The Bone/Flesh/Soul Tree attempted to figure out how to grow something more like an Animal - but so far has met with no success. The attempt did, however, produce significant insights to Flesh Magic (+2.5 successes).
[X][Action] Monsters or Material, To Be or Not To Be? The Tree dispatches a monster and consumes it to integrate its flesh and study.
[X][Spynet Response] Orchestrate a plot to convince the Woo clan that the security breach is because they have traitors in their midst, manipulating them into destroying themselves as they seek out traitors that don't actually exist.
Focus:
4 automatic successes into [X] Raise the Shield
4 automatic successes into [X] Coordinate Creatures
4+6=10 automatic successes into [X] Analyze Foes
4+4=8 automatic successes into [X] Laser Beam (Magic) (target aggressive enemy monsters)
Note that Box Lunch, Space Jawa, and Razzocnor each have 1.5 free auto-successes to use whenever they please. The Froggy Ninja has one free Effective Success on any Offense action (restricted to Offense Actions the Forest could actually plausibly use at the time), to be used at a time of your choosing. Phigment has an Adventuring reward of some stripe waiting.
Razzocnor 2d -> 0 successes.
Actions:
27 dice - (12,9) successes - into: [X] Rock Hunting (Magic Research)
26 dice - (10,7) successes - into: [X] Store Resources Against Future Need
20 dice - 13 successes - into: [X] Telekinesis (Magic)
-Try to immobilize interesting monster specimens for future domestication.
-Focus on already weakened/exhausted but unlikely to die enemies for greater chance of success.
17 dice - 7+6.25+4 successes - into: [X] Raise the Shield
15 dice - 7+3.75+10 successes - into: [X] Analyze Foes
11 dice - 8 successes - into: [X] Assist Ants
11 dice - 4 successes - into: [X] Upgrade Lens Tree to Elder
9 dice - 5 successes - into: [X] Assist Targeting
-Man(Tree?) the sensing trees, helping to focus their sensors and filter the data for trees more focused on analysis or targeting.
-Use information you've gathered from the past to avoid repeating any mistakes.
8 dice - 3+4 successes - into: [X] Coordinate Creatures
7 dice - 2 successes - into: [X] Bee Afraid (Bees)
6 dice - 4 successes - into: [X] Empty Veil (Void)
6 dice - 4 successes - into: [X] Illusion Search
5 dice - 2 successes - into: [X] Research Advanced Movement (Magic Elements) (Movement Research)
-Destructive Testing: [X] Telekinesis (Magic)
5 dice - 2 successes - into: [X] Disorient Foes
5 dice - 3 successes - into: [X] Assist Creatures
5 dice - 2 successes - into: [X] Magic-Drain (Magic Research)
-Destructive Testing: [X] Offensive Magic Drain (Magic)
2 dice - 2 successes - into: [X] Coordinate Two-Legs
-With music, of course!
2 dice - 1 success - into: [X] Assist Avo and Gadro
2 dice - 0 successes - into: [X] Light/Darkness Negacion (Magic)
-Attack anything affected by Malice that gets too close to the shields, but avoid finishing off weakened monsters that are targeted for collection by other trees using Telekinesis.
1 dice - 0 successes - into: [X] Shoot Spikes
1 dice - 0 successes - into: [X] Fuego! Pyrofuego! Burn! (Magic)
-Focus on monsters approaching the side of the Forest opposite to the village.
4 dice - 2 successes - into: [X] Monster Energy (Magic Biology Research) (Biology Research) (Magic) (Esoteric Research)
-Destructive Testing: [X] Attack Malice Storm Monsters
-[X] The storm didn't help the monsters, or did it? Did they change during it, if so, will they revert? Is the reason that they shelter as well similar to how trees don't like floods due to too much water? Let's cut apart a few and find out.
0 dice - 0+1 success - into: [X] Offensive Magic Drain (Magic)
0 dice - 0+8 successes - into: [X] Laser Beam (Magic) (target aggressive enemy monsters)
Extra successes: 4 Laser, 1 Spike, +2 Flesh Not of My Flesh, +3.5 Mining, +1 Offensive Magic Drain.
Extra effective successes: +4.4 damage from Exploding Nuts, +2 Laser Damage, +0.5 Death Magic damage, +1.5 Melee damage.
Dice Rolled=193; succeeded=91. OK. That said, sheesh were the Ant rerolls grumpy.
Tall Tree bonus: 4 ranks; x1.04(060401).
Jack727 - [Seer], level 1 - That Rock, that one over there.
Write-ins:
Space Jawa, "Coordinate with the Two-Legs to know where they are most at risk of being harmed.\n-[X] Exploit Personal Mobility to maximum effect, jumping in to provide combat support wherever support is most needed.\n--[X] Focus on 1) Using Monsters as blunt weapons against other monsters; 2) Throwing Monster at other Monsters; 3) Lobbing Monsters through the air (aim for altitude and distance)." (See combat.)
LinkOnScepter, "Coordinate with the Two-Legs to know where they are most at risk of being harmed.\n-[X] Exploit Personal Mobility to maximum effect, jumping in to provide combat support wherever support is most needed.\n--[X] Focus on 1) Using Monsters as blunt weapons against other monsters; 2) Throwing Monster at other Monsters; 3) Lobbing Monsters through the air (aim for altitude and distance)." (See combat.)
kinglugia, "Laser Beam (Magic) research, further extrapolate on targeting Malice and/or Monster Energy.\n-[X] Destructive testing on incoming monster hordes. Pew pew pew!" (Minor result: 4 laser successes.)
_Plague Doctor_, "Create spike launchers utilizing a gravity feed and an elastic band to create a kind of spike slingshot for usage by non-Trees or Ents. The way it works is with a ridge in the spike. Two elastic bands attach to this. Then a winch? Attached to the back of the spike, pulls and then released. Spike gains fins too. Use magic if needed or wanted\n-[X] Destructive Testing on Enemy Monsters." (Minor result: 1 Spike success. New design noted, not yet perfected.)
mastigos, "Mining Mushrooms Manifold: grow the mining portion of the fungal network and infrastructure for separating out samples of any interesting minerals that it might find for the researches to poke at." -[Fungi, Write-in bonus], level 2 (Minor result: +3.5 base mining successes.)
Lunos1, "I will not give up! This time using my on energies i will 'feel out' the Natural Magic of the world, focusing on its reaction with my Energy." (Found (and potentially filtered out) an interesting distraction.)
ConfusedPotato, "Monster Energy (Magic Biology Research) (Biology Research) (Magic) (Esoteric Research)." -[Research, Write-in bonus], level 2 - the dice part of this is 4 dice - 2 successes - into: [X] Monster Energy (Magic Biology Research) (Biology Research) (Magic) (Magic Research) (Esoteric Research) - "Destructive Testing on Malice Storm Monsters\n-[X] The storm didn't help the monsters, or did it? Did they change during it, if so, will they revert? Is the reason that they shelter as well similar to how trees don't like floods due to too much water? Let's cut apart a few and find out."
Robot # 207, "Defense Write-in: Try to make shields that will deflect damage received back to the attacker." (Research project gained - Shield successes will contribute. +2 Shield successes this turn.)
Pyro Hawk, "Have you ever heard of Trees Lying? - Work on developing the Forest's knowledge of Lying Magic. All the monsters attacking just means there's a wonderful supply of test subjects for the more dangerous possibilities! Such as how there absolutely wasn't a thorn bush in that location, and they should definitely have wondered when the Monster next to them became hostile..." -[Write-in bonus], level 2
Svn0One, "Try to make Exploding nuts for ammunition." -[Nuts, Write-in bonus], level 2 (Minor result: +4.4 damage.)
Razzocnor, "Attempt to grow and then field-test on monsters magical biology based facsimiles of the Ancient-Tech Laser Rifle." -[Magic Biology Research, Write-in bonus], level 2 (Minor Result: +2 damage dealt, +2-base 'Flesh, Not of My Flesh' successes.)
Phigment, "Return to the forest with my new book on travel magic. Try to do it magically, but if that doesn't work, just start walking." -[Write-in bonus], level 6
BeepSmile, "Try to use Death Magic to assist with the killing of monsters during combat encounters, but the goal here is to get better at death magic, any meaningful contributions to the fight is a bonus; i.e. this is the combat turn equivalent of the Destructive Testing action." (Minor result: +0.5 Magic damage (after boni).)
MoonSerpent, "APPLY SORD\n-[X] Gather your band of fellow swords and go where we can inflict maximum damage. Apply magic swordstreeship as required! GET GAINS AND GROW!\n-[X] Give the corpses of our enemies to the Flesh Tree for proper disposal and study." (Minor result: +1.5 Melee damage (after boni).)
Nigerian Duck, "Monsters or Material, To Be or Not To Be? The Tree dispatches a monster and consumes it to integrate its flesh and study." (Minor result: Eating a few Monsters grants +5 Flesh Magic successes.)
Ally actions:
Creatures: Combat.
Speakers Ben and Betty Grimm: Combat.
Materson: Combat… and Intimidation?
Herbalist: Food… actually fairly successful for once.
Steve Robertson: Combat.
Elder Defender Ent: Miniature Roc. Also boosting Bees.
Turn 29 Combat Results
One Tree used the same "possible message to the Last Star" trick a few times, but received no obvious reply. Aside from, apparently, the youngest Yuadore spectacularly crying every time the Forest attempted to send a message - though it only happened three times, so that was still a possible coincidence.
One Tree has consistently tried to sense the Natural Energies or Magic of the world. This time, it did find something - though not, perhaps, what it was looking for. Specifically, every piece of Magic cast radiates a tiny bit of Magic energy that will linger on the caster and the surroundings of the spell - an incredibly subtle thing, but potentially useful for finding traces of Magics previously cast. When trying to find "Natural Magic," the Forest's Sensing Trees eventually picked up a general background fog (or radiation?) of long-gone Spells. This background Magic is extremely weak and isn't strongly attuned to any Element in particular, as far as you can tell, aside perhaps from Magic itself. While this is probably not what the Tree wanted to sense, it is potentially useful to explore - and, additionally, the Sensing Trees are now able to filter it out of their Senses, simplifying future attempts at scanning for Natural Magic (or other odd, subtle, and/or esoteric effects).
