Exploration Phase III: Discoveries In The Deep
With the desire to travel once more causing an itch within the tribe, the Wardens of the Lake saw a long-forgotten family once more step forward to lay out the plans for an expedition
(m1895 +1I). The goal was to explore the western territories within the mountain ring and observe the land immediately beyond it.
A large group set out following a series of torchbowls and glowropes through their previous home and continued northwest into
15-L. Once more it was Stonebreakers who led the way, increasing accessibility for the rest of the expedition while lighting the way with additional torchbowls and a few handy lignite runners. A network of caverns continued to wind through the region with very little that stood out to the wandering Wardens, at least initially. The same granite lined the walls that the tribe had seen everywhere else, and it was only through dumb luck that one of the Stonebreakers set up a lignite torchbowl near a new
thing - a yellow stone clumped up within the granite that glimmered and sparkled under the torchbowl's light. This
gold stone was certainly a curiosity for the tribe, but they were even
more curious about a tunnel that terminated in a sudden straight drop. This pit, which could comfortably fit a dozen people standing shoulder-to-shoulder, also cut upwards to reveal the sky. Turbulent air kicked up in the tunnels branching off the tube at various points, which either fed or was fed by the twisting movement of the Mourning Dew dancing up and down the tunnel simultaneously. Stonebreakers set about cutting a path winding to the surface while Attuned readied themselves to explore deeper with the aid of glowropes. The brief trip to the surface proved to be worth the immense effort, as for some incredible reason the air coming through the tunnel carried the outside world with it. Grasses and hardy flowers had gained a foothold in the rocky wasteland, with a wildflower called stinkweed proving to be the dominant invader. As above, so below, as the Attuned also made quite a discovery in the depths.
They weren't actually that deep, and the larger tunnel narrowed at the bottom where it curved horizontally. At this point the path is narrow enough that the Mourning Dew fills it in it's entirety, and this initially gave pause to the Attuned meant to travel onward, as the entire time they'd been hearing laughter of all types - though all equally unsettling - coming from the Dew. Or was it crying? Either way, they opted to have a group of normal tribesfolk crawl through in their stead. When they finally emerged after an incredibly painful journey the tribesfolk couldn't be blamed for believing they had gotten turned around: the immediate surface was nothing but rock and stone. As they had emerged at night, it took a little bit of exploration to find the first greenery beneath their feet and realize that they had indeed left the cover of the mountains. While out there in the dark they also spotted something ominous: the light of great fires in the distance.
Only a handful of the tunnel crawlers managed to make the trip back, as one of them wound up succumbing to the laughter/crying and went mad. The madman was put down after turning on his fellow Wardens, scratching, punching, and biting however he could within the cramped fog-blinding corridor. The swirl in the fog seemed to intensify almost immediately upon the attacker's death, and the survivors wanted nothing more than to get out of there as quickly as they possibly could, emerging among the rest of the expedition covered in all sorts of bodily excretions.
Little else of note was uncovered by the explorers, so they continued along their planned route south into
15-M. The route the Stonebreakers carved was winding out of necessity, although they also accidentally managed to cross over their own paths and retread ground a few times too. Travel through the tunnels was fairly difficult, especially as they turned from the hard, dull stone the tribe is used to into a blackish glassy stone with excruciatingly sharp edges. The explorers managed to traverse the obsidian and over the course of their survey of the area had found a large chamber of magma. Within the middle of this lake of fire was an island that even from the opposite shores the Wardens could tell held Mourning Dew. Once again some members of the tribe began to work on ways to maneuver themselves and cross the molten stone (only one person had to get close enough to combust to learn
that lesson). While a number of ideas were floated, the tribe figured they'd cut steps into the obsidian and hang ropes from the glimmering ceiling to traverse over the magma and drop onto the island. There was still some rope and fiber available to make more, but some of the expedition had found a large collection of very strong hair-like fibers coating some nearby tunnels and harvested it for additional materials.
