Battle Report 4
Omega’s Advance
New Organism: Stymphalian Crab
The Stymphalian Crab, a further evolution of the Medusa crab, keeps the clawed crab-like stricture but alters the polyp-like symbiotic organisms that grow from its back to grow pointed armor caps and pressurize their internal chambers with a heavy choking gas. Evolutions of psionic power and controlled tissue necrosis enable it to mentally pluck these polyps from its back, and, using a violent burst of telekinetic energy, fire them at distant targets. It doesn’t fire terribly accurately, it doesn’t fire terribly often, and the polyps occasionally explode prematurely from the rapid acceleration, but it inflicted devastating damage when its polyps penetrate its target and explosively vent their gas load internally. Even on near misses and grazes, each polyp is capable of venting out a (relatively) thin cloud of heavier-than-air choking gas. Its melee pincers are augmented against by the ability to directly use its telekinetic firing mechanism as a powerful punch against stationary or slow-moving targets. Its elite form has developed jaws and hardened spines, as well as a carapace covered in thorns.
Misted RavinesNo Stymphalian crabs are deployed to the Misted Ravine, and though with slightly more limited deployment, the struggle continues much as it did before. Limited scout groups from lesser aerplanar suffer the brunt of the elements, whilst those below are largely protected by the overlapping protections provided by rozers, medusa, and their own adaptations to touch the ground as little as possible.
Explosions still claim lives here and there, but progress is quite steady - terminating when the Omega entity discovered the entrance to an enormous limestone cavern beneath the ravine. Rusted machinery within indicates that this was once some form of subterranean facility before sink-hole from even deeper caverns consumed its bulk. Underground waters rush below, and while the drizzling rain from above sluices constantly into the cavern, it only requires minimal effort to divert the entirety of the cavern run-off down into the subterranean river. The result is a large, mostly dry, well-connected series of caverns that should be of great aid in moving across this land in the future.
Omega has claimed the Misted RavineDesert of MirrorsWithin the Desert of Mirrors, the Stymphalian Crabs and the modified Aerplanar work together to serve a common purpose: The Destruction of the Mirrors. The aerplanar’s keen sight allows the Omega entity to detect potentially dangerous, or actively burning, mirrors from considerable distance. Once this happens, she directs the Stymphalians to be brought to the surface by the Rozers and provides them with instructions to fire directly on the mirrors. They aren’t terribly accurate marksmen, particularly at long range, but they’re also shooting very large targets. The kinetic weight of their projectiles shatters the surfaces of the mirrors, and the sprayed gore from their projectile impacts lays a spattering of opaque material on top of the glass. The Aerplanar, newly modified to be ably to use the psionic threads they push the air with as direct weapons, need to get extremely close to the mirrors in order to strike - braving reflected light and temperatures that make the air swim - but after the Stymphalian crabs make a massed strike to disrupt the larger mirrors, the Aerplanar can swing closer and pebble the mirrors with thousands of tiny blows. Each single strike barely makes a mark, but each aerplanar strikes with incredible rapidity, scoring the surface and spreading networks of fractures across the smaller mirrors until they finally shatter.
In a few cases, the Stymphalians attempt to use the choking gas of their spines to put out plastic flows, but the gas clouds they generate are just too thin to be able to completely choke out a surface fire when the desert winds are constantly spreading the gasses.
This action, together with an enormously increased deployment of Rozers and Grubs in the region (which enable the concurrent exploration of many additional paths) allows the Omega entity to finally make truly excellent progress across the Desert of Mirrors. This ends with the discovery of a scorched mound of a stone - a three-quarters-buried mesa - at the Desert’s heart. Long exposure to the plastic sands have coated in layers of molten residue, but, after considerable exploration, a crevice within is found, revealing a network of natural slot canyons, shaded by the mesa chain’s height, and protected from plastic flows by dint of already being mostly buried. It’s the perfect place to stage the next advance from.
Omega has claimed the Desert of MirrorsGlowing CraterThe glowing crater is… new. From her sensory mosaic, the Omega entity can look down from the mountain-height of the crater’s rim down into the bowl below. Likely once blasted as smooth as glass, the continuous depredations of the strange glowing lights and the pseudo-lightning they cast downwards have torn the crater’s interior in a rubble-strewn bowl, with small pools of caught rain-water hosting some truly pathetically helpless looking life and vegetation.
Aerplanar cross the crater line first, soaring over the stone ridge to begin surveying for any pattern to the lights or pass through the rubble-strewn terrain. The pass first, and draw the attention of the lights. It’s slow at first, but more lights begin forming near the aerplanar-flights with such frequency that it can’t be random. The lights don’t seem to track once they form, but they do place themselves predictively and force the aerplanar flights to use every ounce of their considerable maneuverability in order to skirt the influence of their gravitic manipulations and lightning lashes. Yet it seems that, the harder the aerplanar push themselves, the faster and more densely the strange lights form around them. Eventually, the Omega entity orders the remaining aerplanar who still struggle to avoid being torn apart to scatter, gain altitude, and return.