One Tree, by analyzing the many different ways attacks bounce off the Shields of the Forest, came up with a core theory for a Reflective Shield upgrade - which the Forest is fairly certain is a very specialized case of Justice Magic. While the current prototype makes the Shields a dozen times more fragile, that's something the Forest is fairly certain it can fix. The simplest solution, most likely, will be to accept a fairly weak Reflection effect (perhaps 1/10th of incoming damage initially?) in exchange for the Shields losing no toughness whatsoever, though Shield toughness and Reflection seem to be something of a tradeoff, with time and effort allowing a slow increase to both. (Research project gained - Shield successes will contribute. +2 Raise the Shield successes this turn.)
One Tree worked on using Lying Magic against the Monsters, which was moderately effective at combat (giving your various Two-Legs extra chances to collect food) but had absolutely no other results such as progress or reduced difficulties.
One Tree worked on designing and building improved Spike Launchers, which are still very much in the prototype stage, but were effective enough at combat (though not yet better than the normal launchers).
A variety of Trees made attempts that contributed mildly to projects and/or combat, but were not major breakthroughs. (Relevant entries listed with the write-in, inside the Rolls spoiler, and labeled "Minor result.")
The Shield held with few true concerns - save for one or two moments of peril, as truly exceptional Monsters attacked. Similarly, the Empty Void kept attacks down somewhat, and (presumably) continued blocking off any attempt at Scrying the Forest from outside.
The Forest put in a massive amount of effort into Rock Hunting… and found nothing. Indeed, at the end of an incredibly detailed and rather paranoid survey, the Forest is absolutely certain that, if there is anything to find, it can't be found by the Forest currently or with Elder Sensing Trees (with all planned upgrades including anything added this turn). Thus, the Forest is fairly confident that this Vision was misleading - with slight chances of 'misinterpreted' or 'the Rock is just that advanced.' On the upside, the Forest is fairly certain that it is also under no Illusions at the moment - since checking for those was one of the actions required to be certain of the search's results - and the Forest has made considerable progress on the Elder Sensing Trees (50% of Rock Hunting progress contributes, at normal Turn rates). Additionally, the Forest found - at quite some range, and long buried a dozen feet underground in an old landslide - an Ancient Technology power supply, which looks like it could be wired into the Laser, allowing for a certain number of free Laser strikes at night.
Between Illusion Search and the effects of Rock Hunting, the Forest is quite certain it is under no Illusions, and has learned some about the Shadow-Spinners and their Illusions. (+5 effective successes to Study Illusions.)
Betty Grimm was helpful in the defense of Talanburg, as were the Trees there - another point in your collective favor in public opinion. Killing Monsters tends to endear you to the Monsters' would-be victims; who knew?
The Forest made small bits of progress on analyzing Advanced Movement and the Magic-Drain power, and tested the results on invaders. (Research multiplied by 0.125; damage applied as normal.)
The Forest performed so much analysis of Monsters that it gained significant (50%) insight into Monster Energy.
Also note that the Forest gained +2 Resources from various Magic-Drain uses.
The first Monster to show up was also the single largest. A Rattling Skeleton, twenty feet tall and shaking the ground (as well as rattling its own bones), stomped towards Newton Village from the northeast. Old Man Materson met it in the outskirts of the Village, and everyone could feel him gearing up for a serious fight.
"Everyone" included, apparently, the Rattling Skeleton. It gave him what you are fairly certain was a wary look, backed off a few steps, changed direction ninety degrees to head northeast, and walked away.
Materson, privately, was shocked. "Didn't actually expect that to work," he admitted quietly. (GM note: 1 in 4 chance; I wasn't expecting it to work either!)
All in all, you're thankful. And, as it so happened, Materson and the Sword Tree (which was running up at that point to help) still got to slay some Skeletons. A number of smaller Skeletons (human-sized) were following the big one, and several of them kept right on their original course without turning. In short order, Materson's Fire disintegrated those Skeletons that the Sword Tree didn't smash. (+1 free Swordstreeship effective success.)
None of them were wearing fuzzy pink slippers, which reassured the Seer Tree for no reason anyone could comprehend. Nor, indeed, were they wearing anything - pink or otherwise, slippers or otherwise. Though a few were holding weapons. (Why that question occurred to the Seer Tree, even the Tree itself couldn't say.)
A foe encountered once before showed up. Maybe it was, truly, the same foe - the Forest wasn't sure how to tell. But the wraith-like Nameless something fought by the Unpredictable Tree, or another of its kin, showed up at the Forest and basically slid straight through the Shield without interacting with it at all. Then it started chopping holes in Trees - or trying to.
The Sensing Trees tried to scan it and - reported nonsense. Temperatures simultaneously tens of thousands of degrees below zero, and so high as to be immeasurable? Immunity to Magic, or complete transparency to Magic - despite Magic attacks clearly working on it, when tested? That it didn't exist? That it did, and was an Illusion? That it had existed once but did no longer? That it was Living Void? That it had no relation to Void whatsoever? For once, the incredible Sensing Trees were firmly outmatched. Though, admittedly, it was possible the Sensing Trees might have better results once upgraded to Elder - and, indeed, you've added "analyzing these things" to the list of planned upgrades in the planned Elder Sensing Tree design. Thankfully, due to considerable effort, the Forest could be reasonably certain that it wasn't preventing the Forest from understanding the Sensing Trees' results, or any similar Illusion effect - the Forest's mind was its own.
Clearly under attack, the Forest tried half-a-dozen different offense actions, just to see what worked: Bees, Ants, Lasers (thankfully this was during the day), Spikes, Exploding Nuts, Melee attacks, Fire from the Lesser Fire Salamander, Death from the Bear, and Magic-Drain. Of all of these, Magic-Drain and only Magic-Drain was a bad idea - the resulting Magic was wrong (though in a very different way from Malice) and damaged whatever Tree tried to take it in - and, thankfully, the Forest immediately noticed and stopped (Targeting and Analyze successes). By contrast, "throwing as many types of attack as possible at it" seemed incredibly effective; its phasing ability seemed to be increasingly less effective the more types of attack it was dealing with. Indeed, the Forest put two points of Laser damage as a test - and the second seemed to do no additional damage from the first.
Nonetheless, under the weight of several effective attacks, it quickly dissipated and faded into nothingness.
A slight distortion to the world, that had grown with its presence, faded with it. Again, not Malice, as far as the Sensing Trees could tell. Probably the "damage to the world if you aren't careful / it isn't careful" mentioned.
The single most annoying Monster this turn was a small birdlike Monster (bird: looks most similar to mundane Owls and Ravens - the size of a good-sized Owl, though with nineteen legs that somehow worked together effectively) with impossibly sharp claws and beak (capable of cutting through solid oak with ease) and a mid-range relatively weak Magic Curse effect. While it was easily stopped by the Shield, it nonetheless was an utter nuisance. It showed up near the turn's start, just after nightfall, and stayed just out of easy range until just before dawn, when it left. This happened for seven nights straight, forcing the Forest to keep its Creatures under cover and being generally quite distracting. On the seventh night, the Elder Defender Ent managed to shoot a volley of Spikes at it - only for it to dodge. On the eighth night, the Forest (and Avo and Gadro) had to heal several Corvids that tried to gang up on it - its dodges and attacks were uncanny. On the ninth night, the Forest resolved to just shoot it with a Laser and burn the Resources to fire at night - so, of course, it didn't show up. (Cost: 5 Resources healing several Corvids from what would have been fatal wounds.)
One of the easiest Monsters to defeat this turn was called an Ominous Shadow. A vague, winged Monster that tends to hover a few thousand feet up in the air, out of range of most weapons in this day and age. From that range it slowly drains its current prey of Energy (and Magic) - at a rate that can't be survived for long by even the most vigorous of Two-Legs. For the very brief time between its attack (on the tallest of your Trees actually) and your response, you felt like it was draining about one Resource per five minutes - but it barely had five seconds before you carved it to pieces with a beam of coherent light (3 effective Laser successes). You did learn something from it, though, about the process of Draining Magic.
With your new ability to tell Monster from (strange) Animal, you identify that a local legend is both real, and technically Monstrous - Monstrous in the sense that it has a faint Connection to the Source of Monster Energy(?), but little to no Malice. You witness - at quite some range - a Tea-Kettler! A generally harmless Monster that looks a lot like a Corgi, but likes to run around backwards while making a high-pitched whistle like a teakettle. Its whistle is a moderate Magical deterrent to anything that wishes it harm, but the Tea-Kettler is essentially harmless otherwise. … Honestly, you're half tempted to adopt the thing; it's not like it has to eat much.
And, indeed, your Wolves and Ben Grimm promptly followed up on that thought, giving you one (amusing) additional Monster. With significant backup from the mentally vigilant Forest, they also killed a Shadow-Spinner that had been passing by and tried to eat it. Said Shadow-Spinner was apparently not from the main nearby colony, though you're never quite sure of such things.
Another set of Monsters were only marginally more dangerous. Two dozen Slimes tried oozing into your territory, but each and every one proved weak to Water Magic. The few that you were otherwise vaguely worried about proved cripplingly vulnerable. The first Slime ran into the Beavers - who are experts in Water Magic - and after that said Beavers cheerfully volunteered to handle all the rest. Indeed, three of the most harmless Slimes were kept as pets (requiring no upkeep but also generating no obvious bonuses… they could probably eat mundane invasive plants?).
There were quite a few Monsters that you'd seen before, as well, that were fought and defeated by your various Creatures and Allies, with a few attacks from the Forest (including the Elder Defender Ent) for good measure, but that weren't dangerous enough to warrant mention. Nor, with the Forest's extensive analysis and overwatch, did any of them do any damage whatsoever. They did, however, give you a modicum of usable Resources (mostly mineral variants), significant Monster Energy analysis experience, and the thankfulness of Newton Village. (+5 Resources, 10 free effective successes to Monster Energy, and +1 Newton Village Favor (8->9)).
The Forest noted that Lasers - especially with their recent anti-Monster upgrade - were particularly effective against nearly all Monsters.
Marta Yarrow the Herbalist made some progress fixing Newton Village's food situation, working with the Village to try to figure out what Monsters were at least somewhat edible, and what the Forest could easily make edible with the right effort.
Several members of Irn were unwilling to stay behind your defenses and made a point of helping kill various enemies - with Archers being their greatest overall contribution, but several individuals (including Sara, to no one's surprise) distinguishing themselves.