The braiding of this new fibrous material was coming along very well and the first footholds smoothed out when one of the tribesfolk felt something travel up their leg. They slapped it on reflex and raised their palm to the light, illuminating a pea-sized corpse with eight twitching legs. Then they felt another. And another. Before the tribesman could kill those he felt a sudden hot, painful piercing sensation on his right thigh. More of the tribesfolk had begun to swat off their own octopodal offenders, with some of these aggressive arachnids being as large as a thumb. Then a fist. Then a head. Repulsive eyeless beasts with oversized fangs and a sickly off-white chitin fell upon the explorers in an excessively rapid and toxic manner, with very few of the exploring group managing to get away. Those unfortunate enough to be bitten quickly fell to vomiting and paralysis, although what happened to them afterward is anyone's guess.
But wait, there's more!
Those few that escaped were still a greater number than finally managed to return. The spider swarm was
not seemingly content with just the meat they had gathered by the magma pool, and had decided to follow. With no eyes or noses to be disturbed by the torchbowls, the fleeing tribals found themselves beset upon repeatedly by spiders who continued to track down this suddenly available and abundant food source. The spiders didn't follow the tribe all the way home, but they
are on the move, and the expectation is that they will eventually make the trip.
Meanwhile, the Lake-Attuned took the opportunity to send forth a small troupe of Soul-Scouts to examine
15-N. This was an easy enough task to accomplish, especially as the spirits, once freed from the lake, were drawn to the area. Many curiously straight tunnels (not that the spirits needed to follow them) followed a gradual decline that opened up into an absolutely
enormous cavern, and were unremarkable other than the Inky Mushrooms growing from the occasional damp crack. The chamber itself was lit from the center with the faintest (for surface eyes anyway) white-blue glow, where a large circular portion of the room stood separate from the chamber thanks to some trench. Upon further inspection, which the spirits were very keen on doing, they realized this trench was filled with a constantly bubbling and churning mass of Mourning Dew. Something gave the scouts a sense of unease, which isn't the easiest task with the undead, and so they opted not to investigate into the Dew here any further. (GM NOTE: This is just an excuse to let you actually define what's going on here with a later action)
The platform at the center of the room was easily reached thanks to the nature of locomotion in the afterlife, but held nothing of note. The spirits then made their way upwards and checked out their surroundings on the surface. They found nothing of use to the tribe here, too. What they
did see as they crested the top of the mountain ring and looked out with their ghastly senses was a collection of small homes (and not tents!) further beyond the West Wall. With the region sufficiently checked out, the information pipeline from the spirits to the Lake-Attuned and finally to the Attuned and tribe at large did it's work and spread the news.
RESOURCES IDENTIFIED15-LGranite Cavities (Stone x2)
Glimmering Gold Vein (Stone? x2)
Surface Stinkweed Patch (Food x2+Chemical)
Sanguine Tunnel (Mourning Dew x3)15-MObsidian Layer (Stone x3)
Ceiling Diamond Clusters (Stone? x1)
Magma Mourning Dew (Mourning Dew x2)
Troglodytic Spider Horde (!!)15-NGranite Tubes (Stone x2)
Inky Mushroom Growths (Food+Chemical)
The Churn (Mourning Dew x6)TERRAIN IDENTIFIED14-KHilly Grassland
Pando Forest
Grassland14-LMountain Range
Hilly Grassland
Pando Forest14-MMountain Range
Hilly Grassland
Pando Forest14-NMountain Range
Hilly GrasslandUNKNOWN TRIBE14-OPeat Bog15-KMountain Range
Hilly Grassland
Pando ForestUNKNOWN TRIBE15-OMountain Range
Hilly Grassland16-KMountain Range
Hilly Grassland----
It is now the Expansion Phase! This phase is for expanding in the sense of proposing technology to build up your military, society, industry, or culture in addition to the expected meaning of expansion by declaring an "attack" on a zone within or along your borders if you have an identified threat you wish to eliminate. As a Nomadic tribe you may choose to move or settle during this phase as the phase's Action.
Thanks to some of the tribe's luck being less good than others, an imminent dangerous threat of spiders is on your doorstep! They will work as follows:
The Spiders will migrate at the start of every turn, moving one zone closer to wherever the tribe may be located. Various actions can slow or stop this approach, temporarily or on a more permanent basis.
The Spiders reaching the tribe will
not be a game over, but it will make life
really fucking suck for the tribe.
Life will also
really fucking suck for anyone working tiles outside of the tribe center itself if they happen to cross the spiders.