Testingly, she sends the grubs forward next, divided into two categories. Grubs she sends down hovering (many of the elites, as they’re much more able to survive sudden braking in rough terrain) and grubs she forces to crawl. The hovering grubs, aided by the downslope, have to hover in short bursts to avoid rapidly reaching fatal velocity in the steep incline from the crater edge. The crawlers are… slow. Frustratingly slow, but that was expected. The test wasn’t one of speed, but of which would die faster to the lights.
As the Omega entity had begun to suspect, it’s the hovering grubs that die first. While not nearly as densely as they’d formed around the aerplanar in flight, more shining lights form around the hovering grub group than form around the non-hovering grubs. Both instances result in enormous, and messy, fatalities - but clearly, something about the hovering is attracting the lights.
Further sacrificial experimentation with the grub forces hints at the pattern. The lights are attracted to energy sources. Grouping grubs up densely to provide a stronger heat signature, a Stymphalian firing its weapon, or an aerplanar generating psychokinetic thrust - all of these appear to attract the lights. What, exactly, is doing the sensing is unclear, as attempts to have the Rozers build insulating shields to mask heat signatures have little effect. It’s unclear whether burrowing will yield any positive results, as the ground here considerably harder than the sand of the desert, the sediment of the misted ravines, or the soil of the badlands - and the Rozers are unable to make significant progress against it do more than hollow out depressions for shelter.
The most important forces for taking ground, currently, in the Glowing crater are actually the Crabs, in both forms. In their resting state, both are still reasonably quick (being walkers as opposed to crawlers) and able to suppress their passive telekinetic abilities with little change in operation. This is unfortunate, as their light deployment, combined with a very heavy reliance on aerplanar (which are forced to fly at stall speed and periodically disengage), means that progress in discovering the secrets of the crater is extremely slow.
(+1 Progress for Omega in the Glowing Crater)
Alpha’s Advance
New Organism: The Cultivator
A larger and fleshier iteration of the Driller, the cultivator eschews the front line in exchange for a support role as a feeder unit for Alpha’s forces. Building up from the Digger’s robust system of internal vacuoles, the Cultivator features multiple true stomachs specialized to efficiently break down various kinds of matter, as well as a sorting tongue and complex series of valves that mostly enable it to separate mixed-matter inputs into the various stomachs on the fly. It is, notably, capable of deriving value from completely inorganic matter such as rock and stone, as it is capable of leeching trace minerals in one of its stomach and is capable of producing a balanced ‘pseudo-soil’ using the resulting inert rock chunks to control the soil density. During the daylight hours, the cultivator will head to the surface and unhinge several chitin plates along its back, unfurling a hidden garden that leverages sunlight in order to augment the Cultivator’s diet and produce a thick, incredibly energy-dense, honey which the cultivator uses for its own metabolism and also stores in multiple chambers throughout its body for later dispensing to the swarm members. The elite variant also has the ability to augment its honey chambers with thick seed mass, and gains the ability to pressurize the chambers in order to spray the resulting fertilized honey across ground, ceiling, and walls, in order to rapidly generate thick pads of fleshy ‘moss’ which is capable of growing and spreading on its own to take advantage of large nutrient-rich areas.
The Parasitic ForestThe cultivator has a strange effect within the parasitic forest. Derived from the driller, its stomachs are capable of avoiding explosive internal growth due to fungal ingestion, but it does end up frequently fighting its own internal fungal load for nutrients. The more remarkable test of the cultivator happens during the daylight cycle when the cultivator unfurls its symbiotic culture and takes in light. The latter is problematic, as the infested canopy all but prevents light from reaching the ground below, and the phosphorescent fungi don’t output enough light to be a viable source of energy. However, these issues are overshadowed by the fact that the hidden garden is rapidly infested by the jungle killing fungus. This, interestingly, doesn’t kill the cultivator. In fact, as soon as the cultivator’s garden is converted, the fungi stop attempting to consume the cultivator. While these provide marginal benefit to the rest of the swarm, as the cultivator becomes a spore producer and loses most of its honey production, it does mean that the (still quite slow) cultivator suddenly becomes a scout with nearly infinite range. The elite cultivator provides little added benefit, as its augmented honey is rapidly out-competed by the existing fungi.
Aside from that, the advances here continue much as before. The thin honey the cultivators are still able to produce is an enormous boon to the embers, who are able to actually spend time burning out fungus and pushing forwards rather than dying constantly, but the limited production ability means that the embers are the only ones who benefit. Enhanced psionic communication between the grubs and the Pterohawks is slightly useful, but the canopy layer still makes clear direction between air and ground a challenge.