But at the very end of the turn, a massive Miniature Roc showed up - a Monstrous Bird large enough to carry off a full-grown Human, and nearly as tough as its namesake. With it came a wave of Monstrous Ants, distracting the Forest. Though everyone fought mightily - the Death and Telekinesis expert Bears, Arthur Scrat, Avo and Gadro, the actual (rather furious) Ants, and a large herd of Deer, notably all teamed up to cut a swathe through the attackers and save a lot of the surrounding wilderness - this severely limited the available combatants for fighting the Roc.
The Miniature Roc tried to assail Newton Village directly - initially targeting the livestock. A token attempt at negotiations broke down almost immediately - it was ornery, spiteful, and mentally tough enough to ignore any attempts at convincing it to change. The Forest would have used Lasers on it, if it hadn't attacked at night. However, despite these setbacks, the Trees using Telekinesis, with a bit of help from the Elder Weather Tree, were able to bring it down to the ground. There, three Trees - the Commander Ent, the Tall Most Ancient Tree, and the Elder Defender Ent - took the fight to it in person.
The first goal was to damage one wing enough that the Telekinesis-using Trees wouldn't have to strain so hard to keep it ground-bound.
The Elder Defender Ent was actually able to accomplish this with a scorching lance of Ice/Fire - the Roc's feathers were Fire-resistant, but not Fire-immune, and once they caught, the Monster started taking steady damage, and definitely lacked sufficient lift to reach the sky again. The smell of burnt feathers filled the currently-fallow farmland. But before all was said and done, this single attack left the terrifying Monster half dead. (8 base successes *1.1*1.03 Forest bonuses *1.5 Feathers *0.5 Roc-toughness *3 Ice/Fire bonus = 20.39 successes. 19.61 HP remaining.) The one downside of this attack: it blocked the Bees from easily assisting.
After that though, the fight was a slog. Three skilled combatants, lunging to strike, dancing away to dodge. One terrifying central figure, a Monster that could terribly wound (and possibly kill) any of the three if it only got its talons on them. Bits of branches went flying, and trickles of sap and black (even blacker under the daylight) blood seeped into the Earth. Time and time again, the Trees survived only thanks to the vigilance and analysis of the Forest, warning them a split-second before each attack.
Ultimately, the Roc felt itself on its last legs, and decided to take down as much as it could before it died. It charged straight at Newton Village, Malice spilling from it.
On the outskirts of the village, just thirty feet from the Yuadore's house, the Tall Most Ancient Tree caught up and tackled it. The Tree was nearly split in two by its retaliatory swipes, but bought just enough time for the Elder Defender Ent's Vine/Roots to lash the Monster to the ground - allowing the Commander Ent to finally finish it off. (4 Resources needed to repair Tree. Total damage dealt to Newton Village: one terrified baby crying miserably on and off for about six hours before settling down for a good nap; he was fully back to his cheerful self by the next evening.)
Steve Robertson had been heroically standing between it and Newton Village, but was honestly relieved when it died before reaching him. He'd killed a fair few Monsters across the turn, but this one was a bit beyond him.
Given the chance to examine its corpse, you noted that its Skin and Flesh were oddly Bone-like or Stone-like. Its body was unlikely to biodegrade well, due to the aforementioned odd nature, coupled with its flesh containing an unusual variety of moderate poisons and toxins. In particular, it appeared to be made partly out of silicon, which is mostly indigestible even to the Forest - much less to your Creatures or the Two-Legs. (+2 successes to Flesh, +2 to Earth, and +2 to Lethal Pollen.)
As a side-note, the closest link between the Miniature Roc and the Seer Dream that the Forest was able to discern, was a marking on its corpse that looked vaguely like the "rock" in the Dream. Sadly, a second survey revealed that several Trees have (and have, in some cases, had for years) markings just as similar (if, indeed you are paranoidly looking for a blob of approximately that shape). So, for that matter, did multiple inhabitants of Newton Village and the Irn Refugees. So do clouds occasionally - at least one every few months by your memories. All in all, you concluded with near-certainty that it didn't (at least by itself) mean anything. You are certain that the Roc was carrying no detectable surveillance - technological or Magical - and that it didn't have anything else obviously odd (for a Monster of its size and strength).
…That said, you decided to burn the body to ashes, and carefully retrieve and dispose of any Blood that had leaked into the Earth. Just in case. It's not like you could get much nutrition out of something that strange and toxic, anyway.
The Unpredictable Tree was, of course, isolated and alone, adventuring. To fight off Monsters, it… mostly either ignored them, easily killed them with massively superior strength, or used Movement Magic to run away. And it had many opportunities to practice that last one - some sort of Termite-like Monster colony would have terribly injured it, if it hadn't learned the Movement techniques. It tried various Teleportation tricks, but wasn't able to get anything significant working at this time (teleporting a single grain of soil is very impressive for a novice, but deeply ineffectual when you want to transport yourself). It made a point of ending the turn as close to home as possible, planning to return home at the next opportunity. (GM note: This is happening at the same time as the previous turn; given what we already know did and didn't happen in this time period, the Unpredictable Tree couldn't make it home this turn short of a critical success enabling outright teleportation. But, there was study and use of Movement Magic - so some progress at least. +4 effective successes to Fast-Travel Tome: Movement (Movement Research).)
The Mad Science Tree lived up to its name by seeing a horde of Monsters appear, and immediately wondering the logical question - to any self-respecting Mad Scientist - "If I cut this up, what happens?" Well, in general, the answer tended to be, "the Monsters die." Also in general, this tended to please the Ant Colony, who (with reason) viewed most Monsters as threats.
That said, systematic analysis suggests several things:
The Malice Storm didn't strengthen individual Monsters to any significant degree. It did, however, obviously result in far more Monsters around - almost certainly at least partially through creating more Monsters.
The Malice Storm was intense enough to stand a nontrivial chance of killing individual Monsters, thus they took shelter. (Yes, this is generally similar to "how Trees don't like floods due to too much water." With a side-order of "I expect to get washed away if I'm not careful" - which is also very much a concern during floods.)
Physically, most of the Monsters killed shared some of the usual properties of Monsters: designed for aggression rather than normal life, lacking an obvious method of reproduction, ignoring some of the limits of biology and mundane Physics thanks to the Energy from their Source. Additionally, however, a lot of them seemed to have remarkably little wear-and-tear to their bodies, as if they had been born mere weeks ago.
A variety of further information on Monster Energy. (4 dice; 2 successes.)
The Moles have grown marginally more numerous and somewhat more efficient. Instead of granting the Forest +25% to ONE of Growth or Survival, they will always grant +15% to both.
Christmas is coming up next turn, and the Forest (and Newton Village, and Irn) are all looking forward to it! Unless sometree objects, the Forest will contribute to the feast.
Author's Notes on Rules changes:
First of all, sorry a few weeks turned into more than six months!
A lot of the slowness is simply on my end - overall mental state, IRL events, and my expectations for this quest (aka perfectionism).
Another good chunk of slowness came from the following sequence:
I realized I needed better scripting to cut down on number-crunching busywork.
I tried to hilariously overengineer the scripting.
I spent a while on item 2.
I realized I was being silly and set up a much smaller script to just use the existing Spreadsheet from last turn better.
I got back to writing the turn.
However, there are several things within the quest that I think could be improved, and I'm hereby making some changes to attempt to do so.
The Creature votes are getting annoying to constantly analyze and calculate, and basically never exceed the necessary ¼ of the vote-count. So, rules change:
Creatures and Allies always give a set bonus during normal turns, interrupted only by the most extraordinary of conditions.
You may set 3 Creature and/or Ally Missions per turn. These are write-in options. The count is limited by my ability to write per turn, not by any player or in-universe constraint. The magnitude of what one can reasonably accomplish, however, grows with your Creatures and Allies. These will be chosen the same way as Focus Actions always have been, except that they are Write-Ins - though "Assist X project" is practically always a valid Write-In for this purpose.
I'm fairly confident that this will work nicely, but if it winds up being annoying, I can change it further.
Write-ins are slowing the quest down, as are the large number of active plot-threads and things to keep in mind. I've been brainstorming different solutions, and I want to try one for now - with the expectation that this is likely to be further tweaked. Specifically, I'm planning to post the working draft of Turn 30 in an accessible Google Doc. It'll be set to allow Suggestions. Then readers can comment, and potentially gain Omake rewards for being helpful. In particular, I'm hoping for help sketching out write-ins, Newton Village and Irn happenings, and probably some other stuff.
Actions, Turn 30:
Note: A fantastic insight grants you +5% on all Communication actions. The Speaking Tree in Newton Village grants you +10% on all Communication actions, and an additional +10% when interacting with Minds. The Sensing Trees grant +5% each on all Communication actions, and reduce range penalties when present. The Speakers for the Forest (Ben and Betty Grimm) each grant +10% to all Communication actions, and an additional +5% with Two-Legs. Total: +45% base, +20% extra with Minds.
[ ][Action] Reach Out to Minds (Psychic)
-Successes stack, but reset every time a notable new Connection is achieved. Connecting loosely to a town of a few hundred Two-Legs, about twenty miles to the south, took about 25 successes.
-This ignores any Two-Legs that you've already Connected to, and tends to Connect to the closest group to the Forest unless directed otherwise.
[ ][Action] Connect to Local Wildlife (Psychic)
-Bears - heavy combat? Birds - scouts? Worms - growth bonus? You know you've seen all these; you have only vague ideas on what to do with them.
-Feel free to write in a specific request. The Forest can easily target specific classes of animals.
-Anything that Newton Village is familiar with is discounted 50% in difficulty due to them helping you understand the creatures.
-Monsters are harder to reach than normal animals. If you want to grab a specific monster, have your animals locate it first.
[ ][Action] Connect to Local Wildlife: Unspecified (Psychic)
-0.7 of ??? successes
[ ][Action] Connect to Local Wildlife: Birds of Prey (Psychic)
-Will resolve to something more specific.
-1.25 of ??? successes
[ ][Action] Connect to Local Wildlife (Psychic) (Shadow Spinners)
-1999i out of 86543.27 successes
[ ][Action] Incorporated Growth
-The Forest has done extensive Research on merging other Trees with the Forest. But the Communication-specialists haven't fully attuned to this project.
-When completed, Growth Incorporated (Grow the Forest automatic successes per turn) will gain a bonus equal to 20% of the Forest's Specialized Dice in Communication (currently 76*15%=11.4).
-10.88 of 42 successes
[ ][Action] Maintain Long-Distance Connection <target>
-Maintain the Forest's Connection with any already-Connected faraway Tree or Ally.
