best option now is to upgrade.
Looks like I'm not selling my soul after all! Unpredictable Tree it is, Sir Robinton!
Woah—I can upgrade early? That's a pleasant surprise. Seems like I can't go for my preferred trio of Bone, Flesh, and Soul right away, but maybe if I play my cards right that could be my Ancient Tree Upgrade.
Is there any benefit to not becoming an Elder Tree right away? My only guess is if that there's something you want but don't qualify for, you could spend more actions grinding for it. In any case, my best option now is to upgrade.
Looks like I'm not selling my soul after all! Unpredictable Tree it is, Sir Robinton!
You could also go through your actions and tell Robinton "hey, i had x actions relating to y, is there anything we can do with that?", the actions are counted by script and thus only sees that something is a write-in, but not what themes those write-ins have.
Really? If that's the case, then Sir Robinton! I have a request of thee!
My Actions have been related to only Bone and Flesh so far. My last Action this turn was a stride towards the Soul, and my next one will be as well. With this, could I possibly concoct a tree who receives bonuses for write-ins related only to Bones, Flesh, and Souls?
'Tis truly the Duck's desire to explore these mysterious bound…and the best path to becoming a monkey.
Neat, seer tree kicked in. Anyways my best guess is ether an underground missile silo or a reference to us primarily wielding fire/light magic as our defence.
Because of all your Write-in bonuses, you effectively spent two highly successful turns, by baseline write-in standards, on an action that - while slow - isn't actually particularly out-there.
Also: You were totally using "knowledge of the Forest's direction" as a compass.
Two Big Spoilers (Actions plus Focus, Allies) - the current format for this turn; really, it's Three Big Spoilers if any Special votes are present, but still
One Spoiler per Bolded Category - Toboe's request
Edit: Apparently Toboe is also suggesting the possibility of splitting the Focus out from the Action votes, in what would then be a Three (Four) Big Spoilers format. Huh. Yeah, I don't really have a preference between this and Two (Three) Big Spoilers.
Personally, I still think I like the Two (Three) Big Spoilers method.
I don't like No Spoilers, now that the options list is getting so big - though if everyone else finds it convenient, I'll happily change my mind. (Anyway, I barely read my own Turn posts on this forum; I'm mostly scanning them via Find in Google Docs rather than here. Most of my non-Turn posts are a different matter, though...)
Mighty mushrooms mining is incorrect. Intent is IMPROVING mining. Make mightier mining equipment to expedite excavation and sample surveys to source valuable veins.
[X][Action] Study on Light Magic; specifically, how to our Fire Magic into our Laser Beam. If our Laser Beam can set things on fire, shouldn't it be possible to add a fire aspect to it for additional firepower (heh)? And if THAT works... let's see what happens if you add Fire/Ice Negacion to it, too! Or Fire Within.
-[X] Destructive testing on any applicable hostile targets, starting from non-lethal attacks meant to deter if it were the other Two-Legs, to outright vaporising sum bitches if they fucked around too much.
[X][Minor Question] Talk to Materson about the Lumberjacks and the incoming refugees, plus pursuers.
[X][AutoFocus] Maintenance for Forestlife and preparing for the coming winter
[X][Focus] Void Forest
[X][Focus] Monster Energy
[X][Focus] Life Indeed (Magic Biology Research)
[X][Focus] Burninator
[X][Squirrel] Assist with the Lumberjack problem.
[X][Deer] Assist with the Lumberjack problem.
[X][Moles] Make irrigation channels off of the dams.
[X][Beavers] Make irrigation channels off of the dams.
[X][Bees] Learn Magic to prevent winter hibernation.
[X][Ants] Learn Magic to prevent winter hibernation.
[X][Wolves] Assist with the Lumberjack problem
[X][Corvids] Weather Analysis (9 dice)
[X][Bears] Learn Magic to prevent winter hibernation.