Despite all advantages, it still takes a considerable time to find an area fit for a new nest. The clearing that’s eventually discovered is… strange. While the jungle canopy here is intact, the trees here are merely dead, not actually infested. Dilapidated machinery and desiccated skeletons litter the area, as well as several remaining spires of carefully constructed metal, nearly reach to the canopy top, that still hum with mechanical life. They make many of the swarm’s members feel… strange, but whatever field or vibration they generate appears to rapidly kill the fungus that infests the forest. Within the clearing’s area of influence, the Cultivator’s are able to rapidly shed their fungal infestation, resuming their earlier form for the journey forwards.
Alpha has claimed the Parasitic ForestThe Dried SeabedWithin the Dried Seabed, the Cultivator flourishes, aside from issues with water. During the nights the cultivator spends its time shadowing the drillers, eating through the dusty soil they leave behind and sifting it for the fine life that still remains here. During the days, it spends its time in the sun, transforming much of its merciless energy into useful meals that grant considerable additional longevity to Pterohawks, Embers, and Drillers all.
Aside from the additional energy, the ability for the grubs to interact more efficiently with psionic communications is modestly effective here, although there aren’t actually that many obstacles for them to need guidance around.
A combination of the overhead views provided by the Pterohawk and the thermal sense of the ember reveals an area of soil that’s noticeably cooler during the night-time hours - where the machinery below is either non-existent or completely defunct. This patch of soil retains sufficient moisture in the lower layers that the drillers are able to build considerable warrens, and still stays cool enough to keep an enormous force safe for long resting periods. While hardly an oasis, it’s enough to provide a forward nesting site.
Alpha has claimed the Dried SeabedThe Howling CrevassesIn the howling crevasse, the addition of the Cultivator is a useful, if limited, blessing. Short hours of direct sunlight, in addition to the dangers of staying in the open enough to soak in the light, mean that honey production isn’t quite what it could be, but it is enormously helpful in giving the drillers enough energy to make enhanced progress through the hard stone of the ravine.
The modification that improves grub communications is, finally, quite effective in the Crevasses, as the Pterohawks are able to much more effectively chart out webs of canyons and communicate paths back - although this is still somewhat slow given that the heightened receivers are still grubs. However, as the sticky-sticky grubs have always been the principal explorers in the Crevasses, this is an advantage that cannot be understated.
It is, finally, grubs that do manage to wiggle and slide their way into a three-way slot crevasse, one that opens out into a broader canyon that has eroded to become considerably broader at the floor than at the top. It’s also, thanks to the geometry of the surrounding crevasses, mercifully becalmed. Errant shards of stone cast out from other ravines still occasionally bounce their way in from above, but the narrow top and wide bases still provide excellent protection. With the low winds and minimal danger of being crushed, it’s ideal as a forward nest.
Alpha has claimed the Howling Crevasses
Zone of Toxicity - The Parasitic forest (Side Alpha) [Width: 9000] [α: 4/4 | Ω: 0/4]
- The Bog [Width: 10000] [α: 0/4 | Ω: 0/4]
- The Misted Ravines (Side Omega) [Width: 3000] [α: 0/4 | Ω: 4/4]
Zone of Fire- The Dried Seabed (Side Alpha) [Width: 15000] [α: 4/4 | Ω: 0/4]
- The Lava Rivers [Width: 5000] [α: 0/4 | Ω: 0/4]
- The Desert of Mirrors (Side Omega) [Width: 15000] [α: 0/4 | Ω: 4/4]
Zone of Razors - The Howling Crevasses (Side Alpha) [Width 3000] [α: 4/4 | Ω: 0/4]
- The Glowing Crater [Width 15000] [α: 0/4 | Ω: 1/4]
- The Shattered Badlands (Side Omega) [Width 9000] [α: 0/4 | Ω: 4/4]
Zone of ToxicityThe Parasitic Forest: A dense and humid jungle, this place was once home to enormous growths of towering kapok trees and dense cecropia - but those trees stand dead, their bodies given over to a more insidious form of life. Vibrantly fluorescent fungus erupts from long dead bark, with streamers of mycelium holding together a forest canopy that died decades ago. There's a curious, almost numinous, silence in this glowing graveyard. Anything that breaks that holy spell is greeted with a shower of bright spores that coat the surface and dig in thin tendrils, seeking only to colonize thatever new flesh has entered their domain.
The Bog: This immense expanse of flat ground is covered perpetually in a haze of swirling vapors, a thick fog of chemical traces too ancient and complex to be burned away by something as pale and simple as sunlight. The ground is wet and treacherous, a slick and sucking mud filled with enormous bubbles of lethally toxic gasses. Here and there are strange hulks of metal and concrete, their surface corroded beyond all but the basest of recognition, but even they sink deeper into the morass year by year.