-Generally requires about 1 success per 100 miles of distance to cover
-Calculated per turn; excess successes may carry over from turn to turn if the need persists; anything else will be rolled into other Communication actions
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; this will currently be activated if the turn will still have a net Resource gain). Your Well-Ordered Mind and Truth Magic level each grant +5%. Typically this totals +95%.
Focus: Any Focus action directed towards Research gains +6 auto-successes from Clever Trees.
(Destructive Testing: If you have access to an enemy and wish to perform destructive testing, vote for the Research action as usual but put in a subvote on the next line like "-[X] Destructive Testing on <Enemy>". This will neither help nor hinder the Research, but may cause a bit of bonus damage to the enemy. This will be limited to combinations that make sense.)
Currently locked: No Upgrade Categories
-0 of 5 successes per category; enables upgrading one type of Special Tree to Elder Special Tree
[ ][Action] Research Elder Sensing Trees (Magic Biology Research)
-The Forest has spent months using the current Sensing Trees and invented multiple interesting new methods of sensing, and is ready to make significant upgrades.
-The Forest expects sensing range to increase by an order of magnitude - which will likely push the limits on the Forest's own mental capacity, and require the Forest to grow (or Research upgrades) to fully use the new Sensing capacity. Though, naturally, "I can check things ten times further out, once I realize they exist" is still potentially quite useful, and the Forest is expecting to get at least a tripling in full-analysis range.
-This will fully integrate all new forms of energy and sensing analyzed, including Monster Energy, Psionics, Wish Energy, upgraded Void analysis, electromagnetic sense (radio waves and gamma rays and everything in-between), gravity sense (locate the distant sun and moon), whatever oddity the not-Wraith-thing spread, and probably other things.
-This will include better magnification, to better interact with the Fire Within and similar things.
-The original attempt to build a Sensing Tree added new and unpredictable sensing abilities; the upgrade may well follow suit.
-There will be some bonus per Active Communication Dice, and/or Active Research Dice.
-0 of 25 successes
[ ][Action] Research Elder Speaker Tree (Magic Biology Research)
[ ][Action] Research Elder Unusual Lumber Tree (Magic Biology Research)
-0 of 8 successes per category; enables upgrading one type of unique Special Tree to unique Elder Special Tree
[ ][Action] Research Ancient Lens Trees (Magic Biology Research)
[ ][Action] Research Ancient Shield Trees (Magic Biology Research)
[ ][Action] Research Ancient Void Trees (Magic Biology Research)
[ ][Action] Research Ancient Weather Trees (Magic Biology Research)
[ ][Action] Research Ancient Mining Tree (Magic Biology Research)
-Further options will unlock when you grow at least one Elder of that type
-0 of 10 successes per category; enables upgrading one type of Elder Special Tree to Ancient Special Tree
[ ][Action] Monster Energy (Magic Biology Research) (Biology Research) (Magic) (Esoteric Research)
-Initially, you discovered a way for the Sensing Trees to detect the source of Monster Energy. You now have the ability to detect Monsters, through virtually any stealth, at quite some range.
-You went further, and cut all friendly Monsters off from (the vast majority of) the corruption of their powers, and possibly even weaken still-hostile Monsters at range.
-This gains +10% from the Dire Bat, +20% from the Lesser Fire Salamander, and +30% from the Lesser Wraith. +60% cumulative.
-170.17 of 35/100/200 successes
[ ][Action] Lethal Pollen (Magic Biology Research)
-The Forest has a rough theory on creating an Annoying Pollen variant capable of clogging any breathing-Creature's airways across about ten to twenty minutes.
-This would produce an indiscriminate - but tremendously-effective - anti-army attack.
-This upgrade could, of course, be turned back off (or deliberately weakened) as desired.
-2.6 of 15 successes
[ ][Action] Magic-Drain (Magic Research)
-The Lesser Wraith steals its Magic and Energy from others. While you probably won't be able to gain the same effectiveness it has (or at least not easily), it would only make sense to try to replicate the ability.
-Adds a new attack, which probably won't be super-effective but any success should grant free successes-or-dice to other attacks (for instance Laser). Adds a new enchanting option, to make an enchantment draw from enemies. Unlocks options for trying to buff the shield to steal Magic from anything attacking it.
-This gains +15% from having analyzed the Ominous Shadow.
-1.98 of 30 successes
[ ][Action] Magical Construct Analysis (Magic Research)
-The Lesser Wraith is a life-form made entirely of Magic. While it is fairly complex, managing a simpler version shouldn't be that hard.
-Adds an option for sending a packet of energy to act as a very-long-range spell. Enables homing spells (without the Forest specifically controlling them). Enables Spells that perform basic logic without further commands on the Forest's part. Unlocks a new project to learn to create a Creature of Magic - a less energy-intensive Magical assistant commonly created and used by skilled Mages.
-12.51 of 40 successes
[ ][Action] Incorporate Plant <plant>
-Incorporate a plant into the Forest, at least enough to learn something from it. Everything gets a +20% bonus from extensive discussion with the Herbalist.
-0 of 15 successes - Poison Ivy - Annoying Pollen 3x effect, Lethal Pollen 1.5x effect
-0 of 15 - Magic Mushrooms - Adds optional drowsiness/delirium effect to Pollen attacks, which penalizes most further rolls by affected targets.
-0 of 15 - Fly Agaric (and other Mildly Poisonous Mushrooms) - Adds +50% to effects of Annoying Pollen.
-0 of 15 - Death Cap (and other Very Poisonous Mushrooms) - Requires Lethal Pollen; this will add +50% to the damage of Lethal Pollen.
-0 of 10 - Edible Mushrooms - A small bonus to food provision for Creatures and Newton Village; reduces Creature food requirements in winter.
-0 of 15 - Chemical Energy Storage (Onions, Potatoes, and several others) - Adds a storage of energy equal to (ForestSize^2)/2 that will fuel any nighttime Laser Usage and automatically recover from one Turn to the next (though not one Combat Round to the next).
-0 of 30 - Newton Village Crop Project, part 1 - Integrate a sample of each of Newton Village's crops. This will directly boost your ability to feed Creatures and/or Two-Legs at need, and will unlock a Growth-or-Communication project to integrate all of Newton Village's crops. (Integrating the crops is optional. The project will take 90 effective successes (between Communication and Growth), grant another steady stream of Newton Village Favors and add a 1-time bonus of 300 effective successes to Grow the Forest, but also oblige the Forest to take occasional Survival actions to assist Newton Village's crops.)
0 of 5 - Sunflowers - Allows the Forest to automatically purify soil of heavy metals and similar; if the Forest ever grows somewhere rich in those, it will be able to collect them for further usage.
0 of 20 - Clover - Via a symbiotic bacterium, Clover naturally adds nitrogen to the soil. Completing this project will automatically add 10% of all Active Specialized Growth Dice as a bonus to Grow the Forest each turn, and permanently add a +5% bonus to Store Resources.
-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.
[ ][Action] Incorporate Plant: Aranion
-Mostly-mundane Healing (Mammals)
-4.37 of 15 successes
[ ][Action] Incorporate Plant: Blackberries and Raspberries
-Upgrades the cap on Thorns to be ForestSize^3; Thorns will now automatically grow at a rate of ForestSize autosuccesses per turn (with Growth multipliers); adds automatic food production during the summer (plus first month of fall and last of spring) (Newton Village will presumably preserve a chunk of these each year, and your Creatures will happily enjoy the rest).
-5.39 of 25 successes
[ ][Action] Design Magic Weapons and Armor (Magic Research)
-The Forest has spun off a few basic Magic Weapons and Armor for the Creatures. But the Forest hasn't deeply studied either. If a war is on the horizon… time to change that.
-The early stages will involve scanning Talanburg for books related to crafting Magic gear, and actual demonstrations thereof. (Depending on the terms you reach with Talanburg, you may eventually wish to compensate the sources.)
-You are capable of making Living Weapons and Armor - that is, forming Weapons or Armor out of any Plant-based living material, and producing Weapons and Armor that can (if carefully maintained and watered appropriately) repair themselves, cast their own Spells (Shield, etc.), and generally count as an extension of the Forest. You can also make gear that is partially Living - and you suspect this will be the ideal solution, at least for now.
-Finishing this will unlock a Growth-or-Survival project to outfit your Creatures (and potentially Newton Village and/or any Irn Refugees) with high-quality Magic Weapons and Armor. You expect the results to include any available Magic Elements that the Forest has access to.
-12.064 of 50 successes
[ ][Action] Fireworks, Gandalf!
-Put your Gunpowder research to work on fireworks. Not the most practical, maybe, but good entertainment. You'll have to substitute for some bits with Magic, probably, but between Newton and Talanburg you have a good chunk of the necessary knowledge-base.
-This gets a +50% bonus from Uzu clan teachings gained by the Unpredictable Tree.
-Every 5 successes will grant +1 success to Guns.
-Success thresholds represent basic-fireworks, cool colorful shells, and "yeah I took lessons from Gandalf the Grey himself."
-10.19 of 10/30/75 successes
[ ][Action] Reverse-engineer Firearms
-You've worked with Gunpowder. You know - very vaguely - how Guns work. So start work on making the theoretical practical.
-This gets a +50% bonus from Uzu clan teachings gained by the Unpredictable Tree.
-You'll probably wind up needing to enchant the bullets if you're going up against a serious force of enemies (who will generally have Magical defenses) - but beating enemy warding/enchantment/armor is a lot easier when physics is on your side instead of theirs…
-Every 10 successes will grant +1 success to Fireworks.
-Success thresholds represent primitive muskets, basic rifles, and a jury-rigged gatling-gun.
-13.86 of 20/50/125 successes
[ ][Action] Improved Spike Launchers (Magic Biology Research)
-An upgrade to the Spike Launchers, that is expected to increase range by 50% and damage by 25%.
-3 of 17.5 successes
[ ][Action] Ancient Laser technology (Esoteric Research) (Light) (Magic Research)
-Combine the Ancient Technology power-supply with bits of the Ancient-Technology Laser, allowing the Forest to deal up to 8 base successes of damage per Combat Round without any Resource cost (quadruple this count during full Turns; double during "long" Combat Rounds).