[X][Lesser Wraith] Research Magic-Drain
[X][Lesser Fire Salamander]Teach Fire Magic
[X][Speaker] Life Indeed, overflow to Burninator
[X][Speaker] Life Indeed, overflow to Burninator
Hmm, Burninator seems interesting, but I'll let the forest in general deal with it. Personally, I wanted to actually advance on being the fucking sun.
if you want both speaker votes to count you need to put "x2" after one of them, if they are identical the tally bot deletes one.
Also, would you consider turning the "Learn Magic to prevent winter hibernation" into "Life Indeed, overflow to Burninator"? Life Indeed is explicitly about getting our creatures magic, once all have some magic we could organize something to teach fire magic to all hibernation-endangered creatures.
[X][Action] Analyze Mundane Movement. Also on top of analyzing, use some magic to try hydraulic and other similar things that animals use to move, emulating muscle from the form and down to the method basically.
You're going to get a mini-turn (including attacker results) and a vote for "what to do about Talanburg" and "what to do about those coming from the east" anyway. You don't actually need to spend more effort connecting to Talanburg - though you're welcome to, of course.
Im worried that since half of them are willing to kill to get the rare wood and since they have 3 mages, it would be dangerous to ask the village to drive them away, maybe we can inform the village of these intruders and ask whether they would be able to handle them?
Materson: "If I went alone, or maybe took a few warriors, but we meant only to negotiate, and were willing to retreat if a fight came about... Safe enough. No riskier than usual.
"Trying to drive them back by force might be a bit dicey. You'd need to be ready to throw a bunch of Magic at us all, and maybe that one Squirrel, Arthur Scrat, if they won't take no for an answer."
Weary intruders: some dozens.
Hostile pursuers: seven.
The moment any of your Creatures get an eye on them, though, you'll note that the pursuers are all armed and armored, and not all of the first group even have shoes. Sure, the first group could stop and make a fight of it, and sure they'd probably win, but they'll run until they're safe if they can make that work. They don't want half their number to die, after all - no one does.
And the pursuers aren't closing for the kill. Just harrying, for now at least.
Mental scanning suggests none of them know that you're in their path. Aside from maybe a hint in a vision or some such.
As far as you can scan from their minds - which is pretty far - they are working as a group. The two Mages are arguing - repeatedly - over which of the two of them is in charge.
You also pick up that those two have been planning a hit on "the source of that lumber" for several months now, since the first of your Unusual Lumber hit the market. They weren't sure it was worth it, though. One scouted the vague area during a "perfectly normal" round-trip to Talanburg and back, but didn't notice the Forest. But when a huge wagonload came into Andrewsburg, well... Now it's easy to get other shady individuals to sign up!
All three Mages, and half the Mundanes, have significant connections to organized crime various places. I should say, what passes for organized crime in Andrewsburg, since that isn't a terribly large or lawless settlement - you typically have people who just happen to be out of town when a wagon gets extorted for cash or something, and even then it doesn't happen frequently (or they'd get caught). Talanburg is fairly similar as far as that goes. Melamar and Shieldhome are bigger and have more criminal activity within the walls.
Of course... a lot of places might find themselves with issues with suspiciously-well-organized bandits, if the Woo Clan is looking their way...
(Addendum: The prior notes on organized crime are what you currently are aware of and could possibly be incomplete.)
We're like 90% sure it's vampires, but we don't have any actual proof beyond that... let's call it a "factory" being apparently manned by intelligent monsters. So... averages out to "no" I guess?
Was this me? If so, then it seems as if my attempt to see my soul was pretty garbage. But no matter—I still have one or two more turns before I have to upgrade.
[X] The tree feels that it comes closer and closer to reaching a tipping point, strengthening itself over its experiments each time. But it holds off on it, deciding that it has to try one more thing before it turns itself to something greater than before. Straining itself to its utmost limits, it gives an honest attempt to 'see' its own, or sense it in some way. It has no idea where to start, but a good and honest effort with a clear and peaceful mind should do somethin'….right?