The Misted Ravines: Light rain falls with near constant patter throughout this shattered mesa, scrubbing the clouds of acids and bringing them back to earth to sluice through metal and stone curiously rich with heavy metals and halides, falling to ravine floors in a thousand small waterfalls. The result is an omnipresent shimmer of corrosive vapor laden with metallic elements, reacting periodically in unpredictable (and often explosive) fervor in the mud banks and sediment.
Zone of FireThe Dried Seabed: A vast plain of cracked earth and jutting bones stripped of flesh and bleached white long ago, the Dried Seabed is covered in curious metal pillars whose tops claw skyward and whose bases reach deep into the earth. During the day, the sun beats down without remorse turning the Dried Seabed into a swirl of dust and heat - and by night the ancient heatbank fueled by the pillars radiates energy back upwards, keeping the heat burning with merciless intensity.
The Lava Rivers: The landscape here is akin to the Devil's own river delta - with sections of black stone standing out amid a thousand cords of slowing churning lava. Radiant heat has left everything in sight cracked and blackened, with only the most tenacious and specialized forms of lower life remaining in this vision of hell.
The Desert of Mirrors A sandy desert composed of grit and ultrafine plastic particles, the Desert of Mirrors is dotted with the remains of enormous structures with great wings of polished metal and glass. From time to time shifting dunes and racing winds will put the pillars and dunes in just the right arrangement for the reflected mirror-light to focus and ignite the plastic components of the dunes, resulting in tremendous flows of burning synthetic materials.
Zone of RazorsThe Howling Crevasses: These narrow shale passes weren't eroded naturally, but gouged out by some enormous weapon or machine long ago. Wind and time have yet to smooth them, and the valley wind that rips through them is tremendous, with hurricane force gusts that periodically shatter sections in cascading spraws of shale fragments that race through the ravines only to finally spray skyward in sprays of oil-dark shrapnel.
The Glowing Crater: Kilometers across, with ridges like a mountain range, this crater home to strange lights that form and fade without rhyme or reason. They connect periodically to the crater's surface with blue-white arcs of electricity, and when they do space and gravity go mad. Stone rips free in a climactic rush of splintering rubble, whirling to orbit the mote like a newborn planet for just a moment - before smashing back into the crater with the force of a cannon-shot and breaking free more sections to begin the dance anew. This process will continue for seconds or minutes, until, as quickly as it began, the mote fades and all is still again.
The Shattered Badlands: Unremarkable at first, this rocky and weedy plain is home to derelict war machines of ages past. Covered in dirt, thin vegetation, and whatever corrosion could take place in their scarred Ferro-lamellor armor, most of the machines are dead and gone. Most. A stray vibration, a flicker of a heat signature, and a derelict can spring to life in a hail of kinetic weapons and short range missile fire. Such life is fleeting, but even a momentary resurgence can cause widespread destruction.
Contest: A Mirror, Shattered
As both the Alpha and Omega entity mature, you become increasingly aware that you are not the ‘mother’ you were cloned from - nor are you even that much like your sister. In order to escape the devastation the natives of this land created, your former self had to make sweeping changes to your form and structure, changes she never repeated for fear that she’d condemn whole swathes of her survival caches to destruction. Wise, considering that the two entities that remain are the only ones known to remain from hundreds.
Your form will be unique, and while your abilities are similar to your mother’s, they two are subtly mutated by her re-shaping. Your mind is… your own. You remember being her, much as one can remember being someone else in a dream, but those memories fade. Each entity is becoming something else, less and more at once than your Mother-Self’s reflection.
For this contest you need to write-up three things:
What you look like: Can be anything. Won’t be useful in the field unless the enemy is literally invading your cave.
What your ethos is: Part personality, part philosophy, part artistic style. You are an empire unto yourself, a potentially eternal
I AM with the power to sculpt flesh like clay and mother tens of millions. You are, in a very real sense, a Deity who devours worlds to convert them - but what drives you?
What your Mutagenic quirk is: When you were fragmented from your creator’s original genome, you were fundamentally altered in a thousand ways. In combination, this has changed the way you create, and potentially given you an advantage in some of your creations over your sister. What are you
good at when you create?
Rewards: The team with the most interesting result for 2 out of 3 categories will win a greater advantage credit, which will allow you to roll 4 dice and take the highest, and does not forbid rolling a ‘dirty’ 9. In addition, both teams will receive a long-term bonus related to their Mutagenic quirk.
Duration: You have until the end of Turn 5. Submission are only valid when in core. One submission per category allowable per player. Having more submission for a team grants no intrinsic advantage.
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Topic: Mutagenesis Core Thread | An All-Devouring Arms Race (Read 3202 times)