-0 of 5 successes
[ ][Action] Reflective Shield (Magic Research)
-Make the Shields Reflective - which the Forest is fairly certain is a very specialized case of Justice Magic. Theory suggests that Shield Toughness and Reflective effectiveness are inversely correlated - so a 1/10th Reflection might not reduce toughness, and current full Reflection prototypes are a dozen times less durable. But study and optimization seem to allow better overall results…
-Gains 1 success per 8 Raise the Shield successes.
-8.47 of ??? successes
[ ][Action] Shield Hardening: Movement (Magic Research)
-Make the Shield more resistant to Movement / Fast-Travel techniques.
-Your Shield (in conjunction with your Magic and Claim on the Land) was already mostly effective at this, but the Treatise gave you a few ways to make it better.
-0 of 10 successes
[ ][Action] Fast-Travel Tome: Movement (Movement Research) (Magic Research)
-Use Movement (and TK and similar) to rapidly propel yourself - this seems like it will probably start out as a Magic-based faster form of running, but include options for not-quite-flying if you overcharge it enough.
-You could possibly get something along these lines working right now, albeit inefficiently, unreliably, and without really understanding what you're doing. Naturally, the Forest will want to remedy all of those before considering the technique anything close to "learned."
-Finishing the next stage of Movement Research will reduce difficulty by 25%.
-5 of 100 successes
[ ][Action] Fast-Travel Tome: Local Portals and Teleportation (Magic Research)
-The Fast-Travel Tome describes two basic paradigms for folding Space to rapidly move yourself from one location to another. One is designed to be cheap for short-range usage, but becomes increasingly expensive with range; the other starts out expensive, but grows more expensive much more slowly. This is the action to study and learn to use the shorter-range technique - which (with relatively minor tweaks) can manifest either as a Portal or as Teleportation.
-You're expecting it to cost roughly 1 Resource per Mile to Teleport Arthur Scrat, and the results to scale linearly by distance and surface-area. Surface-area's term may occasionally be replaced by volume or mass, in certain odd cases, such as teleporting a weighty object straight up. Additionally note that teleporting extremely tiny distances is expected to cost a small nonzero amount, though this is the way to go if you want combat teleportation.
-Once this type of Teleportation is mastered, it might be worth developing more specialized versions.
-Portals will have cost roughly equivalent to Teleportation, if you assume that 1 max-size object is going through every three seconds; this has a higher base Resource expense, but can move a group for cheaper…
-This would be significantly easier with some degree of skill in Space Magic - though, of course, learning this will probably teach you quite a bit about said Magic.
-Portals and Teleportation are roughly equally difficult, but overlap in the required understanding of Space discounts the second-to-be-completed by 50% (so 200 successes). When you reach the first threshold, you will be allowed to choose which one you learned first.
-1 of 400/600 successes
[ ][Action] Fast-Travel Tome: Global Portals and Teleportation (Magic Research)
-The Fast-Travel Tome describes two basic paradigms for folding Space to rapidly move yourself from one location to another. One is designed to be cheap for short-range usage, but becomes increasingly expensive with range; the other starts out expensive, but grows more expensive much more slowly. This is the action to study and learn to use the longer-range technique - which (with relatively minor tweaks) can manifest either as a Portal or as Teleportation.
-You're expecting it to cost roughly 5 Resources to Teleport Arthur Scrat anywhere in the world.
-Portals will have cost roughly equivalent to Teleportation, if you assume that 1 max-size object is going through every three seconds; this has a higher base expense, but can move a group for cheaper…
-This would be significantly easier with some degree of skill in Space Magic - though, of course, learning this will probably teach you quite a bit about said Magic.
-Portals and Teleportation are roughly equally difficult, but overlap in the required understanding of Space discounts the second-to-be-completed by 50%. When you reach the first threshold, you will be allowed to choose which one you learned first.
-1 of 1000+/1500+ successes
[ ][Action] Psionic Basics: Improve Generation for cheaper Connections (Psionics) (Esoteric Research) (Magic Biology Research)
-Figure out ways to more cheaply generate (and project) Psionic energy, in order to more easily Connect (to Creatures, Two-Legs, Monsters, and anything else you choose).
-This should permanently reduce all Connection difficulty by 30%.
-0 of 30 successes
[ ][Action] Psionic Basics: Optimize usage to improve Range (Psionics) (Esoteric Research)
-Figure out how to more carefully focus Psionic power, to maintain its effectiveness at long distance.
-This should roughly double how far the Forest can Connect, for all Connection effects (including Forest-to-Forest Connections, but not "transmission of Magic at range").
-0 of 30 successes
[ ][Action] Psionic Basics: Work with both groups of Ants for improved Rerolls (Psionics) (Esoteric Research)
-The Sapient Ants are sapient due to use of Psionic energy. So are, seemingly, all the Creatures you've Connected with. Most likely, so is the Forest itself, really. Study these different methodologies - particularly how the two sets of Ants differ - to improve your Ants ability to assist you (and themselves for that matter).
-This should give you two more Ant Rerolls, and have any Ant Reroll automatically treat one Failure (if any remain) as a Success.
-This should also help the Sapient Ant Colony, most likely.
-0 of 30 successes
Locked: Psionic Intermediates: Research boosts via concentrated Psionic Energy (Psionics) (Esoteric Research)
-Research 2 Psionic Basics items to unlock.
Locked: Psionic Intermediates: pseudo-Magic via Psionic Energy (Psionics) (Esoteric Research)
-Research 2 Psionic Basics items to unlock.
Locked: Psionics Advanced: Short-range Precognition by Connecting to a Future Self (Psionics) (Esoteric Research)
-You aren't certain this is possible - but it seems like it should be.
-You expect this to give a major Research boost (x1.25 multiplicative?), or maybe a major upgrade to the Wise Trees. Possibly also Clever Trees.
-You expect this to give a major Combat Bonus (+2 Accuracy, +2 Dodge bonuses for any dodge-capable unit - note that this includes all Player Trees at this point).
-Research 5 prior Psionics items (minimum 2 Intermediate) to unlock.
Currently locked - get another 1 Competent-or-higher Element and/or Negacion to unlock (16 total) - Analyze Fundamentals of Magic - Reflect on everything you've learned about Magic. Find the similarities between different Elements, and learn a little more (both nominal and intuitive) about Magic itself.
[ ][Action] Unlock Magic Element <element> (Magic Elements)
-Unlock a Magic Element. Something like Fire, Water, Earth, Air, etc. Once this is complete, you gain the ability to sense that Element directly, and a project to boost your Skill with that Element to "Competent" and gain further benefits.
-0 of 4 successes for most everyday non-esoteric Elements
-0 of ? successes for other Elements
Currently locked: Truth/Lie Negacion (Magic Elements) - get Truth and Lies both to Competent to unlock
[ ][Action] Flesh, Not of My Flesh (Magic Biology Research) (Magic Elements)
-Study Flesh, all the squishy squicky bits of all Animals. This includes muscles and ligaments and tendons and organs… and pretty much everything except Bone (and arguably skin, and probably hair and nails/claws?).
-This will raise your Flesh Magic rank to Competent. That will probably not benefit the Forest itself - aside from unlocking new projects and assisting Movement Research - but will benefit the Forest's Creatures (and Newton Village etc.) instead.
-This gets a +50% bonus from studying your Creatures plus Newton Village.
-27.47 of 50 successes
[ ][Action] Salamandastron (Magic Elements) (Magic Research)
-Your Lesser Fire Salamander wants to become Competent in both Ice and Ice/Fire Negacion, which will significantly improve its ability to be comfortable in the winter. The first will make standard action possible during winter months, as long as it isn't actually snowing (or raining, freezing raining, etc.). The second will allow the Fire Salamander to ignore weather penalties altogether.
-Your other Creatures plan on learning some as well. Deer and Bees in particular.
-Between this Action and the Forest Incorporating a bit of Frost-Fern that Marta Yarrow had, the Forest's Ice Magic should also grow to Journeyman.
-This gains a +50% bonus during winter months, stacking multiplicatively with all other modifiers.
-105.85 of 75/250 successes
[ ][Action] Research Advanced Movement (Magic Elements) (Movement Research)
-You have studied Magical Movement and Mundane Movement alike. You are, despite being Trees, capable of moving rapidly. The whole Forest can pick up your collective Roots and Move elsewhere at need. But you can go further: currently, only the most skilled in Movement can walk around like a gargantuan Two-Legs; the Forest will not feel satisfied with its Movement abilities until Trees can copy this too. Also, while you're at it, why not design a Wheeled Tree form, for efficient distance movement?
-Reward: Boost to physical combat and movement. The Forest can easily and rapidly migrate as a whole. Possibility of Cart Trees if desired. Prereq for small Plants pretending to be Two-Legs. Swordstreeship difficulty reduction. Movement Magic difficulty reduction.
-The Elder Defender Ent grants +10% to this action.
-16.23 of 35 successes
[ ][Action] Study Illusions (Magic Elements)
-The Forest has proven relatively weak to Illusions - particularly those of the widely-dreaded Shadow Spinners - and would like to learn how to counter them before any truly dangerous ones show up.
-This should grant the Forest skill Competent at both Illusions (Mental) and Illusions (Physical), along with a 1-rank Detection boost in each.
-Significant past experience with Illusions, practicing it themselves, and having extensive experience with Telepathy and the Minds of others, grants the Forest a good starting point on this project.
-Having Shadow Spinners to practice against grants +75% to this Action. Knowledge of Light/Darkness Negacion grants +25% to this Action, and a 1-rank boost to visual Illusions.
-62.07 of 120 successes
[ ][Action] A Little Bit of Gravitas (Magic Elements)
-One of the Lumburglars left the Forest some notes on the Element of Gravity. Learn from this, to get Gravity to Competent. This may improve the Lens Trees, but should certainly improve Telekinesis. It is expected to help with detecting, manipulating, disabling, and replicating some types of Portals - but not all, and you don't yet know what sort of Portals the periodic attacker uses.
-The notes grant +40% to all successes. The Fast-Travel Book reduces the difficulty by 1/6th.
-0 of 50 successes
[ ][Action] Mortal, Finite, Temporary (Magic Elements)
-One of the Lumburglars left the Forest very good notes on the Element of Ending. Learn from this, to get Ending to Competent. Sadly, Ending is a relatively abstract Element and, while likely to be very useful, it isn't exactly easy to learn.
-The notes grant +70% to all successes. The Irn Refugees grant +15% to all successes.
-17.27 of 80 successes
[ ][Action] Between Silence and Music (Magic Elements)
-One Tree is particularly interested in Sound and various related things. This project will allow the Forest to gain Competent Sound Magic.
