Turn 4
((Sorry for my little outburst. I think I got the turns to be about the same as before they were lost.))
Try to rescue the stuck lofani. Try hitting the tentacle with anything we can get our hands on. If it proves impossible, GET THE F*** OUT.
Lesson learned- DO NOT GO TO THE BOTTOM OF THE CHASMS!!!
Actions
Get 5 lofani to build a crude walls out of the rocks and then place anemones on the wall.
Get 6 lofani to gather a quarter of the copepods. See if their edible.
Gather up five lofani and give them the "spears". Head near the rock oysters and prod them gently with one spear. If it opens, jam more spears inside and bash the oyster. Rinse and repeat.
Send a scouting party (2 lofani) to explore the small crevice. Bring spears and rocks if possible.
Send a scouting part (again 2) to explore the Upper Waters.
Get the remaining lofani to gather rocks. Polish them once they are gathered
The beast’s attention is completely on the Lofan that it’s grappling with. The beast is so big, that its sucker is bigger than the Lofan it’s holding onto. Out of the abyss below appear three more tentacles. They begin scrabbling onto the rock to clear debris out of the way so it can pull the Lofan in. The Lofani see their comrade’s struggle and jet to his rescue. They launch several of the spears at the beast. Three hit the beast dead on in the arm holding the captured Lofan. It doesn’t seem to do any damage to it but rather annoys it. It drops the Lofan (who promptly flees) and reaches for the other retreating Lofani who stung it. Its sucker latches onto two of their upraised shields and pulls them into the abyss, knocking their owners back. Better the shields than themselves they think as they jet for the colony. They make it back safely apart from the loss of two shields and a few spears.
The Lofani scouting party returns with tales of a terrifying beast locked deep below the chasm. Although some think the stories are much exaggerated, work is nevertheless begun upon a crude wall to keep out unwanted guests. Anemones are placed near the construction site to be attached to the wall on completion. The smaller rocks gathered are polished and smoothed instead of being used in the wall. A small crevice in the vicinity warrants the attention of the Lofani and they send a pair of scouts to check it out. Cold water seems to emanate from inside. Veins of a silver-blue metal line the walls: these seem to be the source of the intense cold.
Food is a must and the copepods turn out to be delicious. The copepods are very small, so the Lofani are unable to catch them with their tentacles. They quickly discover that they can use their siphons to suck up large amounts of copepods. The only downside is that they are much slower on the return home. This is no problem to them right now, but may be difficult to manage if under attack from invaders. Nets or something similar would be a definite improvement, but not something necessary at the moment. The oysters don’t respond to prodding from the spears. You do find a few that are feeding and manage to stab the oysters inside before they snap shut.
The dim sunlight filtering down from the crack far above also call out to the Shelled Ones. A team of two Lofani drift their way towards the brightness above. When they come out above, they see a bed of seaweed in all directions. Huge fish swim in schools far above, occasionally casting a shadow over them. Camp is set up as darkness sets in. The scouts will explore more tomorrow.
Separate the meat from the shell of the creature. Store the meat in the pod, and use the shell to fortify the walls.
Organize a second hunting party, but wait until the walls are finished to send it out.
The meat is stored back in the Pod after being separated from the large creature. The shell is used to reinforce the wall and is placed slightly underneath the surface of the mud while it is still drying in order to keep it in place. No sooner than the walls are reinforced and finished with a final layer of mud is a second hunting party sent out to bring in more food.
The hunting party brings back a decent sized crab, more than enough to feed all the Smalls. Some of the crab is stored in the lower tunnels.
Have one group begin construction of a barracks near the shell. Have another group attempt to make rudimentary tools from the logs, such as weapons and hammers.
While they have as of yet gone without conflict, the Flannigans know that competition with other Smalls and predators will definitely be fierce. They decide to build a facility in which to train warriors for dealing with these threats. Most of the Flannigans start transporting kelp logs and fronds to the construction site near the Shell while others build tools to aid the construction itself.
The metal scraps are used to make several different tools and weapons. About 10 axes are created to facilitate chopping of kelp. You also make some simple wooden hammers out of the kelp lumber to help with the building. You don’t think you can make much more advanced tools than the axes until you have the ability to work metal effectively.
The strong Yaffi will dismantle the pod for parts, and try to excavate living and storage areas, while the swift Yaffi will widen the search pattern, looking for free swimming creatures to infest.
The strong Yaffi dig into the material deposited by the sulfur vent. The rock is a fragile composite of sulfur and bits of iron laced with tiny black chunks. The first thing to excavate is a storage area. The Pod inside the Yaffi’s shelter is dismantled for parts and stored in the newly dug storage area. The living areas are scheduled to be dug out tomorrow.
The scouting Yaffi search the local sulfur vents for hours and can’t find a trace of anything else living in the area. They expand their search and survey the yellow bacterial mats. They find a large six-segmented crustacean grazing on the bacteria. It slowly paddles over the surface, nibbling with its tiny jaws. It has two pairs of legs on each side of a segment that are pointed at the end but have frilly paddles along their length. The shell is colored bright red and each segment has a dark orange oval on either side. It moves extremely slow and is oblivious to the Yaffi watching it. It doesn’t seem to be going anywhere fast, so the Yaffi make camp until morning. Hopefully, the creature will still be there.
((Apparently I have 23 guys now?))
Ul'mare Orders:
3 - El'mare guard the cavern proper ((Repeat))
2 - take the pieces of crystal and examine them to find their use. Perhaps they are hard enough to tip a spear or knife, or can create heat? Perhaps their excessive diamond-like hardness can be used to carve/shape metal, or they're useless and just for decoration...
