EVOLUTION ATTEMPTS: Endothermy- 4, Rotting-wood-eater cleaner caste- 1+1=2, Bacteria in sacs digesting methane- 4, Silk clothing- 5+2, Hive clothing- 6+2, Silk constructs- 3, Tree-digging/kicking- 1
Mountain slicers have evolved to be able to survive in higher, cooler, moister climates. It continues to have herds in the sky, but it can now generate its own heat within its body, to deal with cold mornings. Its feet have specialised for climbing around the sky balloons, and are now blunter and with sticky pads. To keep heat in, it constructs silken sleeping bags and surrounds its hive with another layer of silk. They keep the sleeping bag on throughout the day, although they regularly tear wing holes and foot holes in the fabric. Their guts contain bacteria that break down methane and provide a long enough dose of oxygen for the slicer to get to safer ground if they find themselves waking up in a puff of gas.
The guidelings and hives are about the same as normal, if slightly more robust to deal with the cooler climate.
Water-living species of leggedgrinders are beginning to return to the land. The forest is even denser nowadays.
GENERATION 23:
Mountain slicer
A mottled purple-and-green bird-like animal that hunts above the swampforest. They use their fanged tentacles to attack and kill their prey. They mostly fly. They grow up to 40 centimetres long, and their offspring are called tentaclets. They use two claws on their back to snatch prey from the ground or air.
SOCIAL: They work together to chase or ambush prey. They put their hives together, so whole swarms of flying guidelets can protect them.
SENSES: It has a sense of touch that lets it figure out if it's touching food, and an extremely good sense of smell/taste. Symbiotic guidelings help it find live prey. A keen electrical sense lets it find creatures that are close to it, and it can feel vibrations from moving creatures. Its hearing is superb, and it can echolocate.
REPRODUCTION: It 'kisses' a mate it approves of, passing male cells to it, and growths grow inside of the womb. Tentaclets follow their mother until they can be dropped off at their hive. They eat mucus that the hive creates and, when they are large enough, find a suitable guideling to make a nest with.
MOVEMENT: They fly by using their front wings to glide and their back wings as engines. They have two legs on their underside.
EATING: It impales small animals and digests them by drawing them into the guts. They are able to prey on fast swimmers, and they use venom. Most of their food is from grazing worms and the dense vegetation. Other prey include land-dwelling spearfaced worms (slitherers) and other flappers. We can use a precise jet of neurotoxin, laced with silica shards (to pierce the skin), to kill prey.
PREDATION: We are mostly unpredated.
COMPETITION: We are currently the dominant predator of our environment.
ENVIRONMENT: A massive cool swampy forest, with torrential downpour and balloons filling the sky. There are clouds and fog everywhere, and many rivers.
HOME TERRITORY: Montane forest
NEARBY ENVIRONMENTS: Swamp forest, mud flats, tropical swamp forest
ENVIRONMENTAL ALERT- EXTINCTION EVENT
DICE ROLL- 5, MASS EXTINCTION, WORLDWIDE CRISIS
A combination of events change the world completely. Firstly, the forest becomes dense enough for a proper explosion. A lightning strike causes the sky balloons to explode, and the flaming cinders fall upon the methane below, igniting that as well. The burning gases release vast amounts of water vapour and CO2 into the atmosphere, creating a greenhouse effect. This melts the ice caps of the newly-started ice age, as well as releasing the vapour, flooding coastal forests. This is compounded by the release of more methane from under the ocean, causing even more global warming. By the time the events are finished, 70% of species have gone extinct, the swamps are now mere forests and rolling bubblegrass praries cover much of the landscape.
SURVIVAL ROLL- 1
We teeter ever so closely to extinction. The drying landscape meant our hives didn't get enough water to survive, and the last remnants of our symbiotic trio are lost to the sands of time. We are no longer supreme rulers of our environment. The hives are gone. The guide caste is gone. The warrior caste is gone. The cattle caste is gone. The radio caste is gone. We are alone, and at the mercy of the whims of fate. If we fail to do well in the next few million years, our own extinction is inevitable too. With the loss of our guidelets, we have to work hard to feed our tentaclets and protect them, and the loss of their sight means our own lack of eyes has hit us harder than ever. Other slicers are able to see far into the distance, but we only get a blur of shapes at the distance they are preparing to attack. We are in trouble.
POST-EXTINCTION GENERATION 22:
Loner slicer
A mottled purple-and-green bird-like animal that hunts above the swampforest. They use their fanged tentacles to attack and kill their prey. They mostly fly. They grow up to 40 centimetres long, and their offspring are called tentaclets. They use two claws on their back to snatch prey from the ground or air.
SOCIAL: They live alone, as they can no longer support themselves in a group.
SENSES: It has a sense of touch that lets it figure out if it's touching food, and an extremely good sense of smell/taste. A keen electrical sense lets it find creatures that are close to it, and it can feel vibrations from moving creatures. Its hearing is superb, and it can echolocate. However, this is still inferior to the eagle-eyed vision of other slicers.
REPRODUCTION: It 'kisses' a mate it approves of, passing male cells to it, and growths grow inside of the womb. Tentaclets follow their mother and are fed by them. They eat regurgitated food from the mother's guts, and when they are old enough, they leave.
MOVEMENT: They fly by using their front wings to glide and their back wings as engines. They have two legs on their underside.
EATING: It impales small animals and digests them by drawing them into the guts. They are able to prey on most animals smaller than them, and they use venom. Most of their food is from grazing worms and the dense vegetation. Other prey include land-dwelling spearfaced worms (slitherers) and other flappers, as well as leggedgrinders. We can use a precise jet of neurotoxin, laced with silica shards (to pierce the skin), to kill prey.
PREDATION: We are fed on by many predators, despite our toxicity.
COMPETITION: Many predators our size are taking over.
ENVIRONMENT: A moist rainforest, with scarce balloons over the sky and many purple-ish trees.
CURRENT ENVIRONMENT: Montane forest
NEARBY ENVIRONMENTS: Bubblegrass prarie, mudflats, taiga, open ocean
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Topic: Competition- An evolutionary suggestion game (Read 105800 times)