You didn't specify Soul, so I treated it as Mind since that was mentioned immediately thereafter..
But with that roll, no, that would hardly have done more.
Feel free to try!
Addendum: you suspect that "have the Comms Trees keep stretching further afield" and "Grow the Forest" might both help, at least somewhat.
To be honest, I think having our animals sneak up at lumberjacks which includes three mages with "significant power" sound like it going to result in our animals taking heavy casualty rather than scaring the lumberjacks away.
If you send just one type, likely enough.
Well, Squirrels plus Sensing and other surveillance Trees, wielding tiny swords... Might be able to drive them off without casualties.
But generally if you couldn't easily spook them, I'd expect you to alternate between Squirrel and TK and setting their stuff on Fire and... well, generally make their life a semi-inexplicable nuisance and distract them until they left.
Given the exact numbers, I'm pretty sure that's basically "something has utterly scrambled our senses on that front so we have no idea what our progress towards Connecting to them is, or even if we're making any" re: Shadow Spinners. I mean, I'm pretty sure we didn't even have 240 dice dedicated to them, let alone 240 successes, and the "threshold" is literally a countdown (a negative one, even!) and is thus not trustworthy.
So... probably still oof-worthy, but hypothetically surmountable at least. Though it might be possible they're already Connected to someone else... eh, whatever, we'll figure that out if it happens.
Second of all, the Forest hasn't really experimented with rocket-powered flight. Right now, keeping a Tree in the air is possible, but hideously expensive. Like, 10 resources per minute expensive.
Third of all, what specific bonus to the Forest would a Flyer Ent grant? If there isn't a currently known answer - which I think is true - then you'd be far better off temporarily turning yourself into a prototype Flyer Ent, in order to experiment.
Well, actually, per the second point, you'd be better off yet starting trials of rocket-powered flight. It wouldn't take nearly as long to get it working as it does for humans IRL, since they don't have TK or the ability to control the engines with their minds...
You didn't specify Soul, so I treated it as Mind since that was mentioned immediately thereafter..
But with that roll, no, that would hardly have done more.
Curse you autocorrect! Deleting the one key word in my vote. It was supposed to be sandwiched between "own" and "or". (I thought as much. To make up for my really good roll with flesh, I needed a really bad one.)
"...We'll start getting the village ready for guests. And presumably 'guests.'"
(His voice doesn't change on the last word, but something in his eyes does.)
"As a group, you have skill and strength and cleverness and are choosing to use that try and take from people. Some of you are willing to kill the people of the village, if it would profit you. I do not wish to harm you but I will not let you take from me. I will not let you harm them. It is in the interests of both kindness to you and avoiding unnecessary attention on my part that I am warning you away from what you intend to do. As an alternative, I am open to suggestions you might have for fair exchange. Or you may simple leave.
I understand that as risk-takers there is a chance that you may wish to try to "call my bluff".
If you wish for a small non-harmful demonstration, that can be arranged [intent: shoot some lasers near them or create some fire or send out animal friends to looks scary or something]. If you ignore this communication and continue, or choose to procced in your attempt to take from me after my demonstration, I will kill you."
Woah—I can upgrade early? That's a pleasant surprise. Seems like I can't go for my preferred trio of Bone, Flesh, and Soul right away, but maybe if I play my cards right that could be my Ancient Tree Upgrade.
Is there any benefit to not becoming an Elder Tree right away? My only guess is if that there's something you want but don't qualify for, you could spend more actions grinding for it. In any case, my best option now is to upgrade.
Your upgrade takes effect along with your 10th vote, and affects the results of that vote. This is standard.
(Perhaps it should take effect along with your 11th vote, but meh. I like this.)
