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[chaotick21]

I like the idea of beetle shocktroops, but I think that we should also try and get into another form of magic other than Lunacy, maybe Juxtematics or Awkening.

[Powder Miner]

By the way, I figure we can revise the turtlebotes next turn -- I want to see how they interact with the captains as they are now, but after that (and for everyone else who ISN'T a turtle captain), the turtles certainly need revision.

Research: Croakadiers
The toads that thrive in rivers and oases in the desert of Alikai are poisonous -- their poison can kill moderately-sized animals, and is known for hallucinogenic effects. With the power of Sacred Lunacy, the venom becomes something entirely more brutal, however. The poison glands on the skin of the toads are mutated into large poison sacs inside of the body, giving the toads something of a bloated appearance -- and the poison they now produce is both extremely corrosive and explosive, detonating viciously in a spray of corrosive toxin if the toad is violently killed or if it elects to explode itself.

Now, of course, you don't want your grenades deciding that it would be kind of nice to explode when you're just lying around in camp, so the explosive toads are only given to specifically mutated grenadiers. These desert-toad-people have full, rather glorious throat sacs, and the signature long, sticky tongues, using the former for carrying signals to detonate to toads far away (they are strongly advised to take the time to train individual signals into the toads), and the latter to retrieve the little blighters if they get loose. Their ability to communicate with the toads is highly boosted, probably going beyond the point of what "mundanely" should be communicated to the small animals. What this means is that Croakadiers have two options for how to use their toads; they can throw them REALLY GOD DAMNED HARD and have them just explode violently upon reaching the target, or they can provide the toads with surprisingly (well, relatively) complex instructions before letting them onto the ground. There's also some level of resistance to the toxin of the toads... there's only so much you can do against exploding corrosive toxins, but much of the poison aspect of it should be mitigated.

As far as equipment goes, Croakadiers have two particularly notable pieces of equipment: the first is a shortbow, much in the manner of what the Desert Clansfolk use (Croakadiers almost certainly want to avoid being in any sort of close combat, and they should probably also be not be clustering with other soldiers for that matter), and the other one is a bandolier, each pouch of the bandolier open on one side but for a buckled strap and containing a toad.

I expect the first go at this to be really fucking ugly AND difficult, but that's what the Research action is for -- I can see just what aspects of the design to refine and what to remove. (Plus, Research drops difficulty.)

Edit: I also don't strongly want to dabble into a lot of other magic as of yet; we've just done a whole lot of setup for Lunacy, and I'm wanting to work on some pretty difficult shit, so we should have our hands full with exploiting the Lunacy prepwork & refining what comes out of it for a while.

[Happerry]

I think we either need to switch out the Longbows the Turtle Captains have for throwing spears or write something about how the longbows are waterproof, because normally speaking bows don't have a good time when you stick them underwater for a while, and neither do their bowstrings.

Also, should we bring the Scaleriders idea back sometime? I like the idea of giant snake cavalry.

[Doomblade187]

Powder suggested that we do giant kangaroo shock troops, for the kicks. I don't know if I want to codify marsupials into our desert, but we could also do jackrabbits for a similar effect - super strong kicks.

I would love the Scaleriders, though I am somewhat unsure if they will fully handle the undead animals.

[Powder Miner]

lame, kangaroos are cool
I'll make 'em laminated composite bows, though, those are period appropriate, we have composite bows already, and they do well with moisture.

[Happerry]

Powder suggested that we do giant kangaroo shock troops, for the kicks. I don't know if I want to codify marsupials into our desert, but we could also do jackrabbits for a similar effect - super strong kicks.

I would love the Scaleriders, though I am somewhat unsure if they will fully handle the undead animals.

They've got more then just undead animals though, they've got those boar knights and normal infantry as well, both of which could be happened to by either a spitting poison kind of snake or a constrictor kind of snake. I do agree that giant undead animals will best be responded to by something else though, but we shouldn't over-focus on the undead hippos.