10 - (!!!) El'mare go out to scavenge for food and whatever else they can find in the caves an plateau. ((The large group's numbers should ensure they remain safe, as a smaller group would be easily preyed upon, as well as ensure they will get a nice bounty of edibles to gnaw on and examine.))
5 - El'mare go with the food-scavenging group and instead search the soil and stone for shells, metals, and loose stones, anything we can use to create tools and improve our people's living situation.
2 - El'mare study the algae to see if it can be eaten or (if its too strong/rough/stringy) made into rope/string/cloth/etc.
1 El'mare examines the trapped shrimp for any growth, changes in coloration, etc. ((Perhaps if we let them grow, we can harvest them for materials besides food, like hard shells, spines, or some such))
((That makes 23. 
))
While the guards keep watch at home, a large group of Ul’mare dart from their cavern and into the deep waters around it. They flit from hiding spot to hiding spot until they reach the top of the plateau. It is covered in a grassy alga that reaches to the Ul’mare’s shoulders. Here and there in the grass drift the larval shrimp, their shells tinted a light green. Patches of thorny red seaweed grow here and there but get thicker towards the center of the plateau where they form a small forest. Some of the thorns are almost as long as one of the Seaborn, but the small critters they shelter are unharmed by the spines. The Ul’mare poke around the rich seabottom for anything that may be of use, but all they find are the greenish shells of larva long-since gone. Some hand sized rocks also litter the ground, but aren’t exceptionally interesting. The silky algae are far too tough to be consumed by the Ul’mare but are thin enough to be made into a thread, if you wanted.
Back at home, only a few of the Ul’mare remain. Two are looking at the crystals mined a day or two ago while the other looks at the captive larval crustacean. The crystals are hard, but not exceptionally so. They are clear, but have a red tint to them. As one of the inspectors holds it, he notices that it seems to be warm. Even after he had handled it and gone on to look at a different crystal, it still holds onto the heat from his hand. Moreover, the warmer it gets, the redder it grows. Under even more heat, it even begins to glow softly with a pulsing rosy light. In the soft glow from the crystal, the inspector dubs it a “Heart Crystal” after its qualities.
While less groundbreaking, the shrimp-tender discovers that his larva has nearly tripled in size and also has the greenish tint from the grass it has been being fed. It now has longish antennae and two pincers. One is slightly bigger than the other. It curls its tail underneath its body and swims by paddling the gills on its underside. It might need a new enclosure soon if it keeps growing at this rate.
The new colonists are now much more firmly established in the rich seas of this planet. For the most part, all has gone well so far. In all of your colonies, the colonists clamor for a name to be given to the place they worked to build. A few even want to spread out. What would you like to call your settlement?
Lofani (
Brown)
Colonies:
Colony 1, Camp
Traits:
- Capitol
Population: 25
- Kyridgem (Leader)
- Small Anemones (5)
Food:
+26 Copepods
+11 Oysters
-25 Eating
(12 Stored)
Buildings:
- Pod (Can be deconstructed for 18 scrap metal, 8 metal plates, 3 circuit boards, 13 glass, and odds and ends)
- Crude Rock Wall (50%)
Materials:
- Rocks (Using 25 OMU)
- Rock Oyster Shells (12)
Items:
- Marblit Legs (21)
- Marblit Shell (4)
- Polished Rocks (17)
Yaffi (
Violet)
Colonies:
Colony 1, Camp
Traits:
- Capitol
Population: 27
- Leader
- Enslaved Mussels (7)
Food: 12
+39 Mussels
-27 Eating
Buildings:
- Shelter (Shell)
- Low rock wall
- Storage Area
Materials:
- Stone (48 OMU)
- Mussel Shells (6)
- Scrap Metal (18)
- Metal Plates (
- Circuit Boards (3)
- Glass (13)
Items:
-
Ul’mare (
Red)
Colonies:
Colony 1, Camp
Traits:
- Capitol
Population: 25
- Leader
Food: 4
+29 Larval Shrimp
-25 Eating
Buildings:
- Pod (Can be deconstructed for 8 metal plates)
- Floatstone Barricades
Materials:
- Rough Floatstone (88 OMU)
- Heart Crystals (3 OMU)
- Metal Scraps (18 OMU)
- Circuit Boards (3 OMU)
- Glass (13 OMU)
- Assorted Pod Bits (5 OMU)
Items:
- Rough metal chips
Snaug (
Yellow)
Colonies:
Colony 1, Camp
Traits:
- Capitol
Population: 27
- Leader
Food: 13
+40 Mud Crab
-27 Eating
Buildings:
- Pod (Can be deconstructed for 18 scrap metal, 8 metal plates, 3 circuit boards, 13 glass, and odds and ends)
- Mud Wall (25% Shell Reinforced)
Materials:
- Mud (8 OMU)
Items:
-
Flannigans (
Orange)
Colonies:
Colony 1, Camp
Traits:
- Capitol
Population: 27
- Leader
Food: 0
+25 Young Kelp
- 27 Eating
Buildings:
- Camouflaged Pod (Can be deconstructed for
18 10 scrap metal,
8 7 metal plates, 3 circuit boards, 13 glass, 10 Kelp Fronds, and odds and ends)
- Barracks (Under construction)
Materials:
- Kelp Fronds (No end)
- Kelp Lumber (3 OMU)
Items:
- Wooden Hammers (27)
- Rough Metal Axes (
- Large Rough Saw
Poll
1 (6.3%)
Author
Topic: Smalls of Tolla: A Smalls RP (Read 27098 times)