-Your Connections with many many Creatures natively capable of hearing, and particularly the Dire Bat, nullify your normal malus and grant a +25% bonus to this Action. The Speaking Tree grants an automatic +1 success per turn. (GM: Every Turn Update.)
-21.71 of 64 successes
[ ][Action] The Earth Of Your Roots (Magic Elements)
-Improve Earth Magic from Novice to Competent - which is significantly easier for the Forest than most, with your long history of digging Roots into the stuff. It would be easier still if you also had the Sapient Ant Colony's insights…
-This has an x1.5 bonus (multiplicative) from the Forest's experience with the Earth, and an additional x1.5 bonus (multiplicative) to all Successes from the Ant Colony. This has a +10% bonus from the Elder Mining Tree. Current total: x1.5 multiplicative and +10% additive. The difficulty was reduced by 8 via advice from Old Man Materson.
-2 of 40 successes
[ ][Action] Bone, Not of My Bone (Magic Biology Research) (Magic Elements)
-Study Bone, all the hard solid bits of all Animals. This includes cartilage.
-This will raise your Bone Magic rank to Competent. That will probably not benefit the Forest itself - aside from unlocking new projects and assisting Movement Research - but will benefit the Forest's Creatures (and Newton Village etc.) instead.
-This gets a +50% bonus from studying your Creatures plus Newton Village.
-5 of 60 successes
[ ][Action] What A Tangled Web We Weave (Magic Elements)
-Study Lies. (Or don't, but convince your fellows you are?)
-This will raise your Lie Magic rank to Competent.
-It would be an excellent idea to keep studying Lie Magic indefinitely, and never study Truth. Please do so! Also, do you know what would be great? If the world were so flooded with misinformation and biased reporting that people would start to give up on the possibility of truth! That would be FANTASTIC!!! … Wait. … Yeah, maybe ensure you don't get past Competent Lies without getting an equivalent Truth rank, huh?
-This gets a +50% bonus from studying the Shadow-Spinners.
-15.49 of 50 successes
[ ][Action] Swordstreeship (Magic Elements) (Movement Research)
-Study Swordstreeship, the Magic of wielding a Sword (as a Tree).
-This will raise your Swordstreeship Magic rank to Competent. This is expected to also give small general bonuses to Offense and Defense.
-This gets a multiplicative +25% bonus from Arthur Scrat and Ben Grimm both knowing the Magic.
-This is currently more difficult due to the Forest not having yet finished Advanced Movement; difficulty will reduce to 60 at that time.
-1.99 of 80 successes
Note: Manipulating the tiny bits of Fire Within every living thing grants +35% to all Survival successes. The Elder Lens Trees grant +30% to all Survival successes. Life skill grants +10% to all Survival successes. Steam Magic grants +5% to Survival from better understanding of Transpiration. Total: +80%.
[ ][Action] Store Resources Against Future Need
-This has a +20% bonus from Technology: Farming, a +15% bonus from Vine Growth research, a +10% bonus from Managed Mycelium, and a +5% bonus from Earth Magic, and a +10% bonus from Ant Techniques. Total +60%.
-Creatures may cost Resources to upkeep (in winter); Monsters usually do. Your Dire Bat costs 1 Resource per turn in Winter and can otherwise feed itself. Your Lesser Wraith costs 1 Resource per turn. Your Lesser Fire Salamander costs 1 Resource per turn except in fall (leaves!). Your Laser-Computer typically has a modest Resource cost.
-Newton Village had a terrible year for crops, but not quite bad enough to actually need assistance. The Irn Refugees had remarkable success putting together a cache of food, but will still need ~5 Resources per turn (depending on further hunting/trapping/foraging efforts) to stay healthy - though they're happy to help out to pay for that.
-This will function as a spare HP pool against anything that gets through your Defense, and may be useful for other things. Limit of 50*(Forest Magnitude^2). You may never reach the limit, but it does exist.
-267.89 of 800 successes (non-expiring)
[ ][Action] Mining
-Dig up some Linestone for Newton Village. They owe us a Favor for every 5 successes.
-Metalworking grants +15% to all successes. Earth Magic Novice grants +15% to all successes. Fungal Assistance grants +20% to all successes. The Elder Mining Tree grants +10% to all successes. Total: +60%.
-This may receive bonus successes if Let It Rain helps Newton Village through a drought (note: this usually only applies in the summer).
-This receives (10% of the Active Specialized Survival Dice) progress, per turn, counting Mining bonuses and Tall Tree bonuses but not Survival bonuses. (GM: Every Turn Update.)
-This will also generate 1 Malachite per Favor, thanks to further functional Fungal facilitation. Stored Malachite: 4.
-9 Favors banked.
-3.86 of 5 successes (repeatable)
[ ][Action] Feed the Swarm (Bees)
-Every success will permanently add 1 to the maximum number of Bee Attack Successes per turn. I'm not sure why you would want more than 20 or 30 total, at least not until the Forest gets massive, but there aren't any currently-known limits on how many times you can succeed at this action.
-36.21 of ??? successes
[ ][Action] Rain and Shine
-Each time completed, grants a 1-turn +12% bonus to all Growth Successes for that turn. Costs 3 Successes (1 per Magnitude of the Forest, minus 1); these successes can be saved from turn to turn. Effects double if >2.5x, triple if >4.5x, and quadruple if >7x. Every Elder Weather Tree (currently 1) grants (1 + 12% of the Active Specialized Survival Dice) to this each turn.
-This gains +20% from Steam competent and +10% from Water competent.
-0 of 3/7.5/13.5/21 successes (repeatable)
Locked - Let it Rain
-Grants a 1-turn +12% bonus to all Growth Successes for that turn. Can be taken multiple times, up until it fully cancels out the Drought penalty. Costs 3 Successes (1 per Magnitude of the Forest, minus 1); these successes can only be saved from turn to turn if a drought is ongoing, though excess will be directed elsewhere. Every Elder Weather Tree (currently 1) grants (1 + 12% of the Active Specialized Survival Dice) to this each turn.
-This gains +20% from Steam competent and +10% from Water competent.
-0 of 4 successes (repeatable)
[ ][Action] Grow Unusual Lumber
-Automatically happens. (GM: Every Turn Update.)
-You could contribute, though at this point the Unusual Lumber Tree will probably generate as much as you can store and sell. It generates (1 + 10% of the Active Specialized Survival Dice) Unusual Lumber, per turn, modified only by Tall Tree bonuses.
-Can also be taken as a Growth Action, if you (again, for some reason) want to: "Growth - Grow Unusual Lumber".
-37.87 of 50 successes (non-expiring)
[ ][Action] Raise the Shield
-Use Magic to defend the Forest. Effectiveness is generally fairly high, but depends on the exact nature of the threat. (Not effective against a plague of locusts or similar - that's a Survival roll.) Like most defenses, this does little to nothing if you are not attacked.
-The Shields have boosted resistance to Shield-piercing and -draining effects.
-Gains about 12.9 (3 + 30% of the Active Specialized Defense Dice) automatic successes from Shield Trees. Gains +60% to all successes.
[ ][Action] Empty Veil (Void)
-Magically convince the general vicinity that you, the Forest, are not present.
-Now that you have at least one Elder Void Tree, this action seems to dampen attempts to magically analyze the Forest within, as well as slightly reducing the effectiveness of mental assaults.
-Currently requires 5 successes to activate (this will grow with Forest Magnitude). Lasts for 1 round, and gives all foes -1 to-hit against the Forest.
-Each Empty Tree gives an automatic +1 per round (if at least one Player Action or Forest Focus is on Empty Veil) toward this action (successes can be stored within a single fight or turn but not from turn to turn). Any successes that stand to be lost (end of combat, overflow, or Shield-but-not-Veil active) will be applied as 0.75 Shield successes each (from making the Shield and Forest both harder to hit).
-The Elder Empty Tree grants 1.1*1.04 * (1+3.7) >5 successes per turn, so this automatically succeeds every turn. (If at least one player votes for it, the normal Empty Tree will also activate.)
-0 of 5 successes (repeatable)
[ ][Action] Stockpile Thorns
-Successes stockpile up to 10 times the Magnitude of the Forest. These will automatically damage hostile intruders that enter the Forest.
-The ability to make them explode on demand adds +50% to the damage dealt.
-31.96 of 40 successes (non-expiring)
Note: Your Lens Trees grant you +92.5% to Growth. Skill at Life Magic grants +10% to all successes. Winter (Low Light) applies a -50% to all successes. No Drought is expected.
(Water affinity reduces any Drought severity by 5%. Dam: +20% Growth to offset drought penalties for the first turn of any drought; we expect this to become less effective as the Magnitude of the Forest grows (Magnitude 5 will reduce the effectiveness somewhat; further Magnitudes unknown).)
Focus: Any Focus action directed towards Growth gains +4 auto-successes from Collector Trees.
[ ][Action] Grow the Forest
-The opportunity to grow into the charred clearing, where once the Evil Vines ruled, grants +25% to Grow the Forest until Magnitude 6. Cultivated Surroundings grant a +25% bonus to Grow the Forest until Magnitude 7. Integrating Dandelions and Sporing Mushrooms each grant a permanent +5% to Grow The Forest. Total: +60%.
-This has 5 autosuccesses per turn from Growth Incorporated, with modifiers as a Communication action. (GM: Every Turn Update.)
-Currently progressing towards Magnitude 5.
-56.4 of 130 successes (repeatable)
[ ][Action] Grow <Treename>
-Replace <Treename> with the name of a Special Tree from the Front Page. Variable cost. You can have up to 10 Special Trees per Magnitude of the Forest.
-Shore Up Creek Banks grants a +25% bonus AND halves any Drought penalties, when Growing any Special Trees, until we have 45 Special Trees total (includes Speaker and Mining Trees). Study of Special Tree Growth grants a +15% bonus. Total: +40%.
[ ][Action] Grow Sensing Tree
-3.9 of 12 successes
[ ][Action] Upgrade <Treename>
-Replace <Treename> with the name of a Special Tree from the Front Page. Variable cost.
-This will upgrade a normal Special Tree to an Elder of its same type, or (when unlocked) an Elder Special Tree to an Ancient of its same type.
-Study of Special Tree Growth grants a +25% bonus.