I also want to poke at snakes to lead up to giant sea serpents later on.

For jackrabbits, I'd support a lancer and mace cavalry corp based on them. Get them some decent armor and they could just cannonball through enemy lines potentially. Also my understanding is that blunt impacts that shatter bone and leave the body broken are probably a good response to undead, so they might be the anti-undead hippo counter we want? Or one of them, we can always do shock trooper Kangaroos as well after all.

Edit : Also we probably should do some thinking on that contest, given we don't have a single entry yet as far as I'm aware.

[Powder Miner]

I think that either our capital city or Taratan could work as a place for that, just describing the dizzying array of animal folks (and, if we choose Taratan) turtles. Could probably go in pretty far with fairly whimsical description for that.

[Doomblade187]

Also, just saying, but: giant jackrabbit polo.

[The Adversary]

lame, kangaroos are cool
I'll make 'em laminated composite bows, though, those are period appropriate, we have composite bows already, and they do well with moisture.

<.< You, uh, you know that's not the part of the bow that does badly with moisture, right?

[Doomblade187]

's okay, we'll just use fishbone arrow shafts.

Edit: Scaleriders Repost.

Scaleriders (V2)

The forward scouts of our nation, the Scaleriders slither across the desert on the backs of the giant (non-venomous) snakes that are often found in the desert valleys of our home. Extended breeding efforts have borne fruit, and the result is spear welding soldiers riding the backs of giant snakes across the desert. The uniform for riders is a back-strapped spear and wooden shield, with tightly fitting, full body white clothing. A small set of leather straps gives the rider a harness to hold onto and attach a small pack to. The snake is guided by a set of bells attached to the head, which the rider rings to guide the snake. The snakes are meant to be ridden into combat, and are trained to whip the enemy with sand, as well as wrap around to subdue them. The Scaleriders also serve as couriers for important government business.

[Powder Miner]

lame, kangaroos are cool
I'll make 'em laminated composite bows, though, those are period appropriate, we have composite bows already, and they do well with moisture.

<.< You, uh, you know that's not the part of the bow that does badly with moisture, right?

I did a little reading and saw that laminated composite bows saw historical usage in Turkey and India specifically for the purpose of dealing with moisture; I can’t really tell you anything beyond that. I suppose that they weren’t exactly submerging those, though.

[The Adversary]

lame, kangaroos are cool
I'll make 'em laminated composite bows, though, those are period appropriate, we have composite bows already, and they do well with moisture.

<.< You, uh, you know that's not the part of the bow that does badly with moisture, right?

I did a little reading and saw that laminated composite bows saw historical usage in Turkey and India specifically for the purpose of dealing with moisture; I can’t really tell you anything beyond that. I suppose that they weren’t exactly submerging those, though.

Right, so the big issue with old world bows is that you can't get their strings wet.  The bow staves will degrade with moisture over time, particularly high humidity, but that's not as big an issue unless you're going for a more hardcore level of historical accuracy. In india and turkey, strings were kept in waxed cases prior to use and strung when needed, both to reduce stress to the bow and to the string.

That, however, is assuming you're not trying to do this while on the back of a giant turtle that's busily swimming through a choppy sea. In that level of spray your bowstring is getting wet basically as soon as it comes out of the case.

[Powder Miner]

I just elected to edit to give ‘em spears anyway, since the idea is that the Turtle Captains should be able to submerge with the turtles and making a fully, completely waterproof bow is more work than I want to try to do with that design.

[Doomblade187]

Killer Rabbits Polo Team

The arid lands that make up the desert of Alikai are home to a few different species of mammals. Among these are jackrabbits, known for their powerful kick and (relatively) long lifespan. Using lunacy to enhance the aspects of size, strength, courage, and obedience, we have created a cavalry force to be feared. The rabbit mounts are combat trained, and can use their kicks to smash through enemy lines. Their riders wield long, easy to swing warhammers or light lances, depending on the situation. The riders wear gambeson and scale for armor, with a well padded helm and stiff leather boots. They're mounted on the rabbits by leather saddles, and are actually locked in via quick release stirrup locks. Space for a pack, the hammer, and some carrots is included on the saddle. Many of the riders are rabbit-mutated, though all may apply with sufficient training.

