Turtles of Taratan
[Common]
[Beasts: 3, Minerals: 1, Auspicious Hours: 4]
The Turtles of Taratan are somewhat troubled as vessels. Roughly circular and approximately 20-30ft in diameter, the turtles are sufficient to carry small groups of infantry and supplied from place to place. However, they’re also rather austere vessels. The only fittings given to the turtles is an outer cage of steel to keep soldiers and supplies in during rough weather, and these leaves those on board with several striking problems. There’s no roof. The vagaries of the elements are free to ravage those on board, as is fire from enemy arches. The frame at the sides of the boat is just that, a frame, with water free to rush in over the sides of the turtle’s shell. With no internal storage space available (as the floor is a shell) it’s extraordinarily difficult to keep anything dry, and soldiers are frequently reduced to lashing their belongings to the sides of the frame while huddling at the highest point of the turtle’s shell, holding cloth over their heads to protect them from the sun while simultaneously praying it doesn’t rain. The other issues with the Taratan turtle is that while sea-turtles are marvelously quick and graceful, they’re typically marvelously quick and graceful under the water. For some strange reason, the crew of the turtles have a deeply vested interest in breathing, and thus the pilots of the vessels are instructed to keep the beasts from diving at all costs. This also makes life frustrating for the Taratan turtles, as they have to spend literally all of their time at the surface, far from their usual environment. On the good side, the ‘ship’ itself is marvelously tough, and even after all its crew is dead, the creature’s hard shell will likely enable it to survive and return to its home port.
[Minor Difficulty, d6: 6]
[Moderate Bug, Feature]
One issue in particular with the way that turtles swim at the surface of the water is that isn’t, particularly, a graceful motion when they need to move quickly. There’s a lot of but wiggling and side clawing that throws up water. This is going to make it very difficult to shoot off a turtle that is either in panic or being coaxed into rapid combat maneuvers, but, silver lining, it’s going to make it difficult for enemy ranged units to aim at the crew as well. The crew will also be miserably soaked, but that isn’t new.
[Minor Bug, None (Cluster)]
The increase in size for the great Turtles has done nothing to alleviate their historic fears, even of creatures that they’re now much larger than. This does, occasionally, result in the vessel immobilizing itself or attempting to speed off at great haste when injured. Pilots are able to talk down the worst of these effects, but there’s still a small chance for these vessels to panic, briefly rendering them useless, during combat.
[Minor Bug, Hidden. (Turtle Fears)]
The Turtles of Taratan are still, at heart, beasts. They’re big beasts, gentle, and noble, but they’re still very, very dumb. Unlike a normal ship which you can put on a heading and just keep steady, the pilots of Taratan have to constantly make minor course correction to keep their beasts from chasing fish, heading towards sunny looking rocks, looking after a funny smell, etc. While this has very limited impact in most circumstances, it means that every Turtle needs at least two pilots to rotate shifts, and losing a pilot is very serious unless the rest of the crew can work out a way to communicate with the turtle.
[Lucky Break!]
Heritage Ritual: Passage of Adulthood
[Ubiquitous]
[Auspicious Hours: 1]
The Second Heritage Ritual, timed for the height of puberty, is a rough experience. It’s an essential transformative period, but it’s bad enough to try and figure out exactly what you want to do with these sudden squishy hot feelings you have for other people when half of you wants to go play nudist camp doctor behind a sand dune and the other half wants to extend your throat pouch fully, croon sonorously, and then spooge in a bowl so your sweetheart can later fertilize their eggs in the shallow waters of the oasis. Dating is rough for Alikai teenagers. Under no circumstances should you attempt to sandstorm-watch and chill with a young redheaded spidergirl. Shit gets real.
After the awkward years are done and the transformations have been mastered, the practical effects are strikingly useful, and lead to a civilization which is supported by what amounts to a hybrid vigor of a people that is disparate in form but united in mind.
[Minor Difficulty, d6: 3]
[Moderate Bug, Cluster]
Increasing the power of the old king’s curse is not without its risks, and the rituals that bring one closer to the power of the beast heritage also herald from moonlight. The stress from the heritage rituals are modest, but not insignificant, and on rare occasions they can compound horrifyingly -- resulting madness, death, and suffering for all involved. (Your mortal costs for Sacred Lunacy transformations may be increased, additionally likely for more complex transformations)
Yelling at the Akibara
[Bug Weights, 2, Feature Weight 1: Roll: 6. Bugfix Success, No Features]
While incorporating a few ‘motivational speakers’ into the ranks of Akibara is simple enough and nets excellent returns on investment in getting the soldiers to overcome the basic rules of the desert that they were drilled on as youths, attempting to consolidate squads encounters surprisingly difficulties. It’s not disagreement per se, but Akibara are traditionally drawn from villages and kept in rough village units. This has, previously, enabled them to bear the emblems of their homes as squad symbols, and there is some, very mild, resistance to changing this longstanding tradition by breaking up the military units by transformation type.
It is the 3rd Design, Revision, and Research Phase
REMEMBER: Your contest entry is due at the end of this phase.
Author
Topic: Alikai Team Thread - FR20 [~5 players] (Read 15023 times)