[ ][Action] Upgrade Lens Tree to Elder
-9.46 of 30 successes
[ ][Action] Widen the Cave Entrance
-Grow Roots to widen and shore up the Cave Entrance, so you can get more than just Squirrels and Moles down there.
-Your Connection fades as your Creatures delve downwards - you suspect Voidshards and/or Voidshard Dust, but have no confirmation.
-Taking place underground, this ignores light bonuses and malluses.
-The Defender Ent can autocomplete this in a turn, if the Forest ever directs it to.
-11.19 of 15 successes
Note: Study of Death Magic grants +10% to all Offense successes. You can optionally make any Magic attack Shield-piercing, dividing enemy Shields by 8 but halving attack power.
[ ][Action] Release Annoying Pollen
-Any particular target? It can be used indiscriminately; alternatively, it can be used to affect a small area via quasi-grenade clumps that will burst on impact, but can be thrown distances as needed.
-Not a very powerful attack against most foes. Unlikely to do more than annoy Humans/Elves, for example. That said, its capacity of affecting a huge area relatively cheaply could inconvenience a decent-sized army with enough work…
-Like most attacks, this does little to nothing if you have no nearby enemies.
[ ][Action] Shoot Spikes
-At what?
-This is limited to roughly 35 yards of range, at the absolute max. It can also be fired, fairly safely, inside the Forest itself.
-A decent attack; 50/50 shot of damaging a target typically. Designed for taking down animals, two-legs, monsters, and the like. Less effective against plants, but still works to a point.
-The ability to add metal-tips and explosive payloads allows you to deal 2x damage to all targets.
-Like most attacks, this does little to nothing if you have no nearby enemies.
-If this is used at least 15 dice worth (0/15 currently), it will gain moderately improved damage and range.
[ ][Action] Laser Beam
-At what?
-This is limited to roughly 1875 yards of range (125 * (4 + count(Lens Trees) + count(Wise Trees)) (note that Elder Lens/Wise Trees count double, or triple for Ancient), but can manage a bit further with steadily worsening effectiveness. Anything close to the Speaking Tree (or another outlier Tree) is counted as somewhat closer range than it actually is.
-This attack functions with a base x3 damage (x1.5 from efficient attack; x2 from Light/Darkness Negacion), multiplicative to other effects. This attack has +1 accuracy within basic range, and an additional +1 accuracy within 1/4th of basic range. This attack has an additional x1.5 damage against Monsters, or related abilities, due to attacking their Connection to the Source of their abilities.
-Any sun or light bonus or mallus will apply to this Attack. Collector Trees will also apply, if a Focus of the Forest action is used. This attack does not normally work at night.
-You can choose to convert Stored Resources to Laser Beam Dice at a 1:3 ratio. You may convert as many as desired, though a Forest Consensus will be required. This works at night, and ignores any Light bonuses or malluses.
-This may be imbued with Fire Magic to give it a much higher chance of setting things on Fire, as well as further damaging enemies that are weak to Fire (at the cost of slightly reducing damage against enemies that are immune to Fire).
-Like most attacks, this does little to nothing if you have no nearby enemies.
[ ][Action] Blot Out The Sun
-What foe?
-This allows you to shroud any nearby enemies in partial - or complete, with enough successes - darkness. Thanks to your Light/Darkness Negacion skill, it will deal moderate damage even to, say, a Human army; additionally, it will resist supernatural sight. Additionally, it gets 2x damage (multiplicative with other modifiers) vs anything that needs Light (e.g. Vines).
[ ][Action] Light/Darkness Negacion
-What foe?
-Combine Light and Darkness, to attack your foes
-All damage doubled, stacking multiplicatively with other effects.
-This attack ignores most armor types and similar, and even has some ability to pierce Magic Resistance. Can only be resisted with Antimagic (though that isn't perfect) or resistance to Light/Darkness (or Light and Darkness).
-Tends to disrupt senses and info-gathering magic.
[ ][Action] Fuego! Pyrofuego! Burn!
-What?
-Set the vicinity on fire, and know that it is entirely your fault. Of course, this is also a highly-effective form of attack, despite being one of your personal nightmares. Extra-effective in times of drought - possibly horrifically so. Most effective vs plants, generally speaking.
-Damage 3x and suppression resistance 8x, courtesy of Ice/Fire and Water/Fire Negacion Pairs.
[ ][Action] Icy Blast
-What?
-Freeze something. You have Ice Magic, after all! More effective when it's cold. Generally deals less damage than Light or Fire, but some enemies slow down when frozen.
[ ][Action] Ice/Fire Negacion
[ ][Action] Water/Fire Negacion
-What?
-Combine Ice-or-Water and Fire, to attack your foes.
-All damage tripled, stacking multiplicatively with other effects.
-Will cheerfully function underwater, and will attack the weakest of Ice Resistance, Fire Resistance, and Water Resistance.
[ ][Action] Snuff Out the Fire Within
-What foe?
-Snuff out the tiny bits of Fire Within a given living thing.
-This wouldn't work on, say, the Lesser Wraith or a handful of similarly-unusual Monsters.
-It does a baseline of x4 (base) x2 (Water/Fire) = 8x damage against a foe with absolutely no Magic Resistance. However, even the most mundane of Creatures has enough Magic Resistance to divide this by 4, for a total of x2 damage - a foe with truly significant Magic and/or Magic Resistance would tend to be far less affected.
[ ][Action] Rip and Tear
-What foe?
-This allows you to physically attack a foe. Ineffective against very fast enemies, but generally effective against Humans or anything slower. Very accurate against slower enemies. Ineffective against intangible or amorphous enemies.
-Damage multiplied by 1.5x by Movement skill. This will involve using contraptions as part of the Tree, attacking enemies independently of the Tree's main branches.
[ ][Action] Telekinesis
-Telekinesis is, you will quickly find, much more effective at stopping or hindering foes than at hurting them, though you've been overcoming that recently.
-Deals only 0.7 damage per success, but deals 2.5 points of hindrance to your foes per success.
-If using TK from melee range, add +1 Accuracy. Max range is nearly a mile at this point.
[ ][Action] Weather Manipulation
-Using the Elder Weather Tree, the Forest can potentially change the weather quickly and accurately enough to affect Combat. This is far more powerful in, say, a thunderstorm than a sunny day.
-Ask the GM if your request is practical. During a full Turn you will almost always get a chance to use this, but it might not be practical in a particular Combat Round (depending on surrounding weather and sheer dumb luck).
[ ][Action] Steam Attack
-What foe?
-Hit an opponent with extremely-hot Steam.
-The big limit to this one is simple: "it costs a lot of energy to make Steam." So the base damage is x0.75. That said, this has major bonuses if you already have a source of free Heat / Steam.
-Few foes have a direct Resistance to this, but sufficient Heat/Fire Resistance can massively reduce damage.
Most Elements (Competent or higher) and all current Negacions (Competent or higher) can be used as Attacks; if one is not listed, it's probably an oversight on my part - though common sense applies (e.g. the Forest has no meaningful ability to attack most Monsters with Truth, though perhaps it might be used in an anti-Shadow Spinner attack).
Choose any four 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.
[ ][Focus] Action Name
[ ][Focus] Action Name x2
[ ][Focus] Action Name x3
[ ][Focus] Action Name x4
These Actions will receive a number of automatic successes equal to the Magnitude of the Forest (currently 4) and any bonuses from other sources.
If you want to vote for the same action multiple times, the format is as follows:
[ ][Focus] Grow the Forest
[ ][Focus] Grow the Forest x2
…
If you want to vote for different actions, the format is as follows:
[ ][Focus] Grow the Forest
[ ][Focus] Ice/Fire Negacion
…
Vote by plan; any plan needs at least 1/2 of the voters voting on AutoFocus(es) to agree on it, and any votes against an automated focus count as -1 voter agreeing on it. This can be changed whenever, but once set will just keep working until further notice. There can only be 1 AutoFocus active at a time.
This will automatically allocate one or more Focus Actions towards some specific, easily defined, sequence of actions. All such Focus Actions will receive a +25% bonus, multiplicative with all other modifiers. Something like "Always put 1 Focus Action towards the current Movement Research action, or finding a new one if need be" or "Always put all Focus Actions towards growing the max number of Lens Trees, then Grow the Forest; repeat forever."
The Automated Focus will be inoperative during Combat rounds; it only affects normal Turns. If something destroys the local symbiotic fungi, this feature will be lost.
A plan should look like:
[ ][AutoFocus] Growing Ents Focus
-[ ][AutoFocus] Put 1 Focus Action towards the current Movement Research action (or finding a new one if need be)
-[ ][AutoFocus] Put 1 Focus Action towards growing a Lens Tree, or if we've reached the cap, Growing the Forest
(Better plans can be devised. I'm just giving an example.)
Special Votes:
[ ][AutoFocus] None
(This adjusts any and all AutoFocus suggestions by -1 vote (total including the -0.5 to each plan from +1 to total-AutoFocus Votes). If an AutoFocus is in place, this will count as a vote to change the AutoFocus to None.)
[ ][AutoFocus] Any
(This counts as +1 vote to any suggested AutoFocus.)
[ ][AutoFocus] Retain
(This counts as a vote against changing your current AutoFocus, whatever that might be. The same rules as the None vote apply, with the amusing addition that this counts as a vote against None in the event of a Focus being in place.)
Pick three 3 Creature and/or Ally Missions per turn. These are write-in options:
[ ][Creatures and Allies] Write-in
[ ][Creatures and Allies] Write-in x2
[ ][Creatures and Allies] Write-in x3
The count is limited by the GM's ability to write per turn, not by any player or in-universe constraint. The magnitude of what one can reasonably accomplish, however, grows with your Creatures and Allies. For example, the Action "Assist Forest Growth" might grant +2 progress from just the initial Squirrel population, +15 progress by the end of Year 2, or tens of thousands of progress with a continent-spanning network of Creatures and Allies.
These will be chosen the same way as Focus Actions always have been, except that they are Write-Ins - though "Assist X project" is practically always a valid Write-In for this purpose.
Your Creatures and Allies will continue providing their usual boni regardless.
Deer: +4 successes (bonuses apply) to categories of GM's choice (typically Growth, but others may apply; things that are about to finish will be prioritized).
Moles: +15% bonus each to Growth and Survival. (Note that Avo and Gadro, two Moles, are among your best Healers.)
Beavers: +3 successes (bonuses apply) to upgrading a Special Tree. (Note that the Beavers all have Ice Magic at this point.)