[TricMagic]

Arachne

Arachne. Humans with the extra eyes from a spider, and the lower half being a spider's body. Said body is moderately armored through their chiten, and their eight legs have small long hairs performing the purpose of a sensory system much like normal spiders. Like spiders, Arachne also molt their old shell, and this serves as healing for them if their legs ever get cut off.

Arachne also happen to be very fast over long distances, due to both their size and the advantage of a well-centered body made for such movements. This generally allows them to perform cavalry unit roles, but more on that later.

Arachne come in three general types, depending on ancestry of the changed spidergirl. Small, Medium, and Large. Small Arachne are exactly that, being around 5-6 feet long from front to back. They are most certainly the lightest among Arachne, well suited to using their spider biology, mouth and web-spinneret, to produce on the spot tools and simple bridges.. The tools in question is likely the most impressive as it is the human side that gives rise to the wrapping flail used to entangle an enemy as one passes.

Medium Arachne have one main difference from the small Arachne, the amount of thread they can produce, and being 16 to 20 feet long, and rather tall. Unlike their smaller cousins, they tend to be the best of two worlds, the small Arachne's ability to create traps, and the large Arachne's physical prowess and chiten armor.

Large Arachne can't produce web, but are 30 feet long and have a very large humanoid body. Their chiten armor is undoubtablely the strongest, and they serve as warriors of the battlefield, wielding lances, hammers, and cavalry swords with ease, as their larger body also comes with greatly increased strength due to more muscle mass.

All three can climb walls to some degree, though the smaller ones are undoubtedly the quickest. The small and medium Arachne can work together to form web rope bridges strong as steel, and the small Arachne provide their web to produce bowstrings of amazing quality that also happen to be waterproof. These bows are the main ranged weapon of the Arachne, with each carrying one for combat purposes, taking the role of horse archers in practice. The small and medium Arachne also prefer two swords compared to their large cousins for close combat.


One might ask how something could come of the mishmash, let alone three. But the simple answer is that each spidergirl that becomes an Arachne is a bit different. Someone's lineage may be a small species of spider, some species are large, and some species may be of middling size. The basic traits behind them, however, remain the same, that of a spider's.


Arachne tend to cover themselves in their own silk and make homes out of sticky thread, spiderthread, and the world around them. They also have 6 extra eyes on their heads, rather like those of a spider, each pair being a different size, to go with the normal pair.(which often also are spider-eyes) Mentally, they tend to see those they target as prey, and store their prey for later, and have no trouble eating them while they are still alive, wrapping them up and carry them away. They are also very playful, in a teasing manner, so those who date one had best remember that sometimes they forget their own strength in those limbs. They're also natural weavers, as befits their spider lineage.

Another note is their use of woven spidersilk gambosens when going into combat to protect their squishy bits, as chitin on the upper humanoid body isn't guaranteed to occur.


Hello spidergirls. Most useful for giving access to spidersilk as a material. Designs using spidersilk would have a fruit of the land cost though, since one needs nutrients and materials to produce it.

Needless to say, something that is strong as steel and waterproof.


Water Pump[to fix the aqueduct bug]

The Water Pump is a Lunacy-modified plant which pulls the water through it's own circulation system. It's quick to grow in wet conditions, easy to coax, climbs walls, and is constantly pulling water up through it's root systems to exit it's head. It feeds off minerals in the water, and is resistant to that spore poison we identified earlier. We actually used the modified lichen as the base for it, so it's a bit difficult to call it a traditional plant. Very useful for automating the whole water transport though so long as it's kept trimmed.

Turtle Captains: (1) TricMagic
Arachne(1) TricMagic
Water Pump(1) TricMagic