Hmm... Bone Flesh and Soul? Yeah, you'd need at least one more vote into Soul for that. What would you want for stats in that case? 3 in Research and a full Write-in Bonus to "Bone, Flesh, and/or Soul Write-ins"? That would definitely be fine, and I'd call it good if you voted a Soul vote this turn.
Actually, you know, I could probably give you both "Research 3" and "(Biology Research) 4, (Soul Research) 4" as your extra bonus (beyond the Bone/Flesh/Soul Write-in bonus). I assume that's your preference?
Is there any benefit to not becoming an Elder Tree right away? My only guess is if that there's something you want but don't qualify for, you could spend more actions grinding for it.
[X][Action] Analyze Mundane Movement. Also on top of analyzing, use some magic to try hydraulic and other similar things that animals use to move, emulating muscle from the form and down to the method basically.
[X][Action] Release Annoying Pollen against the Lumburglars
[X][Focus] Grow the Forest
[X][Focus] Reach Out To Minds
[X][Focus] Water Lot Of Fun
[X][Focus] Water Lot Of Fun x2
I realize we could do a lot worse things than release annoying pollen but honestly I think it serves as a warning shot.
You're going to get a mini-turn (including attacker results) and a vote for "what to do about Talanburg" and "what to do about those coming from the east" anyway. You don't actually need to spend more effort connecting to Talanburg - though you're welcome to, of course.
Your upgrade takes affect along with your 10th vote, and affects the results of that vote. This is standard.
(Perhaps it should take effect along with your 11th vote, but meh. I like this.)
Hmm... Bone Flesh and Soul? Yeah, you'd need at least one more vote into Soul for that. What would you want for stats in that case? 3 in Research and a full Write-in Bonus to "Bone, Flesh, and/or Soul Write-ins"? That would definitely be fine, and I'd call it good if you voted a Soul vote this turn.
Actually, you know, I could probably give you both "Research 3" and "(Biology Research) 4, (Soul Research) 4" as your extra bonus (beyond the Bone/Flesh/Soul Write-in bonus). I assume that's your preference?
Ooh, sounds swell. I'll go with option 2 then, since it appears objectively better when coupled with the Write-in Bonus. Though it does sound like a little much…maybe you should cut out "Research 3"?
Note: Your Wise Trees grant you +50% on Research actions. Your Laser Computer grants you +20% on Research actions, and a +15% extra bonus when Overcharged (consuming 4 Resources per turn).
Focus: Any Focus action directed towards Research gains +6 auto-successes from Clever Trees.
[ ][Action] Incorporate Plant <plant>
-Incorporate a plant into the Forest, at least enough to learn something from it.
-0 of 15 successes - Aranion - mostly-mundane Healing (Mammals)
-0 of 15 successes - Dandelions - permanent +5% to Grow The Forest
-0 of 15 successes - Poison Ivy - Annoying Pollen 3x effect, Lethal Pollen 1.5x effect
-Feel free to suggest other options! There are a lot of good possibilities, though few massive gamechangers, and I'll add anything approved to this list.
15/1.75=8.571428571428571 rounds to 9
15/1.9=7.894736842105264 rounds to 8
one focus is almost enough for 2 incorporations.
speaking of which... @Robinton
The fungi are already integrated, right? Or would it make sense to suggest stuff like edible mushrooms, somewhat poisonous mushrooms (fly agaric), deadly poisonous mushrooms (death caps), psychedelic mushrooms (magic mushrooms), agressively spore spreading mushrooms
Also, thorny shrubbery like blackberries and raspberries could add "bramble" a dangerous terrain limited by forest size that grows back by itself. (like, forestsize^2 cap and grows back by Growth Active Die *0.05 each turn)
Sunflowers (if there are any in reach) could make the forests movement level add a bonus to growth. (slightly turning for optimal light harvest)
Also, thorny shrubbery like blackberries and raspberries could add "bramble" a dangerous terrain limited by forest size that grows back by itself. (like, forestsize^2 cap and grows back by Growth Active Die *0.05 each turn)