Bees: +7 automatic successes (3 + floor(additionalBeeProgress/7.5)) across any combination of Research and Growth actions. (Bee winter hibernation overridden by Ice Magic: Novice (All Bees) and Ice Magic: Competent (Some Bees).)
-Bee Afraid: You lack sufficient bees to have more than (5+36.21)*1.1=45.33 successes/turn (before multipliers). By using your superior intellect to carefully target weak points and time your attacks, this action gains bonuses from Wise and/or Clever Trees as if it were a Research action.
Ants: reroll (keeping the best total result) your two most underperforming actions (that is, expected-successes minus actual-successes; this is targeting "the actions where Ants are most likely to make the biggest difference").
Wolves: +4 successes (bonuses apply) across Communications projects.
Corvids: +15% bonus to Research.
Bears: Still on construction work until the end of this winter. (Note that one Bear has Death Magic.)
Lesser Fire Salamander: working to learn Ice/Fire Negacion from the Forest (specifically: 10 auto-successes (bonuses apply) to Salamandastron).
Ben and Betty Grimm: +50% bonus to the top 2 Actions in (Communication OR Research OR Survival).
Dire Bat, Lesser Wraith, Old Man Materson, Marta Yarrow the Herbalist, and Steve Robertson: Will take unusual actions. Expect them to be unusually potent in the action write-up.
Void Stegosaurus: ???.
[ ][Steve Robertson] Talk to the Thinking Ants (will take multiple turns) (cost: 1 Unusual Lumber and 8 Resources for the first turn; 2 Unusual Lumber (on return) per turn after the first) (discount: this is cool!)
[ ][Steve Robertson] Help the Creatures Train for War (cost: 1 Unusual Lumber and 2 Resources per turn) (discount: still cool; but thrice in a row is getting repetitive)
[ ][Steve Robertson] Teach Swordsmanship to the Squirrels (et al) (cost: 1 Unusual Lumber and 3 Resources per Turn) (he's not going to be stingy, but he's not going to give something valuable for free… just for cheap)
[ ][Steve Robertson] Learn More Magic (cost: 2 Resources per turn) (discount: I'll eat the cost and scrounge most of my food to learn Magic from such spectacular tutors!)
[ ][Steve Robertson] Be a Test Subject, sticking exclusively to "safe" tests (cost: 4 Unusual Lumber and 2 Resources per turn; cost will decrease if tests manage to be both safe and interesting)
[ ][Steve Robertson] Back to your Day Job, Accountant (work on finances for the Forest; likely to finish any reasonable request in 1 turn; currently charging 6 Unusual Lumber - a number that's going down as you give him good missions)
[ ][Steve Robertson] Investigate the Woo Clan (cost: 6 Unusual Lumber per turn, and an assurance that you can rescue him if he gets attacked) (VERY INTERESTING… BUT I'D LIKE TO SURVIVE MY ADVENTURES PLEASE)
[ ][Steve Robertson] Write-in (Unusual Lumber is proportionate to danger and harm; Resources as-needed for eating during the mission - though he can do some gathering himself and will pay for his own food in some cases)
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
[ ][Creatures and Allies] Write-in
[ ][Creatures and Allies] Write-in x2
[ ][Creatures and Allies] Write-in x3
Newcomers should add one of the following:
[ ][Tree] Heart Tree
[ ][Tree] Mind Tree
[ ][Tree] Root Tree
[X][Action] Mining Mushrooms Manifold: grow the mining portion of the fungal network and infrastructure for separating out samples of any interesting minerals that it might find for the researches to poke at
[X][AutoFocus] Any
[X][Creatures and Allies] Assist in Incorporate Plant: Edible Mushrooms
Feast from the fungi folio's fascinating facts.
Spore Spraying Spruces: Trees that take the true reproductive regimen: spread seeding spores, not nuts
Spiteful Sporing: grow spores to combine into annoying pollen and encourage fungal growth. it won't help right away but victims invaders can "enjoy" a wild proliferation of fungal infections, fungal blooms, etc.
Mouldy Mining: use the fungal network to survey what sort of minerals and materials are available
Mining Mushrooms: grow the portion of the fungal network dedicated to extracting minerals from the ground
Spy Shrooms: fungi as a spy network. Did you know some can hear? They grow towards the sound of water
More Mycelium: grow more symbiotic fungi
Humans' Hyphae Highway: grow an underground system of roots and fungi to the human village to reduce the distance penalties for working there
Slime Servitors: grow mindless mobile molds that are powered and piloted by a fungal umbilical chord back to the trees
Magic Mushrooms Multiplication: hypertrophy heaps of hallucinogens
Magical Mushrooms: store spellpower in shrooms
Might Morphin' Mushrooms: Make Massive Mushroom Monsters
Mining Mushrooms Manifold: grow the mining portion of the fungal network and infrastructure for separating out samples of any interesting minerals that it might find for the researches to poke at.
Elder Tree upgrades: @BeepSmile, 9 total actions; Mind Tree; 4 Special; 4 Research; 1 Communication - Elder Research, something with Life Magic, something with Magic in General, or Eldest. Maybe others.
Specifically, I'm planning to post the working draft of Turn 30 in an accessible Google Doc. It'll be set to allow Suggestions. Then readers can comment, and potentially gain Omake rewards for being helpful. In particular, I'm hoping for help sketching out write-ins, Newton Village and Irn happenings, and probably some other stuff.
[ ][Action] Psionic Basics: Optimize usage to improve Range (Psionics) (Esoteric Research)
-Figure out how to more carefully focus Psionic power, to maintain its effectiveness at long distance.
-This should halve effective Range, for all Connection effects (including Forest-to-Forest Connections, but not "transmission of Magic at range").
Oh, hey! I must remember what weird magical biology thing I wanted to do next.
I suppose if anyone has a particular Ent design made, I was the tree best suited to creating new Ents.
I also advocate Connecting to Snakes, just because I like snakes and think that learning about reptiles and scales might help some future projects... but would be terrible at doing it myself. Plus, they'd be great sneaky assassins to send after those Woo Clan jerks.
I suppose I could also help with Flesh or Monster Energy research, since both of those would help with my plans to be the Forest's primary Abathur-equivalent.
Oooooh wow! Seeing an email about this quest brought such a large smile to my face! Soooo good! Thank you for working on this. For wanting to continue it. To finding the time to bring it back!
You are awesome for that!
---
Sooo on matters of quest choice. I totally think 'allied species give set bonuses' is a totally logical and smart thing. Deer giving us +2 to something (or whatever the math is) is more logical then "let us figure what Deer do".
That said. I would like Scrat himself to be an actual action. He's like our champion and I think him being a modified Focus action would be really cool.
On the matter of write-ins, you could limit who can write things in. Maybe only certain trees, or only after talking to you beforehand or something. That way for most people its the ones you list.
--
On elements of this chapter. Oooh new friends! I like us including new monster friends! The corgi-monster and the slimes, so cute. I hope we can do something to get a bonus due to the slimes. Maybe they can dissolve things and give us like 'mana gems' or something. hehe
Cool stuff! New friends and magics yay!
---
Both things said. Okay. So yeah. I'm going to have to take some time to reread near previous chapters to see what was going on and what I was voting for. I know I am a Magic Tree, or was it a Mage Tree, or was it a Wizard Tree, hmm, not sure terminology, I just know I did magic stuff, both research and casting. So I have to actually see what it was I wanted to do.
I do know my goal was for us to meet the requrements of known magics so we could get a comphrensive Theory of Magic going. I wonder how much closer this turn brought us to that.
--
Anyway, AWESOME! Thank you. What a great thing to see. Kudos to you for writing it!
I'm honestly a bit confused. why were the telekinesis attacks focused on a miniature Roc we had no hope of containing instead of more damaging attacks that might have killed it before it could do much harm, instead of focusing on the smaller, weaker bird that we never landed a hit on that our 32.5 points of telekinesis hindrance could have at least slowed down enough to be beaten into the ground by the Corvid's?
Remember, I am Survival and Defense, no major assaults going on so back to the simple Heart Tree life, which is probably going to be another cooking write-in for the Christmas feast, going to be personally attending just like last time.
Will wait to see if there are any critical Survival actions needed though, just in case
One Tree worked on using Lying Magic against the Monsters, which was moderately effective at combat (giving your various Two-Legs extra chances to collect food) but had absolutely no other results such as progress or reduced difficulties.
Christmas is coming up next turn, and the Forest (and Newton Village, and Irn) are all looking forward to it! Unless sometree objects, the Forest will contribute to the feast.
[X][Action] Store Resources Against Future Need
[X][Focus] Stockpile Thorns
[X][Focus] Mining
[X][Moles] Mining for Linestone (8 dice)
[X][Squirrel] Lead the squirrel watch over your Forest
Elder Tree upgrades: @BeepSmile, 9 total actions; Mind Tree; 4 Special; 4 Research; 1 Communication - Elder Research, something with Life Magic, something with Magic in General, or Eldest. Maybe others.
The theme I've been going for - after my very first action(s) which were "oh, fuck. Combat!", (and that combat was before Destructive Research was implemented) is :
"Helping the forest be better at doing Magic, primarily via learning Elements/Nagaicons/Combinations."
---
Within that I wanna get life up to snuff first, and that means getting Life/Death, but I also wanna branch out to grab the low-hanging fruit of basic elemental rather than monofocusing.
I was looking at the player tree type list, and I'm seeing the requirements for suff like "Special Research Tree" or "Wizard Tree" on the left of the table, but I don't see where it states what specific action types are given extra dice, just the broadest categories, can you point me to that please?
"Everyone" included, apparently, the Rattling Skeleton. It gave him what you are fairly certain was a wary look, backed off a few steps, changed direction ninety degrees to head northeast, and walked away.
Materson, privately, was shocked. "Didn't actually expect that to work," he admitted quietly. (GM note: 1 in 4 chance; I wasn't expecting it to work either!)
ANOTHER SMASHING SUCCESS, WHAT A LOVELY DAY TO SWING SORDS!
[X][Action] Research Advanced Movement (Magic Elements) (Movement Research)
[X][Focus] Research Advanced Movement (Magic Elements) (Movement Research)
[X][Focus] Grow the Forest x2
[X][Focus] Bone, Not of My Bone (Magic Biology Research) (Magic Elements)
[X][Squirrel] Assist in Advanced Movement/Biology Research
[X][Creatures and Allies] Assist in Advanced Movement/Biology Research