For the duration of this Age, all proposals related to Mourning Dew reroll until they result in a 1, 2, 8, 9, or 10. All proposals that do not use or otherwise revolve around Mourning Dew will be rerolled until they result in a 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7.
Advanced Cave Adaptation: A slowly growing percentage of the population has never seen the surface - or the sky. The tribe has greatly heightened senses, although sensitive eyes make the surface less than desirable during the day, and the lack of a ceiling overhead might be extremely unsettling at any time of day.
Subterranean Migrations: Your people can find underground routes through any Land tile.
Stone Tools: Provides basic tools for basic tasks. Requires access to Stone.
Stonebreakers: Your tribe is intimately familiar with various properties of stone, and have a chance to identify an additional stone (or "stone") based resource when exploring or settling a new area. The digging out, smoothing, and marking of tunnels for regular usage also makes all forms of travel easier. Scouts also benefit from the ability to dig around/through obstacles. Exploration Range +1. Exploitation Range extends +1 beyond borders. Only applicable to underground actions.
Attuned: Members of the tribe who are more sensitive to Mourning Dew. Requires access to Mourning Dew.
-Lake-Attuned: An Attuned who has more specifically attuned to The Whispering Lake. Lake-Attuned allow the tribe to make requests of and utilize the spirits of the dead passing through the Lake without much complication. Only one Lake-Attuned exists at a time, acting as both messenger and spirit guide until they die of old age. Lake-Attuned choose which Attuned will inherit the position based on how closely their lifestyle aligns with The Whispering Lake's denizens - generally the more unremarkable the lifestyle, the better the fit. The tribe sees the Lake-Attuned as a sort of absentee leader who speaks to them through the Attuned. Requires access to The Whispering Lake.
Lake Spirits: Spirits from The Whispering Lake are fairly passive as they likely were in life, and eagerly await their turn to pass into the afterlife (whatever that may be). Lake Spirits are relatively simple, and work best on simple or fairly easy tasks (such as exploration). Their passivity can erode rapidly if overworked, especially without a Lake-Attuned in the tribe. There is no direct cost for Lake Spirits, as any upkeep is reflected in the discoveries that utilize them.
-Soul-Scouts: Spirits from the Whispering Lake who have answered the tribe's call to aid in exploration. They provide very accurate data to the tribe through the Lake-Attuned. Soul-Scouts allow Exploration of a tile neighboring a previously Explored tile independent of any other Exploration action, and have a chance to discover additional resources. While Lake-Attuned is properly funded, Soul-Scouts have no downside. However, if access to The Whispering Lake is lost, Soul-Scouts will provide areas they Explore with the (Lethal Spirits) modifier and hamper any actions in the area unless Lake-Attuned is properly refunded or the spirits are otherwise dealt with. Requires 1 Mourning Dew Upkeep.
Terrorforming: A very early attempt at agricultural advancement using Mourning Dew sourced from The Misty Chamber. Terrorformed plants will "flee" toward the Misty Chamber with each rapidly breeding generation until they arrive at the Chamber. Rapid breeding results in unstable mutations, with greater distances covered resulting in drastically dramatic and usually outright worse alterations. Terrorformed plants will emit a glow and pass on the strong fear and memories of death held within the Dew (usually when ingested, although other means of transference are possible). The Misty Chamber seems to provide sustenance for Terrorformed plants. Requires access to The Misty Chamber, and 1 Mourning Dew for upkeep.
Warm Fires: Fires using a dedicated fuel resource. While it does not necessarily provide any major direct bonuses or maluses, Warm Fires act as a solid foundational development for further advancements. Requires access to a Fuel resource. Replaced Early Firemaking.
-Lignite Torchbowls: Bowls carved into walls by Stonebreakers made to house lignite for fires. Provides sufficient light and keeps away cave creatures unaccustomed to the light, smoke, or smell. Underground areas with hostile creatures are less likely to have negative events from human interference. Requires 1 Lignite Resource for Upkeep.
Strong Glowropemaking: A strong, faintly glowing rope made from Glowing White Lichen. Provides low light with low maintenance in addition to the standard uses of a sturdy rope. Requires access to Glowing White Lichen, and 1 Textile for upkeep. Replaced Primitive Ropemaking.
Cave Homes: The most basic form of housing - caves carved out by nature ages ago.
Key: Resource: Available/Total
Food: 2/2
Stone: 3/4 (-1 Lignite Torchbowls)
Textile: 1/2 (-1 Strong Glowrope)
Fuel: 1/2 (-1 Lignite Torchbowls)
Mourning Dew: 1/3 (-1 Soul-Scouts; -1 Terrorforming)
14-K: Hilly Grassland, Pando Forest, Grassland
14-L: Mountain Range, Hilly Grassland, Pando Forest
14-M: Mountain Range, Hilly Grassland, Pando Forest
14-N: UNKNOWN TRIBE Mountain Range, Hilly Grassland
14-O: Peat Bog
15-K: UNKNOWN TRIBE Mountain Range, Hilly Grassland, Pando Forest
15-L: Rocky Wasteland, Mountain Range, Hilly Grassland (Explored)
15-M: Rocky Wasteland, Mountain Range (Explored) SPIDER HORDE
15-N: Rocky Wasteland, Mountain Range, Hilly Grassland (Explored)
15-O: Mountain Range, Hilly Grassland
16-K: Mountain Range, Hilly Grassland
16-L: Rocky Wasteland, Mountain Range
16-M: Rocky Wasteland (Explored)
16-N: Rocky Wasteland, Mountain Range, Interconnected Caverns (Explored)
16-O: Mountain Range, Hilly Grassland
17-L: Rocky Wasteland, Mountain Range
17-M: Rocky Wasteland, Mountain Range, Underground Lake (Explored)
17-N: TRIBAL INTERSECTION Rocky Wasteland, Mountain Range, Hilly Grassland, The Tunnel Pass (Explored)
17-O: Mountain Range, Hilly Grassland, Deciduous Forest, Mountain-Fed Streams
18-M: Mountain Range, Hilly Grassland
18-N: Mountain Range, Hilly Grassland
18-O: UNKNOWN TRIBE Mountain Range, Hilly Grassland, Deciduous Forest, Lake-Fed Streams
Key: Identified, Identified but Inaccessible or Useless, Exploited
15-L: Food x2 (Surface Stinkweed Patch), Stone x4 (Granite Cavities x2, Glimmering Gold Vein x2), Chemical x1 (Surface Stinkweed Patch), Mourning Dew x3 (Sanguine Tunnel)
15-M: Stone x3 (Obsidian Layer x2, Ceiling Diamond Clusters x1), Mourning Dew x2 (Magma Mourning Dew), Troglodytic Spider Horde (!!)
15-N: Food x1 (Inky Mushroom Growths), Stone x2 (Granite Tubes), Chemical x1 (Inky Mushroom Growths, Mourning Dew x6 (The Churn)
16-M: Food x1 (Cave Crayfish), Stone x5 (Surface Granite x2, Granite Stalactites, Granite Stalagmites, Native Silver Vein), Mourning Dew x3 (The Depths)
16-N: Food x1 (Glowing Mushroom Clusters), Stone x3 (Granite Caverns x2, Casserite Veins), Mourning Dew x2 (Mourning Dew Pool), ?? (Poisonous Centipede Colonies)
17-M: Food x2 (Hearty Anasazi Bean Poles), Clay x1 (Clay Soil Deposits), Mourning Dew x5 (The Whispering Lake), ?? (Mud-caked Wasp Nests), ?? (Gray Bat Swarm)
17-N: Food x2 (Haircap Moss Growths x2), Stone x4 (Granite Mountains x2, Lignite Beds x2 [SP]), Textile x2 (Glowing White Lichen [SP]), Fuel x2 (Lignite Beds x2 [SP]), Mourning Dew x3 (The Misty Chamber), ?! (Agitated Cave Bears)
Major Families
Maximum Spin - 0I/1P
Powder Miner - 0I/1P
Crystalizedmire - 0I/1P
Minor Families
m1895 - 1I/0P
Quarque - 0I/0P
The Canadian kitten - 0I/0P
NUKE9.13 - 0I/0P
A_Curious_Cat - 0I/0P
chubby2man - 0I/0P
Author
Topic: Founding Families - A Semicompetitive Civ Building Game [Explore IV] (Read 11119 times)